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Rubric (academic)	In the realm of US education, a rubric is a "scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of students' constructed responses" according to James Popham. In simpler terms, it serves as a set of criteria for grading assignments. Typically presented in table format, rubrics contain evaluative criteria, quality definitions for various levels of achievement, and a scoring strategy. They play a dual role for teachers in marking assignments and for students in planning their work. Components of a scoring rubric A scoring rubric typically includes dimensions or "criteria" on which performance is rated, definitions and examples illustrating measured attributes, and a rating scale for each dimension. Joan Herman, Aschbacher, and Winters identify these elements in scoring rubrics: - Traits or dimensions serving as the basis for judging the student response - Definitions and examples clarifying each trait or dimension - A scale of values for rating each dimension - Standards of excellence for specified performance levels with models or examples Types Rubrics can be classified as holistic, analytic, or developmental. Holistic rubrics provide an overall rating for a piece of work, considering all aspects. Analytic rubrics evaluate various dimensions or components separately. Developmental rubrics, a subset of analytical rubrics, facilitate assessment, instructional design, and transformative learning through multiple dimensions of developmental successions. Steps to create a scoring rubric To create an effective scoring rubric, a five-step method is often employed: Model Review: Provide students with sample assignments of varying quality for analysis. Criteria Listing: Collaboratively list criteria for the scoring rubric, incorporating student feedback. Quality Gradations: Define hierarchical categories describing levels of quality or development. Practice on Models: Allow students to apply rubrics to sample assignments for a deeper understanding. Self and Peer Assessment: Introduce self and peer-assessment to reinforce learning. When to use scoring rubrics Scoring rubrics find application in individual assessments, projects, and capstone projects. They prove particularly beneficial when multiple evaluators are assessing to maintain focus on contributing attributes. Rubrics are ideal for project assessments, providing criteria for various components. Developmental rubrics Developmental rubrics, a subtype of analytic rubrics, utilize multiple dimensions of developmental successions for assessment, instructional design, and transformative learning. They define modes of practice within a community of experts and indicate transformative learning through dynamic succession. Defining developmental rubrics Developmental rubrics refer to a matrix of modes of practice. Practices belong to a community of experts. Each mode of practice competes with a few others within the same dimension. Modes appear in succession because their frequency is determined by four parameters: endemicity, performance rate, commitment strength, and acceptance. Transformative learning results in changing from one mode to the next. The typical developmental modes can be roughly identified as beginning, exploring, sustaining, and inspiring. The timing of the four levels is unique to each dimension and it is common to find beginning or exploring modes in one dimension coexisting with sustaining or inspiring modes in another. Often, the modes within a dimension are given unique names in addition to the typical identifier. As a result, developmental rubrics have four properties: They are descriptions of examples of behaviors. They contain multiple dimensions each consisting of a few modes of practice that cannot be used simultaneously with other modes in the dimension. The modes of practice within a dimension show a dynamic succession of levels. They can be created for extremely diverse scales of times & places. Creating developmental rubrics Since practices belong to a community, the first step is to locate a group of practitioners, who are expert in their field and experienced with learners. Next, each practitioner works with an expert developmental interviewer to create a matrix that best reflects their experiences. Once several interviews have been completed they can be combined within a single set of developmental rubrics for the community through individual or computerized text analysis. Third, the community of experts rate learner performances and meet to compare ratings of the same performances and revise the definitions when multiple interpretations are discovered. Fourth, instructors of particular courses share the developmental rubrics with students and identify the target modes of practice for the course. Typically, a course targets only a fraction of the dimensions of the community's developmental rubrics and only one mode of practice within each of the target dimensions. Finally, the rubrics are used real-time to motivate student development, usually focusing on one dimension at a time and discussing the opportunities to perform at the next mode of practice in succession. Etymology and history The term "rubric" traditionally referred to instructions on a test or a heading on a document. In modern education, it has evolved to denote an assessment tool linked to learning objectives. The transition from medicine to education occurred through the construction of "Standardized Developmental Ratings" in the mid-1970s, later adapted for writing assessment. Technical aspects Scoring rubrics enhance scoring consistency, providing educators with a reliable grading tool. Grading is more consistent when using a rubric, reducing variation between students and different teachers. See also References Further reading Flash, P. (2009) Grading writing: Recommended grading strategies Utah Education Network Rubric Resources Stevens, D. & Levi, Antonia J. (2013). Introduction to Rubrics: An Assessment Tool to Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback, and Promote Student Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. University of Minnesota, Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), Virtual Assessment Center: Creating Rubrics Winter H., (2002). Using test results for assessment of teaching and learning. Chem Eng Education 36:188–190 External links Educational technology Academia Evaluation methods Student assessment and evaluation	0.77557	0.989748	0.767619
Cultural ecology	Cultural ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments. Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment. This may be carried out diachronically (examining entities that existed in different epochs), or synchronically (examining a present system and its components). The central argument is that the natural environment, in small scale or subsistence societies dependent in part upon it, is a major contributor to social organization and other human institutions. In the academic realm, when combined with study of political economy, the study of economies as polities, it becomes political ecology, another academic subfield. It also helps interrogate historical events like the Easter Island Syndrome. History Anthropologist Julian Steward (1902-1972) coined the term, envisioning cultural ecology as a methodology for understanding how humans adapt to such a wide variety of environments. In his Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution (1955), cultural ecology represents the "ways in which culture change is induced by adaptation to the environment". A key point is that any particular human adaptation is in part historically inherited and involves the technologies, practices, and knowledge that allow people to live in an environment. This means that while the environment influences the character of human adaptation, it does not determine it. In this way, Steward wisely separated the vagaries of the environment from the inner workings of a culture that occupied a given environment. Viewed over the long term, this means that environment and culture are on more or less separate evolutionary tracks and that the ability of one to influence the other is dependent on how each is structured. It is this assertion - that the physical and biological environment affects culture - that has proved controversial, because it implies an element of environmental determinism over human actions, which some social scientists find problematic, particularly those writing from a Marxist perspective. Cultural ecology recognizes that ecological locale plays a significant role in shaping the cultures of a region. Steward's method was to: Document the technologies and methods used to exploit the environment to get a living from it. Look at patterns of human behavior/culture associated with using the environment. Assess how much these patterns of behavior influenced other aspects of culture (e.g., how, in a drought-prone region, great concern over rainfall patterns meant this became central to everyday life, and led to the development of a religious belief system in which rainfall and water figured very strongly. This belief system may not appear in a society where good rainfall for crops can be taken for granted, or where irrigation was practiced). Steward's concept of cultural ecology became widespread among anthropologists and archaeologists of the mid-20th century, though they would later be critiqued for their environmental determinism. Cultural ecology was one of the central tenets and driving factors in the development of processual archaeology in the 1960s, as archaeologists understood cultural change through the framework of technology and its effects on environmental adaptation. In anthropology Cultural ecology as developed by Steward is a major subdiscipline of anthropology. It derives from the work of Franz Boas and has branched out to cover a number of aspects of human society, in particular the distribution of wealth and power in a society, and how that affects such behaviour as hoarding or gifting (e.g. the tradition of the potlatch on the Northwest North American coast). As transdisciplinary project One 2000s-era conception of cultural ecology is as a general theory that regards ecology as a paradigm not only for the natural and human sciences, but for cultural studies as well. In his Die Ökologie des Wissens (The Ecology of Knowledge), Peter Finke explains that this theory brings together the various cultures of knowledge that have evolved in history, and that have been separated into more and more specialized disciplines and subdisciplines in the evolution of modern science (Finke 2005). In this view, cultural ecology considers the sphere of human culture not as separate from but as interdependent with and transfused by ecological processes and natural energy cycles. At the same time, it recognizes the relative independence and self-reflexive dynamics of cultural processes. As the dependency of culture on nature, and the ineradicable presence of nature in culture, are gaining interdisciplinary attention, the difference between cultural evolution and natural evolution is increasingly acknowledged by cultural ecologists. Rather than genetic laws, information and communication have become major driving forces of cultural evolution (see Finke 2006, 2007). Thus, causal deterministic laws do not apply to culture in a strict sense, but there are nevertheless productive analogies that can be drawn between ecological and cultural processes. Gregory Bateson was the first to draw such analogies in his project of an Ecology of Mind (Bateson 1973), which was based on general principles of complex dynamic life processes, e.g. the concept of feedback loops, which he saw as operating both between the mind and the world and within the mind itself. Bateson thinks of the mind neither as an autonomous metaphysical force nor as a mere neurological function of the brain, but as a "dehierarchized concept of a mutual dependency between the (human) organism and its (natural) environment, subject and object, culture and nature", and thus as "a synonym for a cybernetic system of information circuits that are relevant for the survival of the species." (Gersdorf/ Mayer 2005: 9). Finke fuses these ideas with concepts from systems theory. He describes the various sections and subsystems of society as 'cultural ecosystems' with their own processes of production, consumption, and reduction of energy (physical as well as psychic energy). This also applies to the cultural ecosystems of art and of literature, which follow their own internal forces of selection and self-renewal, but also have an important function within the cultural system as a whole (see next section). In literary studies The interrelatedness between culture and nature has been a special focus of literary culture from its archaic beginnings in myth, ritual, and oral story-telling, in legends and fairy tales, in the genres of pastoral literature, nature poetry. Important texts in this tradition include the stories of mutual transformations between human and nonhuman life, most famously collected in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which became a highly influential text throughout literary history and across different cultures. This attention to culture-nature interaction became especially prominent in the era of romanticism, but continues to be characteristic of literary stagings of human experience up to the present. The mutual opening and symbolic reconnection of culture and nature, mind and body, human and nonhuman life in a holistic and yet radically pluralistic way seems to be one significant mode in which literature functions and in which literary knowledge is produced. From this perspective, literature can itself be described as the symbolic medium of a particularly powerful form of "cultural ecology" (Zapf 2002). Literary texts have staged and explored, in ever new scenarios, the complex feedback relationship of prevailing cultural systems with the needs and manifestations of human and nonhuman "nature." From this paradoxical act of creative regression they have derived their specific power of innovation and cultural self-renewal. German ecocritic Hubert Zapf argues that literature draws its cognitive and creative potential from a threefold dynamics in its relationship to the larger cultural system: as a "cultural-critical metadiscourse," an "imaginative counterdiscourse," and a "reintegrative interdiscourse" (Zapf 2001, 2002). It is a textual form which breaks up ossified social structures and ideologies, symbolically empowers the marginalized, and reconnects what is culturally separated. In that way, literature counteracts economic, political or pragmatic forms of interpreting and instrumentalizing human life, and breaks up one-dimensional views of the world and the self, opening them up towards their repressed or excluded other. Literature is thus, on the one hand, a sensorium for what goes wrong in a society, for the biophobic, life-paralyzing implications of one-sided forms of consciousness and civilizational uniformity, and it is, on the other hand, a medium of constant cultural self-renewal, in which the neglected biophilic energies can find a symbolic space of expression and of (re-)integration into the larger ecology of cultural discourses. This approach has been applied and widened in volumes of essays by scholars from over the world (ed. Zapf 2008, 2016), as well as in a recent monograph (Zapf 2016). Similar approaches have also been developed in adjacent fields, such as film studies (Paalman 2011). In geography In geography, cultural ecology developed in response to the "landscape morphology" approach of Carl O. Sauer. Sauer's school was criticized for being unscientific and later for holding a "reified" or "superorganic" conception of culture. Cultural ecology applied ideas from ecology and systems theory to understand the adaptation of humans to their environment. These cultural ecologists focused on flows of energy and materials, examining how beliefs and institutions in a culture regulated its interchanges with the natural ecology that surrounded it. In this perspective humans were as much a part of the ecology as any other organism. Important practitioners of this form of cultural ecology include Karl Butzer and David Stoddart. The second form of cultural ecology introduced decision theory from agricultural economics, particularly inspired by the works of Alexander Chayanov and Ester Boserup. These cultural ecologists were concerned with how human groups made decisions about how they use their natural environment. They were particularly concerned with the question of agricultural intensification, refining the competing models of Thomas Malthus and Boserup. Notable cultural ecologists in this second tradition include Harold Brookfield and Billie Lee Turner II. Starting in the 1980s, cultural ecology came under criticism from political ecology. Political ecologists charged that cultural ecology ignored the connections between the local-scale systems they studied and the global political economy. Today few geographers self-identify as cultural ecologists, but ideas from cultural ecology have been adopted and built on by political ecology, land change science, and sustainability science. Conceptual views Human species Books about culture and ecology began to emerge in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the first to be published in the United Kingdom was The Human Species by a zoologist, Anthony Barnett. It came out in 1950-subtitled The biology of man but was about a much narrower subset of topics. It dealt with the cultural bearing of some outstanding areas of environmental knowledge about health and disease, food, the sizes and quality of human populations, and the diversity of human types and their abilities. Barnett's view was that his selected areas of information "....are all topics on which knowledge is not only desirable, but for a twentieth-century adult, necessary". He went on to point out some of the concepts underpinning human ecology towards the social problems facing his readers in the 1950s as well as the assertion that human nature cannot change, what this statement could mean, and whether it is true. The third chapter deals in more detail with some aspects of human genetics. Then come five chapters on the evolution of man, and the differences between groups of men (or races) and between individual men and women today in relation to population growth (the topic of 'human diversity'). Finally, there is a series of chapters on various aspects of human populations (the topic of "life and death"). Like other animals man must, in order to survive, overcome the dangers of starvation and infection; at the same time he must be fertile. Four chapters therefore deal with food, disease and the growth and decline of human populations. Barnett anticipated that his personal scheme might be criticized on the grounds that it omits an account of those human characteristics, which distinguish humankind most clearly, and sharply from other animals. That is to say, the point might be expressed by saying that human behaviour is ignored; or some might say that human psychology is left out, or that no account is taken of the human mind. He justified his limited view, not because little importance was attached to what was left out, but because the omitted topics were so important that each needed a book of similar size even for a summary account. In other words, the author was embedded in a world of academic specialists and therefore somewhat worried about taking a partial conceptual, and idiosyncratic view of the zoology of Homo sapiens. Ecology of man Moves to produce prescriptions for adjusting human culture to ecological realities were also afoot in North America. In his 1957 Condon Lecture at the University of Oregon, entitled "The Ecology of Man", American ecologist Paul Sears called for "serious attention to the ecology of man" and demanded "its skillful application to human affairs". Sears was one of the few prominent ecologists to successfully write for popular audiences. Sears documents the mistakes American farmers made in creating conditions that led to the disastrous Dust Bowl. This book gave momentum to the soil conservation movement in the United States. The "ecology of man" as a limiting factor which "should be respected", placing boundaries around the extent to which the human species can be manipulated, is reflected in the views of Popes Benedict XVI, and Francis. Impact on nature During this same time was J.A. Lauwery's Man's Impact on Nature, which was part of a series on 'Interdependence in Nature' published in 1969. Both Russel's and Lauwerys' books were about cultural ecology, although not titled as such. People still had difficulty in escaping from their labels. Even Beginnings and Blunders, produced in 1970 by the polymath zoologist Lancelot Hogben, with the subtitle Before Science Began, clung to anthropology as a traditional reference point. However, its slant makes it clear that 'cultural ecology' would be a more apt title to cover his wide-ranging description of how early societies adapted to environment with tools, technologies and social groupings. In 1973 the physicist Jacob Bronowski produced The Ascent of Man, which summarised a magnificent thirteen part BBC television series about all the ways in which humans have moulded the Earth and its future. Changing the Earth By the 1980s the human ecological-functional view had prevailed. It had become a conventional way to present scientific concepts in the ecological perspective of human animals dominating an overpopulated world, with the practical aim of producing a greener culture. This is exemplified by I. G. Simmons' book Changing the Face of the Earth, with its telling subtitle "Culture, Environment History" which was published in 1989. Simmons was a geographer, and his book was a tribute to the influence of W.L Thomas' edited collection, Man's role in 'Changing the Face of the Earth that came out in 1956. Simmons' book was one of many interdisciplinary culture/environment publications of the 1970s and 1980s, which triggered a crisis in geography with regards its subject matter, academic sub-divisions, and boundaries. This was resolved by officially adopting conceptual frameworks as an approach to facilitate the organisation of research and teaching that cuts cross old subject divisions. Cultural ecology is in fact a conceptual arena that has, over the past six decades allowed sociologists, physicists, zoologists and geographers to enter common intellectual ground from the sidelines of their specialist subjects. 21st Century In the first decade of the 21st century, there are publications dealing with the ways in which humans can develop a more acceptable cultural relationship with the environment. An example is sacred ecology, a sub-topic of cultural ecology, produced by Fikret Berkes in 1999. It seeks lessons from traditional ways of life in Northern Canada to shape a new environmental perception for urban dwellers. This particular conceptualisation of people and environment comes from various cultural levels of local knowledge about species and place, resource management systems using local experience, social institutions with their rules and codes of behaviour, and a world view through religion, ethics and broadly defined belief systems. Despite the differences in information concepts, all of the publications carry the message that culture is a balancing act between the mindset devoted to the exploitation of natural resources and that, which conserves them. Perhaps the best model of cultural ecology in this context is, paradoxically, the mismatch of culture and ecology that have occurred when Europeans suppressed the age-old native methods of land use and have tried to settle European farming cultures on soils manifestly incapable of supporting them. There is a sacred ecology associated with environmental awareness, and the task of cultural ecology is to inspire urban dwellers to develop a more acceptable sustainable cultural relationship with the environment that supports them. Educational framework Cultural Core To further develop the field of Cultural Ecology, Julian Steward developed a framework which he referred to as the cultural core. This framework, a “constellation” as Steward describes it, organizes the fundamental features of a culture that are most closely related to subsistence and economic arrangements. At the core of this framework is the fundamental human-environment relationship as it pertains to subsistence. Outside of the core, in the second layer, lies the innumerable direct features of this relationship - tools, knowledge, economics, labor, etc. Outside of that second, directly correlated layer is the less-direct but still influential layer, typically associated with larger historical, institutional, political or social factors. According to Steward, the secondary features are determined greatly by the “cultural-historical factors” and they contribute to building the uniqueness of the outward appearance of cultures when compared to others with similar cores. The field of Cultural Ecology is able to utilize the cultural core framework as a tool for better determining and understanding the features that are most closely involved in the utilization of the environment by humans and cultural groups. See also Cultural materialism Dual inheritance theory Ecological anthropology Environmental history Environmental racism Human behavioral ecology Political ecology Sexecology References Sources Barnett, A. 1950 The Human Species: MacGibbon and Kee, London. Bateson, G. 1973 Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Paladin, London Berkes, F. 1999 Sacred ecology: traditional ecological knowledge and resource management. Taylor and Francis. Bronowski, J. 1973 The Ascent of Man, BBC Publications, London Finke, P. 2005 Die Ökologie des Wissens. Exkursionen in eine gefährdete Landschaft: Alber, Freiburg and Munich Finke, P. 2006 "Die Evolutionäre Kulturökologie: Hintergründe, Prinzipien und Perspektiven einer neuen Theorie der Kultur", in: Anglia 124.1, 2006, p. 175-217 Finke, P. 2013 "A Brief Outline of Evolutionary Cultural Ecology," in Traditions of Systems Theory: Major Figures and Contemporary Developments, ed. Darrell P. Arnold, New York: Routledge. Frake, Charles O. (1962) "Cultural Ecology and Ethnography" American Anthropologist. 64 (1: 53–59. ISSN 0002-7294. Gersdorf, C. and S. Mayer, eds. Natur – Kultur – Text: Beiträge zu Ökologie und Literaturwissenschaft: Winter, Heidelberg Hamilton, G. 1947 History of the Homeland: George Allen and Unwin, London. Hogben, L. 1970 Beginnings and Blunders: Heinemann, London Hornborg, Alf; Cultural Ecology Lauwerys, J.A. 1969 Man's Impact on Nature: Aldus Books, London Maass, Petra (2008): The Cultural Context of Biodiversity Conservation. Seen and Unseen Dimensions of Indigenous Knowledge among Q'eqchi' Communities in Guatemala. Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie - Band 2, Göttingen: Göttinger Universitätsverlag online-version Paalman, F. 2011 Cinematic Rotterdam: The Times and Tides of a Modern City: 010 Publsihers, Rotterdam. Russel, W.M.S. 1967 Man Nature and History: Aldus Books, London Simmons, I.G. 1989 Changing the Face of the Earth: Blackwell, Oxford Steward, Julian H. 1972 Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution: University of Illinois Press Technical Report PNW-GTR-369. 1996. Defining social responsibility in ecosystem management. A workshop proceedings. United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Turner, B. L., II 2002. "Contested identities: human-environment geography and disciplinary implications in a restructuring academy." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92(1): 52–74. Worster, D. 1977 Nature’s Economy. Cambridge University Press Zapf, H. 2001 "Literature as Cultural Ecology: Notes Towards a Functional Theory of Imaginative Texts, with Examples from American Literature", in: REAL: Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature 17, 2001, p. 85-100. Zapf, H. 2002 Literatur als kulturelle Ökologie. Zur kulturellen Funktion imaginativer Texte an Beispielen des amerikanischen Romans: Niemeyer, Tübingen Zapf, H. 2008 Kulturökologie und Literatur: Beiträge zu einem transdisziplinären Paradigma der Literaturwissenschaft (Cultural Ecology and Literature: Contributions on a Transdisciplinary Paradigm of Literary Studies): Winter, Heidelberg Zapf, H. 2016 Literature as Cultural Ecology: Sustainable Texts: Bloomsbury Academic, London Zapf, H. 2016 ed. Handbook of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology: De Gruyter, Berlin External links Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. Archive of newsletters, officers, award and honor recipients, as well as other resources associated with this community of scholars. Notes on the development of cultural ecology with an excellent reference list: Catherine Marquette Cultural ecology: an ideational scaffold for environmental education: an outcome of the EC LIFE ENVIRONMENT programme Cultural anthropology Ecology terminology Environmental humanities Human geography Interdisciplinary historical research	0.781028	0.982779	0.767577
Transdisciplinarity	Transdisciplinarity connotes a research strategy that crosses disciplinary boundaries to create a holistic approach. It applies to research efforts focused on problems that cross the boundaries of two or more disciplines, such as research on effective information systems for biomedical research (see bioinformatics), and can refer to concepts or methods that were originally developed by one discipline, but are now used by several others, such as ethnography, a field research method originally developed in anthropology but now widely used by other disciplines. The Belmont Forum elaborated that a transdisciplinary approach is enabling inputs and scoping across scientific and non-scientific stakeholder communities and facilitating a systemic way of addressing a challenge. This includes initiatives that support the capacity building required for the successful transdisciplinary formulation and implementation of research actions. Usage Transdisciplinarity has two common meanings: German usage In German-speaking countries, Transdisziplinarität refers to the integration of diverse forms of research, and includes specific methods for relating knowledge in problem-solving. A 2003 conference held at the University of Göttingen showcased the diverse meanings of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity and made suggestions for converging them without eliminating present usages. When the very nature of a problem is under dispute, transdisciplinarity can help determine the most relevant problems and research questions involved. A first type of question concerns the cause of the present problems and their future development (system knowledge). Another concerns which values and norms can be used to form goals of the problem-solving process (target knowledge). A third relates to how a problematic situation can be transformed and improved (transformation knowledge). Transdisciplinarity requires adequate addressing of the complexity of problems and the diversity of perceptions of them, that abstract and case-specific knowledge are linked, and that practices promote the common good. Transdisciplinarity arises when participating experts interact in an open discussion and dialogue, giving equal weight to each perspective and relating them to each other. This is difficult because of the overwhelming amount of information involved, and because of incommensurability of specialized languages in each field of expertise. To excel under these conditions, researchers need not only in-depth knowledge and know-how of the disciplines involved, but skills in moderation, mediation, association and transfer. Wider usage Transdisciplinarity is also used to signify a unity of knowledge beyond disciplines. Jean Piaget introduced this usage of the term in 1970, and in 1987, the International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (CIRET) adopted the Charter of Transdisciplinarity at the 1st World Congress of Transdisciplinarity, Convento da Arrabida, Portugal, November 1994. In the CIRET approach, transdisciplinarity is radically distinct from interdisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity, like pluridisciplinarity, concerns the transfer of methods from one discipline to another, allowing research to spill over disciplinary boundaries, but staying within the framework of disciplinary research. As the prefix "trans" indicates, transdisciplinarity concerns that which is at once between the disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond each individual discipline. Its goal is the understanding of the present world, of which one of the imperatives is the overarching unity of knowledge. Another critical defining characteristic of transdisciplinary research is the inclusion of stakeholders in defining research objectives and strategies in order to better incorporate the diffusion of learning produced by the research. Collaboration between stakeholders is deemed essential – not merely at an academic or disciplinary collaboration level, but through active collaboration with people affected by the research and community-based stakeholders. In such a way, transdisciplinary collaboration becomes uniquely capable of engaging with different ways of knowing the world, generating new knowledge, and helping stakeholders understand and incorporate the results or lessons learned by the research. Transdisciplinarity is defined by Basarab Nicolescu through three methodological postulates: the existence of levels of Reality, the logic of the included middle, and complexity. In the presence of several levels of Reality the space between disciplines and beyond disciplines is full of information. Disciplinary research concerns, at most, one and the same level of Reality; moreover, in most cases, it only concerns fragments of one level of Reality. On the contrary, transdisciplinarity concerns the dynamics engendered by the action of several levels of Reality at once. The discovery of these dynamics necessarily passes through disciplinary knowledge. While not a new discipline or a new superdiscipline, transdisciplinarity is nourished by disciplinary research; in turn, disciplinary research is clarified by transdisciplinary knowledge in a new, fertile way. In this sense, disciplinary and transdisciplinary research are not antagonistic but complementary. As in the case of disciplinarity, transdisciplinary research is not antagonistic but complementary to multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity research. According to Nicolescu, transdisciplinarity is nevertheless radically distinct from multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity because of its goal, the understanding of the present world, which cannot be accomplished in the framework of disciplinary research. The goal of multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity always remains within the framework of disciplinary research. If transdisciplinarity is often confused with interdisciplinarity or multidisciplinarity (and by the same token, we note that interdisciplinarity is often confused with multidisciplinarity) this is explained in large part by the fact that all three overflow disciplinary boundaries. Advocates maintain this confusion hides the huge potential of transdisciplinarity. One of the best known professionals of transdisciplinarity in Argentina is Pablo Tigani, and his concept about transdisciplinarity is: Currently, transdisciplinarity is a consolidated academic field that is giving rise to new applied researches, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this sense, the transdisciplinary and biomimetics research of Javier Collado on Big History represents an ecology of knowledge between scientific knowledge and the ancestral wisdom of native peoples, such as Indigenous peoples in Ecuador. According to Collado, the transdisciplinary methodology applied in the field of Big History seeks to understand the interconnections of the human race with the different levels of reality that co-exist in nature and in the cosmos, and this includes mystical and spiritual experiences, very present in the rituals of shamanism with ayahuasca and other sacred plants. In abstract, the teaching of Big History in universities of Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, and Argentina implies a transdisciplinary vision that integrates and unifies diverse epistemes that are in, between, and beyond the scientific disciplines, that is, including ancestral wisdom, spirituality, art, emotions, mystical experiences and other dimensions forgotten in the history of science, specially by the positivist approach. Transdisciplinary education Transdisciplinary education is education that brings integration of different disciplines in a harmonious manner to construct new knowledge and uplift the learner to higher domains of cognitive abilities and sustained knowledge and skills. It involves better neural networking for lifelong learning. Transdisciplinarity has been flagged internationally as an important aim of education. For example, Global Education Magazine, an international journal supported by UNESCO and UNHCR: "transdisciplinarity represents the capable germ to promote an endogenous development of the evolutionary spirit of internal critical consciousness, where religion and science are complementary. Respect, solidarity and cooperation should be global standards for the entire human development with no boundaries. This requires a radical change in the ontological models of sustainable development, global education and world-society. We must rely on the recognition of a plurality of models, cultures and socio-economical diversification. As well as biodiversity is the way for the emergence of new species, cultural diversity represents the creative potential of world-society." Influence in disciplines and fields Arts and humanities Transdisciplinarity can be found in the arts and humanities. For example, the Planetary Collegium seeks "the development of transdisciplinary discourse in the convergence of art, science, technology and consciousness research." The Plasticities Sciences Arts (PSA) research group also develops transdisciplinary approaches regarding humanities and fundamental sciences relationships as well as the Art & Science field. An example of transdisciplinary research in the arts and humanities can be seen in Lucy Jeffery's study on the work of Samuel Beckett, entitled Transdisciplinary Beckett: Visual Arts, Music, and the Creative Process. Human sciences The range of transdisciplinarity becomes clear when the four central questions of biological research ((1) causation, (2) ontogeny, (3) adaptation, (4) phylogeny [after Niko Tinbergen 1963, see also Tinbergen's four questions, cf. Aristotle: Causality / Four Major Causes]) are graphed against distinct levels of analysis (e.g. cell, organ, individual, group; [cf. "Laws about the Levels of Complexity" of Nicolai Hartmann 1940/1964, see also Rupert Riedl 1984]): In this "scheme of transdisciplinarity", all anthropological disciplines (paragraph C in the table of the pdf-file below), their questions (paragraph A: see pdf-file) and results (paragraph B: see pdf-file) can be intertwined and allocated with each other for examples how these aspects go into those little boxes in the matrix. This chart includes all realms of anthropological research (no one is excluded). It is the starting point for a systematical order for all human sciences, and also a source for a consistent networking and structuring of their results. This "bio-psycho-social" orientation framework is the basis for the development of the "Fundamental Theory of Human Sciences" and for a transdisciplinary consensus. (In this tabulated orientation matrix the questions and reference levels in italics are also the subject of the humanities.). Niko Tinbergen was familiar with both conceptual categories (i.e. the four central questions of biological research and the levels of analysis), the tabulation was made by Gerhard Medicus. Certainly, a humanist perspective always involves a transdisciplinary focus. A good and classic example of mixing very different sciences was the work developed by Leibniz in seventeenth-eighteenth centuries in order to create a universal system of justice. Health science The term transdisciplinarity is increasingly prevalent in health care research and has been identified as important to improving the effectiveness and efficiency in health care. Transdisciplinary within public health emphasizes integrating diverse individuals, skills, perspectives, and expertise across disciplines to dissolve traditional boundaries and develop holistic approaches linking ecosystem and human health boundaries. See also International Association of Transdisciplinary Psychology Science of team science References Citations Works cited Further reading External links Ulli Vilsmaier: What Is Transdisciplinarity? Explainer Video, TU Berlin, 2024 transdisciplinary-net, Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences Transdisciplinary Case Studies at ETH Zurich International Center for Transdisciplinary Research The site of the International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (CIRET). E-zine "Transdisciplinary Encounters". Transdisciplinary Studies The book series dedicated to transdisciplinary research. World Knowledge Dialogue Foundation Transdisciplinary Studies at Claremont Graduate University PLASTIR : The Transdisciplinary Review of human plasticity Journal of the International Association of Transdisciplinary Psychology Academic discipline interactions Holism	0.778394	0.985995	0.767492
Cultural globalization	Cultural globalization refers to the transmission of ideas, meanings and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. This process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel. This has added to processes of commodity exchange and colonization which have a longer history of carrying cultural meaning around the globe. The circulation of cultures enables individuals to partake in extended social relations that cross national and regional borders. The creation and expansion of such social relations is not merely observed on a material level. Cultural globalization involves the formation of shared norms and knowledge with which people associate their individual and collective cultural identities. It brings increasing interconnectedness among different populations and cultures. The idea of cultural globalization emerged in the late 1980s, but was diffused widely by Western academics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. For some researchers, the idea of cultural globalization is reaction to the claims made by critics of cultural imperialism in the 1970s and 1980s. Basics Extends ideas and cultures across all of the civilizations of the world. Sets up tensions between processes of homogenization that contribute on the one hand to flattening social differences and human experience, while on the other hand enhancing the sense of the local and promoting counter-globalizing movements. Occurs in everyday life, through digital communication, electronic commerce, popular culture, and international trade. Attempts, in some of expressions, to promote Western lifestyles and possibly Americanize the world. Encourages, in other expressions, cosmopolitan engagement across boundaries of difference. Contributing factors New technology and form of communication around the world help to integrate different cultures into each other. Transportation technologies and services along with mass migration and individual travel contribute to this form of globalization allowing for cross-cultural exchanges. Infrastructures and institutionalization embedded change (e.g. teaching languages such as English across the world through educational systems and training of teachers). Benefits Allows for profits to companies and nations. Offers opportunities for development and advancement in economics, technology, and information and usually impacts developed countries. Less stereotypes and misconception about other people and cultures. Capacity to defend one's values and ideas globally. Generates interdependent companies amongst companies. Access to other cultures products. Phases Pre-modern phase: early civilizations to 1500 Early human migration (facilitation of trade and creation of social networks amongst other nations). Emergence of world religions. Development of trans-regional trade networks (long-distance trade, many centered in China and India. Early forms of globalization, especially with the Silk Road). Modern phase European imperialism (rise of the West. European expansionism, especially with Columbus' encounter with the New World which allowed goods and people to cross the Atlantic). Emerging international economy. International migration and developments outside of the West. Spread of modernity. Medical advancement that helped many. Rise of the nation-state (a development of freedom of movement and cultural diffusion). Industrialization (demand for raw materials to supply industries. Science grew immensely with electronic shipping, railways, and new forms of communication, such as cable technology). Contemporary phase Struggle after the cold war led to a slow but steady increase in cultural flows with the immigration of peoples, ideas, goods, symbols, and images. Represented global cultural interconnectedness, which eventually led to developments in transport and transport infrastructures such as jet airlines, construction of road and rail networks. This allowed for more tourism and shifting patterns of global migration. Marshall McLuhan introduced the term "global village" in the 1960s stating that it was the ability to connect and trade ideas instantly amongst the nations of the world. The term "globalization" became popular in the 1980s. Examples Cultural globalization integrates scholars from several disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, communication, cultural studies, geography, political science and international relations. The field is notably broad as there are several concepts which may be perceived as cultural or transnational. A visible aspect of the cultural globalization is the diffusion of certain cuisines such as American fast food chains. The two most successful global food and beverage outlets, McDonald's and Starbucks, are American companies often cited as examples of globalization, with over 36,000 and 24,000 locations operating worldwide respectively as of 2015. The Big Mac Index is an informal measure of purchasing power parity among world currencies. Cultural globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two other being economic globalization and political globalization. However, unlike economic and political globalization, cultural globalization has not been the subject of extensive research. A growing field in cultural globalization research corresponds to the implementation of cross-cultural agility in globally operating businesses as a management tool to ensure operational effectiveness. Measurement There have been numerous attempts to measure globalization, typically using indices that capture quantitative data for trade flows, political integration, and other measures. The two most prominent are the AT Kearney/Foreign Policy Globalization index and the KOF Globalization Index. Cultural globalization, however, is much more difficult to capture using quantitative data, because it is difficult to find easily verifiable data of the flow of ideas, opinions, and fashions. One attempt to do so was the Cultural Globalization Index, proposed by Randolph Kluver and Wayne Fu in 2004, and initially published by Foreign Policy Magazine. This effort measured cultural flow by using global trade in media products (books, periodicals, and newspapers) as a proxy for cultural flow. Kluver and Fu followed up with an extended analysis, using this method to measure cultural globalization in Southeast Asia. Impacts The patterns of cultural globalization is a way of spreading theories and ideas from one place to another. Although globalization has affected us economically and politically, it has also affected us socially on a wider scale. With the inequalities issues, such as race, ethnic and class systems, social inequalities play a part within those categories. The past half-century has witnessed a trend towards globalization. Within the media and pop culture, it has shaped individuals to have certain attitudes that involve race issues thus leading to stereotypes. Technology is an impact that created a bridge that diffused the globalization of culture. It brings together globalization, urbanization and migration and how it has affected today's trends. Before urban centers had developed, the idea of globalization after the Second World War was that globalization took place due to the lifting of state restrictions by different nations. There were national boundaries for the flow of goods and services, concepts and ideas. Perspectives Hybridization Many writers suggest that cultural globalization is a long-term historical process of bringing different cultures into interrelation. Jan Pieterse suggested that cultural globalization involves human integration and hybridization, arguing that it is possible to detect cultural mixing across continents and regions going back many centuries. They refer, for example, to the movement of religious practices, language and culture brought by Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Indian experience, to take another example, reveals both the pluralization of the impact of cultural globalization and its long-term history. Homogenization An alternative perspective on cultural globalization emphasizes the transfiguration of worldwide diversity into a uniformed Westernized consumer culture. Some critics argue that the dominance of American culture influencing the entire world will ultimately result in the end of cultural diversity. Such cultural globalization may lead to a human monoculture. This process, understood as cultural imperialism, is associated with the destruction of cultural identities, dominated by a homogenized and westernized, consumer culture. The global influence of American products, businesses and culture in other countries around the world has been referred to as Americanization. This influence is represented through that of American-based television programs which are rebroadcast throughout the world. Major American companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola have played a major role in the spread of American culture around the globe. Terms such as Coca-colonization have been coined to refer to the dominance of American products in foreign countries, which some critics of globalization view as a threat to the cultural identity of these nations. Conflict intensification Another alternative perspective argues that in reaction to the process of cultural globalization, a "Clash of Civilizations" might appear. Indeed, Samuel Huntington emphasizes the fact that while the world is becoming smaller and interconnected, the interactions between peoples of different cultures enhance the civilization consciousness that in turn invigorate differences. Indeed, rather than reaching a global cultural community, the differences in culture sharpened by this very process of cultural globalization will be a source of conflict. While not many commentators agree that this should be characterized as a 'Clash of Civilizations', there is general concurrence that cultural globalization is an ambivalent process bringing an intense sense of local difference and ideological contestation. Alternatively, Benjamin Barber in his book Jihad vs. McWorld argues for a different "cultural division" of the world. In his book the McWorld represents a world of globalization and global connectivity and interdependence, looking to create a "commercially homogeneous global network". This global network is divided into four imperatives; Market, Resource, Information-Technology and the Ecological imperative. On the other hand, "Jihad" represents traditionalism and maintaining one's identity. Whereas "Clash of Civilizations" portrays a world with five coalitions of nation-states, "Jihad vs. McWorld" shows a world where struggles take place on a sub-national level. Although most of the western nations are capitalist and can be seen as "McWorld" countries, societies within these nations might be considered "Jihad" and vice versa. Friction Cultural globalization creates a more efficient society while also limiting how it can operate. Anna Tsing, an American anthropologist, explains that Friction makes global connections between cultures effective while also preventing globalization from being a smooth transition of power. Instead of globalization being about networks or a continuous flow, Tsing argues that we should think about it being created in two parts, the outside world (global) and the local. Globalization is seen as a friction between these two social organizations where globalization relies on the local for its success instead of just consuming it. The rainforests in Indonesia exemplify how globalization is not a straightforward process, but one that is complex and messy. Capitalist interests reshaped the landscape through chains of entrepreneurs and other businesses that came in and extracted its resources to sell to distant markets. In response to these interactions, environmental movements emerged and began to defend the rainforests and the communities. This instance is not limited to just a nation or a village, but to several social organizations all at work. Environmental activists, students, local communities, private interests, and investors all have interacted with one another in regard to globalization. This exemplifies how globalization promotes interconnections between groups who are entirely different from one another into a single place. Friction among social groups present risks of both potential destruction and improvement. Through this idea, globalization is not simply a tool used for networking and worldwide connection, nor is it an authoritarian flow of capital interest looking to take over local communities. Instead, globalization is viewed as a continuous engagement between various different social groups. While the destruction of the rainforest habitats through globalization is seen as a negative result, the emergence of local and national activists in response to these circumstances have led to more support for indigenous and environmental rights. Globalization is often seen as homogenizing the world and includes a diffusion of beliefs that are eventually infused and accepted across time and space. Instead, globalization is about understanding and recognizing that communities are not the same and these differences are what make up the contemporary world. The friction between different groups is what keeps global power in continuous motion. Corruption brought to the rainforest through capital interests highlight the struggle to find distinctions between the locals who are working for domestic development and those who are motivated by foreign investors and corporations. These distinctions add to the confusion globalization brings as it blurs the line between private and public. Outside motivations began to impact some of these reclusive communities who, up until this point, were considered untouchable or unaffected by globalization. See also Military globalization Engaged theory Globalism Globalization Cultural homogenization Cultural imperialism Globalization of sports Dimensions of globalization References Barber, Benjamin R., Jihad vs. McWorld, Hardcover: Crown, 1995, ; Paperback: Ballantine Books, 1996, Further reading Alonso, Paul. Digital Humor as Cultural Globalization in Latin America. Internet, Humor, and Nation in Latin/x America, 2022. Unescoorg. (2016). Unescoorg. Retrieved 12 October 2016. External links The Big Mac Index index page — contains Big Mac Index data dating back to 1997 (Economist.com subscription required for details) Globalization	0.771218	0.995112	0.767448
Field research	Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct field research may simply observe animals interacting with their environments, whereas social scientists conducting field research may interview or observe people in their natural environments to learn their languages, folklore, and social structures. Field research involves a range of well-defined, although variable, methods: informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis, results from activities undertaken off- or on-line, and life-histories. Although the method generally is characterized as qualitative research, it may (and often does) include quantitative dimensions. History Field research has a long history. Cultural anthropologists have long used field research to study other cultures. Although the cultures do not have to be different, this has often been the case in the past with the study of so-called primitive cultures, and even in sociology the cultural differences have been ones of class. The work is done... in Fields' that is, circumscribed areas of study which have been the subject of social research". Fields could be education, industrial settings, or Amazonian rain forests. Field research may be conducted by ethologists such as Jane Goodall. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown [1910] and Bronisław Malinowski [1922] were early anthropologists who set the models for future work. Conducting field research The quality of results obtained from field research depends on the data gathered in the field. The data in turn, depend upon the field worker, their level of involvement, and ability to see and visualize things that other individuals visiting the area of study may fail to notice. The more open researchers are to new ideas, concepts, and things which they may not have seen in their own culture, the better will be the absorption of those ideas. Better grasping of such material means a better understanding of the forces of culture operating in the area and the ways they modify the lives of the people under study. Social scientists (i.e. anthropologists, social psychologists, etc.) have always been taught to be free from ethnocentrism (i.e. the belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group), when conducting any type of field research. When humans themselves are the subject of study, protocols must be devised to reduce the risk of observer bias and the acquisition of too theoretical or idealized explanations of the workings of a culture. Participant observation, data collection, and survey research are examples of field research methods, in contrast to what is often called experimental or lab research. Field notes When conducting field research, keeping an ethnographic record is essential to the process. Field notes are a key part of the ethnographic record. The process of field notes begin as the researcher participates in local scenes and experiences in order to make observations that will later be written up. The field researcher tries first to take mental notes of certain details in order that they be written down later. Kinds of field notes Field Note Chart Interviewing Another method of data collection is interviewing, specifically interviewing in the qualitative paradigm. Interviewing can be done in different formats, this all depends on individual researcher preferences, research purpose, and the research question asked. Analyzing data In qualitative research, there are many ways of analyzing data gathered in the field. One of the two most common methods of data analysis are thematic analysis and narrative analysis. As mentioned before, the type of analysis a researcher decides to use depends on the research question asked, the researcher's field, and the researcher's personal method of choice. Field research across different disciplines Anthropology In anthropology, field research is organized so as to produce a kind of writing called ethnography. Ethnography can refer to both a methodology and a product of research, namely a monograph or book. Ethnography is a grounded, inductive method that heavily relies on participant-observation. Participant observation is a structured type of research strategy. It is a widely used methodology in many disciplines, particularly, cultural anthropology, but also sociology, communication studies, and social psychology. Its aim is to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, or sub cultural group, or a particular community) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their natural environment, usually over an extended period of time. The method originated in field work of social anthropologists, especially the students of Franz Boas in the United States, and in the urban research of the Chicago School of sociology. Max Gluckman noted that Bronisław Malinowski significantly developed the idea of fieldwork, but it originated with Alfred Cort Haddon in England and Franz Boas in the United States. Robert G. Burgess concluded that "it is Malinowski who is usually credited with being the originator of intensive anthropological field research". Anthropological fieldwork uses an array of methods and approaches that include, but are not limited to: participant observation, structured and unstructured interviews, archival research, collecting demographic information from the community the anthropologist is studying, and data analysis. Traditional participant observation is usually undertaken over an extended period of time, ranging from several months to many years, and even generations. An extended research time period means that the researcher is able to obtain more detailed and accurate information about the individuals, community, and/or population under study. Observable details (like daily time allotment) and more hidden details (like taboo behavior) are more easily observed and interpreted over a longer period of time. A strength of observation and interaction over extended periods of time is that researchers can discover discrepancies between what participants say—and often believe—should happen (the formal system) and what actually does happen, or between different aspects of the formal system; in contrast, a one-time survey of people's answers to a set of questions might be quite consistent, but is less likely to show conflicts between different aspects of the social system or between conscious representations and behavior. Archaeology Field research lies at the heart of archaeological research. It may include the undertaking of broad area surveys (including aerial surveys); of more localised site surveys (including photographic, drawn, and geophysical surveys, and exercises such as fieldwalking); and of excavation. Biology and ecology In biology, field research typically involves studying of free-living wild animals in which the subjects are observed in their natural habitat, without changing, harming, or materially altering the setting or behavior of the animals under study. Field research is an indispensable part of biological science. Animal migration tracking (including bird ringing/banding) is a frequently-used field technique, allowing field scientists to track migration patterns and routes, and animal longevity in the wild. Knowledge about animal migrations is essential to accurately determining the size and location of protected areas. Field research also can involve study of other kingdoms of life, such as plantae, fungi, and microbes, as well as ecological interactions among species. Field courses have been shown to be efficacious for generating long-term interest in and commitment for undergraduate students in STEM, but the number of field courses has not kept pace with demand. Cost has been a barrier to student participation. Consumer research In applied business disciplines, such as in marketing, fieldwork is a standard research method both for commercial purposes, like market research, and academic research. For instance, researchers have used ethnography, netnography, and in-depth interviews within Consumer Culture Theory, a field that aims to understand the particularities of contemporary consumption. Several academic journals such as Consumption Markets & Culture, and the Journal of Consumer Research regularly publish qualitative research studies that use fieldwork. Earth and atmospheric sciences In geology fieldwork is considered an essential part of training and remains an important component of many research projects. In other disciplines of the Earth and atmospheric sciences, field research refers to field experiments (such as the VORTEX projects) utilizing in situ instruments. Permanent observation networks are also maintained for other uses but are not necessarily considered field research, nor are permanent remote sensing installations. Economics The objective of field research in economics is to get beneath the surface, to contrast observed behaviour with the prevailing understanding of a process, and to relate language and description to behavior (Deirdre McCloskey, 1985). The 2009 Nobel Prize Winners in Economics, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, have advocated mixed methods and complex approaches in economics and hinted implicitly to the relevance of field research approaches in economics. In a recent interview Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom discuss the importance of examining institutional contexts when performing economic analyses. Both Ostrom and Williamson agree that "top-down" panaceas or "cookie cutter" approaches to policy problems don't work. They believe that policymakers need to give local people a chance to shape the systems used to allocate resources and resolve disputes. Sometimes, Ostrom points out, local solutions can be the most efficient and effective options. This is a point of view that fits very well with anthropological research, which has for some time shown us the logic of local systems of knowledge — and the damage that can be done when "solutions" to problems are imposed from outside or above without adequate consultation. Elinor Ostrom, for example, combines field case studies and experimental lab work in her research. Using this combination, she contested longstanding assumptions about the possibility that groups of people could cooperate to solve common pool problems, as opposed to being regulated by the state or governed by the market. Edward J. Nell argued in 1998 that there are two types of field research in economics. One kind can give us a carefully drawn picture of institutions and practices, general in that it applies to all activities of a certain kind of particular society or social setting, but still specialized to that society or setting. Although institutions and practices are intangibles, such a picture will be objective, a matter of fact, independent of the state of mind of the particular agents reported on. Approaching the economy from a different angle, another kind of fieldwork can give us a picture of the state of mind of economic agents (their true motivations, their beliefs, state knowledge, expectations, their preferences and values). Business use of field research is an applied form of anthropology and is as likely to be advised by sociologists or statisticians in the case of surveys. Consumer marketing field research is the primary marketing technique that is used by businesses to research their target market. Ethnomusicology Fieldwork in ethnomusicology has changed greatly over time. Alan P. Merriam cites the evolution of fieldwork as a constant interplay between the musicological and ethnological roots of the discipline. Before the 1950s, before ethnomusicology resembled what it is today, fieldwork and research were considered separate tasks. Scholars focused on analyzing music outside of its context through a scientific lens, drawing from the field of musicology. Notable scholars include Carl Stumf and Eric von Hornbostel, who started as Stumpf's assistant. They are known for making countless recordings and establishing a library of music to be analyzed by other scholars. Methodologies began to shift in the early 20th century. George Herzog, an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, published a seminal paper titled "Plains Ghost Dance and Great Basin Music", reflecting the increased importance of fieldwork through his extended residency in the Great Basin and his attention to cultural contexts. Herzog also raised the question of how the formal qualities of the music he was studying demonstrated the social function of the music itself. Ethnomusicology today relies heavily on the relationship between the researcher and their teachers and consultants. Many ethnomusicologists have assumed the role of student in order to fully learn an instrument and its role in society. Research in the discipline has grown to consider music as a cultural product, and thus cannot be understood without consideration of context. Law Legal researchers conduct field research to understand how legal systems work in practice. Social, economic, cultural and other factors influence how legal processes, institutions and the law work (or do not work). Management Mintzberg played a crucial role in the popularization of field research in management. The tremendous amount of work that Mintzberg put into the findings earned him the title of leader of a new school of management, the descriptive school, as opposed to the prescriptive and normative schools that preceded his work. The schools of thought derive from Taylor, Henri Fayol, Lyndall Urwick, Herbert A. Simon, and others endeavored to prescribe and expound norms to show what managers must or should do. With the arrival of Mintzberg, the question was no longer what must or should be done, but what a manager actually does during the day. More recently, in his 2004 book Managers Not MBAs, Mintzberg examined what he believes to be wrong with management education today. Aktouf (2006, p. 198) summed-up Mintzberg observations about what takes place in the field:‘’First, the manager’s job is not ordered, continuous, and sequential, nor is it uniform or homogeneous. On the contrary, it is fragmented, irregular, choppy, extremely changeable and variable. This work is also marked by brevity: no sooner has a manager finished one activity than he or she is called up to jump to another, and this pattern continues nonstop. Second, the manager’s daily work is a not a series of self-initiated, willful actions transformed into decisions, after examining the circumstances. Rather, it is an unbroken series of reactions to all sorts of request that come from all around the manager, from both the internal and external environments. Third, the manager deals with the same issues several times, for short periods of time; he or she is far from the traditional image of the individual who deals with one problem at a time, in a calm and orderly fashion. Fourth, the manager acts as a focal point, an interface, or an intersection between several series of actors in the organization: external and internal environments, collaborators, partners, superiors, subordinates, colleagues, and so forth. He or she must constantly ensure, achieve, or facilitate interactions between all these categories of actors to allow the firm to function smoothly.’’ Public health In public health, the use of the term field research refers to epidemiology or the study of epidemics through the gathering of data about the epidemic (such as the pathogen and vector(s) as well as social or sexual contacts, depending upon the situation). Sociology Pierre Bourdieu played a crucial role in popularizing fieldwork in sociology. During the Algerian War in 1958–1962, Bourdieu undertook ethnographic research into the clash through a study of the Kabyle people (a subgroup of the Berbers), which provided the groundwork for his anthropological reputation. His first book, Sociologie de L'Algerie (The Algerians), was successful in France and published in America in 1962. A follow-up, Algeria 1960: The Disenchantment of the World: The Sense of Honour: The Kabyle House or the World Reversed: Essays, published in English in 1979 by Cambridge University Press, established him as a significant figure in the field of ethnology and a pioneer advocate scholar for more intensive fieldwork in social sciences. The book was based on his decade of work as a participant-observer in Algerian society. One of the outstanding qualities of his work has been his innovative combination of different methods and research strategies and his analytical skills in interpreting the obtained data. Throughout his career, Bourdieu sought to connect his theoretical ideas with empirical research grounded in everyday life. His work can be seen as a sociology of culture, which Bourdieu labeled a "theory of practice". His contributions to sociology were both empirical and theoretical. His conceptual apparatus is based on three key terms: habitus, capital, and field. Furthermore, Bourdieu fiercely opposed rational choice theory as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Bourdieu argued that social agents do not continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. According to Bourdieu, social agents operate according to an implicit practical logic—a practical sense—and bodily dispositions. Social agents act according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field). Bourdieu's anthropological work was focused on the analysis of the mechanisms of reproduction of social hierarchies. Bourdieu criticized the primacy given to the economic factors, and stressed that the capacity of social actors to actively impose and engage their cultural productions and symbolic systems plays an essential role in the reproduction of social structures of domination. Bourdieu's empirical work played a crucial role in the popularization of correspondence analysis and particularly multiple correspondence analysis. Bourdieu held that these geometric techniques of data analysis are, like his sociology, inherently relational. In the preface to his book The Craft of Sociology, Bourdieu argued that: "I use Correspondence Analysis very much, because I think that it is essentially a relational procedure whose philosophy fully expresses what in my view constitutes social reality. It is a procedure that 'thinks' in relations, as I try to do it with the concept of field." One of the classic ethnographies in Sociology is the book Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations & Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod. The study addresses the reproduction of social inequality among low-income, male teenagers. The researcher spent time studying two groups of teenagers in a housing project in a Northeastern city of the United States. The study concludes that three different levels of analysis play their part in the reproduction of social inequality: the individual, the cultural, and the structural. An additional perspective of sociology includes interactionism. This point of view focuses on understanding people's actions based on their experience of the world around them. Similar to Bourdieu's work, this perspective gathers statements, observations and facts from real-world situations to create more robust research outcomes. Notable field-workers In anthropology Napoleon Chagnon - ethnographer of the Yanomamö people of the Amazon Georg Forster - ethnographer (1772–1775) to Captain James Cook George M. Foster Clifford Geertz Alfred Cort Haddon Claude Lévi-Strauss Bronislaw Malinowski Margaret Mead Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown W.H.R. Rivers Renato Rosaldo James C. Scott Colin Turnbull Victor Turner In sociology William Foote Whyte Erving Goffman Pierre Bourdieu Harriet Martineau In management Henry Mintzberg In economics Truman Bewley Alan Blinder Trygve Haavelmo John Johnston Lawrence Klein Wassily Leontief Edward J. Nell Robert M. Townsend In music Alan Lomax John Peel (with his Peel Sessions) See also Citizen science Empirical research Exploration Observational study Participant observation Public Health Advisor Wildlife observation Market research Usability Industrial design Requirements analysis References Further reading Mason, Peter.(2013). "Scientists and Scholars in the Field. Studies in the History of Fieldwork and Expeditions." Journal of the History of Collections. V. 25 (November): 428–430. Robben, Antonius C.G.M. and Jeffrey A. Sluka, eds. (2012). Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. Oxford Wiley-Blackwell. . Nelson, Katie. 2019. “Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology” in Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology 2nd edition, Edited by Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, and Laura Tubelle de González. Arlington: American Anthropological Association. pp. 45–69. External links	0.773727	0.991882	0.767445
PICO process	The PICO process (or framework) is a mnemonic used in evidence-based practice (and specifically evidence-based medicine) to frame and answer a clinical or health care related question, though it is also argued that PICO "can be used universally for every scientific endeavour in any discipline with all study designs". The PICO framework is also used to develop literature search strategies, for instance in systematic reviews. The PICO acronym has come to stand for: PPatient, problem or population IIntervention CComparison, control or comparator OOutcome(s) (e.g. pain, fatigue, nausea, infections, death) An application that covers clinical questions about interventions, as well as exposures, risk/ prognostic factors, and test accuracy, is: PPatient, problem or population IInvestigated condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result) CComparison condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result respectively) OOutcome(s) (e.g. symptom, syndrome, or disease of interest) Alternatives such as SPICE and PECO (among many others) can also be used. Some authors suggest adding T and S, as follows: T - Timing (e.g. duration of intervention, or date of publication) S - Study type (e.g. randomized controlled trial, cohort study, etc.) PICO as a universal technique It was argued that PICO may be useful for every scientific endeavor even beyond clinical settings. This proposal is based on a more abstract view of the PICO mnemonic, equating them with four components that is inherent to every single research, namely (1) research object; (2) application of a theory or method; (3) alternative theories or methods (or the null hypothesis); and (4) the ultimate goal of knowledge generation. This proposition would imply that the PICO technique could be used for teaching academic writing even beyond medical disciplines. Examples Clinical question: "In children with headache, is paracetamol more effective than placebo against pain?" Population = Children with headaches; keywords = children + headache Intervention = Paracetamol; keyword = paracetamol Compared with = Placebo; keyword = placebo Outcome of interest = Pain; keyword = pain Pubmed (health research database) search strategy:children headache paracetamol placebo pain Clinical question: "Is the risk of having breast cancer higher in symptom-free women with a positive mammography compared to symptom-free women with a negative mammography?" Population = Women without a history of breast cancer Investigated test result = Positive result on mammography Comparator test result = Negative result on mammography Outcome of interest = Breast cancer according to biopsy (or not) Similar Frameworks The PICO framework was originally developed to frame interventional clinical questions. PICO inspired other frameworks such as PICOS, PICOT, PICOTT, PECO, PICOTS, PECODR, PEICOIS, PICOC, SPICE, PIPOH, EPICOT+, PESICO, PICo, and PS. References Evidence-based practices	0.774541	0.990811	0.767424
Educational perennialism	Educational perennialism is a normative educational philosophy. Perennialists believe that the priority of education should be to teach principles that have persisted for centuries, not facts. Since people are human, one should teach first about humans, rather than machines or techniques, and about liberal, rather than vocational, topics. Perennialism appears similar to essentialism but focuses first on personal development, while essentialism focuses first on essential skills. Essentialist curricula tend to be more vocational and fact-based, and far less liberal and principle-based. Both philosophies are typically considered to be teacher-centered, as opposed to student-centered philosophies of education such as progressivism. Teachers associated with perennialism are authors of the Western masterpieces and are open to student criticism through the associated Socratic method. Secular perennialism The word "perennial" in secular perennialism suggests something that lasts an indefinite amount of time, recurs again and again, or is self-renewing. Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler promoted a universal curriculum based upon the common and essential nature of all human beings and encompassing humanist and scientific traditions. Hutchins and Adler implemented these ideas with great success at the University of Chicago, where they still strongly influence the Undergraduate Common Core. Other notable figures in the movement include Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan (who together initiated the Great Books program at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland), Mark Van Doren, Alexander Meiklejohn, and Sir Richard Livingstone, an English classicist with an American following. Inspired by Adler's lectures, Sister Miriam Joseph wrote a textbook on the scholastic trivium and taught it as the Freshman seminar at Saint Mary's College. Secular perennialists espouse the idea that education should focus on the historical development of a continually advancing common orienting base of human knowledge and art, the timeless value of classic thought on central human issues by landmark thinkers, and revolutionary ideas critical to historical paradigm shifts or changes in world view. A program of studies which is highly general, nonspecialized, and nonvocational is advocated. They firmly believe that exposure of all people to the development of thought by those most responsible for the evolution of the occidental oriented tradition is integral to the survival of the freedoms, human rights, and responsibilities inherent to a true democracy. Adler states: ... our political democracy depends upon the reconstitution of our schools. Our schools are not turning out young people prepared for the high office and the duties of citizenship in a democratic republic. Our political institutions cannot thrive, they may not even survive, if we do not produce a greater number of thinking citizens, from whom some statesmen of the type we had in the 18th century might eventually emerge. We are, indeed, a nation at risk, and nothing but radical reform of our schools can save us from impending disaster... Whatever the price... the price we will pay for not doing it will be much greater. Hutchins writes in the same vein: The business of saying ... that people are not capable of achieving a good education is too strongly reminiscent of the opposition of every extension of democracy. This opposition has always rested on the allegation that the people were incapable of exercising the power they demanded. Always the historic statement has been verified: you cannot expect the slave to show the virtues of the free man unless you first set him free. When the slave has been set free, he has, in the passage of time, become indistinguishable from those who have always been free ... There appears to be an innate human tendency to underestimate the capacity of those who do not belong to "our" group. Those who do not share our background cannot have our ability. Foreigners, people who are in a different economic status, and the young seem invariably to be regarded as intellectually backward ... As with the essentialists, perennialists are educationally conservative in the requirement of a curriculum focused upon fundamental subject areas, but they stress that the overall aim should be exposure to history's finest thinkers as models for discovery. The student should be taught such basic subjects as English, languages, history, mathematics, natural science, philosophy, and fine arts. Adler states: "The three R's, which always signified the formal disciplines, are the essence of liberal or general education." Secular perennialists agree with progressivists that memorization of vast amounts of factual information and a focus on second-hand information in textbooks and lectures does not develop rational thought. They advocate learning through the development of meaningful conceptual thinking and judgement by means of a directed reading list of the profound, aesthetic, and meaningful great books of the Western canon. These books, secular perennialists argue, are written by the world's finest thinkers, and cumulatively comprise the "Great Conversation" of humanity with regard to the central human questions. Their basic argument for the use of original works (abridged translations being acceptable as well) is that these are the products of "genius". Hutchins remarks: Great books are great teachers; they are showing us every day what ordinary people are capable of. These books come out of ignorant, inquiring humanity. They are usually the first announcements for success in learning. Most of them were written for, and addressed to, ordinary people. The Great Conversation is not static but, along with the set of related great books, changes as the representative thought of man changes or progresses. In this way, it seeks to represent an evolution of thought not based upon the latest cultural fads. Hutchins clarifies this: In the course of history... new books have been written that have won their place in the list. Books once thought entitled to belong to it have been superseded; and this process of change will continue as long as men can think and write. It is the task of every generation to reassess the tradition in which it lives, to discard what it cannot use, and to bring into context with the distant and intermediate past the most recent contributions to the Great Conversation. ...the West needs to recapture and reemphasize and bring to bear upon its present problems the wisdom that lies in the works of its greatest thinkers and in the name of love Perennialism was proposed in response to what many considered a failing educational system. Again Hutchins writes: The products of American high schools are illiterate; and a degree from a famous college or university is no guarantee that the graduate is in any better case. One of the most remarkable features of American society is that the difference between the "uneducated" and the "educated" is so slight. In this regard John Dewey and Hutchins were in agreement. Hutchins's book The Higher Learning in America deplored the "plight of higher learning" that had turned away from cultivation of the intellect and toward anti-intellectual practicality due, in part, to a lust for money. In a highly negative review of the book, Dewey wrote a series of articles in The Social Frontier which began by applauding Hutchins' attack on "the aimlessness of our present educational scheme. Perennialists believe in reading being supplemented by mutual investigations involving both teacher and student and minimally-directed discussions through the Socratic method in order to develop a historically oriented understanding of concepts. They argue that accurate, independent reasoning distinguishes the developed or educated mind and stress the development of this faculty. A skilled teacher keeps discussions on topic, corrects errors in reasoning, and accurately formulates problems within the scope of texts being studied but lets the class reach their own conclusions. Perennialists argue that many of the historical debates and the development of ideas presented by the great books are relevant to any society at any time, making them suitable for instructional use regardless of their age. They acknowledge disagreement between various great books but believe that the student must learn to recognize these disagreements, think about them, and reach a reasoned, defensible conclusion. This is a major goal of the Socratic discussions. Religious perennialism Perennialism was originally religious in nature, developed first by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century in his work (On the Teacher). In the nineteenth century, John Henry Newman presented a defense of religious perennialism in The Idea of a University. Discourse 5 of that work, "Knowledge Its Own End", is a recent statement of a Christian educational perennialism. There are several epistemological options, which affect the pedagogical options. The possibilities may be surveyed by considering four extreme positions - idealistic rationalism, idealistic fideism, realistic rationalism and realistic fideism. Teaching pupils to think critically and rationally are the main objectives of perennialist educators. A perennialist classroom seeks to be a highly structured and disciplined setting that fosters in pupils a never-ending search for the truth. Colleges exemplifying this philosophy Reed College in Portland, Oregon is a well-known secular liberal arts college which requires a year-long humanities course covering ancient Greek and Roman literature, history, art, religion, and philosophy. Students may pursue an optional extension to this core curriculum in later years. St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe) in Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico is a secular liberal arts college with an undergraduate program described as "an all-required course of study based on the great books of the Western tradition". The Core Curriculum of Columbia College of Columbia University, is another well-known example of educational perennialism. The University of Chicago's Common Core, established by Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins is another well-known example of educational perennialism. Similar to Columbia College of Columbia University, it is an uncommon example of an educational perennialistic college within a large research institution. Integral Program at Saint Mary's College of California in is a Great Books major at the Lasallian Catholic liberal arts college in Moraga, California. The program was designed with the assistance of faculty from St. John's College, U.S. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California is a Catholic Christian college with a Great Books curriculum. The college was founded by a group of graduates and professors of the Integral Program at Saint Mary's College of California, who were discouraged by the liberalism that became common place among the faculty and administration on Saint Mary's campus shortly after Vatican II. Gutenberg College in Eugene, Oregon provides "a broad-based liberal arts education in a Protestant Christian environment", with a "great books" curriculum emphasizing "the development of basic learning skills (reading, writing, mathematics, and critical thinking) and the application of these skills to profound writings of the past". Shimer College in Chicago grants a Bachelor of Arts to students who complete a program composed of humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, integrative studies and a capstone senior thesis. The Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University is a Christian Great Books program. George Wythe University in Cedar City, Utah, is an unaccredited liberal arts school. Thomas More College in Merrimack, New Hampshire is a Catholic College with an integrated Liberal Arts curriculum . The program includes poetry and folk, art and wood guild. The college also offers a Rome Semester, when students have the chance to study Ancient and Medieval Art & Architecture. The Great Books Program at Benedictine College is an example of perennialism, teaching ancient, medieval, renaissance, and modern works from the Western cannon with an emphasis on Catholicism. See also Philosophy of Education Education reform Aristotelianism Thomism Paidea proposal, a reform plan initiated by Adler for public schools References External links Searle, John. "The Storm Over the University". The New York Review of Books. December 6, 1990. Philosophy of education Liberal arts education	0.785199	0.977331	0.767399
Blackboard (design pattern)	In software engineering, the blackboard pattern is a behavioral design pattern that provides a computational framework for the design and implementation of systems that integrate large and diverse specialized modules, and implement complex, non-deterministic control strategies. This pattern was identified by the members of the Hearsay-II project and first applied to speech recognition. Structure The blackboard model defines three main components: blackboard—a structured global memory containing objects from the solution space knowledge sources—specialized modules with their own representation control component—selects, configures and executes modules. Implementation The first step is to design the solution space (i.e. potential solutions) that leads to the blackboard structure. Then, knowledge sources are identified. These two activities are closely related. The next step is to specify the control component; it generally takes the form of a complex scheduler that makes use of a set of domain-specific heuristics to rate the relevance of executable knowledge sources. Applications Usage-domains include: speech recognition vehicle identification and tracking protein structure identification sonar signals interpretation. Consequences The blackboard pattern provides effective solutions for designing and implementing complex systems where heterogeneous modules have to be dynamically combined to solve a problem. This provides non-functional properties such as: reusability changeability robustness. The blackboard pattern allows multiple processes to work closer together on separate threads, polling and reacting when necessary. See also Blackboard system Software design pattern References Software design patterns	0.769261	0.997359	0.767229
Analytical skill	Analytical skill is the ability to deconstruct information into smaller categories in order to draw conclusions. Analytical skill consists of categories that include logical reasoning, critical thinking, communication, research, data analysis and creativity. Analytical skill is taught in contemporary education with the intention of fostering the appropriate practices for future professions. The professions that adopt analytical skill include educational institutions, public institutions, community organisations and industry. Richards J. Heuer Jr. explained that In the article by Freed, the need for programs within the educational system to help students develop these skills is demonstrated. Workers "will need more than elementary basic skills to maintain the standard of living of their parents. They will have to think for a living, analyse problems and solutions, and work cooperatively in teams". Logical Reasoning Logical reasoning is a process consisting of inferences, where premises and hypotheses are formulated to arrive at a probable conclusion. It is a broad term covering three sub-classifications in deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning and abductive reasoning. Deductive Reasoning ‘Deductive reasoning is a basic form of valid reasoning, commencing with a general statement or hypothesis, then examines the possibilities to reach a specific, logical conclusion’. This scientific method utilises deductions, to test hypotheses and theories, to predict if possible observations were correct. A logical deductive reasoning sequence can be executed by establishing: an assumption, followed by another assumption and finally, conducting an inference. For example, ‘All men are mortal. Harold is a man. Therefore, Harold is mortal.’ For deductive reasoning to be upheld, the hypothesis must be correct, therefore, reinforcing the notion that the conclusion is logical and true. It is possible for deductive reasoning conclusions to be inaccurate or incorrect entirely, but the reasoning and premise is logical. For example, ‘All bald men are grandfathers. Harold is bald. Therefore, Harold is a grandfather.’ is a valid and logical conclusion but it is not true as the original assumption is incorrect. Deductive reasoning is an analytical skill used in many professions such as management, as the management team delegates tasks for day-to-day business operations. Inductive Reasoning Inductive reasoning compiles information and data to establish a general assumption that is suitable to the situation. Inductive reasoning commences with an assumption based on faithful data, leading to a generalised conclusion. For example, ‘All the swans I have seen are white. (Premise) Therefore all swans are white. (Conclusion)’. It is clear that the conclusion is incorrect, therefore, it is a weak argument. To strengthen the conclusion, it is made more probable, for example, ‘All the swans I have seen are white. (Premise) Therefore most swans are probably white (Conclusion)’. Inductive reasoning is an analytical skill common in many professions such as the corporate environment, where statistics and data are constantly analysed. The 6 types of inductive reasoning Generalised: This manner utilises a premise on a sample set to extract a conclusion about a population. Statistical: This is a method that utilises statistics based on a large and viable random sample set that is quantifiable to strengthen conclusions and observations. Bayesian: This form adapts statistical reasoning to account for additional or new data. Analogical: This is a method that records on the foundations of shared properties between two groups, leading to a conclusion that they are also likely to share further properties. Predictive: This form of reasoning extrapolates a conclusion about the future based on a current or past sample. Causal inference: This method of reasoning is formed around a causal link between the premise and the conclusion. Abductive reasoning Abductive reasoning commences with layered hypotheses, which may be insufficient with evidence, leading to a conclusion that is most likely explanatory for the problem. It is a form of reasoning where the conductor chooses a hypothesis that would best suit the given data. For example, when a patient is ill, the doctor gathers a hypothesis from the patient's symptoms, or other evidence, that they deem factual and appropriate. The doctor will then go through a list of possible illnesses and will attempt to assign the appropriate illness. Abductive reasoning is characterised by its lack of completeness, in evidence, explanation or both. This form of reasoning can be creative, intuitive and revolutionary due to its instinctive design. Critical Thinking Critical thinking is a skill used to interpret and explain the data given. It is the ability to think cautiously and rationally to resolve problems. This thinking is achieved by supporting conclusions without biases, having reliable evidence and reasoning, and using appropriate data and information. Critical thinking is an imperative skill as it underpins contemporary living in areas such as education and professional careers, but it is not restricted to a specific area. Critical thinking is used to solve problems, calculate the likelihood, make decisions, and formulate inferences. Critical thinking requires examining information, reflective thinking, using appropriate skills, and confidence in the quality of the information given to come to a conclusion or plan. Critical thinking includes being willing to change if better information becomes available. As a critical thinker individuals do not accept assumptions without further questioning the reliability of it with further research and analysing the results found. Developing Critical Thinking Critical thinking can be developed through establishing personal beliefs and values. It is critical that individuals are able to query authoritative bodies: teachers, specialists, textbooks, books, newspapers, television etc. Querying these authorities allow critical thinking ability to be developed as the individual gains their own freedom and wisdom to think about reality and contemporary society, revering from autonomy. Developing Critical Thinking through Probability Models Critical thinking can be developed through probability models, where individuals adhere to a logical, conceptual understanding of mathematics and emphasise investigation, problem-solving, mathematical literacy and the use of mathematical discourse. The student actively constructs their knowledge and understanding, while teaching models function as a mediator by actively testing the student through querying, challenging and assigning investigation tasks, ultimately, allowing the student to think in deeper ways about various concepts, ideas and mathematical contexts. Communication Communication is a process where individuals transfer information from one another. It is a complex system consisting of a listener interpreting the information, understanding it and then transferring it. Communication as an analytical skill includes communicating with confidence, clarity, and sticking with the point you are trying to communicate. It consists of verbal and non-verbal communication. Communication is an imperative component of analytical skill as it allows the individual to develop relationships, contribute to group decisions, organisational communication, and influence media and culture. Verbal Communication Verbal communication is interaction through words in linguistic form. Verbal communication consists of oral communication, written communication and sign language. It is an effective form of communication as the individuals sending and receiving the information are physically present, allowing immediate responses. In this form of communication, the sender uses words, spoken or written, to express the message to the individuals receiving the information. Verbal communication is an essential analytical skill as it allows for the development of positive relationships among individuals. This positive relationship is attributed to the notion that verbal communication between individuals fosters a depth of understanding, empathy and versatility among them, providing each other with more attention. Verbal communication is a skill that is commonly used in professions such as the health sector, where healthcare workers are desired to possess strong interpersonal skills. Verbal communication has been linked to patient satisfaction. An effective strategy to improve verbal communication ability is through debating as is it fosters communication and critical thinking. Non-verbal Communication Non-verbal communication is commonly known as unspoken dialogue between individuals. It is a significant analytical skill as it allows individuals to distinguish true feelings, opinions and behaviours, as individuals are more likely to believe nonverbal cues as opposed to verbal expressions. Non-verbal communication is able to transcend communicational barriers such as race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Statistical measures showcase that the true meaning behind all messages is 93% non-verbal and 7% verbal. Non-verbal communication is a critical analytical skill as it allows individuals to delve deeper into the meaning of messages. It allows individuals to analyse another person's perceptions, expressions and social beliefs. Individuals who excel in communicating and understanding non-verbal communication are able to analyse the interconnectedness of mutualism, social beliefs and expectations. Communication Theories A communication theory is an abstract understanding of how information is transferred from individuals. Many communication theories have been developed to foster and build upon the ongoing dynamic nature of how people communicate. Early models of communication were simple, such as Aristotle's model of communication, consisting of a speaker communicating a speech to an audience, leading to an effect. This is a basic form of communication that addresses communication as a linear concept where information is not being relayed back. Modern theories for communication include Schramm's model where there are multiple individuals, each individual is encoding, interpreting and decoding the message, and messages are being transferred between one another. Schramm has included another factor in his model in experience i.e. expressing that each individual's experience influences their ability to interpret a message. Communication theories are constantly being developed to acclimatise to certain organisations or individuals. It is imperative for an individual to adopt a suitable communication theory for organisations to ensure that the organisation is able to function as desired. For example, traditional corporate hierarchy are commonly known to adopt a linear communicational model i.e. Aristotle's model of communication. Research Research is the construct of utilising tools and techniques to deconstruct and solve problems. While researching, it is important to distinguish what information is relevant to the data and avoiding excess, irrelevant data. Research involves the collection and analysis of information and data with the intention of founding new knowledge and/or deciphering a new understanding of existing data. Research ability is an analytical skill as it allows individuals to comprehend social implications. Research ability is valuable as it fosters transferable employment related skills. Research is primarily employed in academia and higher education, it is a profession pursued by many graduates, individuals intending to supervise or teach research students or those in pursuit of a PhD. Research in Academia In higher education, new research provides the most desired quality of evidence, if this is not available, then existing forms of evidence should be used. It is accepted that research provides the greatest form of knowledge, in the form of quantitative or qualitative data. Research students are highly desired by various industries due to their dynamic mental capacity. Research students are commonly sought after due to their analysis and problem-solving ability, interpersonal and leadership skills, project management and organisation, research and information management and written and oral communication. Data Analysis Data analysis is a systematic method of cleaning, transforming and modelling statistical or logical techniques to describe and evaluate data. Using data analysis as an analytical skill means being able to examine large volumes of data and then identifying trends within the data. It is critical to be able to look at the data and determine what information is important and should be kept and what information is irrelevant and can be discarded. Data analysis includes finding different patterns within the information which allows you to narrow your research and come to a better conclusion. It is a tool to discover and decipher useful information for business decision-making. It is imperative in inferring information from data and adhering to a conclusion or decision from that data. Data analysis can stem from past or future data. Data analysis is an analytical skill, commonly adopted in business, as it allows organisations to become more efficient, internally and externally, solve complex problems and innovate. Text Analysis Text analysis is the discovery and understanding of valuable information in unstructured or large data. It is a method to transform raw data into business information, allowing for strategic business decisions by offering a method to extract and examine data, derive patterns and finally interpret the data. Statistical Analysis Statistical analysis involves the collection, analyses and presentation of data to decipher trends and patterns. It is common in research, industry and government to enhance the scientific aspects of the decision that needs to be made. It consists of descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. Descriptive Analysis Descriptive analysis provides information about a sample set that reflects the population by summarising relevant aspects of the dataset i.e. uncovering patterns. It displays the measures of central tendency and measures of spread, such as mean, deviation, proportion, frequency etc. Inferential Analysis Inferential analysis analyses a sample from complete data to compare the difference between treatment groups. Multiple conclusions are constructed by selecting different samples. Inferential analysis can provide evidence that, with a certain percentage of confidence, there is a relationship between two variables. It is adopted that the sample will be different to the population, thus, we further accept a degree of uncertainty. Diagnostic Analysis Diagnostic analysis showcases the origin of the problem by finding the cause from the insight found in statistical analysis. This form of analysis is useful to identify behavioural patterns of data. Predictive Analysis Predictive analysis is an advanced form of analytics that forecasts future activity, behaviour, trends and patterns from new and historical data. Its accuracy is based on how much faithful data is present and the degree of inference that can be exploited from it. Prescriptive Analysis Prescriptive analytics provide firms with optimal recommendations to solve complex decisions. It is used in many industries, such as aviation to optimise schedule selection for airline crew. Creativity Creativity is important when it comes to solving different problems when presented. Creative thinking works best for problems that can have multiple solutions to solve the problem. It is also used when there seems to be no correct answer that applies to every situation, and is instead based from situation to situation. It includes being able to put the pieces of a problem together, as well as figure out pieces that may be missing. Then it includes brainstorming with all the pieces and deciding what pieces are important and what pieces can be discarded. The next step would be now analysing the pieces found to be of worth and importance and using those to come to a logical conclusion on how to best solve the problem. There can be multiple answers you come across to solve this problem. Many times creative thinking is referred to as right brain thinking. Creativity is an analytical skill as it allows individuals to utilise innovative methods to solve problems. Individuals that adopt this analytical skill are able to perceive problems from varying perspectives. This analytical skill is highly transferable among professions. References Further references Problem solving skills Learning Intelligence	0.774338	0.990803	0.767217
Strategy pattern	In computer programming, the strategy pattern (also known as the policy pattern) is a behavioral software design pattern that enables selecting an algorithm at runtime. Instead of implementing a single algorithm directly, code receives runtime instructions as to which in a family of algorithms to use. Strategy lets the algorithm vary independently from clients that use it. Strategy is one of the patterns included in the influential book Design Patterns by Gamma et al. that popularized the concept of using design patterns to describe how to design flexible and reusable object-oriented software. Deferring the decision about which algorithm to use until runtime allows the calling code to be more flexible and reusable. For instance, a class that performs validation on incoming data may use the strategy pattern to select a validation algorithm depending on the type of data, the source of the data, user choice, or other discriminating factors. These factors are not known until runtime and may require radically different validation to be performed. The validation algorithms (strategies), encapsulated separately from the validating object, may be used by other validating objects in different areas of the system (or even different systems) without code duplication. Typically, the strategy pattern stores a reference to code in a data structure and retrieves it. This can be achieved by mechanisms such as the native function pointer, the first-class function, classes or class instances in object-oriented programming languages, or accessing the language implementation's internal storage of code via reflection. Structure UML class and sequence diagram In the above UML class diagram, the Context class does not implement an algorithm directly. Instead, Context refers to the Strategy interface for performing an algorithm (strategy.algorithm()), which makes Context independent of how an algorithm is implemented. The Strategy1 and Strategy2 classes implement the Strategy interface, that is, implement (encapsulate) an algorithm. The UML sequence diagram shows the runtime interactions: The Context object delegates an algorithm to different Strategy objects. First, Context calls algorithm() on a Strategy1 object, which performs the algorithm and returns the result to Context. Thereafter, Context changes its strategy and calls algorithm() on a Strategy2 object, which performs the algorithm and returns the result to Context. Class diagram Strategy and open/closed principle According to the strategy pattern, the behaviors of a class should not be inherited. Instead, they should be encapsulated using interfaces. This is compatible with the open/closed principle (OCP), which proposes that classes should be open for extension but closed for modification. As an example, consider a car class. Two possible functionalities for car are brake and accelerate. Since accelerate and brake behaviors change frequently between models, a common approach is to implement these behaviors in subclasses. This approach has significant drawbacks; accelerate and brake behaviors must be declared in each new car model. The work of managing these behaviors increases greatly as the number of models increases, and requires code to be duplicated across models. Additionally, it is not easy to determine the exact nature of the behavior for each model without investigating the code in each. The strategy pattern uses composition instead of inheritance. In the strategy pattern, behaviors are defined as separate interfaces and specific classes that implement these interfaces. This allows better decoupling between the behavior and the class that uses the behavior. The behavior can be changed without breaking the classes that use it, and the classes can switch between behaviors by changing the specific implementation used without requiring any significant code changes. Behaviors can also be changed at runtime as well as at design-time. For instance, a car object's brake behavior can be changed from BrakeWithABS() to Brake() by changing the brakeBehavior member to: brakeBehavior = new Brake(); /* Encapsulated family of Algorithms * Interface and its implementations / public interface IBrakeBehavior { public void brake(); } public class BrakeWithABS implements IBrakeBehavior { public void brake() { System.out.println("Brake with ABS applied"); } } public class Brake implements IBrakeBehavior { public void brake() { System.out.println("Simple Brake applied"); } } / Client that can use the algorithms above interchangeably / public abstract class Car { private IBrakeBehavior brakeBehavior; public Car(IBrakeBehavior brakeBehavior) { this.brakeBehavior = brakeBehavior; } public void applyBrake() { brakeBehavior.brake(); } public void setBrakeBehavior(IBrakeBehavior brakeType) { this.brakeBehavior = brakeType; } } / Client 1 uses one algorithm (Brake) in the constructor / public class Sedan extends Car { public Sedan() { super(new Brake()); } } / Client 2 uses another algorithm (BrakeWithABS) in the constructor / public class SUV extends Car { public SUV() { super(new BrakeWithABS()); } } / Using the Car example */ public class CarExample { public static void main(final String[] arguments) { Car sedanCar = new Sedan(); sedanCar.applyBrake(); // This will invoke class "Brake" Car suvCar = new SUV(); suvCar.applyBrake(); // This will invoke class "BrakeWithABS" // set brake behavior dynamically suvCar.setBrakeBehavior( new Brake() ); suvCar.applyBrake(); // This will invoke class "Brake" } } See also Dependency injection Higher-order function List of object-oriented programming terms Mixin Policy-based design Type class Entity–component–system Composition over inheritance References External links Strategy Pattern in UML Strategy Pattern for C article Refactoring: Replace Type Code with State/Strategy Implementation of the Strategy pattern in JavaScript Software design patterns Articles with example C Sharp code Articles with example Java code	0.769793	0.996651	0.767215
Rapport	Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly. The word derives from the French verb which means literally to carry something back (in the sense of how people relate to each other: what one person sends out the other sends back). For example, people with rapport may realize that they share similar values, beliefs, knowledge, or behaviors around politics, music, or sports. This may also mean that they engage in reciprocal behaviors such as posture mirroring or increased coordination in their verbal and nonverbal interactions. Rapport has been shown to have benefits for psychotherapy and medicine, negotiation, education, and tourism, among others. In each of these cases, the rapport between members of a dyad (e.g. a teacher and student or doctor and patient) allows the participants to coordinate their actions and establish a mutually beneficial working relationship, or what is often called a "working alliance". In consumer-oriented guided group activities (e.g., a cooking class, a wine tour, and hiking group), rapport is not only dyadic and customer-employee oriented, but also customer-customer and group-oriented as customers consume and interact with each other in a group for an extended period. Building rapport There are a number of techniques that are supposed to be beneficial in building rapport. These include matching body language (i.e., posture, gesture, etc.); indicating attentiveness through maintaining eye contact; and matching tempo, terminology, and breathing rhythm. In conversation, some verbal behaviors associated with increased rapport are the use of positivity (or, positive "face management"), sharing personal information of gradually increasing intimacy (or, "self-disclosure"), and reference to shared interests or experiences. Building rapport can improve community-based research tactics, assist in finding a partner, improve student-teacher relationships, and allow employers to gain trust in employees. Building rapport takes time. Extroverts tend to have an easier time building rapport than introverts. Extraversion accelerates the process due to an increase in confidence and skillfulness in social settings. Methods Coordination Coordination, also called "mirroring" means getting into rhythm with another person, or resembling their verbal or nonverbal behaviors: Emotional mirroring Empathizing with someone's emotional state by being on 'their side'. One listens for key words and problems so one can address and question them to better one's understanding of what the other person is saying and demonstrate empathy towards them. Posture mirroring Matching the tone of a person's body language not through direct imitation (as this can appear as mockery) but through mirroring the general message of their posture and energy. Tone and tempo mirroring Matching the tone, tempo, inflection, and volume of another person's voice. Mutual attentiveness Another way to build rapport is for each partner to indicate their attentiveness to the other. This attentiveness may take the form of nonverbal attentiveness, such as looking at the other person, nodding at appropriate moments, or physical proximity, as seen in work on teachers' "immediacy" behaviors in the classroom. Attentiveness might also be demonstrated through reciprocation of nonverbal behaviors like smiling or nodding, in a similar way to the coordination technique, or in the reciprocal sharing of personal details about the other person that signal one's knowledge and attentiveness to their needs. Commonality Commonality is the technique of deliberately finding something in common with a person in order to build a sense of camaraderie and trust. This is done through references to shared interests, dislikes, and experiences. By sharing personal details or self-disclosing personal preferences or information, interlocutors can build commonality, and thus increase rapport. Face management Another way to build rapport is through "positive face management", (or, more simply: positivity). According to some psychologists, we have a need to be seen in a positive light, known as our "face". By managing each other's "face", boosting it when necessary, or reducing negative impacts to it, we build rapport with others. Benefits A number of benefits from building interpersonal rapport have been proposed, all of which concern smoother interactions, improved collaboration, and improved interpersonal outcomes, though the specifics differ by the domain. These domains include but are not limited to healthcare, education, business, and social relationships. In the health domain, provider-patient rapport is often called the "therapeutic alliance" or "therapeutic relationship"—the collaboration quality between provider and patient—which can predict therapy outcomes or patients' treatment adherence. In education, teacher-student rapport is predictive of students' participation in the course, their course retention, their likelihood to take a course in that domain again, and has sometimes been used to predict course outcomes. Some have argued that teacher-student rapport is an essential element of what makes an effective teacher, or the ability to manage interpersonal relationships and build a positive, pro-social, atmosphere of trust and reduced anxiety. Student-student rapport, on the other hand, while largely out of the teacher's ability to control, is also predictive of reduced anxiety in the course, feelings of a supportive class culture, and improved participation in class discussions. In these relationships, intentionally building rapport through individual meetings has shown an increase in student engagement and level of comfort in the classroom. In negotiation, rapport is beneficial for reaching mutually beneficial outcomes, as partners are more likely to trust each other and be willing to cooperate and reach a positive outcome. However, interpersonal rapport in negotiation can lead to unethical behavior, particularly in impasse situations, where the interpersonal rapport may influence the negotiators to behave unethically. In terms of social relationships such as friendship and romantic relationships, establishing rapport can build trust, increase feelings of closeness, and eliminate certain misunderstandings. Rapport is necessary in establishing satisfaction and understanding acceptable behaviors in an interpersonal relationship. Friendships and romantic relationships can overlap with other domains. The study of rapport To better study how rapport can lead to the above benefits, researchers generally adopt one of three main approaches: self-report surveys given to the participants, third-party observations from a naive observer, and some form of automated computational detection, using computer vision and machine learning. Self-report surveys typically consist of a set of questions given at the end of an interpersonal interaction, asking the participants to reflect on their relationship with another person and rate various aspects of that relationship, typically on a Likert scale. Though this is the most common approach, it suffers from unreliability of self-report data, such as the issue of separating participants' reflection on a single interaction with their relationship with the other person more broadly. A third-party observer can give a rapport rating to a particular segment (often called a "slice") of such an interaction. Other recent work uses techniques from computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to computationally detect the level of rapport between members of a dyad. Rapport and Technology In the 21st century, online communication has had a huge impact on how business is conducted and how relationships are formed. In the era of Covid-19 and the shift to remote work and schooling, the way in which rapport is built has evolved. Communicating solely through online channels challenges rapport building. Challenges include technical difficulties interrupting video calls and direct messaging, interruptions and distractions from the user's home, a lack of intimacy and the ability to observe one another, lack of eye contact, mundane interactions, and the "pressure of presence". See also References Further reading Chapter 8. Communicating to establish rapport – Patient Practitioner Interaction: An Experiential Manual for Developing the Art of Health Care. Carol M. Davis, Helen L. Masin – Human communication Semiotics Interpersonal relationships Nonverbal communication Social graces	0.774526	0.990552	0.767208
Ableism	Ableism (; also known as ablism, disablism (British English), anapirophobia, anapirism, and disability discrimination) is discrimination and social prejudice against people with physical or mental disabilities (see also Sanism). Ableism characterizes people as they are defined by their disabilities and it also classifies disabled people as people who are inferior to non-disabled people. On this basis, people are assigned or denied certain perceived abilities, skills, or character orientations. Although ableism and disablism are both terms which describe disability discrimination, the emphasis for each of these terms is slightly different. Ableism is discrimination in favor of non-disabled people, while disablism is discrimination against disabled people. There are stereotypes which are either associated with disability in general, or they are associated with specific impairments or chronic health conditions (for instance the presumption that all disabled people want to be cured, the presumption that wheelchair users also have an intellectual disability, or the presumption that blind people have some special form of insight). These stereotypes, in turn, serve as a justification for discriminatory practices, and reinforce discriminatory attitudes and behaviors toward people who are disabled. Labeling affects people when it limits their options for action or changes their identity. In ableist societies, the lives of disabled people is considered less worth living, or disabled people less valuable, even sometimes expendable. The eugenics movement of the early 20th century is considered an expression of widespread ableism. Ableism can be further understood by reading literature which is written and published by those who experience disability and ableism first-hand. Disability studies is an academic discipline which is also beneficial when non-disabled people pursue it in order to gain a better understanding of ableism. Etymology Originating from -able (in disable, disabled) and -ism (in racism, sexism); first recorded in 1981. History Canada Ableism in Canada refers to a set of discourses, behaviors, and structures that express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility, and antipathy towards people with disabilities in Canada. The specific types of discrimination that have occurred or are still occurring in Canada include the inability to access important facilities such as infrastructure within the transport network, restrictive immigration policies, involuntary sterilization to stop people with disabilities from having offspring, barriers to employment opportunities, wages that are insufficient to maintain a minimal standard of living, and institutionalization of people with disabilities in substandard conditions. Austerity measures implemented by the government of Canada have also at times been referred to as ableist, such as funding cuts that put people with disabilities at risk of living in abusive arrangements. Nazi Germany In July 1933, Hitler, along with the Nazi Government, implemented the Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseased Offspring. Essentially, this law implemented sterilization practices for all people who had what were considered hereditary disabilities. For example, disabilities such as mental illness, blindness and deafness were all considered hereditary diseases; therefore, people with these disabilities were sterilized. The law also created propaganda against people with disabilities; people with disabilities were displayed as unimportant towards progressing the Aryan race. In 1939 Hitler signed the secret euthanasia program decree Aktion T4, which authorized the killing of selected patients diagnosed with chronic neurological and psychiatric disorders. This program killed about 70,000 disabled people before it was officially halted by Hitler in 1941 under public pressure, and it was unofficially continued out of the public eye, killing a total of 200,000 or more by the end of Hitler's reign in 1945. United Kingdom In the UK, disability discrimination became unlawful as a result of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. These were later superseded, retaining the substantive law, by the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act 2010 brought together protections against multiple areas of discriminatory behavior (disability, race, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age and pregnancy the so-called "protected characteristics"). Under the Equality Act 2010, there are prohibitions addressing several forms of discrimination including direct discrimination (s.13), indirect discrimination (s.6, s.19), harassment (s.26), victimisation (s.27), discrimination arising from disability (s.15), and failure to make reasonable adjustments (s.20). Part 2, chapter 1, section 6, of the Equality Act 2010 states that "A person (P) has a disability if (a) P has a physical or mental impairment, and (b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities." United States Much like many minority groups, disabled Americans were often segregated and denied certain rights for a majority of American history. In the 1800s, a shift from a religious view to a more scientific view took place and caused more individuals with disabilities to be examined. Public stigma began to change after World War II when many Americans returned home with disabilities. In the 1960s, following the civil rights movement in America, the world began the disabled rights movement. The movement was intended to give all individuals with disabilities equal rights and opportunities. Until the 1970s, ableism in the United States was often codified into law. For example, in many jurisdictions, so-called "ugly laws" barred people from appearing in public if they had diseases or disfigurements that were considered unsightly. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities In May 2012, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was ratified. The document establishes the inadmissibility of discrimination on the basis of disability, including in employment. In addition, the amendments create a legal basis for significantly expanding opportunities to protect the rights of persons with disabilities, including in the administrative procedure and in court. The law defined specific obligations that all owners of facilities and service providers must fulfill to create conditions for disabled people equal to the rest. Workplace In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was put in place to prohibit private employers, state and local government, employment agencies and labor unions from discrimination against qualified disabled people in job applications, when hiring, firing, advancement in workplace, compensation, training, and on other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) plays a part in fighting against ableism by being responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Similarly in the UK, the Equality Act 2010 was put in place and provides legislation that there should be no workplace discrimination. Under the act, all employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for their disabled employees to help them overcome any disadvantages resulting from the impairment. Failure to carry out reasonable adjustment amounts to disability discrimination. Employers and managers are often concerned about the potential cost associated with providing accommodations to employees with disabilities. However, many accommodations have a cost of $0 (59% in a survey of employers conducted by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN)), and accommodation costs may be offset by the savings associated with employing people with disabilities (higher performance, lower turnover costs). Moreover, organizational interventions that support workplace inclusion of the most vulnerable, such as neurodivergent individuals, are likely to benefit all employees. Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), individually negotiated work arrangements (e.g., flexible schedules, working from home), can also serve as an important work accommodation for persons with disabilities. I-deals can create the conditions for long-term employment for people with disabilities by creating jobs that fit each employee's abilities, interests, and career aspirations. Agents can represent people with disabilities and help them negotiate their unique employment terms, but successful i-deals require resources and flexibility on the part of the employer. Healthcare Ableism is prevalent in the many different divisions of healthcare, whether that be in prison systems, the legal or policy side of healthcare, and clinical settings. The following subsections will explore the ways in which ableism makes its way into these areas of focus through the inaccessibility of appropriate medical treatment. Clinical settings Just as in every other facet of life, ableism is present in clinical healthcare settings. A 2021 study of over 700 physicians in the United States found that only 56.5% "strongly agreed that they welcomed patients with disability into their practices." The same study also found that 82.4% of these physicians believed that people with a significant disability had a lower quality of life than those without disabilities. Data from the 1994–1995 National Health Interview Survey-Disability Supplement has shown that those with disabilities have lower life expectancies than those without them. While that can be explained by a myriad of factors, one of the factors is the ableism experienced by those with disabilities in clinical settings. Those with disabilities may be more hesitant to seek care when needed due to barriers created by ableism such as dentist chairs that are not accessible or offices that are filled with bright lights and noises that can be triggering. In June 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a 46-year-old quadriplegic in Austin, Texas named Michael Hickson was denied treatment for COVID-19, sepsis, and a urinary tract infection and died 6 days after treatment was withheld. His physician was quoted as having said that he had a "preference to treat patients who can walk and talk." The physician also had stated that Hickson's brain injury made him have not much of a quality of life. Several complaints have since been filed with the Texas Office of Civil Rights and many disability advocacy groups have become involved in the case. Several states, including Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington allow healthcare providers, in times of crisis, to triage based on the perceived quality of life of the patients, which tends to be perceived as lower for those with disabilities. In Alabama, a ventilator-rationing scheme put in place during the pandemic enabled healthcare providers to exclude patients with disabilities from treatment; such patients were those who required assistance with various activities of daily living, had certain mental conditions (varying degrees of mental retardation or moderate-to-severe dementia) or other preexisting conditions categorized as disabilities. Criminal justice settings The provision of effective healthcare for people with disabilities in criminal justice institutions is an important issue because the percentage of disabled people in such facilities has been shown to be larger than the percentage in the general population. A lack of prioritization on working to incorporate efficient and quality medical support into prison structures endangers the health and safety of disabled prisoners. Limited access to medical care in prisons consists of long waiting times to meet with physicians and to consistently receive treatment, as well as the absence of harm reduction measures and updated healthcare protocols. Discriminatory medical treatment also takes place through the withholding of proper diets, medications, and assistance (equipment and interpreters), in addition to failures to adequately train prison staff. Insufficient medical accommodations can worsen prisoners' health conditions through greater risks of depression, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C transmission, and unsafe drug injections. In Canada, the usage of prisons as psychiatric facilities may involve issues concerning inadequate access to medical support, particularly mental health counseling, and the inability of prisoners to take part in decision-making regarding their medical treatment. The usage of psychologists employed by the correctional services organization and the lack of confidentiality in therapeutic sessions also present barriers for disabled prisoners. That makes it more difficult for prisoners with disabilities to express discontentment about problems in the available healthcare since it may later complicate their release from the prison. In the United States, the population of older adults in the criminal justice system is growing rapidly, but older prisoners' healthcare needs are not being sufficiently met. One specific issue includes a lack of preparation for correctional officers to be able to identify geriatric disability. Regarding that underrecognition of disability, further improvement is needed in training programs to allow officers to learn when and how to provide proper healthcare intervention and treatment for older adult prisoners. Healthcare policy Ableism has long been a serious concern in healthcare policy, and the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exaggerated and highlighted the prevalence of this serious concern. Studies frequently show what a "headache" patients with disabilities are for the healthcare system. In a 2020 study, 83.6% of healthcare providers preferred patients without disabilities to those with disabilities. This policy is especially concerning since according to the CDC, people with disabilities are at a heightened risk for contracting COVID-19. Additionally, in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, people with intellectual disabilities were told that they will not be resuscitated if they become ill with COVID-19. Education Ableism often makes the world inaccessible to disabled people, especially in schools. Within education systems, the use of the medical model of disability and social model of disability contributes to the divide between students within special education and general education classrooms. Oftentimes, the medical model of disability portrays the overarching idea that disability can be corrected and diminished at the result of removing children from general education classrooms. This model of disability suggests that the impairment is more important than the person, who is helpless and should be separated from those who are not disabled. The social model of disability suggests that people with impairments are disabled at the result of the way society acts. When students with disabilities are pulled out of their classrooms into receive the support that they need, that often leads their peers to socially reject them because they don't form relationships with them in the classroom. By using the social model of disability, inclusive schools where the social norm is not to alienate students can promote more teamwork and less division throughout their campuses. Implementing the social model within modern forms of inclusive education provides children of all abilities with the role of changing discriminatory attitudes within the school system. For example, a disabled student may need to read text instead of listening to a tape recording of the text. In the past, schools have focused on fixing the disability, but progressive reforms make schools now focused on minimizing the impact of a student's disability and giving support. Moreover, schools are required to maximize access to their entire community. In 2004, U.S. Congress made into law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which states that free and appropriate education is eligible to children with disabilities with insurance of necessary services. Congress later amended the law, in 2015, to include the Every Student Succeeds Act, which guarantees equal opportunity for people with disabilities full participation in society, and the tools for overall independent success. Media These common ways of framing disability are heavily criticized for being dehumanizing and failing to place importance on the perspectives of disabled people. Disabled villain One common form of media depiction of disability is to portray villains with a mental or physical disability. Lindsey Row-Heyveld notes, for instance, "that villainous pirates are scraggly, wizened and inevitably kitted out with a peg leg, eye patch or hook hand, whereas heroic pirates look like Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow". The disability of the villain is meant to separate them from the average viewer and dehumanize the antagonist. As a result, stigma forms surrounding the disability and the individuals that live with it. There are many instances in literature where the antagonist is depicted as having a disability or mental illness. Some common examples include Captain Hook, Darth Vader and the Joker. Captain Hook is notorious for having a hook as a hand and seeks revenge on Peter Pan for his lost hand. Darth Vader's situation is unique because Luke Skywalker is also disabled. Luke's prosthetic hand looks lifelike, whereas Darth Vader appears robotic and emotionless because his appearance does not resemble humans and takes away human emotions. The Joker is a villain with a mental illness, and he is an example of the typical depiction of associating mental illness with violence. Inspiration porn Inspiration porn is the use of disabled people performing ordinary tasks as a form of inspiration. Criticisms of inspiration porn say that it distances disabled people from individuals who are not disabled and portrays disability as an obstacle to overcome or rehab. One of the most common examples of inspiration porn includes the Paralympics. Athletes with disabilities often get praised as inspirational because of their athletic accomplishments. Critics of this type of inspiration porn have said, "athletic accomplishments by these athletes are oversimplified as 'inspirational' because they're such a surprise." Pitied character In many forms of media such as films and articles a disabled person is portrayed as a character who is viewed as less than able, different, and an "outcast." Hayes and Black (2003) explore Hollywood films as the discourse of pity towards disability as a problem of social, physical, and emotional confinement. The aspect of pity is heightened through the storylines of media focusing on the individual's weaknesses as opposed to strengths and therefore leaving audiences a negative and ableist portrayal towards disability. Supercrip stereotype The supercrip narrative is generally a story of a person with an apparent disability who is able to "overcome" their physical differences and accomplish an impressive task. Professor Thomas Hehir's "Eliminating Ableism in Education" gives the story of a blind man who climbs Mount Everest, Erik Weihenmayer, as an example of the supercrip narrative. The Paralympics are another example of the supercrip stereotype since they generate a large amount of media attention and demonstrate disabled people doing extremely strenuous physical tasks. Although that may appear inspiring at face value, Hehir explains that many people with disabilities view those news stories as setting unrealistic expectations. Additionally, Hehir mentions that supercrip stories imply that disabled people are required to perform those impressive tasks to be seen as an equal and to avoid pity from those without disabilities. The disability studies scholar Alison Kafer describes how those narratives reinforce the problematic idea that disability can be overcome by an individual's hard work, in contrast to other theories, which understand disability to be a result of a world that is not designed to be accessible. Supercrip stories reinforce ableism by emphasizing independence, reliance on one's body, and the role of individual will in self-cure. Other examples of the supercrip narrative include the stories of Rachael Scdoris, the first blind woman to race in the Iditarod, and Aron Ralston, who has continued to climb after the amputation of his arm. Environmental and outdoor recreation media Disability has often been used as a short-hand in environmental literature for representing distance from nature, in what Sarah Jaquette Ray calls the "disability-equals-alienation-from-nature trope." An example of this trope can be seen in Moby Dick, as Captain Ahab's lost leg symbolizes his exploitative relationship with nature. Additionally, in canonical environmental thought, figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edward Abbey wrote using metaphors of disability to describe relationships between nature, technology, and the individual. Ableism in outdoor media can also be seen in promotional materials from the outdoor recreation industry: Alison Kafer highlighted a 2000 Nike advertisement, which ran in eleven outdoor magazines promoting a pair of running shoes. Kafer alleged that the advertisement depicted a person with a spinal cord injury and a wheelchair user as a "drooling, misshapen, non-extreme-trail-running husk of [their] former self", and said that the advertisement promised non-disabled runners and hikers the ability to protect their bodies against disability by purchasing the pair of shoes. The advertisement was withdrawn after the company received over six hundred complaints in the first two days after its publication, and Nike apologized. Sports Sports are often an area of society in which ableism is evident. In sports media, disabled athletes are often portrayed to be inferior. When disabled athletes are discussed in the media, there is often an emphasis on rehabilitation and the road to recovery, which is inherently a negative view on the disability. Oscar Pistorius is a South African runner who competed in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Paralympics and the 2012 Olympic games in London. Pistorius was the first double amputee athlete to compete in the Olympic games. While media coverage focused on inspiration and competition during his time in the Paralympic games, it shifted to questioning whether his prosthetic legs gave him an advantage while competing in the Olympic games. Types of ableism Physical ableism is hate or discrimination based on physical disability. Sanism, or mental ableism, is discrimination based on mental health conditions and cognitive disabilities. Medical ableism exists both interpersonally (as healthcare providers can be ableist) and systemically, as decisions determined by medical institutions and caregivers may prevent the exercise of rights from disabled patients like autonomy and making decisions. The medical model of disability can be used to justify medical ableism. Structural ableism is failing to provide accessibility tools: ramps, wheelchairs, special education equipments, etc. (Which is often also an example of Hostile architecture.) Cultural ableism is behavioural, cultural, attitudinal and social patterns that may discriminate against disabled people, including by denying, dismissing or invisibilising disabled people, and by making accessibility and support unattainable. Internalised ableism is a disabled person discriminating against themself and other disabled people by holding the view that disability is something to be ashamed of or something to hide or by refusing accessibility or support. Internalised ableism may be a result of mistreatment of disabled individuals. Hostile ableism is a cultural or social kind of ableism where people are hostile towards symptoms of a disability or phenotypes of the disabled person. Benevolent ableism is when people treat the disabled person well but like a child (infantilization), instead of considering them full grown adults. Examples include ignoring disabilities, not respecting the life experiences of the disabled person, microaggression, not considering the opinion of the disabled person in important decision making, invasion of privacy or personal boundaries, forced corrective measures, unwanted help, not listening to the disabled person, etc. Ambivalent ableism can be characterized as somewhere in between hostile and benevolent ableism. Causes of ableism Ableism may have evolutionary and existential origins (fear of contagion, fear of death). It may also be rooted in belief systems (social Darwinism, meritocracy), language (such as "suffering from" disability), or unconscious biases. See also Disability abuse Disability and poverty Disability hate crime Disability rights movement Inclusion (disability rights) Mentalism (discrimination) Medical industrial complex Violent behavior in autistic people Violence against people with disabilities References Further reading Fandrey, Walter: Krüppel, Idioten, Irre: zur Sozialgeschichte behinderter Menschen in Deutschland (Cripples, idiots, madmen: the social history of disabled people in Germany) Schweik, Susan. (2009). The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public (History of Disability). NYU Press. Shaver, James P. (1981). Handicapism and Equal Opportunity: Teaching About the Disabled in Social Studies. Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 80-70737 ERIC Number: ED202185 External links Disablism: How to tackle the last prejudice by DEMOS (2004) Social theories Social concepts Prejudice and discrimination by type Disability rights	0.768746	0.997928	0.767153
Schema (psychology)	In psychology and cognitive science, a schema (: schemata or schemas) describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information, such as a mental schema or conceptual model. Schemata influence attention and the absorption of new knowledge: people are more likely to notice things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the schema as exceptions or distorting them to fit. Schemata have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information. Schemata can help in understanding the world and the rapidly changing environment. People can organize new perceptions into schemata quickly as most situations do not require complex thought when using schema, since automatic thought is all that is required. People use schemata to organize current knowledge and provide a framework for future understanding. Examples of schemata include mental models, social schemas, stereotypes, social roles, scripts, worldviews, heuristics, and archetypes. In Piaget's theory of development, children construct a series of schemata, based on the interactions they experience, to help them understand the world. History "Schema" comes from the Greek word schēmat or schēma, meaning "figure". Prior to its use in psychology, the term "schema" had primarily seen use in philosophy. For instance, "schemata" (especially "transcendental schemata") are crucial to the architectonic system devised by Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason. Early developments of the idea in psychology emerged with the gestalt psychologists (founded originally by Max Wertheimer) and Jean Piaget. The term schéma was introduced by Piaget in 1923. In Piaget's later publications, action (operative or procedural) schémes were distinguished from figurative (representational) schémas, although together they may be considered a schematic duality. In subsequent discussions of Piaget in English, schema was often a mistranslation of Piaget's original French schéme. The distinction has been of particular importance in theories of embodied cognition and ecological psychology. This concept was first described in the works of British psychologist Frederic Bartlett, who drew on the term body schema used by neurologist Henry Head in 1932. In 1952, Jean Piaget, who was credited with the first cognitive development theory of schemas, popularized this ideology. By 1977, it was expanded into schema theory by educational psychologist Richard C. Anderson. Since then, other terms have been used to describe schema such as "frame", "scene", and "script". Schematic processing Through the use of schemata, a heuristic technique to encode and retrieve memories, the majority of typical situations do not require much strenuous processing. People can quickly organize new perceptions into schemata and act without effort. The process, however, is not always accurate, and people may develop illusory correlations, which is the tendency to form inaccurate or unfounded associations between categories, especially when the information is distinctive. Nevertheless, schemata can influence and hamper the uptake of new information, such as when existing stereotypes, giving rise to limited or biased discourses and expectations, lead an individual to "see" or "remember" something that has not happened because it is more believable in terms of his/her schema. For example, if a well-dressed businessman draws a knife on a vagrant, the schemata of onlookers may (and often do) lead them to "remember" the vagrant pulling the knife. Such distortion of memory has been demonstrated. (See below.) Furthermore, it has also been seen to affect the formation of episodic memory in humans. For instance, one is more likely to remember a pencil case in an office than a skull, even if both were present in the office, when tested on certain recall conditions. Schemata are interrelated and multiple conflicting schemata can be applied to the same information. Schemata are generally thought to have a level of activation, which can spread among related schemata. Through different factors such as current activation, accessibility, priming, and emotion, a specific schema can be selected. Accessibility is how easily a schema can come to mind, and is determined by personal experience and expertise. This can be used as a cognitive shortcut, meaning it allows the most common explanation to be chosen for new information. With priming (an increased sensitivity to a particular schema due to a recent experience), a brief imperceptible stimulus temporarily provides enough activation to a schema so that it is used for subsequent ambiguous information. Although this may suggest the possibility of subliminal messages, the effect of priming is so fleeting that it is difficult to detect outside laboratory conditions. Background research Frederic Bartlett The original concept of schemata is linked with that of reconstructive memory as proposed and demonstrated in a series of experiments by Frederic Bartlett. Bartlett began presenting participants with information that was unfamiliar to their cultural backgrounds and expectations while subsequently monitoring how they recalled these different items of information (stories, etc). Bartlett was able to establish that individuals' existing schemata and stereotypes influence not only how they interpret "schema-foreign" new information but also how they recall the information over time. One of his most famous investigations involved asking participants to read a Native American folk tale, "The War of the Ghosts", and recall it several times up to a year later. All the participants transformed the details of the story in such a way that it reflected their cultural norms and expectations, i.e. in line with their schemata. The factors that influenced their recall were: Omission of information that was considered irrelevant to a participant; Transformation of some of the details, or of the order in which events, etc., were recalled; a shift of focus and emphasis in terms of what was considered the most important aspects of the tale; Rationalization: details and aspects of the tale that would not make sense would be "padded out" and explained in an attempt to render them comprehensible to the individual in question; Cultural shifts: the content and the style of the story were altered in order to appear more coherent and appropriate in terms of the cultural background of the participant. Bartlett's work was crucially important in demonstrating that long-term memories are neither fixed nor unchanging but are constantly being adjusted as schemata evolve with experience. His work contributed to a framework of memory retrieval in which people construct the past and present in a constant process of narrative/discursive adjustment. Much of what people "remember" is confabulated narrative (adjusted and rationalized) which allows them to think of the past as a continuous and coherent string of events, even though it is probable that large sections of memory (both episodic and semantic) are irretrievable or inaccurate at any given time. An important step in the development of schema theory was taken by the work of D.E. Rumelhart describing the understanding of narrative and stories. Further work on the concept of schemata was conducted by W.F. Brewer and J.C. Treyens, who demonstrated that the schema-driven expectation of the presence of an object was sometimes sufficient to trigger its incorrect recollection. An experiment was conducted where participants were requested to wait in a room identified as an academic's study and were later asked about the room's contents. A number of the participants recalled having seen books in the study whereas none were present. Brewer and Treyens concluded that the participants' expectations that books are present in academics' studies were enough to prevent their accurate recollection of the scenes. In the 1970s, computer scientist Marvin Minsky was trying to develop machines that would have human-like abilities. When he was trying to create solutions for some of the difficulties he encountered he came across Bartlett's work and concluded that if he was ever going to get machines to act like humans he needed them to use their stored knowledge to carry out processes. A frame construct was a way to represent knowledge in machines, while his frame construct can be seen as an extension and elaboration of the schema construct. He created the frame knowledge concept as a way to interact with new information. He proposed that fixed and broad information would be represented as the frame, but it would also be composed of slots that would accept a range of values; but if the world did not have a value for a slot, then it would be filled by a default value. Because of Minsky's work, computers now have a stronger impact on psychology. In the 1980s, David Rumelhart extended Minsky's ideas, creating an explicitly psychological theory of the mental representation of complex knowledge. Roger Schank and Robert Abelson developed the idea of a script, which was known as a generic knowledge of sequences of actions. This led to many new empirical studies, which found that providing relevant schema can help improve comprehension and recall on passages. Schemata have also been viewed from a sociocultural perspective with contributions from Lev Vygotsky, in which there is a transactional relationship between the development of a schema and the environment that influences it, such that the schema does not develop independently as a construct in the mind, but carries all the aspects of the history, social, and cultural meaning which influences its development. Schemata are not just scripts or frameworks to be called upon, but are active processes for solving problems and interacting with the world. However, schemas can also contribute to influential outside sociocultural perspectives, like the development of racism tendencies, disregard for marginalized communities and cultural misconceptions. Modification New information that falls within an individual's schema is easily remembered and incorporated into their worldview. However, when new information is perceived that does not fit a schema, many things can happen. One of the most common reactions is for a person to simply ignore or quickly forget the new information they acquired. This can happen on an unconscious level—meaning, unintentionally an individual may not even perceive the new information. People may also interpret the new information in a way that minimizes how much they must change their schemata. For example, Bob thinks that chickens do not lay eggs. He then sees a chicken laying an egg. Instead of changing the part of his schema that says "chickens don't lay eggs", he is likely to adopt the belief that the animal in question that he has just seen laying an egg is not a real chicken. This is an example of disconfirmation bias, the tendency to set higher standards for evidence that contradicts one's expectations. This is also known as cognitive dissonance. However, when the new information cannot be ignored, existing schemata must be changed or new schemata must be created (accommodation). Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was known best for his work with development of human knowledge. He believed knowledge was constructed on cognitive structures, and he believed people develop cognitive structures by accommodating and assimilating information. Accommodation is creating new schema that will fit better with the new environment or adjusting old schema. Accommodation could also be interpreted as putting restrictions on a current schema, and usually comes about when assimilation has failed. Assimilation is when people use a current schema to understand the world around them. Piaget thought that schemata are applied to everyday life and therefore people accommodate and assimilate information naturally. For example, if this chicken has red feathers, Bob can form a new schemata that says "chickens with red feathers can lay eggs". This schemata, in the future, will either be changed or removed entirely. Assimilation is the reuse of schemata to fit the new information. For example, when a person sees an unfamiliar dog, they will probably just integrate it into their dog schema. However, if the dog behaves strangely, and in ways that does not seem dog-like, there will be an accommodation as a new schema is formed for that particular dog. With accommodation and assimilation comes the idea of equilibrium. Piaget describes equilibrium as a state of cognition that is balanced when schema are capable of explaining what it sees and perceives. When information is new and cannot fit into a previous existing schema, disequilibrium can happen. When disequilibrium happens, it means the person is frustrated and will try to restore the coherence of his or her cognitive structures through accommodation. If the new information is taken then assimilation of the new information will proceed until they find that they must make a new adjustment to it later down the road, but for now the person remains at equilibrium again. The process of equilibration is when people move from the equilibrium phase to the disequilibrium phase and back into equilibrium. In view of this, a person's new schemata may be an expansion of the schemata into a subtype. This allows for the information to be incorporated into existing beliefs without contradicting them. An example in social psychology would be the combination of a person's beliefs about women and their beliefs about business. If women are not generally perceived to be in business, but the person meets a woman who is, a new subtype of businesswoman may be created, and the information perceived will be incorporated into this subtype. Activation of either woman or business schema may then make further available the schema of "businesswoman". This also allows for previous beliefs about women or those in business to persist. Rather than modifying the schemata related to women or to business persons, the subtype is its own category. Self-schema Schemata about oneself are considered to be grounded in the present and based on past experiences. Memories are framed in the light of one's self-conception. For example, people who have positive self-schemata (i.e. most people) selectively attend to flattering information and ignore unflattering information, with the consequence that flattering information is subject to deeper encoding, and therefore superior recall. Even when encoding is equally strong for positive and negative feedback, positive feedback is more likely to be recalled. Moreover, memories may even be distorted to become more favorable: for example, people typically remember exam grades as having been better than they actually were. However, when people have negative self views, memories are generally biased in ways that validate the negative self-schema; people with low self-esteem, for instance, are prone to remember more negative information about themselves than positive information. Thus, memory tends to be biased in a way that validates the agent's pre-existing self-schema. There are three major implications of self-schemata. First, information about oneself is processed faster and more efficiently, especially consistent information. Second, one retrieves and remembers information that is relevant to one's self-schema. Third, one will tend to resist information in the environment that is contradictory to one's self-schema. For instance, students with a particular self-schema prefer roommates whose view of them is consistent with that schema. Students who end up with roommates whose view of them is inconsistent with their self-schema are more likely to try to find a new roommate, even if this view is positive. This is an example of self-verification. As researched by Aaron Beck, automatically activated negative self-schemata are a large contributor to depression. According to Cox, Abramson, Devine, and Hollon (2012), these self-schemata are essentially the same type of cognitive structure as stereotypes studied by prejudice researchers (e.g., they are both well-rehearsed, automatically activated, difficult to change, influential toward behavior, emotions, and judgments, and bias information processing). The self-schema can also be self-perpetuating. It can represent a particular role in society that is based on stereotype, for example: "If a mother tells her daughter she looks like a tom boy, her daughter may react by choosing activities that she imagines a tom boy would do. Conversely, if the mother tells her she looks like a princess, her daughter might choose activities thought to be more feminine." This is an example of the self-schema becoming self-perpetuating when the person at hand chooses an activity that was based on an expectation rather than their desires. Schema therapy Schema therapy was founded by Jeffrey Young and represents a development of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) specifically for treating personality disorders. Early maladaptive schemata are described by Young as broad and pervasive themes or patterns made up of memories, feelings, sensations, and thoughts regarding oneself and one's relationships with others; they can be a contributing factor to treatment outcomes of mental disorders and the maintenance of ideas, beliefs, and behaviors towards oneself and others. They are considered to develop during childhood or adolescence, and to be dysfunctional in that they lead to self-defeating behavior. Examples include schemata of abandonment/instability, mistrust/abuse, emotional deprivation, and defectiveness/shame. Schema therapy blends CBT with elements of Gestalt therapy, object relations, constructivist and psychoanalytic therapies in order to treat the characterological difficulties which both constitute personality disorders and which underlie many of the chronic depressive or anxiety-involving symptoms which present in the clinic. Young said that CBT may be an effective treatment for presenting symptoms, but without the conceptual or clinical resources for tackling the underlying structures (maladaptive schemata) which consistently organize the patient's experience, the patient is likely to lapse back into unhelpful modes of relating to others and attempting to meet their needs. Young focused on pulling from different therapies equally when developing schema therapy. Cognitive behavioral methods work to increase the availability and strength of adaptive schemata while reducing the maladaptive ones. This may involve identifying the existing schema and then identifying an alternative to replace it. Difficulties arise as these types of schema often exist in absolutes; modification then requires replacement to be in absolutes, otherwise the initial belief may persist. The difference between cognitive behavioral therapy and schema therapy according to Young is the latter "emphasizes lifelong patterns, affective change techniques, and the therapeutic relationship, with special emphasis on limited reparenting". He recommended this therapy would be ideal for clients with difficult and chronic psychological disorders. Some examples would be eating disorders and personality disorders. He has also had success with this therapy in relation to depression and substance abuse. See also Cultural schema theory Memetics Personal construct theory Primal world beliefs Relational frame theory Social cognition Speed reading References External links Huitt, W. (2018). Understanding reality: The importance of mental representations. In W. Huitt (Ed.), Becoming a Brilliant Star: Twelve core ideas supporting holistic education (pp. 65-81). IngramSpark. Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Psychological adjustment Psychological theories	0.770056	0.996153	0.767093
Positive education	Positive education is an approach to education that draws on positive psychology's emphasis of individual strengths and personal motivation to promote learning. Unlike traditional school approaches, positive schooling teachers use techniques that focus on the well-being of individual students. Teachers use methods such as developing tailored goals for each student to engender learning and working with them to develop the plans and motivation to reach their goals. Rather than pushing students to achieve at a set grade level, seen through the emphasis of standardized testing, this approach attempts to customize learning goals to individual students' levels. Instead of setting students to compete against one another, learning is viewed as a cooperative process where teachers learn to respect their students and each student's input is valued. Theoretical approaches Several early psychologists and thinkers paved the way for the incorporation of positive psychology techniques, though they may not have yet been labeled as such, in the classroom. John Dewey was among the earliest advocates to impact the field of positive schooling. John Dewey recognized schools as primary institutions for the development of democracy. He opposed the repressive atmosphere of schools, especially elementary and secondary schools, and emphasized the importance of promoting learners' ability to absorb and recreate information in their minds. He put forth the idea of constructivism, which argues that individual learners should take information and creatively construct it according to their own personal capacities and views. This approach opposes the traditional view of education in which teachers pass down knowledge to the students through direct communication. In summary, Dewey's view of education, similar to progressive education implies that people learn best in environments that are applicable to the real world and that allow them to learn io890;op[ and practical problem solving. Maria Montessori, the originator of the Montessori system, put forth views relating to positive schooling as well. The Montessori system is largely based on the positive psychology principle of creativity. Creativity, known as one of the twenty-four character strengths, is offered with the freedom for children to choose how they learn, known as self-directed learning. Children are provided with hands-on materials, which not only inspires creativity, but also stimulates interest in learning, as children are able to express themselves through learning, rather than feeling forced to work in order to learn. Sophie Christophy coined the term Education Positivity in 2018, with the founding of self-directed, consent, and children's rights based education setting The Cabin. Ed Positivity is an approach that transcends traditional subject silos and hierarchies, instead finding educational and learning validity in emergent and diverse interests, curiosities, and problem solving, pursued individually and/or in collaboration. Elizabeth Hurlock was one of the first psychologists to actually carry out experiments with positive psychology techniques to measure the effects of positive schooling in the field of education. Hurlock studied the effectiveness of praise and reproach in the classroom, arguing that praise was a more effective long-term incentive. Her studies found that praise was more effective for children regardless of age, ability and gender. Jeniffer Henderlong and Mark Lepper echo Hurlock's arguments that praise is beneficial to enhancing children's intrinsic motivation. Although some research doubts the effectiveness of praise, appropriate use of praise is proven to be positively correlated with confidence and better academic performance results. They support that praise increases the personal beliefs about one's ability to perform given tasks. Also, cognitive evaluation theory supports that praise enhances individuals' perception about performance outcomes and that positive moods induced by praise may contribute to effective outcomes. Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson focus on the pedagogy, the teacher's "how," rather than content and subject matter being taught, which is partly due to the scarce empirical research that has been done on college curriculum. Chickering and Gamson give seven research-supported principles regarding education and learning in the undergraduate environment for teachers to follow: Teachers are to encourage contact between students and faculty. Chickering and Gamson explain that student-faculty relationships give students motivation to keep working hard to strive for future goals and also provide support and resources. To develop reciprocity and cooperation among students, promoting a collaborative learning environment, rather than a competitive one. This gives students opportunities to work together and learn from one another, which has been shown to strengthen understanding. Teachers are to use active learning techniques, relating material to topics that students already have an interest in and getting students to ask, "What does this concept look like in my own life?" Teachers are to give prompt feedback. Balancing assessment and feedback results in efficient learning, as students realize what they do and do not know and learn to assess themselves. Emphasizing time on task, or sharing effective time management strategies to give students an understanding for their time expectations. Communicating high expectations has shown to be very successful. Expectations that teachers implement give students a gage for how much potential they think that they have. Respecting students' diverse talents and ways of learning accounts for all learning styles and allows students to figure out how they learn best. Eliot Aronson has pioneered the jigsaw classroom, a theoretical approach for 3rd-12th grade classes which emphasizes the individual academic strengths of children and seeks to make them peer-teachers in a cooperative learning setting. In this approach, students are divided into competency groups of four to six students; individual group members then break off and work with "experts" on their topic from the other groups, researching together that specific section of material. These students then return to their groups and present on their part of the material. This approach encourages group engagement, listening, and cooperation among peers, as well as incorporates an aspects of play into learning. It as shown positive effects on academic performance and liking for school and peers. This may be because increased liking leads to self-esteem, which if absent, can affect academic performance. It is also possible that jigsaw methods help to increase participation while reducing anxiety, lead to increases empathy, and result in changes in attributions of success and failures. The Jigsaw method has been proposed as a strategy to improve race relations since it meets the criteria posed by contact theory for reducing racial prejudice. Intergroup contact theory states that interracial contact will only improve race relations if ethnic groups are of equal status, pursue a common goal of mutual interest for groups, and are sanctioned by institutions. Another model that utilizes positive education in school is the response to intervention model. Response to intervention is a preventative model that works to provide tailored assistance to at-risk students who are exhibiting insufficient academic achievement, though its principles have been used to address behavioral issues as well. The central components of this model include a core curriculum based on scientific evidence, universal screening, progress monitoring, and decisions about acceptable progress in subsequent tiers. RTI utilizes a multi-tiered structure: at each tier, students are screened and then monitored. The model was originally created to help identify learning disabilities, so that the adoption of a core curriculum ensures that inadequate teaching is not the cause for poor performance. Those who struggle even when adhering to a research-supported curriculum are given more intense instruction at a higher tier. When behavior is being considered, school or local norms for behavior rates are used when screening. The Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model is structured similarly to RTI but addresses behavior problems. This model adopts a prevention and intervention approach, emphasizing the importance of building prosocial skills, in addition to reducing bad behavior while implementing a three-tiered "continuum of supports" from a universal to an individual level. The strategies at the universal level include defined expected behaviors, strategies to teach expected behavior, strategies to encourage and practice appropriate behavior, and consistency within and across school systems. The second level involves providing targeted support for individuals and groups that are at risk. The final level concerns individuals that persist in their bad behavior and involves functional behavior assessments, instruction-based plans, and collective comprehensive plans including families and community agencies. PBS can be implemented at a school-wide (SWPBIS), district-wide or even statewide level. Recently, local school systems and even state departments of education have been demonstrating a rising interest in PBS because the program requires little training time and limited money and staff. In 2002, the New Hampshire Department of Education organized a statewide initiative to introduce PBS into New Hampshire schools. PBS has also become popular in Maryland, as more than 33% of state's schools implemented the program in 2006. Empirical findings One major empirical finding in support for positive learning techniques has been the positive effect of praise-based discipline techniques in classrooms. Elizabeth Hurlock studied the day-to-day improvement of students who were praised, reproached, and ignored. Students were divided into these groups in addition to a control group after they had been administered an arithmetic test, and were subsequently tested each day over an additional period of four days. After the first testing session, the control group was tested in a separate room from the other groups. In the treatment room, the "praise" group of students were invited to the front of the room and praised for their work as well as encouraged to do better. The "reproach" group was called up and reproved for their poor performance, while the ignored group received no recognition. Some significant findings include the fact that the praised group experienced the most initial improvement, followed by the reproach group and then the ignored group, while no improvement was seen in the control group. The ignored and control group also showed a decrease in accuracy towards the end of the testing period. When children were grouped according to academic achievement into the categories "superior", "average" and "inferior" after the first test, praise was the most influential incentive for all students, though it was most effective for the "inferior" group. As a whole, the results suggested that praise was the most accurate incentive regardless of age, sex, initial ability, or accuracy. While empirical evidence supports the positive effects of praise, there exists a debate regarding whether the jigsaw classroom method is successful in various areas. Two studies by Christopher Bratt, who was interested in the jigsaw classroom's ability to improve prejudice based on ethnicity, examined the effects of the jigsaw classroom method on intergroup relations; yet, no positive effects were found. The first studied the method's effect on majority members' outgroup attitudes, attitudes towards school empathy, and intergroup friendships by examining two jigsaw classrooms and two regular classrooms of multi-ethnic 6th graders. The second measured common ingroup identity in the majority sample and outgroup attitudes in the minority sample in addition to the previous variables in a sample of 8th–10th graders in 46 multi-ethnic classrooms, utilizing a matched pair design between jigsaw and regular classrooms. No evidence of any significant effects of the jigsaw method was found in the second study, while outgroup attitudes improved in study 1. Yet, Bratt believed the findings from study 1 were spurious, arguing that the fact that one of the classrooms in study 1 was taught by two teachers while the others had one teacher may have influenced the results. A study by Walker & Crogan yielded evidence that supported the utility of the jigsaw classroom. The study investigated the relationship between teaching methods such as cooperative learning and the jigsaw classroom and outcomes in academic performance, self-esteem, attitude of school, attitude of peers, and racial prejudice. The study was designed to investigate solely the jigsaw classroom method, yet one of the teachers altered her mode of instruction due to the behavior of disruptive students so that it resembled cooperative learning. As a result, the experimenters modified their objectives, believing they could compare the effectiveness of cooperation, necessary in both methods, and task interdependence, characteristics only of the jigsaw classroom. They concluded that academic performance, liking of peers, and racial prejudice improved under the jigsaw classroom method while cooperative learning appeared to intensify intergroup tension, yet major methodological issues may cast doubt on the validity of these findings. Many of the classrooms did not adhere very strictly to proper plan for implementation of the jigsaw classroom and the researchers had to abandon their original design. Also, the fact that one of the teachers had to forgo the jigsaw classroom method due to student misbehavior is telling. Bratt argues that studies professing results that support improved intergroup relations are similarly flawed. The Circle of Courage curriculum is, yet, another practical attempt for implementing positive learning techniques. The Circle of Courage is an educational philosophy developed by Larry Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg, and Steve Van Bockern, that is based on Native American values and Western science. Belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity are four core values that are intended to integrate Western and indigenous cultures. Deborah Espiner and Diane Guild monitor the progress and success of Mt. Richmond Special School after implementing the Circle of Courage curriculum and Response Ability Pathways (RAP) program. The school managers established a positive learning environment based on these two programs, which were designed for dynamic interaction between teachers and students. Before launching the actual classroom environment, five months were taken to introduce new learning methods to school staff and students. In general, participants acknowledged that new modules brought positive impact in the school. One recognizable outcome was that RAP training facilitated the connection between teachers and challenging students. Additionally, new positive education methods also led teachers to discover the potentials of their pupils. When examining programs that attempt to help children overcome behavioral issues that prevent them from displaying their full potential, research has provided support for the efficacy of PBS. A study by Barrett and Lewis-Palmer investigated the statewide implementation of PBS in 467 schools. The results indicated that overall, the program had been successfully implemented and displayed high fidelity to the theoretical model. Elementary schools reported 43% less office discipline referrals (ODRs) per day, while middle schools reported 37% less ODRs per day and K-(8–12) schools reported 72% less ODRs per day when compared with the national averages. Schools also demonstrated significant reductions in suspension rates in as little as one year. Another study by Muscott and Mann examined the first cohort of 28 New Hampshire early childhood education programs and K-12 schools that had implemented PBS in accordance with the directive of the Department of Education. Within three months after the program was introduced, 54% of schools met the standards of successful PBS implementation and 88% of schools had done so two years after implementation. In terms of behavior issues, a school was considered successful if 80–90% of elementary students and 70–80 middle school students received less than 2 ODRs during a school year. After the first year, 70% of schools has achieved these results. Between the first and second years, the schools reduced ODRs by 28% collectively. Controversies and legal issues Positive education is not uniformly agreed on as an effective teaching strategy. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was proposed in 2001 to improve the conditions of public schools in the United States. The act has imposed standardized testing on all schools that are government-run and receive government funding. Each school's test results are analyzed, and schools with continuously low test scores are obligated to develop an improvement plan. There is still much debate whether the act has a positive effect on America's education system, since it is based on performance-based education reform. Supporters of the act believe that setting measurable goals will improve individual educational success and that statewide tests will improve the situation of public schools. Major teacher's unions and other opponents, however, have doubts about the act's effectiveness, which may be due to the mixed results of NCLB, arguing over the ineffectiveness of standardized tests and higher standards for teacher qualification. Opponents also argue that standardized tests are exceedingly biased and that higher standards for teacher qualification simply contribute to teacher shortage. Similarly, the 2009 United States Department of Education program Race to the Top, designed to spur reform in K-12 Education, and awarding $4.35 billion in funds, has been controversial for its emphasis on testing to evaluate schools, an approach which contrasts positive schooling techniques, and data regarding its effectiveness has yet to be produced. Besides the emphasis on standardized testing to evaluate school performance, tracking has been a very controversial, yet widely implemented, approach to learning in America's public schools. Tracking is an approach which places children in classes according to expectation levels. Honors, college-preparation, Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate classes are examples of higher-level learning courses, while schools may simultaneously offer regular-level classes for other students. Research has shown a disparity in the enrollment of these classes based on race. Research also shows that while separation by tracking is beneficial for higher-level students, it produces no benefit for lower-level students, and is possibly even detrimental to their academic success. Many advocates for education reform discount tracking based on the argument that a rigorous, quality education should be provided universally through public schools. Applications Recently, a positive psychology plan was implemented in the U.S. military to address the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental disorders among soldiers. The military asked psychologists to devise some sort of way not simply to treat the problem but to prevent future soldiers from becoming vulnerable to these mental disorders. Statistically, there is a normal distribution of reactions to combat in the military: the left side includes those who have trouble and end up suffering from a mental disorder, the middle, those who are resilient and return to normal functioning afterwards, and the right are those who bounce back to an even higher level of functioning and experience growth through adversity. The goal of the plan is to have a negatively skewed distribution that shifts most soldiers to the right side of this distribution. The model is designed to improve one's spiritual, emotional, social, and family fitness. If the plan is successful within the military, it could possibly revolutionize current U.S. civilian health care and be a new model for the education system. Within health care, it will emphasize prevention, rather than solely treatment; additionally, within schools, it will encourage psychological fitness similar to the plan used for the military. Moreover, "the emphasis on positive psychology interventions in education increases engagement, creates more curious students, and helps develop and overall love of learning (Fisher, 2015)". "Positive education benefits the teacher, too. It is easier to engage with students and persist in the work they need to do master their academic material (Fisher, 2015). It creates a school culture that is caring, trusting, and it prevents problem behavior. In relation to achievement goals, expectancy beliefs, and value it is found that task goals associated positively with optimism resulted in a highly motivated student (Fadlelmula, 2010). Research has shown that motivation may be consistent and long-term if it is always paired with positive psychology interventions." Additionally, the effects of positive learning were examined in the context of medical school and first-year physicians. Often, medical students and young physicians get exhausted and burnt out from the stressful conditions they operate under. Medical students at Karolinska Institutet were evaluated in their final year of school and again in their first year as a physician. After controlling for baseline exhaustion, a positive learning climate in the clinic that the students were working in was found to have a negative correlation with exhaustion. In this case, positive learning was found to predict the exhaustion of students and new doctors. Although only a correlation, positive learning environments could benefit the well-being of people with various other careers and job conditions. See also Circle of courage Comprehensive sex education Culture and positive psychology Jigsaw (teaching technique) Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Positive behavior support Positive psychology Positive youth development Progressive education References External links rti4success.org National Center on Response to Intervention rtinetwork.org RTI Action Network jigsaw.org Jigsaw Classroom how to stay positive How to stay positive LightInEye.com Material and article on Positive education, Positive Thinking, Positvie Lifestyle and so on. psychservices.psychiatryonline.org Positive Schools teachingprofessor.com Positive Learning Environments positivepsychology.net Positive Psychology ppc.sas.upenn.edu UPenn Positive Psychology Center Outline of psychology Democratic education Educational practices Positive psychology	0.796278	0.963292	0.767048
Elitism	Elitism is the notion that individuals who form an elite — a select group with desirable qualities such as intellect, wealth, power, physical attractiveness, notability, special skills, experience, lineage — are more likely to be constructive to society and deserve greater influence or authority. The term elitism may be used to describe a situation in which power is concentrated in the hands of a limited number of people. Beliefs that are in opposition to elitism include egalitarianism, anti-intellectualism (against powerful institutions perceived to be controlled by elites), populism, and the political theory of pluralism. Elite theory is the sociological or political science analysis of elite influence in society: elite theorists regard pluralism as a utopian ideal. Elitism is closely related to social class and what sociologists term "social stratification". In modern Western societies, social stratification is typically defined in terms of three distinct social classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class. Some synonyms for "elite" might be "upper-class" or "aristocratic", indicating that the individual in question has a relatively large degree of control over a society's means of production. This includes those who gain this position due to socioeconomic means and not personal achievement. However, these terms are misleading when discussing elitism as a political theory, because they are often associated with negative "class" connotations and fail to appreciate a more unbiased exploration of the philosophy. Characteristics Attributes that identify an elite vary; personal achievement may not be essential. Elite status can be based on personal achievement, such as degrees from top-rate universities or impressive internships and job offers, as well as on lineage or passed-on fame from parents or grandparents. As a term, "elite" usually describes a person or group of people who are members of the uppermost class of society, and wealth can contribute to that class determination. Personal attributes commonly purported by elitist theorists to be characteristic of the elite include: rigorous study of, or great accomplishment within, a particular field; a long track record of competence in a demanding field; an extensive history of dedication and effort in service to a specific discipline (e.g., medicine or law) or a high degree of accomplishment, training or wisdom within a given field; a high degree of physical discipline. Elitists tend to favor social systems such as technocracy, combined with meritocracy and/or plutocracy, as opposed to political egalitarianism and populism. Elitists believe only a few "movers and shakers" truly change society, rather than the majority of people who only vote and elect the elites into power. See also Caste Classism Collective narcissism Exclusivism Global elite International Debutante Ball Ivory tower Narcissism Oligarchy Rankism Right-wing populism Sectarianism Self-righteousness Snobbery Social Darwinism Social Evolution Supremacism References External links Deresiewicz, William (June 2008). The Disadvantages of an Elite Education. "Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers." The American Scholar. Review of William Deresiewicz's book Excellent Sheep (April 2015), Foreign Affairs Social groups Political science Ideologies Oligarchy Social theories Prejudices Elite theory Psychological attitude	0.770442	0.995493	0.766969
Audio-lingual method	The audio-lingual method or Army Method is a method used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which postulates that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement. The correct use of a trait would receive positive while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students should be taught a language directly, using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method did not focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. Applied to language instruction, and often within the context of the language lab, it means that the instructor would present the correct model of a sentence and the students would have to repeat it. The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure. In audio-lingualism, there is no explicit grammar instruction: everything is simply memorized in form. The idea is for the students to practice the particular construct until they can use it spontaneously. The lessons are built on static drills in which the students have little or no control on their own output; the teacher is expecting a particular response and not providing the desired response will result in a student receiving negative feedback. This type of activity, for the foundation of language learning, is in direct opposition with communicative language teaching. Charles Carpenter Fries, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, believed that learning structure or grammar was the starting point for the student. In other words, it was the students' job to recite the basic sentence patterns and grammatical structures. The students were given only “enough vocabulary to make such drills possible.” (Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986). Fries later included principles of behavioural psychology, as developed by B.F. Skinner, into this method. Oral drills Drills and pattern practice are typical (Richards, J.C. et al., 1986): Repetition: the student repeats an utterance as soon as she hears it. Inflection: one word in a sentence appears in another form when repeated. Replacement: one word is replaced by another. Restatement: the student rephrases an utterance. Examples Inflection: Teacher: I ate the sandwich. Student: I ate the sandwiches. Replacement: Teacher: He bought the car for half-price. Student: He bought it for half-price. Restatement: Teacher: Tell me not to smoke so often. Student: Don't smoke so often! The following example illustrates how more than one sort of drill can be incorporated into one practice session: “Teacher: There's a cup on the table ... repeat Students: There's a cup on the table Teacher: Spoon Students: There's a spoon on the table Teacher: Book Students: There's a book on the table Teacher: On the chair Students: There's a book on the chair etc.” Historical roots The method is the product of three historical circumstances. For its views on language, it drew on the work of American linguists such as Leonard Bloomfield. The prime concern of American linguists in the early decades of the 20th century had been to document all the indigenous languages spoken in the US. However, because of the dearth of trained native teachers who would provide a theoretical description of the native languages, linguists had to rely on observation. For the same reason, a strong focus on oral language was developed. At the same time, behaviourist psychologists, such as B.F. Skinner, were forming the belief that all behaviour (including language) was learnt through repetition and positive or negative reinforcement. The third factor was the outbreak of World War II, which created the need to post large number of American servicemen all over the world. It was, therefore, necessary to provide these soldiers with at least basic verbal communication skills. Unsurprisingly, the new method relied on the prevailing scientific methods of the time, observation and repetition, which were also admirably suited to teaching en masse. Because of the influence of the military, early versions of the audio-lingualism came to be known as the “army method.” In practice As mentioned, lessons in the classroom focus on the correct imitation of the teacher by the students. The students are expected to produce the correct output, but attention is also paid to correct pronunciation. Although correct grammar is expected in usage, no explicit grammatical instruction is given. Furthermore, the target language is the only language to be used in the classroom. Modern implementations are more lax on this last requirement. Fall from popularity In the late 1950s, the theoretical underpinnings of the method were questioned by linguists, such as Noam Chomsky, who pointed out the limitations of structural linguistics. The relevance of behaviorist psychology to language learning was also questioned, most famously by Chomsky's review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior in 1959. The audio-lingual method was thus deprived of its scientific credibility and it was only a matter of time before the effectiveness of the method itself was questioned. In 1964, Wilga Rivers released a critique of the method in her book, The Psychologist and the Foreign Language Teacher. Some of the critique, namely its contention that audiolingual methods originated from Skinnerian radical behaviorism, was shown by Peter J. Castagnaro in 2006 to be misinformed. Philip Smith's study from 1965-1969, termed the Pennsylvania Project, provided significant proof that audio-lingual methods were less effective than a more traditional cognitive approach involving the learner's first language. In recent years Despite being discredited as an effective teaching methodology in 1970, audio-lingualism continues to be used today although it is typically not used as the foundation of a course but rather has been relegated to use in individual lessons. As it continues to be used, it also continues to be criticized. As Jeremy Harmer notes, “Audio-lingual methodology seems to banish all forms of language processing that help students sort out new language information in their own minds.” As this type of lesson is very teacher-centered, it is a popular methodology for both teachers and students, perhaps for several reasons but especially because the input and output is restricted and both parties know what to expect. Some hybrid approaches have been developed, as can be seen in the textbook Japanese: The Spoken Language (1987–90), which uses repetition and drills extensively but supplements them with detailed grammar explanations in English. Butzkamm and Caldwell have tried to revive traditional pattern practice in the form of bilingual semi-communicative drills. For them, the theoretical basis, and sufficient justification, of pattern drills is the generative principle, which refers to the human capacity to generate an infinite number of sentences from a finite grammatical competence. Main features Each skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing) is treated and taught separately. The skills of writing and reading are not neglected, but the focus throughout remains on listening and speaking. Dialogue is the main feature of the audio-lingual syllabus. Dialogues are the chief means of presenting language items. They provide learners an opportunity to practice, mimic and memorize bits of language. Patterns drills are used as an important technique and essential part of this method for language teaching and learning. The language laboratory was introduced as an important teaching aid. Mother tongue was not given much importance, similar to the direct method, but it was not deemphasized so rigidly.. Techniques Skills are taught in the following order: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Language is taught through dialogues with useful vocabulary and common structures of communication. Students are made to memorize the dialogue line by line. Learners mimic the teacher or a tape listening carefully to all features of the spoken target language. Pronunciation like that of native speaker is important in presenting the model. Through repetition of phrases and sentences, a dialogue is learned by the first whole class, then smaller groups and finally individual learners. Reading and writing are introduced in the next stage. The oral lesson learned in previous class is the reading material to establish a relationship between speech and writing. All reading material is introduced as orally first. Writing, in the early stages, is confined to transcriptions of the structures and dialogues learned earlier. Once learners mastered the basic structure, they were asked to write composition reports based on the oral lesson. Emphasizing the audio The theory emphasizes the listening-speaking-reading-writing order. Listening is important in developing speaking proficiency and so receives particular emphasis. There are strong arguments, both physiological and psychological, for combining speaking practice with training in listening comprehension. Speaking is effective through listening. By hearing the sounds, articulation is more accurate, with differentiation of sounds, memorization and internalization of proper auditory sounds images. Development of a feel for the new language gains interest for the language. There has been practically no study or experiments to determine how much time should be taken between listening experience and speaking practice. Listening comprehension is most neglected in language learning. It is generally treated as incidental to speaking rather than as a foundation for it. Texts, guides and course of study contain tests for evaluating progress in listening comprehension, but they rarely contain specific learning materials designed for the systematic development of this skill. Here are some materials that can be adapted for improving listening comprehension: The dialogue should be presented as a story, in the foreign language, using simple language. The meaning of some of the new words and expressions that will appear in the dialogue should be explained through gestures, visual aids, synonyms, etc. The idea is to teach the content in the story. Different role-plays can be used to present the dialogue. Without stopping, the dialogue can be gone through to hear how the entire conversation sounds at normal speed. True and false activity can improve comprehension. The entire dialogue can be repeated at normal rate speed. The student can close his eyes to eliminate distractions and increase his listening concentration. A listening comprehension test can be given. Listening comprehension practice can be given using dialogues from other courses of study or recorded materials that contain most of the language that has previously been learned by the students. The speaking practice would begin after listening comprehension. The students will be ready to speak at this time. Speaking practice can proceed according to sequence. Pattern practice can be based on material taken from the dialogue. Mimicking can practice the dialogue itself. Performance of the dialogue in front of class and at the seats with the students changing roles and partners from time to time. Dialogue can be adapted. Memorization of techniques suggested represent an approach that will enable student to memorize larger segments at a time and perform dialogues as a whole with more confidence. In the meantime, if teachers are willing to use their imagination and experiment with new techniques, many ways can be found to emphasize the audio in the method. Aims Oral skills are used systematically to emphasize communication. The foreign language is taught for communication, with a view to achieve development of communication skills. Practice is how the learning of the language takes place. Every language skill is the total of the sets of habits that the learner is expected to acquire. Practice is central to all the contemporary foreign language teaching methods. With audio-lingual method, it is emphasized even more. Oral learning is emphasized. Stress is put on oral skills at the early year of the foreign language course and is continued during the later years. Oral skills remain central even when, later, reading and writing are introduced. Learners are asked to speak only what they have had a chance to listen to sufficiently. They read only the material used as part of their practice. They have to write only that which they have read. Strict order of material, in terms of the four skills, is followed. Advantages Listening and speaking skills are emphasized and, especially the former, rigorously developed. The use of visual aids is effective in vocabulary teaching. The method is just as functional and easy to execute for larger groups. Correct pronunciation and structure are emphasized and acquired. The learner is in a directed role; the learner has little control over the material studied or the method of study. Disadvantages The behaviorist approach to learning is now discredited. Many scholars have proven its weakness. It does not pay sufficient attention to communicative competence. Only language form is considered while meaning is neglected. Equal importance is not given to all four skills. It is a teacher-dominated method. It is a mechanical method since it demands pattern practice, drilling, and memorization over functional learning and organic usage. The learner is in a passive role; the learner has little control over their learning. References External links Saskatchewan Schools' Audio-lingual method page Language-teaching methodology	0.772761	0.992496	0.766962
Discourse analysis	Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, spoken, or sign language, including any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse analysis (discourse, writing, conversation, communicative event) are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech, or turns-at-talk. Contrary to much of traditional linguistics, discourse analysts not only study language use 'beyond the sentence boundary' but also prefer to analyze 'naturally occurring' language use, not invented examples. Text linguistics is a closely related field. The essential difference between discourse analysis and text linguistics is that discourse analysis aims at revealing socio-psychological characteristics of a person/persons rather than text structure. Discourse analysis has been taken up in a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including linguistics, education, sociology, anthropology, social work, cognitive psychology, social psychology, area studies, cultural studies, international relations, human geography, environmental science, communication studies, biblical studies, public relations, argumentation studies, and translation studies, each of which is subject to its own assumptions, dimensions of analysis, and methodologies. History Early use of the term The ancient Greeks (among others) had much to say on discourse; however, there is ongoing discussion about whether Austria-born Leo Spitzer's Stilstudien (Style Studies) of 1928 is the earliest example of discourse analysis (DA). Michel Foucault translated it into French. However, the term first came into general use following the publication of a series of papers by Zellig Harris from 1952 reporting on work from which he developed transformational grammar in the late 1930s. Formally equivalent relations among the sentences of a coherent discourse are made explicit by using sentence transformations to put the text in a canonical form. Words and sentences with equivalent information then appear in the same column of an array. This work progressed over the next four decades (see references) into a science of sublanguage analysis (Kittredge & Lehrberger 1982), culminating in a demonstration of the informational structures in texts of a sublanguage of science, that of immunology (Harris et al. 1989), and a fully articulated theory of linguistic informational content (Harris 1991). During this time, however, most linguists ignored such developments in favor of a succession of elaborate theories of sentence-level syntax and semantics. In January 1953, a linguist working for the American Bible Society, James A. Lauriault (alt. Loriot), needed to find answers to some fundamental errors in translating Quechua, in the Cuzco area of Peru. Following Harris's 1952 publications, he worked over the meaning and placement of each word in a collection of Quechua legends with a native speaker of Quechua and was able to formulate discourse rules that transcended the simple sentence structure. He then applied the process to Shipibo, another language of Eastern Peru. He taught the theory at the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Norman, Oklahoma, in the summers of 1956 and 1957 and entered the University of Pennsylvania to study with Harris in the interim year. He tried to publish a paper,Shipibo Paragraph Structure, but it was delayed until 1970 (Loriot & Hollenbach 1970). In the meantime, Kenneth Lee Pike, a professor at the University of Michigan, taught the theory, and one of his students, Robert E. Longacre, developed it in his writings. Harris's methodology disclosing the correlation of form with meaning was developed into a system for the computer-aided analysis of natural language by a team led by Naomi Sager at NYU, which has been applied to a number of sublanguage domains, most notably to medical informatics. The software for the Medical Language Processor is publicly available on SourceForge. In the humanities In the late 1960s and 1970s, and without reference to this prior work, a variety of other approaches to a new cross-discipline of DA began to develop in most of the humanities and social sciences concurrently with, and related to, other disciplines. These include semiotics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics. Many of these approaches, especially those influenced by the social sciences, favor a more dynamic study of oral talk-in-interaction. An example is "conversational analysis" (CA), which was influenced by the sociologist Harold Garfinkel, the founder of ethnomethodology. Foucault In Europe, Michel Foucault became one of the key theorists of the subject, especially of discourse, and wrote The Archaeology of Knowledge. In this context, the term 'discourse' no longer refers to formal linguistic aspects, but to institutionalized patterns of knowledge that become manifest in disciplinary structures and operate by the connection of knowledge and power. Since the 1970s, Foucault's works have had an increasing impact, especially on discourse analysis in the field of social sciences. Thus, in modern European social sciences, one can find a wide range of different approaches working with Foucault's definition of discourse and his theoretical concepts. Apart from the original context in France, there has been, since 2005, a broad discussion on socio-scientific discourse analysis in Germany. Here, for example, the sociologist Reiner Keller developed his widely recognized 'sociology of knowledge approach to discourse' (SKAD). Following the sociology of knowledge by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, Keller argues that our sense of reality in everyday life and thus the meaning of every object, action and event is the product of a permanent, routinized interaction. In this context, SKAD has been developed as a scientific perspective that is able to understand the processes of 'The Social Construction of Reality' on all levels of social life by combining the prementioned Michel Foucault's theories of discourse and power while also introducing the theory of knowledge by Berger/Luckmann. Whereas the latter primarily focus on the constitution and stabilization of knowledge on the level of interaction, Foucault's perspective concentrates on institutional contexts of the production and integration of knowledge, where the subject mainly appears to be determined by knowledge and power. Therefore, the 'Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse' can also be seen as an approach to deal with the vividly discussed micro–macro problem in sociology. Perspectives The following are some of the specific theoretical perspectives and analytical approaches used in linguistic discourse analysis: Applied linguistics, an interdisciplinary perspective on linguistic analysis Cognitive neuroscience of discourse comprehension Cognitive psychology, studying the production and comprehension of discourse. Conversation analysis Critical discourse analysis Discursive psychology Emergent grammar Ethnography of communication Functional grammar Interactional sociolinguistics Mediated stylistics Pragmatics Response based therapy (counselling) Rhetoric Stylistics (linguistics) Sublanguage analysis Tagmemics Text linguistics Variation analysis Although these approaches emphasize different aspects of language use, they all view language as social interaction and are concerned with the social contexts in which discourse is embedded. Often a distinction is made between 'local' structures of discourse (such as relations among sentences, propositions, and turns) and 'global' structures, such as overall topics and the schematic organization of discourses and conversations. For instance, many types of discourse begin with some kind of global 'summary', in titles, headlines, leads, abstracts, and so on. A problem for the discourse analyst is to decide when a particular feature is relevant to the specification required. A question many linguists ask is: "Are there general principles which will determine the relevance or nature of the specification?" Topics of interest Topics of discourse analysis include: The various levels or dimensions of discourse, such as sounds (intonation, etc.), gestures, syntax, the lexicon, style, rhetoric, meanings, speech acts, moves, strategies, turns, and other aspects of interaction Genres of discourse (various types of discourse in politics, the media, education, science, business, etc.) The relations between discourse and the emergence of syntactic structure The relations between text (discourse) and context The relations between discourse and power The relations between discourse and interaction The relations between discourse and cognition and memory Lexical density Prominent academics Marc Angenot Johannes Angermuller Mikhail Bakhtin Roland Barthes Émile Benveniste Jean-Paul Benzécri Jan Blommaert Georges Canguilhem Teun van Dijk Oswald Ducrot Norman Fairclough Michel Foucault Heidi E. Hamilton Roman Jakobson Barbara Johnstone Dominique Maingueneau Sinfree Makoni Damon Mayaffre Michel Pêcheux Jonathan Potter Paul Ricœur Georges-Elia Sarfati Ferdinand de Saussure Deborah Schiffrin Deborah Tannen Margaret Wetherell Ruth Wodak Political discourse Political discourse is the text and talk of professional politicians or political institutions, such as presidents and prime ministers and other members of government, parliament or political parties, both at the local, national and international levels, includes both the speaker and the audience. Political discourse analysis is a field of discourse analysis which focuses on discourse in political forums (such as debates, speeches, and hearings) as the phenomenon of interest. Policy analysis requires discourse analysis to be effective from the post-positivist perspective. Political discourse is the formal exchange of reasoned views as to which of several alternative courses of action should be taken to solve a societal problem. Corporate discourse Corporate discourse can be broadly defined as the language used by corporations. It encompasses a set of messages that a corporation sends out to the world (the general public, the customers and other corporations) and the messages it uses to communicate within its own structures (the employees and other stakeholders). See also Actor (policy debate) Critical discourse analysis Dialogical analysis Discourse representation theory Frame analysis Communicative action Essex School of discourse analysis Ethnolinguistics Foucauldian discourse analysis Interpersonal communication Linguistic anthropology Narrative analysis Pragmatics Rhetoric Sociolinguistics Statement analysis Stylistics (linguistics) Worldview References External links DiscourseNet. International Association for Discourse Studies The Discourse Attributes Analysis Program and Measures of the Referential Process . Linguistic Society of America: Discourse Analysis, by Deborah Tannen Discourse Analysis by Z. Harris Daniel L. Everett, Documenting Languages: The View from the Brazilian Amazon Statement concerning James Loriot, p. 9 A discourse analysis related international conference You can find some information and events related to Metadiscourse Across Genres by visiting MAG 2017 website Systemic functional linguistics Applied linguistics Sociolinguistics Translation studies Postmodernism Postmodern theory	0.770519	0.995268	0.766873
Trompenaars's model of national culture differences	Trompenaars's model of national culture differences is a framework for cross-cultural communication applied to general business and management, developed by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner. This involved a large-scale survey of 8,841 managers and organization employees from 43 countries. This model of national culture differences has seven dimensions. There are five orientations covering the ways in which human beings deal with each other, one which deals with time, and one which deals with the environment. Universalism vs particularism Universalism is the belief that ideas and practices can be applied everywhere without modification, while particularism is the belief that circumstances dictate how ideas and practices should be applied. It asks the question, What is more important, rules or relationships? Cultures with high universalism see one reality and focus on formal rules. Business meetings are characterized by rational, professional arguments with a "get down to business" attitude. Trompenaars research found there was high universalism in countries like the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, and Sweden. Cultures with high particularism see reality as more subjective and place a greater emphasis on relationships. It is important to get to know the people one is doing business with during meetings in a particularist environment. Someone from a universalist culture would be wise not to dismiss personal meanderings as irrelevancies or mere small talk during such business meetings. Countries that have high particularism include Venezuela, Indonesia, China, South Korea, and the former Soviet Union. Individualism vs communitarianism Individualism refers to people regarding themselves as individuals, while communitarianism refers to people regarding themselves as part of a group. Trompenaars research yielded some interesting results and suggested that cultures may change more quickly than many people realize. It may not be surprising to see a country like the United States with high individualism, but Mexico and the former communist countries of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union were also found to be individualistic in Trompenaars research. In Mexico, the shift from a previously communitarian culture could be explained with its membership in NAFTA and involvement in the global economy. This contrasts with Hofstede's earlier research, which found these countries to be collectivist, and shows the dynamic and complex nature of culture. Countries with high communitarianism include Germany, China, France, Japan, and Singapore. Neutral vs emotional A neutral culture is a culture in which emotions are held in check whereas an emotional culture is a culture in which emotions are expressed openly and naturally. Neutral cultures that come rapidly to mind are those of the Japanese and British. Some examples of high emotional cultures are the Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, Israel and Spain. In emotional cultures, people often smile, talk loudly when excited, and greet each other with enthusiasm. So, when people from neutral culture are doing business in an emotional culture they should be ready for a potentially animated and boisterous meeting and should try to respond warmly. As for those from an emotional culture doing business in a neutral culture, they should not be put off by a lack of emotion. Specific vs diffuse A specific culture is one in which individuals have a large public space they readily share with others and small private space guard closely and share with only close friends and associates. A diffuse culture is one in which public space and private space are similar in size and individuals guard their public space carefully, because entry into public space affords entry into private space as well. It looks at how separate a culture keeps their personal and public lives. Fred Luthans and Jonathan Doh give the following example which explains this: An example of these specific and diffuse cultural dimensions is provided by the United States and Germany. A U.S. professor, such as Robert Smith, PhD, generally would be called “Doctor Smith” by students when at his U.S. university. When shopping, however, he might be referred to by the store clerk as “Bob,” and he might even ask the clerk’s advice regarding some of his intended purchases. When golfing, Bob might just be one of the guys, even to a golf partner who happens to be a graduate student in his department. The reason for these changes in status is that, with the specific U.S. cultural values, people have large public spaces and often conduct themselves differently depending on their public role. At the same time, however, Bob has private space that is off-limits to the students who must call him “Doctor Smith” in class. In high-diffuse cultures, on the other hand, a person’s public life and private life often are similar. Therefore, in Germany, Herr Professor Doktor Schmidt would be referred to that way at the university, local market, and bowling alley—and even his wife might address him formally in public. A great deal of formality is maintained, often giving the impression that Germans are stuffy or aloof. Achievement vs ascription In an achievement culture, people are accorded status based on how well they perform their functions. In an ascription culture, status is based on who or what a person is. Does one have to prove themself to receive status or is it given to them? Achievement cultures include the US, Austria, Israel, Switzerland and the UK. Some ascription cultures are Venezuela, Indonesia, and China. When people from an achievement culture do business in an ascription culture it is important to have older, senior members with formal titles and respect should be shown to their counterparts. However, for an ascription culture doing business in an achievement culture, it is important to bring knowledgeable members who can prove to be proficient to other group, and respect should be shown for the knowledge and information of their counterparts. Sequential vs synchronic A sequential time culture is the one in which the people like events to happen in a chronological order. The punctuality is very appreciated and they base their lives in schedules, plannification and specific and clear deadlines; in this kind of cultures time is very important and they do not tolerate the waste of time. Instead in synchronic cultures, they see specific time periods as interwoven periods, the use to highlight the importance of punctuality and deadlines if these are key to meeting objectives and they often work in several things at a time, they are also more flexible with the distribution of time and commitments. Internal vs external control Do we control our environment or are we controlled by it? In inner directed culture, people believe in controlling outcomes and have a dominant attitude toward environment. In outer-directed culture, people believe in letting things take their own course and have a more flexible attitude, characterized by a willingness to compromise and maintain harmony with nature. See also Cross-cultural communication Fons Trompenaars Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory References External links THT Consulting Riding the Waves of Culture by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner (book) Trompenaars' and Hampden-Turner's cultural factors Riding The waves of commerce: a test of Trompenaars' "model" of national culture differences Fons Trompenaars' Cultural Dimensions THE TROMPENAARS’ SEVEN-DIMENSION CULTURAL MODEL Culture Compass THT IAP Certification Presentation Day1 6Dec2010 Cross-cultural psychology Cultural studies National identity Organizational culture	0.777668	0.986078	0.766842
Convergent thinking	Convergent thinking is a term coined by Joy Paul Guilford as the opposite of divergent thinking. It generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer to questions that do not require novel ideas, for instance on standardized multiple-choice tests for intelligence. Relevance Convergent thinking is the type of thinking that focuses on coming up with the single, well-established answer to a problem. It is oriented toward deriving the single best, or most often correct answer to a question. Convergent thinking emphasizes speed, accuracy, and logic and focuses on recognizing the familiar, reapplying techniques, and accumulating stored information. It is most effective in situations where an answer readily exists and simply needs to be either recalled or worked out through decision making strategies. A critical aspect of convergent thinking is that it leads to a single best answer, leaving no room for ambiguity. In this view, answers are either right or wrong. The solution that is derived at the end of the convergent thinking process is the best possible answer the majority of the time. Convergent thinking is also linked to knowledge as it involves manipulating existing knowledge by means of standard procedures. Knowledge is another important aspect of creativity. It is a source of ideas, suggests pathways to solutions, and provides criteria of effectiveness and novelty. Convergent thinking is used as a tool in creative problem solving. When an individual is using critical thinking to solve a problem they consciously use standards or probabilities to make judgments. This contrasts with divergent thinking where judgment is deferred while looking for and accepting many possible solutions. Convergent thinking is often used in conjunction with divergent thinking. Divergent thinking typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing manner, where many creative ideas are generated and evaluated. Multiple possible solutions are explored in a short amount of time, and unexpected connections are drawn. After the process of divergent thinking has been completed, ideas and information are organized and structured using convergent thinking to decision making strategies are used leading to a single-best, or most often correct answer. Examples of divergent thinking include using brainstorming, free writing and creative thinking at the beginning of the problem solving process to generate possible solutions that can be evaluated later. Once a sufficient number of ideas have been explored, convergent thinking can be used. Knowledge, logic, probabilities and other decision-making strategies are taken into consideration as the solutions are evaluated individually in a search for a single best answer which when reached is unambiguous. Convergent vs. divergent thinking Personality The personality correlates of divergent and convergent thinking have been studied. Results indicate that many personality traits are associated with divergent thinking (e.g., ideational fluency). Two of the most commonly identified correlates are Openness and Extraversion, which have been found to facilitate divergent thinking production. Openness assesses intellectual curiosity, imagination, artistic interests, liberal attitudes, and originality. See Divergent thinking page for further details. The fact that Openness was found to be one of the strongest personality correlate of divergent thinking is not surprising, as previous studies have suggested that Openness be interpreted as a proxy of creativity. Although Openness conceptualizes individual differences in facets other than creativity, the high correlation between Openness and divergent thinking is indicative of two different ways of measuring the same aspects of creativity. Openness is a self-report of one’s preference for thinking "outside the box”. Divergent thinking tests represent a performance-based measure of such. While some studies have found no personality effects on convergent thinking, large-scale meta-analyses have found numerous personality traits to be related to such reasoning abilities (e.g., corrected r = .31 with openness and -.30 with the volatility aspect of neuroticism). Brain activity The changes in brain activity were studied in subjects during both convergent and divergent thinking. To do this, researchers studied Electroencephalography (EEG) patterns of subjects during convergent and divergent thinking tasks. Different patterns of change for the EEG parameters were found during each type of thinking. When compared with a control group who was resting, both convergent and divergent thinking produced significant desynchronization of the Alpha 1,2 rhythms. Meanwhile, convergent thinking induced coherence increases in the Theta 1 band that was more caudal and right-sided. On the other hand, divergent thinking demonstrated amplitude decreases in the caudal regions of the cortex in Theta 1 and 2 bands. The large increase in amplitude and coherence indicates a close synchronization between both hemispheres in the brain. The successful generation of the hypothesis during divergent thinking performance seems to induce positive emotions which, in part, can be due to the increase of complexity and performance measures of creative thinking, Psycho-inter-hemispheric coherence. Finally, the obtained dominance of the right hemisphere and ‘the cognitive axis’, the coupling of the left occipital – right frontal in contrast to the right occipital – left frontal ‘axis’ characterizing analytic thinking, may reflect the EEG pattern of the unconscious mental processing during successful divergent thinking. Convergent and divergent thinking depend on the locus coeruleus neurotransmission system, which modulates noradrenaline levels in the brain. This system plays important roles in cognitive flexibility and the explore/exploit tradeoff problem (multi-armed bandit problem). Intellectual ability A series of standard intelligence tests were used to measure both the convergent and divergent thinking abilities of adolescents. Results indicate that subjects who classified as high on divergent thinking had significantly higher word fluency and reading scores than subjects who classified as low on divergent thinking. Furthermore, those who were high in divergent thinking also demonstrated higher anxiety and penetration scores. Thus, those subjects who are high in divergent thinking can be characterized as having their perceptual processes mature and become adequately controlled in an unconventional way. Conversely, subjects in the high convergent thinking group illustrated higher grade averages for the previous school year, less difficulty with homework and also indicated that their parents pressed them towards post-secondary education. These were the only significant relationships regarding the convergent thinking measures. This suggests that these cognitive dimensions are independent of one another. Future investigations into this topic should focus more upon the developmental, cognitive and perpetual aspects of personality among divergent and convergent thinkers, rather than their attitude structures. Creative ability Creative ability was measured in a study using convergent tasks, which require a single correct answer, and divergent tasks, which requires producing many different answers of varying correctness. Two types of convergent tasks used were, the first being a remote associates tasks, which gave the subject three words and asked what word the previous three words are related to. The second type of convergent thinking task were insight problems, which gave the subjects some contextual facts and then asked them a question requiring interpretation. For the remote associates tasks, the convergent thinkers correctly solved more of the five remote associates problems than did those using divergent thinking. This was demonstrated to be significantly different by a one-way ANOVA. In addition, when responding to insight problems, participants using convergent thinking solved more insight problems than did the control group, however, there was no significant difference between subjects using convergent or divergent thinking. For the divergent thinking tasks, although together all of the divergent tasks demonstrated a correlation, they were not significant when examined between conditions. Mood With increasing evidence suggesting that emotions can affect underlying cognitive processes, recent approaches have also explored the opposite, that cognitive processes can also affect one's mood. Research indicates that preparing for a creative thinking task induces mood swings depending on what type of thinking is used for the task. The results demonstrate that carrying out a task requiring creative thinking does have an effect on one's mood. This provides considerable support for the idea that mood and cognition are not only related, but also that this relation is reciprocal. Additionally, divergent and convergent thinking impact mood in opposite ways. Divergent thinking led to a more positive mood, whereas convergent thinking had the opposite effect, leading to a more negative mood. Practical use Convergent thinking is a fundamental tool in a child's education. Today, most educational opportunities are tied to one's performance on standardized tests that are often multiple choice in nature. When a student contemplates the possible answers available, they use convergent thinking to weigh alternatives within a construct. This allows one to find a single best solution that is measurable. Examples of convergent questions in teaching in the classroom: On reflecting over the entirety of the play Hamlet, what were the main reasons why Ophelia went mad? What is the chemical reaction for photosynthesis? What are signs of nitrogen deficiency in plants? Which breeds of livestock would be best adapted for South Texas? Criticism The idea of convergent thinking has been critiqued by researchers who claim that not all problems have solutions that can be effectively ranked. Convergent thinking assigns a position to one solution over another. The problem is that when one is dealing with more complex problems, the individual may not be able to appropriately rank the solutions available to them. In these instances, researchers indicate that when dealing with complex problems, other variables such as one's gut feeling or instinctive problem solving abilities also have a role in determining a solution to a given problem. Furthermore, convergent thinking has also been said to devalue minority arguments. In a study where experimental manipulations were used to motivate subjects to engage in convergent or divergent thinking when presented with either majority or minority support for persuasive arguments, a pattern emerged under the convergent thinking condition where majority support produced more positive attitudes on the focal issue. Conversely, minority support for the argument had no effect on the subjects. The convergent thinkers are too focused with selecting the best answer that they fail to appropriately evaluate minority opinion and could end up dismissing accurate solutions. See also Divergent thinking References Problem solving skills	0.778454	0.985061	0.766825
Comparative education	Comparative education is a discipline in the social sciences which entails the scrutiny and evaluation of different educational systems, such as those in various countries. Professionals in this area of endeavor are absorbed in advancing evocative terminologies and guidelines for education worldwide, enhancing educational structures and producing a context to which the success and effectivity of education programs and initiatives can be assessed. Objectives According to Eckstein & Noah (1985), and Farooq Joubish (2009), comparative education has five purposes: To describe educational systems, processes, or outcomes. To assist in the development of educational institutions and practices. To highlight the relationships between education and society. To establish generalized statements about education that are valid in more than one country. To help the current generation understand the nowadays education systems with reference to the past. Comparative education is often incorrectly assumed to exclusively encompass studies that compare two or more different countries. In fact, since its early days researchers in this field have often also studied international institutions, international cooperation, and transnational influences on education systems and practices. Single-country and single-site studies have made important contributions to the field. Some large-scale projects, such as the PISA and TIMSS studies, have made important contributions to the field through explicitly comparative macro analysis of massive data sets. Rationale Many important educational questions can best be examined from an international and comparative perspective. For example, in the United States, there is no nationwide certificate of completion of secondary education. This raises the hypothetical question of what may be the advantages and disadvantages of leaving such certification to each of the 50 states. Comparative education may draw on the experience of countries such as Japan and France, for instance, to show how a centralized system works, and illustrate the possible advantages and disadvantages of a more centralized approach to educational certification. Critics of comparative education sometimes disparagingly refer to its approaches and conclusions as "policy borrowing," with the implication that policies are best developed organically according to local needs rather than what appears to have worked in other contexts. However, comparative education scholars argue that education everywhere faces many of the same challenges, and there is much to learn from both successes and failures in other contexts. Disciplinary vs. interdisciplinary identity Comparative education is closely related to, and may overlap with, international education, international development education, and comparative sociology. There are also efforts to expand and "decolonize" the field of philosophy of education with a comparative education approach. While in some countries, comparative education is fully established as a distinct field of educational research, in others it might best be regarded as an interdisciplinary field that brings together scholars from diverse specializations. For instance, specialists in math education, social studies education, or various arts subjects may develop research designed to enable meaningful comparisons between national educational systems with a focus on their specific subject area of expertise. It follows that comparative education research can examine schooling holistically and globally (macro-level analysis), or may alternatively focus on the status of a particular subject area in a specific region of the world, thereby benefiting from subject-area or regional expertise (meso- or micro-level analysis). Each approach may have characteristic advantages and disadvantages. Theories According to the Bloomsbury Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education, the theories used in comparative education can be broken down into 5 categories: foundational theories, post-foundational theories, theoretical adaptations and revisions, theories of policy and practice, and interdisciplinary and emerging approaches. Foundational theories include structural-functionalism, imperialism, colonialism, coloniality, Marxism, human capital theory, dependency theory, and world-system analysis. Structural-functionalism, associated with Talcott Parsons, attempts to explain social phenomena in relationship to a larger systems. In comparative education this entails analyzing education in the context of social, political, and other systems it interacts with. Imperialism in comparative education involves the exploration of how powerful nations to impose their educational practices and knowledge on others. Collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as "the practice by which a powerful country directly controls less powerful countries and uses their resources to increase its own power and wealth". In comparative education this looks at how educational systems have been shaped by this control. Marxist theory in comparative education looks at the role that social hierarchy plays in education. "In one of the most influential writings on the role of education in development in the 20th century, Theodore W. Schultz explored the idea of education as a form of capital and introduced the notion of education as a form of human capital." Post-foundational theories in comparative education include post-colonialism, post-modernism, post-structuralism, post-socialist transformation, and gender theories. A post-colonialism lens of comparative education seeks to understand the role that colonial and post-colonial education systems have on cultural mixing and who has been included in forming educational systems. Post-modernism is based on a pluralistic and reflexivity episteme with a focus on space, information, and performativity. Post-structuralism rejects ideas of structuralism that draw conclusions about society and educational systems based on language usage. They argue that language can only be understood in context of the system that produced it. Post-socialist transformation in education examines how educational processes have changed in formerly socialist countries such as the soviet union. These scholars examine how political and western influences have changed education since the fall of socialism. A focus on gender in comparative education can take many different focuses from how gender is defined, to equity in educational practices between genders, access to education, the effect of education for women on politics and economy, and violence against women in the educational system. Theoretical adaptations and revisions used in comparative education are neo-liberalism, neo-institutionalism, neo-realism, neo-Gramscian, regimes and regionalism, and cultural political economy (CPE). Neo-liberalism examines the privatization of education where corporations control education through private institutions, financing for teacher or training, or other influences of capitalism. Neo-institutionalism looks at institutional change in education as a result of choice, historic factor, or social change. The neo-realist theory of international relations in education looks at not only the role of the state's authority in education, but also on how international structures shape educational systems. The neo-Gramscian school examines the interaction between material capabilities, ideas, and educational institutions. The study of regimes and regionalism looks at who is shaping educational systems, regional or global entities. According to Verger, Fontdevila, and Zancajo "CPE is an analytical and heuristic approach that pushes us to observe how drivers of a different nature (agentic and structural, global and local, material and ideational, etc.) interact in the production of pro-privatization reforms through the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention." Comparative education theories of policy and practice are constructivism, learner-centeredness, differentiation theory, externalization, policy borrowing, policy lending, peace education theory, and human rights education. Constructivism in comparative education examines the factors that influence which ideas gain traction, influence and ultimately become practice in education. A learner-centeredness approach is a social constructivism approach that looks at the ways in which student learning is influenced by beliefs, learning strategies, learning styles, and personal characteristics. Differentiation theory, sometimes called systems theory, attempts to simplify a system by looking at what is part of a system and what is its environment. Externalization uses differentiation theory to examine how ideas are transferred between groups. According to Steiner-Khamsi, "whereas diffusion relates to the outcome of educational transfer, the study of borrowing and lending deals with the process by which reforms are transplanted from one context to another." Peace education examines education that enables learners to work towards comprehensive peace and an end to social violence. Human rights education examines content and processes for teaching about human rights as well as the desired goals and outcomes of this education. Interdisciplinary and emerging approaches to comparative education include theorizing about race and racism, queer theory, transitologies, actor-network theory, social network analysis, and capabilities approach. Theories about race and racism in education look at the ways in which our systems of education support and reinforce social differences based on race. Queer theory in comparative education looks at ways in which students can examine tradiational education in a more inclusive, critical, and radical lens to include queer perspectives. Transitologie focuses on transformation in education and the political, social, economic and ideological changes that coincided with the metamorphosis. Actor-network theory examines how human and non-human forces interact and influence education changes. Social network analysis looks at the web of connections between individuals or organizations to understand how educational ideas are shared and transmitted. The capabilities approach examines the link between knowledge and capability as well as the ways in which education can assist individuals in meeting their capability. Comparative and International Education Society The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) was founded in 1956 to foster "cross-cultural understanding, scholarship, academic achievement, and societal development through the international study of educational ideas, systems, and practices." Comparative Education Society of India The Comparative Education Society of India (CESI) was established in 1979 and admitted to the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) in 1980. The annual conferences of CESI bring together Education Researchers from across the country to present papers on different topics connected to the theme of the conference. Comparative Education Societies of Latin America Comparative Educational Societies in Latin America include: Argentinean Society of Comparative Studies in Education (SAECE). Association of Pedagogues of Cuba – Comparative Education Section (APC-EC) Brazilian Society of Comparative Education (SBEC); Mexican Society of Comparative Education (SOMEC); Uruguayan Society of Comparative and International Education (SUECI); Venezuelan Society of Comparative Education (SVEC); In 2014, the six Latin American societies of comparative education noted above worked together with comparative education societies in Spain and Portugal to establish the Ibero-American Comparative Education Society (SIBEC). In Latin America Spanish-speaking Latin America Since the end of the 19th century, the development of Comparative Education in Latin America can be characterized as "weak and uneven". This characterization can be caused due to factors such as the limited development of educational research, the professional orientation of universities, persistent low levels of investment in research and development, and difficulties in producing and updating national indicators as well as regional and cross-national databases. Acosta and Ruiz (2018) note that, "While some countries in the region, especially those in the Southern Cone, did participate in what is called the 'foreigner pedagogy' when they set up their educational systems (Acosta2011), the field did not take root or flourish as a consistent academic study (López Velarde 2000)" (p.62–63). During the 1950s–1970s, international organizations such as United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) contributed significantly to the development of regional studies and databases intended to facilitate educational planning at a national level. These incentives were largely incentivized by Human Capital Theory, which focused on improving the quality of education to produce a higher level of productivity among its population. During the 1990s, significant educational reform occurred throughout the region, with the involvement of regional and international organizations, and in the context of the recovery of democracy and neoliberal economic adjustment. Following this period, significant growth of comparative education studies was evident both in academic production and works from international organizations. The increase in studies and publications during the 1990s added to the general growth of educational research in the region, which was linked to educational reform policies, expansion of graduate programs, and governmental incentives to research, among other factors. The Educational reforms throughout Latin America prompted studies on regional trends, comparisons between countries in the region, and analyses of individual cases in terms of global imperatives. Gorostiaga and Espinoza (2019) go on to note that "studies from international organizations were particularly prone to identifying "good practices" or "lessons learned" that may be transferred from one country to another (Acosta & Ruiz, 2018), an exercise that could be seen as part of strategies for legitimizing homogeneous recipes of education reform (Krawczyk, 2013). Academic production, on the other hand, tended to portray regional patterns and national cases as the result of impositions from international organizations or the hegemony of neoliberal rationalities" (p. 83) The Mesoaxiological Perspective Touriñán López (2022) presents the concept of the Mesoaxiological Perspective, an approach to education that is developed alongside the culture of the region. The term Mesoaxiological is derived from three separate Greek words that when combined mean, understand-local place, and valorized; in other words, Mesoaxiological Perspective refers to taking into consideration of the local culture when developing education. Numerous philosophers such as John Dewey, Ira Shor, and Henry Giroux have advocated for the usage of social justice should be inseparable from education. Within the notion of Mesoaxiological perspective, there is an overlap with the views of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy incorporates aspects of critical theory, which focuses on society and culture as a means to challenge power structures. In Europe Europe is a broad term that covers 45 countries. 27 of these countries are members of the European Union (EU). In 1993, the EU developed the Copenhagen Criteria, which, among many other things, set forth three priorities for changes in their education systems. These priorities were: learning how to keep on learning throughout our lives; combining knowledge with know-how; developing each individual's creativity and initiative; establishing the right of each individual to lifelong training (all young people would be given vouchers entitling them to initial education and/or training later on) In 1999, 29 European countries gathered at the University of Bologna and signed the Bologna declaration. The Bologna Process is the name given to the implementation of the standards and quality of higher education outlined in the declaration. There are now 49 participating countries, with the most recent signatory joining in 2015. The idea is to bring more coherence to higher education across Europe so that students, faculty, and staff can have international mobility, higher education becomes more inclusive and accessible, and overall, European higher education becomes more "attractive and competitive worldwide". There are three facets of this process: introduce a three-cycle higher education system which consists of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral studies ensure the mutual recognition of completed qualifications and learning periods at other universities implement a quality assurance system in order to strengthen both the quality and the relevance of the learning and instruction The Erasmus+ program is one way that the member states of the Bologna declaration have worked to fulfill the second facet of the Bologna Process. The program was created in 1987 as a student exchange program for higher education. In 2014, it became a program for study, training, or work as well. It runs in six-year cycles, with the current cycle running until 2027. The current program places a strong emphasis on social inclusion, digital transition, green initiatives, and promoting the participation in democratic life to young people. It implements the EU Youth Strategy 2019–2027, supports the European Pillar of Social Rights, and develops the European dimension in sports, all while supporting the priorities and activities outlined in the European Education Area (EEA), the Digital Education Action Plan, and the European Skills Agenda. There are opportunities for mobility and cooperation between institutions in higher education, vocational education and training, school education (including early childhood years), adult education, youth activities, and sports. Each year, Erasmus+ publishes a Program Guide on their website, giving an overview of the opportunities provided and the organizations that are taking part in the program. In 2017, European leaders endorsed the idea of a European Education Area (EEA) during the Social Summit in Sweden. In 2018 and 2019, the first measures of the EEA were adopted. The EEA member countries focus their efforts on improving the quality of and equity in education and training; teachers, trainers, and school leaders; digital education; green education; and the EEA in the world. They do this by setting different goals and requirements in each area of education, from early childhood through adult learning, and including vocational education and training. Currently, in higher education, the EEA is putting their efforts into micro-credentials, a European Universities Initiative, the European Student Card Initiative, quality higher education, inclusive and connected higher education, and innovation in education. Micro-credentials are qualifications that students can gain through short, transparently-assessed courses. The European Universities Initiative facilitates the formation of partnerships between European higher education institutions for collaboration. European Student Cards help students and higher education institutions that are participating in Erasmus+ by simplifying the administration and enhancing the digitization of the program. The other three areas of concentration focus on making higher education in EEA member states high quality, relevant, inclusive, connected to the local communities, and full of innovation. Each year, the European Commission publishes a comparative report on education in their member states. The 2022 report covers the right, timing, and kind of learning that citizens in European countries are facing, including the difficulties and disparities that are found in various areas of education. However, they also offer suggestions for dealing with these issues and how to continue working toward the goals of the EEA. The reports are prepared by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture with contributions from other countries and commissions that work on education, and are accompanied by reports from the 27 member countries of the EU. See also A Comparative Analysis of the Histories of Different Countries' Education Systems Comparative Education Review Comparative Research Educational anthropology International Society for Comparative Adult Education UNESCO-IBE World Council for Comparative Education Societies Influential scholars Mark Bray Nicholas Burbules Brian Holmes Torsten Husen Andreas Kazamias John W. Meyer Harold J. Noah Fernando Reimers Val D. Rust Carlos Torres Gita Steiner-Khamsi Imanol Ordorika References Further reading Major references Educational Research, Methodology and Measurement: An International Handbook. 2nd ed. Edited by J.P. Keeves. New York: Pergamon, 1997. International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Edited by Liora Bresler. New York: Springer, 2006. International Encyclopedia of Adult Education and Training. 2nd ed. Edited by Albert C. Tuijnman. Oxford, UK; Tarrytown, NY: Pergamon, 1996. International Encyclopedia of National Systems of Education. 2nd ed. Edited by T. Neville Postlethwaite. Tarrytown, NY: Pergamon, 1995. International Companion to Education, Edited by Moon, B. Ben-Peretz, M & Brown S. London & NY: Routledge, 2000. International Handbook of Educational Change. Edited by Andy Hargreaves, et al. Boston,: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration. Edited by Kenneth Leithwood, et al. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1996. International Handbook of Teachers and Teaching. Edited by Bruce J. Biddle, Thomas L. Good, Ivor F. Goodson. Boston,: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. International Handbook of Women's Education. Edited by Gail P. Kelly. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education. Edited by tavis d. jules, Robin Shields, and Matthew A. M. Thomas. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021 Other resources Altbach, Philip G. Comparative Higher Education: Knowledge, the University, and Development. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Pub. Corp., 1998. Arnove, R. and Torres, C. eds (1999) Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Comparative Education Research Approaches and Methods. Edited by Mark Bray, Bob Adamson and Mark Mason. Hong Kong and Dordrecht: Springer, 2007. Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail P. Kelly. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992. Gottlieb, Esther E. Are We Postmodern Yet? Historical and Theoretical Explorations in Comparative Education. In Moon, B. Ben-Peretz, M & Brown S., (eds.) International Companion to Education, pp. 153–175 London & NY: Routledge, 2000. Higher Education Policy: An International Comparative Perspective. Edited by Leo Goedegebuure, et al. New York: Pergamon Press, 1994. Harold J. Noah and Max A. Eckstein. Toward a Science of Comparative Education (New York: Macmillan, 1969). Harold J. Noah and Max A. Eckstein. Secondary School Examinations: International Perspectives on Policies and Practice (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993). . Harold J. Noah and Max A. Eckstein. Doing Comparative Education: Three Decades of Collaboration (Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong Press, 1998). Hebert, David & Hauge, Torunn Bakken. Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe (London: Routledge, 2019). International Perspectives on Educational Reform and Policy Implementation. Edited by David S.G. Carter and Marnie H. O'Neill. Washington, DC: Falmer Press, 1995. Higher Education in an International Perspective : Critical Issues. Edited by Zaghloul Morsy and Philip G. Altbach. New York: Garland Pub., 1996. Mazawi, A.E. & Sultana, R.G. (eds)(2010). Education and the Arab 'World'. Political Project, Struggles, and Geometries of Power. (New York: Routledge). Quality Assurance in Higher Education: An International Perspective. Edited by Gerald H. Gaither. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998. Reagan, Timothy G. Non-Western Educational Traditions : Alternative Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1996. Schriewer, Jürgen (2000). "Comparative Education Methodology in Transition: Towards the Study of Complexity?" pp. 3–52. In Schreiwer, Jürgen (Ed.) Discourse Formation in Comparative Education. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Vulliamy, G., Lewin, K. and Stephens, D. (1990) Doing Educational Research in Developing Countries: Qualitative Strategies. Lewes: Falmer Press. External links World Council of Comparative Education Societies Comparative and International Education: A Bibliography (2004) NCCRESt Bibliography (2000) Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Comparative Education Society of India (CESI) Comparative Education book and pamphlet collection at the Institute of Education, University College London Comparative Education archives subject guide at the Institute of Education, University College London Education by subject Philosophy of education	0.776048	0.988087	0.766802
Gradual release of responsibility	The gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model is a structured method of pedagogy centred on devolving responsibility within the learning process from the teacher to the learner. This approach requires the teacher to initially take on all the responsibility for a task, transitioning in stages to the students assuming full independence in carrying it out. The goal is to cultivate confident learners and thinkers who are capable of handling tasks even in areas where they have not yet gained expertise. Theory While similar models have been identified and represented throughout the study and development of teaching and learning as a construct, it was Pearson & Gallagher (1983) who coined the phrase "gradual release of responsibility" to describe this dynamic in the classroom. Loosely basing their model on the ideas of the Russian educational theorist Lev Vygotsky, Pearson and Gallagher envisioned instruction that moved from explicit modeling and instruction to guided practice and then to activities that incrementally positioned students into becoming independent learners. The teacher guides the students to a point of 'planned obsolescence' on the part of the teacher "...where the student accepts total responsibility for the task, including the responsibility for determining whether or not she is applying the strategy appropriately (i.e, self monitoring)." One element which is crucial to the success of the GRR model is the notion related to 'instructional scaffolding', which is grounded in Vygotsky's concept of the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). This is described as the distance between the actual developmental level of a learner as determined by their independent problem solving abilities and the level of potential development through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. That is, the distance between what the children can do without assistance and what they can accomplish with the assistance of more capable peers. The zone of proximal development can be applied as an umbrella over the entire GRR model. Students are given support in the form of scaffolding and differentiate instruction throughout all four phases of the process. Teachers may offer more challenging material to high-achieving students, and assist lower-achieving students in needs-based groups. Teachers will support students as needed throughout all four steps finally allowing for the eventual independence of each student. The GRR model "...assumes that [the student] will need some guidance in reaching that stage of independence and that it is precisely the teacher's role to provide such guidance". Vygotsky (1978) believed that guided interactions, with an adult, or a more skilled peer, could facilitate a higher level of thinking within the zone. In Vygotsky's theory, this person is referred to as the "More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)". The four phases of the GRR Model are: Focus Lesson – "I do it", Guided Instruction – "We do it", Collaborative – "You do it together", and Independent – "You do it alone" (Fisher & Frey 2006). In the GRR model, the MKO exists in the person of the teacher-guide in the "I do it" and "We do it" phases. The MKO resurfaces again in the collaborative process where peers may assist each other as expertise, personal experience, and/or understanding allows. There have been a number of ways of describing and representing the ways in which adults or more experienced others may assist novice learners within their ZPD. Rogoff (1990) recognised that this could be achieved through guided participation, and this is similar to the concept of Tharp and Gallimore's theory (1991), of "means of assisting" and to that of the practice of reciprocal teaching recognised by Brown and Palincsar. Others have recognised the similarities between this method of instruction and the integrated approach of collaboration in conceptual change (Rochelle, 1992) and the cognitive apprenticeship model of Collins, Brown, and Newman (1989). This term 'scaffolding' is a useful metaphor that is used to symbolise the process of supporting a learner in the early stages of the learning process – as the walls get higher – until there is sufficient evidence of knowledge and skills having been acquired, to then be able to remove that scaffolding so the learner is able to 'stand alone', or be effectively independent enough to continue learning 'alone'. In a similar way, there is a gradual dismantling of the scaffolding as the 'job' becomes more secure and so there is a gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the learner. As scaffolding is temporary, so too are the lessons that are constructed to help students as they embark into unfamiliar thinking. As noted by Pearson and Gallagher, "The critical stage of the model is the 'guided practice,' the stage in which the teacher gradually releases task responsibility to the students." As such, these lessons eventually fade away as students become gradually more comfortable with the learning and are able to work without the necessary guidance of the teacher. Although based on the work of Piaget, the influence of Vygotsky's 'constructivist theory' and learning in the classroom has become more popular because it considers the influence of group processes and social contexts that are, in themselves, influenced by such constructs as cultural diversity and stages of development. The GRR model emphasizes instruction that supports and mentors students into becoming capable thinkers and learners when handling tasks with which they have yet to develop expertise in. It is a successful model and has been documented as an effective approach in teaching many subject areas and a variety of content, from writing achievement, reading comprehension, and literacy outcomes for English language learners (Kong & Pearson, 2003). The four phases Focused lesson Focus lessons are a time for students to hear the teacher and not answer questions about their own thinking. This is the time for students to actively listen, take notes and ask for clarification. "I think...", or "I wonder...", or "I predict...." are the types of statements students will hear. According to Fisher and Frey, Modeling follows a precise pattern: Name the strategy, skill, or task State the purpose of the strategy, skill or task Explain when the strategy or skill is used Use analogies to link prior knowledge to new learning Demonstrate how the skill, strategy, or task is completed Alert learners about errors to avoid Assess the use of the new skill "Once students have a skill or strategy modeled, they gain a deeper understanding for when to apply it, what to watch for, and how to analyze their success." Students can then be given time to talk and practice with a partner. Students need to be provided with examples for them to be successful. "The key to a quality focus lesson is in the direct explaining and modeling of the skill, strategies, and task." Guided instruction The goal of guided instruction in the gradual release of responsibility model is to guide students toward using different skills, strategies and procedures independently. The student will assume more responsibility with less support from the teacher. Lessons are created as to ensure student success. Oftentimes when students are struggling with a concept in the classroom, they do not need more teacher modelling, what they really need is guidance and support to meet high expectations. Teachers meet with needs based groups which are created based on the feedback from formative assessment with the aim being for students to progress toward completing the outcome or skill independently. Formative assessments are planned in accordance with specific outcomes, which make it easier for teachers to group students. Groups may change frequently and are not static groups for the entire school year. Student groups change throughout the year based on assessed performance and not on teacher perceived ability. Each group has a purpose and the teacher plans instructional lessons based on the common needs of the group. Guided instruction gives the teacher an opportunity to differentiated instruction small group instruction, vary the level of prompting and also vary the end product. The teacher must be flexible since the instructional goal of the group may change throughout the sessions. In a classroom there may be many different guided instruction groups. Each group may be working on a different skill or at a different level. Fisher's model recommends meeting with groups 1–3 times per week, with some groups meeting more frequently and other stronger groups meeting less often. The size of the groups will also vary depending on how much face time is required for the particular skill. It is a common misconception that guided instruction is only for struggling students. This is an opportunity for teachers to provide enrichment for strong students. Guided instruction is based on the pedagogical principles of scaffolding. A study by Conklin and Wilkins shows growth and advances in reading levels among elementary students when using a guided reading approach. Working with the teacher in small groups gave students a chance to work on specific skills, at their reading level. Students gained confidence when reading 'just right' texts. Since they were not struggling with the text they were able to develop vocabulary, reading comprehension skills and oral language skills. Gabl, Kaiser, Long and Roemer found similar results when providing reading intervention in the form of guided reading groups to grade two and grade four students. The results showed an increase in reading fluency and comprehension after using flexible grouping in guided reading. Improvement in writing can also be seen when teachers implement a guided writing aspect to their literacy based lessons. Gibson notes that providing immediate instructional scaffolding to specific groups of students increases performance. The teacher chooses the instructional goals based on observation and formative assessment. Regardless of subject matter, students who are taught and then grouped according to need and re-taught based on their needs commonly show improvement. Collaborative learning Collaborative learning is the third component of the gradual release of responsibility model where students work in small heterogeneous groups on activities that allow them to deepen their understanding through application of the concept being learned. This stage of the model is the beginning of the transfer of responsibility from the teacher to the students. The collaborative learning component requires that each student is accountable for their participation by producing an independent product while engaged with his peers. There are five key features of collaborative or cooperative learning that researchers have found essential to produce effective learning. They are positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing. Positive interdependence within a collaborative learning environment means that each member of the group contributes an individual effort to the task which is necessary for the whole group's success. The interdependence of this structure creates an environment in which all individuals are important to the group as a whole, and the sharing of understandings, processes and ideas among members is common. Face-to-face interaction is another key component of collaborative learning where students interact within their group about their task, providing support, encouragement and praise as needed to reach the goal. In the face to face groups students can check understanding through discussions of the concepts and ideas of the content being studied. Individual and group accountability requires that each member of the collaborative group be responsible for contributing their share of the work. This can be done with clear goals, and assessment that is measurable in terms of achieving goals and the efforts of the group members. Collaborative or cooperative learning requires students to act as a members of a team. A skill set that includes leadership, active listening, decision making, turn taking and trust making are useful in collaborative learning. These teamwork skills need to be purposely taught as part of the gradual release of responsibility model. The final key of collaborative learning is group processing. This refers to the members reflecting on how they are as a group reaching the collaborative learning task, and how as individuals they are learning. Reflection on the workings of the group, what worked and what improvements could be made is also a part of the group processing. Independent tasks The last phase of gradual release of responsibility provides students with the opportunity to employ what they have learned in a new situation. Students can be given a variety of independent tasks but the assignments should reflect the other phases of instructional content. While students are working, the teacher's role is to circulate the room listening and making observations. Due to time restrictions in the classroom, independent work must be completed by the student at home. According to the Nova Scotia Department of Education, homework is "an assigned activity that students complete outside of regular class time. When assignments are purposeful, engaging, of high quality, and given in moderation, the assignment of homework by teachers is positively associated with student learning success". Research by Harris Cooper, Jorgianne C. Robinson, and Erika A. Patall has proven, "with only rare exceptions, the relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes was found to be positive and statistically significant". In a survey sponsored by MetLife, the majority of teachers surveyed said they used homework to "improve skills in the classroom and for improving life skills beyond high school". Benefits of homework Studies have shown that classroom instruction and homework can complement one another to result in deeper understanding and improved skills. The Nova Scotia Department of Education provides the following recommendation for maximum daily homework for all subjects: Some strategies suggested for students to start self-monitoring and recording of time spent on homework. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey use their research to create a four tiered progression of how homework can benefit students throughout their learning process: Fluency Building – A reading assignment related to the day's instructional material allows for the focus on one or two skills. Application – Students benefit from being asked to apply their newly gained knowledge independently after initial practice in the classroom. Spiral Review – Allows students to apply a number of skills learned in the not so recent past to prepare for major summative assessments. This enables students to develop more confidence and efficiency with material as long as students are able to "organize factual knowledge into larger core concepts". Extension – This takes the form of applying mastered knowledge cross-circularly or over many topics. Problems with homework Homework is problematic when teachers' observations from the independent phase are not employed when determining how much and what kinds of expectations will be placed on students to accomplish for the next class. There is a concern that homework tasks are assigned prematurely in the instructional process and as a result, students learn things incorrectly. This is extremely problematic since it takes even more time to unlearn misconceptions and misunderstandings. The Nova Scotia Department of Education states that "students learn to assume responsibility for the independent completion of homework through a process of successive and structured release of responsibility. It is therefore important that homework assignments are geared to the realities of students' developing skills to avoid undue frustration and disengagement." In the same survey sponsored by MetLife, 26% of secondary teachers said they often assign homework due to time restrictions which Fisher and Frey suggest to be problematic because this implies that students are regularly given homework assignments for which they are not adequately prepared. Homework can be a meaningful part of the independent phase of learning when administered thoughtfully based on the observations made during the independent phase of the gradual release of responsibility framework. Giving homework early in the morning can often distract students during lessons later in the day. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, many are attempting to finish their homework before it is time to go home. Historically, homework has been seen as a means to improve academic achievement (Lacina-Gifford & Gifford, 2004), discipline the mind (Wildman, 1968), and help children become lifelong learners (Bembenutty, 2011). It has been argued that higher levels of homework and discipline are two reasons why private schools have more successful learning environments than public schools (Coleman, Hoffer, & Kilgore, 1982). This implies that if public schools assigned more homework and had higher levels of discipline, they would increase learning and foster educational discipline in students. A study from 1988 examines the role and outcome of various homework approaches in an elementary school setting. It was found that "low achievement in reading and mathematics, in comparison with high achievement, is associated with more time spent doing homework, more minutes of parent help, and more frequent requests from teachers for parent involvement." References External links http://www.weac.org/news_and_publications/education_news/2005-2006/readingroomoct06.aspx Pedagogy	0.779641	0.983472	0.766755
Educational essentialism	Educational essentialism is an educational philosophy whose adherents believe that children should learn the traditional basic subjects thoroughly. In this philosophical school of thought, the aim is to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, enacting a back-to-basics approach. Essentialism ensures that the accumulated wisdom of our civilization as taught in the traditional academic disciplines is passed on from teacher to student. Such disciplines might include Reading, Writing, Literature, Foreign Languages, History, Mathematics, Classical Languages, Science, Art, and Music. Moreover, this traditional approach is meant to train the mind, promote reasoning, and ensure a common culture. Principles of essentialism Essentialism is a relatively conservative stance to education that strives to teach students the knowledge of a society and civilization through a core curriculum. This core curriculum involves such areas that include; the study of the surrounding environment, basic natural laws, and the disciplines that promote a happier, more educated living. Other non-traditional areas are also integrated as well in moderation to balance the education. Essentialists' goals are to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, patriotism, and character development through traditional (or back-to-basic) approaches. This is to promote reasoning, train the mind, and ensure a common culture for all citizens. Essentialism is the most typically enacted philosophy in American classrooms today. Traces of this can be found in the organized learning centered on teachers and textbooks, in addition to the regular assignments and evaluations. Essentialism as a teacher-centered philosophy The role of the teacher as the leader of the classroom is a very important tenet of Educational essentialism. The teacher is the center of the classroom, so they should be rigid and disciplinary. Establishing order in the classroom is crucial for student learning; effective teaching cannot take place in a loud and disorganized environment. It is the teacher's responsibility to keep order in the classroom. The teacher must interpret essentials of the learning process, take the leadership position and set the tone of the classroom. These needs require an educator who is academically well-qualified with an appreciation for learning and development. The teacher must control the students with distributions of rewards and penalties. It has been argued that recent teacher education policies in some countries extend essentialism to teacher education policy frameworks. History of essentialism The Essentialist movement first began in the United States in the year 1938. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, a group met for the first time called "The Essentialist's Committee for the Advancement of Education." Their emphasis was to reform the educational system to a rationality-based system. The term essentialist first appeared in the book An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education which was written by Michael John Demiashkevich. In his book, Demiashkevich labels some specific educators (including William C. Bagley) as “essentialists." Demiashkevich compared the essentialists to the different viewpoints of the Progressive Education Association. He described how the Progressives preached a “hedonistic doctrine of change” whereas the essentialists stressed the moral responsibility of man for his actions and looked toward permanent principles of behavior (Demiashkevich likened the arguments to those between the Socratics and the Sophists in Greek philosophy). In 1938 Bagley and other educators met together where Bagley gave a speech detailing the main points of the essentialism movement and attacking the public education in the United States. One point that Bagley noted was that students in the U.S. were not getting an education on the same levels as students in Europe who were the same age. A recent branch has emerged within the essentialist school of thought called "neoessentialism." Emerging in the eighties as a response to the essentialist ideals of the thirties as well as to the criticism of the fifties and the advocates for education in the seventies, neoessentialism was created to try to appease the problems facing the United States at the time. The most notable change within this school of thought is that it called for the creation of a new discipline, computer science. Renowned essentialists William Bagley (1874–1946) was an important historical essentialist. William C. Bagley completed his undergraduate degree at Michigan Agricultural College in 1895. It wasn't until after finishing his undergraduate studies that he truly wanted to be a teacher. Bagley did his Graduate studies at the University of Chicago and at Cornell University. He acquired his Ph.D. in 1900, after which he took his first school job as a Principal in a St. Louis, Missouri Elementary School. Bagley's devotion increased during his work at Montana State Normal School in Dillon, Montana. It was here where he decided to dedicate his time to the education of teachers and where he published The Educative Process, launching his name across the nation. Throughout his career Bagley argued against the conservative position that teachers were not in need of special training for their work. He believed that liberal arts material was important in teacher education. Bagley also believed the dominant theories of education of the time were weak and lacking. In April 1938, he published the Essentialist's Platform, in which he outlined three major points of essentialism. He described the right of students to a well-educated and culturally knowledgeable teacher. Secondly, he discussed the importance of teaching the ideals of community to each group of students. Lastly, Bagley wrote of the importance of accuracy, thoroughness and effort on the part of the student in the classroom. Another important essentialist is E. D. Hirsch (1928-). Hirsch was Founder and Chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation and authored several books concerning fact-based approaches to education. Now retired, he spent many years teaching at the University of Virginia while also being an advocate for the "back to basics" movement. In his most popular book, Cultural Literacy — What Every American Needs To Know, he offers lists, quotations, and information regarding what he believes is essential knowledge. See also Arthur Bestor. Schools enacting an essentialist curriculum The Core Knowledge Schools were founded on the philosophy of essentialist E.D. Hirsch. Although it is difficult to maintain a pure and strict essentialist-only curriculum, these schools have the central aim of establishing a common knowledge base for all citizens. To do so, they follow a nationwide, content-specific, and teacher-centered curriculum. The Core Knowledge curriculum also allows for local variance above and beyond the core curriculum. Central curricular aims are academic excellence and the learning of knowledge, and teachers who are masters of their knowledge areas serve this aim. Criticism of essentialism Because Essentialism is largely teacher-centered, the role of the student is often called into question. Presumably, in an essentialist classroom, the teacher is the one designing the curriculum for the students based upon the core disciplines. Moreover, he or she is enacting the curriculum and setting the standards which the students must meet. The teacher's evaluative role may undermine students' interest in study. As a result, the students begin to take on more of a passive role in their education as they are forced to meet and learn such standards and information. Furthermore, there is also speculation that an essentialist education helps in promoting the cultural lag. This philosophy of education is very traditional in the mindset of passing on the knowledge of the culture via the academic disciplines. Thus, students are forced to think in the mindset of the larger culture, and individual creativity, and subversive investigation are often not emphasized, or even outright discouraged. See also Educational perennialism References Philosophy of education Essentialism	0.779922	0.983102	0.766743
Critical realism (philosophy of the social sciences)	Critical realism is a philosophical approach to understanding science, and in particular social science, initially developed by Roy Bhaskar (1944–2014). It specifically opposes forms of empiricism and positivism by viewing science as concerned with identifying causal mechanisms. In the last decades of the twentieth century it also stood against various forms of postmodernism and poststructuralism by insisting on the reality of objective existence. In contrast to positivism's methodological foundation, and poststructuralism's epistemological foundation, critical realism insists that (social) science should be built from an explicit ontology. Critical realism is one of a range of types of philosophical realism, as well as forms of realism advocated within social science such as analytic realism and subtle realism. Contemporary critical realism Overview Bhaskar developed a general philosophy of science that he described as transcendental realism and a special philosophy of the human sciences that he called critical naturalism. The two terms were combined by other authors to form the umbrella term critical realism. Transcendental realism attempts to establish that in order for scientific investigation to take place, the object of that investigation must have real, manipulable, internal mechanisms that can be actualized to produce particular outcomes. This is what we do when we conduct experiments. This stands in contrast to empiricist scientists' claim that all scientists can do is observe the relationship between cause and effect and impose meaning. Whilst empiricism, and positivism more generally, locate causal relationships at the level of events, critical realism locates them at the level of the generative mechanism, arguing that causal relationships are irreducible to empirical constant conjunctions of David Hume's doctrine; in other words, a constant conjunctive relationship between events is neither sufficient nor even necessary to establish a causal relationship. The implication of this is that science should be understood as an ongoing process in which scientists improve the concepts they use to understand the mechanisms that they study. It should not, in contrast to the claim of empiricists, be about the identification of a coincidence between a postulated independent variable and dependent variable. Positivism and naive falsificationism are also rejected on the grounds that a mechanism may exist but either a) go unactivated, b) be activated, but not perceived, or c) be activated, but counteracted by other mechanisms, which results in its having unpredictable effects. Thus, non-realisation of a posited mechanism cannot (in contrast to the claim of some positivists) be taken to signify its non-existence. Falsificationism can be viewed at the statement level (naive falsificationism) or at the theorem level (more common in practice). In this way, the two approaches can be reconciled to some extent. Critical naturalism argues that the transcendental realist model of science is equally applicable to both the physical and the human worlds. However, it argues, when we study the human world we are studying something fundamentally different from the physical world and must, therefore, adapt our strategy to studying it. Critical naturalism, therefore, prescribes social scientific methods which seek to identify the mechanisms producing social events, but with a recognition that these are in a much greater state of flux than those of the physical world (as human structures change much more readily than those of, say, a leaf). In particular, we must understand that human agency is made possible by social structures that themselves require the reproduction of certain actions/pre-conditions. Further, the individuals that inhabit these social structures are capable of consciously reflecting upon, and changing, the actions that produce them—a practice that is in part facilitated by social scientific research. Critical realism has become an influential movement in British sociology and social science in general as a reaction to, and reconciliation of postmodern critiques. Developments Since Bhaskar made the first big steps in popularising the theory of critical realism in the 1970s, it has become one of the major strands of social scientific method, rivalling positivism/empiricism, and post-structuralism/relativism/interpretivism. After his development of critical realism, Bhaskar went on to develop a philosophical system he calls dialectical critical realism, which is most clearly outlined in his weighty book, Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom. An accessible introduction to Bhaskar's writings was written by Andrew Collier. Andrew Sayer has written accessible texts on critical realism in social science. Danermark et al. have also produced an accessible account. Margaret Archer is associated with this school, as is the ecosocialist writer Peter Dickens. David Graeber relies on critical realism, which he understands as a form of 'heraclitean' philosophy, emphasizing flux and change over stable essences, in his anthropological book on the concept of value, Toward an anthropological theory of value: the false coin of our own dreams. Recently, attention has turned to the challenge of implementing critical realism in applied social research, including its use in studying organizations.). Other authors (Fletcher 2016, Parr 2015, Bunt 2018, Hoddy 2018) have discussed which specific research methodologies and methods are conducive (or not) to research guided by critical realism as a philosophy of science. Critical realist meta-theories At its core, critical realism offers a theory of being and existence (ontology), but it takes a more open position in relation to the theory of knowledge (epistemology). As a result, a wide range of approaches have developed that seek to offer a framework for social research. Because they are not theories in specific disciplines nor theories relating to specific aspects of society, these approaches are generally known as 'meta-theories'. Critical realist meta-theories include: the transformational model of social activity, the morphogenetic approach, Cambridge social ontology, critical discourse analysis, cultural political economy, critical realist feminism, and critical realist Marxism. The morphogenetic approach The morphogenetic approach is a critical realist framework for analysing social change originally developed by Margaret Archer in her text Social Origins of Educational Systems and systematised in a trilogy of social theory texts, Culture and Agency (1988), Realist Social Theory (1995), and Being Human (2000). The approach was developed primarily as a critical realist response to the structure-agency problem in which "we are simultaneously free and constrained and we also have some awareness of it". At the centre of Archer's answer to this problem is 'analytical dualism', which entails an analytical separation of structure and agency so that the interaction between them can be studied and modelled by researchers; on this basis, Archer rejects alternative approaches that 'conflate' structure and agency into the single concept of 'practice', primarily directing her critique at Giddens' structuration theory. Archer extends the notion of analytical dualism to the distinction between "the material and the ideational aspects of social life", identifying 'culture' as a third fundamental aspect of society, alongside structure and agency. Therefore, the analysis of social change depends on modelling structure (S), agency (A), and culture (C), so that "social life comes in a SAC – always and everywhere". These concepts form the basis for the 'morphogenetic cycle', which splits social change into three processes: [T1] conditioning → [T2-T3] interaction → [T4] elaboration: At T1, agents (as individuals and as groups) are conditioned by the social structure and cultural system. From T2 to T3, agents act, react, and interact At T4, the social structure and cultural system are changed (morphogenesis) or maintained (morphostasis). The morphogenetic approach has been advanced by Douglas Porpora, whose Reconstructing Sociology sought to introduce morphogenetic critical realism into the mainstream of American sociology. Before becoming explicitly aligned with the morphogenetic approach and critical realism, Porpora published two papers on the nature of culture and social structure that later had a major influence on morphogenetic critical realism. Cambridge social ontology Cambridge social ontology is an approach to ontology that is primarily associated with the work of philosopher Tony Lawson. The approach is centred on the Cambridge Social Ontology Group and its weekly Realist Workshop hosted by the University of Cambridge and led by Lawson. While the group subscribes to critical realism, it identifies its aims with the study of ontology more generally rather than a necessary allegiance with the critical realist philosophy. At the heart of the Cambridge approach is a theory of social positioning in which any social system creates roles (or 'places' or 'slots') that are occupied by individuals. Each of these roles is attached to a series of rights and obligations; for example, one of the rights of a university lecturer is the right to use a university library and one of their obligations to deliver lectures. These rights and obligations interlock to form social structures, so that the rights of an individual in one social position usually correspond with the obligations of an individual in another; for example, the rights of the lecturer might correspond to the obligations of a librarian. In some cases, it is not individuals that occupy these social positions but 'communities', which are defined as "an identifiable, restricted and relatively enduring coherent grouping of people who share some set of concerns". It is important to stress that these communities can exist at a wide range of scales, they are not necessarily attached to a particular geographical space, and they can overlap and nest in various complex ways. Therefore, individuals sit within social systems by occupying a role, and they sit within communities by sharing in the community's interests in some way. A final crucial concept of the Cambridge social ontology approach is the notion of 'collective practices': a collective practice is a way of proceeding that (implicitly) bears the status of being (collectively) accepted within a community. In other words, collective practices are common ways of acting in any given situation that are reinforced through conformity, such as the forming of queues to pay for goods in stores or the etiquette of a particular game or sport. Critical discourse analysis Discourse analysis is the analysis of texts and other meaningful signs with the purpose of understanding and/or explaining social phenomena. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is primarily concerned with analysing the relationship between discourse and social relations of power in any given context. In contrast to post-structuralist and postmodernist approaches to discourse analysis (such as the Essex school), CDA relies on philosophical distinctions between discourse and other aspects of reality, especially insisting on the relative independence of power relations, material existence and individual agency. While not all CDA explicitly ascribes to critical realism (see, for example the work of Ruth Wodak or Teun van Dijk), a critical realist ontology provides philosophical underpinnings for the social distinctions inherent to its approach to analysis. The main proponent of a critical realist approach to CDA is Norman Fairclough, whose philosophical underpinnings shifted from a Foucauldian perspective in his 1992 book Discourse and Social Change to an explicitly critical realist approach in his 1999 collaboration with Lillian Chouliaraki Discourse in Late Modernity. Fairclough has subsequently published work developing the critical realist foundations of his version of CDA, particularly in collaboration with his Lancaster University colleagues Andrew Sayer and Bob Jessop. Fairclough explains how the main concepts of transcendental realism underpin his approach to the analysis of texts. Firstly, there is a distinction between the knowledge (the 'transitive dimension') and that which knowledge is about (the 'intransitive dimension'); this underpins the CDA distinction between discourse and other aspects of reality. Secondly, there is the distinction between experienced events (the 'empirical'), events themselves (the 'actual'), and the underlying mechanisms that give rise to events (the 'real'); this underpins the distinction between the reading of a text (the empirical), the text itself (the actual) and the causal structures underpinning the text's social effects (the real). While these critical realist distinctions are not commonly used in the empirical application of Fairlcough's CDA, they are fundamental to the underlying social theory that justifies its application. More recently, other theorists have further developed CDA's critical realist underpinnings by focusing on the distinction between structure and agency, the distinction between discourse and 'non-discourse', and the concept of social practices. Cultural political economy Long-term collaborators Ngai-Ling Sum and Bob Jessop initially developed 'cultural political economy' (CPE) in a forum of the journal New Political Economy, responding to the strict disciplinarity of existing approaches to political economy. CPE also has roots in Jessop's seminal collaboration with Norman Fairclough and Andrew Sayer, which outlined a critical realist approach to 'semiosis', the inter-subjective production of meaning. CPE is most extensively outlined in Sum and Jessop's 2013 book Cultural Political Economy, where critical realism and the strategic-relational approach are identified as the twin foundations of the approach. These foundations lead to a central distinction at the heart of CPE between the 'semiotic and structural aspects of social life'. The 'semiotic' entails (a) the process by which individuals come to understand, apprehend, and make sense of the natural and social world, and (b) the process by which people (individually and in groups) come to create meaning through communication and signification, especially (though not exclusively) through the formation and use of language. The semiotic is held to be foundational to all social relations and causally efficacious, so that it is both a part of social relations and a causal force in its own right. For the 'structural' aspects of social life, Sum and Jessop adopt the phrase 'structuration' from Anthony Giddens, but reject his broader approach because of its atemporality and its conflation of agents and their actions. In CPE, as in all critical realist meta-theories, social structure is held to be socially constructed, embedded in semiosis, but also not reducible to those semiotic processes, having its own material existence in social institutions, the actions of individuals, and the physical world. Jessop explains that 'semiotic' and 'structural' aspects of social life change over time through three evolutionary mechanisms: (i) variation - there is constant variation in human practices and social arrangements, but especially at times of crisis; (ii) selection - some practices, semiotic constructions, and structural arrangements are selected, especially as the possible routes to recovery from a crisis; (iii) retention - from the selected arrangements and practices, those that prove to be effective are retained, especially when they help overcome a crisis. It is important to note that this process of variation-selection-retention, is not a functionalist account in which society is continuously 'improving', because the process is shaped by the strategies of individual agents and social structures of (unequal) power. Critical realist Marxism A development of Bhaskar's critical realism lies at the ontological root of some contemporary streams of Marxist political and economic theory. These authors consider that realist philosophy described by Bhaskar in A Realist Theory of Science is compatible with Marx's work in that it differentiates between an intransitive reality, which exists independently of human knowledge of it, and the socially produced world of science and empirical knowledge. This dualist logic is present in the Marxian theory of ideology, according to which social reality may be very different from its empirically observable surface appearance. Notably, Alex Callinicos has argued for a 'critical realist' ontology in the philosophy of social science and explicitly acknowledges Bhaskar's influence (while also rejecting the latter's 'spiritualist turn' in his later work). The relationship between critical realist philosophy and Marxism has also been discussed in an article co-authored by Bhaskar and Callinicos and published in the Journal of Critical Realism. Disciplinary applications Economics Heterodox economists like Tony Lawson, Lars Pålsson Syll, Frederic Lee or Geoffrey Hodgson have used the ideas of critical realism in economics, especially the dynamic idea of macro-micro interaction. According to critical realist economists, the central aim of economic theory is to provide explanations in terms of hidden generative structures. This position combines transcendental realism with a critique of mainstream economics. It argues that mainstream economics (i) relies excessively on deductivist methodology, (ii) embraces an uncritical enthusiasm for formalism, and (iii) believes in strong conditional predictions in economics despite repeated failures. The world that mainstream economists study is the empirical world. But according to critical realists this world is "out of phase" (Lawson) with the underlying ontology of economic regularities. The mainstream view is thus a limited reality because empirical realists presume that the objects of inquiry are solely "empirical regularities"—that is, objects and events at the level of the experienced. The critical realist views the domain of real causal mechanisms as the appropriate object of economic science, whereas the positivist view is that the reality is exhausted in empirical, i.e. experienced reality. Tony Lawson argues that economics ought to embrace a "social ontology" to include the underlying causes of economic phenomena. Ecological economics The British ecological economist Clive Spash holds the opinion that critical realism offers a thorough basis—as a philosophy of science—for the theoretical foundation of ecological economics. He therefore uses a critical realist lens for conducting research in (ecological) economics. However, also other scholars base ecological economics on a critical realist foundation, such as Leigh Price from Rhodes University. Ecology, climate change and environmental sustainability Critical realism's implications for ecology, climate change and environmental sustainability were explored by Roy Bhaskar and others in their 2010 book Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change: Transforming Knowledge and Practice for Our Global Future. Nordic ecophilosophers such as Karl Georg Høyer, Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng and Trond Gansmo Jakobsen saw the value of critical realism as a basis for the approach to ecology popularized by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, versions of which are sometimes called . Roy Bhaskar, Petter Næss, and Karl Høyer collaborated on an edited volume entitled Ecophilosophy in a World of Crisis: Critical Realism and the Nordic Contributions. Zimbabwean-born ecophilosopher Leigh Price has used critical realism to develop a philosophy for ecology that she calls , and she has argued for a common-sense approach to climate change and environmental management. She also has used Bhaskar's critical realist ontology to arrive at a definition of ecological resilience as "the process by which the internal complexity of an ecosystem and its coherence as a whole – stemming from the relative 'richness' or 'modularity' of emergent structures and behaviours/growth/life-history of species – results in the inter-dependencies of its components or their binding as totalities such that the identity of the ecosystem tends to remain intact, despite intrinsic and/or extrinsic entropic forces". Other academics in this field who have worked with critical realism include Jenneth Parker, Research Director at Schumaker Institute for Sustainable Systems and Sarah Cornell, Associate Professor at Stockholm Resilience Centre. International relations Since 2000, critical realist philosophy has also been increasingly influential in the field of international relations (IR) theory. In 2011, Iver B. Neumann said it was "almost all the rage" among those IR scholars who are concerned with questions of philosophy of science. Bob Jessop, Colin Wight, Milja Kurki, Jonathan Joseph and Hidemi Suganami have all published major works on the utility of beginning IR research from a critical realist social ontology—an ontology they all credit Roy Bhaskar with originating. Education Critical realism (CR) offers a framework that can be used to approach complex questions at the interface between educational theory and educational practice. Nevertheless, CR is not a theory but a philosophical approach intended to under-labour for social science research. As a meta-theory, it does not explain any social phenomenon. Instead, the processes and techniques of the discipline, in this case, education, will provide the means for translating CR principles into a substantive study. This means that for any study framed under a CR approach, there is a need to choose a social theory (that shares a realist ontology) that explains why things are the way they are rather than some other way. As in the different disciplines described above, in educational research under a CR approach, the overall aim is to explain the educational phenomena in terms of the hidden generative mechanisms that make the events we observe happen. Rebecca Eynon of the Oxford Internet Institute believes that when investigating issues in the field of educational technology it is fundamental to address the real problems that as she argues, relate to the more profound and most of the time, imperceptible structural issues that constrain technology use. In the field of educational technology, particularly when exploring how technology is used or appropriated by teachers and students, an understanding of the social world as complex and multi-layered is helpful. Clive Lawson of the Cambridge Social Ontology Group has addressed the topic of technology from a CR perspective. The book Isolation and Technology (2017) sets out a persuasive 'ontology of technology' and applies this perspective to explain the causal powers of technology, which for educational purposes is highly relevant. His main argument is that technology has the power to enlarge human capabilities but only if the technology/artefact is enrolled in the network of interdependencies in a particular system. He suggests a conception of technical activity "as that activity that harnesses the causal capacities and powers of material artefacts in order to extend human capabilities" (p. 109). David Scott has written extensively about CR and education. In his book Education, Epistemology and Critical Realism (2010), he argues for a need to pay greater attention to the meta-theories which underpin educational research. An important issue for educational research, Scott argues, is the relationship between structure and agency. The work of Margaret Archer uses the morphogenetic cycle (explained in one of the sections above) as an analytical tool that allows the researcher to explore the interplay between structure and agency at any given moment in time. She uses analytical dualism, a methodological manoeuvre that helps, only for the sake of analysis, to separate structure from agency to explore their interplay at a particular moment in time. The latter was utilised by Robert Archer in his book Education Policy and Realist Social Theory (2002). Health Critical realism has been used widely within health research in several different ways, including (i) informing methodological decisions, (ii) understanding the causes of health and illness, and (iii) informing ways of improving health—whether in healthcare programmes or public health promotion. In a similar pattern to that seen in other fields, researchers studying health and illness have used critical realism to orient their methodological decisions. Critical realism has been argued to represent a philosophical approach for health sciences that is alternative and preferable to the empirical emphasis within positivism and the relativist emphasis within constructivism. Comparable arguments are made in a range of fields such as the sociology of health and illness, mental health research, and nursing. In the view of Wiltshire, use of critical realism to orient methodological decisions helps to encourage interdisciplinary health research by disrupting long-standing qualitative-quantitative divides between disciplinary traditions. Critical realism has also been discussed in comparison to alternatives within health and rehabilitation science; in this area, DeForge and Shaw concluded that, "critical realists tend to forefront ontological considerations and focus on the hidden, taken-for-granted structures from 'the domain of the real'." One significant methodological implication within health research has been the introduction of evaluation frameworks that are underpinned by critical realist ideas. Evaluation research is important for healthcare research in particular because new health-related interventions and programmes need to be assessed for effectiveness. Clark and colleagues summarise the contribution of critical realism in this domain by claiming that it is useful for In a recent presentation, Alderson positions critical realism as a toolkit of practical ideas that helps researchers to extend and clarify their analyses. Research that has tried to better understand the causes of health and illness have also turned to critical realism. Scambler has applied sociology to the understanding of medicine, health and illness, where he presents the role of class relations and political power in reproducing and exacerbating health inequalities. Other research into the social determinants of health has drawn on critical realism in understanding, for example, healthcare inequalities, the rural determinants of health, and the non-determinant causal relationship between poor housing and illness. Others have found critical realism useful in seeking an appropriate social theory of health determination through the complex pathways and mechanisms that come to impact health and illness. As well, critical realism has been used to advance an account of the causes of mental ill-health. Critical realism has also been used in health research to inform ways of improving health—whether in healthcare programmes or public health promotion. Clark and colleagues argue critical realism can help to understand and evaluate heart health programmes, noting that their approach "embraces measurement of objective effectiveness but also examines the mechanisms, organizational and contextual-related factors causing these outcomes." It has also been used as an explanatory framework regarding health decisions, such as the use of home-dialysis for patients with chronic kidney disease. Another useful example in the context of nursing practice argues that critical realism offers a philosophy that is a natural fit with human and health science enquiry, including nursing. At the level of public health, Connelly has strongly advocated for critical realist ideas, concluding that "for health promotion theory and practice to make a difference an engagement with critical realism is now long overdue." Critical realism is also applied in empirical studies, such as ethnographic study in Nigeria arguing that understanding the underlying mechanisms associated with smoking in different societies will enable effective implementation of tobacco control policies that work in various settings. See also Critical realism (philosophy of perception) References Further reading Alderson, P. 2013. Childhoods Real and Imagined: An Introduction to childhood studies and critical realism, Volume 1. London: Routledge. Alderson, P. 2021. Critical Realism for Health and Illness Research: A Practical Introduction. Bristol: Policy Press. Archer, M., Bhaskar, R., Collier, A., Lawson, T. and Norrie, A., 1998, Critical Realism: Essential Readings, (London, Routledge). Archer, R. (2002) Education Policy and Realist Social Theory, (London, Routledge). Bhaskar, R., 1975 [1997], A Realist Theory of Science: 2nd edition, (London, Verso). Bhaskar, R., 1998, The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences: Third Edition, (London, Routledge) Bhaskar, R., 1993, Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom, (London, Verso). Bhaskar, Roy, Berth Danermark, and Leigh Price. Interdisciplinarity and wellbeing: a critical realist general theory of interdisciplinarity. Routledge, 2017. Bhaskar, R. (2016) Enlightened Common Sense: The Philosophy of Critical Realism, edited with a preface by Hartwig, M. London: Routledge. Collier, A. 1994, 'Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy', (London, Verso).Frauley, J. and Pearce, F. (eds). 2007. Critical Realism and the Social Sciences. (Toronto and Buffalo. University of Toronto Press). Danermark, B., M. Ekström, L. Jakobs & J.Ch. Karlsson, Explaining Society: An Introduction to Critical Realism in the Social Sciences. (Critical Realism: Interventions), Routledge, Abingdon 2002. Hartwig, M. 2007 Dictionary of Critical Realism. London: Routledge. Lopez, J. and Potter, G., 2001, After Postmodernism: An Introduction to Critical Realism, (London, The Athlone Press). Maton, K., & Moore, R. (Eds.). (2010). Social realism, knowledge and the sociology of education: Coalitions of the mind. London: Continuum. Næss, Petter, and Leigh Price, eds. 2016. Crisis system: A critical realist and environmental critique of economics and the economy. Routledge. Price, Leigh, and Heila Lotz-Sistka, eds. 2015. Critical realism, environmental learning and social-ecological change. Routledge. Sayer, A. (1992) Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach, (London, Routledge) Sayer, A. (2000) Realism and Social Science, (London, Sage) External links Bhaskar and American Critical Realism Critical theory Metatheory of science Philosophy of social science Philosophical realism	0.775324	0.988932	0.766742
Problematization	Problematization is a process of stripping away common or conventional understandings of a subject matter in order to gain new insights. This method can be applied to a term, writing, opinion, ideology, identity, or person. Practitioners consider the concrete or existential elements of these subjects. Analyzed as challenges (problems), practitioners may seek to transform the situations under study. It is a method of defamiliarization of common sense. Problematization is a critical thinking and pedagogical dialogue or process and may be considered demythicisation. Rather than taking the common knowledge (myth) of a situation for granted, problematization poses that knowledge as a problem, allowing new viewpoints, consciousness, reflection, hope, and action to emerge. What may make problematization different from other forms of criticism is its target, the context and details, rather than the pro or con of an argument. More importantly, this criticism does not take place within the original context or argument, but draws back from it, re-evaluates it, leading to action which changes the situation. Rather than accepting the situation, one emerges from it, abandoning a focalised viewpoint. To problematize a statement, for example, one asks simple questions: Who is making this statement? For whom is it intended? Why is this statement being made here, now? Whom does this statement benefit? Whom does it harm? Problematization (Foucault) For Michel Foucault, problematization serves as the overarching concept of his work in "History of Madness". He treats it both as an object of inquiry and a specific form of critical analysis. As an object of inquiry, problematization is described as a process of objects becoming problems by being “characterized, analyzed, and treated” as such. As a form of analysis, problematization seeks to answer the questions of “how and why certain things (behavior; phenomena, processes) became a problem”. Foucault does not distinguish clearly problematization as an object of inquiry from problematization as a way of inquiry. Problematization as a specific form of critical analysis is a form of “re-problematization”. History of Thought Problematization is the core of his “history of thought” which stands in sharp contrast to "history of ideas" ("the analysis of attitudes and types of action") as well as "history of mentalities" ("the analysis of systems of representation"). The history of thought refers to an inquiry of what it is, in a given society and epoch, “what allows one to take a step back from his way of acting or reacting, to present it to oneself as an object of thought and question it as to its meaning, its conditions and its goals”. Therefore, thought is described as a form of self-detachment from one's own action that allows “to present it to oneself as an object of thought [and] to question it as to its meaning, its conditions, and its goals". Thought is the reflection of one's own action “as a problem”. According to Foucault, the notions of thought and problematization are closely linked: to problematize is to engage in “work of thought”. Crucially, then, Foucault implies that our way of reflecting upon ourselves as individuals, as political bodies, as scientific disciplines or other, has a history and, consequently, imposes specific (rather than universal or a priori) structures upon thought. Responses To Problems A central element in the problematization analysis are responses to problems. The analysis of a specific problematization is “the history of an answer (…) to a certain situation”. However, Foucault stresses that "most of the time different responses [...] are proposed". His analytical interest focuses on finding at the root of those diverse and possibly contrasting answers, the conditions of possibility of their simultaneous appearance, i.e. “the general form of problematization”. This sets Foucauldian problematization apart from many other approaches in that it invites researchers to view opposing scientific theories or political views, and indeed contradictory enunciations in general as responses to the same problematization rather than as the manifestations of mutually excluding discourses. It is this level of problematizations and discourses that Foucault refers to when establishing that Foucault's “history of thought” seeks to answer the question of "how [...] a particular body of knowledge [is] able to be constituted?". Engaging in Problematization Engaging in problematization entails questioning beliefs held to be true by society. Ultimately, this intellectual practice is “to participate in the formation of a political will”. It also carves out elements that “pose problems for politics”. At the same time, it also requires self-reflection on behalf of the intellectual, since problematization is to investigate into the ontological question of the present and to determine a distinguishing “element of the present". This element is decisive for the “process that concerns thought, knowledge, and philosophy” in which the intellectual is part of as “element and actor". By questioning the present, or “contemporaneity”, “as an event”, the analyst constitutes the event's “meaning, value, philosophical particularity” but relies at the same time on it, for he/she “find[s] both [his/her] own raison d’être and the grounds for what [he/she] says” in the event itself. Actor-Network Theory The term also had a different meaning when used in association with actor–network theory (ANT), and especially the "sociology of translation" to describe the initial phase of a translation process and the creation of a network. According to Michel Callon, problematization involves two elements: Interdefinition of actors in the network Definition of the problem/topic/action program, referred to as an obligatory passage point (OPP) Criticism In Literary Criticism, An Autopsy Mark Bauerlein writes: The act of problematizing has obvious rhetorical uses. It sounds rigorous and powerful as a weapon in the fight against lax and dishonest inquiry. Also, for trained critics, problematizing x is one of the easiest interpretative gestures to make. In the most basic instance, all one has to do is add quotation marks to x, to say "Walden is a 'classic'" instead of "Walden is a classic." The scarequotes cause a hesitation over the term and imply a set of other problematizing questions: what is a "classic"? what does it presuppose? in what contexts is it used? what does it do? what educational and political purposes does it serve? Instead of being a familiar predicate in scholarship, one readers casually assimilate without much notice, "classic" now stands out from the flow of discourse. The questions hover around its use and, until they are resolved, the use of "classic" is impaired. Usually, such questions yield ready answers, but their readiness does not cut into the apparent savviness of the critics asking them. This is another advantage of the term "problematize": it is a simple procedure, but it sounds like an incisive investigative pursuit. References External links Postmodern theory	0.78535	0.976267	0.766711
Theories of technology	Theories of technological change and innovation attempt to explain the factors that shape technological innovation as well as the impact of technology on society and culture. Some of the most contemporary theories of technological change reject two of the previous views: the linear model of technological innovation and other, the technological determinism. To challenge the linear model, some of today's theories of technological change and innovation point to the history of technology, where they find evidence that technological innovation often gives rise to new scientific fields, and emphasizes the important role that social networks and cultural values play in creating and shaping technological artifacts. To challenge the so-called "technological determinism", today's theories of technological change emphasize the scope of the need of technical choice, which they find to be greater than most laypeople can realize; as scientists in philosophy of science, and further science and technology often like to say about this "It could have been different." For this reason, theorists who take these positions often argue that a greater public involvement in technological decision-making is desired. Sociological theories Sociological theories and researches of the Society and the Social focus on how human and technology actually interact and may even affect each other. Some theories are about how political decisions are made for both humans and technology, with here humans and technology are seen as an equal field in the political decision, where humans also make, use, and even move ahead with innovations the technology. The interactions that are used in the majority of the theories on this topic look at the individual human interactions with technological equipment, but there is also a sub-group for the group of people interacting with technology. The theories described are, according to some critiques, purposefully made vague and ambiguous, as the circumstances for the theories change with human culture and technological change and innovation. Descriptive approaches Social constructivism and technology argues that technology may not determine the human action, but human action may shape technological use. Key concepts here include: interpretive flexibility: "Technological artifacts are culturally constructed and interpreted ... By this, we mean not only is there flexibility in how people think of or interpret artifacts but also there is flexibility in how artifacts are designed." And so the technological artifacts may determine and shape what that specific technology tool will symbolize and represent in society or in a culture. This is in relation to the Social constructivism and technology theory because it shows how humans symbolize technology, by shaping it. Relevant social group shares a particular set of meanings about a given artifact Economical stabilization is often about when the relevant social group has reached a consensus, according to technological change and innovation criticism Wider context: "the sociocultural and political situation of a social group shapes its norms and values, which in turn influence the meaning given to an artifact" Key authors here include MacKenzie and Wajcman (1985). Actor-network theory (ANT) is about a heterogeneous network of humans and even non-humans as equal interrelated actors. It strives for impartiality in the description of human actors and nonhuman technological gadgets, and the reintegration of the natural world and the society. For example, Latour (1992) argues that instead of worrying whether we are making anthropomorphological the technology, and we should embrace it as inherently anthropomorphic as technology is after all made by humans, and substitutes for the actions of humans, and therefore shapes the human action. What is important is the gradients and the connectivity of actors' actions and their technological competencies, and also the degree to which we choose to have "figurative" representations. Key concepts here include the inscription of beliefs, practices, relations into technology, which is then said to embody them. Key authors include Bruno Latour (1997) and Callon (1999). Structuration theory attempts to define the structures also as resources and their rules that are organized with relevant technological system properties at the social level. The theory employs one recursive notion of actions, constrained and enabled by structures which are produced and reproduced by the action. Consequently, in this theory technology can not be rendered as an artifact, so instead examines people and their interacion with technology at their work practices, that enacts structures which shape their emerging and also situated use of that technology. Here, key authors include DeSanctis and Poole (1990), and Orlikowski (1992). Systems theory considers the historical development of technology and media with an emphasis on inertia and heterogeneity, stressing the connections between the artifact being built and the social, economic, political and cultural factors surrounding it. Key concepts include reverse salients when elements of a system lag in development with respect to others, differentiation, operational closure, and autopoietic autonomy. Key authors include Thomas P. Hughes (1992) and Luhmann (2000). Activity theory is considering that entire work and also activity system (including included members, teams, organizations, etc.) beyond one user or actor. It also may account for the environment, personal history and supposed culture, "the role of the artifacts", emerged motivations, and sought views on complexity of activities in real-life. One of the strengths of AT is that it bridges the gap between the individual subject and the social reality—it studies both through the mediating activity. The unit of analysis in AT is the concept of object-oriented, collective and culturally mediated human activity, or activity system. Approaches of the critical theory Critical theory attempts, according to some, to go beyond the descriptiveness of one account that may show of how things are, the exam and question of why they have come to be that way and how they might otherwise be. Critical theory asks whose interests are being served by the questioned status quo and assesses the potentials of a future, that alternates and propose "to better" both the technological service, and even social justice. Here Geuss's definition is given, where "a critical theory, then, is a reflective theory which gives agents a kind of knowledge inherently productive of enlightenment and emancipation" (1964). Thus Marcuse argued that while technology matters and design are often presented as neutral technical choices, in fact, they manifest political or moral values. Critical theory is seen as a "form of archaeology" that attempt to get beneath common-sense understandings in order to reveal the power relationships and interests determining particular technological configuration and use. Perhaps the most developed contemporary critical theory of technology is contained in the works of Andrew Feenberg included in his book 'Transforming Technology' (2002). Values in Design asks how do we ensure a place for values (alongside technical standards such as speed, efficiency, and reliability) as criteria by which we judge the quality and acceptability of information systems and new media. How do values such as privacy, autonomy, democracy, and social justice become integral to conception, design, and development, not merely retrofitted after completion? Key thinkers include Helen Nissenbaum (2001). Social Group Theories There are also a number of technologically related science and society theories that also address even on how media affects group developments or otherwise processes. Broadly speaking, these technological theories are said to be concerned with the social effects of communication media (e.g., media richness) are concerned with questions of media choice (when to use what medium effectively). Other theories (social presence and "media naturalness") are concerned with the consequences of those media choices (i.e., what are the social effects of using particular communication media). Social presence theory (Short, et al., 1976) is a "seminal theory" of the viewed social effects of communications technology. And its main concern is, naturally, with telephony and telephone, but also even conferencing (and the research here was found among the sponsored by the General Post Office, now British Telecom). It argues that the social impact of a communication medium depend on the social presence it allows communicators to have. Social presence is defined as a property of the medium itself: the degree of acoustic, visual, and physical contact that it allows. The theory assumes that more contact will increase the key components of "presence": greater intimacy, immediacy, warmth and inter-personal rapport. As a consequence of social presence, social influence is expected to increase. In the case of communication technology, the assumption is that more text-based forms of interaction (e-mail, instant messaging) are less social, and therefore less conducive to social influence. Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986) shares some characteristics with social presence theory. It posits that the amount of information communicated differs with respect to a medium's richness. The theory assumes that resolving ambiguity and reducing uncertainty are the main goals of communication. Because communication media differ in the rate of understanding they can achieve in a specific time (with "rich" media carrying more information), they are not all capable of resolving uncertainty and ambiguity well. The more restricted the medium's capacity, the less uncertainty and equivocality it is able to manage. It follows that the richness of the media should be matched to the task so as to prevent over simplification or complication. Media naturalness theory (Kock, 2001; 2004) builds on human evolution ideas and has been proposed as an alternative to media richness theory. Media naturalness theory argues that since our Stone Age hominid ancestors have communicated primarily face-to-face, evolutionary pressures have led to the development of a brain that is consequently designed for that form of communication. Other forms of communication are too recent and unlikely to have posed evolutionary pressures that could have shaped our brain in their direction. Using communication media that suppress key elements found in face-to-face communication, as many electronic communication media do, thus ends up posing cognitive obstacles to communication. This is particularly the case in the context of complex tasks (e.g., business process redesign, new product development, online learning), because such tasks seem to require more intense communication over extended periods of time than simple tasks. Media synchronicity theory (MST, Dennis & Valacich, 1999) redirects richness theory towards the synchronicity of the communication. The social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) (Postmes, Spears and Lea 1999; Reicher, Spears and Postmes, 1995; Spears & Lea, 1994 ) was developed as a response to the idea that anonymity and reduced presence made communication technology socially impoverished (or "deindividuated"). It provided an alternative explanation for these "deindividuation effects" based on theories of social identity (e.g., Turner et al., 1987). The SIDE model distinguishes cognitive and strategic effects of a communication technology. Cognitive effects occur when communication technologies make "salient" particular aspects of personal or social identity. For example, certain technologies such as email may disguise characteristics of the sender that individually differentiate them (i.e., that convey aspects of their personal identity) and as a result more attention may be given to their social identity. The strategic effects are due to the possibilities, afforded by communication technology, to selectively communicate or enact particular aspects of identity, and disguise others. SIDE therefore sees the social and the technological as mutually determining, and the behavior associated with particular communication forms as the product or interaction of the two. Time, interaction, and performance (TIP; McGrath, 1991) theory describes work groups as time-based, multi-modal, and multi-functional social systems. Groups interact in one of the modes of inception, problem solving, conflict resolution, and execution. The three functions of a group are production (towards a goal), support (affective) and well-being (norms and roles). Other Stances Additionally, many authors have posed technology so as to critique and or emphasize aspects of technology as addressed by the mainline theories. For example, Steve Woolgar (1991) considers technology as text in order to critique the sociology of scientific knowledge as applied to technology and to distinguish between three responses to that notion: the instrumental response (interpretive flexibility), the interpretivist response (environmental/organizational influences), the reflexive response (a double hermeneutic). Pfaffenberger (1992) treats technology as drama to argue that a recursive structuring of technological artifacts and their social structure discursively regulate the technological construction of political power. A technological drama is a discourse of technological "statements" and "counterstatements" within the processes of technological regularization, adjustment, and reconstitution. An important philosophical approach to technology has been taken by Bernard Stiegler, whose work has been influenced by other philosophers and historians of technology including Gilbert Simondon and André Leroi-Gourhan. In the Schumpeterian and Neo-Schumpeterian theories technologies are critical factors of economic growth (Carlota Perez). Analytical theories There are theories of technological change and innovation which are not defined or claimed by a proponent, but are used by authors in describing existing literature, in contrast to their own or as a review of the field. For example, Markus and Robey (1988) propose a general technology theory consisting of the causal structures of agency (technological, organizational, imperative, emergent), its structure (variance, process), and the level (micro, macro) of analysis. Orlikowski (1992) notes that previous conceptualizations of technology typically differ over scope (is technology more than hardware?) and role (is it an external objective force, the interpreted human action, or an impact moderated by humans?) and identifies three models: The technological imperative: focuses on organizational characteristics which can be measured and permits some level of contingency Strategic choices: focuses on how technology is influenced by the context and strategies of decision-makers and users Technology as maker of structural changes:: views technology as a social object DeSanctis and Poole (1994) similarly write of three views of technology's effects: Decision-making: the view of engineers associated with positivist, rational, systems rationalization, and deterministic approaches Institutional school: technology is an opportunity for change, focuses on social evolution, social construction of meaning, interaction and historical processes, interpretive flexibility, and an interplay between technology and power An integrated perspective (social technology): soft-line determinism, with joint social and technological optimization, structural symbolic interaction theory Bimber (1998) addresses the determinacy of technology effects by distinguishing between the: Normative: an autonomous approach where technology is an important influence on history only where societies attached cultural and political meaning to it (e.g., the industrialization of society) Nomological: a naturalistic approach wherein an inevitable technological order arises based on laws of nature (e.g., steam mill had to follow the hand mill). Unintended consequences: a fuzzy approach that is demonstrative that technology is contingent (e.g., a car is faster than a horse, but unbeknownst to its original creators become a significant source of pollution) References Bibliography Bentley, Raymond (2019). Technological Change In The German Democratic Republic, Routledge Denis, A. and Valacich, J. (1999). Rethinking media richness: towards a theory of media synchronicity. Proceedings of the 32nd Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science. Desanctis, G. and Poole, M. S. (1990). Understanding the use of group decision support systems: the theory of adaptive structuration. In J. Fulk, C. S., editor, Organizations and Communication Technology, pages 173–193. Sage, Newbury Park, CA. MacKensie, D. and Wajcman, J (1985) The Social Shaping of Technology, Milton Keynes, Open University Press. Pinch, T. and Bijker, W. (1992). The social construction of facts and artifacts: or how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other. In Bijker, W. and Law, J., editors, Shaping Technology/Building Society, pages 17–50. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Science and technology Philosophy of science Philosophy of technology Sociology of science Science and technology studies	0.777611	0.98598	0.766709
Cultivation theory	Cultivation theory is a sociological and communications framework designed to unravel the enduring impacts of media consumption, with a primary focus on television. At its core, the theory posits a compelling hypothesis: individuals who invest more time in watching television are prone to perceive the real world through a lens aligning with the prevalent depictions in television messages, in contrast to their counterparts with lower television viewership but comparable demographic profiles. The premise hinges on the idea that increased exposure to television content, marked by recurring patterns of messages and images, cultivates shifts in individuals' perceptions. This transformative process extends beyond mere entertainment, playing a pivotal role in shaping the cultural fabric by reinforcing shared assumptions about the world. Cultivation theory, therefore, seeks to unravel the intricate dynamics of how prolonged engagement with television programming influences collective perspectives. This theory believes that television has taken the role in which family, schools and churches formerly played in the society, which is the function of enculturation. A notable validation of the theory's significance emerges from a comprehensive 2004 study conducted by Jennings Bryant and Dorina Miron. Their examination, encompassing nearly 2,000 articles published in the top three mass communication journals since 1956, revealed cultivation theory as the third most frequently employed cultural framework. This underscores the theory's enduring relevance and widespread adoption within the realm of mass communication scholarship. Origin and founders Cultivation theory was founded by George Gerbner. It was developed to seek out the influence that television media may have on the viewers. In later years, the research of Gerbner were expanded on and developed by an American screenwriter Larry Gross. Gerbner formulated his paradigm for mass communication in 1973 which included three types of analysis. The first type of analysis is message system analysis. Message system analysis aims to identify the content of message patterns in television and media. This includes the focus on gender, race, and ethnicity in relation to topics, such as violence. The second type of analysis is the cultivation analysis that is defined as the longitudinal surveys of people's opinions on certain subjects with the key variable being levels of media reception such as television viewing. Most of the research under cultivation theory involves cultivation analysis. The third type of analysis is institutional process analysis, which looks at what institutions are supporting and distributing the content in media. These three analyses are known as the cultivation theory. Cultivation theory began as a way to test the impact of television on viewers, especially how exposure to violence through television affects human beings. The theory's key proposition is that "the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe that social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television." Early studies of Cultivation Theory began with an interest in whether or not heavy television viewers were more likely to imitate violence that they saw. Current studies emphasize the conclusions that viewers draw about violence in the world around them. The traditional perspective of Cultivation Theory put emphasis on the overall viewing habits of individuals rather than their choice of genre. This was due to fewer choices that viewers had available to them. In light of changes in technology, simply examining the amount of viewing can be combined with choices in viewing. Gerbner believed that audience members used television to "fill the gaps" of their knowledge about certain experiences that have not occurred their own life experience. Because cultivation theory assumes the existence of objective reality and value-neutral research, it can be categorized as part of positivistic philosophy. Background Together, Gerbner and Gross were able to expand upon the cultivation theory and base it upon different core assumptions. Cultivation theory is based on three core assumptions: Medium: the first assumption is that television is fundamentally different from other forms of mass media. Audience: cultivation theory does not predict what people will do after watching a violent program but rather posits a connection between people's fears of a violence-filled world and their exposure to violent programming. The exposure to violent programming leads to what Gerbner calls the mean world syndrome, the idea that long-term exposure to violent media will lead to a distorted view that the world is more violent than it is. Function and effect: television's effects are limited because it is a part of a larger sociocultural system. Therefore, although the effects of watching television may increase or decrease at any point in time, its effect is consistently present. Cultivation theory suggests that exposure to media affects a viewer's perceptions of reality, drawing attention to three aspects: institutions, messages, and publics. Television, Gerbner suggested, binds diverse communities together by socializing people into standardized roles and behaviors; thus, television functions as part of the enculturation process. Gerbner's research focused on the larger meaning of heavy television consumption instead of the meaning behind specific messages. There are three orders of effect that come with the cultivation theory. The first order effects describe how people's behavior changes when exposed to mass media. The second order effect encompasses the viewers' values and attitudes depending on what they are watching. The third order effect is the change in the viewer's observation behavior. Perceptions of Violence Gerbner's initial work looked specifically at the effects of television violence on American audiences. Measuring the effect of violence underscored the larger part of Gerbner's work on cultivation theory. Therefore, he measured dramatic violence, defined as "the overt expression or threat of physical force as part of the plot." Gerbner's research also focused on the interpretation by high-use viewers of the prevalence of crime on television versus reality. He argues that, since a high percentage of programs include violent or crime-related content, viewers who spend a lot of time watching are inevitably exposed to high levels of crime and violence. Reality television is popular programming due to its dramatic displays of aggression, both verbal and physical. The programs, which are supposed to be actual accounts of an individual's life, reinforce stereotypes of acceptable aggression for both males and females. Producers have the ability to shape the viewers' perception of reality by manipulating the events of the show. Fans of these types of programs believe that behavioral outbursts of celebrities are acceptable responses. In 1968, Gerbner conducted a survey to demonstrate this theory. Following his previous results, he placed television viewers into three categories: light viewers (less than 2 hours a day), medium viewers (2–4 hours a day), and heavy viewers (more than 4 hours a day). He found that heavy viewers held beliefs and opinions similar to those portrayed on television, which demonstrated the compound effect of media influence. Heavy viewers experienced shyness, loneliness, and depression much more than those who watched less often. From this study, Gerbner then began to work on what would become the Mean World Syndrome, which is based on the fact that heavy viewers of television, particularly violence-related content, are more likely than light viewers to believe that the world is more frightening and dangerous than it actually is. In 2012, people with heavy viewing habits were found to believe that 5% of society was involved in law enforcement. In contrast, people with light viewing habits estimated a more realistic 1%. TV Viewing and Fear of Crime In most of the surveys conducted by Gerbner, the results revealed a small but statistically significant relationship between television consumption and fear of becoming the victim of a crime. Those with light viewing habits predicted their weekly odds of being a victim were 1 in 100; those with heavy viewing habits predicted 1 in 10. Actual crime statistics showed the risk to be 1 in 10,000. Supporting this finding is a survey done with college students that showed a significant correlation between the attention paid to local crime and one's fearfulness. There was also a significant correlation between fear of crime and violence and the number of times the respondents viewed television per week. Local news has been frequently analyzed for cultivation, as they rely "heavily on sensational coverage of crime and other mayhem with particular emphasis on homicide and violence", while news agencies boast of their allegiance to report factually. Gerbner found that heavy viewers of news were more likely to overestimate crime rates and risk of personal exposure to crime and underestimate the safety of their neighborhoods. Additionally, several other studies point out the correlation between viewing local news and fear of crime, with Gross and Aiday (2003) finding the relationship between local news exposure and fear of crimes to be independent of local crime rates. Gerbner's theory focuses on the collective mindset of television viewers' fear of crime based on the amount of television programs with this content. Some critics argue that this explanation does not take into account other variables that have the potential to change this conclusion. Variables such as age, sex, or educational level of individuals potentially influence viewers' beliefs about the prevalence of crime compared to what is shown on television. Some research findings indicate a higher cultivation relationship between television and fear of crime among whites, and a lower cultivation relationship among non-whites. This finding indicates that viewing images of violence in reality lessens the psychological impact of viewing violence on television. The assumption is that more whites may live in safer neighborhoods, and therefore television images have more shock value. Another consideration is that television viewers do not watch one type of genre, and therefore one must consider the influence violent programs within the total viewing experience of television watchers. Aside from local news, national news, police shows, and general TV news viewing are also related to a fear of crime. Additionally, non-genre-specific TV viewing has been associated with fear of crime. Busselle (2003) found that parents who watch more programs portraying crime and violence are more likely to warn their children about crime during their high school years; these warnings, in turn, increased the students' own crime estimates, suggesting cultivation takes place through both direct and indirect processes. Magic bullet theory A similar theory that examines media's effects on individuals is the magic bullet theory. It is one of the first theories concerning mass communication. It is a linear model of communication concerned with audiences directly influenced by mass media and the media's power over them. It assumes that the media's message is a bullet fired from a media "gun" into the viewer's head. Magic bullet theory is also known as the hypodermic needle model. It suggests that the media delivers its messages straight into a passive audience's body. Harold Lasswell put this theory in place after World War 1. With the rise of media like advertising and movies in the mid 1900s, there was an apparent effect on people's behavior. Passive audience Assuming that cultivation theory aligns with the magic bullet theory, several cognitive mechanisms that explain cultivation effects have been put forth by Shrum (1995, 1996, 1997). Shrum's availability-heuristic explanation suggests that heavy viewers tend to retain more vivid memories of instances of television reality and more readily access those memories when surveyors ask them questions, resulting in more responses related to viewing, more quickly given. Another mechanism that might explain the cultivation phenomenon is a cognitive-narrative mechanism. Previous research suggests that the realism of narratives in combination with individual-level "transportability", or the ability to be less critical of a narrative, might facilitate cultivation effects. Three analyses Message system analysis The message system analysis focuses on the content that is displayed in television programs. Gerbner's main focus of TV viewing was the depiction of violence in TV shows and movies. Using message system analysis as a tool helps researchers study viewer perceptions of reality, their perceptions of the observable world, and can evaluate transmitted media content. Many theorists have extended Gerbner's theory. Gerbner's research focused on TV violence, but current research examines a variety of factors. Childhood viewing may be associated with overall self-esteem in children, and affect one's beliefs as an adult. Studies outside the US, where the programming is less homogeneous and repetitive, produced results that are less consistent. Australian students who watched US television programs (especially adventure and crime shows) were more likely to view Australia as dangerous; however, they didn't perceive America as dangerous, even though they were watching US programs. The cultivation effect is not specific to genre or program, but can result from cumulative exposure to stable patterns of content on television. Jonathan Cohen and Gabriel Weimann found cultivation more prevalent among teenagers and young adults, who may then exhibit cultivation longevity. Viewers tended toward greater psychosocial health when watching no more than 2 hours of television each day, following recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), with an even greater impact on women. One study examined possible effects of viewing alcohol consumption in music videos." Another study looked at interactive video games and found the viewer's role within the game is essential in the progression of the story. Participants interacted with other players in real-time, with a strong showing of the cultivation of participants. Dramatic violence Gerbner's initial work looked specifically at the effects of television violence on American audiences. In particular, he found the most common type of violence was dramatic violence. He measured dramatic violence, defined as "the overt expression or threat of physical force as part of the plot." The Coding of Health and Media Project or CHAMP, created a violence code book that defines Dramatic Violence that involves a character's intentional physical pain on another character. This sort of violence excludes sports violence, natural disasters seen on the news, and or comedy violence such as boxing, verbal threats. CHAMP's analysis also involves a quantification of the explicitness of violent acts with 1 being the least explicit to 5 being the most explicit, fatalities from violence, a definition for Comedic violence. Shows such as Law & Order SVU and CSI: Miami use murder to frame each episode, underscoring the presence of gratuitous and dramatic violence. The idea of dramatic violence reinforces the relationship between fear and entertainment. Though death is being used as a plot point, it also functions to cultivate an image of looming violence. Cultivation analysis Mainstreaming Mainstreaming, in the context of cultivation theory, refers to the process by which long-term exposure to consistent media messages can lead to the shaping of a shared social reality among heavy viewers. TV viewers from disparate groups develop a common outlook of the world through exposure to the same images and labels, the effect being stronger among those whose TV viewing is more constant. Heavy viewers of television, for example, tend to perceive the world in ways that are more congruent with the portrayals and values depicted on television. As Gerbner and Gross noted, "Television's cultivation of shared conceptions and beliefs exerts a subtle but cumulative influence on the audience's judgments about reality". This theory underscores the idea that the media's repetitive messages can influence and shape the perceptions and attitudes of the audience, potentially leading to a more homogenized worldview among viewers who consume a steady diet of such content. Resonance Resonance refers to the idea that long-term exposure to media content can shape individuals' perceptions and beliefs about the real world, leading to a correspondence between the media's portrayal of reality and individuals' own understanding of it. Resonance can also be said to be the intensified effect of television viewing on the audience, such that what people see on television is what they have experienced in life. This concept is central to George Gerbner's cultivation theory, which posits that heavy viewers of television, for instance, are more likely to accept the social reality presented by the media as their own. This resonance occurs when individuals find that their own experiences and beliefs align with the content they consume. For example, those who have already been victims of crime perceive the world as far more frightening when they watch more violent television. They may seek greater safety and security measures from the government as a result of this confirmation of their beliefs. While resonance can reinforce existing beliefs and attitudes, it can also foster cultural and social change by influencing viewers' perceptions of societal norms and values. Cultivation differential In 1968, Gerbner conducted a survey to demonstrate this theory. Following his previous results, he placed television viewers into three categories: light viewers (less than 2 hours a day), medium viewers (2–4 hours a day), and heavy viewers (more than 4 hours a day). Nielsen Media Research went further and defined heavy viewing as watching more than 11 hours a day. He found that heavy viewers held beliefs and opinions similar to those portrayed on television, which demonstrated the compound effect of media influence. Heavy viewers experienced shyness, loneliness, and depression much more than those who watched less often. In most of the surveys conducted by Gerbner, the results revealed a small but statistically significant relationship between television consumption and fear of becoming the victim of a crime. Those with light viewing habits predicted their weekly odds of being a victim were 1 in 100; those with heavy viewing habits predicted 1 in 10. Actual crime statistics showed the risk to be 1 in 10,000. Gerbner's research also focused on the interpretation by high-use viewers of the prevalence of crime on television versus reality. He argues that, since a high percentage of programs include violent or crime-related content, viewers who spend a lot of time watching are inevitably exposed to high levels of crime and violence. In 2012, people with heavy viewing habits were found to believe that 5% of society was involved in law enforcement. In contrast, people with light viewing habits estimated a more realistic 1%. Supporting this finding is a survey done with college students that showed a significant correlation between the attention paid to local crime and one's fearfulness. There was also a significant correlation between fear of crime and violence and the number of times the respondents viewed television per week. Local news has been frequently analyzed for cultivation, as they rely "heavily on sensational coverage of crime and other mayhem with particular emphasis on homicide and violence", while news agencies boast of their allegiance to report factually. Gerbner found that heavy viewers of news were more likely to overestimate crime rates and risk of personal exposure to crime and underestimate the safety of their neighborhoods. Additionally, several other studies point out the correlation between viewing local news and fear of crime, with Gross and Aiday (2003) finding the relationship between local news exposure and fear of crimes to be independent of local crime rates. Aside from local news, national news, police shows, and general TV news viewing are also related to a fear of crime. Additionally, non-genre-specific TV viewing has been associated with fear of crime. Busselle (2003) found that parents who watch more programs portraying crime and violence are more likely to warn their children about crime during their high school years; these warnings, in turn, increased the students' own crime estimates, suggesting cultivation takes place through both direct and indirect processes. Mean world syndrome From the cultivation differential study, Gerbner then began to work on what would become the mean world syndrome, which is an adoptive attitude that heavy viewers of television, particularly violence-related content, are more likely than light viewers to believe that the world is more frightening and dangerous than it actually is. Gerbner et al. developed an index for mean world syndrome. Also, Those with heavy viewing habits become suspicious of other people's motives, and that others cannot be trusted. For example, heavy viewers of violent television are much more likely to be afraid of walking alone at night in fear that they will get robbed, mugged, or even killed. This results in the heavy viewers to try and protect themselves more than others by having watchdogs, buying new locks, investing in a security camera system, and owning guns. Television reality Cultivation theory research seems to indicate that heavy viewing can result in the viewer adopting a set of beliefs based on content rather than facts. Generally, the beliefs of heavy viewers about the world are consistent with the repetitive and emphasized images and themes presented on television. As such, heavy viewing cultivates a television-shaped world view. This false reality or "symbolic world" Gerbner discusses can be seen through the media's portrayal of different demographic groups. Main characters in television are often depicted as young, outgoing, and energetic. Through the inaccurate portrayal of ethnic groups such as Hispanics, we know that they make up a large portion of the population but are rarely shown as characters. Even Middle-Easterners are widely shown as the villains in television. Therefore, television trains heavy viewers to look at crime such as gun violence, fist fights, and high-speed car chases as normal while actual crime statistics note that violent crime occurs with less than 1% of the US population. Even across diverse demographics, the amount of viewing can make a difference in terms of viewer conceptions of social reality. The amount of viewing time is the main element in creating television reality for the audience. According to Gerbner's research, the more time spent absorbing the world of television, the more likely people are to report perceptions of social reality that can be traced to television's most persistent representations of life and society. Research supports the concept of television reality arising from heavy viewing. According to Wyer and Budesheim, television messages or information (even when they are not necessarily considered truthful) can still be used by viewers to make social judgments. Furthermore, the information shown to be invalid may still inform an audience's judgments. The influence of primetime television shows on public perceptions of science and scientists has been explored by Gerbner (Gerbner, 1987). While Gerbner does not place the entire blame on television shows, he highlights the importance of acknowledging the unquestionable role it plays in shaping people's perceptions. Lack of scientific understanding can no longer be associated with 'information-deficit' because we are living in an 'information-rich world'. This also brings up the concerns about the implications of possessing too much scientific knowledge as a viewer. While being well informed helps people to make rational scientific choices, excessive scientific knowledge can bring up apprehensions, fears, suspicion, and mistrust. Prime time shows have a wider reachability, visibility, and interact with people from across diverse backgrounds. Television is used in a relatively nonselective way for viewing. These form the strong basis to conclude that scientists and the scientific community can benefit from stronger connections with the producers, directors, and the entertainment industry at large. The market for science shows has an audience group that faces a mixture of expectations, fears, utilitarian interests, curiosities, ancient prejudices, and superstitions. Gerbner's research used cultivation analysis to understand and examine the response patterns of 1,631 respondents' group which includes light and heavy viewers. They were presented with five propositions—science makes our way of life change too fast; makes our lives healthier, easier, and more comfortable; breaks down people's ideas of right and wrong; is more likely to cause problems than to find solutions; and the growth of science means that a few people can control our lives. The research estimated the percentage of positive responses to science based on two groups divided by sex and education. The study suggested that the exposure to science through television shows cultivate less favorable orientation towards science, especially in high status groups whose light-viewer members are its greatest supporters, and lower status groups have a generally low opinion of science. These observations can be understood through the concept of mainstreaming. Institutional process analysis In contrast to the other analyses, there has not been as much research in this third analysis compared to message analysis and cultivation analysis according to Andrew Ledbetter. Institutional process analysis attempts to understand the what happens within a media organization. Institution analysis attempts to understand the policies that media organization hold, the content they decide to broadcast, and even their motives for the content that they broadcast. Media content may produce more shows, movies, that cater toward different audiences, but Michael Morgan, James Shanahan and Nancy Signorielli argue that a disproportionately small amount of individuals control the media content compared to the audience that views the content. Media Organization's primary concern is of profit rather than ethics and catering to diverse audiences and perspectives. As much as Gerbner was concerned with Institutional Process Analysis, no clear method was created to study media organizations practices and their motives behind the content. Application of theory Gender and sexuality LGBTQIA+ Sara Baker Netzley (2010) conducted research similar to Gerbner's into the way that gay people were depicted on television. This study found that there was an extremely high level of sexual activity in comparison to the number of gay characters that appeared on television. This has led those who are heavy television consumers to believe that the gay community is extremely sexual. Much like the idea of a mean and scary world, it gives people an exaggerated sense of a sexualized gay community. A study conducted by Jerel Calzo and Monique Ward (2009) begins by analyzing recent research conducted into the portrayal of gay and lesbian characters on television. While the representation of gay and lesbian characters has continued to grow, the study found that most television shows frame gay and lesbian characters in a manner that reinforces LGBT stereotypes. Diving into the discussion, Calzo and Ward describe even shows such as Ellen and Will & Grace as having storyline content that reinforces "stereotypes by portraying [...] characters as lacking stable relationships, as being preoccupied with their sexuality (or not sexual at all), and by perpetuating the perception of gay and lesbian people as laughable, one-dimensional figures." Their findings confirmed that media genres played an important role in forming attitudes regarding homosexuality. They were surprised by the finding that prior primetime shows, which are no longer on air, reinforced greater acceptance within the LGBTQ realm. They then suggested that, because genre played a large role in the perceptions that viewers formed while watching certain television shows, research should focus on "more genre-driven effects analyses." Men and women In their 2022 study, Scharrer and Warren examined the endorsement of traditionally masculine values in regard to gender norms among combined viewers of streaming services such as Netflix, video games, and YouTube. Traditional masculine traits in this study included "emotional detachment, dominance, toughness, and/or avoidance of femininity among boys and girls in the sample" (Scharrer & Warren, 2022). Results showed that participants in the heavy viewer category indicated higher scores of endorsement of traditionally masculine traits for men compared to light viewers. Beverly Roskos-Ewoldsen, John Davies, and David Roskos-Ewoldsen (2004) posit that perceptions of women are integrated in a rather stereotypical fashion, compared to portrayals of men, on television. They state that, "men are characters in TV shows at about a 2 to 1 ratio to women." Viewers who consume more television usually also have more traditional views of women. Research has also shown that women are more likely to be portrayed as victims on television than men. Alexander Sink and Dana Mastro (2017) studied women and gender depictions on American prime-time television. Although women are often perceived to be better represented on television in recent years, these researchers claim that this is not necessarily the case. They claim women are proportionally underrepresented on prime time television, making up 39% of characters even though women make up 50.9% of the population in the US. Men were also portrayed as more dominant than women, and although men were more often objectified, women were consistently portrayed as hyper-feminized and hyper-sexualized. Fewer older women appeared during prime time, compared to men, and were often shown to be less competent than older male characters. Sexual attitudes Cultivation theory has been utilized when conducting research on sexual attitudes regarding women. Sex-role stereotypes can be traced to the independent contribution of TV viewing, just as sex, age, class, and education contribute. Rita Seabrook found that there was a positive relationship of viewing reality TV, pornography, and sports programming and an acceptance of objectifying women and a higher tolerance for sexual aggression. A study by Bradley J. Bond and Kristin L. Drogos (2014) examined the relationship between exposure to the television program Jersey Shore and sexual attitudes and behavior in college-aged adults. They found a positive relationship between time spent watching Jersey Shore and increased sexual permissiveness. This effect was found to be stronger in the younger participants than in older ones and held true even when the researchers controlled for other influences on participants' sexual attitudes, such as religious beliefs and parents' attitudes. This higher level of sexually permissive attitudes and behavior was not a result of higher overall exposure to television, but specifically to greater exposure to Jersey Shore, a highly sexualized program. Race and ethnicity A substantial part of stereotyping and perception of races can be drawn back to the media. The representation and the depiction of races and ethnicities in media can have an effect on how we stereotype them. Both representation and lack of representation can have an effect on people of differing races and social groups. Lack of representation in media can lead people, especially children, to feel a lack of self worth or less valued than another race or social group. This can be seen when looking into how media, specifically television and film, portray different races and ethnicities. Meghan S. Sanders and Srividya Ramasubramanian (2012) studied perceptions that African American media consumers hold about fictional characters portrayed in film and television. They found that—while study participants tended to view all African American characters positively—social class, rather than race or ethnicity, mattered more in perceptions about the warmth and competence of a character. Their study suggests that the ethnicity of media consumers needs to be taken into account in cultivation studies, because media consumers with different backgrounds likely perceive media portrayals, and their faithfulness to reality differently. The depiction of these ethnic groups in media can have an effect on how they are perceived in reality and even how they perceive each other. A study by Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz and David Ta (2014) examined the cultivation effects of video games on White students' perceptions of Black and Asian individuals. While no significant effects were found for perceptions of Asian individuals, researchers found that those who spent a greater amount of time playing video games, no matter what genre, held a less positive view of Black people. They also found that real-life interaction with Black individuals did not change this effect. Behm-Morawitz and Ta suggest that the stable, negative racial and ethnic stereotypes portrayed in video game narratives of any genre impact real-world beliefs, in spite of more varied real-life interactions with racial and ethnic minorities. Chrysalis Wright and Michelle Craske (2015) conducted a study using the cultivation framework to examine the relationship between music lyrics and videos that contained sexual content and the sexual behaviors of African American, Hispanic and Caucasian young adults. In previous studies, it was hypothesized that the heavy listening habits of youth to sexually explicit content can alter the listener's perception of reality and normalize risky sexual behaviors. However, Wright and Caste are the first study to assess the cultivation framework's ability to explain the possible relationship. Their findings concluded that there were minimal effects on those from Caucasian or Hispanic backgrounds with one or two normalized sexual behaviors, such as age of first relationship and sexual encounter. In comparison, researchers found that there were several normalized sexual behaviors found within participants from an African American background, such as earlier age of first date and sexual encounter, higher amount of casual sexual encounters and lower percentage of condom usage. It is speculated that the effects of cultivation are more prominent within the African American community as opposed to other ethnic groups as African Americans might view music as an accurate representation of their culture. Chen (2006) found that rap music was the most popular music genre listened to by African Americans, and more explicit sexual references have been associated with rap in comparison to other genres with "78% of rap, 53% of pop, 37% of rock, and 36% of country music videos containing some form of sexual reference." Furthermore, previous research displayed that non-Caucasian artists make more allusions to sexual content, referencing sexual acts 21% of the time as compared to 7.5% of the time by Caucasian artists. These cultivation effects of musicians creating a false reality in regards to sexual behaviors and experiences through their lyrics and videos may make African American listeners more vulnerable to "adopt thinking processes and behave similar to the content contained in the music they are exposed to." Politics and policy preferences Two of George Gerbner's colleagues, Michael Morgan and James Shanahan, have found that those with heavy viewing habits may label themselves as moderate, however their positions on various social issues leaned conservative. Furthermore, heavy viewers were more likely to hold authoritarian beliefs. Morgan and Shanahan provide this study in context of the 2016 Presidential election. Diana Mutz and Lilach Nir (2010) conducted a study of how fictional television narratives can influence viewers' policy preferences and positive or negative attitudes regarding the justice system in the real world. They found that positive portrayals of the criminal justice system were associated with viewers' more positive view of the system in real life, whereas negative television portrayals were associated with viewers' feeling that the criminal justice system often works unfairly. Furthermore, researchers found that these attitudes did influence viewers' policy preferences concerning the criminal justice system in real life. A study by Anita Atwell Seate and Dana Mastro (2016) studied news coverage of immigration and its relationship to viewers' immigration policy preferences and negative attitudes regarding immigrants. They found that exposure to negative messages about immigrants in the news generated anxious feelings towards the outgroup (i.e., immigrants), particularly when the news program showed a member of the outgroup. This exposure did not necessarily immediately influence immigration policy preferences, but long-term exposure to messages of this kind can affect such preferences. Katerina-Eva Matsa (2010) explored cultivation effects through her thesis on television's impact on political engagement in Greece. She did so by describing the role of satirical television within the cultural realm in Greece and how this form of television created ingrained perceptions that Greek political institutions are corrupt, thus negatively influencing the Greek public's overall opinion of politics in their country. Altruistic behavior Zakir Shah, Jianxun Chu, Usman Ghani, Sara Qaisar, and Zameer Hassan (2020) conducted the first study from the perspective of cultivation theory to determine the mediating role of fear of victimization, gained from exposure to disaster-related media, on altruistic behavior. Findings show that exposure to disaster-related news and individuals’ perceptions taken from the media contributed to fear of victimization. Moreover, fear of victimization from disaster significantly influences the altruistic behavior of people. A research study that examines television viewing, narrative engagement, and three Idealistic moral expectations: just world beliefs, altruism of doctors, tolerance of others. They found that television viewing, narrative engagement, and moral expectations were all dependent on each other. New media Technology has evolved since George Gerbner developed this theory. Society has more media to consume than just prime-time television. Andrew Ledbetter identified three key differences in television in the age of new media: recordable, mobile, and many choices. Recordable means people have the ability to watch programs at anytime as opposed to the mid-century when television had a time-specific showing of any program. Mobile means people have the ability to watch video content wherever they go through smartphones. And third, many choices entails the multitude of streaming platforms, and even the many choices within each streaming platform. Cultivation theory has been applied to the study of new media. Scholars Morgan, Shanahan & Signorielli noted that media technology has not been static, and may continue to evolve. Therefore, older methods of cultivation analysis may have to move from counting hours of television viewed, and take a big data approach. These authors argue that, although many were skeptical that cultivation theory would be applicable with the increasing importance of new media, these new media still use narrative; and, since those narratives affect us, cultivation theory is still relevant. Croucher (2011) applied cultivation theory to his theory of social media and its effects on immigrant cultural adaptation. He theorizes that immigrants who use the dominant social media while they are still in the process of adapting to their new culture will develop perceptions about their host society from that media. He believes that this cultivation effect will also impact the way immigrants interact offline with natives of the host country. In a similar vein, the cultivation framework has been applied to the study of body image effects on social media platforms, with research indicating that browsing through certain types of content relates to distorted views on the physical appearances of strangers. Minors and the Internet Since the 1960s, communication scholars have examined television's contributions to viewers' perceptions of a wide variety of issues. However, little effort has been made to investigate the influence of television on perceptions of social reality among adolescents. Cultivation theory, which mainly studies the long-term impact of television on the audience, in a specific group of people, the longer the group watches TV, the closer the audience's perception of reality is to the content of the TV. Cultivation theory is one of the most common theories in today's lives, especially for teens and children, because adults can control and discern content on TV shows and social media, but minors cannot tell the difference between right and wrong all the time, “for example, the fact that media often broadcast programs, news or movies with violent content creates a social environment in which violence is taught and consumed.” (Busair Ahmad, 2015). There is hope that television and film programs will be reformed to reduce the impact on children, the government and people from all walks of life are also working hard to formulate policies to protect young people. “We provide recommendations for clinicians, policymakers, and educators in partnering with caregivers and youth to support electronic media use that promotes positive outcomes in these areas.” (Gaidhane, 2018). Books Authors and researchers have developed multiple books over the years based on cultivation theory. One of the earliest books written based on cultivation theory was in 1995, where James Shanahan and Michael Morgan came together to write the book "Television and its Viewers" Then, one of the latest books based on the topic was written by Andy Ruddock in 2020, called "Digital Media Influence: A Cultivation Approach". Criticism Although there is a significant correlation between TV viewing and perception of reality, cultivation effects have a small influence on an individual's perception of the world. Michael Morgan and James Shanahan conducted a meta-analysis in 1997 that revealed that increased television viewing did have a significant relationship between amount of television viewed and perception of reality. However, the change in perception was small. Hirsch (1980) argues that there will be very little effect that can be attributed to television if other variables are controlled simultaneously. In Hirsch's review, he found that even people who did not watch television perceived the world as violent and dangerous. Costanze Rossman argues that there is little evidence that TV viewing causes fear of violence. The variables may even be reversed in the relationship where fear of violence increases TV viewing. Other variables may influence this relationship, like living in an area with a high-crime rate. Elihu Katz, the founder of uses and gratifications theory, listed cultivation theory in his article, "Six Concepts in Search of Retirement". One of the reasons for retiring this theory is because of technology changes that have happened from when the theory was founded. George Gerbner's theory was founded in 1973, which was an era where prime time television was the dominant medium. Given that this theory developed before the age of the internet and social media, Morgan, Shanahan and Signorelli offer a suggestion about where the theory could go next in the age of new media. In the age of new media is recordable, mobile and has many choices, the authors wonder if the content and messages have become more diverse, therefore having an influence on cultivation. Jennings Bryant points out that cultivation research focuses more on the effects rather than who or what is being influenced, being more to do with the whys and hows, as opposed to gathering normative data as to the whats, whos, and wheres. Daniel Chandler argues that while television does have some effect on how we perceive the world around us, Gerbner's study does not consider the lived experiences of those who do inhabit high crime areas. Horace Newcomb argues that violence is not presented as uniformly on television as the theory assumes; therefore, television cannot be responsible for cultivating the same sense of reality for all viewers. See also Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania Availability heuristic Consensus reality Media influence Reality TV Sociological theory References Further reading Communication theory	0.773109	0.991629	0.766638
Steps to an Ecology of Mind	Steps to an Ecology of Mind is a collection of Gregory Bateson's short works over his long and varied career. Subject matter includes essays on anthropology, cybernetics, psychiatry, and epistemology. It was originally published by Ballantine Books in 1972 (republished 2000 with foreword by Mary Catherine Bateson). Part I: Metalogues The book begins with a series of metalogues, which take the form of conversations with his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson. The metalogues are mostly thought exercises with titles such as "What is an Instinct" and "How Much Do You Know." In the metalogues, the playful dialectic structure itself is closely related to the subject matter of the piece. DEFINITION: A metalogue is a conversation about some problematic subject. This conversation should be such that not only do the participants discuss the problem but the structure of the conversation as a whole is also relevant to the same subject. Only some of the conversations here presented achieve this double format. Notably, the history of evolutionary theory is inevitably a metalogue between man and nature, in which the creation and interaction of ideas must necessarily exemplify evolutionary process. Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (01948, previously unpublished) Why Do Frenchmen? (01951, Impulse ; 01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. X) About Games and Being Serious (01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. X) How Much Do You Know? (01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. X) Why Do Things Have Outlines? (01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. XI) Why a Swan? (01954, Impulse) What Is an Instinct? (01969, Sebeok, Approaches to Animal Communication) Part II: Form and Pattern in Anthropology Part II is a collection of anthropological writings, many of which were written while he was married to Margaret Mead. Culture Contact and Schismogenesis (01935, Man, Article 199, Vol. XXXV) Experiments in Thinking About Observed Ethnological Material (01940, Seventh Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences ; 01941, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 8, No. 1) Morale and National Character (01942, Civilian Morale, Watson) Bali: The Value System of a Steady State (01949, Social Structure: Studies Presented to A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Fortes) Style, Grace, and Information in Primitive Art (01967, A Study of Primitive Art, Forge) Part III: Form and Pathology in Relationship Part III is devoted to the theme of "Form and Pathology in Relationships." His essay on alcoholism examines the alcoholic state of mind, and the methodology of Alcoholics Anonymous within the framework of the then-nascent field of cybernetics. Social Planning and the Concept of Deutero-Learning was a "comment on Margaret Mead's article "The Comparative Study of Culture and the Purposive Cultivation of Democratic Values," 01942, Science, Philosophy and Religion, Second Symposium) A Theory of Play and Fantasy (01954, A.P.A. Regional Research Conference in Mexico City, March 11 ; 01955, A.P.A. Psychiatric Research Reports) Epidemiology of a Schizophrenia (edited version of a talk, "How the Deviant Sees His Society," from 01955, at a conference on "The Epidemiology of Mental Health," Brighton, Utah) Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia (01956, Behavioral Science, Vol. I, No. 4) The Group Dynamics of Schizophrenia (01960) Minimal Requirements for a Theory of Schizophrenia (01959) Double Bind, 1969 (01969) The Logical Categories of Learning and Communication (01968) The Cybernetics of "Self": A Theory of Alcoholism (01971) Part IV: Biology and Evolution On Empty-Headedness Among Biologists and State Boards of Education (in BioScience, Vol. 20, 1970) The Role of Somatic Change in Evolution (in the journal of Evolution, Vol 17, 1963) Problems in Cetacean and Other Mammalian Communication (appeared as Chapter 25, pp. 569–799, in Whales, Dolphins and Purpoises, edited by Kenneth S. Norris, University of California Press, 1966) A Re-examination of "Bateson's Rule" (accepted for publication in the Journal of Genetics) Part V: Epistemology and Ecology. Cybernetic Explanation (from the American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 10, No. 8, April 1967, pp. 29–32) Redundancy and Coding (appeared as Chapter 22 in Animal Communication: Techniques of Study and Results of Research, edited by Thomas A. Sebeok, 1968, Indiana University Press) Conscious Purpose Versus Nature (this lecture was given in August, 1968, to the London Conference on the Dialectics of Liberation, appearing in a book of the same name, Penguin Books) Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation (prepared as the Bateson's position paper for Wenner-Gren Foundation Conference on "Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation". Bateson chaired the conference held in Burg Wartenstein, Austria, July 17–24, 1968) Form, Substance, and Difference (the Nineteenth Annual Korzbski Memorial Lecture, January 9, 1970, under the auspices of the Institute of General Semantics; appeared in the General Semantics'' Bulletin, No. 37, 1970) Part VI: Crisis in the Ecology of Mind From Versailles to Cybernetics (previously unpublished. This lecture was given 21 April 1966, to the "Two Worlds Symposium" at (CSU) Sacramento State College) Pathologies of Epistemology (given at the Second Conference on Mental Health in Asia and the Pacific, 1969, at the East–West Center, Hawaii, appearing in the report of that conference) The Roots of Ecological Crisis (testimony on behalf of the University of Hawaii Committee on Ecology and Man, presented in March 1970) Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization (written for a conference convened by Bateson in October 1970 on "Restructuring the Ecology of a Great City" and subsequently edited) See also Double bind Information ecology Philosophy of mind Social sustainability Systems philosophy Systems theory Notes and references 1972 books Anthropology books Cognitive science literature Systems theory books University of Chicago Press books	0.785473	0.976018	0.766635
Values education	Values education is the process by which people give moral values to each other. According to Powney et al. It can be an activity that can take place in any human organisation. During which people are assisted by others, who may be older, in a condition experienced to make explicit our ethics in order to assess the effectiveness of these values and associated behaviour for their own and others' long term well-being, and to reflect on and acquire other values and behaviour which they recognise as being more effective for long term well-being of self and others. There is a difference between literacy and education. There has been very little reliable research on the results of values education classes, but there are some encouraging preliminary results. One definition refers to it as the process that gives young people an initiation into values, giving knowledge of the rules needed to function in this mode of relating to other people and to seek the development in the student a grasp of certain underlying principles, together with the ability to apply these rules intelligently, and to have the settled disposition to do so Some researchers use the concept values education as an umbrella of concepts that include moral education and citizenship education instead. Values education topics can address to varying degrees are character, moral development, Religious Education, Spiritual development, citizenship education, personal development, social development and cultural development. There is a further distinction between explicit values education and implicit values education where: explicit values education is associated with those different pedagogies, methods or programmes that teachers or educators use in order to create learning experiences for students when it comes to value questions. Another definition of value education is "learning about self and wisdom of life" in a self-exploratory, systematic and scientific way through formal education. According to C.V.Good'value education is the aggregate of all the process by means of which a person develops abilities and other forms of behaviour of the positive values in the society in which he lives. Commonality in many "educations" Moral education Morals as socio-legal-religious norms are supposed to help people behave responsibly. However, not all morals lead to responsible behaviour. Values education can show which morals are "bad" morals and which are "good". The change in behaviour comes from confusing questions about right and wrong. American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg who specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, and was best known for his theory of stages of moral development, believed children needed to be in an environment that allowed for open and public discussion of day-to-day conflicts and problems to develop their moral reasoning ability. Teacher education Cross has made a start at documenting some teacher training attempts. Multinational school-based values education schemes Living Values Education Programme This project of worldwide proportions inspired by the new religious movement called the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University incorporates twelve values (unity, peace, happiness, hope, humility, simplicity, trust, freedom, co-operation, honesty, courage, love), and has formed the basis of the whole-school ethos approach in schools such as West Kidlington Primary School, Kidlington whose head master Neil Hawkes and Values education coordinators Linda Heppenstall used the work and other programmes to help them form a values-based school. The Living Values Education Programme website lists 54 countries where values education projects are undertaken. Human Values Foundation The Human Values Foundation was established in 1995 to make available worldwide, a comprehensive values-themed programme for children from 4 to 12 years entitled "Education in Human Values". Its fully resourced lesson plans utilise familiar teaching techniques of discussion, story-telling, quotations, group singing, activities to reinforce learning and times of quiet reflection. Following the success of "EHV", a second programme was published – Social and Emotional Education ("SEE"), primarily for ages 12 to 14+ but it has also proved constructive for older children identified as likely to benefit from help getting their lives 'back on track. The programmes enable children and young people to explore and put into practice a wide spectrum of values with the potential to enrich their lives. Through experiential learning, over time participants develop a well-considered personal morality, all the while gaining invaluable emotional and social skills to help them lead happy, fulfilled, successful lives. Character education Character education is an umbrella term generally used to describe the teaching of children in a manner that will help them develop as personal and social beings. However, this definition requires research to explain what is meant by "personal and social being". Concepts that fall under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning/cognitive development, life skills education, health education; violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation. Lickona (1996) mentions eleven principles of successful character education. It seems to have been applied in the UK and the United States Science of Living Science of Living (Jeevan Vigyan; Jeevan = Life and Vigyan = Science) is a detailed program that complements the current educational approach with spiritual and value-based learning. While both mental and physical development is needed for a student's growth, Jeevan Vigyan adds a third pillar – that of emotional intelligence and morality (or values) – to education in schools and colleges. A combination of theory and practice, Jeevan Vigyan draws on the findings of various life sciences as well as nutritional sciences. Our parasympathetic nervous system and endocrinal system are known to be the drivers of our emotions and our behaviour. These biological centres can be influenced the Science of Living through a system of yogic exercises, breathing exercises, meditation and contemplation. Science of Living's source of inspiration is Jain Acharya Ganadhipati Shri Tulsi (1914–1997). His thoughts were further developed and expanded by Acharya Shri Mahapragya (1920–2010). Currently, Muni Shri Kishan Lal Ji, under the leadership of Acharya Shri Mahashraman, is the Principal of SOL. Examples of values education from around the world Taylor gives a thorough overview of values education in 26 European countries. Australia The Australian Government currently funds Values education in its schools, with its own publications and funding of school forums on values education at all levels of education. It also helps in becoming a better person. A conference on "Moral Education and Australian Values" was held in 2007 at Monash University. India The Indian Government currently promote Values education in its schools. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has taken a strong step to introduce values among schools and teachers training centres. Indonesia A key feature of education in Indonesia is the five principles of Pancasila. Japan Elementary school and middle school students from first to ninth grades will be taught the importance of life, to listen to others with different opinions, to be fair, respect their country and learn about foreign cultures. Singapore Teacher training institutions in Singapore all have curricular for learning to teach civics and moral education programmes – but students do not take these as seriously as they should due to lack of assessment. The reason has been said to be the lack of innovative teaching approaches such as discourse pedagogy. Slovenia There is an obligatory school subject that includes the aspect of values education and Citizenship Culture and Ethics. It is taught in 7th or 8th grade of primary school. Besides this, there are two elective subjects that partly deal with values education: Religions and Ethics (for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade) and Philosophy for children (Critical thinking, Ethical exploring, Me and the other; for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade). The Slovenian educational system does not require special training in the field of values education for teachers that teach mentioned subjects. Sweden Values education is a part of Swedish schools. Whereas the formal curricula are about educating students to be competent democratic citizens by practising student participation, qualitative studies have shown that in everyday school life, values education and school democracy often appeared to be reduced to traditional disciplining with a high focus on rules and regulations. This in turn evokes some critiques among students. Most research on values education in Sweden is done by qualitative methods, especially ethnographic or field studies as well as a focus group and interview studies. Some studies have been conducted by survey and other quantitative methods. In addition, theoretical work with roots in Dewey and Habermas has been done on deliberative democracy and deliberative conversations in schools. Thailand In Thailand, values have traditionally been taught within the context of Buddhist religious education. Since 1982 there has been a revival of applied values as an extracurricular activity suitable for Buddhist, Moslem and Christian students alike to prepare Thai students for the effects of globalization. United Kingdom Since 1988 the British government, although not recognising or calling it values education, has promoted and respected values in the guise of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSCD) leaving the initiative to individual schools to decide how values education standards should be met. It is not clear whether there are standards of values education. The Government and state school systems have never called it "values education". Values education courses in Britain may be implemented in the form of government-supported campaigns such as Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL, but are more often provided by local experts in the form of Living Values Education Programme. One headteacher in Cornwall has achieved national recognition for his work on character development and "virtues", at Kehelland Village School, based on Baha'i teachings. He was asked to develop the primary section of the University of Birmingham's Character Education pack for use with the national curriculum. See also Democratic education Educational psychology Emotional and behavioral disorders Ethics Holistic education Moral psychology Political philosophy Preschool Social psychology Socialization Society for Values in Higher Education Sociology Special education Value (ethics) References External links Philosophy of Value-Oriente Education - i Philosophy of Value-Oriented Education – ii Philosophy of value-oriented education– iii Educational programs	0.770234	0.995205	0.766541
Discovery (observation)	Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something previously unrecognized as meaningful. Concerning sciences and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such observations with previously acquired knowledge from abstract thought and everyday experiences. A discovery may sometimes be based on earlier discoveries, collaborations, or ideas. Some discoveries represent a radical breakthrough in knowledge or technology. New discoveries are acquired through various senses and are usually assimilated, merging with pre-existing knowledge and actions. Questioning is a major form of human thought and interpersonal communication, and plays a key role in discovery. Discoveries are often made due to questions. Some discoveries lead to the invention of objects, processes, or techniques. A discovery may sometimes be based on earlier discoveries, collaborations or ideas, and the process of discovery requires at least the awareness that an existing concept or method can be modified or transformed. However, some discoveries also represent a radical breakthrough in knowledge. Science Within scientific disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, actions, or events which help explain the knowledge gathered through previously acquired scientific evidence. In science, exploration is one of three purposes of research, the other two being description and explanation. Discovery is made by providing observational evidence and attempts to develop an initial, rough understanding of some phenomenon. Discovery within the field of particle physics has an accepted definition for what constitutes a discovery: a five-sigma level of certainty. Such a level defines statistically how unlikely it is that an experimental result is due to chance. The combination of a five-sigma level of certainty, and independent confirmation by other experiments, turn findings into accepted discoveries. Education Within the field of education, discovery occurs through observations. These observations are common and come in various forms. Observations can occur as observations of students done by the teacher or observations of teachers done by other professionals. Student observations help teachers identify where the students are developmentally and cognitively in the realm of their studies. Teacher observations are used by administrators to hold teachers accountable as they stay on target with their learning goals and treat the students with respect. Observations of students completed by teachers Teachers observe students throughout the day in the classroom. These observations can be informal or formal. Teachers often use checklists, anecdotal notes, videos, interviews, written work or assessments, etc. By completing these observations, teachers can evaluate at what 'level' the student is understanding the lessons. Observations allow teachers to make the necessary adaptations for the students in the classroom. These observations can also provide the foundation for strong relationships between teachers and students. When students have these relationships, they feel safer, more comfortable in the classroom and are more willing and eager to learn. Through observations teachers discover the most developmentally appropriate practices to implement in their classrooms. These encourage and promote healthier learning styles and positive classroom atmospheres. Observations of teachers completed by other professionals There are a set of standards set in the education system by government officials. Teachers are responsible for following these academic standards as a guideline for developmentally appropriate instruction. In addition to following those academic goals, teachers are also observed by administrators to ensure positive classroom environments. One of the tools that teachers could use is the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool. After using this tool, "over 150 research studies prove that students in classrooms with high-CLASS scores have better academic and social outcomes." The tool itself is known for encouraging positive classroom environments, regard for the students' perspectives, behavior management skills, quality of feedback, and language modeling. The administrators rate each of the ten categories on a scale of one to seven. One being the lowest score and seven being the highest score that the teacher may receive. Exploration Western culture has used the term "discovery" in their histories to lay claims over lands and people as "discovery" through discovery doctrines and subtly emphasize the importance of "exploration" in the history of the world, such as in the "Age of Discovery", the New World and any frontierist endeavour even into space as the "New Frontier". In the course of this discovery, it has been used to describe the first incursions of peoples from one culture into the geographical and cultural environment of others. However, calling it "discovery" has been rejected by many indigenous peoples, from whose perspective it was not a discovery but a first contact, and consider the term "discovery" to perpetuate colonialism, as for the discovery doctrine and frontierist concepts like terra nullius. Discovery and the age of discovery have been alternatively, particularly regionally, referred to through the terms contact, Age of Contact or Contact Period. See also Bold hypothesis :Category:Discoverers :Category:Lists of inventions or discoveries Creativity techniques Contact zone List of German inventions and discoveries List of multiple discoveries Logology (science) Multiple discovery Revelation Rights of nature Role of chance in scientific discoveries Scientific priority Serendipity Timeline of scientific discoveries References Specific references General references (preprint) External links A Science Odyssey: People and discoveries from PBS. TED-Education video - How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries. A Guide to Inventions and Discoveries: From Adrenaline to the Zipper from Infoplease. Learning Observation Cognition	0.781016	0.981437	0.766518
Politicisation	Politicisation (also politicization; see English spelling differences) is a concept in political science and theory used to explain how ideas, entities or collections of facts are given a political tone or character, and are consequently assigned to the ideas and strategies of a particular group or party, thus becoming the subject of contestation. Politicisation has been described as compromising objectivity, and is linked with political polarisation. Conversely, it can have a democratising effect and enhance political choice, and has been shown to improve the responsiveness of supranational institutions such as the European Union. The politicisation of a group is more likely to occur when justifications for political violence are considered acceptable within a society, or in the absence of norms condemning violence. Depoliticisation, the reverse process, is when issues are no longer the subject of political contestation. It is characterised by governance through consensus-building and pragmatic compromise. It occurs when subjects are left to experts, such as technocratic or bureaucratic institutions, or left to individuals and free markets, through liberalisation or deregulation. It is often connected with multi-level governance. The concept has been used to explain the "democratic gap" between politicians and citizens who lack choice, agency and opportunities for deliberation. In the 21st century, depoliticisation has been linked to disillusionment with neoliberalism. Depoliticisation has negative consequences for regime legitimacy, and produces anti-political sentiment associated with populism, which can result in "repoliticisation" (politicisation following depoliticisation). Current studies of politicisation are separated into various subfields. It is primarily examined on three separate levels: within national political systems, within the European Union and within international institutions. Academic approaches vary greatly and are frequently disconnected. It has been studied from subdisciplines such as comparative politics, political sociology, European studies and legal theory. The politicisation of science occurs when actors stress the inherent uncertainty of scientific method to challenge scientific consensus, undermining the positive impact of science on political debate by causing citizens to dismiss scientific evidence. Definitions The dominant academic framework for understanding politicisation is the systems model, which sees politics as an arena or sphere. In this perspective, politicisation is the process by which issues or phenomena enter the sphere of "the political", a space of controversy and conflict. Alternatively, in the behaviouralist approach to political science, which sees politics as action or conflict, politicisation is conceptualised as the process by which an issue or phenomenon becomes significantly more visible in the collective consciousness, causing political mobilisation. In the systems model, depoliticisation is seen as "arena-shifting": removing issues from the political sphere by placing them outside the direct control or influence of political institutions, such as legislatures and elected politicians, thereby denying or minimising their political nature. In the behaviouralist model, depoliticisation indicates the reduction of popular interest in an issue, a weakening of participation in the public sphere and the utilisation of power to prevent opposition. Theory Comparative politics (national level) Majoritarian institutions, such as parliaments (legislatures) and political parties, are associated with politicisation because they represent popular sovereignty and their agents are subject to short-term political considerations, particularly the need to compete for votes ("vote-seeking") by utilising populist rhetoric and policies. Non-majoritarian institutions, such as constitutional courts, central banks and international organisations, are neither directly elected nor directly managed by elected officials, and are connected with depoliticisation as they tend towards moderation and compromise. Declines in voter turnout, political mobilisation and political party membership, trends present in most OECD countries from the 1960s onwards, reflect depoliticisation. A number of causes for this shift have been suggested. The growth of big tent political parties (parties which aim to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters) resulted in reduced polarisation and centralised decision-making, with increased compromise and bargaining. In postwar Europe, the development of neo-corporatism led to political bargaining between powerful employers' organizations, trade unions and the government in a system known as tripartism, within which cartel parties could successfully prevent competition from newer parties. Globally during the late 20th century, central banks and constitutional courts became increasingly important. Robert Dahl argued that these processes risked producing alienation because they created a professionalised form of politics that was "anti-ideological" and "too remote and bureaucratized". Other contemporary scholars saw depoliticisation as a positive indication of dealignment and democratic maturity, as political competition came to be dominated by issues rather than cleavages. In the early 21st century, theorists such as Colin Crouch and Chantal Mouffe argued that low participation was not the result of satisfaction with political systems, but the consequence of low confidence in institutions and political representatives; in 2007, Colin Hay explicitly linked these studies with the concept of politicisation. Since the 1990s, a process of "repoliticisation" has occurred on the national level, marked by the growth of right-wing populist parties in Europe, increased polarisation in American politics and higher voter turnout. The divide between the winners and losers of globalisation and neoliberalism is hypothesised to have played a major role in this process, having replaced class conflict as the primary source of politicisation. Sources of conflict along this line include an "integration–demarcation" cleavage (between the losers of globalisation, who favour protectionism and nationalism, and the winners of globalisation, who prefer increased competition, open borders and internationalism); and a similar "cosmopolitan–communitarian" cleavage (which places additional emphasis on a cultural divide between supporters of universal norms and those who believe in cultural particularism). Disillusionment with neoliberal policies has also been cited as a factor behind the processes of depoliticisation and repoliticisation, particularly through the lens of public choice theory. In 2001, Peter Burnham argued that in the UK the New Labour administration of Tony Blair used depoliticisation as a governing strategy, presenting contentious neoliberal reforms as non-negotiable "constraints" in order to lower political expectations, thus creating apathy and submission among the electorate and facilitating the emergence of "anti-politics". Neo-Marxist, radical democratic and anti-capitalist critiques aim to repoliticise what they describe as neoliberal society, arguing that Marx's theory of alienation can be used to explain depoliticisation. European studies (European Union) In post-functionalist theory, the politicisation of the EU is seen as a threat to integration because it constrains executive decision makers in member states due to domestic partisanship, fear of referendum defeat and the electoral repercussions of European policies, ultimately preventing political compromise on the European level. The EU has experienced politicisation over time however it has been at an increased rate since the early 2000's due to the series of crises. At a national level within its member states, a rise in populism has contributed to volatile party politics and the election of anti-EU representatives. Due to the EU's increasing involvement and influence in controversial policy issues as it strives for further integration, there is a rise in the contestational nature of interactions between EU agents. After dissatisfaction with governance, rising populist challengers have grown the cleavages in electoral divides. International relations (international level) Government agencies Politicisation of science Climate science COVID-19 pandemic During the COVID-19 pandemic, the politicisation of investigations into the origin of COVID-19 led to geopolitical tension between the United States and China, the growth of anti-Asian rhetoric and the bullying of scientists. Some scientists said that politicisation could obstruct global efforts to suppress the virus and prepare for future pandemics. Political scientists Giuliano Bobba and Nicolas Hubé have argued that the pandemic strengthened populist politicians by providing an opportunity for them to promote policies such as tighter border controls, anti-elitism and restriction of public freedoms. See also Political polarisation References Notes Citations Bibliography Political science Political terminology Comparative politics Politics	0.779525	0.983271	0.766484
Spiral Dynamics	Spiral Dynamics (SD) is a model of the evolutionary development of individuals, organizations, and societies. It was initially developed by Don Edward Beck and Christopher Cowan based on the emergent cyclical theory of Clare W. Graves, combined with memetics. A later collaboration between Beck and Ken Wilber produced Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDi). Several variations of Spiral Dynamics continue to exist, both independently and incorporated into or drawing on Wilber's Integral theory. Spiral Dynamics has applications in management theory and business ethics, and as an example of applied memetics. However, it lacks mainstream academic support. Overview Spiral Dynamics describes how value systems and worldviews emerge from the interaction of "life conditions" and the mind's capacities. The emphasis on life conditions as essential to the progression through value systems is unusual among similar theories, and leads to the view that no level is inherently positive or negative, but rather is a response to the local environment, social circumstances, place and time. Through these value systems, groups and cultures structure their societies and individuals integrate within them. Each distinct set of values is developed as a response to solving the problems of the previous system. Changes between states may occur incrementally (first order change) or in a sudden breakthrough (second order change). The value systems develop in a specific order, and the most important question when considering the value system being expressed in a particular behavior is why the behavior occurs. Overview of the levels Development of the theory University of North Texas (UNT) professor Don Beck sought out Union College psychology professor Clare W. Graves after reading about his work in The Futurist. They met in person in 1975, and Beck, soon joined by UNT faculty member Chris Cowan, worked closely with Graves until his death in 1986. Beck made over 60 trips to South Africa during the 1980s and 1990s, applying Graves's emergent cyclical theory in various projects. This experience, along with others Beck and Cowan had applying the theory in North America, motivated the development of Spiral Dynamics. Beck and Cowan first published their extension and adaptation of Graves's emergent cyclical theory in Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change (Exploring the New Science of Memetics) (1996). They introduced a simple color-coding for the eight value systems identified by Graves (and a predicted ninth) which is better known than Graves's letter pair identifiers. Additionally, Beck and Cowan integrated ideas from the field of memetics as created by Dawkins and further developed by Csikszentmihalyi, identifying memetic attractors for each of Graves's levels. These attractors, which they called "VMemes", are said to bind memes into cohesive packages which structure the world views of both individuals and societies. Diversification of views While Spiral Dynamics began as a single formulation and extension of Graves's work, a series of disagreements and shifting collaborations have produced three distinct approaches. By 2010, these had settled as Christopher Cowan and Natasha Todorovic advocating their trademarked "SPIRAL DYNAMICS®" as fundamentally the same as Graves's emergent cyclical theory, Don Beck advocating Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDi) with a community of practice around various chapters of his Centers for Human Emergence, and Ken Wilber subordinating SDi to his similarly but-not-identically colored Integral AQAL "altitudes", with a greater focus on spirituality. This state of affairs has led to practitioners noting the "lineage" of their approach in publications. Timeline The following timeline shows the development of the various Spiral Dynamics factions and the major figures involved in them, as well as the initial work done by Graves. Splits and changes between factions are based on publications or public announcements, or approximated to the nearest year based on well-documented events. Vertical bars indicate notable publications, which are listed along with a few other significant events after the timeline. Bolded years indicate publications that appear as vertical bars in the chart above: 1966: Graves: first major publication (in The Harvard Business review) 1970: Graves: peer reviewed publication in Journal of Humanistic Psychology 1974: Graves: article in The Futurist (Beck first becomes aware of Graves's theory; Cowan a bit later) 1977: Graves abandons manuscript of what would later become The Never Ending Quest 1979: Beck and Cowan found National Values Center, Inc. (NVC) 1981: Beck and Cowan resign from UNT to work with Graves; Beck begins applying theory in South Africa 1986: Death of Clare Graves 1995: Wilber: Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (introduces quadrant model, first mention of Graves's ECLET) 1996: Beck and Cowan: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change 1998: Cowan and Todorovic form NVC Consulting (NVCC) as an "outgrowth" of NVC 1998: Cowan files for "Spiral Dynamics" service mark, registered to NVC 1999: Beck (against SD as service mark) and Cowan (against Wilber's Integral theory) cease collaborating 1999: Wilber: The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Vol. 4: Integral Psychology (first Spiral Dynamics reference) 2000: Cowan and Todorovic: "Spiral Dynamics: The Layers of Human Values in Strategy" in Strategy & Leadership (peer reviewed) 2000: Wilber: A Theory of Everything (integrates SD with AQAL, defines MGM: "Mean Green Meme") 2000: Wilber founds the Integral Institute with Beck as a founding associate around this time 2002: Beck: "SDi: Spiral Dynamics in the Integral Age" (launches SDi as a brand) 2002: Todorovic: "The Mean Green Hypothesis: Fact or Fiction?" (refutes MGM) 2002: Graves; William R. Lee (annot.); Cowan and Todorovic (eds.): Levels of Human Existence, transcription of Graves's 1971 three-day seminar 2004: Beck founds the Center for Human Emergence (CHE), 2005: Beck, Elza S. Maalouf and Said E. Dawlabani found the Center for Human Emergence Middle East 2005: Graves; Cowan and Todorovic (eds.): The Never Ending Quest 2005: Beck and Wilber cease collaborating around this time, disagreeing on Wilber's changes to SDi 2006: Wilber: Integral Spirituality (adds altitudes colored to align with both SDi and chakras) 2009: NVC dissolved as business entity, original SD service mark (officially registered to NVC) canceled 2010: Cowan and Todorovic re-file for SD service mark and trademark, registered to NVC Consulting 2015: Death of Chris Cowan 2017: Wilber: Religion of Tomorrow (further elaborates on the altitude concept and coloring) 2018: Beck et al.: Spiral Dynamics in Action 2022: Death of Don Beck Cowan and Todorovic's "Spiral Dynamics" Chris Cowan's decision to trademark "Spiral Dynamics" in the US and form a consulting business with Natasha Todorovic contributed to the split between Beck and him in 1999. Cowan and Todorovic subsequently published an article on Spiral Dynamics in the peer-reviewed journal Strategy & Leadership, edited and published Graves's unfinished manuscript, and generally took the position that the distinction between Spiral Dynamics and Graves's ECLET is primarily one of terminology. Holding this view, they opposed interpretations seen as "heterodox." In particular, Cowan and Todorovic's view of Spiral Dynamics stands in opposition to that of Ken Wilber. Wilber biographer Frank Visser describes Cowan as a "strong" critic of Wilber and his Integral theory, particularly the concept of a "Mean Green Meme." Todorovic produced a paper arguing that research refutes the existence of the "Mean Green Meme" as Beck and particularly Wilber described it. Beck's "Spiral Dynamics integral" (SDi) By early 2000, Don Beck was corresponding with integral philosopher Ken Wilber about Spiral Dynamics and using a "4Q/8L" diagram combining Wilber's four quadrants with the eight known levels of Spiral Dynamics. Beck officially announced SDi as launching on January 1, 2002, aligning Spiral Dynamics with integral theory and additionally citing the influence of John Petersen of the Arlington Institute and Ichak Adizes. By 2006, Wilber had introduced a slightly different color sequence for his AQAL "altitudes", diverging from Beck's SDi and relegating it to the values line, which is one of many lines within AQAL. Later influences on SDi include the work of Muzafer Sherif and Carolyn Sherif in the fields of realistic conflict and social judgement, specifically their Assimilation Contrast Effect model and Robber's Cave study SD/SDi and Ken Wilber's Integral Theory Ken Wilber briefly referenced Graves in his 1986 book (with Jack Engler and Daniel P. Brown) Transformations of Consciousness, and again in 1995's Sex, Ecology, Spirituality which also introduced his four quadrants model. However, it was not until the "Integral Psychology" section of 1999's Collected Works: Volume 4 that he integrated Gravesian theory, now in the form of Spiral Dynamics. Beck and Wilber began discussing their ideas with each other around this time. AQAL "altitudes" By 2006, Wilber was using SDi only for the values line, one of many lines in his All Quadrants, All Levels/Lines (AQAL) framework. In the book Integral Spirituality published that year, he introduced the concept of "altitudes" as an overall "content-free" system to correlate developmental stages across all of the theories on all of the lines integrated by AQAL. The altitudes used a set of colors that were ordered according to the rainbow, which Wilber explained was necessary to align with color energies in the tantric tradition. This left only Red, Orange, Green, and Turquoise in place, changing all of the other colors to greater or lesser degrees. Furthermore, where Spiral Dynamics theorizes that the 2nd tier would have six stages repeating the themes of the six stages of the 1st tier, in the altitude system the 2nd tier contains only two levels (corresponding to the first two SD 2nd tier levels) followed by a 3rd tier of four spiritually-oriented levels inspired by the work of Sri Aurobindo. Beck and Cowan each consider this 3rd tier to be non-Gravesian. Wilber critic Frank Visser notes that while Wilber gives a correspondence of his altitude colors to chakras, his correspondence does not actually match any traditional system for coloring chakras, despite Wilber's assertion that using the wrong colors would "backfire badly when any actual energies were used." He goes on to note that Wilber's criticism of the SD colors as "inadequate" ignores that they were not intended to correlate with any system such as chakras. In this context, Visser expresses sympathy for Beck and Cowan's dismay over what Visser describes as "vandalism" regarding the color scheme, concluding that the altitude colors are an "awkward hybrid" of the SD and rainbow/chakra color systems, both lacking the expressiveness of the former and failing to accurately correlate with the latter. Criticism and limitations As an extension of Graves's theory, most criticisms of that theory apply to Spiral Dynamics as well. Likewise, to the extent that Spiral Dynamics Integral incorporates Ken Wilber's integral theory, criticism of that theory, and the lack of mainstream academic support for it are also relevant. In addition, there have been criticisms of various aspects of SD and/or SDi that are specific to those extensions. Nicholas Reitter, writing in the Journal of Conscious Evolution, observes: On the other hand, the SD authors seem also to have magnified some of the weaknesses in Graves' approach. The occasional messianism, unevenness of presentation and constant business-orientation of Graves' (2005) manuscript is transmuted in the SD authors' book (Beck and Cowan 1996) into a sometimes- bewildering array of references to world history, pop culture and other topics, often made in helter-skelter fashion. Spiral Dynamics has been criticized by some as appearing to be like a cult, with undue prominence given to the business and intellectual property concerns of its leading advocates. Metamodernists Daniel Görtz and Emil Friis, writing as Hanzi Freinacht, who created a multi-part system combining aspects of SD with other developmental measurements dismissed the Turquoise level, saying that while there will eventually be another level, it does not currently exist. They argue that attempts to build Turquoise communities are likely to lead to the development of "abusive cults" Psychologist Keith Rice, discussing his application of SDi in individual psychotherapy, notes that it encounters limitations in accounting for temperament and the unconscious. However, regarding SDi's "low profile among academics," he notes that it can easily be matched to more well-known models "such as Maslow, Loevinger, Kohlberg, Adorno, etc.," in order to establish trust with clients. Influence and applications Spiral Dynamics has influenced management theory, which was the primary focus of the 1996 Spiral Dynamics book. John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia write that the vision and values of conscious capitalism as they articulate it are consistent with the "2nd tier" VMEMES of Spiral Dynamics. Rica Viljoen's case study of economic development in Ghana demonstrates how understanding the Purple VMEME allows for organizational storytelling that connects with diverse (non-Western) worldviews. Spiral Dynamics has also been noted as an example of applied memetics. In his chapter, "'Meme Wars': A Brief Overview of Memetics and Some Essential Context" in the peer-reviewed book Memetics and Evolutionary Economics, Michael P. Schlaile includes Spiral Dynamics in the "organizational memetics" section of his list of "enlightening examples of applied memetics." Schlaile also notes Said Dawlabani's SDi-based "MEMEnomics" as an alternative to his own "economemetics" in his chapter examining memetics and economics in the same book. Elza Maalouf argues that SDi provides a "memetic" interpretation of non-Western cultures that Western NGOs often lack, focusing attention on the "indigenous content" of the culture's value system. One of the main applications of Spiral Dynamics is to inform more nuanced and holistic systems change strategies. Just like categories in any other framework, the various levels can be seen as memetic lenses to look at the world through in order to help those leading change take a bird's eye view in understanding the diverse perspectives on a singular topic. At best, Spiral Dynamics can help us to synthesize these perspectives and recognize the strength in having a diversity of worldviews and aim to create interventions that take into consideration the needs and values of individuals at every level of the spiral. Spiral Dynamics continues to influence integral philosophy and spirituality, and the developmental branch of metamodern philosophy. Both integralists and metamodernists connect their philosophies to SD's Yellow VMEME. Integralism also identifies with Turquoise and eventually added further stages not found in SD or SDi, while metamodernism dismisses Turquoise as nonexistent. SDi has also been referenced in the fields of education, urban planning, and cultural analysis. Notes Works cited (Note on page ii: "This study was approved by Indiana University Institutional Review Board (IRB)." Note also that a previous report was published as: Nasser, Ilham (June 2020). "Mapping the Terrain of Education 2018–2019: A Summary Report". Journal of Education in Muslim Societies. Indiana University Press. 1 (2): 3–21. doi:10.2979/jems.1.2.08, but is not freely downloadable.) Developmental psychology	0.771999	0.992838	0.766469
Personalization	Personalization (broadly known as customization) consists of tailoring a service or product to accommodate specific individuals. It is sometimes tied to groups or segments of individuals. Personalization involves collecting data on individuals, including web browsing history, web cookies, and location. Various organizations use personalization (along with the opposite mechanism of popularization) to improve customer satisfaction, digital sales conversion, marketing results, branding, and improved website metrics as well as for advertising. Personalization acts as a key element in social media and recommender systems. Personalization influences every sector of society — be it work, leisure, or citizenship. History The idea of personalization is rooted in ancient rhetoric as part of the practice of an agent or communicator being responsive to the needs of the audience. When industrialization influenced the rise of mass communication, the practice of message personalization diminished for a time. In the recent times, there has been a significant increase in the number of mass media outlets that use advertising as a primary revenue stream. These companies gain knowledge about the specific demographic and psychographic characteristics of readers and viewers. After that, this information is used to personalize an audience’s experience and therefore draw customers in through the use of entertainment and information that interests them. Digital Media and Internet Another aspect of personalization is the increasing relevance of open data on the Internet. Many organizations make their data available on the Internet via APIs, web services, and open data standards. One such example is Ordnance Survey Open Data. Data made available in this way is structured to allow it to be inter-connected and used again by third parties. Data available from a user's social graph may be accessed by third-party application software so that it fits the personalized web page or information appliance. Current open data standards on the Internet are: Attention Profiling Mark-up Language (APML) DataPortability OpenID OpenSocial Websites Web pages can be personalized based on their users' characteristics (interests, social category, context, etc.), actions (click on a button, open a link, etc.), intents (make a purchase, check the status of an entity), or any other parameter that is prevalent and associated with an individual. This provides a tailored user experience. Note that the experience is not just the accommodation of the user but a relationship between the user and the desires of the site designers in driving specific actions to attain objectives (e.g. Increase sales conversion on a page). The term customization is often used when the site only uses explicit data which include product ratings or user preferences. Technically, web personalization can be accomplished by associating a visitor segment with a predefined action. Customizing the user experience based on behavioral, contextual, and technical data is proven to have a positive impact on conversion rate optimization efforts. Associated actions can be anything from changing the content of a webpage, presenting a modal display, presenting interstitials, triggering a personalized email, or even automating a phone call to the user. According to a study conducted in 2014 at the research firm Econsultancy, less than 30% of e-commerce websites have invested in the field of web personalization. However, many companies now offer services for web personalization as well as web and email recommendation systems that are based on personalization or anonymously collected user behaviors. There are many categories of web personalization which includes: Behavioral Contextual Technical Historic data Collaboratively filtered There are several camps in defining and executing web personalization. A few broad methods for web personalization include: Implicit Explicit Hybrid With implicit personalization, personalization is performed based on data learned from indirect observations of the user. This data can be, for example, items purchased on other sites or pages viewed. With explicit personalization, the web page (or information system) is changed by the user using the features provided by the system. Hybrid personalization combines the above two approaches to leverage both explicit user actions on the system and implicit data. Web personalization can be linked to the notion of adaptive hypermedia (AH). The main difference is that the former would usually work on what is considered "open corpus hypermedia", while the latter would traditionally work on "closed corpus hypermedia." However, recent research directions in the AH domain take both closed and open corpus into account, making the two fields very inter-related. Personalization is also being considered for use in less open commercial applications to improve the user experience in the online world. Internet activist Eli Pariser has documented personalized search, where Google and Yahoo! News give different results to different people (even when logged out). He also points out social media site Facebook changes user's friend feeds based on what it thinks they want to see. This creates a clear filter bubble. Websites use a visitor's location data to adjust content, design, and the entire functionality. On an intranet or B2E Enterprise Web portals, personalization is often based on user attributes such as department, functional area, or the specified role. The term "customization" in this context refers to the ability of users to modify the page layout or specify what content should be displayed. Map Personalization Digital web maps are also being personalized. Google Maps change the content of the map based on previous searches and profile information. Technology writer Evgeny Morozov criticized map personalization as a threat to public space. Mobile Phones Over time mobile phones have seen an increased attention placed on user personalization. Far from the black and white screens and monophonic ringtones of the past, smart phones now offer interactive wallpapers and MP3 truetones. In the UK and Asia, WeeMees have become popular. WeeMees are 3D characters that are used as wallpaper and respond to the tendencies of the user. Video Graphics Array (VGA) picture quality allows people to change their background without any hassle and without sacrificing quality. All of these services are downloaded by the provider with the goal to make the user feel connected and enhance the experience while using the phone. Print Media and Merchandise In print media, ranging from magazines to promotional publications, personalization uses databases of individual recipients' information. Not only does the written document address itself by name to the reader, but the advertising is targeted to the recipient's demographics or interests using fields within the database or list, such as "first name", "last name", "company", etc. The term "personalization" should not be confused with variable data, which is a much more detailed method of marketing that leverages both images and text with the medium, not just fields within a database. Personalized children's books are created by companies who are using and leveraging all the strengths of variable data printing (VDP). This allows for full image and text variability within a printed book. With the rise of online 3D printing services including Shapeways and Ponoko, personalization is becoming present in the world of product design. Promotional Merchandise Promotional items (mugs, T-shirts, keychains, balls and more) are personalized on a huge level. Personalized children's storybooks—wherein the child becomes the protagonist, with the name and image of the child personalized—are extremely popular. Personalized CDs for children are also in the market. With the advent of digital printing, personalized calendars that start in any month, birthday cards, cards, e-cards, posters and photo books can also be easily obtained. 3D Printing 3D printing is a production method that allows to create unique and personalized items on a global scale. Personalized apparel and accessories, such as jewellery, are increasing in popularity. This kind of customization is also relevant in other areas like consumer electronics and retail. By combining 3D printing with complex software a product can easily be customized by an end-user. Role of Customers Mass personalization Mass personalization is custom tailoring by a company in accordance with its end users' tastes and preferences. From a collaborative engineering perspective, mass customization can be viewed as collaborative efforts between customers and manufacturers, who have different sets of priorities and need to jointly search for solutions that best match customers' individual specific needs with manufacturers' customization capabilities. The main difference between mass customization and mass personalization is that customization is the ability of a company to allow its customers to create and choose a product which, within limits, adheres to their personal specifications. For example, a website aware of its user's location and buying habits will offer suggestions tailored to their demographics. Each user is classified by some relevant trait, like location or age, and then given personalization aimed at that group. This means that the personalization is not individual to that singular user, it only pinpoints a specific trait that matches them up with a larger group of people. Behavioral targeting represents a concept that is similar to mass personalization. Predictive Personalization Predictive personalization is defined as the ability to predict customer behavior, needs or wants - and tailor offers and communications very precisely. Social data is one source of providing this predictive analysis, particularly social data that is structured. Predictive personalization is a much more recent means of personalization and can be used to augment current personalization offerings. Predictive personalization has grown to play an especially important role in online grocers, where users, especially recurring clients, have come to expect "smart shopping lists" - mechanisms that predict what products they need based on customers similar to them and their past shopping behaviors. Personalization and power The Volume-Control Model offers an analytical framework to understand how personalization helps to gain power. It links between information personalization and the opposite mechanism, information popularization. This model explains how both personalization and popularization are employed together (by tech companies, organizations, governments or even individuals) as complementing mechanisms to gain economic, political, and social power. Among the social implications of information personalization is the emergence of filter bubbles. See also References External links International Institute on Mass Customization & Personalization which organizes MCP, a biannual conference on customization and personalization User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction (UMUAI) The Journal of Personalization Research Human–computer interaction User interface techniques Personas Types of marketing Information retrieval techniques	0.777461	0.985854	0.766463
Cram school	A cram school (colloquially: crammer, test prep, tuition center, or exam factory) is a specialized school that trains its students to achieve particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities. The English name is derived from the slang term cramming, meaning to study a large amount of material in a short period of time. The word "crammer" may be used to refer to the school or to an individual teacher who assists a student in cramming. Education Cram schools may specialize in a particular subject or subjects, or may be aligned with particular schools. Special cram schools that prepare students to re-take failed entrance examinations are also common. As the name suggests, the aim of a cram school is generally to impart as much information to its students as possible in the shortest period of time. The goal is to enable the students to obtain a required grade in particular examinations, or to satisfy other entrance requirements such as language skill (e.g.: IELTS). Cram schools are sometimes criticized, along with the countries in which they are prevalent, for a focus on rote learning and a lack of training in critical thinking and analysis. By region Australia Cram schools are referred to largely as "coaching colleges", they are used primarily to achieve the necessary results for the entrance exam for selective schools in New South Wales. They are also used extensively in English, mathematics and science courses for the Higher School Certificate, Victorian Certificate of Education, and other high school leavers exams. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, cram schools are known as "coaching centers" and in some cases, "tutorials". Most cram schools provide help for admission tests of public universities and medical colleges like BUET, CUET, RUET, KUET, Universities of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Jahangirnagar, medical colleges etc., and public examinations like PSC, JSC, SSC, and HSC. There are also some variants which have entered the market of ever-increasing help seekers. For example, cram schools now also prepare students for language tests like IELTS and TOEFL, aptitude tests like GRE, GMAT, SAT, and so on. In recent years, cram schools have also been extended to the tests for government civil services like BCS Examination. Brazil Cram schools are called "Cursinhos" (lit. Little Courses) in Brazil and are attended by students who will be taking a vestibular exam to be admitted into a university. Chile Cram schools are called "Preuniversitarios" in Chile, and are attended by students before taking PTU (University Transition Test) in order to get onto undergraduate studies. China Buxiban are cram schools located in China. They are related to the phenomenon of buke, which is extra study for the improvement of students’ academic performance in National Higher Education Entrance Examination (commonly known as Gaokao). They exist due to the importance of standardized exams, such as: High school entrance exam (after junior high, at 9th year of school). The National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or Gaokao, mandatory for college admission. English language exams. Passing the College English Test (CET) band 4 and 6 is sometimes a prerequisite for bachelor's degree, and the certificates are often important to finding employment. The TOEFL and GRE tests from ETS are required for studying abroad in English-speaking countries. Entrance exams to domestic graduate program. Over recent years the competition has intensified, partially because many new college graduates fail to find satisfactory jobs and seek post-graduate education instead. China has a test-driven system. Education departments give entrance examinations to sort students into schools of different levels. Examinations like the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (Gaokao) are vital, deciding the academic future of the participants. This education system cultivated the cramming style of teaching. Schools and teachers usually regard grades to be the primary goal. This sometimes leads to teachers imparting exam skills instead of knowledge and inspiration. But as the population of students decreases each year and admission to domestic universities expands, the pressure of the Entrance Exam has been reducing. France The national exam (baccalauréat) ending high-school is easy to obtain (the success rate is about 90%), and the grades obtained matter relatively little (most higher education school choose their students before the baccalauréat results, based on grades during high school). Thus, baccalauréat cram schools are rare. Individual tutoring is more common. After the baccalauréat, about 5% of the French students attend the selective Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles (prep school) or CPGE. These two-year programs are meant to prepare undergrad students to the entrance exams of high-profile graduate schools (Grandes écoles) in science, engineering and business — including École Normale Supérieure, HEC Paris, EDHEC, ESCP, EM Lyon, ESSEC, École polytechnique, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Télécom Paris, École des Ponts, CentraleSupélec, École des Mines, and ISAE-SUPAERO. A large proportion of CPGE are public schools, with very small tuition fees. There are about 400 CPGE schools for 869 classes, including about 58 private schools. They have produced most of France's scientists, intellectuals, and executives during the last two centuries. French prep schools are characterized by heavy workload and very high demands, varying however between schools. Programs are heavier than the first two years in public universities, covering several majors (for example Maths and Physics). Students in CPGE have between 36 and 40 hours of class a week, as well as one or more weekly 2-to-4 hours written test on each major (often also on Saturday). Students are expected to work on their own at least 2 hours a day, while the most ambitious students can work more than 5 hours every evening after classes, as well as during the weekend and holidays. Moreover, students have to take what is called "colles" (or "khôlles") mainly 2 times a week, which are oral interrogations. For science topics, it consists of an hour-long session where a group of typically 3 students, each on a board, and dealing with a question related to a specific lesson (e.g. a demonstration of a theorem) and/or exercises. The teacher listens to, assists and corrects the students, then grades them. Khôlles on languages (e.g. English) consists in a 30 minutes test: first listening to an audio or studying a newspaper article and summarizing it, and then writing a short essay on the theme. Everything is then presented orally to the teacher. Literacy khôlles often consist in preparing and presenting an essay. Entrance competitive exams to the "Grandes Ecoles" consist in written and oral exams. For scientific branches, a project involving research-oriented works has to be prepared. Written exams are typically 4h-long sets of exercises and problems built around a specific topic (which often can't be fully treated in the given amount of time), and require both reasoning and raw knowledge. Oral exams are often similar to khôlles. This is a two-year track. In most schools, only the second year is explicitly focused on entrance exams preparation. If a student could not obtain the school(s) they wanted, they can repeat the second year. There are three main branches : Scientific branch study mainly math, physics and chemistry, IT, industrial sciences, biology and earth sciences. Sub-branches are : math-physics, physics-chemistry, physics-industrial sciences, and biology-earth sciences. Many French research scientists went through scientific CPGE. Economics/business branch (often called "Prépa HEC") study mainly social sciences, economy, math and languages. Many important French public figures and politicians went through this way. Sub-branches specialize in math/economics, economics/social sciences, or management. Humanities branch (called Khâgne) study mainly philosophy, literature, foreign and ancient languages, history. Sub-branches specialize in social sciences or literature. The tracks and schools are known for their folklore (slang terms, songs and hymns, anecdotes), and often inherited from early 19th-century generations of students. Greece Φροντιστήρια (from φροντίζω, to take care of) have been a permanent fixture of the Greek educational system for several decades. They are considered the norm for learning foreign languages (English language learning usually starts during the elementary school years) and for having a chance to pass the university entrance examinations. The preparation for the country-wide university entrance examinations practically takes up the two last years of upper high school, and the general view is that the amount of relevant school hours is insufficient for the hard competition, regardless of the teachers' abilities. This leads to students taking state school lessons from 08.15 to 14.00 at school, going home for lunch, continue for two or three hours in the cramming school and returning to prepare the homework both for state school and "frontistirio". In the weekend, the students usually have lessons in the cramming school on Saturday morning and on Sunday morning revision tests. Unhired teachers by the state find a way to employment through these private businesses. These two popular views pave the ground for the abundant number of cram schools, also attended by numerous high school students for general support of their performance. Hong Kong Cram schools in Hong Kong are called tutorial schools. These cram schools put focus on the major public examinations in Hong Kong, namely HKDSE, and teach students on techniques on answering questions in the examinations. They also provide students tips on which topics may appear on the coming examination (called "question tipping"), and provide students some sample questions that are similar to those that appear in the examinations. Some cram school teachers in Hong Kong have become idolized and attract many students to take their lessons. These teachers are called "King of tutors (補習天王)". English and math are the most common subjects taught in Hong Kong cram schools. Cram schools in Hong Kong are famous because of the stresses from Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE). These cram school teaching includes practicing exam questions and grammar drills. Moreover, they provide model essays for English language exam. However, some schools are not licensed, and few educators have teaching qualifications. Their education is fun and appealing to the students but may be of little use in actually passing exams. India Numerous cram schools—referred to as coaching centers/institutes, tutorials/tuitions, dummy schools or classes in India—have sprung up all over the nation. These tutorials have become a parallel education system and it is very common and almost mandatory for the students to go to cram schools. They aim to tutor students to pass schools and college exams and getting their clients through various competitive exams to enter prestigious institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology for engineering courses the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences for medical courses at the undergraduate & postgraduate levels and the National Law Universities for legal and judicial courses. Many such schools prepare students to crack prestigious national entrance/scholarship exams at the high school level such as JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) Main & Advanced to enter prestigious engineering colleges like the IITs, NEET-UG (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test – Undergraduate level) for entrance into major medical science undergraduate programs and Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for entering into premier law schools of the country. Various such exams are held for entering fields such as scientific research, engineering, medicine, management, accountancy, law and also into India's premier central and state government services organized by UPSC, SSC etc. Indonesia Cram schools in Indonesia are called bimbingan belajar (learning assistance), often shortened into bimbel, and accepts students preparing for National Examinations before passing elementary school, junior high school, high school and college entrance exams. These cram schools teach students with exam simulations and problem-solving tutorials. Usually, these cram schools teach students by past exam questions. Bimbels in Indonesia offer lessons after school hours, weekends or public holidays. Ireland "Grind schools", as they are known in the Republic of Ireland, prepare students for the Leaving Certificate examination. Competition for university places (the "points race") has intensified with recent years: students wishing to study medicine, law or veterinary science in particular aim to achieve high points (up to 625) to be accepted. Some grind schools, such as The Institute of Education, Ashfield College, Leinster Senior College, The Dublin Academy of Education and Bruce College, teach full-time. Many others offer weekend or evening classes for students in subjects in which they struggle. Japan It is a large industry in Japan and caters to all types of school tests preparations, from kindergarten to high school graduation; it began growing rapidly in the 1970s. At that time, the number of universities was small, but college competition was intensive because almost 95% of students graduated from high school. In addition, Japan had the highest achievement test scores in the world from the 1980s to 2000, causing the cram school industry to grow. The cram schools, called juku, are privately owned, and offer lessons conducted after regular school hours, on weekends, and during summer and winter breaks. Malaysia In Malaysia, it is considered a norm for parents, especially those from the middle and upper class, to send schoolchildren for private tuition. Such services are often provided by tuition centers and/or private tutors. These tutors may be full-time tutors, schoolteachers, retirees, or even senior students. Many concerned parents choose to send their children to different tuition classes or schedules based on the child's entrance examination subjects. Some students may go to tuition for their weaker subjects, while many schoolchildren are increasingly known to attend at least 10 hours of private tuition every week. Correspondingly, the reputation and business of a tuition center often depends on venue, schedule, number of top-scoring clients, and advertizing by word of mouth. It is not uncommon for private tutors to offer exclusive pre-examination seminars, to the extent where some tutors entice schoolchildren to attend such seminars with the promise of examination tips, or even supposedly leaked examination questions. Pakistan In Pakistan, it has become very common for parents to send their children to such institutions, popularly known as "academies", after school for further private coaching. It has become prevalent in almost all levels of education, from junior classes to colleges and, to a lesser extent, universities. Due to the near-universality of this system, it has become very difficult to compete successfully in almost any level of exams without them, despite the added burden on the students. Peru In Peru, cram schools, known as "Academias", are institutions which intensively prepare, in about a year, high school graduates to gain admission to either University ("Academia Pre Universitaria"), or Military Schools ("Academia Pre-Militar"). Cram Schools in Peru are not an admission requirement to enter any tertiary institution; however, due to fierce competition, preparation in a cram school allows the candidate to achieve the highest grade possible in the entry exam and so gain entry to their desired Tertiary Institution. Cram Schools are independent of universities, however, of recent a post-high-school, pre-university school has started at some public and private universities in Peru. Under the name of CEntro PREuniversitario (name or acronym of university, for instance CEPREUNI or CEPREPUCP, after Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria or Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, commonly referred to as "the CEPRE" or "the PRE"). Some of these CEPREs offer automatic admission to their university to their students who reach a set level of achievement Philippines In the Philippines, cram schools are usually called "review centers" or "review schools". They are often attended by students in order to study for and pass college and university entrance examinations, or to pass licensure examinations such as the Philippine Bar Examination, the Philippine Physician Licensure Examination, or the Philippine Nurse Licensure Examination. Singapore In Singapore, it is very common for students in the local education system to be enrolled in cram schools, better known locally as tuition centers. Enrollment in these after-school tuition centers is extremely high, especially for students bound for national exams, such as the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), GCE O Levels, or the GCE A Levels. Students attending tuition centers on a daily basis is not unheard of in Singapore. South Korea Although the South Korean educational system has been criticized internationally for its stress and competitiveness, it remains common for South Korean students to attend one or more cram schools ("hagwons") after their school-day is finished, most students studying there until 10 P.M. Some types of cram schools include math, science, art, and English. English language institutes along with math are particularly popular. Certain places, such as Gangnam in Seoul, are well known for having a lot of hagwons. Because of hagwons, many Koreans have voiced complaints about how public education is falling behind in terms of quality compared to private education, creating a gap between students who can afford the expensive hagwon tuition fee and those who cannot. Today, it is almost mandatory for Korean students to attend one or more hagwons in order to achieve high results on a test. South Korean students have two big tests per semester: midterms and finals. They just have written tests in those subjects. A distinct feature of the cramming teaching method in Korea is extra preparation for these tests, ranging from tests from previous years and other schools to various prep books made by different education companies. These test preparation periods normally start a month before the test date. After school, generally, most students go to hagwons to supplement what they learned from the teachers who provide knowledge to the students. Students memorize for tests, and go to hagwons for high grades. The Korean College Scholastic Ability Test, the standardized college entrance examination commonly referred to as the suneung, also plays a large part in why so many students attend hagwons. However, unlike midterms and finals, many high school students also prepare for the suneung through online video lessons on websites that specialize in suneung preparation. Taiwan Cram schools in Taiwan are called supplementary classes (補習班), and are not necessarily cram schools in the traditional sense. Almost any kind of extracurricular academic lesson such as music, art, math, and physics can be termed as such, even if students do not attend these classes specifically in order to pass an examination. It's a traditional belief that parents should send their children to all kinds of cram schools in order to compete against other talented children. Therefore, most children in Taiwan have a schedule packed with all sorts of cram school lessons. But when they study English, often with a "Native Speaker Teacher", they are actually studying at a private language school. Furthermore, since this study is ongoing, they are not "cramming" in the traditional sense of the word, and therefore, these language schools are not cram schools by strict definition. Taiwan is well known for its cram schools. Nearly all students attend some kind of cram school to improve their skills. The meritocratic culture, which requires some skills testing for passports to college, graduate school, and even government service, is dominant on Taiwan's policy. Thailand Cram schooling in Thailand has become almost mandatory to succeed in high school or in the entrance examinations of universities. Cram schools in Thailand, which are called tutoring institutes, tutoring schools, special tutoring, or special classes for example, are widespread throughout the country. Some of them do not have instructors in class rooms in a traditional sense; students receive their tuition via television network, which can either relay a live session from another branch or replay a pre-recorded session. Parents generally encourage their children to attend these schools and they sometimes can be perceived as pushy. The system of cram school is currently blamed for discouraging pupils from independent studies. The main reason given by attending students is to increase understanding in their lessons. The secondary reason of junior high school students is to want to know faster techniques whereas the reason of senior ones is to prepare for exam. The most attended subjects are mathematics for juniors and English language for seniors. Average expense per course is about 2,001–3,000 baht. Most of the students in the top universities of Thailand have attended at least one cram class, especially in science-based faculties such as science, engineering, medicine, and pharmacy. Dek siw, those who failed in their first year, spend the whole following year studying at home or at a cram school for a better chance of going to a top university like Chulalongkorn University, Thammasart University, Kasetsart University, Mahidol University, or King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. Turkey The dershane (plural, dershaneler) system is the Turkish counterpart of cram schools. The Turkish dershane system resembles Indian and Japanese systems. Students, typically after school and on weekends (especially during the last year), are drilled on various aspects of the (YKS). This is cheaper than private tutoring. United Kingdom Crammers first appeared in Britain after 1855 when the Civil Service Commission created the Administrative class of government employees, selected by examination and interview rather than patronage. Crammers offered to prepare men of 18 to 25 years old for these examinations, mainly in classics, economics and foreign languages, which would provide entry to civil service or diplomatic careers. The opening scenes of Benjamin Britten's 1971 television opera Owen Wingrave, and the 1892 novella by Henry James on which it is based, are set in a military crammer; its master plays an important role in both. Terence Rattigan's 1936 play French Without Tears is set in a language crammer typical of the period. These civil service crammers did not survive the Second World War. Tutorial colleges in the United Kingdom are also called "crammers", and are attended by some who want to attend the most prestigious universities. They have been around since the early 20th century. United States A number of businesses, called "tutoring services" or "test preparation centers", are colloquially known as cram schools. They are used by some GED candidates, and by many third and fourth year students in high schools to prepare for the SAT, ACT, and/or Advanced Placement exams for college admission. Their curriculum is geared more towards vocabulary drills, problem sets, practicing essay composition, and learning effective test-taking strategies. College graduates and undergraduates near graduation will sometimes attend such classes to prepare for entrance exams necessary for graduate level education (i.e. LSAT, DAT, MCAT, GRE). Review courses for the CPA examination (e.g., Becker Conviser, part of Devry University) and the bar examination (e.g., Barbri) are often taken by undergraduate and graduate students in accountancy and law. See also Storefront school References External links "School Daze", Time Asia School types fr:Liste des classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles	0.770159	0.995135	0.766412
Human condition	The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed from many perspectives, including those of art, biology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion. As a literary term, "human condition" is typically used in the context of ambiguous subjects, such as the meaning of life or moral concerns. Some perspectives Each major religion has definitive beliefs regarding the human condition. For example, Buddhism teaches that existence is a perpetual cycle of suffering, death, and rebirth from which humans can be liberated via the Noble Eightfold Path. Meanwhile, many Christians believe that humans are born in a sinful condition and are doomed in the afterlife unless they receive salvation through Jesus Christ. Philosophers have provided many perspectives. An influential ancient view was that of the Republic in which Plato explored the question "what is justice?" and postulated that it is not primarily a matter among individuals but of society as a whole, prompting him to devise a utopia. Two thousand years later René Descartes declared "I think, therefore I am" because he believed the human mind, particularly its faculty of reason, to be the primary determiner of truth; for this he is often credited as the father of modern philosophy. One such modern school, existentialism, attempts to reconcile an individual's sense of disorientation and confusion in a universe believed to be absurd. Many works of literature provide a perspective on the human condition. One famous example is Shakespeare's monologue "All the world's a stage" which pensively summarizes seven phases of human life. Psychology has many theories, including Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the notions of identity crisis and terror management. It also has various methods, e.g. the logotherapy developed by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl to discover and affirm a sense of meaning. Another method, cognitive behavioral therapy, has become a widespread treatment for clinical depression. Charles Darwin established the biological theory of evolution, which posits that the human species is related to all others, living and extinct, and that natural selection is the primary survival factor. This led to subsequent beliefs, such as social Darwinism, which eventually lost its connection to natural selection, and theistic evolution of a creator deity acting through laws of nature, including evolution. See also Human nature Know thyself References Concepts in philosophical anthropology Concepts in social philosophy Concepts in the philosophy of mind Existentialist concepts Humans Personal life Philosophy of life Psychological concepts	0.768156	0.997638	0.766342
Structural equation modeling	Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a diverse set of methods used by scientists doing both observational and experimental research. SEM is used mostly in the social and behavioral sciences but it is also used in epidemiology, business, and other fields. A definition of SEM is difficult without reference to technical language, but a good starting place is the name itself. SEM involves a model representing how various aspects of some phenomenon are thought to causally connect to one another. Structural equation models often contain postulated causal connections among some latent variables (variables thought to exist but which can't be directly observed). Additional causal connections link those latent variables to observed variables whose values appear in a data set. The causal connections are represented using equations but the postulated structuring can also be presented using diagrams containing arrows as in Figures 1 and 2. The causal structures imply that specific patterns should appear among the values of the observed variables. This makes it possible to use the connections between the observed variables' values to estimate the magnitudes of the postulated effects, and to test whether or not the observed data are consistent with the requirements of the hypothesized causal structures. The boundary between what is and is not a structural equation model is not always clear but SE models often contain postulated causal connections among a set of latent variables (variables thought to exist but which can't be directly observed, like an attitude, intelligence or mental illness) and causal connections linking the postulated latent variables to variables that can be observed and whose values are available in some data set. Variations among the styles of latent causal connections, variations among the observed variables measuring the latent variables, and variations in the statistical estimation strategies result in the SEM toolkit including confirmatory factor analysis, confirmatory composite analysis, path analysis, multi-group modeling, longitudinal modeling, partial least squares path modeling, latent growth modeling and hierarchical or multilevel modeling. SEM researchers use computer programs to estimate the strength and sign of the coefficients corresponding to the modeled structural connections, for example the numbers connected to the arrows in Figure 1. Because a postulated model such as Figure 1 may not correspond to the worldly forces controlling the observed data measurements, the programs also provide model tests and diagnostic clues suggesting which indicators, or which model components, might introduce inconsistency between the model and observed data. Criticisms of SEM methods hint at: disregard of available model tests, problems in the model's specification, a tendency to accept models without considering external validity, and potential philosophical biases. A great advantage of SEM is that all of these measurements and tests occur simultaneously in one statistical estimation procedure, where all the model coefficients are calculated using all information from the observed variables. This means the estimates are more accurate than if a researcher were to calculate each part of the model separately. History Structural equation modeling (SEM) began differentiating itself from correlation and regression when Sewall Wright provided explicit causal interpretations for a set of regression-style equations based on a solid understanding of the physical and physiological mechanisms producing direct and indirect effects among his observed variables. The equations were estimated like ordinary regression equations but the substantive context for the measured variables permitted clear causal, not merely predictive, understandings. O. D. Duncan introduced SEM to the social sciences in his 1975 book and SEM blossomed in the late 1970's and 1980's when increasing computing power permitted practical model estimation. In 1987 Hayduk provided the first book-length introduction to structural equation modeling with latent variables, and this was soon followed by Bollen's popular text (1989). Different yet mathematically related modeling approaches developed in psychology, sociology, and economics. Early Cowles Commission work on simultaneous equations estimation centered on Koopman and Hood's (1953) algorithms from transport economics and optimal routing, with maximum likelihood estimation, and closed form algebraic calculations, as iterative solution search techniques were limited in the days before computers. The convergence of two of these developmental streams (factor analysis from psychology, and path analysis from sociology via Duncan) produced the current core of SEM. One of several programs Karl Jöreskog developed at Educational Testing Services, LISREL embedded latent variables (which psychologists knew as the latent factors from factor analysis) within path-analysis-style equations (which sociologists inherited from Wright and Duncan). The factor-structured portion of the model incorporated measurement errors which permitted measurement-error-adjustment, though not necessarily error-free estimation, of effects connecting different postulated latent variables. Traces of the historical convergence of the factor analytic and path analytic traditions persist as the distinction between the measurement and structural portions of models; and as continuing disagreements over model testing, and whether measurement should precede or accompany structural estimates. Viewing factor analysis as a data-reduction technique deemphasizes testing, which contrasts with path analytic appreciation for testing postulated causal connections – where the test result might signal model misspecification. The friction between factor analytic and path analytic traditions continue to surface in the literature. Wright's path analysis influenced Hermann Wold, Wold's student Karl Jöreskog, and Jöreskog's student Claes Fornell, but SEM never gained a large following among U.S. econometricians, possibly due to fundamental differences in modeling objectives and typical data structures. The prolonged separation of SEM's economic branch led to procedural and terminological differences, though deep mathematical and statistical connections remain. The economic version of SEM can be seen in SEMNET discussions of endogeneity, and in the heat produced as Judea Pearl's approach to causality via directed acyclic graphs (DAG's) rubs against economic approaches to modeling. Discussions comparing and contrasting various SEM approaches are available but disciplinary differences in data structures and the concerns motivating economic models make reunion unlikely. Pearl extended SEM from linear to nonparametric models, and proposed causal and counterfactual interpretations of the equations. Nonparametric SEMs permit estimating total, direct and indirect effects without making any commitment to linearity of effects or assumptions about the distributions of the error terms. SEM analyses are popular in the social sciences because computer programs make it possible to estimate complicated causal structures, but the complexity of the models introduces substantial variability in the quality of the results. Some, but not all, results are obtained without the "inconvenience" of understanding experimental design, statistical control, the consequences of sample size, and other features contributing to good research design. General steps and considerations The following considerations apply to the construction and assessment of many structural equation models. Model specification Building or specifying a model requires attending to: the set of variables to be employed, what is known about the variables, what is presumed or hypothesized about the variables' causal connections and disconnections, what the researcher seeks to learn from the modeling, and the cases for which values of the variables will be available (kids? workers? companies? countries? cells? accidents? cults?). Structural equation models attempt to mirror the worldly forces operative for causally homogeneous cases – namely cases enmeshed in the same worldly causal structures but whose values on the causes differ and who therefore possess different values on the outcome variables. Causal homogeneity can be facilitated by case selection, or by segregating cases in a multi-group model. A model's specification is not complete until the researcher specifies: which effects and/or correlations/covariances are to be included and estimated, which effects and other coefficients are forbidden or presumed unnecessary, and which coefficients will be given fixed/unchanging values (e.g. to provide measurement scales for latent variables as in Figure 2). The latent level of a model is composed of endogenous and exogenous variables. The endogenous latent variables are the true-score variables postulated as receiving effects from at least one other modeled variable. Each endogenous variable is modeled as the dependent variable in a regression-style equation. The exogenous latent variables are background variables postulated as causing one or more of the endogenous variables and are modeled like the predictor variables in regression-style equations. Causal connections among the exogenous variables are not explicitly modeled but are usually acknowledged by modeling the exogenous variables as freely correlating with one another. The model may include intervening variables – variables receiving effects from some variables but also sending effects to other variables. As in regression, each endogenous variable is assigned a residual or error variable encapsulating the effects of unavailable and usually unknown causes. Each latent variable, whether exogenous or endogenous, is thought of as containing the cases' true-scores on that variable, and these true-scores causally contribute valid/genuine variations into one or more of the observed/reported indicator variables. The LISREL program assigned Greek names to the elements in a set of matrices to keep track of the various model components. These names became relatively standard notation, though the notation has been extended and altered to accommodate a variety of statistical considerations. Texts and programs "simplifying" model specification via diagrams or by using equations permitting user-selected variable names, re-convert the user's model into some standard matrix-algebra form in the background. The "simplifications" are achieved by implicitly introducing default program "assumptions" about model features with which users supposedly need not concern themselves. Unfortunately, these default assumptions easily obscure model components that leave unrecognized issues lurking within the model's structure, and underlying matrices. Two main components of models are distinguished in SEM: the structural model showing potential causal dependencies between endogenous and exogenous latent variables, and the measurement model showing the causal connections between the latent variables and the indicators. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis models, for example, focus on the causal measurement connections, while path models more closely correspond to SEMs latent structural connections. Modelers specify each coefficient in a model as being free to be estimated, or fixed at some value. The free coefficients may be postulated effects the researcher wishes to test, background correlations among the exogenous variables, or the variances of the residual or error variables providing additional variations in the endogenous latent variables. The fixed coefficients may be values like the 1.0 values in Figure 2 that provide a scales for the latent variables, or values of 0.0 which assert causal disconnections such as the assertion of no-direct-effects (no arrows) pointing from Academic Achievement to any of the four scales in Figure 1. SEM programs provide estimates and tests of the free coefficients, while the fixed coefficients contribute importantly to testing the overall model structure. Various kinds of constraints between coefficients can also be used. The model specification depends on what is known from the literature, the researcher's experience with the modeled indicator variables, and the features being investigated by using the specific model structure. There is a limit to how many coefficients can be estimated in a model. If there are fewer data points than the number of estimated coefficients, the resulting model is said to be "unidentified" and no coefficient estimates can be obtained. Reciprocal effect, and other causal loops, may also interfere with estimation. Estimation of free model coefficients Model coefficients fixed at zero, 1.0, or other values, do not require estimation because they already have specified values. Estimated values for free model coefficients are obtained by maximizing fit to, or minimizing difference from, the data relative to what the data's features would be if the free model coefficients took on the estimated values. The model's implications for what the data should look like for a specific set of coefficient values depends on: a) the coefficients' locations in the model (e.g. which variables are connected/disconnected), b) the nature of the connections between the variables (covariances or effects; with effects often assumed to be linear), c) the nature of the error or residual variables (often assumed to be independent of, or causally-disconnected from, many variables), and d) the measurement scales appropriate for the variables (interval level measurement is often assumed). A stronger effect connecting two latent variables implies the indicators of those latents should be more strongly correlated. Hence, a reasonable estimate of a latent's effect will be whatever value best matches the correlations between the indicators of the corresponding latent variables – namely the estimate-value maximizing the match with the data, or minimizing the differences from the data. With maximum likelihood estimation, the numerical values of all the free model coefficients are individually adjusted (progressively increased or decreased from initial start values) until they maximize the likelihood of observing the sample data – whether the data are the variables' covariances/correlations, or the cases' actual values on the indicator variables. Ordinary least squares estimates are the coefficient values that minimize the squared differences between the data and what the data would look like if the model was correctly specified, namely if all the model's estimated features correspond to real worldly features. The appropriate statistical feature to maximize or minimize to obtain estimates depends on the variables' levels of measurement (estimation is generally easier with interval level measurements than with nominal or ordinal measures), and where a specific variable appears in the model (e.g. endogenous dichotomous variables create more estimation difficulties than exogenous dichotomous variables). Most SEM programs provide several options for what is to be maximized or minimized to obtain estimates the model's coefficients. The choices often include maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), full information maximum likelihood (FIML), ordinary least squares (OLS), weighted least squares (WLS), diagonally weighted least squares (DWLS), and two stage least squares. One common problem is that a coefficient's estimated value may be underidentified because it is insufficiently constrained by the model and data. No unique best-estimate exists unless the model and data together sufficiently constrain or restrict a coefficient's value. For example, the magnitude of a single data correlation between two variables is insufficient to provide estimates of a reciprocal pair of modeled effects between those variables. The correlation might be accounted for by one of the reciprocal effects being stronger than the other effect, or the other effect being stronger than the one, or by effects of equal magnitude. Underidentified effect estimates can be rendered identified by introducing additional model and/or data constraints. For example, reciprocal effects can be rendered identified by constraining one effect estimate to be double, triple, or equivalent to, the other effect estimate, but the resultant estimates will only be trustworthy if the additional model constraint corresponds to the world's structure. Data on a third variable that directly causes only one of a pair of reciprocally causally connected variables can also assist identification. Constraining a third variable to not directly cause one of the reciprocally-causal variables breaks the symmetry otherwise plaguing the reciprocal effect estimates because that third variable must be more strongly correlated with the variable it causes directly than with the variable at the "other" end of the reciprocal which it impacts only indirectly. Notice that this again presumes the properness of the model's causal specification – namely that there really is a direct effect leading from the third variable to the variable at this end of the reciprocal effects and no direct effect on the variable at the "other end" of the reciprocally connected pair of variables. Theoretical demands for null/zero effects provide helpful constraints assisting estimation, though theories often fail to clearly report which effects are allegedly nonexistent. Model assessment Model assessment depends on the theory, the data, the model, and the estimation strategy. Hence model assessments consider: whether the data contain reasonable measurements of appropriate variables, whether the modeled case are causally homogeneous, (It makes no sense to estimate one model if the data cases reflect two or more different causal networks.) whether the model appropriately represents the theory or features of interest, (Models are unpersuasive if they omit features required by a theory, or contain coefficients inconsistent with that theory.) whether the estimates are statistically justifiable, (Substantive assessments may be devastated: by violating assumptions, by using an inappropriate estimator, and/or by encountering non-convergence of iterative estimators.) the substantive reasonableness of the estimates, (Negative variances, and correlations exceeding 1.0 or -1.0, are impossible. Statistically possible estimates that are inconsistent with theory may also challenge theory, and our understanding.) the remaining consistency, or inconsistency, between the model and data. (The estimation process minimizes the differences between the model and data but important and informative differences may remain.) Research claiming to test or "investigate" a theory requires attending to beyond-chance model-data inconsistency. Estimation adjusts the model's free coefficients to provide the best possible fit to the data. The output from SEM programs includes a matrix reporting the relationships among the observed variables that would be observed if the estimated model effects actually controlled the observed variables' values. The "fit" of a model reports match or mismatch between the model-implied relationships (often covariances) and the corresponding observed relationships among the variables. Large and significant differences between the data and the model's implications signal problems. The probability accompanying a (chi-squared) test is the probability that the data could arise by random sampling variations if the estimated model constituted the real underlying population forces. A small probability reports it would be unlikely for the current data to have arisen if the modeled structure constituted the real population causal forces – with the remaining differences attributed to random sampling variations. If a model remains inconsistent with the data despite selecting optimal coefficient estimates, an honest research response reports and attends to this evidence (often a significant model test). Beyond-chance model-data inconsistency challenges both the coefficient estimates and the model's capacity for adjudicating the model's structure, irrespective of whether the inconsistency originates in problematic data, inappropriate statistical estimation, or incorrect model specification. Coefficient estimates in data-inconsistent ("failing") models are interpretable, as reports of how the world would appear to someone believing a model that conflicts with the available data. The estimates in data-inconsistent models do not necessarily become "obviously wrong" by becoming statistically strange, or wrongly signed according to theory. The estimates may even closely match a theory's requirements but the remaining data inconsistency renders the match between the estimates and theory unable to provide succor. Failing models remain interpretable, but only as interpretations that conflict with available evidence. Replication is unlikely to detect misspecified models which inappropriately-fit the data. If the replicate data is within random variations of the original data, the same incorrect coefficient placements that provided inappropriate-fit to the original data will likely also inappropriately-fit the replicate data. Replication helps detect issues such as data mistakes (made by different research groups), but is especially weak at detecting misspecifications after exploratory model modification – as when confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is applied to a random second-half of data following exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of first-half data. A modification index is an estimate of how much a model's fit to the data would "improve" (but not necessarily how much the model's structure would improve) if a specific currently-fixed model coefficient were freed for estimation. Researchers confronting data-inconsistent models can easily free coefficients the modification indices report as likely to produce substantial improvements in fit. This simultaneously introduces a substantial risk of moving from a causally-wrong-and-failing model to a causally-wrong-but-fitting model because improved data-fit does not provide assurance that the freed coefficients are substantively reasonable or world matching. The original model may contain causal misspecifications such as incorrectly directed effects, or incorrect assumptions about unavailable variables, and such problems cannot be corrected by adding coefficients to the current model. Consequently, such models remain misspecified despite the closer fit provided by additional coefficients. Fitting yet worldly-inconsistent models are especially likely to arise if a researcher committed to a particular model (for example a factor model having a desired number of factors) gets an initially-failing model to fit by inserting measurement error covariances "suggested" by modification indices. MacCallum (1986) demonstrated that "even under favorable conditions, models arising from specification serchers must be viewed with caution." Model misspecification may sometimes be corrected by insertion of coefficients suggested by the modification indices, but many more corrective possibilities are raised by employing a few indicators of similar-yet-importantly-different latent variables. "Accepting" failing models as "close enough" is also not a reasonable alternative. A cautionary instance was provided by Browne, MacCallum, Kim, Anderson, and Glaser who addressed the mathematics behind why the test can have (though it does not always have) considerable power to detect model misspecification. The probability accompanying a test is the probability that the data could arise by random sampling variations if the current model, with its optimal estimates, constituted the real underlying population forces. A small probability reports it would be unlikely for the current data to have arisen if the current model structure constituted the real population causal forces – with the remaining differences attributed to random sampling variations. Browne, McCallum, Kim, Andersen, and Glaser presented a factor model they viewed as acceptable despite the model being significantly inconsistent with their data according to . The fallaciousness of their claim that close-fit should be treated as good enough was demonstrated by Hayduk, Pazkerka-Robinson, Cummings, Levers and Beres who demonstrated a fitting model for Browne, et al.'s own data by incorporating an experimental feature Browne, et al. overlooked. The fault was not in the math of the indices or in the over-sensitivity of testing. The fault was in Browne, MacCallum, and the other authors forgetting, neglecting, or overlooking, that the amount of ill fit cannot be trusted to correspond to the nature, location, or seriousness of problems in a model's specification. Many researchers tried to justify switching to fit-indices, rather than testing their models, by claiming that increases (and hence probability decreases) with increasing sample size (N). There are two mistakes in discounting on this basis. First, for proper models, does not increase with increasing N, so if increases with N that itself is a sign that something is detectably problematic. And second, for models that are detectably misspecified, increase with N provides the good-news of increasing statistical power to detect model misspecification (namely power to detect Type II error). Some kinds of important misspecifications cannot be detected by , so any amount of ill fit beyond what might be reasonably produced by random variations warrants report and consideration. The model test, possibly adjusted, is the strongest available structural equation model test. Numerous fit indices quantify how closely a model fits the data but all fit indices suffer from the logical difficulty that the size or amount of ill fit is not trustably coordinated with the severity or nature of the issues producing the data inconsistency. Models with different causal structures which fit the data identically well, have been called equivalent models. Such models are data-fit-equivalent though not causally equivalent, so at least one of the so-called equivalent models must be inconsistent with the world's structure. If there is a perfect 1.0 correlation between X and Y and we model this as X causes Y, there will be perfect fit and zero residual error. But the model may not match the world because Y may actually cause X, or both X and Y may be responding to a common cause Z, or the world may contain a mixture of these effects (e.g. like a common cause plus an effect of Y on X), or other causal structures. The perfect fit does not tell us the model's structure corresponds to the world's structure, and this in turn implies that getting closer to perfect fit does not necessarily correspond to getting closer to the world's structure – maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. This makes it incorrect for a researcher to claim that even perfect model fit implies the model is correctly causally specified. For even moderately complex models, precisely equivalently-fitting models are rare. Models almost-fitting the data, according to any index, unavoidably introduce additional potentially-important yet unknown model misspecifications. These models constitute a greater research impediment. This logical weakness renders all fit indices "unhelpful" whenever a structural equation model is significantly inconsistent with the data, but several forces continue to propagate fit-index use. For example, Dag Sorbom reported that when someone asked Karl Joreskog, the developer of the first structural equation modeling program, "Why have you then added GFI?" to your LISREL program, Joreskog replied "Well, users threaten us saying they would stop using LISREL if it always produces such large chi-squares. So we had to invent something to make people happy. GFI serves that purpose." The evidence of model-data inconsistency was too statistically solid to be dislodged or discarded, but people could at least be provided a way to distract from the "disturbing" evidence. Career-profits can still be accrued by developing additional indices, reporting investigations of index behavior, and publishing models intentionally burying evidence of model-data inconsistency under an MDI (a mound of distracting indices). There seems no general justification for why a researcher should "accept" a causally wrong model, rather than attempting to correct detected misspecifications. And some portions of the literature seems not to have noticed that "accepting a model" (on the basis of "satisfying" an index value) suffers from an intensified version of the criticism applied to "acceptance" of a null-hypothesis. Introductory statistics texts usually recommend replacing the term "accept" with "failed to reject the null hypothesis" to acknowledge the possibility of Type II error. A Type III error arises from "accepting" a model hypothesis when the current data are sufficient to reject the model. Whether or not researchers are committed to seeking the world’s structure is a fundamental concern. Displacing test evidence of model-data inconsistency by hiding it behind index claims of acceptable-fit, introduces the discipline-wide cost of diverting attention away from whatever the discipline might have done to attain a structurally-improved understanding of the discipline’s substance. The discipline ends up paying a real costs for index-based displacement of evidence of model misspecification. The frictions created by disagreements over the necessity of correcting model misspecifications will likely increase with increasing use of non-factor-structured models, and with use of fewer, more-precise, indicators of similar yet importantly-different latent variables. The considerations relevant to using fit indices include checking: whether data concerns have been addressed (to ensure data mistakes are not driving model-data inconsistency); whether criterion values for the index have been investigated for models structured like the researcher's model (e.g. index criterion based on factor structured models are only appropriate if the researcher's model actually is factor structured); whether the kinds of potential misspecifications in the current model correspond to the kinds of misspecifications on which the index criterion are based (e.g. criteria based on simulation of omitted factor loadings may not be appropriate for misspecification resulting from failure to include appropriate control variables); whether the researcher knowingly agrees to disregard evidence pointing to the kinds of misspecifications on which the index criteria were based. (If the index criterion is based on simulating a missing factor loading or two, using that criterion acknowledges the researcher's willingness to accept a model missing a factor loading or two.); whether the latest, not outdated, index criteria are being used (because the criteria for some indices tightened over time); whether satisfying criterion values on pairs of indices are required (e.g. Hu and Bentler report that some common indices function inappropriately unless they are assessed together.); whether a model test is, or is not, available. (A value, degrees of freedom, and probability will be available for models reporting indices based on .) and whether the researcher has considered both alpha (Type I) and beta (Type II) errors in making their index-based decisions (E.g. if the model is significantly data-inconsistent, the "tolerable" amount of inconsistency is likely to differ in the context of medical, business, social and psychological contexts.). Some of the more commonly used fit statistics include Chi-square A fundamental test of fit used in the calculation of many other fit measures. It is a function of the discrepancy between the observed covariance matrix and the model-implied covariance matrix. Chi-square increases with sample size only if the model is detectably misspecified. Akaike information criterion (AIC) An index of relative model fit: The preferred model is the one with the lowest AIC value. where k is the number of parameters in the statistical model, and L is the maximized value of the likelihood of the model. Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) Fit index where a value of zero indicates the best fit. Guidelines for determining a "close fit" using RMSEA are highly contested. Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMR) The SRMR is a popular absolute fit indicator. Hu and Bentler (1999) suggested .08 or smaller as a guideline for good fit. Comparative Fit Index (CFI) In examining baseline comparisons, the CFI depends in large part on the average size of the correlations in the data. If the average correlation between variables is not high, then the CFI will not be very high. A CFI value of .95 or higher is desirable. The following table provides references documenting these, and other, features for some common indices: the RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation), SRMR (Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual), CFI (Confirmatory Fit Index), and the TLI (the Tucker-Lewis Index). Additional indices such as the AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) can be found in most SEM introductions. For each measure of fit, a decision as to what represents a good-enough fit between the model and the data reflects the researcher's modeling objective (perhaps challenging someone else's model, or improving measurement); whether or not the model is to be claimed as having been "tested"; and whether the researcher is comfortable "disregarding" evidence of the index-documented degree of ill fit. Sample size, power, and estimation Researchers agree samples should be large enough to provide stable coefficient estimates and reasonable testing power but there is no general consensus regarding specific required sample sizes, or even how to determine appropriate sample sizes. Recommendations have been based on the number of coefficients to be estimated, the number of modeled variables, and Monte Carlo simulations addressing specific model coefficients. Sample size recommendations based on the ratio of the number of indicators to latents are factor oriented and do not apply to models employing single indicators having fixed nonzero measurement error variances. Overall, for moderate sized models without statistically difficult-to-estimate coefficients, the required sample sizes (N’s) seem roughly comparable to the N’s required for a regression employing all the indicators. The larger the sample size, the greater the likelihood of including cases that are not causally homogeneous. Consequently, increasing N to improve the likelihood of being able to report a desired coefficient as statistically significant, simultaneously increases the risk of model misspecification, and the power to detect the misspecification. Researchers seeking to learn from their modeling (including potentially learning their model requires adjustment or replacement) will strive for as large a sample size as permitted by funding and by their assessment of likely population-based causal heterogeneity/homogeneity. If the available N is huge, modeling sub-sets of cases can control for variables that might otherwise disrupt causal homogeneity. Researchers fearing they might have to report their model’s deficiencies are torn between wanting a larger N to provide sufficient power to detect structural coefficients of interest, while avoiding the power capable of signaling model-data inconsistency. The huge variation in model structures and data characteristics suggests adequate sample sizes might be usefully located by considering other researchers’ experiences (both good and bad) with models of comparable size and complexity that have been estimated with similar data. Interpretation Causal interpretations of SE models are the clearest and most understandable but those interpretations will be fallacious/wrong if the model’s structure does not correspond to the world’s causal structure. Consequently, interpretation should address the overall status and structure of the model, not merely the model’s estimated coefficients. Whether a model fits the data, and/or how a model came to fit the data, are paramount for interpretation. Data fit obtained by exploring, or by following successive modification indices, does not guarantee the model is wrong but raises serious doubts because these approaches are prone to incorrectly modeling data features. For example, exploring to see how many factors are required preempts finding the data are not factor structured, especially if the factor model has been “persuaded” to fit via inclusion of measurement error covariances. Data’s ability to speak against a postulated model is progressively eroded with each unwarranted inclusion of a “modification index suggested” effect or error covariance. It becomes exceedingly difficult to recover a proper model if the initial/base model contains several misspecifications. Direct-effect estimates are interpreted in parallel to the interpretation of coefficients in regression equations but with causal commitment. Each unit increase in a causal variable’s value is viewed as producing a change of the estimated magnitude in the dependent variable’s value given control or adjustment for all the other operative/modeled causal mechanisms. Indirect effects are interpreted similarly, with the magnitude of a specific indirect effect equaling the product of the series of direct effects comprising that indirect effect. The units involved are the real scales of observed variables’ values, and the assigned scale values for latent variables. A specified/fixed 1.0 effect of a latent on a specific indicator coordinates that indicator’s scale with the latent variable’s scale. The presumption that the remainder of the model remains constant or unchanging may require discounting indirect effects that might, in the real world, be simultaneously prompted by a real unit increase. And the unit increase itself might be inconsistent with what is possible in the real world because there may be no known way to change the causal variable’s value. If a model adjusts for measurement errors, the adjustment permits interpreting latent-level effects as referring to variations in true scores. SEM interpretations depart most radically from regression interpretations when a network of causal coefficients connects the latent variables because regressions do not contain estimates of indirect effects. SEM interpretations should convey the consequences of the patterns of indirect effects that carry effects from background variables through intervening variables to the downstream dependent variables. SEM interpretations encourage understanding how multiple worldly causal pathways can work in coordination, or independently, or even counteract one another. Direct effects may be counteracted (or reinforced) by indirect effects, or have their correlational implications counteracted (or reinforced) by the effects of common causes. The meaning and interpretation of specific estimates should be contextualized in the full model. SE model interpretation should connect specific model causal segments to their variance and covariance implications. A single direct effect reports that the variance in the independent variable produces a specific amount of variation in the dependent variable’s values, but the causal details of precisely what makes this happens remains unspecified because a single effect coefficient does not contain sub-components available for integration into a structured story of how that effect arises. A more fine-grained SE model incorporating variables intervening between the cause and effect would be required to provide features constituting a story about how any one effect functions. Until such a model arrives each estimated direct effect retains a tinge of the unknown, thereby invoking the essence of a theory. A parallel essential unknownness would accompany each estimated coefficient in even the more fine-grained model, so the sense of fundamental mystery is never fully eradicated from SE models. Even if each modeled effect is unknown beyond the identity of the variables involved and the estimated magnitude of the effect, the structures linking multiple modeled effects provide opportunities to express how things function to coordinate the observed variables – thereby providing useful interpretation possibilities. For example, a common cause contributes to the covariance or correlation between two effected variables, because if the value of the cause goes up, the values of both effects should also go up (assuming positive effects) even if we do not know the full story underlying each cause. (A correlation is the covariance between two variables that have both been standardized to have variance 1.0). Another interpretive contribution might be made by expressing how two causal variables can both explain variance in a dependent variable, as well as how covariance between two such causes can increase or decrease explained variance in the dependent variable. That is, interpretation may involve explaining how a pattern of effects and covariances can contribute to decreasing a dependent variable’s variance. Understanding causal implications implicitly connects to understanding “controlling”, and potentially explaining why some variables, but not others, should be controlled. As models become more complex these fundamental components can combine in non-intuitive ways, such as explaining how there can be no correlation (zero covariance) between two variables despite the variables being connected by a direct non-zero causal effect. The statistical insignificance of an effect estimate indicates the estimate could rather easily arise as a random sampling variation around a null/zero effect, so interpreting the estimate as a real effect becomes equivocal. As in regression, the proportion of each dependent variable’s variance explained by variations in the modeled causes are provided by R2, though the Blocked-Error R2 should be used if the dependent variable is involved in reciprocal or looped effects, or if it has an error variable correlated with any predictor’s error variable. The caution appearing in the Model Assessment section warrants repeat. Interpretation should be possible whether a model is or is not consistent with the data. The estimates report how the world would appear to someone believing the model – even if that belief is unfounded because the model happens to be wrong. Interpretation should acknowledge that the model coefficients may or may not correspond to “parameters” – because the model’s coefficients may not have corresponding worldly structural features. Adding new latent variables entering or exiting the original model at a few clear causal locations/variables contributes to detecting model misspecifications which could otherwise ruin coefficient interpretations. The correlations between the new latent’s indicators and all the original indicators contribute to testing the original model’s structure because the few new and focused effect coefficients must work in coordination with the model’s original direct and indirect effects to coordinate the new indicators with the original indicators. If the original model’s structure was problematic, the sparse new causal connections will be insufficient to coordinate the new indicators with the original indicators, thereby signaling the inappropriateness of the original model’s coefficients through model-data inconsistency. The correlational constraints grounded in null/zero effect coefficients, and coefficients assigned fixed nonzero values, contribute to both model testing and coefficient estimation, and hence deserve acknowledgment as the scaffolding supporting the estimates and their interpretation. Interpretations become progressively more complex for models containing interactions, nonlinearities, multiple groups, multiple levels, and categorical variables. Effects touching causal loops, reciprocal effects, or correlated residuals also require slightly revised interpretations. Careful interpretation of both failing and fitting models can provide research advancement. To be dependable, the model should investigate academically informative causal structures, fit applicable data with understandable estimates, and not include vacuous coefficients. Dependable fitting models are rarer than failing models or models inappropriately bludgeoned into fitting, but appropriately-fitting models are possible. The multiple ways of conceptualizing PLS models complicate interpretation of PLS models. Many of the above comments are applicable if a PLS modeler adopts a realist perspective by striving to ensure their modeled indicators combine in a way that matches some existing but unavailable latent variable. Non-causal PLS models, such as those focusing primarily on R2 or out-of-sample predictive power, change the interpretation criteria by diminishing concern for whether or not the model’s coefficients have worldly counterparts. The fundamental features differentiating the five PLS modeling perspectives discussed by Rigdon, Sarstedt and Ringle point to differences in PLS modelers’ objectives, and corresponding differences in model features warranting interpretation. Caution should be taken when making claims of causality even when experiments or time-ordered investigations have been undertaken. The term causal model must be understood to mean "a model that conveys causal assumptions", not necessarily a model that produces validated causal conclusions—maybe it does maybe it does not. Collecting data at multiple time points and using an experimental or quasi-experimental design can help rule out certain rival hypotheses but even a randomized experiments cannot fully rule out threats to causal claims. No research design can fully guarantee causal structures. Controversies and movements Structural equation modeling is fraught with controversies. Researchers from the factor analytic tradition commonly attempt to reduce sets of multiple indicators to fewer, more manageable, scales or factor-scores for later use in path-structured models. This constitutes a stepwise process with the initial measurement step providing scales or factor-scores which are to be used later in a path-structured model. This stepwise approach seems obvious but actually confronts severe underlying deficiencies. The segmentation into steps interferes with thorough checking of whether the scales or factor-scores validly represent the indicators, and/or validly report on latent level effects. A structural equation model simultaneously incorporating both the measurement and latent-level structures not only checks whether the latent factors appropriately coordinates the indicators, it also checks whether that same latent simultaneously appropriately coordinates each latent’s indictors with the indicators of theorized causes and/or consequences of that latent. If a latent is unable to do both these styles of coordination, the validity of that latent is questioned, and a scale or factor-scores purporting to measure that latent is questioned. The disagreements swirled around respect for, or disrespect of, evidence challenging the validity of postulated latent factors. The simmering, sometimes boiling, discussions resulted in a special issue of the journal Structural Equation Modeling focused on a target article by Hayduk and Glaser followed by several comments and a rejoinder, all made freely available, thanks to the efforts of George Marcoulides. These discussions fueled disagreement over whether or not structural equation models should be tested for consistency with the data, and model testing became the next focus of discussions. Scholars having path-modeling histories tended to defend careful model testing while those with factor-histories tended to defend fit-indexing rather than fit-testing. These discussions led to a target article in Personality and Individual Differences by Paul Barrett who said: “In fact, I would now recommend banning ALL such indices from ever appearing in any paper as indicative of model “acceptability” or “degree of misfit”.” (page 821). Barrett’s article was also accompanied by commentary from both perspectives. The controversy over model testing declined as clear reporting of significant model-data inconsistency becomes mandatory. Scientists do not get to ignore, or fail to report, evidence just because they do not like what the evidence reports. The requirement of attending to evidence pointing toward model mis-specification underpins more recent concern for addressing “endogeneity” – a style of model mis-specification that interferes with estimation due to lack of independence of error/residual variables. In general, the controversy over the causal nature of structural equation models, including factor-models, has also been declining. Stan Mulaik, a factor-analysis stalwart, has acknowledged the causal basis of factor models. The comments by Bollen and Pearl regarding myths about causality in the context of SEM reinforced the centrality of causal thinking in the context of SEM. A briefer controversy focused on competing models. Comparing competing models can be very helpful but there are fundamental issues that cannot be resolved by creating two models and retaining the better fitting model. The statistical sophistication of presentations like Levy and Hancock (2007), for example, makes it easy to overlook that a researcher might begin with one terrible model and one atrocious model, and end by retaining the structurally terrible model because some index reports it as better fitting than the atrocious model. It is unfortunate that even otherwise strong SEM texts like Kline (2016) remain disturbingly weak in their presentation of model testing. Overall, the contributions that can be made by structural equation modeling depend on careful and detailed model assessment, even if a failing model happens to be the best available. An additional controversy that touched the fringes of the previous controversies awaits ignition. Factor models and theory-embedded factor structures having multiple indicators tend to fail, and dropping weak indicators tends to reduce the model-data inconsistency. Reducing the number of indicators leads to concern for, and controversy over, the minimum number of indicators required to support a latent variable in a structural equation model. Researchers tied to factor tradition can be persuaded to reduce the number of indicators to three per latent variable, but three or even two indicators may still be inconsistent with a proposed underlying factor common cause. Hayduk and Littvay (2012) discussed how to think about, defend, and adjust for measurement error, when using only a single indicator for each modeled latent variable. Single indicators have been used effectively in SE models for a long time, but controversy remains only as far away as a reviewer who has considered measurement from only the factor analytic perspective. Though declining, traces of these controversies are scattered throughout the SEM literature, and you can easily incite disagreement by asking: What should be done with models that are significantly inconsistent with the data? Or by asking: Does model simplicity override respect for evidence of data inconsistency? Or, what weight should be given to indexes which show close or not-so-close data fit for some models? Or, should we be especially lenient toward, and “reward”, parsimonious models that are inconsistent with the data? Or, given that the RMSEA condones disregarding some real ill fit for each model degree of freedom, doesn’t that mean that people testing models with null-hypotheses of non-zero RMSEA are doing deficient model testing? Considerable variation in statistical sophistication is required to cogently address such questions, though responses will likely center on the non-technical matter of whether or not researchers are required to report and respect evidence. Extensions, modeling alternatives, and statistical kin Categorical dependent variables Categorical intervening variables Copulas Deep Path Modelling Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Fusion validity models Item response theory models Latent class models Latent growth modeling Link functions Longitudinal models Measurement invariance models Mixture model Multilevel models, hierarchical models (e.g. people nested in groups) Multiple group modelling with or without constraints between groups (genders, cultures, test forms, languages, etc.) Multi-method multi-trait models Random intercepts models Structural Equation Model Trees Structural Equation Multidimensional scaling Software Structural equation modeling programs differ widely in their capabilities and user requirements. See also References Bibliography Further reading Bartholomew, D. J., and Knott, M. (1999) Latent Variable Models and Factor Analysis Kendall's Library of Statistics, vol. 7, Edward Arnold Publishers, Bentler, P.M. & Bonett, D.G. (1980), "Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures", Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588–606. Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural Equations with Latent Variables. Wiley, Byrne, B. M. (2001) Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS - Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming.LEA, Goldberger, A. S. (1972). Structural equation models in the social sciences. Econometrica 40, 979- 1001. Hoyle, R H (ed) (1995) Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and Applications. SAGE, . External links Structural equation modeling page under David Garson's StatNotes, NCSU Issues and Opinion on Structural Equation Modeling, SEM in IS Research The causal interpretation of structural equations (or SEM survival kit) by Judea Pearl 2000. Structural Equation Modeling Reference List by Jason Newsom: journal articles and book chapters on structural equation models Handbook of Management Scales, a collection of previously used multi-item scales to measure constructs for SEM Graphical models Latent variable models Regression models Structural equation models	0.769214	0.996226	0.766311
Leadership development	Leadership development is the process which helps expand the capacity of individuals to perform in leadership roles within organizations. Leadership roles are those that facilitate execution of an organization's strategy through building alignment, winning mindshare and growing the capabilities of others. Leadership roles may be formal, with the corresponding authority to make decisions and take responsibility, or they may be informal roles with little official authority (e.g., a member of a team who influences team engagement, purpose and direction; a lateral peer who must listen and negotiate through influence). Developing individual leaders Traditionally, leadership development has focused on developing the leadership abilities and attitudes of individuals. Different personal trait and characteristics can help or hinder a person's leadership effectiveness and require formalized programs for developing leadership competencies. Classroom-style training and associated reading for leadership development may ail from the possible divergence between knowing what to do and doing what one knows; management expert Henry Mintzberg is one person to highlight this dilemma. A 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that as little as 15% of learning from traditional classroom-style training results in sustained behavioral change within workplaces. Baldwin and Ford link success of leadership development efforts to three variables: Individual learner characteristics Quality and nature of the leadership development program Support for behavioral change from the leader's supervisor. Military officer-training academies, such as the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, go to great lengths to accept only candidates who show the highest potential to lead well. Personal characteristics that are associated with successful leadership development include leader motivation to learn, a high achievement drive and personality traits such as openness to experience, an internal focus of control, and self-monitoring. In order to develop individual leaders, supervisors or superiors must conduct an individual assessment. Development is also more likely to occur when the design of the development program: Integrates a range of developmental experiences over a set period of time (e.g., 6–12 months). These experiences may include 360 degree feedback, experiential classroom style programs, business school style coursework, executive coaching, reflective journaling, mentoring and more. Involves goal-setting, following an assessment of key developmental needs and then an evaluation of the achievement of goals after a given time period. Among key concepts in leadership development one may find: Experiential learning: Positioning the individual in the focus of the learning process, going through the four stages of experiential learning as formulated by David A. Kolb: Concrete experience. Observation and reflection. Forming abstract concepts. Testing in new situations. Self efficacy: The right training and coaching should bring about 'self efficacy' in the trainee, as Albert Bandura formulated: a person's belief about his capabilities to produce effects. Visioning: Developing the ability to formulate a clear image of the aspired future of an organization unit. Attitude: Attitude plays a major role in being a leader. Developing leadership at a collective level Leadership can also be developed by strengthening the connection between, and alignment of, the efforts of individual leaders and the systems through which they influence organizational operations. This has led to a differentiation between leader development and leadership development. Leadership development can build on the development of individuals (including followers) to become leaders. It also needs to focus on the interpersonal linkages in the team. Following the credo of people as an organization's most valuable resource, some organizations address the development of these resources (including leadership). In contrast, the concept of "employeeship" recognizes that what it takes to be a good leader is not too dissimilar to what it takes to be a good employee. Therefore, bringing the notional leader together with the team to explore these similarities (rather than focusing on the differences) brings positive results. This approach has been particularly successful in Sweden where the power distance between manager and team is small. Succession planning The development of "high potentials" to take over leadership when the time comes the current leadership to leave their positions is known as succession planning. This type of leadership development usually requires the extensive transfer of an individual between departments. In many multinationals, it usually requires international transfer and experience to build a future leader. Succession planning requires a sharp focus on the organization's future and vision, in order to align leadership development with the future that the organization aspires to create. Thus successive leadership development is based not only on knowledge and history but also on a dream. For such a plan to be successful, a screening of future leadership should be based not only on "what we know and have" but also on "what we aspire to become". Persons involved in succession planning should include current leadership members who can articulate the future vision. Three critical dimensions should be considered: Skills and knowledge; Role perception and degree of acceptance of leading role; and, Self-efficacy. See also Action learning Organization development Executive education Business acumen Collaborative leadership Leadership studies Trait leadership YGLP Halogen Foundation, an international programme to develop young leaders Kolb's experiential learning References Human resource management Leadership studies	0.78235	0.979486	0.766301
Constructivism (international relations)	In international relations (IR), constructivism is a social theory that asserts that significant aspects of international relations are shaped by ideational factors. The most important ideational factors are those that are collectively held; these collectively held beliefs construct the interests and identities of actors. In contrast to other prominent IR approaches and theories (such as realism and rational choice), constructivists see identities and interests of actors as socially constructed and changeable; identities are not static and cannot be exogenously assumed. Similar to rational choice, constructivism does not make broad and specific predictions about international relations; it is an approach to studying international politics, not a substantive theory of international politics. Constructivist analysis can only provide substantive explanations or predictions once the relevant actors and their interests have been identified, as well as the content of social structures. The main theories competing with constructivism are variants of realism, liberalism, and rational choice that emphasize materialism (the notion that the physical world determines political behavior on its own), and individualism (the notion that individual units can be studied apart from the broader systems that they are embedded in). Whereas other prominent approaches conceptualize power in material terms (e.g. military and economic capabilities), constructivist analyses also see power as the ability to structure and constitute the nature of social relations among actors. Development Nicholas Onuf has been credited with coining the term constructivism to describe theories that stress the socially constructed character of international relations. Since the late 1980s to early 1990s, constructivism has become one of the major schools of thought within international relations. The earliest constructivist works focused on establishing that norms mattered in international politics. Peter J. Katzenstein's edited volume The Culture of National Security compiled works by numerous prominent and emerging constructivists, showing that constructivist insights were important in the field of security studies, an area of International Relations in which realists had been dominant. After establishing that norms mattered in international politics, later veins of constructivism focused on explaining the circumstances under which some norms mattered and others did not. Swathes of constructivist research have focused on norm entrepreneurs: international organizations and law: epistemic communities; speech, argument, and persuasion; and structural configuration as mechanisms and processes for social construction. Alexander Wendt is the most prominent advocate of social constructivism in the field of international relations. Wendt's 1992 article "Anarchy is What States Make of It: the Social Construction of Power Politics" laid the theoretical groundwork for challenging what he considered to be a flaw shared by both neorealists and neoliberal institutionalists, namely, a commitment to a (crude) form of materialism. By attempting to show that even such a core realist concept as "power politics" is socially constructed—that is, not given by nature and hence, capable of being transformed by human practice—Wendt opened the way for a generation of international relations scholars to pursue work on a wide range of issues from a constructivist perspective. Wendt further developed these ideas in his central work, Social Theory of International Politics (1999). Following up on Wendt, Martha Finnemore offered the first "sustained, systematic empirical argument in support of the constructivist claim that international normative structures matter in world politics" in her 1996 book National Interests in International Society. There are several strands of constructivism. On the one hand, there are "conventional" constructivist scholars such as Kathryn Sikkink, Peter Katzenstein, Elizabeth Kier, Martha Finnemore, and Alexander Wendt, who use widely accepted methodologies and epistemologies. Their work has been widely accepted within the mainstream IR community and generated vibrant scholarly discussions among realists, liberals, and constructivists. These scholars hold that research oriented around causal explanations and constitutive explanations is appropriate. Wendt refers to this form of constructivism as "thin" constructivism. On the other hand, there are "critical" radical constructivists who take discourse and linguistics more seriously, and adopt non-positivist methodologies and epistemologies.A third strand, known as critical constructivism, takes conventional constructivists to task for systematically downplaying or omitting class factors. Despite their differences, all strands of constructivism agree that neorealism and neoliberalism pay insufficient attention to social construction in world politics. Theory Constructivism primarily seeks to demonstrate how core aspects of international relations are, contrary to the assumptions of neorealism and neoliberalism, socially constructed. This means that they are given their form by ongoing processes of social practice and interaction. Alexander Wendt calls two increasingly accepted basic tenets of constructivism "that the structures of human association are determined primarily by shared ideas rather than material forces, and that the identities and interests of purposive actors are constructed by these shared ideas rather than given by nature." This does not mean that constructivists believe international politics is "ideas all the way down", but rather is characterized both by material factors and ideational factors. Central to constructivism are the notions that ideas matter, and that agents are socially constructed (rather than given). Constructivist research is focused both on causal explanations for phenomena, as well as analyses of how things are constituted. In the study of national security, the emphasis is on the conditioning that culture and identity exert on security policies and related behaviors. Identities are necessary in order to ensure at least some minimal level of predictability and order. The object of the constructivist discourse can be conceived as the arrival, a fundamental factor in the field of international relations, of the recent debate on epistemology, the sociology of knowledge, the agent/structure relationship, and the ontological status of social facts. The notion that international relations are not only affected by power politics, but also by ideas, is shared by writers who describe themselves as constructivist theorists. According to this view, the fundamental structures of international politics are social rather than strictly material. This leads to social constructivists to argue that changes in the nature of social interaction between states can bring a fundamental shift towards greater international security. Challenging realism During constructivism's formative period, neorealism was the dominant discourse of international relations. Much of constructivism's initial theoretical work challenged basic neorealist assumptions. Neorealists are fundamentally causal structuralists. They hold that the majority of important content to international politics is explained by the structure of the international system, a position first advanced in Kenneth Waltz's Man, the State, and War and fully elucidated in his core text of neorealism, Theory of International Politics. Specifically, international politics is primarily determined by the fact that the international system is anarchic – it lacks any overarching authority, instead it is composed of units (states) which are formally equal – they are all sovereign over their own territory. Such anarchy, neorealists argue, forces States to act in certain ways, specifically, they can only rely on themselves for security (they have to self-help). The way in which anarchy forces them to act in such ways, to defend their own self-interest in terms of power, neorealists argue, explains most of international politics. Because of this, neorealists tend to disregard explanations of international politics at the "unit" or "state" level. Kenneth Waltz attacked such a focus as being reductionist. Constructivism, particularly in the formative work of Wendt, challenges this assumption by showing that the causal powers attributed to "structure" by neorealists are in fact not "given", but rest on the way in which structure is constructed by social practice. Removed from presumptions about the nature of the identities and interests of the actors in the system, and the meaning that social institutions (including anarchy) have for such actors, Wendt argues neorealism's "structure" reveals very little: "it does not predict whether two states will be friends or foes, will recognize each other's sovereignty, will have dynastic ties, will be revisionist or status quo powers, and so on". Because such features of behavior are not explained by anarchy, and require instead the incorporation of evidence about the interests and identities held by key actors, neorealism's focus on the material structure of the system (anarchy) is misplaced. Wendt goes further than this – arguing that because the way in which anarchy constrains states depends on the way in which states conceive of anarchy, and conceive of their own identities and interests, anarchy is not necessarily even a self-help system. It only forces states to self-help if they conform to neorealist assumptions about states as seeing security as a competitive, relative concept, where the gain of security for any one state means the loss of security for another. If states instead hold alternative conceptions of security, either "co-operative", where states can maximise their security without negatively affecting the security of another, or "collective" where states identify the security of other states as being valuable to themselves, anarchy will not lead to self-help at all. Neorealist conclusions, as such, depend entirely on unspoken and unquestioned assumptions about the way in which the meaning of social institutions are constructed by actors. Crucially, because neorealists fail to recognize this dependence, they falsely assume that such meanings are unchangeable, and exclude the study of the processes of social construction which actually do the key explanatory work behind neorealist observations. As a criticism of neorealism and neoliberalism (which were the dominant strands of IR theory during the 1980s), constructivism tended to be lumped in with all approaches that criticized the so-called "neo-neo" debate. Constructivism has therefore often been conflated with critical theory. However, while constructivism may use aspects of critical theory and vice versa, the mainstream variants of constructivism are positivist. In a response to constructivism, John Mearsheimer has argued that ideas and norms only matter on the margins, and that appeals by leaders to norms and morals often reflect self-interest. Identities and interests As constructivists reject neorealism's conclusions about the determining effect of anarchy on the behavior of international actors, and move away from neorealism's underlying materialism, they create the necessary room for the identities and interests of international actors to take a central place in theorising international relations. Now that actors are not simply governed by the imperatives of a self-help system, their identities and interests become important in analysing how they behave. Like the nature of the international system, constructivists see such identities and interests as not objectively grounded in material forces (such as dictates of the human nature that underpins classical realism) but the result of ideas and the social construction of such ideas. In other words, the meanings of ideas, objects, and actors are all given by social interaction. People give objects their meanings and can attach different meanings to different things. Martha Finnemore has been influential in examining the way in which international organizations are involved in these processes of the social construction of actor's perceptions of their interests. In National Interests In International Society, Finnemore attempts to "develop a systemic approach to understanding state interests and state behavior by investigating an international structure, not of power, but of meaning and social value". "Interests", she explains, "are not just 'out there' waiting to be discovered; they are constructed through social interaction". Finnemore provides three case studies of such construction – the creation of Science Bureaucracies in states due to the influence of the UNESCO, the role of the Red Cross in the Geneva Conventions and the World Bank's influence of attitudes to poverty. Studies of such processes are examples of the constructivist attitude towards state interests and identities. Such interests and identities are central determinants of state behaviour, as such studying their nature and their formation is integral in constructivist methodology to explaining the international system. But it is important to note that despite this refocus onto identities and interests—properties of states—constructivists are not necessarily wedded to focusing their analysis at the unit-level of international politics: the state. Constructivists such as Finnemore and Wendt both emphasize that while ideas and processes tend to explain the social construction of identities and interests, such ideas and processes form a structure of their own which impact upon international actors. Their central difference from neorealists is to see the structure of international politics in primarily ideational, rather than material, terms. Norms Constructivist scholars have explored in-depth the role of norms in world politics. Abram Chayes and Antonia Handler Chayes have defined “norms” as “a broad class of prescriptive statements – rules, standards, principles, and so forth – both procedural and substantive” that are “prescriptions for action in situations of choice, carrying a sense of obligation, a sense that they ought to be followed”. Norm-based constructivist approaches generally assume that actors tend to adhere to a “logic of appropriateness”. That means that actors follow “internalized prescriptions of what is socially defined as normal, true, right, or good, without, or in spite of calculation of consequences and expected utility”. This logic of appropriateness stands in contrast to the rational choice “logic of consequences”, where actors are assumed to choose the most efficient means to reach their goals on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis. Constructivist norm scholarship has investigated a wide range of issue areas in world politics. For example, Peter Katzenstein and the contributors to his edited volume, The Culture of National Security, have argued that states act on security choices not only in the context of their physical capabilities but also on the basis of normative understandings. Martha Finnemore has suggested that international organizations like the World Bank or UNESCO help diffuse norms which, in turn, influence how states define their national interests. Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink have explored how norms affect political change. In doing so, they have stressed the connections between norms and rationality, rather than their opposition to each other. They have also highlighted the importance of “norm entrepreneurs” in advocating and spreading certain norms. Some scholars have investigated the role of individual norms in world politics. For instance, Audie Klotz has examined how the global norm against apartheid developed across different states (the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe) and institutions (the Commonwealth, the Organization of African Unity, and the United Nations). The emergence and institutionalization of this norm, she argued, has contributed to the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Nina Tannenwald has made the case that the non-use of nuclear weapons since 1945 can be attributed to the strength of a nuclear weapons taboo, i.e., a norm against the use of nuclear weapons. She has argued that this norm has become so deeply embedded in American political and social culture that nuclear weapons have not been employed, even in cases when their use would have made strategic or tactical sense. Michael Barnett has taken an evolutionary approach to trace how the norm of political humanitarianism emerged. Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink distinguish between three types of norms: Regulative norms: they "order and constrain behavior" Constitutive norms: they "create new actors, interests, or categories of action" Evaluative and prescriptive norms: they have an "oughtness" quality to them Finnemore, Sikkink, Jeffrey W. Legro and others have argued that the robustness (or effectiveness) of norms can be measured by factors such as: specificity: norms that are clear and specific are more likely to be effective longevity: norms with a history are more likely to be effective universality: norms that make general claims (rather than localized and particularistic claims) are more likely to be effective prominence: norms that are widely accepted among powerful actors are more likely to be effective Jeffrey Checkel argues that there are two common types of explanations for the efficacy of norms: Rationalism: actors comply with norms due to coercion, cost-benefit calculations, and material incentives Constructivism: actors comply with norms due to social learning and socialization In terms of specific norms, constructivist scholars have shown how the following norms emerged: International law: A transnational network of lawyers succeeded in codifying new international legal principles and regulate power politics over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Humanitarian intervention: Over time, conceptions of who was "human" changed, which led states to increasingly engage in humanitarian interventions in the 20th century. Nuclear taboo: A norm against nuclear weapons developed since 1945. Ban on landmines: Activism by transnational advocacy groups led to a norm prohibiting landmines. Norms of sovereignty. Norms against assassination. Election monitoring. Taboo against the weaponization of water. Anti-whaling norm. Anti-torture norm. Research areas Many constructivists analyse international relations by looking at goals, threats, fears, cultures, identities, and other elements of "social reality" as social facts. In an important edited volume, The Culture of National Security, constructivist scholars—including Elizabeth Kier, Jeffrey Legro, and Peter Katzenstein – challenged many realist assumptions about the dynamics of international politics, particularly in the context of military affairs. Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber applied constructivist approaches to understand the evolution of state sovereignty as a central theme in international relations, and works by Rodney Bruce Hall and Daniel Philpott (among others) developed constructivist theories of major transformations in the dynamics of international politics. In international political economy, the application of constructivism has been less frequent. Notable examples of constructivist work in this area include Kathleen R. McNamara's study of European Monetary Union and Mark Blyth's analysis of the rise of Reaganomics in the United States. By focusing on how language and rhetoric are used to construct the social reality of the international system, constructivists are often seen as more optimistic about progress in international relations than versions of realism loyal to a purely materialist ontology, but a growing number of constructivists question the "liberal" character of constructivist thought and express greater sympathy for realist pessimism concerning the possibility of emancipation from power politics. Constructivism is often presented as an alternative to the two leading theories of international relations, realism and liberalism, but some maintain that it is not necessarily inconsistent with one or both. Wendt shares some key assumptions with leading realist and neorealist scholars, such as the existence of anarchy and the centrality of states in the international system. However, Wendt renders anarchy in cultural rather than materialist terms; he also offers a sophisticated theoretical defense of the state-as-actor assumption in international relations theory. This is a contentious issue within segments of the IR community as some constructivists challenge Wendt on some of these assumptions (see, for example, exchanges in Review of International Studies, vol. 30, 2004). It has been argued that progress in IR theory will be achieved when Realism and Constructivism can be aligned or even synthesized. An early example of such synthesis was Jennifer Sterling-Folker's analysis of the United States’ international monetary policy following the Bretton Woods system. Sterling-Folker argued that the U.S. shift towards unilateralism is partially accounted for by realism's emphasis of an anarchic system, but constructivism helps to account for important factors from the domestic or second level of analysis. Recent developments A significant group of scholars who study processes of social construction self-consciously eschew the label "constructivist". They argue that "mainstream" constructivism has abandoned many of the most important insights from linguistic turn and social-constructionist theory in the pursuit of respectability as a "scientific" approach to international relations. Even some putatively "mainstream" constructivists, such as Jeffrey Checkel, have expressed concern that constructivists have gone too far in their efforts to build bridges with non-constructivist schools of thought. A growing number of constructivists contend that current theories pay inadequate attention to the role of habitual and unreflective behavior in world politics, the centrality of relations and processes in constructing world politics, or both. Advocates of the "practice turn" take inspiration from work in neuroscience, as well as that of social theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu, that stresses the significance of habit and practices in psychological and social life - essentially calling for greater attention and sensitivity towards the 'every day' and 'taken for granted' activities of international politics Some scholars have adopted the related sociological approach known as Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which extends the early focus of the Practice Turn on the work of Pierre Bourdieu towards that of Bruno Latour and others. Scholars have employed ANT in order to disrupt traditional world political binaries (civilised/barbarian, democratic/autocratic, etc.), consider the implications of a posthuman understanding of IR, explore the infrastructures of world politics, and consider the effects of technological agency. Notable constructivists in international relations Emanuel Adler Michael Barnett Thomas J. Biersteker Mark Blyth Jeffrey T. Checkel Martha Finnemore Ernst B. Haas Peter M. Haas Ian Hacking Ted Hopf Peter J. Katzenstein Margaret Keck Judith Kelley Friedrich Kratochwil Richard Ned Lebow Daniel H. Nexon Qin Yaqing Nicholas Onuf Erik Ringmar Thomas Risse John Ruggie Chris Reus-Smit Kathryn Sikkink J. Ann Tickner Ole Wæver Alexander Wendt Critique by emotional choice theorists Proponents of emotional choice theory argue that constructivist approaches neglect the emotional underpinnings of social interactions, normative behavior, and decision-making in general. They point out that the constructivist paradigm is generally based on the assumption that decision-making is a conscious process based on thoughts and beliefs. It presumes that people decide on the basis of reflection and deliberation. However, cumulative research in neuroscience suggests that only a small part of the brain's activities operate at the level of conscious thinking. The vast majority of its activities consist of unconscious appraisals and emotions. The significance of emotions in decision-making has generally been ignored by constructivist perspectives, according to these critics. Moreover, emotional choice theorists contend that the constructivist paradigm has difficulty incorporating emotions into its models, because it cannot account for the physiological dynamics of emotions. Psychologists and neurologists have shown that emotions are based on bodily processes over which individuals have only limited control. They are inextricably intertwined with people's brain functions and autonomic nervous systems, which are typically outside the scope of standard constructivist models. Emotional choice theory seeks to capture not only the social but also the physiological and dynamic character of emotions. It posits that emotion plays a key role in normative action. Emotions endow norms and identities with meaning. If people feel strongly about norms, they are particularly likely to adhere to them. Rules that cease to resonate at an affective level, however, often come to lose their prescriptive power. Emotional choice theorists note that recent findings in neurology suggest that humans generally feel before they think. So emotions may lead them to prioritize the constructivist “logic of appropriateness” over the rationalist “logic of consequences,” or vice versa. Emotions may also infuse the logic of appropriateness and inform actors how to adjudicate between different norms. See also Constructivism (philosophy of science) Constructivism (psychological school) Emotional choice theory English school of international relations theory International legal theories Logic of appropriateness References External links Read an Interview with Social Constructivist Alexander Wendt Constructivism (international relations) International relations theory	0.769763	0.995496	0.766296
Discipline	Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a set of rules that aim to develop such behavior. Such enforcement is sometimes based on punishment, although there is a clear difference between the two. One way to convey such differences is through the root meaning of each word: discipline means “to teach”, while punishment means “to correct or cause pain”. While punishment might extinguish unwanted behavior in the moment, it is rarely effective long-term, while discipline usually is. Disciplinary techniques Time management Disciplined time management includes removing distractions Treating time as a precious resource encourages entrepreneurs to prioritize their tasks and focus on actions that lead to positive outcomes—the author of No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs recommends treating time as a precious resource. Achieving positive outcomes hinges on a supportive environment of disciplined behavior that requires and rewards good actions. This foundation cultivates motivation and drives success. Discipline rooted in obedience centers on valuing hard work, diligence, adherence to authority, and self-discipline for job advancement. Reminders can be provided to guide members in meeting performance indicators, organizational objectives, adhering to rules, or following instructions. The downside to this model is that disobedience can occur when there are no punishments or rewards in place and when there is no one there to administer the member since obedience-based discipline is whether trouble is detected or not. An obedience-based model uses consequences and punishments as deterrents, whereas the responsibility-based model shifts away from using rules, limits, and consequences, as well as punitive measures like detention, suspension, expulsion, and counseling. Students have demonstrated improved academic success and better behavior management in schools with responsibility-centered discipline, where teachers use a five-step rule-based technique to resolve conflicts: Support – makes the student feel valued Expectation – reinforces what is expected Breakdown – communicates how the expectation broke down or where there was a failure to meet Benefit – relays to the student how important it is to meet the expectation and how it benefits them Closure – determines whether the situation has been resolved or if the conversation is at a place where the student can move on Responsibility Responsibility-centered discipline, also known as responsibility-based discipline, is a classroom-oriented technique that empowers students to find solutions to organizational issues. This approach involves fostering appreciation and warmth among students, embracing their interests, recognizing their efforts, encouraging feedback, achieving consensus on ground rules, and engaging them in rule-making and problem-solving, all while maintaining dignity and well-defined boundaries. Concepts like remorse and empathy are taught through actions like apologies, restitution, or creating action plans. Limits express a teacher's beliefs, demands, and expectations within clear values and goals that help create a learning environment. The essence of responsibility-centered discipline is making choices that embody core values such as integrity, perseverance, respect, and responsibility rather than simply enforcing rules. Conduct grades reflect a student's willingness to develop and internalize responsible behavior. Larry Thompson developed responsibility-centered discipline as a framework to empower educators with the necessary skills and strategies for fostering a culture of student self-responsibility within schools. This approach shifts the onus from teachers to students, encouraging them to take ownership of their behavior. This represents a shift in organizational culture. In contrast to an obedience-focused "rule-based" approach, where rules can be contested, dismissed, or overlooked, responsibility-centered discipline focuses on nurturing responsibility, not punitive measures or consequences. It cultivates students' self-control and empowers them to assume responsibility for their actions and to devise solutions. Assertive Lee and Marlene Canter developed the assertive discipline model. It blends obedience-based principles with responsibility. It establishes certain truths within the classroom. Students are entitled to an environment free from distractions, which means the teacher has the right to discipline students if that would benefit the class. A peaceful working environment means the right to work comes at the expense of a student's rudeness or misbehavior. Safety and education are guaranteed only if the duty to control is upheld. In this approach, teachers get all students to consent to the rules. They highlight appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, clarifying the necessary corrections if a student exceeds these limits. Assertive discipline reinforces positive behavior, upholds rules, and underscores the importance of respectful conduct. Teachers acknowledge repetitive behaviors, maintaining a consistent appreciation for good conduct. Consequences correspond to actions taken; although maintaining a positive focus is preferable, it might not always be feasible when boundaries are crossed. Disciplinary action must be applied throughout the classroom so all students believe that the rules matter. Simply offering rewards and consequences is not always sufficient; teachers must earn students' respect and trust. Assertive discipline involves modeling appropriate behavior to help students understand its principles. Teachers guide students in adhering to specific behavioral expectations. According to Canter, all students, including those with special needs, respond positively to this approach. Proactive discipline is emphasized over reactive discipline: having a plan, addressing misbehavior as it occurs, highlighting rules, and acknowledging positive behavior with praise. Lee and Marlene Canter emphasize building trust by greeting students, using their names, having one-on-one conversations, acknowledging birthdays and special events, and maintaining communication with parents. The model does not concentrate on individual students. It does not address the root causes of misbehavior, nor is it based on the needs of the students. Team-building Team-building is part of corporate culture that involves a group of people improving on working together as a team. This includes aligning around common goals, establishing effective working relationships, clarifying team members' roles, and collaboratively addressing team-related issues Planned activities within corporate culture provide a platform for employees to share their perspectives on that culture. These organized activities encourage "thought, discussion, and employee buy-in into the company leadership philosophies". Organizations may focus on the processes behind team-building activities to explore what happens when the organization confronts challenges. Engaging in challenges that exceed the difficulty of daily tasks fosters team cohesion. Examples of team-building strategies include promoting workplace civility; implementing group guidelines; sharing stories, management wisdom, or past achievements; and icebreakers. Micromanaging Micromanaging can lead to an improved relationship between an employee and their manager. Micromanagement can be beneficial in certain situations, especially when a manager's task performance falls short of expected quality or compensation levels. This could include instances where the manager spends excessive time chatting, misses deadlines, or fails to respond to urgent emails. The employee adapts their approach to align with the manager's perspective. If a step goes against company ethics, the plan can be abandoned. It is important for employees to verify if competence requirements are met, and if so, they can inquire about changing positions to gain more autonomy. Transparent communication can positively reinforce managers, as micromanaging can demonstrate that a self-reliant worker does not require constant oversight. Habit-tracking Habit trackers are a practical self-discipline method. Often, there's a time lag before receiving feedback on time management, making it challenging to visualize expected habit changes. Activities like running, meditation, or exercise demand significant effort for delayed rewards, yielding minimal satisfaction during the activity. Habit tracking offers short-term motivation for desired outcomes. It triggers action, encourages timely goal completion, and fosters sustained commitment by delivering immediate satisfaction for each achievement. Each entry keeps people engaged and assists in habit formation or cessation. Precommitment Precommitment is a technique for enhancing self-control. It involves putting limits or tolls on what one will do in advance to prevent distractions. Three pact variations exist: effort, price, and identity. An effort pact ensures focused work by deterring distractions. A price pact adds an accountability partner who enforces a penalty when mistakes are made during goal pursuit; a self-oriented price pact uses donations or offloading items as penalties. An identity pact alters self-perception and behavioral habits. All three approaches prove effective, especially for those seeking to bolster self-discipline without relying solely on willpower, according to Nir Eyal. Dichotomy of control Another self-discipline technique is the Stoic Dichotomy of Control. In this technique, one writes down influences judging on how much they can control those influences. This practice directs time and attention toward manageable aspects while acknowledging those beyond control, aiding in problem-solving without undue concern for unchangeable factors. Corporal punishment Corporal punishment is a technique of discipline that includes spanking, slapping, whipping, deprivation, or hitting with an object using force. It aims to enforce immediate compliance by reminding the individual of consequences for their actions, thus deterring further misconduct. Corporal punishment is used in the military to punish unacceptable behavior. This form of punishment provides a disincentive for not acting when required to act. Success spiral A success spiral involves achieving consecutive small goals, leading to increased motivation. Each completed goal enhances confidence in one's capability to accomplish tasks. Success spirals start with breaking habits into manageable routines, then picking simple goals to help gain momentum. Progress is tracked, and reflection guides the decision to tackle more challenging objectives as confidence is established. Miscellaneous Other techniques: take time for personal growth form habit lists for proper learning track habits, make to-do lists or personal vision statements seek out inspiring stories, symbols, and books be orderly overcome obstacles for personal goals use the precommitment strategy eat healthily remove temptations not procrastinating reward yourself immediately schedule exercises and breaks appropriately forgive yourself calculate the best course of action Self-discipline Self-discipline refers to one's ability to control one's behavior and actions to achieve a goal or to maintain a certain standard of conduct. It is the ability to train oneself to do things that should be done and resisting things that should be avoided. This includes setting goals, staying focused, and making sacrifices to those goals. Self-discipline requires practice and effort, but it can lead to improved productivity, better decision-making, and greater success in life. Self-discipline can also be defined as the ability to give up immediate pleasures for long-term goals (deferred gratification). Discipline is grounded in the ability to leave one's comfort zone. Habit is about wanting to change for the better, not for pain. To forego or sacrifice immediate pleasure requires thought and focused discipline. Self-discipline is about one's ability to control their desires and impulses to keep themselves focused on what needs to get done to successfully achieve a goal. It is about taking small, consistent steps of daily action to build a strong set of disciplined habits that fulfill your objectives. One trains themselves to follow rules and standards that help determine, coalesce, and line up one's thoughts and actions with the task at hand. Small acts allow one to achieve greater goals. The key component of self-discipline is the trait of persistence or perseverance. Daily choices accumulate to produce changes one wants the most, despite obstacles. Self-discipline, determination, and perseverance are similar to grit. Discipline is about internal and external consistencies. One must decide on what is right from wrong (internal consistency) and adhere to external regulation, which is to have compliance with rules (external consistency). Discipline is used to "expend some effort" to do something one does not feel motivated to do. Discipline is an action that completes, furthers, or solidifies a goal, not merely one's thoughts and feelings. An action conforms to a value. In other words, one allows values to determine one's own choices. Self-discipline may prevent procrastination. People regret things they have not done compared to things they have done. When one procrastinates, they spend time on things that avoid a goal. Procrastination is not always caused by laziness or relaxation. One can procrastinate due to failure or inability to learn. Habits A life-changing habit enhances health, working life, and quality of life. Habits are established in three stages: Trigger (the thing that initiates the behavior) Behavior (the action one takes) Reward (the benefit one gains from doing the behavior) To effectively utilize this three-step process, it is essential to recognize emotional triggers and maintain a consistent reward. Identifying one's emotional responses helps pinpoint behavioral patterns that prompt learned routines and outcomes. These patterns might hinder goal achievement. Transforming these responses involves finding alternative ways to fulfill emotional needs and adopting preferred behaviors. Discovering the required emotional state requires effort, as does establishing new, healthier habits that satisfy one's needs. There are connections between motivation, self-discipline, and habits: Motivation is the initial emotional drive or inspiration to help one develop one's goals and actions. When motivation begins to waver, it is a self-discipline that makes one continue despite one's emotions and thoughts. Over time, self-discipline diminishes as one's behaviors and actions become habits. It takes two months for a new habit to form, according to research by Phillippa Lally and colleagues. Making a mistake has no measurable impact on any long-term habits. Habit-making is a process and not an event. When one is developing habits to overcome impulses that represent easy paths to short-term gratification, they need control over their mind. Gaining control over one's minds, and taking a proactive approach, enables them to navigate challenges without becoming overly fixated on failure, financial strains, or anxiety. Mental anxiety, in particular, can contribute to heightened sensitivity to our surroundings, possibly leading to unnecessary alarmism. Chronic stress can be detrimental to the development of the executive function, and may make us perceive problems where they do not exist, as outnumbering the solutions, according to Hauser-Cram Heyman. Brett McKay recommends to focus on one's circle of influence—what one can control—rather than one's own sphere of concern, which encompasses things beyond one's control. Self-discipline can be as straightforward as tackling a challenging task before bedtime or during other moments of the day; it is about carving out a portion of one's day to cultivate self-discipline. It involves resisting the temptation of opting for the easiest route (primitive urges) to achieve long-term goals. A person's actions are a product of one's ability to control themselves, both positively and negatively. Habits are automatic mechanisms that conserve one's willpower energy. About 40% of a person's actions are driven by programmed habits. The longer one holds to bad habits, the more difficult it is to break free from them. As one resists temptations, one's desires get stronger. Choices often involve a trade-off between with short-term pleasure in exchange for long-term pain (immediate gratification) or short-term pain and long-term pleasure (delayed gratification). Discipline entails executing habits precisely as intended, enhancing the likelihood of accomplishment and overcoming competing behaviors. Acting promptly exemplifies discipline, while habits are built on preparedness and inclination. This requires a suitable level of buffering against competing behaviors. There are three ways to learn to build discipline, according to Sam Thomas Davies: self-assessment Determine the underlying reason for requiring discipline. Address resistance by identifying its source and counteracting it through commitment instead of making excuses or yielding to peer pressure. self-awareness Learn why oneself does not break their habits, mostly due to a lack of awareness about the ease of succumbing to impulses rather than staying committed. A remedy is to eliminate any distractions. self-celebration Celebrate and reward daily accomplishments, even if one fails to live up to one's expectations. Each outcome provides an opportunity for learning and growth. There are two types of goals: active and passive. Passive goals are ideas, while active goals are concrete plans with specific measures and steps. This includes setting long-term objectives and planning daily tasks. Creating active goals provides direction and helps prevent distractions by outlining precisely what needs to be done. In religion Self-discipline is an important principle in several religious systems. For example, in Buddhist ethics as outlined in the Noble Eightfold Path, both Right View and Right Mindfulness have been described as a moral discipline. For some varieties of Christian ethics, virtues directed by the Beatitudes were preceded by ascetical theology and obedience-based discipline. This shift transformed the focus from the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to one of authority, which, though blessed, did not carry the same happiness as that derived from adherence and observances. During the Middle Ages, spirituality and morality were closely intertwined. The Beatitudes gained prominence as an organizational principle after Saint Augustine. However, Christian ethics as a form of discipline did not fully emerge until the Late Middle Ages. Alongside Lutheranism and the post-Enlightenment era, obedience-based discipline coexists. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "[t]he object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three 'sources' of the morality of human acts." The Holy Spirit is essential for comprehending "the eternal Word of the living God, [and] must... open (our) minds to understand the Scriptures." Self-discipline is how self-control is gained, and the way hope is maintained. Self-control Gaining self-control involves managing reactions. External events or outcomes in one's life can never be controlled, yet reactions and attitudes can. Maintaining a disciplined mind leads to effective reactions. Firstly, boredom can be created if one is not occupied. Secondly, lack of discipline may cause problems for social, mental, and academic performance, as excessive worry about future events consumes time. Thirdly, discipline helps preserve peace and order. Lastly, the disciplined person understands the consequences of their actions. Self-control includes avoiding impulsivity, eating disorders, and addictive behaviors. Overcoming such tendencies is an initial step for personal improvement. The ability to regulate one's emotions and behavior is a key component of the brain's executive function that helps to plan, monitor, and attain goals. Succumbing to immediate impulses hinders both internal growth and external impact. Self-control entails resisting certain actions, whereas discipline involves adopting routines to cultivate positive habits. Self-control means effective decision-making amid competing choices, while discipline fosters the accumulation of habits to bolster success; thus, self-control and discipline may overlap. Anyone can benefit from healthy habits and can take measures to control their behavior. Four strategies are: situation selection, avoiding situations where one will be likely to confront temptations situation modification, doing what one can to reduce the pull of the temptation in the situation that arises distraction, trying to distract oneself with better alternatives reappraisal, changing the way one thinks about a bad habit Child discipline Positive discipline School discipline See also References Training Behavior modification Virtue Codes of conduct	0.767802	0.998029	0.766288
Pleonasm	Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as in "black darkness," "burning fire," "the man he said," or "vibrating with motion." It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria. Pleonasm may also be used for emphasis, or because the phrase has become established in a certain form. Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature. Usage Most often, pleonasm is understood to mean a word or phrase which is useless, clichéd, or repetitive, but a pleonasm can also be simply an unremarkable use of idiom. It can aid in achieving a specific linguistic effect, be it social, poetic or literary. Pleonasm sometimes serves the same function as rhetorical repetition—it can be used to reinforce an idea, contention or question, rendering writing clearer and easier to understand. Pleonasm can serve as a redundancy check; if a word is unknown, misunderstood, misheard, or if the medium of communication is poor—a static-filled radio transmission or sloppy handwriting—pleonastic phrases can help ensure that the meaning is communicated even if some of the words are lost. Idiomatic expressions Some pleonastic phrases are part of a language's idiom, like tuna fish, chain mail and safe haven in American English. They are so common that their use is unremarkable for native speakers, although in many cases the redundancy can be dropped with no loss of meaning. When expressing possibility, English speakers often use potentially pleonastic expressions such as It might be possible or perhaps it's possible, where both terms (verb might or adverb perhaps along with the adjective possible) have the same meaning under certain constructions. Many speakers of English use such expressions for possibility in general, such that most instances of such expressions by those speakers are in fact pleonastic. Others, however, use this expression only to indicate a distinction between ontological possibility and epistemic possibility, as in "Both the ontological possibility of X under current conditions and the ontological impossibility of X under current conditions are epistemically possible" (in logical terms, "I am not aware of any facts inconsistent with the truth of proposition X, but I am likewise not aware of any facts inconsistent with the truth of the negation of X"). The habitual use of the double construction to indicate possibility per se is far less widespread among speakers of most other languages (except in Spanish; see examples); rather, almost all speakers of those languages use one term in a single expression: French: or . Portuguese: , lit. "What is it that", a more emphatic way of saying "what is"; usually suffices. Romanian: or . Typical Spanish pleonasms – I am going to go up upstairs, "" not being necessary. – enter inside, "" not being necessary. Turkish has many pleonastic constructs because certain verbs necessitate objects: – to eat food. – to write writing. – to exit outside. – to enter inside. – to play a game. In a satellite-framed language like English, verb phrases containing particles that denote direction of motion are so frequent that even when such a particle is pleonastic, it seems natural to include it (e.g. "enter into"). Professional and scholarly use Some pleonastic phrases, when used in professional or scholarly writing, may reflect a standardized usage that has evolved or a meaning familiar to specialists but not necessarily to those outside that discipline. Such examples as "null and void", "terms and conditions", "each and every" are legal doublets that are part of legally operative language that is often drafted into legal documents. A classic example of such usage was that by the Lord Chancellor at the time (1864), Lord Westbury, in the English case of Gorely, when he described a phrase in an Act as "redundant and pleonastic". This type of usage may be favored in certain contexts. However, it may also be disfavored when used gratuitously to portray false erudition, obfuscate, or otherwise introduce verbiage, especially in disciplines where imprecision may introduce ambiguities (such as the natural sciences). Of the aforementioned phrases, "terms and conditions" may not be pleonastic in some legal systems, as they refer not to a set provisions forming part of a contract, but rather to the specific terms conditioning the effect of the contract or a contractual provision to a future event. In these cases, terms and conditions imply respectively the certainty or uncertainty of said event (e.g., in Brazilian law, a testament has the initial term for coming into force the death of the testator, while a health insurance has the condition of the insured suffering a, or one of a set of, certain injurie(s) from a or one of a set of certain causes). Stylistic preference In addition, pleonasms can serve purposes external to meaning. For example, a speaker who is too terse is often interpreted as lacking ease or grace, because, in oral and sign language, sentences are spontaneously created without the benefit of editing. The restriction on the ability to plan often creates many redundancies. In written language, removing words that are not strictly necessary sometimes makes writing seem stilted or awkward, especially if the words are cut from an idiomatic expression. On the other hand, as is the case with any literary or rhetorical effect, excessive use of pleonasm weakens writing and speech; words distract from the content. Writers who want to obfuscate a certain thought may obscure their meaning with excess verbiage. William Strunk Jr. advocated concision in The Elements of Style (1918): Literary uses Examples from Baroque, Mannerist, and Victorian provide a counterpoint to Strunk's advocacy of concise writing: "This was the most unkindest cut of all." — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Act 3, Scene 2, 183) "I will be brief: your noble son is mad:/Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,/What is't but to be nothing else but mad?" — Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2) "Let me tell you this, when social workers offer you, free, gratis and for nothing, something to hinder you from swooning, which with them is an obsession, it is useless to recoil ..." — Samuel Beckett, Molloy Types There are various kinds of pleonasm, including bilingual tautological expressions, syntactic pleonasm, semantic pleonasm and morphological pleonasm: Bilingual tautological expressions A bilingual tautological expression is a phrase that combines words that mean the same thing in two different languages. An example of a bilingual tautological expression is the Yiddish expression mayim akhroynem vaser. It literally means "water last water" and refers to "water for washing the hands after meal, grace water". Its first element, mayim, derives from the Hebrew ['majim] "water". Its second element, vaser, derives from the Middle High German word "water". According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Yiddish abounds with both bilingual tautological compounds and bilingual tautological first names. The following are examples of bilingual tautological compounds in Yiddish: fíntster khóyshekh "very dark", literally "dark darkness", traceable back to the Middle High German word "dark" and the Hebrew word חושך ħōshekh "darkness". khameréyzļ "womanizer", literally "donkey-donkey", traceable back to the Hebrew word חמור [ħă'mōr] "donkey" and the Middle High German word "donkey". The following are examples of bilingual tautological first names (anthroponyms) in Yiddish: Dov-Ber, literally "bear-bear", traceable back to the Hebrew word dov "bear" and the Middle High German word "bear". Tsvi-Hirsh, literally "deer-deer", traceable back to the Hebrew word tsvi "deer" and the Middle High German word "deer". Ze'ev-Volf, literally "wolf-wolf", traceable back to the Hebrew word ze'ev "wolf" and the Middle High German word "wolf". Arye-Leyb, literally "lion-lion", traceable back to the Hebrew word arye "lion" and the Middle High German word "lion". Examples occurring in English-language contexts include: River Avon, literally "River River", from Welsh. the Sahara Desert, literally "the The Desert Desert", from Arabic. the La Brea Tar Pits, literally "the The Tar Tar Pits", from Spanish. the Los Angeles Angels, literally "the The Angels Angels", from Spanish. the hoi polloi, literally "the the many", from Greek. Carmarthen Castle, may actually have "castle" in it three times: In its Welsh form, Castell Caerfyrddin, "Caer" means fort, while "fyrddin" is thought to be derived from the Latin Moridunum ("sea fort") making Carmarthen Castle "fort sea-fort castle". Mount Maunganui, Lake Rotoroa, and Motutapu Island in New Zealand are "Mount Mount Big", "Lake Lake Long", and "Island Sacred Island" respectively, from Māori. Syntactic pleonasm Syntactic pleonasm occurs when the grammar of a language makes certain function words optional. For example, consider the following English sentences: "I know you're coming." "I know that you're coming." In this construction, the conjunction that is optional when joining a sentence to a verb phrase with know. Both sentences are grammatically correct, but the word that is pleonastic in this case. By contrast, when a sentence is in spoken form and the verb involved is one of assertion, the use of that makes clear that the present speaker is making an indirect rather than a direct quotation, such that he is not imputing particular words to the person he describes as having made an assertion; the demonstrative adjective that also does not fit such an example. Also, some writers may use "that" for technical clarity reasons. In some languages, such as French, the word is not optional and should therefore not be considered pleonastic. The same phenomenon occurs in Spanish with subject pronouns. Since Spanish is a null-subject language, which allows subject pronouns to be deleted when understood, the following sentences mean the same: "" "" In this case, the pronoun ('I') is grammatically optional; both sentences mean "I love you" (however, they may not have the same tone or intention—this depends on pragmatics rather than grammar). Such differing but syntactically equivalent constructions, in many languages, may also indicate a difference in register. The process of deleting pronouns is called pro-dropping, and it also happens in many other languages, such as Korean, Japanese, Hungarian, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Swahili, Slavic languages, and the Lao language. In contrast, formal English requires an overt subject in each clause. A sentence may not need a subject to have valid meaning, but to satisfy the syntactic requirement for an explicit subject a pleonastic (or dummy pronoun) is used; only the first sentence in the following pair is acceptable English: "It's raining." "Is raining." In this example the pleonastic "it" fills the subject function, but it contributes no meaning to the sentence. The second sentence, which omits the pleonastic it is marked as ungrammatical although no meaning is lost by the omission. Elements such as "it" or "there", serving as empty subject markers, are also called (syntactic) expletives, or dummy pronouns. Compare: "There is rain." "Today is rain." The pleonastic , expressing uncertainty in formal French, works as follows: ""('I fear it may rain.') ""('These ideas are harder to understand than I thought.') Two more striking examples of French pleonastic construction are and . The word / is translated as 'today', but originally means "on the day of today" since the now obsolete means "today". The expression (translated as "on the day of today") is common in spoken language and demonstrates that the original construction of is lost. It is considered a pleonasm. The phrase meaning 'What's that?' or 'What is it?', while literally, it means "What is it that it is?". There are examples of the pleonastic, or dummy, negative in English, such as the construction, heard in the New England region of the United States, in which the phrase "So don't I" is intended to have the same positive meaning as "So do I." When Robert South said, "It is a pleonasm, a figure usual in Scripture, by a multiplicity of expressions to signify one notable thing", he was observing the Biblical Hebrew poetic propensity to repeat thoughts in different words, since written Biblical Hebrew was a comparatively early form of written language and was written using oral patterning, which has many pleonasms. In particular, very many verses of the Psalms are split into two halves, each of which says much the same thing in different words. The complex rules and forms of written language as distinct from spoken language were not as well-developed as they are today when the books making up the Old Testament were written. See also parallelism (rhetoric). This same pleonastic style remains very common in modern poetry and songwriting (e.g., "Anne, with her father / is out in the boat / riding the water / riding the waves / on the sea", from Peter Gabriel's "Mercy Street"). Types of syntactic pleonasm Overinflection: Many languages with inflection, as a result of convention, tend to inflect more words in a given phrase than actually needed in order to express a single grammatical property. Take for example the German, ("The old women speak"). Even though the use of the plural form of the noun ("woman", plural ) shows the grammatical number of the noun phrase, agreement in the German language still dictates that the definite article , attributive adjective , and the verb must all also be in the plural. Not all languages are quite as redundant however, and will permit inflection for number when there is an obvious numerical marker, as is the case with Hungarian, which does have a plural proper, but would express two flowers as two flower. (The same is the case in Celtic languages, where numerical markers precede singular nouns.) The main contrast between Hungarian and other tongues such as German or even English (to a lesser extent) is that in either of the latter, expressing plurality when already evident is not optional, but mandatory; making the neglect of these rules result in an ungrammatical sentence. As well as for number, our aforementioned German phrase also overinflects for grammatical case. Multiple negation: In some languages, repeated negation may be used for emphasis, as in the English sentence, "There ain't nothing wrong with that". While a literal interpretation of this sentence would be "There is not nothing wrong with that", i.e. "There is something wrong with that", the intended meaning is, in fact, the opposite: "There is nothing wrong with that" or "There isn't anything wrong with that." The repeated negation is used pleonastically for emphasis. However, this is not always the case. In the sentence "I don't not like it", the repeated negative may be used to convey ambivalence ("I neither like nor dislike it") or even affirmation ("I do like it"). (Rhetorically, this becomes the device of litotes; it can be difficult to distinguish litotes from pleonastic double negation, a feature which may be used for ironic effect.) Although the use of "double negatives" for emphatic purposes is sometimes discouraged in standard English, it is mandatory in other languages like Spanish or French. For example, the Spanish phrase ('It is nothing') contains both a negated verb ("") and another negative, the word for nothing (""). Multiple affirmations: In English, repeated affirmation can be used to add emphasis to an affirmative statement, just as repeated negation can add emphasis to a negative one. A sentence like I do love you, with a stronger intonation on the do, uses double affirmation. This is because English, by default, automatically expresses its sentences in the affirmative and must then alter the sentence in one way or another to express the opposite. Therefore, the sentence I love you is already affirmative, and adding the extra do only adds emphasis and does not change the meaning of the statement. Double possession: The double genitive of English, as with a friend of mine, is seemingly pleonastic, and therefore has been stigmatized, but it has a long history of use by careful writers and has been analyzed as either a partitive genitive or an appositive genitive. Multiple quality gradation: In English, different degrees of comparison (comparatives and superlatives) are created through a morphological change to an adjective (e.g., "prettier", "fastest") or a syntactic construction (e.g., "more complex", "most impressive"). It is thus possible to combine both forms for additional emphasis: "more bigger" or "bestest". This may be considered ungrammatical but is common in informal speech for some English speakers. "The most unkindest cut of all" is from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Musical notation has a repeated Italian superlative in fortississimo and pianississimo. Not all uses of constructions such as "more bigger" are pleonastic, however. Some speakers who use such utterances do so in an attempt, albeit a grammatically unconventional one, to create a non-pleonastic construction: A person who says "X is more bigger than Y" may, in the context of a conversation featuring a previous comparison of some object Z with Y, mean "The degree by which X exceeds Y in size is greater than the degree by which Z exceeds Y in size". This usage amounts to the treatment of "bigger than Y" as a single grammatical unit, namely an adjective itself admitting of degrees, such that "X is more bigger than Y" is equivalent to "X is more bigger-than-Y than Z is."[alternatively, "X is bigger than Y more than Z is."] Another common way to express this is: "X is even bigger than Z." Semantic pleonasm Semantic pleonasm is a question more of style and usage than of grammar. Linguists usually call this redundancy to avoid confusion with syntactic pleonasm, a more important phenomenon for theoretical linguistics. It usually takes one of two forms: Overlap or prolixity. Overlap: One word's semantic component is subsumed by the other: "Receive a free gift with every purchase."; a gift is usually already free. "A tuna fish sandwich." "The plumber fixed our hot water heater." (This pleonasm was famously attacked by American comedian George Carlin, but is not truly redundant; a device that increases the temperature of cold water to room temperature would also be a water heater.) The Big Friendly Giant (title of a children's book by Roald Dahl); giants are inherently already "big". Prolixity: A phrase may have words which add nothing, or nothing logical or relevant, to the meaning. "I'm going down south."(South is not really "down", it is just drawn that way on maps by convention.) "You can't seem to face up to the facts." "He entered into the room." "Every mother's child" (as in 'The Christmas Song' by Nat King Cole', also known as 'Chestnuts roasting...'). (Being a child, or a human at all, generally implies being the child of/to a mother. So the redundancy here is used to broaden the context of the child's curiosity regarding the sleigh of Santa Claus, including the concept of maternity. The full line goes: "And every mother's child is gonna spy, to see if reindeer really know how to fly". One can furthermore argue that the word "mother" is included for the purpose of lyrical flow, adding two syllables, which make the line sound complete, as "every child" would be too short to fit the lyrical/rhyme scheme.) "What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." "He raised up his hands in a gesture of surrender." "Where are you at?" "Located" or similar before a preposition: "the store is located on Main St." The preposition contains the idea of locatedness and does not need a servant. "The house itself" for "the house", and similar: unnecessary re-specifiers. "Actual fact": fact. "On a daily basis": daily. "This particular item": this item. "Different" or "separate" after numbers: for example: "Four different species" are merely "four species", as two non-different species are together one same species. (However, in "a discount if you buy ten different items", "different" has meaning, because if the ten items include two packets of frozen peas of the same weight and brand, those ten items are not all different.) "Nine separate cars": cars are always separate. "Despite the fact that": although. An expression like "tuna fish", however, might elicit one of many possible responses, such as: It will simply be accepted as synonymous with "tuna". It will be perceived as redundant (and thus perhaps silly, illogical, ignorant, inefficient, dialectal, odd, and/or intentionally humorous). It will imply a distinction. A reader of "tuna fish" could properly wonder: "Is there a kind of tuna which is not a fish? There is, after all, a dolphin mammal and a dolphin fish." This assumption turns out to be correct, as a "tuna" can also mean a prickly pear. Further, "tuna fish" is sometimes used to refer to the flesh of the animal as opposed to the animal itself (similar to the distinction between beef and cattle). Similarly, while all sound-making horns use air, an "air horn" has a special meaning: one that uses compressed air specifically; while most clocks tell time, a "time clock" specifically means one that keeps track of workers' presence at the workplace. It will be perceived as a verbal clarification, since the word "tuna" is quite short, and may, for example, be misheard as "tune" followed by an aspiration, or (in dialects that drop the final -r sound) as "tuner". Careful speakers, and writers, too, are aware of pleonasms, especially with cases such as "tuna fish", which is normally used only in some dialects of American English, and would sound strange in other variants of the language, and even odder in translation into other languages. Similar situations are: "Ink pen" instead of merely "pen" in the southern United States, where "pen" and "pin" are pronounced similarly. "Extra accessories" which must be ordered separately for a new camera, as distinct from the accessories provided with the camera as sold. Not all constructions that are typically pleonasms are so in all cases, nor are all constructions derived from pleonasms themselves pleonastic: "Put that glass over there on the table." This could, depending on room layout, mean "Put that glass on the table across the room, not the table right in front of you"; if the room were laid out like that, most English speakers would intuitively understand that the distant, not immediate table was the one being referred to; however, if there were only one table in the room, the phrase would indeed be pleonastic. Also, it could mean, "Put that glass on the spot (on the table) which I am gesturing to"; thus, in this case, it is not pleonastic. "I'm going way down South." This may imply "I'm going much farther south than you might think if I didn't stress the southerliness of my destination"; but such phrasing is also sometimes—and sometimes jokingly—used pleonastically when simply "south" would do; it depends upon the context, the intent of the speaker/writer, and ultimately even on the expectations of the listener/reader. Morphemic pleonasm Morphemes, not just words, can enter the realm of pleonasm: Some word-parts are simply optional in various languages and dialects. A familiar example to American English speakers would be the allegedly optional "-al-", probably most commonly seen in "" vs. "publicly"—both spellings are considered correct/acceptable in American English, and both pronounced the same, in this dialect, rendering the "" spelling pleonastic in US English; in other dialects it is "required", while it is quite conceivable that in another generation or so of American English it will be "forbidden". This treatment of words ending in "-ic", "-ac", etc., is quite inconsistent in US English—compare "maniacally" or "forensically" with "stoicly" or "heroicly"; "forensicly" doesn't look "right" in any dialect, but "heroically" looks internally redundant to many Americans. (Likewise, there are thousands of mostly American Google search results for "eroticly", some in reputable publications, but it does not even appear in the 23-volume, 23,000-page, 500,000-definition Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the largest in the world; and even American dictionaries give the correct spelling as "erotically".) In a more modern pair of words, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers dictionaries say that "electric" and "electrical" mean the same thing. However, the usual adverb form is "electrically". (For example, "The glass rod is electrically charged by rubbing it with silk".) Some (mostly US-based) prescriptive grammar pundits would say that the "-ly" not "-ally" form is "correct" in any case in which there is no "-ical" variant of the basic word, and vice versa; i.e. "maniacally", not "maniacly", is correct because "maniacal" is a word, while "publicly", not "", must be correct because "publical" is (arguably) not a real word (it does not appear in the OED). This logic is in doubt, since most if not all "-ical" constructions arguably are "real" words and most have certainly occurred more than once in "reputable" publications and are also immediately understood by any educated reader of English even if they "look funny" to some, or do not appear in popular dictionaries. Additionally, there are numerous examples of words that have very widely accepted extended forms that have skipped one or more intermediary forms, e.g., "disestablishmentarian" in the absence of "disestablishmentary" (which does not appear in the OED). At any rate, while some US editors might consider "-ally" vs. "-ly" to be pleonastic in some cases, the majority of other English speakers would not, and many "-ally" words are not pleonastic to anyone, even in American English. The most common definitely pleonastic morphological usage in English is "irregardless", which is very widely criticized as being a non-word. The standard usage is "regardless", which is already negative; adding the additional negative ir- is interpreted by some as logically reversing the meaning to "with regard to/for", which is certainly not what the speaker intended to convey. (According to most dictionaries that include it, "irregardless" appears to derive from confusion between "regardless" and "irrespective", which have overlapping meanings.) Morphemic pleonasm in Modern Standard Chinese There are several instances in Chinese vocabulary where pleonasms and cognate objects are present. Their presence usually indicate the plural form of the noun or the noun in formal context. ('book(s)' – in general) ('paper, tissue, pieces of paper' – formal) In some instances, the pleonasmic form of the verb is used with the intention as an emphasis to one meaning of the verb, isolating them from their idiomatic and figurative uses. But over time, the pseudo-object, which sometimes repeats the verb, is almost inherently coupled with the it. For example, the word ('to sleep') is an intransitive verb, but may express different meaning when coupled with objects of prepositions as in "to sleep with". However, in Mandarin, is usually coupled with a pseudo-character , yet it is not entirely a cognate object, to express the act of resting. ('I want sleep'). Although such usage of is not found among native speakers of Mandarin and may sound awkward, this expression is grammatically correct and it is clear that means 'to sleep/to rest' in this context. ('I want to sleep') and ('I'm going to sleep'). In this context, ('to sleep') is a complete verb and native speakers often express themselves this way. Adding this particle clears any suspicion from using it with any direct object shown in the next example: ('I want to have sex with her') and ('I want to sleep with her'). When the verb follows an animate direct object the meaning changes dramatically. The first instance is mainly seen in colloquial speech. Note that the object of preposition of "to have sex with" is the equivalent of the direct object of in Mandarin. One can also find a way around this verb, using another one which does not is used to express idiomatic expressions nor necessitate a pleonasm, because it only has one meaning: ('I want "to dorm) Nevertheless, is a verb used in high-register diction, just like English verbs with Latin roots. There is no relationship found between Chinese and English regarding verbs that can take pleonasms and cognate objects. Although the verb to sleep may take a cognate object as in "sleep a restful sleep", it is a pure coincidence, since verbs of this form are more common in Chinese than in English; and when the English verb is used without the cognate objects, its diction is natural and its meaning is clear in every level of diction, as in "I want to sleep" and "I want to have a rest". Subtler redundancies In some cases, the redundancy in meaning occurs at the syntactic level above the word, such as at the phrase level: "It's déjà vu all over again." "I never make predictions, especially about the future." The redundancy of these two well-known statements is deliberate, for humorous effect. (See Yogi Berra#"Yogi-isms".) But one does hear educated people say "my predictions about the future of politics" for "my predictions about politics", which are equivalent in meaning. While predictions are necessarily about the future (at least in relation to the time the prediction was made), the nature of this future can be subtle (e.g., "I predict that he died a week ago"—the prediction is about future discovery or proof of the date of death, not about the death itself). Generally "the future" is assumed, making most constructions of this sort pleonastic. The latter humorous quote above about not making predictions—by Yogi Berra—is not really a pleonasm, but rather an ironic play on words. Alternatively it could be an analogy between predict and guess. However, "It's déjà vu all over again" could mean that there was earlier another déjà vu of the same event or idea, which has now arisen for a third time; or that the speaker had very recently experienced a déjà vu of a different idea. Redundancy, and "useless" or "nonsensical" words (or phrases, or morphemes), can also be inherited by one language from the influence of another and are not pleonasms in the more critical sense but actual changes in grammatical construction considered to be required for "proper" usage in the language or dialect in question. Irish English, for example, is prone to a number of constructions that non-Irish speakers find strange and sometimes directly confusing or silly: "I'm after putting it on the table."('I [have] put it on the table.') This example further shows that the effect, whether pleonastic or only pseudo-pleonastic, can apply to words and word-parts, and multi-word phrases, given that the fullest rendition would be "I am after putting it on the table". "Have a look at your man there."('Have a look at that man there.') An example of word substitution, rather than addition, that seems illogical outside the dialect. This common possessive-seeming construction often confuses the non-Irish enough that they do not at first understand what is meant. Even "Have a look at that man there" is arguably further doubly redundant, in that a shorter "Look at that man" version would convey essentially the same meaning. "She's my wife so she is."('She's my wife.') Duplicate subject and verb, post-complement, used to emphasize a simple factual statement or assertion. All of these constructions originate from the application of Irish Gaelic grammatical rules to the English dialect spoken, in varying particular forms, throughout the island. Seemingly "useless" additions and substitutions must be contrasted with similar constructions that are used for stress, humor, or other intentional purposes, such as: "I abso-fuckin'-lutely agree!"(tmesis, for stress) "Topless-shmopless—nudity doesn't distract me."(shm-reduplication, for humor) The latter of these is a result of Yiddish influences on modern English, especially East Coast US English. Sometimes editors and grammatical stylists will use "pleonasm" to describe simple wordiness. This phenomenon is also called prolixity or logorrhea. Compare: "The sound of the loud music drowned out the sound of the burglary." "The loud music drowned out the sound of the burglary." or even: "The music drowned out the burglary." The reader or hearer does not have to be told that loud music has a sound, and in a newspaper headline or other abbreviated prose can even be counted upon to infer that "burglary" is a proxy for "sound of the burglary" and that the music necessarily must have been loud to drown it out, unless the burglary was relatively quiet (this is not a trivial issue, as it may affect the legal culpability of the person who played the music); the word "loud" may imply that the music should have been played quietly if at all. Many are critical of the excessively abbreviated constructions of "headline-itis" or "newsspeak", so "loud [music]" and "sound of the [burglary]" in the above example should probably not be properly regarded as pleonastic or otherwise genuinely redundant, but simply as informative and clarifying. Prolixity is also used to obfuscate, confuse, or euphemize and is not necessarily redundant or pleonastic in such constructions, though it often is. "Post-traumatic stress disorder" (shell shock) and "pre-owned vehicle" (used car) are both tumid euphemisms but are not redundant. Redundant forms, however, are especially common in business, political, and academic language that is intended to sound impressive (or to be vague so as to make it hard to determine what is actually being promised, or otherwise misleading). For example: "This quarter, we are presently focusing with determination on an all-new, innovative integrated methodology and framework for rapid expansion of customer-oriented external programs designed and developed to bring the company's consumer-first paradigm into the marketplace as quickly as possible." In contrast to redundancy, an oxymoron results when two seemingly contradictory words are adjoined. Foreign words Redundancies sometimes take the form of foreign words whose meaning is repeated in the context: "We went to the El Restaurante restaurant." "The La Brea tar pits are fascinating." "Roast beef served with au jus sauce." "Please R.S.V.P." "The Schwarzwald Forest is deep and dark." "The Drakensberg Mountains are in South Africa." "We will vacation in Timor-Leste." LibreOffice office suite. The hoi polloi. I'd like to have a chai tea. "That delicious Queso cheese." "Some salsa sauce on the side?." These sentences use phrases which mean, respectively, "the restaurant restaurant", "the tar tar", "with juice sauce" and so on. However, many times these redundancies are necessary—especially when the foreign words make up a proper noun as opposed to a common one. For example, "We went to Il Ristorante" is acceptable provided the audience can infer that it is a restaurant. (If they understand Italian and English it might, if spoken, be misinterpreted as a generic reference and not a proper noun, leading the hearer to ask "Which ristorante do you mean?"—such confusions are common in richly bilingual areas like Montreal or the American Southwest when mixing phrases from two languages.) But avoiding the redundancy of the Spanish phrase in the second example would only leave an awkward alternative: "La Brea pits are fascinating". Most find it best to not even drop articles when using proper nouns made from foreign languages: "The movie is playing at the El Capitan theater." However, there are some exceptions to this, for example: "Jude Bellingham plays for Real Madrid in La Liga." ("La Liga" literally means "The League" in Spanish) This is also similar to the treatment of definite and indefinite articles in titles of books, films, etc. where the article can—some would say must—be present where it would otherwise be "forbidden": "Stephen King's The Shining is scary."(Normally, the article would be left off following a possessive.) "I'm having an An American Werewolf in London movie night at my place."(Seemingly doubled article, which would be taken for a stutter or typographical error in other contexts.) Some cross-linguistic redundancies, especially in placenames, occur because a word in one language became the title of a place in another (e.g., the Sahara Desert—"Sahara" is an English approximation of the word for "deserts" in Arabic). "The Los Angeles Angels" professional baseball team is literally "the The Angels Angels". A supposed extreme example is Torpenhow Hill in Cumbria, where some of the elements in the name likely mean "hill". See the List of tautological place names for many more examples. The word tsetse means "fly" in the Tswana language, a Bantu language spoken in Botswana and South Africa. This word is the root of the English name for a biting fly found in Africa, the tsetse fly. Acronyms and initialisms Acronyms and initialisms can also form the basis for redundancies; this is known humorously as RAS syndrome (for Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome). In all the examples that follow, the word after the acronym repeats a word represented in the acronym. The full redundant phrase is stated in the parentheses that follow each example: "I forgot my PIN number for the ATM machine." (Personal Identification Number number; Automated Teller Machine machine) "I upgraded the RAM memory of my computer." (Random Access Memory memory) "She is infected with the HIV virus." (Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus) "I have installed a CMS system on my server." (Content Management System system) "The SI system of units is the modern form of the metric system." (International System system) (See RAS syndrome for many more examples.) The expansion of an acronym like PIN or HIV may be well known to English speakers, but the acronyms themselves have come to be treated as words, so little thought is given to what their expansion is (and "PIN" is also pronounced the same as the word "pin"; disambiguation is probably the source of "PIN number"; "SIN number" for "Social Insurance Number number" is a similar common phrase in Canada.) But redundant acronyms are more common with technical (e.g., computer) terms where well-informed speakers recognize the redundancy and consider it silly or ignorant, but mainstream users might not, since they may not be aware or certain of the full expansion of an acronym like "RAM". Typographical Some redundancies are simply typographical. For instance, when a short inflexional word like "the" occurs at the end of a line, it is very common to accidentally repeat it at the beginning of the following line, and a large number of readers would not even notice it. Apparent redundancies that actually are not redundant Carefully constructed expressions, especially in poetry and political language, but also some general usages in everyday speech, may appear to be redundant but are not. This is most common with cognate objects (a verb's object that is cognate with the verb): "She slept a deep sleep." Or, a classic example from Latin: mutatis mutandis = "with change made to what needs to be changed" (an ablative absolute construction) The words need not be etymologically related, but simply conceptually, to be considered an example of cognate object: "We wept tears of joy." Such constructions are not actually redundant (unlike "She slept a sleep" or "We wept tears") because the object's modifiers provide additional information. A rarer, more constructed form is polyptoton, the stylistic repetition of the same word or words derived from the same root: "...[T]he only thing we have to fear is fear itself." — Franklin D. Roosevelt, "First Inaugural Address", March 1933. "With eager feeding[,] food doth choke the feeder." — William Shakespeare, Richard II, II, i, 37. As with cognate objects, these constructions are not redundant because the repeated words or derivatives cannot be removed without removing meaning or even destroying the sentence, though in most cases they could be replaced with non-related synonyms at the cost of style (e.g., compare "The only thing we have to fear is terror".) Semantic pleonasm and context In many cases of semantic pleonasm, the status of a word as pleonastic depends on context. The relevant context can be as local as a neighboring word, or as global as the extent of a speaker's knowledge. In fact, many examples of redundant expressions are not inherently redundant, but can be redundant if used one way, and are not redundant if used another way. The "up" in "climb up" is not always redundant, as in the example "He climbed up and then fell down the mountain." Many other examples of pleonasm are redundant only if the speaker's knowledge is taken into account. For example, most English speakers would agree that "tuna fish" is redundant because tuna is a kind of fish. However, given the knowledge that "tuna" can also refer to a kind of edible prickly pear, the "fish" in "tuna fish" can be seen as non-pleonastic, but rather a disambiguator between the fish and the prickly pear. Conversely, to English speakers who do not know Spanish, there is nothing redundant about "the La Brea tar pits" because the name "La Brea" is opaque: the speaker does not know that it is Spanish for "the tar" and thus "the La Brea Tar Pits" translates to "the the tar tar pits". Similarly, even though scuba stands for "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus", a phrase like "the scuba gear" would probably not be considered pleonastic because "scuba" has been reanalyzed into English as a simple word, and not an acronym suggesting the pleonastic word sequence "apparatus gear". (Most do not even know that it is an acronym and do not spell it SCUBA or S.C.U.B.A. Similar examples are radar and laser.) See also Notes References Citations Bibliography External links Figures of speech Linguistics Rhetoric Semantics Syntax	0.7701	0.994977	0.766232
Resource	Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified according to their availability as renewable or national and international resources. An item may become a resource with technology. The benefits of resource utilization may include increased wealth, proper functioning of a system, or enhanced well. From a human perspective, a regular resource is anything to satisfy human needs and wants. The concept of resources has been developed across many established areas of work, in economics, biology and ecology, computer science, management, and human resources for example - linked to the concepts of competition, sustainability, conservation, and stewardship. In application within human society, commercial or non-commercial factors require resource allocation through resource management. The concept of resources can also be tied to the direction of leadership over resources; this may include human resources issues, for which leaders are responsible, in managing, supporting, or directing those matters and the resulting necessary actions. For example, in the cases of professional groups, innovative leaders and technical experts in archiving expertise, academic management, association management, business management, healthcare management, military management, public administration, spiritual leadership and social networking administration. Definition of size asymmetry Resource competition can vary from completely symmetric (all individuals receive the same amount of resources, irrespective of their size, known also as scramble competition) to perfectly size symmetric (all individuals exploit the same amount of resource per unit biomass) to absolutely size asymmetric (the largest individuals exploit all the available resource). Economic versus biological There are three fundamental differences between economic versus ecological views: 1) the economic resource definition is human-centered (anthropocentric) and the biological or ecological resource definition is nature-centered (biocentric or ecocentric); 2) the economic view includes desire along with necessity, whereas the biological view is about basic biological needs; and 3) economic systems are based on markets of currency exchanged for goods and services, whereas biological systems are based on natural processes of growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Computer resources A computer resource is any physical or virtual component of limited availability within a computer or information management system. Computer resources include means for input, processing, output, communication, and storage. Natural Natural resources are derived from the environment. Many natural resources are essential for human survival, while others are used to satisfy human desire. Conservation is the management of natural resources with the goal of sustainability. Natural resources may be further classified in different ways. Resources can be categorized based on origin: Abiotic resources comprise non-living things (e.g., land, water, air, and minerals such as gold, iron, copper, silver). Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere. Forests and their products, animals, birds and their products, fish and other marine organisms are important examples. Minerals such as coal and petroleum are sometimes included in this category because they were formed from fossilized organic matter, over long periods. Natural resources are also categorized based on the stage of development: Potential resources are known to exist and may be used in the future. For example, petroleum may exist in many parts of India and Kuwait that have sedimentary rocks, but until the time it is actually drilled out and put into use, it remains a potential resource. Actual resources are those, that have been surveyed, their quantity and quality determined, and are being used in present times. For example, petroleum and natural gas are actively being obtained from the Mumbai High Fields. The development of an actual resource, such as wood processing depends on the technology available and the cost involved. That part of the actual resource that can be developed profitably with the available technology is known as a reserve resource, while that part that can not be developed profitably due to a lack of technology is known as a stock resource. Natural resources can be categorized based on renewability: Non-renewable resources are formed over very long geological periods. Minerals and fossils are included in this category. Since their formation rate is extremely slow, they cannot be replenished, once they are depleted. Even though metals can be recycled and reused, whereas petroleum and gas cannot, they are still considered non-renewable resources. Renewable resources, such as forests and fisheries, can be replenished or reproduced relatively quickly. The highest rate at which a resource can be used sustainably is the sustainable yield. Some resources, such as sunlight, air, and wind, are called perpetual resources because they are available continuously, though at a limited rate. Human consumption does not affect their quantity. Many renewable resources can be depleted by human use, but may also be replenished, thus maintaining a flow. Some of these, such as crops, take a short time for renewal; others, such as water, take a comparatively longer time, while others, such as forests, need even longer periods. Depending upon the speed and quantity of consumption, overconsumption can lead to depletion or the total and everlasting destruction of a resource. Important examples are agricultural areas, fish and other animals, forests, healthy water and soil, cultivated and natural landscapes. Such conditionally renewable resources are sometimes classified as a third kind of resource or as a subtype of renewable resources. Conditionally renewable resources are presently subject to excess human consumption and the only sustainable long-term use of such resources is within the so-called zero ecological footprint, where humans use less than the Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. Natural resources are also categorized based on distribution: Ubiquitous resources are found everywhere (for example, air, light, and water). Localized resources are found only in certain parts of the world (for example metal ores and geothermal power). Actual vs. potential natural resources are distinguished as follows: Actual resources are those resources whose location and quantity are known and we have the technology to exploit and use them. Potential resources are those of which we have insufficient knowledge or do not have the technology to exploit them at present. Based on ownership, resources can be classified as individual, community, national, and international. Labour or human resources In economics, labor or human resources refers to the human work in the production of goods and rendering of services. Human resources can be defined in terms of skills, energy, talent, abilities, or knowledge. In a project management context, human resources are those employees responsible for undertaking the activities defined in the project plan. Capital or infrastructure In economics, capital goods or capital are "those durable produced goods that are in turn used as productive inputs for further production" of goods and services. A typical example is the machinery used in a factory. At the macroeconomic level, "the nation's capital stock includes buildings, equipment, software, and inventories during a given year." Capitals are the most important economic resource. Tangible versus intangible Whereas, tangible resources such as equipment have an actual physical existence, intangible resources such as corporate images, brands and patents, and other intellectual properties exist in abstraction. Use and sustainable development Typically resources cannot be consumed in their original form, but rather through resource development they must be processed into more usable commodities and usable things. The demand for resources is increasing as economies develop. There are marked differences in resource distribution and associated economic inequality between regions or countries, with developed countries using more natural resources than developing countries. Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment. Sustainable development means that we should exploit our resources carefully to meet our present requirement without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The practice of the three R's – reduce, reuse, and recycle must be followed to save and extend the availability of resources. Various problems are related to the usage of resources: Environmental degradation Over-consumption Resource curse Resource depletion Tragedy of the commons Various benefits can result from the wise usage of resources: Economic growth Ethical consumerism Prosperity Quality of life Sustainability Wealth See also Natural resource management Resource-based view Waste management References Further reading Elizabeth Kolbert, "Needful Things: The raw materials for the world we've built come at a cost" (largely based on Ed Conway, Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization, Knopf, 2023; Vince Beiser, The World in a Grain; and Chip Colwell, So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything, Chicago), The New Yorker, 30 October 2023, pp. 20–23. Kolbert mainly discusses the importance to modern civilization, and the finite sources of, six raw materials: high-purity quartz (needed to produce silicon chips), sand, iron, copper, petroleum (which Conway lumps together with another fossil fuel, natural gas), and lithium. Kolbert summarizes archeologist Colwell's review of the evolution of technology, which has ended up giving the Global North a superabundance of "stuff," at an unsustainable cost to the world's environment and reserves of raw materials. External links Resource economics Ecology	0.768575	0.996928	0.766214
Framing (social sciences)	In the social sciences, framing comprises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies organize, perceive, and communicate about reality. Framing can manifest in thought or interpersonal communication. Frames in thought consist of the mental representations, interpretations, and simplifications of reality. Frames in communication consist of the communication of frames between different actors. Framing is a key component of sociology, the study of social interaction among humans. Framing is an integral part of conveying and processing data daily. Successful framing techniques can be used to reduce the ambiguity of intangible topics by contextualizing the information in such a way that recipients can connect to what they already know. In social theory, framing is a schema of interpretation, a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes, that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events. In other words, people build a series of mental "filters" through biological and cultural influences. They then use these filters to make sense of the world. The choices they then make are influenced by their creation of a frame. Framing involves social construction of a social phenomenon – by mass media sources, political or social movements, political leaders, or other actors and organizations. Participation in a language community necessarily influences an individual's perception of the meanings attributed to words or phrases. Politically, the language communities of advertising, religion, and mass media are highly contested, whereas framing in less-sharply defended language communities might evolve imperceptibly and organically over cultural time frames, with fewer overt modes of disputation. One can view framing in communication as positive or negative – depending on the audience and what kind of information is being presented. The framing may be in the form of equivalence frames, where two or more logically equivalent alternatives are portrayed in different ways (see framing effect) or emphasis frames, which simplify reality by focusing on a subset of relevant aspects of a situation or issue. In the case of "equivalence frames", the information being presented is based on the same facts, but the "frame" in which it is presented changes, thus creating a reference-dependent perception. The effects of framing can be seen in journalism: the frame surrounding the issue can change the reader's perception without having to alter the actual facts as the same information is used as a base. This is done through the media's choice of certain words and images to cover a story (e.g. using the word fetus vs. the word baby). In the context of politics or mass-media communication, a frame defines the packaging of an element of rhetoric in such a way as to encourage certain interpretations and to discourage others. For political purposes, framing often presents facts in such a way that implicates a problem that requires a solution. Members of political parties attempt to frame issues in a way that makes a solution favoring their own political leaning appear as the most appropriate course of action for the situation at hand. Examples When we want to explain an event, our understanding is often based on our interpretation (frame). If someone rapidly closes and opens an eye, we react differently based on if we interpret this as a "physical frame" (they blinked) or a "social frame" (they winked). The blink may be due to a speck of dust (resulting in an involuntary and not particularly meaningful reaction). The wink may imply a voluntary and meaningful action (to convey humor to an accomplice, for example). Observers will read events seen as purely physical or within a frame of "nature" differently from those seen as occurring with social frames. But we do not look at an event and then "apply" a frame to it. Rather, individuals constantly project into the world around them the interpretive frames that allow them to make sense of it; we only shift frames (or realize that we have habitually applied a frame) when incongruity calls for a frame-shift. In other words, we only become aware of the frames that we always already use when something forces us to replace one frame with another. Though some consider framing to be synonymous with agenda setting, other scholars state that there is a distinction. According to an article written by Donald H. Weaver, framing selects certain aspects of an issue and makes them more prominent in order to elicit certain interpretations and evaluations of the issue, whereas agenda setting introduces the issue topic to increase its salience and accessibility. Effect in communication research In communication, framing defines how news media coverage shapes mass opinion. Richard E. Vatz's discourse on the creation of rhetorical meaning relates directly to framing, although he references it little. To be specific, framing effects refer to behavioral or attitudinal strategies and/or outcomes that are due to how a given piece of information is being framed in public discourse. Today, many volumes of the major communication journals contain papers on media frames and framing effects. Approaches used in such papers can be broadly classified into two groups: studies of framing as the dependent variable and studies of framing as the independent variable. The former usually deals with frame building (i.e. how frames create societal discourse about an issue and how different frames are adopted by journalists) and latter concerns frame setting (i.e. how media framing influences an audience). Frame building Frame-building research has typically recognized at least three main sets of influences that may impact the way journalists frame a certain issue: Systemic (e.g., characteristics of the media or political system in the specific setting of study). Organizational (e.g., features of the media organization such as political orientation, professional routines, relationships with government and elites, etc.). Temporal-contextual (e.g., time elapsed after the triggering event). Erving Goffman emphasized the role of cultural context as a shaper of frames when he posited that the meaning of a frame has implicit cultural roots. This context dependency of media frames has been described as 'cultural resonance' or 'narrative fidelity'. As an example, most people might not notice the frame in stories about the separation of church and state, because the media generally does not frame their stories from a religious point of view. Frame building is a process that influences the creation or changes of frames applied by journalists. The term frame building, borrowed from agenda-setting research, seems to capture these processes best. Frame setting When people are exposed to a novel news frame, they will accept the constructs made applicable to an issue, but they are significantly more likely to do so when they have existing mindset for those settings. This is called the applicability effect. That is, when new frames invite people to apply their existing schema to an issue, the implication of that application depends, in part, on what is in that schema. Therefore, generally, the more the audiences know about issues, the more effective are frames. For example, the more an audience knows about the deceitful practices of the tobacco industry, the more effective is the frame of the tobacco industry, rather than individuals who smoke, being responsible for the health impacts of smoking. There are a number of levels and types of framing effects that have been examined. For example, scholars have focused on attitudinal and behavioral changes, the degrees of perceived importance of the issue, voting decisions, and opinion formations. Others are interested in psychological processes other than applicability. For instance, Iyengar suggested that news about social problems can influence attributions of causal and treatment responsibility, an effect observed in both cognitive responses and evaluations of political leaders, or other scholars looked at the framing effects on receivers' evaluative processing style and the complexity of audience members' thoughts about issues. Frame setting studies also address how frames can affect how someone thinks about an issue (cognitive) or feels about an issue (affective). In mass communication research News media frame all news items by emphasizing specific values, facts, and other considerations, and endowing them with greater apparent applicability for making related judgments. News media promotes particular definitions, interpretations, evaluations and recommendations. Foundations in communication research Anthropologist Gregory Bateson first defined the concept of framing as "a spatial and temporal bounding of a set of interactive messages" (A Theory of Play and Fantasy, 1954, reproduced in his 1972 book Steps to an Ecology of Mind). Sociological roots of media framing research Media framing research has both sociological and psychological roots. Sociological framing focuses on "the words, images, phrases, and presentation styles" that communicators use when relaying information to recipients. Research on frames in sociologically driven media research generally examines the influence of "social norms and values, organizational pressures and constraints, pressures of interest groups, journalistic routines, and ideological or political orientations of journalists" on the existence of frames in media content. Todd Gitlin, in his analysis of how the news media trivialized the student New Left movement during the 1960s, was among the first to examine media frames from a sociological perspective. Frames, Gitlin wrote, are "persistent patterns of cognition, interpretations, and presentation, of selection [and] emphasis ... [that are] largely unspoken and unacknowledged ... [and] organize the world for both journalists [and] for those of us who read their reports". Psychological roots of media framing research Research on frames in psychologically driven media research generally examines the effects of media frames on those who receive them. For example, Iyengar explored the impact of episodic and thematic news frames on viewers' attributions of responsibility for political issues including crime, terrorism, poverty, unemployment, and racial inequality. According to Iyengar, an episodic news frame "takes the form of a case study or event-oriented report and depicts public issues in terms of concrete instances", in other words focusing on specific place in a specific time Thematic news frame "places public issues in some more general abstract context ... directed at general outcomes or conditions", for example exploring commonality that happens in several place and time. Iyengar found that the majority of television news coverage of poverty, for example, was episodic. In fact, in a content analysis of six years of television news, Iyengar found that the typical news viewer would have been twice as likely to encounter episodic rather than thematic television news about poverty. Further, experimental results indicate participants who watched episodic news coverage of poverty were more than twice as likely as those who watched thematic news coverage of poverty to attribute responsibility of poverty to the poor themselves rather than society. Given the predominance of episodic framing of poverty, Iyengar argues that television news shifts responsibility of poverty from government and society to the poor themselves. For example, the news media could use the "laziness and dysfunction" frame, which insinuates the poor would rather stay at home than go to work. After examining content analysis and experimental data on poverty and other political issues, Iyengar concludes that episodic news frames divert citizens' attributions of political responsibility away from society and political elites, making them less likely to support government efforts to address those issue and obscuring the connections between those issues and their elected officials' actions or lack thereof. Visual framing Visual framing refers to the process of using images to portray certain parts of reality. Visuals can be used to manifest meaning alongside textual framing. Text and visuals function best simultaneously. Advancement in print and screen-based technologies has resulted in merging of the two modes in information dissemination. Since each mode has its limitations, they are best used together and are interlinked in forming meaning. Images are more preferable than text since they are less intrusive than words and require less cognitive load. From a psychological perspective, images activate nerve cells in the eyes in order to send information to the brain. Images can also generate a stronger emotional appeal and have high attraction value. Within the framing context, images can obscure issues and facts in effort to frame information. Visuals consist of rhetorical tools such as metaphors, depiction and symbols to portray the context of an event or scene graphically in an attempt to help us better understand the world around us. Images can have a one-to-one correspondence between what is captured on camera and its representation in the real world. Along with increasing understanding, visuals can also elevate retention rates, making information easier to remember and recall. Due to the comparable nature of images, grammar rules do not apply. According to researchers, framing is reflected within a four-tiered model, which identifies and analyzes visual frames as follows: visuals as denotative systems, visuals as stylistic-semiotic systems, visuals as connotative systems and visuals as ideological representations. Researchers caution against relying only on images to understand information. Since they hold more power than text and are more relatable to reality, we may overlook potential manipulations and staging and mistake this as evidence. Images can be representative of ideologies by ascertaining underlying principles that constitute our basic attributes by combining symbols and stylistic features of an image into a process of coherent interpretation. One study indicates visual framing is prominent in news coverage, especially in relation to politics. Emotionally charged images are seen as a prominent tool for framing political messages. Visual framing can be effective by putting emphasis on a specific aspect of an issue, a tactic commonly used in portrayal of war and conflict news known as empathy framing. Visual framing that has emotional appeal can be considered more salient. This type of framing can be applied to other contexts, including athletics in relation to athletic disability. Visual framing in this context can reinterpret the perspective on athletic and physical incompetence, a formerly established media stereotype. Clarifying and distinguishing a "fractured paradigm" Perhaps because of their use across the social sciences, frames have been defined and used in many disparate ways. Entman called framing "a scattered conceptualization" and "a fractured paradigm" that "is often defined casually, with much left to an assumed tacit understanding of the reader". In an effort to provide more conceptual clarity, Entman suggested that frames "select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described". Entman's conceptualization of framing, which suggests frames work by elevating particular pieces of information in salience, is in line with much early research on the psychological underpinnings of framing effects (see also Iyengar, who argues that accessibility is the primary psychological explanation for the existence of framing effects). Wyer and Srull explain the construct of accessibility thus: People store related pieces of information in "referent bins" in their long-term memory. People organize "referent bins" such that more frequently and recently used pieces of information are stored at the top of the bins and are therefore more accessible. Because people tend to retrieve only a small portion of information from long-term memory when making judgments, they tend to retrieve the most accessible pieces of information to use for making those judgments. The argument supporting accessibility as the psychological process underlying framing can therefore be summarized thus: Because people rely heavily on news media for public affairs information, the most accessible information about public affairs often comes from the public affairs news they consume. This argument has also been cited as support in the debate over whether framing should be subsumed by agenda-setting theory as part of the second level of agenda setting. McCombs and other agenda-setting scholars generally agree that framing should be incorporated, along with priming, under the umbrella of agenda setting as a complex model of media effects that links media production, content, and audience effects. Indeed, McCombs, Llamas, Lopez-Escobar, and Rey justified their attempt to combine framing and agenda-setting research on the assumption of parsimony. Scheufele, however, argues that, unlike agenda setting and priming, framing does not rely primarily on accessibility, making it inappropriate to combine framing with agenda setting and priming for the sake of parsimony. Empirical evidence seems to vindicate Scheufele's claim. For example, Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley empirically demonstrated that applicability, rather than their salience, is key. Measuring accessibility in terms of response latency of respondent answers, where more accessible information results in faster response times, Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley demonstrated that accessibility accounted for only a minor proportion of the variance in framing effects while applicability accounted for the major proportion of variance. Therefore, according to Nelson and colleagues, "frames influence opinions by stressing specific values, facts, and other considerations, endowing them with greater apparent relevance to the issue than they might appear to have under an alternative frame." In other words, while early research suggested that by highlighting particular aspects of issues, frames make certain considerations more accessible and therefore more likely to be used in the judgment process, more recent research suggests that frames work by making particular considerations more applicable and therefore more relevant to the judgment process. Equivalency versus emphasis: two types of frames in media research Chong and Druckman suggest framing research has mainly focused on two types of frames: equivalency and emphasis frames. Equivalency frames offer "different, but logically equivalent phrases", which cause individuals to alter their preferences. Equivalency frames are often worded in terms of "gains" versus "losses". For example, Kahneman and Tversky asked participants to choose between two "gain-framed" policy responses to a hypothetical disease outbreak expected to kill 600 people. Response A would save 200 people while Response B had a one-third probability of saving everyone, but a two-thirds probability of saving no one. Participants overwhelmingly chose Response A, which they perceived as the less risky option. Kahneman and Tversky asked other participants to choose between two equivalent "loss-framed" policy responses to the same disease outbreak. In this condition, Response A would kill 400 people while Response B had a one-third probability of killing no one but a two-thirds probability of killing everyone. Although these options are mathematically identical to those given in the "gain-framed" condition, participants overwhelmingly chose Response B, the risky option. Kahneman and Tversky, then, demonstrated that when phrased in terms of potential gains, people tend to choose what they perceive as the less risky option (i.e., the sure gain). Conversely, when faced with a potential loss, people tend to choose the riskier option. Unlike equivalency frames, emphasis frames offer "qualitatively different yet potentially relevant considerations" which individuals use to make judgments. Emphasis framing is distinct from agenda-setting. Emphasis framing represents the changes in the structure of communication to evoke a particular cognitive schema. Agenda setting relies upon the frequency or prominence of a message's issues to tell people what to think about. Emphasis framing refers to the influence of the structure of the message and agenda setting refers to the influence of the prominence of the content. For example, Nelson, Clawson, and Oxley exposed participants to a news story that presented the Ku Klux Klan's plan to hold a rally. Participants in one condition read a news story that framed the issue in terms of public safety concerns while participants in the other condition read a news story that framed the issue in terms of free speech considerations. Participants exposed to the public safety condition considered public safety applicable for deciding whether the Klan should be allowed to hold a rally and, as expected, expressed lower tolerance of the Klan's right to hold a rally. Participants exposed to the free speech condition considered free speech applicable for deciding whether the Klan should be allowed to hold a rally and, as expected, expressed greater tolerance of the Klan's right to hold a rally. In finance Preference reversals and other associated phenomena are of wider relevance within behavioural economics, as they contradict the predictions of rational choice, the basis of traditional economics. Framing biases affecting investing, lending, borrowing decisions make one of the themes of behavioral finance. In psychology and economics Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman have shown that framing can affect the outcome of choice problems (i.e. the choices one makes), so much so that some of the classic axioms of rational choice are not true. This led to the development of prospect theory. The context or framing of problems adopted by decision-makers results in part from extrinsic manipulation of the decision-options offered, as well as from forces intrinsic to decision-makers, e.g., their norms, habits, and unique temperament. Experimental demonstration Tversky and Kahneman (1981) demonstrated systematic when the same problem is presented in different ways, for example in the Asian disease problem. Participants were asked to "imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume the exact scientific estimate of the consequences of the programs are as follows." The first group of participants was presented with a choice between programs: In a group of 600 people, Program A: "200 people will be saved" Program B: "there is a 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved, and a 2/3 probability that no people will be saved" 72 percent of participants preferred program A (the remainder, 28%, opting for program B). The second group of participants was presented with the choice between the following: In a group of 600 people, Program C: "400 people will die" Program D: "there is a 1/3 probability that nobody will die, and a 2/3 probability that 600 people will die" In this decision frame, 78% preferred program D, with the remaining 22% opting for program C. Programs A and C are identical, as are programs B and D. The change in the decision frame between the two groups of participants produced a preference reversal: when the programs were presented in terms of lives saved, the participants preferred the secure program, A (= C). When the programs were presented in terms of expected deaths, participants chose the gamble D (= B). Absolute and relative influences Framing effects arise because one can often frame a decision using multiple scenarios, in which one may express benefits either as a relative risk reduction (RRR), or as absolute risk reduction (ARR). Extrinsic control over the cognitive distinctions (between risk tolerance and reward anticipation) adopted by decision makers can occur through altering the presentation of relative risks and absolute benefits. People generally prefer the absolute certainty inherent in a positive framing-effect, which offers an assurance of gains. When decision-options appear framed as a likely gain, risk-averse choices predominate. A shift toward risk-seeking behavior occurs when a decision-maker frames decisions in negative terms, or adopts a negative framing effect. In medical decision making, framing bias is best avoided by using absolute measures of efficacy. Frame-manipulation research Researchers have found that framing decision-problems in a positive light generally results in less-risky choices; with negative framing of problems, riskier choices tend to result. In a study by researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, 57% of the subjects chose a medication when presented with benefits in relative terms, whereas only 14.7% chose a medication whose benefit appeared in absolute terms. Further questioning of the patients suggested that, because the subjects ignored the underlying risk of disease, they perceived benefits as greater when expressed in relative terms. Theoretical models Researchers have proposed various models explaining the framing effect: cognitive theories, such as the fuzzy-trace theory, attempt to explain the framing-effect by determining the amount of cognitive processing effort devoted to determining the value of potential gains and losses. prospect theory explains the framing-effect in functional terms, determined by preferences for differing perceived values, based on the assumption that people give a greater weighting to losses than to equivalent gains. motivational theories explain the framing-effect in terms of hedonic forces affecting individuals, such as fears and wishes—based on the notion that negative emotions evoked by potential losses usually out-weigh the emotions evoked by hypothetical gains. cognitive cost-benefit trade-off theory defines choice as a compromise between desires, either as a preference for a correct decision or a preference for minimized cognitive effort. This model, which dovetails elements of cognitive and motivational theories, postulates that calculating the value of a sure gain takes much less cognitive effort than that required to select a risky gain. Neuroimaging Cognitive neuroscientists have linked the framing effect to neural activity in the amygdala, and have identified another brain-region, the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC), that appears to moderate the role of emotion on decisions. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain-activity during a financial decision-making task, they observed greater activity in the OMPFC of those research subjects less susceptible to the framing effect. In sociology Framing theory and frame analysis provide a broad theoretical approach that analysts have used in communication studies, news (Johnson-Cartee, 1995), politics, and social movements (among other applications). According to Bert Klandermans, the "social construction of collective action frames" involves "public discourse, that is, the interface of media discourse and interpersonal interaction; persuasive communication during mobilization campaigns by movement organizations, their opponents and countermovement organizations; and consciousness raising during episodes of collective action". History Word-selection has been a component of rhetoric. Most commentators attribute the concept of framing to the work of Erving Goffman on frame analysis and point to his 1974 book, Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Goffman used the idea of frames to label "schemata of interpretation" that allow individuals or groups "to locate, perceive, identify, and label" events and occurrences, thus rendering meaning, organizing experiences, and guiding actions. Goffman's framing concept evolved out of his 1959 work, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, a commentary on the management of impressions. These works arguably depend on Kenneth Boulding's concept of image. Social movements Sociologists have utilized framing to explain the process of social movements. Movements act as carriers of beliefs and ideologies (compare memes). In addition, they operate as part of the process of constructing meaning for participants and opposers (Snow & Benford, 1988). Sociologists deem the mobilization of mass-movements "successful" when the frames projected align with the frames of participants to produce resonance between the two parties. Researchers of framing speak of this process as frame re-alignment. Frame alignment Snow and Benford (1988) regard frame-alignment as an important element in social mobilization or movement. They argue that when individual frames become linked in congruency and complementariness, "frame alignment" occurs, producing "frame resonance", a catalyst in the process of a groresearup making the transition from one frame to another (although not all framing efforts prove successful). The conditions that affect or constrain framing efforts include the following: "The robustness, completeness, and thoroughness of the framing effort". Snow and Benford (1988) identify three core framing-tasks, and state that the degree to which framers attend to these tasks will determine participant mobilization. They characterize the three tasks as the following: diagnostic framing for the identification of a problem and assignment of blame prognostic framing to suggest solutions, strategies, and tactics to a problem motivational framing that serves as a call to arms or rationale for action The relationship between the proposed frame and the larger belief-system; centrality: the frame cannot be of low hierarchical significance and salience within the larger belief system. Its range and interrelatedness, if the framer links the frame to only one core belief or value that, in itself, has a limited range within the larger belief system, the frame has a high degree of being discounted. Relevance of the frame to the realities of the participants; a frame must seem relevant to participants and must also inform them. Empirical credibility or testability can constrain relevancy: it relates to participant experience, and has narrative fidelity, meaning that it fits in with existing cultural myths and narrations. Cycles of protest (Tarrow 1983a; 1983b); the point at which the frame emerges on the timeline of the current era and existing preoccupations with social change. Previous frames may affect efforts to impose a new frame. Snow and Benford (1988) propose that once someone has constructed proper frames as described above, large-scale changes in society such as those necessary for social movement can be achieved through frame-alignment. Types Frame-alignment comes in four forms: frame bridging, frame amplification, frame extension and frame transformation. Frame bridging involves the "linkage of two or more ideologically congruent but structurally unconnected frames regarding a particular issue or problem" (Snow et al., 1986, p. 467). It involves the linkage of a movement to "unmobilized [sic] sentiment pools or public opinion preference clusters" (p. 467) of people who share similar views or grievances but who lack an organizational base. Frame amplification refers to "the clarification and invigoration of an interpretive frame that bears on a particular issue, problem, or set of events" (Snow et al., 1986, p. 469). This interpretive frame usually involves the invigorating of values or beliefs. Frame extensions represent a movement's effort to incorporate participants by extending the boundaries of the proposed frame to include or encompass the views, interests, or sentiments of targeted groups (Snow et al., 1986, p. 472). Frame transformation becomes necessary when the proposed frames "may not resonate with, and on occasion may even appear antithetical to, conventional lifestyles or rituals and extant interpretive frames" (Snow et al., 1986, p. 473). When this happens, the securing of participants and support requires new values, new meanings and understandings. Goffman (1974, pp. 43–44) calls this "keying", where "activities, events, and biographies that are already meaningful from the standpoint of some primary framework, in terms of another framework" (Snow et al., 1986, p. 474) such that they are seen differently. Two types of frame transformation exist: Domain-specific transformations, such as the attempt to alter the status of groups of people, and Global interpretive frame-transformation, where the scope of change seems quite radical—as in a change of world-views, total conversions of thought, or uprooting of everything familiar (for example: moving from communism to market capitalism, or vice versa; religious conversion, etc.). As rhetorical criticism Although the idea of language-framing had been explored earlier by Kenneth Burke (terministic screens), political communication researcher Jim A. Kuypers first published work advancing frame analysis (framing analysis) as a rhetorical perspective in 1997. His approach begins inductively by looking for themes that persist across time in a text (for Kuypers, primarily news narratives on an issue or event) and then determining how those themes are framed. Kuypers's work begins with the assumption that frames are powerful rhetorical entities that "induce us to filter our perceptions of the world in particular ways, essentially making some aspects of our multi-dimensional reality more noticeable than other aspects. They operate by making some information more salient than other information." In his 2009 essay "Framing Analysis" in Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action and his 2010 essay "Framing Analysis as a Rhetorical Process", Kuypers offers a detailed conception for doing framing analysis from a rhetorical perspective. According to Kuypers, "Framing is a process whereby communicators, consciously or unconsciously, act to construct a point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be interpreted by others in a particular manner. Frames operate in four key ways: they define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgments, and suggest remedies. Frames are often found within a narrative account of an issue or event, and are generally the central organizing idea." Kuypers's work is based on the premise that framing is a rhetorical process and as such it is best examined from a rhetorical point of view. Curing the problem is not rhetorical and best left to the observer. In environmental discourse History of climate activism Climate activism is constantly shaped and reshaped by dialogue at the local, national, and international level pertaining to climate change as well as by evolving societal norms and values. Beginning with the 19th century transcendental movement in which Henry David Thoreau penned his novel On Walden Pond detailing his experiences with the natural environment and augmented by the work of other transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, climate activism has taken many forms. John Muir, also from the late 19th century, advocated for the preservation of Earth for its own sake, establishing the Sierra Club. Aldo Leopold's 1949 collection of essays, A Sand County Almanac, established a "land ethic" and has set the stage for modern environmental ethics, calling for conservation and preservation of nature and wilderness. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962, revealed the environmental and human health harms of pesticides and successfully advocated for the cessation of DDT usage. The concept of global climate change and subsequently the activism space pertaining to the climate took off in the 1970s. The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970. The decades following witnessed the establishment of Greenpeace, Earth First!, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Landmark climate documents in the last 30 years include the Rio Declaration, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Climate Agreement, Global Youth Climate Action Declaration, among others. Most recently, the Peoples Climate March and Global Climate Strike have evolved into events attended by millions of activists and citizens around the world annually. Climate activism has been reinvigorated by an insurgence of young people on the frontlines of dialogue and advocacy. Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish woman, founded the initiative Fridays for Future which now has active chapters in scores of countries around the world. Other active youth-led climate groups include Extinction Rebellion, the Sunrise Movement, SustainUS, the Global Youth Climate Action Declaration (GYCAD), ZeroHour, among others working at both the transnational and local levels. Individual motivation and acceptance Individual motivation to address climate change is the bedrock on which collective action is built. Decision-making processes are informed by a myriad of factors including values, beliefs, and normative behaviors. In the United States, individuals have been most effectively motivated to support climate change policies when a public health frame has been employed. This frame reduces the sense of ambiguity and dissociation often elicited by talk of melting ice sheets and carbon emissions by placing climate issues in a local context for the individual, whether in their country, state, or city. Climate change, as an issue that has yet to be established as a normative belief, is often subject to dissent in the face of activism and advocacy. Activists engaging in interpersonal, grassroots advocacy in order to elicit more pro-environmental conduct within their social groups, even those engaged in polite confrontation, are subject to negative reactions and social consequences in the face of opposition. Moreover, climate change has the capacity to be defined as a moral issue due to anthropogenic effects on the planet and on other human life, however there are psychological barriers to the acceptance of climate change and subsequent motivation to act in response to the need for intervention. An article in the journal Nature Climate Change by Ezra Markowitz and Azim Shariff emphasizes six psychological challenges, listed below, posed by climate change to the human moral judgement system: Abstractness and cognitive complexity: the abstract nature of climate change makes it non-intuitive and cognitively effortful to grasp The blamelessness of unintentional action: The human moral judgement system is finely tuned to react to intentional transgressions Guilty bias: Anthropogenic climate change provokes self-defensive biases Uncertainty breeds wishful thinking: The lack of definitive prognoses results in unreasonable optimism Moral tribalism: The politicization of climate change fosters ideological polarization Long time horizons and faraway places: Out-group victims fall by the wayside Dire messaging Climate activism manifests itself through a range of expressions. One aspect of climate change framing that is commonly observed is the frame of dire messaging that has been criticized as alarmist and pessimistic, resulting in a dismissal of evidence-based messages. The just-world theory supports the notion that some individuals must rely on their presupposition of a just-world in order to substantiate beliefs. "Research on just-world theory has demonstrated that when individuals' need to believe in a just world is threatened, they commonly employ defensive responses, such as dismissal or rationalization of the information that threatened their just-world beliefs". In the case of climate change, the notion of dire messaging is critical to understanding what motivates activism. For example, having a fear of climate change "attributed to the self's incapacity to prevent it may result in withdrawal, while considering someone else responsible may result in anger". In a 2017 study, it was found that activist interviewees from the Global North embrace fear as a motivation, but "emphasize hope, reject guilt, and treat anger with caution". Interviewees from the Global South indicated that they are "instead more acutely frightened, less hopeful, and more angered, ascribing guilt – responsibility – to northern countries. These differences may indicate a relatively depoliticized activist approach to climate change in the north, as opposed to a more politicized approach in the south." Another 2017 study shows that fear motivates action through raising awareness of the threat of climate catastrophe. Fear's paralyzing potential is mediated by hope: Hope propels action, while collective action generates hope while also managing fear. The danger-alerting capacity of fear is embraced "internally", but is rejected as an effective emotion in motivating people to mobilize. Research has shown that dire messaging reduces the efficacy of advocacy initiatives through demotivation of individuals, lower levels of concern, and decreased engagement. Positive framing Research contends that prognostic framing—which offers tangible solutions, strategies, targets, and tactics—coupled with motivational framing is most efficacious in moving people to act. Especially as it relates to climate change, the power of positive psychology is made evident when applied by activists and others generating interventions. The four main tenets of motivation as elucidated by Positive Psychology are agency, compassion, resilience, and purpose. When applied to climate action, the 4th edition textbook Psychology for Sustainability, further expands upon these tenets as they relate to sustainability and as catalysts of action: Agency: Choosing, planning, and executing situation-relevant behavior Compassion: Noticing, feeling, and responding to others' suffering arising from a sense of connectedness Purpose: Striving toward meaningful activity Resilience: Recovering from, coping with, or developing new strategies for resisting adversity Hope augments a sense of purpose and agency, while enhancing resilience. For climate activists, it is infeasible to decouple hope from fear. However, when deconstructing the hope that others will take necessary actions, hope is generated through faith in one's own capacity, indicating that "trust in 'one's own' collective action seems to be the essence of the hope that activists talk about". Additionally, creating a link between climate action and positive emotions such as gratitude and pride, improvements in subjective well-being, and potential for impact permits individuals to perceive their own actions to better the climate as a sustainable, rewarding manner rather than as demotivating. Another approach that has proven to be efficacious is the projection of a future utopian society in which all pressing issues have been resolved, offering creative narratives that walk individuals from current problems to future solutions and allow them to choose to serve as a bridge between the two. This intergenerational, positive approach generates a sense of excitement about climate action in individuals and offers creative solutions that they may choose to take part in. For example, a public service announcement pertaining to climate change could be framed as follows: Political ideology Political communication scholars adopted framing tactics since political rhetoric was around. Advances in technology have shifted the communication channels they were delivered on. From oral communication, written material, radio, television, and most recently, social media have played a prominent role in how politics is framed. Social media, in particular, allows politicians to communicate their ideologies with concise and precise messaging. Using emotional triggering words, focusing on eliciting fear or anger, to change the way the public feels about a policy is facilitated by the short attention span created by social media. In recent decades, climate change has become deeply politicized and often, initiatives to address or conceptualize climate change are palatable to one contingency, while deeply contentious to the other. Thus, it is important to frame climate activism in a way that is tangible for the audience, finding means of communicating while minimizing provocation. In the context of the United States, left-leaning "liberals" share the core values of care, openness, egalitarianism, collective good, possess a tolerance for uncertainty or ambiguity, and an acceptance of change; while right-leaning "conservatives" share the core values of security, purity, stability, tradition, social hierarchy, order, and individualism. Research finds that framing environmental protection as consistent with the more values of "purity" and sanctity can increase conservatives support for environmental protection. A study examining various predictors of public approval for renewable energy usage in the Western United States used seven varying frames in order to assess the efficacy of framing renewable energy. Neoliberal frameworks that are often echoed by conservatives, such as support for the free market economy, are posited against climate action interventions that inherently place constraints on the free economy through support for renewable energy through subsidies or through additional tax on nonrenewable sources of energy. Thus, when climate activists are in conversation with conservative-leaning individuals, it would be advantageous to focus on framing that does not provoke fear of constraint on the free market economy or that insinuates broad-sweeping lifestyle changes. Results of the same study support the notion that "non-climate-based frames for renewable energy are likely to garner broader public support" relative to political context and demonstrate the polarized response to climate-based framing, indicating a deep political polarization of climate change. The idea of political framing is derived from loss aversion. Politicians want to make their idea less of a risk to potential voters since "People pay more attention to losses than to gains, just as they tend to engage in particular behaviors in the face of losses. Specifically, people take risks when they believe it helps them avert a loss, but when they face a gain, they opt for risk-averse strategies that maintain status quo". They will communicate it in a way that can convince themselves that they are not losing by agreeing with their ideology. Political framing has also affected other policies besides climate change. Welfare, for example, has been subjected to political framing to shift public opinion on the implementation of the policy. The sheer flux of different frames is conducive to the change of public opinion throughout the years. It affects how people look at "deservedness" when it comes to welfare. One end can be seen as political credit, claiming where in-need citizens have a right to claim welfare as a necessity. It is framed as a duty from the government to citizens. In this frame, no one losses because government is doing its duty to maximize the quality of life for its entire society. The other side sees welfare retrenchment as necessary by using framing tactics to shift the blame and responsibility from the government to the citizens. The idea is to convince the public that welfare should be pushed back for their benefit. Contemporary rhetoric, championed by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, has made the idea of "hard work" their frame to say welfare wouldn't be necessary if people "worked harder". With this contrasting frame, wealthier people are now losing because they are losing money in helping fund welfare benefits to those that "work less" than them. This different frame makes welfare seem like a zero-sum game. Gender norms The framing of climate change varies according to the intended audience and their perceived responses to various approaches to activism. In Sweden, research evaluating sustainability in the male-dominated transportation sector suggests that the norms provided by femininity are more likely to advance sustainability endeavors, while subsequently lowering the overall emissions of the sector. This is evident throughout the study, which goes on to indicate that the "mobility patterns, behavior, and attitudes of women suggest norms that are more conducive to decarbonized and more sustainable transport policies". This suggests that masculinity is often portrayed as the norm in many sectors and substantiates the link between women and a sustainability ethic that is critically missing from many male-dominated sectors and industries. Studies indicate that consumers who exhibit a predisposition to environmentally conscious, "green" behaviors are perceived across the gender spectrum as being more feminine, enforcing a "Green Feminine" stereotype. Climate activism is viewed as an effeminate act, undermining hallmarks of masculinity and underscoring the gender gap in a care-based concern for the climate. Additionally, as a result of theories pertaining to gender-identity maintenance, "men's environmental choices can be influenced by gender cues, results showed that following a gender-identity (vs. age) threat, men were less likely to choose green products". Attributes that are associated with femininity and substantiate the cognitive association between women and green behavior include empathy and the capacity for self-transcendence. In law Edward Zelinsky has shown that framing effects can explain some observed behaviors of legislators. In media In media, to frame is "to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communication context, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described". The role framing plays in the effects of media presentation has been widely discussed, with the central notion that associated perceptions of factual information can vary based upon the presentation of the information. Oftentimes journalists do not necessarily develop and use these frames consciously, but they are used as a way to organize ideas and suggest what is an issue in the media. News media examples In Bush's War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age, Jim A. Kuypers examined the differences in framing of the war on terror between the Bush administration and the U.S. mainstream news media between 2001 and 2005. Kuypers looked for common themes between presidential speeches and press reporting of those speeches, and then determined how the president and the press had framed those themes. By using a rhetorical version of framing analysis, Kuypers determined that the U.S. news media advanced frames counter to those used by the Bush administration: Table One: Comparison of President and News Media Themes and Frames 8 Weeks after 9/11 In 1991 Robert M. Entman published findings surrounding the differences in media coverage between Korean Air Lines Flight 007 and Iran Air Flight 655. After evaluating various levels of media coverage, based on both amount of airtime and pages devoted to similar events, Entman concluded that the frames the events were presented in by the media were drastically different: Differences in coverage amongst various media outlets: In 1988 Irwin Levin and Gary Gaeth did a study on the effects of framing attribute information on consumers before and after consuming a product (1988). In this study, they found that in a study on beef, people who ate beef labeled as 75% lean rated it more favorably than people whose beef was labelled 25% fat. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of loss vs. gain framing was studied in the use of messages communication COVID-19 risk to the public. Messages framed in terms of gain would say "Wear a mask, save lives". Messages framed in terms of loss would say "if you do not wear a mask, lives will be lost". Results of this studies showed there was no impact on (1) behavioral intentions to follow guidelines to prevent COVID-19 transmission, (2) attitudes to- ward COVID-19 prevention policies, (3) whether participants chose to seek more information about COVID-19, however there was increased self reported anxiety when messages from the media where framed in loss. In politics Linguist and rhetoric scholar George Lakoff argues that, in order to persuade a political audience of one side of an argument or another, the facts must be presented through a rhetorical frame. It is argued that, without the frame, the facts of an argument become lost on an audience, making the argument less effective. The rhetoric of politics uses framing to present the facts surrounding an issue in a way that creates the appearance of a problem at hand that requires a solution. Politicians using framing to make their own solution to an exigence appear to be the most appropriate compared to that of the opposition. Counter-arguments become less effective in persuading an audience once one side has framed an argument, because it is argued that the opposition then has the additional burden of arguing the frame of the issue in addition to the issue itself. Framing a political issue, a political party or a political opponent is a strategic goal in politics, particularly in the United States. Both the Democratic and Republican political parties compete to successfully harness its power of persuasion. According to The New York Times: Because framing can alter the public's perception, politicians disagree on how issues are framed. Hence, the way the issues are framed in the media reflects who is winning the battle. For instance, according to Robert Entman, professor of Communication at George Washington University, in the build-up to the Gulf War the conservatives were successful in making the debate whether to attack sooner or later, with no mention of the possibility of not attacking. One particular example of Lakoff's work that attained some degree of fame was his advice to rename trial lawyers (unpopular in the United States) as "public protection attorneys". Though Americans have not generally adopted this suggestion, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America did rename themselves the "American Association of Justice", in what the Chamber of Commerce called an effort to hide their identity. The New York Times depicted similar intensity among Republicans: From a political perspective, framing has widespread consequences. For example, the concept of framing links with that of agenda-setting: by consistently invoking a particular frame, the framing party may effectively control discussion and perception of the issue. Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber in Trust Us, We're Experts illustrate how public-relations (PR) firms often use language to help frame a given issue, structuring the questions that then subsequently emerge. For example, one firm advises clients to use "bridging language" that uses a strategy of answering questions with specific terms or ideas in order to shift the discourse from an uncomfortable topic to a more comfortable one. Practitioners of this strategy might attempt to draw attention away from one frame in order to focus on another. As Lakoff notes, "On the day that George W. Bush took office, the words "tax relief" started coming out of the White House." By refocusing the structure away from one frame ("tax burden" or "tax responsibilities"), individuals can set the agenda of the questions asked in the future. Cognitive linguists point to an example of framing in the phrase "tax relief". In this frame, use of the concept "relief" entails a concept of (without mentioning the benefits resulting from) taxes putting strain on the citizen: Alternative frames may emphasize the concept of taxes as a source of infrastructural support to businesses: Frames can limit debate by setting the vocabulary and metaphors through which participants can comprehend and discuss an issue. They form a part not just of political discourse, but of cognition. In addition to generating new frames, politically oriented framing research aims to increase public awareness of the connection between framing and reasoning. Examples The initial response of the Bush administration to the assault of September 11, 2001 was to frame the acts of terror as crime. This framing was replaced within hours by a war metaphor, yielding the "War on Terror". The difference between these two framings is in the implied response. Crime connotes bringing criminals to justice, putting them on trial and sentencing them, whereas as war implies enemy territory, military action and war powers for government. The term "escalation" to describe an increase in American troop-levels in Iraq in 2007 implied that the United States deliberately increased the scope of conflict in a provocative manner and possibly implies that U.S. strategy entails a long-term military presence in Iraq, whereas "surge" framing implies a powerful but brief, transitory increase in intensity. The "bad apple" frame, as in the proverb "one bad apple spoils the barrel". This frame implies that removing one underachieving or corrupt official from an institution will solve a given problem; an opposing frame presents the same problem as systematic or structural to the institution itself—a source of infectious and spreading rot. The "taxpayers money" frame, rather than public or government funds, which implies that individual taxpayers have a claim or right to set government policy based upon their payment of tax rather than their status as citizens or voters and that taxpayers have a right to control public funds that are the shared property of all citizens and also privileges individual self-interest above group interest. The "collective property" frame, which implies that property owned by individuals is really owned by a collective in which those individuals are members. This collective can be a territorial one, such as a nation, or an abstract one that does not map to a specific territory. Program-names that may describe only the intended effects of a program but may also imply their effectiveness. These include the following: "Foreign aid" (which implies that spending money will aid foreigners, rather than harm them) "Social security" (which implies that the program can be relied on to provide security for a society) "Stabilisation policy" (which implies that a policy will have a stabilizing effect). Based on opinion polling and focus groups, ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm, has advanced the position that global warming is an ineffective framing due to its identification as a leftist advocacy issue. The organization has suggested to government officials and environmental groups that alternate formulations of the issues would be more effective. In her 2009 book Frames of War, Judith Butler argues that the justification within liberal-democracies for war, and atrocities committed in the course of war, (referring specifically to the current war in Iraq and to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay) entails a framing of the (especially Muslim) 'other' as pre-modern/primitive and ultimately not human in the same way as citizens within the liberal order. Political leaders provide their personal photographers and videographers with access to private moments that are off-limits to journalists. The news media then faces an ethical dilemma of whether to republish freely available digital handouts that project the politician's desired frame but which might be newsworthy. Effectiveness According to Susan T. Fiske and Shelley E. Taylor, human beings are by nature "cognitive misers", meaning they prefer to do as little thinking as possible. Frames provide people a quick and easy way to process information. Hence, people will use the previously mentioned mental filters (a series of which is called a schema) to make sense of incoming messages. This gives the sender and framer of the information enormous power to use these schemas to influence how the receivers will interpret the message. A 2020 published theory suggests that judged usability (i.e., the extent to which a consideration featured in the message is deemed usable for a given subsequent judgment) may be an important mediator of cognitive media effects like framing, agenda setting, and priming. Emphasizing judged usability leads to the revelation that media coverage may not just elevate a particular consideration, but may also actively suppress a consideration, rendering it less usable for subsequent judgments. The news framing process illustrates that among different aspects of an issue, a certain aspect is chosen over others to characterize an issue or event. For example, the issue of unemployment is described in terms of the cheap labor provided by immigrants. Exposure to the news story activates thoughts correspond to immigrants rather than thoughts related to other aspects of the issue (e.g., legislation, education, and cheap imports from other countries) and, at the same time, makes the former thoughts prominent by promoting their importance and relevance to the understanding of the issue at hand. That is, issue perceptions are influenced by the consideration featured in the news story. Thoughts related to neglected considerations become relegated to the degree that thoughts about a featured consideration are magnified. See also Anecdotal value Alternative facts Argumentation theory Bias Choice architecture Code word (figure of speech) Communication theory Connotation Cultural bias Decision making Definition of the situation Demagoguery Died by suicide vs committed suicide Domain of discourse Echo chamber (media) Fallacy of many questions Figure of speech Filter bubble Framing rules in the thought of Arlie Russell Hochschild Freedom of speech Free press Idea networking Language and thought Meme Metaphorical Framing Newspeak Overton window Plus-size rather than fat Political correctness Power word Rhetorical device Semantics Semantic domain Social heuristics Sophism Spin (propaganda) Stovepiping Thought Reform (book) Trope Unspeak (book) Virtue word References Bibliography Aziz, S., Imtiaz, A., & Saeed, R. (2022). Framing COVID-19 in Pakistani mainstream media: An analysis of newspaper editorials. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 9(1), 2043510. Further reading Baars, B. A cognitive theory of consciousness, NY: Cambridge University Press 1988, . Boulding, Kenneth E. (1956). The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society. Michigan University Press. Clark, A. (1997), Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Cutting, Hunter and Makani Themba Nixon (2006). Talking the Walk: A Communications Guide for Racial Justice: AK Press Dennett, D. (1978), Brainstorms, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Fairhurst, Gail T. and Sarr, Robert A. 1996. The Art of Framing: Managing the Language of Leadership. Jossey-Bass, Inc. Feldman, Jeffrey. (2007), Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Control the Conversation (and Win Elections). Brooklyn, NY: Ig Publishing. Fodor, J.A. (1983), The Modularity of Mind, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Fodor, J.A. (1987), "Modules, Frames, Fridgeons, Sleeping Dogs, and the Music of the Spheres", in Pylyshyn (1987). Fodor, J.A. (2000), The Mind Doesn't Work That Way, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Ford, K.M. & Hayes, P.J. (eds.) (1991), Reasoning Agents in a Dynamic World: The Frame Problem, New York: JAI Press. Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. London: Harper and Row. Goffman, E. (1974). Frame Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Goffman, E. (1959). Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday. Goodman, N. (1954), Fact, Fiction, and Forecast, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Haselager, W.F.G. (1997). Cognitive science and folk psychology: the right frame of mind. London: Sage Hayes, P.J. (1991), "Artificial Intelligence Meets David Hume: A Reply to Fetzer", in Ford & Hayes (1991). Heal, J. (1996), "Simulation, Theory, and Content", in Theories of Theories of Mind, eds. P. Carruthers & P. Smith, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 75–89. Johnson-Cartee, K. (2005). News narrative and news framing: Constructing political reality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Kendall, Diana, Sociology In Our Times, Thomson Wadsworth, 2005, Google Print, p. 531 Klandermans, Bert. 1997. The Social Psychology of Protest. Oxford: Blackwell. Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980), Metaphors We Live By, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Leites, N. & Wolf, C., Jr. (1970). Rebellion and authority. Chicago: Markham Publishing Company. McAdam, D., McCarthy, J., & Zald, M. (1996). Introduction: Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Framing Processes—Toward a Synthetic, Comparative Perspective on Social Movements. In D. McAdam, J. McCarthy & M. Zald (Eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements; Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (pp. 1–20). New York: Cambridge University Press. McCarthy, J. & Hayes, P.J. (1969), "Some Philosophical Problems from the Standpoint of Artificial Intelligence", in Machine Intelligence 4, ed. D.Michie and B.Meltzer, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 463–502. McDermott, D. (1987), "We've Been Framed: Or Why AI Is Innocent of the Frame Problem", in Pylyshyn (1987). Mithen, S. (1987), The Prehistory of the Mind, London: Thames & Hudson. Pan. Z. & Kosicki, G. M. (2001). Framing as a strategic action in public deliberation. In S. D. Reese, O. H. Gandy, Jr., & A. E. Grant (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world, (pp. 35–66). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pan, Z. & Kosicki, G. M. (2005). Framing and the understanding of citizenship. In S. Dunwoody, L. B. Becker, D. McLeod, & G. M. Kosicki (Eds.), Evolution of key mass communication concepts, (pp. 165–204). New York: Hampton Press. Pylyshyn, Zenon W. (ed.) (1987), The Robot's Dilemma: The Frame Problem in Artificial Intelligence, Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Stephen D. Reese, Oscar H. Gandy and August E. Grant. (2001). Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World. Maywah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum. Russell, S. & Wefald, E. (1991), Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Shanahan, Murray P. (1997), Solving the Frame Problem: A Mathematical Investigation of the Common Sense Law of Inertia, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Shanahan, Murray P. (2003), "The Frame Problem", in The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, ed. L.Nadel, Macmillan, pp. 144–50. Simon, Herbert (1957), Models of Man, Social and Rational: Mathematical Essays on Rational Human Behavior in a Social Setting, New York: John Wiley. Tarrow, S. (1983a). "Struggling to Reform: social Movements and policy change during cycles of protest". Western Societies Paper No. 15. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Tarrow, S. (1983b). "Resource mobilization and cycles of protest: Theoretical reflections and comparative illustrations". Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Detroit, August 31 – September 4. Tilly, C., Tilly, L., & Tilly, R. (1975). The rebellious century, 1830–1930. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Turner, R. H., & Killian, L. M. (1972). Collective Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Willard, Charles Arthur. Liberalism and the Social Grounds of Knowledge Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 199 External links Curry, Tom. 2005. "Frist chills talk of judges deal". "The framing of the issue as 'a fair, up-or-down vote,' Republican strategists believe, is the most advantageous one". MSNBC HBS.edu – "Fixing Price Tag Confusion" (interview), Sean Silverthorne (December 11, 2006) Framing effect' influences decisions: Emotions play a role in decision-making when information is too complex", Charles Q. Choi, NBC (August 3, 2006) Cognitive biases Knowledge representation Media studies Propaganda techniques Prospect theory Psychological warfare Social constructionism	0.771232	0.993459	0.766187
Managerial grid model	The managerial grid model or managerial grid theory (1964) is a model, developed by Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton, of leadership styles. This model originally identified five different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production. The optimal leadership style in this model is based on Theory Y. The grid theory has continued to evolve and develop. The theory was updated with two additional leadership styles and with a new element, resilience. In 1999, the grid managerial seminar began using a new text, The Power to Change. The model is represented as a grid with concern for production as the x-axis and concern for people as the y-axis; each axis ranges from 1 (Low) to 9 (High). The resulting leadership styles are as follows: The indifferent (previously called impoverished) style (1,1): evade and elude. In this style, managers have low concern for both people and production. Managers use this style to preserve job and job seniority, protecting themselves by avoiding getting into trouble. The main concern for the manager is not to be held responsible for any mistakes, which results in less innovative decisions. The accommodating (previously, country club) style (1,9): yield and comply. This style has a high concern for people and a low concern for production. Managers using this style pay much attention to the security and comfort of the employees, in hopes that this will increase performance. The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly, but not necessarily very productive. The dictatorial (previously, produce or perish) style (9,1): in return. Managers using this style pressure their employees through rules and punishments to achieve the company goals. This dictatorial style is based on Theory X of Douglas McGregor, and is commonly applied in companies on the edge of real or perceived failure. This style is often used in cases of crisis management. The status quo (previously, middle-of-the-road) style (5,5): balance and compromise. Managers using this style try to balance between company goals and workers' needs. By giving some concern to both people and production, managers who use this style hope to achieve suitable performance but doing so gives away a bit of each concern so that neither production nor people needs are met. The sound (previously, team) style (9,9): contribute and commit. In this style, high concern is paid both to people and production. As suggested by the propositions of Theory Y, managers choosing to use this style encourage teamwork and commitment among employees. This method relies heavily on making employees feel themselves to be constructive parts of the company. The opportunistic style: exploit and manipulate. Individuals using this style, which was added to the grid theory before 1999, do not have a fixed location on the grid. They adopt whichever behaviour offers the greatest personal benefit. The paternalistic style: prescribe and guide. This style was added to the grid theory before 1999. In The Power to Change, it was redefined to alternate between the (1,9) and (9,1) locations on the grid. Managers using this style praise and support, but discourage challenges to their thinking. Behavioral elements Grid theory breaks behavior down into seven key elements: See also Behavior modification Leadership Three levels of leadership model References Organizational behavior Leadership	0.775347	0.988187	0.766187
Symbolic interactionism	Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to humans' particular use of shared language to create common symbols and meanings, for use in both intra- and interpersonal communication. According to Macionis, symbolic interactionism is "a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals". In other words, it is a frame of reference to better understand how individuals interact with one another to create symbolic worlds, and in return, how these worlds shape individual behaviors. It is a framework that helps understand how society is preserved and created through repeated interactions between individuals. The interpretation process that occurs between interactions helps create and recreate meaning. It is the shared understanding and interpretations of meaning that affect the interaction between individuals. Individuals act on the premise of a shared understanding of meaning within their social context. Thus, interaction and behavior is framed through the shared meaning that objects and concepts have attached to them. From this view, people live in both natural and symbolic environments. Symbolic interactionism comes from a sociological perspective which developed around the middle of the twentieth century and that continues to be influential in some areas of the discipline. It is particularly important in microsociology and social psychology. It is derived from the American philosophy of pragmatism and particularly from the work of George Herbert Mead, as a pragmatic method to interpret social interactions. History George Herbert Mead Symbolic interaction was conceived by George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley. Mead argued that people's selves are social products, but that these selves are also purposive and creative, and believed that the true test of any theory was that it was "useful in solving complex social problems". Mead's influence was said to be so powerful that sociologists regard him as the one "true founder" of the symbolic interactionism tradition. Although Mead taught in a philosophy department, he is best known by sociologists as the teacher who trained a generation of the best minds in their field. Strangely, he never set forth his wide-ranging ideas in a book or systematic treatise. After his death in 1931, his students pulled together class notes and conversations with their mentor and published Mind, Self and Society in his name. It is a common misconception that John Dewey was the leader of this sociological theory; according to The Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism, Mead was undoubtedly the individual who "transformed the inner structure of the theory, moving it to a higher level of theoretical complexity." Mind, Self and Society is the book published by Mead's students based on his lectures and teaching, and the title of the book highlights the core concept of social interactionism. Mind refers to an individual's ability to use symbols to create meanings for the world around the individual – individuals use language and thought to accomplish this goal. Self refers to an individual's ability to reflect on the way that the individual is perceived by others. Finally, society, according to Mead, is where all of these interactions are taking place. A general description of Mead's compositions portray how outside social structures, classes, and power and abuse affect the advancement of self, personality for gatherings verifiably denied of the ability to characterize themselves. Herbert Blumer Herbert Blumer, a student and interpreter of Mead, coined the term and put forward an influential summary: people act a certain way towards things based on the meaning those things already have, and these meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation. Blumer was a social constructionist, and was influenced by John Dewey; as such, this theory is very phenomenologically-based. Given that Blumer was the first to use symbolic interaction as a term, he is known as the founder of symbolic interaction. He believed that the "Most human and humanizing activity that people engage in is talking to each other." According to Blumer, human groups are created by people and it is only actions between them that define a society. He argued that with interaction and through interaction individuals are able to "produce common symbols by approving, arranging, and redefining them." Having said that, interaction is shaped by a mutual exchange of interpretation, the ground of socialization. Other theorists While having less influential work in the discipline, Charles Horton Cooley and William Isaac Thomas are considered to be influential representatives of the theory. Cooley's work on connecting society and the individuals influenced Mead's further workings. Cooley felt society and the individuals could only be understood in relationship to each other. Cooley's concept of the "looking-glass self," influenced Mead's theory of self and symbolic interactionism. W. I. Thomas is also known as a representative of symbolic interactionism. His main work was a theory of human motivation addressing interactions between individuals and the "social sources of behaviors." He attempted to "explain the proper methodological approach to social life; develop a theory of human motivation; spell out a working conception of adult socialization; and provide the correct perspective on deviance and disorganization." A majority of scholars agree with Thomas. Two other theorists who have influenced symbolic interaction theory are Yrjö Engeström and David Middleton. Engeström and Middleton explained the usefulness of symbolic interactionism in the communication field in a variety of work settings, including "courts of law, health care, computer software design, scientific laboratory, telephone sales, control, repair, and maintenance of advanced manufacturing systems". Other scholars credited for their contribution to the theory are Thomas, Park, James, Horton Cooley, Znaniecki, Baldwin, Redfield, and Wirth. Unlike other social sciences, symbolic interactionism emphasizes greatly on the ideas of action instead of culture, class and power. According to behaviorism, Darwinism, pragmatism, as well as Max Weber, action theory contributed significantly to the formation of social interactionism as a theoretical perspective in communication studies. Assumptions, premises, and research methodology Assumptions Most symbolic interactionists believe a physical reality does indeed exist by an individual's social definitions, and that social definitions do develop in part or in relation to something "real". People thus do not respond to this reality directly, but rather to the social understanding of reality; i.e., they respond to this reality indirectly through a kind of filter which consists of individuals' different perspectives. This means that humans exist not in the physical space composed of realities, but in the "world" composed only of "objects". According to Erving Goffman, what motivates humans to position their body parts in certain manners and the desires to capture and examine those moments are two of the elements that constitute the composition of the social reality which is made of various individuals' perceptions, it's crucial to examine how these two elements occur. It appeals to symbolic interactionists to shift more emphases on the realistic aspect of their empirical observation and theorizing. Three assumptions frame symbolic interactionism: Individuals construct meaning via the communication process. Self-concept is a motivation for behavior. A unique relationship exists between the individual and society. Premises Having defined some of the underlying assumptions of symbolic interactionism, it is necessary to address the premises that each assumption supports. According to Blumer (19f,.69), there are three premises that can be derived from the assumptions above. 1) "Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things." The first premise includes everything that a human being may note in their world, including physical objects, actions and concepts. Essentially, individuals behave towards objects and others based on the personal meanings that the individual has already given these items. Blumer was trying to put emphasis on the meaning behind individual behaviors, specifically speaking, psychological and sociological explanations for those actions and behaviors. 2) "The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society." The second premise explains the meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with other humans. Blumer, following Mead, claimed people interact with each other by interpreting or defining each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions. Their "response" is not made directly to the actions of one another but instead is based on the meaning which they attach to such actions. Thus, human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and signification, by interpretation, or by ascertaining the meaning of one another's actions. Meaning is either taken for granted and pushed aside as an unimportant element which need not to be investigated, or it is regarded as a mere neutral link or one of the causal chains between the causes or factors responsible for human behavior and this behavior as the product of such factors. 3) "The Meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she [sic] encounters." Symbolic interactionists describe thinking as an inner conversation. Mead called this inner dialogue minding, which is the delay in one's thought process that happens when one thinks about what they will do next. These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretive process used by the person in dealing with the things that they encounter. We naturally talk to ourselves in order to sort out the meaning of a difficult situation. But first, we need language. Before we can think, we must be able to interact symbolically. The emphasis on symbols, negotiated meaning, and social construction of society brought attention to the roles people play. Role-taking is a key mechanism that permits people to see another person's perspective to understand what an action might mean to another person. Role-taking is a part of our lives at an early age, for instance, playing house and pretending to be someone else. There is an improvisational quality to roles; however, actors often take on a script that they follow. Because of the uncertainty of roles in social contexts, the burden of role-making is on the person in the situation. In this sense, we are proactive participants in our environment. Some theorists have proposed an additional fourth premise: 4) "It's the inherent human desire to acquire potential psychological rewards from interacting with others that motivates us to establish realities filtered through social interactions" Some symbolic interactionists point out the ineradicable nexus of the desire for potential psychological reward between individuals and their respective socially constructed realities that is commonly known as the "society", these experts have confirmed that one crucial premise for analyzing and dissecting symbolic interactionism is the psychological reward that drives individuals to connect with others and create meanings via social interactions. We as humans instinctively discern individuals whom we want to be associated with, before we initiate an interaction with them, we would experience an internal emotional rush biologically that encourages us to initiate the interaction, thus beginning to form various socially constructed realities that enables symbolic interactionism to examine, namely it's our desires for emotional rewards that makes the theory of symbolic interactionism possible and viable. Research methodology The majority of interactionist research uses qualitative research methods, like participant observation, to study aspects of social interaction, and/or individuals' selves. Participant observation allows researchers to access symbols and meanings, as in Howard Becker's Art Worlds and Arlie Hochschild's The Managed Heart. They argue that close contact and immersion in the everyday activities of the participants is necessary for understanding the meaning of actions, defining situations and the process that actors construct the situation through their interaction. Because of this close contact, interactions cannot remain completely liberated of value commitments. In most cases, they make use of their values in choosing what to study; however, they seek to be objective in how they conduct the research. Therefore, the symbolic-interaction approach is a micro-level orientation focusing on human interaction in specific situations. Five central ideas There are five central ideas to symbolic interactionism according to Joel M. Charon (2004): "The human being must be understood as a social person. It is the constant search for social interaction that leads us to do what we do. Instead of focusing on the individual and his or her personality, or on how the society or social situation causes human behavior, symbolic interactionism focuses on the activities that take place between actors. Interaction is the basic unit of study. Individuals are created through interaction; society too is created through social interaction. What we do depends on interaction with others earlier in our lifetimes, and it depends on our interaction right now. Social interaction is central to what we do. If we want to understand cause, focus on social interaction. The human being must be understood as a thinking being. Human action is not only interaction among individuals but also interaction within the individual. It is not our ideas or attitudes or values that are as important as the constant active ongoing process of thinking. We are not simply conditioned, we are not simply beings who are influenced by those around us, we are not simply products of society. We are, to our very core, thinking animals, always conversing with ourselves as we interact with others. If we want to understand cause, focus on human thinking. Humans do not sense their environment directly; instead, humans define the situation they are in. An environment may actually exist, but it is our definition of it that is important. Definition does not simply randomly happen; instead, it results from ongoing social interaction and thinking. The cause of human action is the result of what is occurring in our present situation. Cause unfolds in the present social interaction, present thinking, and present definition. It is not society's encounters with us in our past that causes action, nor is it our own past experience that does. It is, instead, social interaction, thinking, definition of the situation that takes place in the present. Our past enters into our actions primarily because we think about it and apply it to the definition of the present situation. Human beings are described as active beings in relation to their environment. Words such as conditioning, responding, controlled, imprisoned, and formed are not used to describe the human being in symbolic interaction. In contrast to other social-scientific perspectives humans are not thought of as being passive in relation to their surroundings, but actively involved in what they do." Central interactionist themes To Blumer's conceptual perspective, he put them in three core propositions: that people act toward things, including each other, on the basis of the meanings they have for them; that these meanings are derived through social interaction with others; and that these meanings are managed and transformed through an interpretive process that people use to make sense of and handle the objects that constitute their social worlds. This perspective can also be described as three core principles- Meaning, Language and Thinking- in which social constructs are formed. The principle of meaning is the center of human behavior. Language provides meaning by providing means to symbols. These symbols differentiate social relations of humans from that of animals. By humans giving meaning to symbols, they can express these things with language. In turn, symbols form the basis of communication. Symbols become imperative components for the formation of any kind of communicative act. Thinking then changes the interpretation of individuals as it pertains to symbols. Some symbolic interactionists like Goffman had pointed out the obvious defects of the pioneering Mead concept upon which the contemporary symbolic interactionism is built, it has influenced the modern symbolic interactionism to be more conducive to conceiving "social-psychological concerns rather than sociological concerns". For instance, during analyzing symbolic interactionism, the participants' emotional fluctuations that are inexorably entailed are often ignored because they are too sophisticated and volatile to measure. When the participants are being selected to participate in certain activities that are not part of their normal daily routine, it will inevitably disrupt the participants psychologically, causing spontaneous thoughts to flow that are very likely to make the participants veer away from their normal behaviors. These psychological changes could result in the participants' emotional fluctuations that manifest themselves in the participants' reactions; therefore, manufacturing biases that will the previously mentioned biases. This critique unveiled the lack of scrutiny on participants' internal subjective processing of their environment which initiates the reasoning and negotiating faculties, which the contemporary symbolic interactionism also reflects. Henceforth, prejudice is not a purely psychological phenomenon, instead it can be interpreted from a symbolic interactionism standpoint, taking individuals' construction of the social reality into account. Principles Keeping Blumer's earlier work in mind David A. Snow, professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, suggests four broader and even more basic orienting principles: human agency, interactive determination, symbolization, and emergence. Snow uses these four principles as the thematic bases for identifying and discussing contributions to the study of social movements. Human agency: emphasizes the active, willful, goal-seeking character of human actors. The emphasis on agency focuses attention on those actions, events, and moments in social life in which agentic action is especially palpable. Interactive determination: specifies that understanding of focal objects of analysis, whether they are self-concepts, identities, roles, practices, or even social movements. Basically this means, neither individual, society, self, or others exist only in relation to each other and therefore can be fully understood only in terms of their interaction. Symbolization: highlights the processes through which events and conditions, artifacts, people, and other environmental features that take on particular meanings, becoming nearly only objects of orientation. Human behavior is partly contingent on what the object of orientation symbolizes or means. Emergence: focuses on attention on the processual and non-habituated side of social life, focusing not only on organization and texture of social life, but also associated meaning and feelings. The principle of emergence points us not only to the possibility of new forms of social life and system meaning but also to transformations in existing forms of social organization. Applications Symbolic interaction can be used to explain one's identity in terms of roles being "ideas and principles on 'what to do' in a given situation," as noted by Hewitt. Symbolic Interactionist identity presents in 3 categories- situated, personal and social. Situated identity refers to the ability to view themselves as others do. This is often a snapshot view in that it is short, but can be very impactful. From this experience, one wishes to differentiate themselves from others and the personal identity comes to exist. This view is when one wishes to make themselves known for who they truly are, not the view of others. From the personal identity taking place, comes the social identity where connections and likeness are made with individuals sharing similar identities or identity traits. This viewpoint of symbolic interactionism can be applied to the use of social networking sites and how one's identity is presented on those sites. With social networking sites, one can boast (or post) their identity through their newsfeed. The personal identity presents itself in the need for individuals to post milestones that one has achieved, in efforts to differentiate themselves. The social identity presents itself when individuals "tag" others in their posts, pictures, etc. Situated identities may be present in the need to defend something on social media or arguments that occur in comments, where one feels it necessary to "prove" themselves. Coming from the viewpoint that we learn, or at least desire, how to expect other people's reactions/responses to things, Bruce Link and his colleagues studied how expectations of the reactions of others can affect the mental illness stigma. The participants of the study were individuals with psychosis who answered questions relating to discrimination, stigma, and rejection. The goal of the study was to determine whether others' expectations affect the participants' internalized stigmas, anticipated rejection, concerns with staying in, and other. Results found that high levels of internalized stigma were only present in the minority, however, anticipation of rejection, stigma consciousness, perceived devaluation discrimination and concerns with staying in were found to be more prevalent in participants. These perceptions were correlated with the outcomes of withdrawal, self-esteem and isolation from relatives. The study found that anticipation of rejection played the largest role in internalized stigmas. Applications on social roles Symbolic interactionism can be used to dissect the concept of social role and further study relations between friends. A social role begins to exist when an individual initiates interaction with other people who would comprise a social circle in which the initiator is the central terminal, the accumulated proceedings of duties and rights performed by the central person and all the other participants in this social circle reinforces this dynamic circle. Apart from the central role, such social groups are constituted of participants who benefit from the central figure and those who are eligible and capable of helping the central role to achieve its envisioned objectives. The roles in the social role dynamic aren't preordained although the prevalent culture of a specific society usually possesses a default structure to most social roles. Despite the fact that the predominant culture of a certain society typically exerts large amount of influence on the instinctive formation of the structures in social groups, the roles in social groups are eventually formed based on the interactions occurred between the central figure and other potential participants in this role. For illustration, if a central person of the social role is a police officer, then this social role can contain victims, teammates, operators, the dispatch, potential suspects, lieutenant. Social roles could be formulated by happenstances, but it can't escape the inexorable reconfiguration of multilateral exchanges of each role's obligations in a social role. (Lopata 1964). Through this lens, the examination of various social roles becomes more receptive and accessible, which also possesses the same effects on examining friendship and other vocations. Criticisms Symbolic interactionists are often criticized for being overly impressionistic in their research methods and somewhat unsystematic in their theories. It is argued that the theory is not one theory, but rather, the framework for many different theories. Additionally, some theorists have a problem with symbolic interaction theory due to its lack of testability. These objections, combined with the fairly narrow focus of interactionist research on small-group interactions and other social psychological issues, have relegated the interactionist camp to a minority position among sociologists (albeit a fairly substantial minority). Much of this criticism arose during the 1970s in the U.S. when quantitative approaches to sociology were dominant, and perhaps the best known of these is by Alvin Gouldner. Framework and theories Some critiques of symbolic interactionism are based on the assumption that it is a theory, and the critiques apply the criteria for a "good" theory to something that does not claim to be a theory. Some critics find the symbolic interactionist framework too broad and general when they are seeking specific theories. Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical framework rather than a theory and can be assessed on the basis of effective conceptualizations. The theoretical framework, as with any theoretical framework, is vague when it comes to analyzing empirical data or predicting outcomes in social life. As a framework rather than a theory, many scholars find it difficult to use. Interactionism being a framework rather than a theory makes it impossible to test interactionism in the manner that a specific theoretical claim about the relationship between specific variables in a given context allows. Unlike the symbolic interactionist framework, the many theories derived from symbolic interactionism, such as role theory and the versions of identity theory developed by Sheldon Stryker, as well as Peter Burke and colleagues, clearly define concepts and the relationships between them in a given context, thus allowing for the opportunity to develop and test hypotheses. Further, especially among Blumerian processual interactionists, a great number of very useful conceptualizations have been developed and applied in a very wide range of social contexts, types of populations, types of behaviors, and cultures and subcultures. Social structure Symbolic interactionism is often related and connected with social structure. This concept suggests that symbolic interactionism is a construction of people's social reality. It also implies that from a realistic point of view, the interpretations that are being made will not make much difference. When the reality of a situation is defined, the situation becomes a meaningful reality. This includes methodological criticisms, and critical sociological issues. A number of symbolic interactionists have addressed these topics, the best known being Stryker's structural symbolic interactionism and the formulations of interactionism heavily influenced by this approach (sometimes referred to as the "Indiana School" of symbolic interactionism), including the works of key scholars in sociology and psychology using different methods and theories applying a structural version of interactionism that are represented in a 2003 collection edited by Burke et al. Another well-known structural variation of symbolic interactionism that applies quantitative methods is Manford H. Kuhn's formulation which is often referred to in sociological literature as the "Iowa School." Negotiated order theory also applies a structural approach. Language Language is viewed as the source of all meaning. Blumer illuminates several key features about social interactionism. Most people interpret things based on assignment and purpose. The interaction occurs once the meaning of something has become identified. This concept of meaning is what starts to construct the framework of social reality. By aligning social reality, Blumer suggests that language is the meaning of interaction. Communication, especially in the form of symbolic interactionism is connected with language. Language initiates all forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal. Blumer defines this source of meaning as a connection that arises out of the social interaction that people have with each other. Critical perspective According to social theorist Patricia Burbank, the concepts of synergistic and diverging properties are what shape the viewpoints of humans as social beings. These two concepts are different in a sense because of their views of human freedom and their level of focus. According to Burbank, actions are based on the effects of situations that occur during the process of social interaction. Another important factor in meaningful situations is the environment in which the social interaction occurs. The environment influences interaction, which leads to a reference group and connects with perspective, and then concludes to a definition of the situation. This illustrates the proper steps to define a situation. An approval of the action occurs once the situation is defined. An interpretation is then made upon that action, which may ultimately influence the perspective, action, and definition. Stryker emphasizes that the sociology world at large is the most viable and vibrant intellectual framework. By being made up of our thoughts and self-belief, the social interactionism theory is the purpose of all human interaction, and is what causes society to exist. This fuels criticisms of the symbolic interactionist framework for failing to account for social structure, as well as criticisms that interactionist theories cannot be assessed via quantitative methods, and cannot be falsifiable or tested empirically. Framework is important for the symbolic interaction theory because in order for the social structure to form, there are certain bonds of communication that need to be established to create the interaction. Much of the symbolic interactionist framework's basic tenets can be found in a very wide range of sociological and psychological work, without being explicitly cited as interactionist, making the influence of symbolic interactionism difficult to recognize given this general acceptance of its assumptions as "common knowledge." Another problem with this model is two-fold, in that it 1) does not take into account human emotions very much, implying that symbolic interaction is not completely psychological; and 2) is interested in social structure to a limited extent, implying that symbolic interaction is not completely sociological. These incompetencies frame meaning as something that occurs naturally within an interaction under a certain condition, rather than taking into account the basic social context in which interaction is positioned. From this view, meaning has no source and does not perceive a social reality beyond what humans create with their own interpretations. Another criticism of symbolic interactionism is more so on the scholars themselves. They are noted to not take interest in the history of this sociological approach. This has the ability to produce shallow understanding and can make the subject "hard to teach" based on the lack of organization in its teachings to relate with other theories or studies. Limitations Some symbolic interactionists like Goffman had pointed out the obvious defects of the pioneering Mead concept upon which the contemporary symbolic interactionism is built, it has influenced the modern symbolic interactionism to be more conducive to conceiving "social-psychological concerns rather than sociological concerns". For instance, during analyzing symbolic interactionism, the participants' emotional fluctuations that are inexorably entailed are often ignored because they are too sophisticated and volatile to measure. When the participants are being selected to participate in certain activities that are not part of their normal daily routine, it will inevitably disrupt the participants psychologically, causing spontaneous thoughts to flow that are very likely to make the participants veer away from their normal behaviors. These psychological changes could result in the participants' emotional fluctuations that manifest themselves in the participants' reactions; therefore, manufacturing biases that will the previously mentioned biases. This critique unveiled the lack of scrutiny on participants' internal subjective processing of their environment which initiates the reasoning and negotiating faculties, which the contemporary symbolic interactionism also reflects. Henceforth, prejudice is not a purely psychological phenomenon, instead it can be interpreted from a symbolic interactionism standpoint, taking individuals' construction of the social reality into account. Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction The Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI) is an international professional organization for scholars, who are interested in the study of symbolic interaction. SSSI holds a conference in conjunction with the meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. This conference typically occurs in August and sponsors the SSSI holds the Couch-Stone Symposium each spring. The Society provides travel scholarships for student members interested in attending the annual conference. At the annual conference, the SSSI sponsors yearly awards in different categories of symbolic interaction. Additionally, some of the awards are open to student members of the society. The Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award is given annually by the SSSI affiliate of the National Communication Association for the best article, essay, or book chapter in autoethnography and personal narrative research. The award is named after renowned autoethnographers Carolyn Ellis and Art Bochner. The society also sponsors a quarterly journal, Symbolic Interaction, and releases a newsletter, SSSI Notes. SSSI also has a European branch, which organizes an annual conference that integrates European symbolic interactionists. See also Constructivism (learning theory) Coordinated management of meaning Edward T. Hall Erving Goffman Extension transference Generalized other Georg Simmel Labeling theory Interactionism Sandbox play therapy Social action Social interaction Notes References Works cited Blumer, Herbert. 1973. "A note on symbolic interactionism." American Sociological Review 38(6). Burbank, Patricia. 3 Jan 2010. "Symbolic Interactionism and Critical Perspective: Divergent or Synergistic?." Nursing Philosophy. Prus, Robert. 1996. Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research: Intersubjectivity and the Study of Human Lived Experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Stryker, Sheldon. 1999. "The vitalization of symbolic interactionism." Social Psychology Quarterly 50:83. Web. Further reading Atkinson, Paul, and William Housley. 2003. Interactionism. London: SAGE. (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/interactionism/book208816) Altheide. David L. 2013 "Terrorism and the national security university: Public order redux." 40th Anniversary of Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Emerald. Blumer, Herbert. 1962. "Society as Symbolic Interaction." In Human Behavior and Social Process: An Interactionist Approach, edited by Arnold M. Rose. Houghton-Mifflin. (Reprinted in Blumer, 1969). Blumer, Herbert. 1971. "Social Problems as Collective Behavior." Journal of Economics and Sociology. Brissett, Edgley. .1974. Life as Theater. Chicago. Carter, Michael J., and Celine Fuller. 2015. "Symbolic Interactionism." Sociopedia. doi:10.1177/205684601561. Handberg, Charlotte, Sally Thorne, Julie Midtgaard, Claus Vinther Nielsen, and Kirsten Lomborg. 2015. "Revisiting symbolic interactionism as a theoretical framework beyond the grounded theory tradition." Qualitative Health Research 25(8):1023–32. DOI:10.1177/1049732314554231. Johnson, John J. 2013. "The contributions of the California Sociologies to the diversity and development of symbolic interaction" 40th Anniversary of Studies in Symbolic Interaction. Emerald. Jeon, Yun‐Hee. 2004. "The Application of Grounded Theory and Symbolic Interactionism." Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences 18(3):249–56 Lehn, Dirk vom, and Will Gibson. 2011. "Interaction and Symbolic Interactionism." In Symbolic Interaction. Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. Liamputtong, Pranee, and Douglas Ezzy. 2005. Qualitative Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press. Milliken, P. J., and Rita Schreiber. 2012. "Examining the nexus between grounded theory and symbolic interactionism." International Journal of Qualitative Methods 11(5):684–96. Manning, Philip, and David R. Maines. 2003. "Editorial Introduction: Theory and Method in Symbolic Interactionism." Symbolic Interaction 26(4):497–500. ProQuest Central; Research Library; Sociological Abstracts. Plummer, Ken. n.d. A World in the Making: Symbolic Interactionism in the Twentieth Century. Print. Plummer, Kenneth. 1975. Sexual Stigma: An Interactionist Account. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Robinson, Laura. 2007. The cyberself: The self-ing project goes online, symbolic interaction in the digital age doi:10.1177/1461444807072216. Rock, Paul Elliott. 1979. The Making of Symbolic Interactionism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781349040841) Schneider Christopher J., and Daniel Trottier. 2013. "Social media and the 2011 Vancouver riot" 40th Anniversary of Studies in Symbolic Interaction. Emerald. Vannini, Phillip. 2011. "Nonrepresentational theory and symbolic interactionism: Shared perspectives and missed articulations." Symbolic Interaction 32(3): 282–6. DOI:10.1525/si.2009.32.3.282. External links Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI) website Blog of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction 6th European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction conference 2015 Symbolic Interaction journal at Wiley Online Blog of the Journal Symbolic Interaction Sociological theories Interpersonal communication Symbolic anthropology	0.767984	0.99763	0.766164
Conflict resolution	Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest of group (e.g., intentions; reasons for holding certain beliefs) and by engaging in collective negotiation. Dimensions of resolution typically parallel the dimensions of conflict in the way the conflict is processed. Cognitive resolution is the way disputants understand and view the conflict, with beliefs, perspectives, understandings and attitudes. Emotional resolution is in the way disputants feel about a conflict, the emotional energy. Behavioral resolution is reflective of how the disputants act, their behavior. Ultimately a wide range of methods and procedures for addressing conflict exist, including negotiation, mediation, mediation-arbitration, diplomacy, and creative peacebuilding. Dispute resolution is conflict resolution limited to law, such as arbitration and litigation processes. The concept of conflict resolution can be thought to encompass the use of nonviolent resistance measures by conflicted parties in an attempt to promote effective resolution. Theories and models There are a plethora of different theories and models linked to the concept of conflict resolution. A few of them are described below. Conflict resolution curve There are many examples of conflict resolution in history, and there has been a debate about the ways to conflict resolution: whether it should be forced or peaceful. Conflict resolution by peaceful means is generally perceived to be a better option. The conflict resolution curve derived from an analytical model that offers a peaceful solution by motivating conflicting entities. Forced resolution of conflict might invoke another conflict in the future. Conflict resolution curve (CRC) separates conflict styles into two separate domains: domain of competing entities and domain of accommodating entities. There is a sort of agreement between targets and aggressors on this curve. Their judgements of badness compared to goodness of each other are analogous on CRC. So, arrival of conflicting entities to some negotiable points on CRC is important before peace building. CRC does not exist (i.e., singular) in reality if the aggression of the aggressor is certain. Under such circumstances it might lead to apocalypse with mutual destruction. The curve explains why nonviolent struggles ultimately toppled repressive regimes and sometimes forced leaders to change the nature of governance. Also, this methodology has been applied to capture conflict styles on the Korean Peninsula and dynamics of negotiation processes. Dual concern model The dual concern model of conflict resolution is a conceptual perspective that assumes individuals' preferred method of dealing with conflict is based on two underlying themes or dimensions: concern for self (assertiveness) and concern for others (empathy). According to the model, group members balance their concern for satisfying personal needs and interests with their concern for satisfying the needs and interests of others in different ways. The intersection of these two dimensions ultimately leads individuals towards exhibiting different styles of conflict resolution. The dual model identifies five conflict resolution styles or strategies that individuals may use depending on their dispositions toward pro-self or pro-social goals. Avoidance conflict style Characterized by joking, changing or avoiding the topic, or even denying that a problem exists, the conflict avoidance style is used when an individual has withdrawn in dealing with the other party, when one is uncomfortable with conflict, or due to cultural contexts. During conflict, these avoiders adopt a "wait and see" attitude, often allowing conflict to phase out on its own without any personal involvement. By neglecting to address high-conflict situations, avoiders risk allowing problems to fester or spin out of control. Accommodating conflict style In contrast, yielding, "accommodating", smoothing or suppression conflict styles are characterized by a high level of concern for others and a low level of concern for oneself. This passive pro-social approach emerges when individuals derive personal satisfaction from meeting the needs of others and have a general concern for maintaining stable, positive social relationships. When faced with conflict, individuals with an accommodating conflict style tend to harmonize into others' demands out of respect for the social relationship. With this sense of yielding to the conflict, individuals fall back to others' input instead of finding solutions with their own intellectual resolution. Competitive conflict style The competitive, "fighting" or forcing conflict style maximizes individual assertiveness (i.e., concern for self) and minimizes empathy (i.e., concern for others). Groups consisting of competitive members generally enjoy seeking domination over others, and typically see conflict as a "win or lose" predicament. Fighters tend to force others to accept their personal views by employing competitive power tactics (arguments, insults, accusations or even violence) that foster intimidation. Conciliation conflict style The conciliation, "compromising", bargaining or negotiation conflict style is typical of individuals who possess an intermediate level of concern for both personal and others' outcomes. Compromisers value fairness and, in doing so, anticipate mutual give-and-take interactions. By accepting some demands put forth by others, compromisers believe this agreeableness will encourage others to meet them halfway, thus promoting conflict resolution. This conflict style can be considered an extension of both "yielding" and "cooperative" strategies. Cooperation conflict style Characterized by an active concern for both pro-social and pro-self behavior, the cooperation, integration, confrontation or problem-solving conflict style is typically used when an individual has elevated interests in their own outcomes as well as in the outcomes of others. During conflict, cooperators collaborate with others in an effort to find an amicable solution that satisfies all parties involved in the conflict. Individuals using this type of conflict style tend to be both highly assertive and highly empathetic. By seeing conflict as a creative opportunity, collaborators willingly invest time and resources into finding a "win-win" solution. According to the literature on conflict resolution, a cooperative conflict resolution style is recommended above all others. This resolution may be achieved by lowering the aggressor's guard while raising the ego. Relational dialectics theory Relational dialectics theory (RDT), introduced by Leslie Baxter and Barbara Matgomery (1988), explores the ways in which people in relationships use verbal communication to manage conflict and contradiction as opposed to psychology. This concept focuses on maintaining a relationship even through contradictions that arise and how relationships are managed through coordinated talk. RDT assumes that relationships are composed of opposing tendencies, are constantly changing, and tensions arises from intimate relationships. The main concepts of RDT are: Contradictions – The concept is that the contrary has the characteristics of its opposite. People can seek to be in a relationship but still need their space. Totality – The totality comes when the opposites unite. Thus, the relationship is balanced with contradictions and only then it reaches totality Process – Comprehended through various social processes. These processes simultaneously continue within a relationship in a recurring manner. Praxis – The relationship progresses with experience and both people interact and communicate effectively to meet their needs. Praxis is a concept of practicability in making decisions in a relationship despite opposing wants and needs Strategy of conflict Strategy of conflict, by Thomas Schelling, is the study of negotiation during conflict and strategic behavior that results in the development of "conflict behavior". This idea is based largely on game theory. In "A Reorientation of Game Theory", Schelling discusses ways in which one can redirect the focus of a conflict in order to gain advantage over an opponent. Conflict is a contest. Rational behavior, in this contest, is a matter of judgment and perception. Strategy makes predictions using "rational behavior – behavior motivated by a serious calculation of advantages, a calculation that in turn is based on an explicit and internally consistent value system". Cooperation is always temporary, interests will change. Peace and conflict studies Within peace and conflict studies a definition of conflict resolution is presented in Peter Wallensteen's book Understanding Conflict Resolution: The "conflicting parties" concerned in this definition are formally or informally organized groups engaged in intrastate or interstate conflict. 'Basic incompatibility' refers to a severe disagreement between at least two sides where their demands cannot be met by the same resources at the same time. Peacebuilding theory Conflict resolution mechanisms One theory discussed within the field of peace and conflict studies is conflict resolution mechanisms: independent procedures in which the conflicting parties can have confidence. They can be formal or informal arrangements with the intention of resolving the conflict. In Understanding Conflict Resolution Wallensteen draws from the works of Lewis A. Coser, Johan Galtung and Thomas Schelling, and presents seven distinct theoretical mechanisms for conflict resolutions: A shift in priorities for one of the conflicting parties. While it is rare that a party completely changes its basic positions, it can display a shift in to what it gives highest priority. In such an instance new possibilities for conflict resolutions may arise. The contested resource is divided. In essence, this means both conflicting parties display some extent of shift in priorities which then opens up for some form of "meeting the other side halfway" agreement. Horse-trading between the conflicting parties. This means that one side gets all of its demands met on one issue, while the other side gets all of its demands met on another issue. The parties decide to share control, and rule together over the contested resource. It could be permanent, or a temporary arrangement for a transition period that, when over, has led to a transcendence of the conflict. The parties agree to leave control to someone else. In this mechanism the primary parties agree, or accept, that a third party takes control over the contested resource. The parties resort to conflict resolution mechanisms, notably arbitration or other legal procedures. This means finding a procedure for resolving the conflict through some of the previously mentioned five ways, but with the added quality that it is done through a process outside of the parties' immediate control. Some issues can be left for later. The argument for this is that political conditions and popular attitudes can change, and some issues can gain from being delayed, as their significance may pale with time. Intrastate and interstate According to conflict database Uppsala Conflict Data Program's definition war may occur between parties who contest an incompatibility. The nature of an incompatibility can be territorial or governmental, but a warring party must be a "government of a state or any opposition organization or alliance of organizations that uses armed force to promote its position in the incompatibility in an intrastate or an interstate armed conflict". Wars can conclude with a peace agreement, which is a "formal agreement... which addresses the disputed incompatibility, either by settling all or part of it, or by clearly outlining a process for how [...] to regulate the incompatibility." A ceasefire is another form of agreement made by warring parties; unlike a peace agreement, it only "regulates the conflict behaviour of warring parties", and does not resolve the issue that brought the parties to war in the first place. Peacekeeping measures may be deployed to avoid violence in solving such incompatibilities. Beginning in the last century, political theorists have been developing the theory of a global peace system that relies upon broad social and political measures to avoid war in the interest of achieving world peace. The Blue Peace approach developed by Strategic Foresight Group facilitates cooperation between countries over shared water resources, thus reducing the risk of war and enabling sustainable development. Conflict resolution is an expanding field of professional practice, both in the U.S. and around the world. The escalating costs of conflict have increased use of third parties who may serve as a conflict specialists to resolve conflicts. In fact, relief and development organizations have added peace-building specialists to their teams. Many major international non-governmental organizations have seen a growing need to hire practitioners trained in conflict analysis and resolution. Furthermore, this expansion has resulted in the need for conflict resolution practitioners to work in a variety of settings such as in businesses, court systems, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions throughout the world. Democracy has a positive influence on conflict resolution. In the workplace According to the Cambridge dictionary, a basic definition of conflict is: "an active disagreement between people with opposing opinions or principles." Conflicts such as disagreements may occur at any moment, being a normal part of human interactions. The type of conflict and its severity may vary both in content and degree of seriousness; however, it is impossible to completely avoid it. Actually, conflict in itself is not necessarily a negative thing. When handled constructively it can help people to stand up for themselves and others, to evolve and learn how to work together to achieve a mutually satisfactory solution. But if conflict is handled poorly it can cause anger, hurt, divisiveness and more serious problems. If it is impossible to completely avoid conflict as it was said, the possibilities to experience it are usually higher particularly in complex social contexts in which important diversities are at stake. Specially because of this reason, speaking about conflict resolution becomes fundamental in ethnically diverse and multicultural work environments, in which not only "regular" work disagreements may occur but in which also different languages, worldviews, lifestyles and ultimately value differences may diverge. Conflict resolution is the process by which two or more parties engaged in a disagreement, dispute or debate reach an agreement resolving it. It involves a series of stages, involved actors, models and approaches that may depend on the kind of confrontation at stake and the surrounded social and cultural context. However, there are some general actions and personal skills that may be very useful when facing a conflict to solve (independently of its nature), e.g. an open minded orientation able to analyze the different point of views and perspectives involved, as well as an ability to empathize, carefully listen and clearly communicate with all the parts involved. Sources of conflict may be so many, depending on the particular situation and the specific context, but some of the most common include: Personal differences such as values, ethics, personalities, age, education, gender, socioeconomic status, cultural background, temperament, health, religion, political beliefs, etc. Thus, almost any social category that serves to differentiate people may become an object of conflict when it does negatively diverge with people who do not share it. Clashes of ideas, choices or actions. Conflict occurs when people does not share common goals, or common ways to reach a particular objective (e.g. different work styles). Conflict occurs also when there is direct or indirect competition between people or when someone may feel excluded from a particular activity or by some people within the company. Lack of communication or poor communication are also significant reasons to start a conflict, to misunderstand a particular situation and to create potentially explosive interactions. Fundamental strategies Although different conflicts may require different ways to handle them, this is a list of fundamental strategies that may be implemented when handling a conflictive situation: Reaching agreement on rules and procedures: Establishing ground rules may include the following actions: a. Determining a site for the meeting; b. Setting a formal agenda; c. Determining who attends; d. Setting time limits; e. Setting procedural rules; f. Following specific "do(s) and don't(s)". Reducing tension and synchronizing the de-escalation of hostility: In highly emotional situations when people feel angry, upset, frustrated, it is important to implement the following actions: a. Separating the involved parties; b. Managing tensions – jokes as an instrument to give the opportunity for catharsis; c. Acknowledging others' feelings – actively listening to others; d. De-escalation by public statements by parties – about the concession, the commitments of the parties. Improving the accuracy of communication, particularly improving each party's understanding of the other's perception: a. Accurate understanding of the other's position; b. Role reversal, trying to adopt the other's position (empathetic attitudes); c. Imaging – describing how they see themselves, how the other parties appears to them, how they think the other parties will describe them and how the others see themselves. Controlling the number and size of issues in the discussion: a. Fractionate the negotiation – a method that divides a large conflict into smaller parts: 1. Reduce the number of parties on each side; 2. Control the number of substantive issues; 3. Search for different ways to divide big issues. Establishing common ground where parties can find a basis for agreement: a. Establishing common goals or superordinate goals; b. Establishing common enemies; c. Identifying common expectations; d. Managing time constraints and deadlines; e. Reframing the parties' view of each other; f. Build trust through the negotiation process. Enhancing the desirability of the options and alternatives that each party presents to the other: a. Giving the other party an acceptable proposal; b. Asking for a different decision; c. Sweeten the other rather than intensifying the threat; d. Elaborating objective or legitimate criteria to evaluate all possible solutions. Approaches A conflict is a common phenomenon in the workplace; as mentioned before, it can occur because of the most different grounds of diversity and under very different circumstances. However, it is usually a matter of interests, needs, priorities, goals or values interfering with each other; and, often, a result of different perceptions more than actual differences. Conflicts may involve team members, departments, projects, organization and client, boss and subordinate, organization needs vs. personal needs, and they are usually immersed in complex relations of power that need to be understood and interpreted in order to define the more tailored way to manage the conflict. There are, nevertheless, some main approaches that may be applied when trying to solve a conflict that may lead to very different outcomes to be valued according to the particular situation and the available negotiation resources: Forcing When one of the conflict's parts firmly pursues his or her own concerns despite the resistance of the other(s). This may involve pushing one viewpoint at the expense of another or maintaining firm resistance to the counterpart's actions; it is also commonly known as "competing". Forcing may be appropriate when all other, less forceful methods, do not work or are ineffective; when someone needs to stand up for his/her own rights (or the represented group/organization's rights), resist aggression and pressure. It may be also considered a suitable option when a quick resolution is required and using force is justified (e.g. in a life-threatening situation, to stop an aggression), and as a very last resort to resolve a long-lasting conflict. However, forcing may also negatively affect the relationship with the opponent in the long run; may intensified the conflict if the opponent decides to react in the same way (even if it was not the original intention); it does not allow to take advantage in a productive way of the other side's position and, last but not least, taking this approach may require a lot of energy and be exhausting to some individuals. Win-win / collaborating Collaboration involves an attempt to work with the other part involved in the conflict to find a win-win solution to the problem in hand, or at least to find a solution that most satisfies the concerns of both parties. The win-win approach sees conflict resolution as an opportunity to come to a mutually beneficial result; and it includes identifying the underlying concerns of the opponents and finding an alternative which meets each party's concerns. From that point of view, it is the most desirable outcome when trying to solve a problem for all partners. Collaborating may be the best solution when consensus and commitment of other parties is important; when the conflict occurs in a collaborative, trustworthy environment and when it is required to address the interests of multiple stakeholders. But more specially, it is the most desirable outcome when a long-term relationship is important so that people can continue to collaborate in a productive way; collaborating is in few words, sharing responsibilities and mutual commitment. For parties involved, the outcome of the conflict resolution is less stressful; however, the process of finding and establishing a win-win solution may be longer and should be very involving. It may require more effort and more time than some other methods; for the same reason, collaborating may not be practical when timing is crucial and a quick solution or fast response is required. Compromising Different from the win-win solution, in this outcome the conflict parties find a mutually acceptable solution which partially satisfies both parties. This can occur as both parties converse with one another and seek to understand the other's point of view. Compromising may be an optimal solution when the goals are moderately important and not worth the use of more assertive or more involving approaches. It may be useful when reaching temporary settlement on complex issues and as a first step when the involved parties do not know each other well or have not yet developed a high level of mutual trust. Compromising may be a faster way to solve things when time is a factor. The level of tensions can be lower as well, but the result of the conflict may be also less satisfactory. If this method is not well managed, and the factor time becomes the most important one, the situation may result in both parties being not satisfied with the outcome (i.e. a lose-lose situation). Moreover, it does not contribute to building trust in the long run and it may require a closer monitoring of the kind of partially satisfactory compromises acquired. Withdrawing This technique consists on not addressing the conflict, postpone it or simply withdrawing; for that reason, it is also known as Avoiding. This outcome is suitable when the issue is trivial and not worth the effort or when more important issues are pressing, and one or both the parties do not have time to deal with it. Withdrawing may be also a strategic response when it is not the right time or place to confront the issue, when more time is needed to think and collect information before acting or when not responding may bring still some winnings for at least some of the involves parties. Moreover, withdrawing may be also employed when someone know that the other party is totally engaged with hostility and does not want (can not) to invest further unreasonable efforts. Withdrawing may give the possibility to see things from a different perspective while gaining time and collecting further information, and specially is a low stress approach particularly when the conflict is a short time one. However, not acting may be interpreted as an agreement and therefore it may lead to weakening or losing a previously gained position with one or more parties involved. Furthermore, when using withdrawing as a strategy more time, skills and experiences together with other actions may need to be implemented. Smoothing Smoothing is accommodating the concerns of others first of all, rather than one's own concerns. This kind of strategy may be applied when the issue of the conflict is much more important for the counterparts whereas for the other is not particularly relevant. It may be also applied when someone accepts that he/she is wrong and furthermore there are no other possible options than continuing an unworthy competing-pushing situation. Just as withdrawing, smoothing may be an option to find at least a temporal solution or obtain more time and information, however, it is not an option when priority interests are at stake. There is a high risk of being abused when choosing the smoothing option. Therefore, it is important to keep the right balance and to not give up one own interests and necessities. Otherwise, confidence in one's ability, mainly with an aggressive opponent, may be seriously damaged, together with credibility by the other parties involved. Needed to say, in these cases a transition to a Win-Win solution in the future becomes particularly more difficult when someone. Between organizations Relationships between organizations, such as strategic alliances, buyer-supplier partnerships, organizational networks, or joint ventures are prone to conflict. Conflict resolution in inter-organizational relationships has attracted the attention of business and management scholars. They have related the forms of conflict (e.g., integrity-based vs. competence-based conflict) to the mode of conflict resolution and the negotiation and repair approaches used by organizations. They have also observed the role of important moderating factors such as the type of contractual arrangement, the level of trust between organizations, or the type of power asymmetry. Other forms Conflict management Conflict management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances—standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structure—or social geometry—of the case. Conflict management is often considered to be distinct from conflict resolution. In order for actual conflict to occur, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns which explain why and how the conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is often connected to a previous issue. Resolution refers to resolving a dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas management is concerned with an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. Neither is considered the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties. Counseling When personal conflict leads to frustration and loss of efficiency, counseling may prove helpful. Although few organizations can afford to have professional counselors on staff, given some training, managers may be able to perform this function. Nondirective counseling, or "listening with understanding", is little more than being a good listener—something often considered to be important in a manager. Sometimes simply being able to express one's feelings to a concerned and understanding listener is enough to relieve frustration and make it possible for an individual to advance to a problem-solving frame of mind. The nondirective approach is one effective way for managers to deal with frustrated subordinates and coworkers. There are other, more direct and more diagnostic, methods that could be used in appropriate circumstances. However, the great strength of the nondirective approach lies in its simplicity, its effectiveness, and that it deliberately avoids the manager-counselor's diagnosing and interpreting emotional problems, which would call for special psychological training. Listening to staff with sympathy and understanding is unlikely to escalate the problem, and is a widely used approach for helping people cope with problems that interfere with their effectiveness in the workplace. Culture-based Conflict resolution as both a professional practice and academic field is highly sensitive to cultural practices. In Western cultural contexts, such as Canada and the United States, successful conflict resolution usually involves fostering communication among disputants, problem solving, and drafting agreements that meet underlying needs. In these situations, conflict resolvers often talk about finding a mutually satisfying ("win-win") solution for everyone involved. In many non-Western cultural contexts, such as Afghanistan, Vietnam, and China, it is also important to find "win-win" solutions; however, the routes taken to find them may be very different. In these contexts, direct communication between disputants that explicitly addresses the issues at stake in the conflict can be perceived as very rude, making the conflict worse and delaying resolution. It can make sense to involve religious, tribal, or community leaders; communicate difficult truths through a third party; or make suggestions through stories. Intercultural conflicts are often the most difficult to resolve because the expectations of the disputants can be very different, and there is much occasion for misunderstanding. In animals Conflict resolution has also been studied in non-humans, including dogs, cats, monkeys, snakes, elephants, and primates. Aggression is more common among relatives and within a group than between groups. Instead of creating distance between the individuals, primates tend to be more intimate in the period after an aggressive incident. These intimacies consist of grooming and various forms of body contact. Stress responses, including increased heart rates, usually decrease after these reconciliatory signals. Different types of primates, as well as many other species who live in groups, display different types of conciliatory behavior. Resolving conflicts that threaten the interaction between individuals in a group is necessary for survival, giving it a strong evolutionary value. A further focus of this is among species that have stable social units, individual relationships, and the potential for intragroup aggression that may disrupt beneficial relationships. The role of these reunions in negotiating relationships is examined along with the susceptibility of these relationships to partner value asymmetries and biological market effects. These findings contradict previous existing theories about the general function of aggression, i.e. creating space between individuals (first proposed by Konrad Lorenz), which seems to be more the case in conflicts between groups than it is within groups. In addition to research in primates, biologists are beginning to explore reconciliation in other animals. Until recently, the literature dealing with reconciliation in non-primates has consisted of anecdotal observations and very little quantitative data. Although peaceful post-conflict behavior had been documented going back to the 1960s, it was not until 1993 that Rowell made the first explicit mention of reconciliation in feral sheep. Reconciliation has since been documented in spotted hyenas, lions, bottlenose dolphins, dwarf mongoose, domestic goats, domestic dogs, and, recently, in red-necked wallabies. See also Appeasement Civil resistance Conflict continuum Conflict early warning Conflict management Conflict style inventory Cost of conflict Deterrence Dialectic Dialogue Fair fighting Family therapy Gunnysacking Interpersonal communication Nonviolent Communication Organizations Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War is a London organisation that promotes peacebuilding as an alternative to military security Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution Search for Common Ground is one of the world's largest non-government organisations dedicated to conflict resolution Seeds of Peace develops and empowers young leaders from regions of conflict to work towards peace through coexistence United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) is a global non-governmental organization and youth network dedicated to the role of youth in peacebuilding and conflict resolution University for Peace is a United Nations mandated organization and graduate school dedicated to conflict resolution and peace studies Uppsala Conflict Data Program is an academic data collection project that provides descriptions of political violence and conflict resolution Footnotes References Works cited Bannon, I. & Paul Collier (Eds.). (2003). Natural resources and violent conflict: Options and actions. WThe World Bank. Ury, F. & Rodger Fisher. (1981). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. Penguin. Wilmot, W. & Jouyce Hocker. (2007). Interpersonal conflict. McGraw-Hill. Bercovitch, Jacob and Jackson, Richard. 2009. Conflict Resolution in the Twenty-first Century: Principles, Methods, and Approaches. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. de Waal, Frans B. M. and Angeline van Roosmalen. 1979. Reconciliation and consolation among chimpanzees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 5: 55–66. de Waal, Frans B. M. 1989. Peacemaking Among Primates. Harvard University Press. de Waal, Frans B. M. and Filippo Aureli. 1996. Consolation, reconciliation, and a possible cognitive difference between macaques and chimpanzees. Reaching into thought: The minds of the great apes (Eds. Anne E. Russon, Kim A. Bard, Sue Taylor Parker), Cambridge University Press, New York, NY: 80–110. Aureli, Filippo and Frans B. M. de Waal, eds. 2000. Natural Conflict Resolution. University of California Press. de Waal, Frans B. M. 2000. Primates––A natural heritage of conflict resolution. Science 289: 586–590. Hicks, Donna. 2011. Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict. Yale University Press Bar-Siman-Tov, Yaacov (Ed.) (2004). From Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation. Oxford University Press Further reading Staniland, Paul (2021). Ordering Violence: Explaining Armed Group-state Relations from Conflict to Cooperation. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-6110-2. Conflict (process) Dispute resolution Family therapy Interpersonal relationships Reconciliation	0.769583	0.995557	0.766164
Structuralism	Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. Alternatively, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is:"The belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure."The structuralist mode of reasoning has since been applied in a range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, economics, and architecture. Along with Claude Lévi-Strauss, the most prominent thinkers associated with structuralism include linguist Roman Jakobson and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. History and background The term structuralism is ambiguous, referring to different schools of thought in different contexts. As such, the movement in humanities and social sciences called structuralism relates to sociology. Emile Durkheim based his sociological concept on 'structure' and 'function', and from his work emerged the sociological approach of structural functionalism. Apart from Durkheim's use of the term structure, the semiological concept of Ferdinand de Saussure became fundamental for structuralism. Saussure conceived language and society as a system of relations. His linguistic approach was also a refutation of evolutionary linguistics. Structuralism in Europe developed in the early 20th century, mainly in France and the Russian Empire, in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague, Moscow, and Copenhagen schools of linguistics. As an intellectual movement, structuralism became the heir to existentialism. After World War II, an array of scholars in the humanities borrowed Saussure's concepts for use in their respective fields. French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss was arguably the first such scholar, sparking a widespread interest in structuralism. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, existentialism, such as that propounded by Jean-Paul Sartre, was the dominant European intellectual movement. Structuralism rose to prominence in France in the wake of existentialism, particularly in the 1960s. The initial popularity of structuralism in France led to its spread across the globe. By the early 1960s, structuralism as a movement was coming into its own and some believed that it offered a single unified approach to human life that would embrace all disciplines. By the late 1960s, many of structuralism's basic tenets came under attack from a new wave of predominantly French intellectuals/philosophers such as historian Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, and literary critic Roland Barthes. Though elements of their work necessarily relate to structuralism and are informed by it, these theorists eventually came to be referred to as post-structuralists. Many proponents of structuralism, such as Lacan, continue to influence continental philosophy and many of the fundamental assumptions of some of structuralism's post-structuralist critics are a continuation of structuralist thinking. Russian functional linguist Roman Jakobson was a pivotal figure in the adaptation of structural analysis to disciplines beyond linguistics, including philosophy, anthropology, and literary theory. Jakobson was a decisive influence on anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, by whose work the term structuralism first appeared in reference to social sciences. Lévi-Strauss' work in turn gave rise to the structuralist movement in France, also called French structuralism, influencing the thinking of other writers, most of whom disavowed themselves as being a part of this movement. This included such writers as Louis Althusser and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, as well as the structural Marxism of Nicos Poulantzas. Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida focused on how structuralism could be applied to literature. Accordingly, the so-called "Gang of Four" of structuralism is considered to be Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Barthes, and Michel Foucault.[dubious – discuss] Ferdinand de Saussure The origins of structuralism are connected with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure on linguistics along with the linguistics of the Prague and Moscow schools. In brief, Saussure's structural linguistics propounded three related concepts. Saussure argued for a distinction between langue (an idealized abstraction of language) and parole (language as actually used in daily life). He argued that a "sign" is composed of a "signified" (signifié, i.e. an abstract concept or idea) and a "signifier" (signifiant, i.e. the perceived sound/visual image). Because different languages have different words to refer to the same objects or concepts, there is no intrinsic reason why a specific signifier is used to express a given concept or idea. It is thus "arbitrary." Signs gain their meaning from their relationships and contrasts with other signs. As he wrote, "in language, there are only differences 'without positive terms. Lévi-Strauss Structuralism rejected the concept of human freedom and choice, focusing instead on the way that human experience and behaviour is determined by various structures. The most important initial work on this score was Lévi-Strauss's 1949 volume The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Lévi-Strauss had known Roman Jakobson during their time together at the New School in New York during WWII and was influenced by both Jakobson's structuralism, as well as the American anthropological tradition. In Elementary Structures, he examined kinship systems from a structural point of view and demonstrated how apparently different social organizations were different permutations of a few basic kinship structures. In the late 1958, he published Structural Anthropology, a collection of essays outlining his program for structuralism. Lacan and Piaget Blending Freud and Saussure, French (post)structuralist Jacques Lacan applied structuralism to psychoanalysis. Similarly, Jean Piaget applied structuralism to the study of psychology, though in a different way. Piaget, who would better define himself as constructivist, considered structuralism as "a method and not a doctrine," because, for him, "there exists no structure without a construction, abstract or genetic." 'Third order' Proponents of structuralism argue that a specific domain of culture may be understood by means of a structure that is modelled on language and is distinct both from the organizations of reality and those of ideas, or the imagination—the "third order." In Lacan's psychoanalytic theory, for example, the structural order of "the Symbolic" is distinguished both from "the Real" and "the Imaginary;" similarly, in Althusser's Marxist theory, the structural order of the capitalist mode of production is distinct both from the actual, real agents involved in its relations and from the ideological forms in which those relations are understood. Althusser Although French theorist Louis Althusser is often associated with structural social analysis, which helped give rise to "structural Marxism," such association was contested by Althusser himself in the Italian foreword to the second edition of Reading Capital. In this foreword Althusser states the following: Despite the precautions we took to distinguish ourselves from the 'structuralist' ideology…, despite the decisive intervention of categories foreign to 'structuralism'…, the terminology we employed was too close in many respects to the 'structuralist' terminology not to give rise to an ambiguity. With a very few exceptions…our interpretation of Marx has generally been recognized and judged, in homage to the current fashion, as 'structuralist'.… We believe that despite the terminological ambiguity, the profound tendency of our texts was not attached to the 'structuralist' ideology. Assiter In a later development, feminist theorist Alison Assiter enumerated four ideas common to the various forms of structuralism: a structure determines the position of each element of a whole; every system has a structure; structural laws deal with co-existence rather than change; and structures are the "real things" that lie beneath the surface or the appearance of meaning. In linguistics In Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics, the analysis focuses not on the use of language (parole, 'speech'), but rather on the underlying system of language (langue). This approach examines how the elements of language relate to each other in the present, synchronically rather than diachronically. Saussure argued that linguistic signs were composed of two parts: a signifiant ('signifier'): the "sound pattern" of a word, either in mental projection—e.g., as when one silently recites lines from signage, a poem to one's self—or in actual, any kind of text, physical realization as part of a speech act. a signifié '(signified'): the concept or meaning of the word. This differed from previous approaches that focused on the relationship between words and the things in the world that they designate. Although not fully developed by Saussure, other key notions in structural linguistics can be found in structural "idealism." A structural idealism is a class of linguistic units (lexemes, morphemes, or even constructions) that are possible in a certain position in a given syntagm, or linguistic environment (such as a given sentence). The different functional role of each of these members of the paradigm is called 'value' (French: ). Prague School In France, Antoine Meillet and Émile Benveniste continued Saussure's project, and members of the Prague school of linguistics such as Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy conducted influential research. The clearest and most important example of Prague school structuralism lies in phonemics. Rather than simply compiling a list of which sounds occur in a language, the Prague school examined how they were related. They determined that the inventory of sounds in a language could be analysed as a series of contrasts. Thus, in English, the sounds /p/ and /b/ represent distinct phonemes because there are cases (minimal pairs) where the contrast between the two is the only difference between two distinct words (e.g. 'pat' and 'bat'). Analyzing sounds in terms of contrastive features also opens up comparative scope—for instance, it makes clear the difficulty Japanese speakers have differentiating /r/ and /l/ in English and other languages is because these sounds are not contrastive in Japanese. Phonology would become the paradigmatic basis for structuralism in a number of different fields. Based on the Prague school concept, André Martinet in France, J. R. Firth in the UK and Louis Hjelmslev in Denmark developed their own versions of structural and functional linguistics. In anthropology According to structural theory in anthropology and social anthropology, meaning is produced and reproduced within a culture through various practices, phenomena, and activities that serve as systems of signification. A structuralist approach may study activities as diverse as food-preparation and serving rituals, religious rites, games, literary and non-literary texts, and other forms of entertainment to discover the deep structures by which meaning is produced and reproduced within the culture. For example, Lévi-Strauss analysed in the 1950s cultural phenomena including mythology, kinship (the alliance theory and the incest taboo), and food preparation. In addition to these studies, he produced more linguistically-focused writings in which he applied Saussure's distinction between langue and parole in his search for the fundamental structures of the human mind, arguing that the structures that form the "deep grammar" of society originate in the mind and operate in people unconsciously. Lévi-Strauss took inspiration from mathematics. Another concept used in structural anthropology came from the Prague school of linguistics, where Roman Jakobson and others analysed sounds based on the presence or absence of certain features (e.g., voiceless vs. voiced). Lévi-Strauss included this in his conceptualization of the universal structures of the mind, which he held to operate based on pairs of binary oppositions such as hot-cold, male-female, culture-nature, cooked-raw, or marriageable vs. tabooed women. A third influence came from Marcel Mauss (1872–1950), who had written on gift-exchange systems. Based on Mauss, for instance, Lévi-Strauss argued an alliance theory—that kinship systems are based on the exchange of women between groups—as opposed to the 'descent'-based theory described by Edward Evans-Pritchard and Meyer Fortes. While replacing Mauss at his Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes chair, the writings of Lévi-Strauss became widely popular in the 1960s and 1970s and gave rise to the term "structuralism" itself. In Britain, authors such as Rodney Needham and Edmund Leach were highly influenced by structuralism. Authors such as Maurice Godelier and Emmanuel Terray combined Marxism with structural anthropology in France. In the United States, authors such as Marshall Sahlins and James Boon built on structuralism to provide their own analysis of human society. Structural anthropology fell out of favour in the early 1980s for a number of reasons. D'Andrade suggests that this was because it made unverifiable assumptions about the universal structures of the human mind. Authors such as Eric Wolf argued that political economy and colonialism should be at the forefront of anthropology. More generally, criticisms of structuralism by Pierre Bourdieu led to a concern with how cultural and social structures were changed by human agency and practice, a trend which Sherry Ortner has referred to as 'practice theory'. One example is Douglas E. Foley's Learning Capitalist Culture (2010), in which he applied a mixture of structural and Marxist theories to his ethnographic fieldwork among high school students in Texas. Foley analyzed how they reach a shared goal through the lens of social solidarity when he observed "Mexicanos" and "Anglo-Americans" come together on the same football team to defeat the school's rivals. However, he also continually applies a marxist lens and states that he," wanted to wow peers with a new cultural marxist theory of schooling." Some anthropological theorists, however, while finding considerable fault with Lévi-Strauss's version of structuralism, did not turn away from a fundamental structural basis for human culture. The Biogenetic Structuralism group for instance argued that some kind of structural foundation for culture must exist because all humans inherit the same system of brain structures. They proposed a kind of neuroanthropology which would lay the foundations for a more complete scientific account of cultural similarity and variation by requiring an integration of cultural anthropology and neuroscience—a program that theorists such as Victor Turner also embraced. In literary criticism and theory In literary theory, structuralist criticism relates literary texts to a larger structure, which may be a particular genre, a range of intertextual connections, a model of a universal narrative structure, or a system of recurrent patterns or motifs. The field of structuralist semiotics argues that there must be a structure in every text, which explains why it is easier for experienced readers than for non-experienced readers to interpret a text. Everything that is written seems to be governed by rules, or "grammar of literature", that one learns in educational institutions and that are to be unmasked. A potential problem for a structuralist interpretation is that it can be highly reductive; as scholar Catherine Belsey puts it: "the structuralist danger of collapsing all difference." An example of such a reading might be if a student concludes the authors of West Side Story did not write anything "really" new, because their work has the same structure as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In both texts a girl and a boy fall in love (a "formula" with a symbolic operator between them would be "Boy + Girl") despite the fact that they belong to two groups that hate each other ("Boy's Group - Girl's Group" or "Opposing forces") and conflict is resolved by their deaths. Structuralist readings focus on how the structures of the single text resolve inherent narrative tensions. If a structuralist reading focuses on multiple texts, there must be some way in which those texts unify themselves into a coherent system. The versatility of structuralism is such that a literary critic could make the same claim about a story of two friendly families ("Boy's Family + Girl's Family") that arrange a marriage between their children despite the fact that the children hate each other ("Boy - Girl") and then the children commit suicide to escape the arranged marriage; the justification is that the second story's structure is an 'inversion' of the first story's structure: the relationship between the values of love and the two pairs of parties involved have been reversed. Structuralist literary criticism argues that the "literary banter of a text" can lie only in new structure, rather than in the specifics of character development and voice in which that structure is expressed. Literary structuralism often follows the lead of Vladimir Propp, Algirdas Julien Greimas, and Claude Lévi-Strauss in seeking out basic deep elements in stories, myths, and more recently, anecdotes, which are combined in various ways to produce the many versions of the ur-story or ur-myth. There is considerable similarity between structural literary theory and Northrop Frye's archetypal criticism, which is also indebted to the anthropological study of myths. Some critics have also tried to apply the theory to individual works, but the effort to find unique structures in individual literary works runs counter to the structuralist program and has an affinity with New Criticism. In economics Yifu Lin criticizes early structural economic systems and theories, discussing the failures of it. He writes:"The structuralism believes that the failure to develop advanced capital-intensive industries spontaneously in a developing country is due to market failures caused by various structural rigidities..." "According to neoliberalism, the main reason for the failure of developing countries to catch up with developed countries was too much state intervention in the market, causing misallocation of resources, rent seeking and so forth."Rather these failures are more so centered around the unlikelihood of such quick development of these advanced industries within developing countries. New Structural Economics (NSE) New structural economics is an economic development strategy developed by World Bank Chief Economist Justin Yifu Lin. The strategy combines ideas from both neoclassical economics and structural economics. NSE studies two parts: the base and the superstructure. A base is a combination of forces and relations of production, consisting of, but not limited to, industry and technology, while the superstructure consists of hard infrastructure and institutions. This results in an explanation of how the base impacts the superstructure which then determines transaction costs. Interpretations and general criticisms Structuralism is less popular today than other approaches, such as post-structuralism and deconstruction. Structuralism has often been criticized for being ahistorical and for favouring deterministic structural forces over the ability of people to act. As the political turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s (particularly the student uprisings of May 1968) began affecting academia, issues of power and political struggle moved to the center of public attention. In the 1980s, deconstruction—and its emphasis on the fundamental ambiguity of language rather than its logical structure—became popular. By the end of the century, structuralism was seen as a historically important school of thought, but the movements that it spawned, rather than structuralism itself, commanded attention. Several social theorists and academics have strongly criticized structuralism or even dismissed it. French hermeneutic philosopher Paul Ricœur (1969) criticized Lévi-Strauss for overstepping the limits of validity of the structuralist approach, ending up in what Ricœur described as "a Kantianism without a transcendental subject." Anthropologist Adam Kuper (1973) argued that:'Structuralism' came to have something of the momentum of a millennial movement and some of its adherents felt that they formed a secret society of the seeing in a world of the blind. Conversion was not just a matter of accepting a new paradigm. It was, almost, a question of salvation. Philip Noel Pettit (1975) called for an abandoning of "the positivist dream which Lévi-Strauss dreamed for semiology," arguing that semiology is not to be placed among the natural sciences. Cornelius Castoriadis (1975) criticized structuralism as failing to explain symbolic mediation in the social world; he viewed structuralism as a variation on the "logicist" theme, arguing that, contrary to what structuralists advocate, language—and symbolic systems in general—cannot be reduced to logical organizations on the basis of the binary logic of oppositions. Critical theorist Jürgen Habermas (1985) accused structuralists like Foucault of being positivists; Foucault, while not an ordinary positivist per se, paradoxically uses the tools of science to criticize science, according to Habermas. (See Performative contradiction and Foucault–Habermas debate.) Sociologist Anthony Giddens (1993) is another notable critic; while Giddens draws on a range of structuralist themes in his theorizing, he dismisses the structuralist view that the reproduction of social systems is merely "a mechanical outcome." See also Antihumanism Engaged theory Genetic structuralism Holism Isomorphism Post-structuralism Russian formalism Structuralist film theory Structuration theory Émile Durkheim Structural functionalism Structuralism (philosophy of science) Structuralism (philosophy of mathematics) Structuralism (psychology) Structural change Structuralist economics References Further reading Angermuller, Johannes. 2015. Why There Is No Poststructuralism in France: The Making of an Intellectual Generation. London: Bloomsbury. Roudinesco, Élisabeth. 2008. Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida. New York: Columbia University Press. Primary sources Althusser, Louis. Reading Capital. Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Deleuze, Gilles. 1973. "À quoi reconnaît-on le structuralisme?" Pp. 299–335 in Histoire de la philosophie, Idées, Doctrines. Vol. 8: Le XXe siècle, edited by F. Châtelet. Paris: Hachette de Saussure, Ferdinand. 1916. Course in General Linguistics. Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things. Jakobson, Roman. Essais de linguistique générale. Lacan, Jacques. The Seminars of Jacques Lacan. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. —— 1958. Structural Anthropology [Anthropologie structurale] —— 1964–1971. Mythologiques Wilcken, Patrick, ed. Claude Levi-Strauss: The Father of Modern Anthropology. Linguistic theories and hypotheses Literary criticism Philosophical anthropology Psychoanalytic theory Sociological theories Theories of language	0.76717	0.998681	0.766158
Programming paradigm	A programming paradigm is a relatively high-level way to conceptualize and structure the implementation of a computer program. A programming language can be classified as supporting one or more paradigms. Paradigms are separated along and described by different dimensions of programming. Some paradigms are about implications of the execution model, such as allowing side effects, or whether the sequence of operations is defined by the execution model. Other paradigms are about the way code is organized, such as grouping into units that include both state and behavior. Yet others are about syntax and grammar. Some common programming paradigms include (shown in hierarchical relationship): Imperative code directly controls execution flow and state change, explicit statements that change a program state procedural organized as procedures that call each other object-oriented organized as objects that contain both data structure and associated behavior, uses data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions (objects) to design programs Class-based – object-oriented programming in which inheritance is achieved by defining classes of objects, versus the objects themselves Prototype-based – object-oriented programming that avoids classes and implements inheritance via cloning of instances Declarative code declares properties of the desired result, but not how to compute it, describes what computation should perform, without specifying detailed state changes c.f. imperative programming (functional and logic programming are major subgroups of declarative programming) functional a desired result is declared as the value of a series of function evaluations, uses evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data logic a desired result is declared as the answer to a question about a system of facts and rules, uses explicit mathematical logic for programming reactive a desired result is declared with data streams and the propagation of change Concurrent programming – have language constructs for concurrency, these may involve multi-threading, support for distributed computing, message passing, shared resources (including shared memory), or futures Actor programming – concurrent computation with actors that make local decisions in response to the environment (capable of selfish or competitive behaviour) Constraint programming – relations between variables are expressed as constraints (or constraint networks), directing allowable solutions (uses constraint satisfaction or simplex algorithm) Dataflow programming – forced recalculation of formulas when data values change (e.g. spreadsheets) Distributed programming – have support for multiple autonomous computers that communicate via computer networks Generic programming – uses algorithms written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated as needed for specific types provided as parameters Metaprogramming – writing programs that write or manipulate other programs (or themselves) as their data, or that do part of the work at compile time that would otherwise be done at runtime Template metaprogramming – metaprogramming methods in which a compiler uses templates to generate temporary source code, which is merged by the compiler with the rest of the source code and then compiled Reflective programming – metaprogramming methods in which a program modifies or extends itself Pipeline programming – a simple syntax change to add syntax to nest function calls to language originally designed with none Rule-based programming – a network of rules of thumb that comprise a knowledge base and can be used for expert systems and problem deduction & resolution Visual programming – manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually (e.g. Simulink); also termed diagrammatic programming Overview Programming paradigms come from computer science research into existing practices of software development. The findings allow for describing and comparing programming practices and the languages used to code programs. For perspective, other research studies software engineering processes and describes various methodologies to describe and compare them. A programming language can be described in terms of paradigms. Some languages support only one paradigm. For example, Smalltalk supports object-oriented and Haskell supports functional. Most languages support multiple paradigms. For example, a program written in C++, Object Pascal, or PHP can be purely procedural, purely object-oriented, or can contain aspects of both paradigms, or others. When using a language that supports multiple paradigms, the developer chooses which paradigm elements to use. But, this choice may not involve considering paradigms per se. The developer often uses the features of a language as the language provides them and to the extent that the developer knows them. Categorizing the resulting code by paradigm is often an academic activity done in retrospect. Languages categorized as imperative paradigm have two main features: they state the order in which operations occur, with constructs that explicitly control that order, and they allow side effects, in which state can be modified at one point in time, within one unit of code, and then later read at a different point in time inside a different unit of code. The communication between the units of code is not explicit. In contrast, languages in the declarative paradigm do not state the order in which to execute operations. Instead, they supply a number of available operations in the system, along with the conditions under which each is allowed to execute. The implementation of the language's execution model tracks which operations are free to execute and chooses the order independently. More at Comparison of multi-paradigm programming languages. In object-oriented programming, code is organized into objects that contain state that is owned by and (usually) controlled by the code of the object. Most object-oriented languages are also imperative languages. In object-oriented programming, programs are treated as a set of interacting objects. In functional programming, programs are treated as a sequence of stateless function evaluations. When programming computers or systems with many processors, in process-oriented programming, programs are treated as sets of concurrent processes that act on a logical shared data structures. Many programming paradigms are as well known for the techniques they forbid as for those they support. For instance, pure functional programming disallows side-effects, while structured programming disallows the goto construct. Partly for this reason, new paradigms are often regarded as doctrinaire or overly rigid by those accustomed to older ones. Yet, avoiding certain techniques can make it easier to understand program behavior, and to prove theorems about program correctness. Programming paradigms can also be compared with programming models, which allows invoking an execution model by using only an API. Programming models can also be classified into paradigms based on features of the execution model. For parallel computing, using a programming model instead of a language is common. The reason is that details of the parallel hardware leak into the abstractions used to program the hardware. This causes the programmer to have to map patterns in the algorithm onto patterns in the execution model (which have been inserted due to leakage of hardware into the abstraction). As a consequence, no one parallel programming language maps well to all computation problems. Thus, it is more convenient to use a base sequential language and insert API calls to parallel execution models via a programming model. Such parallel programming models can be classified according to abstractions that reflect the hardware, such as shared memory, distributed memory with message passing, notions of place visible in the code, and so forth. These can be considered flavors of programming paradigm that apply to only parallel languages and programming models. Criticism Some programming language researchers criticise the notion of paradigms as a classification of programming languages, e.g. Harper, and Krishnamurthi. They argue that many programming languages cannot be strictly classified into one paradigm, but rather include features from several paradigms. See Comparison of multi-paradigm programming languages. History Different approaches to programming have developed over time. Classification of each approach was either described at the time the approach was first developed, but often not until some time later, retrospectively. An early approach consciously identified as such is structured programming, advocated since the mid 1960s. The concept of a programming paradigm as such dates at least to 1978, in the Turing Award lecture of Robert W. Floyd, entitled The Paradigms of Programming, which cites the notion of paradigm as used by Thomas Kuhn in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Early programming languages did not have clearly defined programming paradigms and sometimes programs made extensive use of goto statements. Liberal use of which lead to spaghetti code which is difficult to understand and maintain. This led to the development of structured programming paradigms that disallowed the use of goto statements; only allowing the use of more structured programming constructs. Languages and paradigms Machine code Machine code is the lowest-level of computer programming as it is machine instructions that define behavior at the lowest level of abstract possible for a computer. As it is the most prescriptive way to code it is classified as imperative. It is sometimes called the first-generation programming language. Assembly Assembly language introduced mnemonics for machine instructions and memory addresses. Assembly is classified as imperative and is sometimes called the second-generation programming language. In the 1960s, assembly languages were developed to support library COPY and quite sophisticated conditional macro generation and preprocessing abilities, CALL to subroutine, external variables and common sections (globals), enabling significant code re-use and isolation from hardware specifics via the use of logical operators such as READ/WRITE/GET/PUT. Assembly was, and still is, used for time-critical systems and often in embedded systems as it gives the most control of what the machine does. Procedural languages Procedural languages, also called the third-generation programming languages are the first described as high-level languages. They support vocabulary related to the problem being solved. For example, COmmon Business Oriented Language (COBOL) uses terms like file, move and copy. FORmula TRANslation (FORTRAN) using mathematical language terminology, it was developed mainly for scientific and engineering problems. ALGOrithmic Language (ALGOL) focused on being an appropriate language to define algorithms, while using mathematical language terminology, targeting scientific and engineering problems, just like FORTRAN. Programming Language One (PL/I) a hybrid commercial-scientific general purpose language supporting pointers. Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) it was developed to enable more people to write programs. C a general-purpose programming language, initially developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at AT&T Bell Labs. These languages are classified as procedural paradigm. They directly control the step by step process that a computer program follows. The efficacy and efficiency of such a program is therefore highly dependent on the programmer's skill. Object-oriented programming In attempt to improve on procedural languages, object-oriented programming (OOP) languages were created, such as Simula, Smalltalk, C++, Eiffel, Python, PHP, Java, and C#. In these languages, data and methods to manipulate the data are in the same code unit called an object. This encapsulation ensures that the only way that an object can access data is via methods of the object that contains the data. Thus, an object's inner workings may be changed without affecting code that uses the object. There is controversy raised by Alexander Stepanov, Richard Stallman and other programmers, concerning the efficacy of the OOP paradigm versus the procedural paradigm. The need for every object to have associative methods leads some skeptics to associate OOP with software bloat; an attempt to resolve this dilemma came through polymorphism. Although most OOP languages are third-generation, it is possible to create an object-oriented assembler language. High Level Assembly (HLA) is an example of this that fully supports advanced data types and object-oriented assembly language programming despite its early origins. Thus, differing programming paradigms can be seen rather like motivational memes of their advocates, rather than necessarily representing progress from one level to the next. Precise comparisons of competing paradigms' efficacy are frequently made more difficult because of new and differing terminology applied to similar entities and processes together with numerous implementation distinctions across languages. Declarative languages A declarative programming program describes what the problem is, not how to solve it. The program is structured as a set of properties to find in the expected result, not as a procedure to follow. Given a database or a set of rules, the computer tries to find a solution matching all the desired properties. An archetype of a declarative language is the fourth generation language SQL, and the family of functional languages and logic programming. Functional programming is a subset of declarative programming. Programs written using this paradigm use functions, blocks of code intended to behave like mathematical functions. Functional languages discourage changes in the value of variables through assignment, making a great deal of use of recursion instead. The logic programming paradigm views computation as automated reasoning over a body of knowledge. Facts about the problem domain are expressed as logic formulas, and programs are executed by applying inference rules over them until an answer to the problem is found, or the set of formulas is proved inconsistent. Other paradigms Symbolic programming is a paradigm that describes programs able to manipulate formulas and program components as data. Programs can thus effectively modify themselves, and appear to "learn", making them suited for applications such as artificial intelligence, expert systems, natural-language processing and computer games. Languages that support this paradigm include Lisp and Prolog. Differentiable programming structures programs so that they can be differentiated throughout, usually via automatic differentiation. Literate programming, as a form of imperative programming, structures programs as a human-centered web, as in a hypertext essay: documentation is integral to the program, and the program is structured following the logic of prose exposition, rather than compiler convenience. Symbolic techniques such as reflection, which allow the program to refer to itself, might also be considered as a programming paradigm. However, this is compatible with the major paradigms and thus is not a real paradigm in its own right. See also Domain-specific language Flow-based programming Modeling language Programming domain Turing completeness Von Neumann programming languages References External links Classification of the principal programming paradigms How programming paradigms evolve and get adopted? Programming language classification Programming language topics	0.767586	0.998099	0.766127
Pygmalion effect	The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area and low expectations lead to worse performance. It is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell so much in love with the perfectly beautiful statue he created that the statue came to life. The psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson present a view, that has been called into question as a result of later research findings, in their book Pygmalion in the Classroom; borrowing something of the myth by advancing the idea that teachers' expectations of their students affect the students' performance. Rosenthal and Jacobson held that high expectations lead to better performance and low expectations lead to worse, both effects leading to self-fulfilling prophecy. According to the Pygmalion effect, the targets of the expectations internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly; a similar process works in the opposite direction in the case of low expectations. The idea behind the Pygmalion effect is that increasing the leader's expectation of the follower's performance will result in better follower performance. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class. The Pygmalion effect remains controversial among social psychologists, because researchers have repeatedly failed to replicate the original finding of a strong, statistically significant effect. Rosenthal–Jacobson study Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson's study showed that children's performance was enhanced if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from children. By the same token, if teachers were led to expect lower performance from children, then the children's performance would be diminished. The authors purported that the study's results supported the hypothesis that performance can be positively or negatively influenced by the expectations of others. This phenomenon is called the observer-expectancy effect. Rosenthal argued that biased expectancies could affect reality and create self-fulfilling prophecies. All students in a single California elementary school were given a disguised IQ test at the beginning of the study. These scores were not disclosed to teachers. Teachers were told that some of their students (about 20% of the school chosen at random) could be expected to be "intellectual bloomers" that year, doing better than expected in comparison to their classmates. The bloomers' names were made known to the teachers. At the end of the study, all students were again tested with the same IQ test used at the beginning of the study. All six grades in both experimental and control groups showed a mean gain in IQ from before the test to after the test. However, first- and second-graders showed statistically significant gains favoring the experimental group of "intellectual bloomers." This led to the conclusion that teacher expectations, particularly for the youngest children, can influence student achievement. Rosenthal believed that even attitude or mood could positively affect the students when the teacher was made aware of the "bloomers." The teacher may pay closer attention to and even treat the child differently in times of difficulty. Rosenthal predicted that elementary school teachers may subconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage the students' success. When finished, Rosenthal theorized that future studies could be implemented to find teachers who would encourage their students naturally without changing their teaching methods. Rosenthal and Jacobson's study of the Pygmalion effect was criticized for both weak methodology and lack of replicability (see Pygmalion in the Classroom). The prior research that motivated this study was conducted in 1911 by psychologists regarding the case of Clever Hans, a horse that gained notoriety because it was supposed to be able to read, spell, and solve math problems by using its hoof to answer. Many skeptics suggested that questioners and observers were unintentionally signaling Clever Hans. For instance, whenever Clever Hans was asked a question the observers' demeanor usually elicited a certain behavior from the subject that in turn confirmed their expectations. For example, Clever Hans would be given a math problem to solve, and the audience would get very tense the closer he tapped his foot to the right number, thus giving Hans the clue he needed to tap the correct number of times. Mediator - leadership behaviour Leadership was identified by Eden and Shani as a mediator of the Pygmalion effect. The study discovered that trainees with strong command potential gave instructors better overall leadership evaluations than trainees in the control group. According to a later analysis of the survey by Eden, instructors were rated more positively on each of the four management leadership dimensions by Bowers and Seashore. Eden referred to this phenomenon as the Pygmalion leadership style (PLS). PLS includes consistently promoting, supporting, and reinforcing expectations, which leads to the subordinates adopting, accepting, or internalizing those expectations. Notably, those instructors needed to be made aware of their different manner of treating the trainees, supporting Rosenthal's claim that how instructors treat high-expectations people are not consciously intended or deliberate. Mediator - The Galatea effect The second mediator of the Pygmalion effect is the direct result of PLS, labeled by Eden and Ravid as the Galatea effect, which is the effect of directly manipulating trainees' self-expectations of themselves. The PLS leadership behaviors have the chance to raise trainees' expectations of their performance. In the IDF training program study, Eden and Ravid observed that raising instructors' expectations for particular trainees led to both greater performance (the Pygmalion effect) and increased self-expectations for those trainees. The research also demonstrated that improving these trainees' performance levels may be accomplished by directly raising their expectations by telling them—rather than their instructors—that they had high potential. Criticism of the Pygmalion effect The educational psychologist Robert L. Thorndike described the poor quality of the Pygmalion study. The problem with the study was that the instrument used to assess the children's IQ scores was seriously flawed. The average reasoning IQ score for the children in one regular class was in the mentally disabled range, a highly unlikely outcome in a regular class in a garden variety school. In the end, Thorndike concluded that the Pygmalion findings were worthless. Quoting a colleague, Thorndike wrote about the measurement problems of the study in this way: "When the clock strikes thirteen, doubt is cast not only on the last stroke but also all that have gone before" (p. 710). It is more likely that the rise in IQ scores from the mentally disabled range was the result of regression toward the mean, not teacher expectations. Moreover, a meta-analysis conducted by Raudenbush showed that when teachers had gotten to know their students for two weeks, the effect of a prior expectancy induction was reduced to virtually zero. A 2005 meta-analysis of 35 years of research on teacher expectations found that, while self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom do occur, the effects are usually small and temporary. It is unknown whether self-fulfilling prophecies affect intelligence or have an otherwise harmful effect. The cause of the effect may be because teachers' expectations of students are accurate, and not because they are self-fulfilling. Rosenthal had originally claimed the treatment group's IQ gain over time was "24.8 IQ points in excess of the gain shown by the controls," and that these gains were persistent and widespread, but several studies since the 1980s have failed to replicate these results. Instead, they have found only a very weak effect, and only in a very small minority (5 to 10%) of students. The marginal performance gains have also been found to "reset" after a period of just weeks. Students' views of teachers Teachers are also affected by the children in the classroom. Teachers reflect what is projected into them by their students. An experiment done by Jenkins and Deno (1969) submitted teachers to a classroom of children who had either been told to be attentive, or unattentive, to the teachers' lecture. They found that teachers who were in the attentive condition would rate their teaching skills as higher. Similar findings by Herrell (1971) suggested that when a teacher was preconditioned to classrooms as warm or cold, the teacher would start to gravitate towards their precondition. To further this concept, Klein (1971) did the same kind of study involving teachers still unaware of any precondition to the classroom but with the class full of confederates who were instructed to act differently during periods over the course of the lecture. "Klein reported that there was little difference between students' behaviors in the natural and the positive conditions." In a more observational study designed to remove the likes of the Hawthorne effect, Oppenlander (1969) studied the top and bottom 20% of students in the sixth grade from a school that tracks and organizes its students under such criteria. Application in the workplace The behavior a leader directs at an employee can affect employee behavior consistent with the leader's expectations. Leader expectations of an employee may alter leader behavior. For example, a leader may expect an employee to be engaged in learning activities and in turn, the employee may engage in more learning, consistent with the idea self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders have power over employees (including the power to fire an employee) and, thus, behavior change in employees may be the result of that power differential. Application in military settings The Pygmalion effect is further confirmed in military settings after its application in the workplace. Eden and Shani used instructors and trainees from Israeli Defense Force (IDF) training programs in 1982 to experiment with a military setting to verify the Pygmalion effect. They randomly chose a group of trainees and told the instructors that they had exceptional leadership potential. In turn, this group outperformed the control groups on four objective tests. This study was noteworthy since it used adult Israeli soldiers as a sample rather than the previous sample of the American child, inferring that the Pygmalion effect could be applied to different contexts rather than only the original classroom setting where it was originally noticed and replicated, confirming its generalisability. Application in nursing The Pygmalion effect has been noted in several non-educational contexts. For instance, in a nursing home, nurses were told that some patients would progress more quickly in their rehabilitation than others. These patients demonstrated lower levels of depression and required hospitalization less frequently than those with average expectations. The Pygmalion effect has also been discussed in relation to treating alcohol dependence since it was discovered that therapists who characterized their clients as "motivated" had a lower dropout rate than those who labeled them as "unmotivated". Gender limitations One significant constraint of the practical application of Pygmalion research is the unresolved issue of whether the Pygmalion effect operates uniformly across genders. Notably, studies conclude a lack of the Pygmalion effect for women. This suggests that, unlike their male colleagues, the higher standards for female leaders could only sometimes result in increased subordinate performance. Female subordinates have been utilized in many studies, which in turn failed to demonstrate a significant correlation between the Pygmalion effect. For instance, King's unpublished research in 1970 provided two examples of failed Pygmalion effect attempts that both primarily involved female subordinates. The Pygmalion effect was undetectable in Sutton and Woodman's research of female principal attendants in the retail industry. Ethical limitations The traditional Pygmalion practice entails deception, which may be considered unethical in actual organizational contexts. According to some researchers, it shouldn't be made a default practice in these real-life circumstances. Managers have to be deceived by their boss or staff personnel during the implementation of this manipulation. If the deception were revealed and revealed publicly, it could lead to a significant deterioration of trust within the workplace. See also Golem effect Law of attraction (New Thought) List of eponymous laws Matthew effect Placebo effect Positive feedback Sports psychology Stereotype threat Self-fulfilling prophecy Zone of proximal development References Further reading External links Pygmalion effect in banks, at school, and in the army Pygmalion Effect Video Cognitive biases	0.768347	0.997077	0.766101
Schneider's dynamic model	Edgar W. Schneider's dynamic model of postcolonial Englishes adopts an evolutionary perspective emphasizing language ecologies. It shows how language evolves as a process of 'competition-and-selection', and how certain linguistic features emerge. The Dynamic Model illustrates how the histories and ecologies will determine language structures in the different varieties of English, and how linguistic and social identities are maintained. Underlying principles Five underlying principles underscore the Dynamic Model: The closer the contact, or higher the degree of bilingualism or multilingualism in a community, the stronger the effects of contact. The structural effects of language contact depend on social conditions. Therefore, history will play an important part. Contact-induced changes can be achieved by a variety of mechanisms, from code-switching to code alternation to acquisition strategies. Language evolution, and the emergence of contact-induced varieties, can be regarded as speakers making selections from a pool of linguistic variants made available to them. Which features will be ultimately adopted depends on the complete “ecology” of the contact situation, including factors such as demography, social relationships, and surface similarities between languages etc. The Dynamic Model outlines five major stages of the evolution of world Englishes. These stages will take into account the perspectives of the two major parties of agents – settlers (STL) and indigenous residents (IDG). Each phase is defined by four parameters: Extralinguistic factors (e.g. historical events) Characteristic identity constructions for both parties Sociolinguistic determinants of contact setting Structural effects that emerge See also Bilingualism Identity (social science) Indigenous languages Language change Language contact World Englishes References Anglic languages Language contact Sociolinguistics Theories of language	0.785561	0.975139	0.766031
Conversation theory	Conversation theory is a cybernetic approach to the study of conversation, cognition and learning that may occur between two participants who are engaged in conversation with each other. It presents an experimental framework heavily utilizing human-computer interactions and computer theoretic models as a means to present a scientific theory explaining how conversational interactions lead to the emergence of knowledge between participants. The theory was developed by Gordon Pask, who credits Bernard Scott, Dionysius Kallikourdis, Robin McKinnon-Wood, and others during its initial development and implementation as well as Paul Pangaro during subsequent years. Overview Conversation theory may be described as a formal theory of conversational process, as well as a theoretical methodology concerned with concept-forming and concept-sharing between conversational participants. It may be viewed as a framework that may be used to examine learning and development through the means of conversational techniques by means of human-machine interactions; the results of which may then inform approaches to education, educational psychology, and epistemology. While the framework is interpretable as a psychological framework with educational applications (specifically, as a general framework to think about teaching and learning), Pask's motivation in developing the theory has been interpreted by some who closely worked with him develop upon certain theoretical concerns regarding the nature of cybernetic inquiry. The theory has been noted to have been influenced by a variety of psychological, pedagogical and philosophical influences such as Lev Vygotsky, R. D. Laing and George H. Mead. With some authors suggesting that the kind of human-machine learning interactions documented in conversation theory to be mirroring Vygotsky's descriptions of the zone of proximal development, and his descriptions of spontaneous and scientific concepts. The theory prioritizes learning and teaching approaches related to education. A central idea of the theory is that learning occurs through conversations: For if participant A is to be conscious with participant B of a topic of inquiry, both participants must be able to converse with each other about that topic. Because of this, participants engaging in a discussion about a subject matter make their knowledge claims explicit through the means of such conversational interactions. The theory is concerned with a variety of "psychological, linguistic, epistemological, social or non-commitally mental events of which there is awareness". Awareness in this sense is not of a person-specific type, i.e., it is not necessarily localized in a single participant. Instead, the type of awareness examined in conversation theory is the kind of joint awareness that may be shared between entities. While there is an acknowledgment of its similarities to phenomenology, the theory extends its analysis to examine cognitive processes. However, the concept of cognition is not viewed as merely being confined to an individual's brain or central nervous system. Instead, cognition may occur at the level of a group of people (leading to the emergence of social awareness), or may characterize certain types of computing machines. Initial results from the theory lead to a distinction in the type of learning strategies participants used during the learning process; whereby students in general gravitated towards holistic or serialist learning strategies (with the optimal mixture producing a versatile learning strategy). Conversation Following Hugh Dubberly and Paul Pangaro, a conversation in the context of conversation theory involves an exchange between two participants whereby each participant is contextualized as a learning system whose internal states are changed through the course of the conversation. What can be discussed through conversation, i.e., topics of discussion, are said to belong to a conversational domain. Conversation is distinguished from the mere exchange of information as seen in information theory, by the fact that utterances are interpreted within the context of a given perspective of such a learning system. Each participant's meanings and perceptions change during the course of a conversation, and each participant can agree to commit to act in certain ways during the conversation. In this way, conversation permits not only learning but also collaboration through participants coordinating themselves and designating their roles through the means of conversation. Since meanings are agreed during the course of a conversation, and since purported agreements can be illusory (whereby we think we have the same understanding of a given topic but in fact do not), an empirical approach to the study of conversation would require stable reference points during such conversational exchanges between peers so as to permit reproducible results. Using computer theoretical models of cognition, conversation theory can document these intervals of understanding that arise in the conversations between two participating individuals, such that the development of individual and collective understandings can be analyzed rigorously. In this way, Pask has been argued to have been an early pioneer in AI-based educational approaches: Having proposed that advances in computational media may enable conversational forms of interactions to take place between man and machine. Language The types of languages that conversation theory utilizes in its approach are distinguishable based on a language's role in relation to an experiment in which a conversation is examined as the subject of inquiry; thus, it follows that conversations can be conducted at different levels depending on the role a language has in relation to an experiment. The types of languages are as follows: Natural languages used for general discussions outside the experiment; object languages which are the subject of inquiry during an experiment, and finally a metalanguage which is used to talk about the design, management, and results on an experiment. A natural language is treated as an unrestricted language used between a source (say a participant) and an interrogator or analyst (say an experimenter). For this reason, it may be considered a language for general discussion in the context of conversation theory. An object language meanwhile, has some of the qualities of a natural language (which permits commands, questions, ostentation and predication), but is used in conversation theory specifically as the language studied during experiments. Finally, the metalanguage is an observational language used by an interrogator or analysis for describing the conversational system under observation, prescribing actions that are permitted within such a system, and posing parameters regarding what may be discussed during an experiment under observation. The object language differs from most formal languages, by virtue of being "a command and question language[,] not an assertoric language like [a] predicate calculus". Moreover, is a language primarily dealing with metaphors indicating material analogies and not on the kind of propositions dealing with truth or falsity values. Since conversation theory specifically focuses on learning and development within human subjects, the object language is separated into two distinct modes of conversing. Conversation theory conceptualises learning as being the result of two integrated levels of control: The first level of control is designated by and designates a set of problem-solving procedures which attempt to attain goals or subgoals, whereas the second level of control is designated as and denotes various constructive processes that have been acquired by a student through maturation, imprinting and previous learning. The object language then is demarcated in conversation theory based on these considerations, whereby it is split between and lines of inquiry such that an object language is the ordered pair of such discourse types . According to Bernard Scott, discourse of an object language may be conceptualized as the level of how, i.e., discourse that is concerned with "how to “do” a topic: how to recognize it, construct it, maintain it and so on". Meanwhile, discourse may be conceptualized as the level of why, i.e., it is discourse "concerned with explaining or justifying what a topic means in terms of other topics". Concepts A concept in conversation theory, is conceived of as the production, reproduction, and maintenance of a given topic relation from other topic relations , all belonging to a given conversational domain . This implies , where and are used to represent a number on a finite index of numbers. A concept must satisfy the twin condition that it must entail and be entailed by other topics. A concept in the context of conversation theory is not a class, nor description of a class, nor a stored description: Instead, a concept is specifically used to reconstruct, reproduce or stabilize relations. Thus, if is the head topic of discussion, then implies that the concept of that relation produces, reproduces, and maintains that relation. Now, a concept itself is considered to consist of the ordered pair containing a program and an interpretation: Whereby a program attempts to derive a given topic relation, while an interpretation refers to the compilation of that program. In other words, given a specific topic relation, a program attempts to derive that relation through a series of other topic relations, which are compiled in such a way as to derive the initial topic relation. A concept as defined above is considered to be a -procedure, which is embodied by an underlying processor called a -processor. In this way, Pask envisages concepts as mental organisations that hold a hypothesis and seek to test that hypothesis in order to confirm or deny its validity. This notion of a concept has been noted as formally resembling a TOTE cycle discussed by Miller, Galanter and Pribram. The contents and structure that a concept might have at a given interaction of its continuous deformation can be represented through an entailment structure. Such conceptual forms are said to be emergent through conversational interactions. They are encapsulated through entailment structures, which is a way by which we may visualize an organized and publicly available collection of resultant knowledge. Entailment structures may afford certain advantages compared to certain semantic network structures, as they force semantic relations to be expressed as belonging to coherent structures. The entailment structure is composed of a series of nodes and arrows representing a series of topic relations and the derivations of such topic relations. For example: In the above illustration, let , such that there are topic relations that are members of a set of topic relations. Each topic relation is represented by a node, and the entailment represented by the black arc. It follows that in the case above, such that the topics P and Q entail the topic of T. Assuming we use the same derivation process for all topics in above entailment structure, then we are let with the following product as illustrated above. This represents a minimal entailment mesh consisting of a triad of derivations: , , and . The solid arc indicates that a given head topic relation is derived from subordinate topics, whereas the arcs with dotted lines represent how the head topic may be used to derive other topics. Finally: Represents two solid arcs permitting alternative derivations of the topic T. This can be expressed as , which reads either the set containing P and Q, or the set containing R and S entail T. Lastly, a formal analogy is shown where two topics T and T''' belonging to two entailment meshes are demonstrated to have a one-to-one correspondence with each other. The diamond shape below denotes analogy relation that can be claimed to exist between any three topics of each entailment mesh. The relation of one topic T to another T by an analogy can also be seen as: Being based on an isomorphism , a semantic distinction between two individual universes on interpretation . Assuming an analogy holds for two topics in two distinct entailment meshes, then it should hold for all if the analogy is to be considered coherent and stable. Cognitive Reflector From conversation theory, Pask developed what he called a "Cognitive Reflector". This is a virtual machine for selecting and executing concepts or topics from an entailment mesh shared by at least a pair of participants. It features an external modelling facility on which agreement between, say, a teacher and pupil may be shown by reproducing public descriptions of behaviour. We see this in essay and report writing or the "practicals" of science teaching. Lp was Pask's protolanguage which produced operators like Ap which concurrently executes the concept, Con, of a Topic, T, to produce a Description, D. Thus:Ap(Con(T)) => D(T), where => stands for produces'. A succinct account of these operators is presented in Pask Amongst many insights he points out that three indexes are required for concurrent execution, two for parallel and one to designate a serial process. He subsumes this complexity by designating participants A, B, etc. In Commentary toward the end of Pask, he states: The form not the content of the theories (conversation theory and interactions of actors theory) return to and is congruent with the forms of physical theories; such as wave particle duality (the set theoretic unfoldment part of conversation theory is a radiation and its reception is the interpretation by the recipient of the descriptions so exchanged, and vice versa). The particle aspect is the recompilation by the listener of what a speaker is saying. Theories of many universes, one at least for each participant A and one to participant B- are bridged by analogy. As before this is the truth value of any interaction; the metaphor for which is culture itself. Learning strategies In order to facilitate learning, Pask argued that subject matter should be represented in the form of structures which show what is to be learned. These structures exist in a variety of different levels depending upon the extent of the relationships displayed. The critical method of learning according to Conversation Theory is "teachback" in which one person teaches another what they have learned. Pask identified two different types of learning strategies: Serialists – Progress through a structure in a sequential fashion Holists – Look for higher order relations The ideal is the versatile learner who is neither vacuous holist "globe trotter" nor serialist who knows little of the context of his work. In learning, the stage where one converges or evolves, many Cyberneticians describe the act of understanding as a closed-loop. Instead of simply “taking in” new information, one goes back to look at their understandings and pulls together information that was “triggered” and forms a new connection. This connection becomes tighter and one's understanding of a certain concept is solidified or “stable” (Pangaro, 2003). Furthermore, Gordon Pask emphasized that conflict is the basis for the notion of “calling for'' additional information (Pangaro, 1992). According to Entwistle, experiments which lead to the investigation of phenomenon later denoted by the term learning strategy came about through the implementation of a variety of learning tasks. Initially, this was done through utilising either CASTE, INTUITION, or the Clobbits pseudo-taxonomy. However, given issues resulting from either the time-consuming nature or operating experiments or inexactness of experimental conditions, new tests were created in the form of the Spy Ring History test and the Smuggler's test. The former test involved a participant having to learn the history of a fictitious spy ring (in other words, the history of a fictitious espionage network); the participant, having to learn about the history of five spies in three countries over the period of five years. The comprehension learning component of the test involved learning the similarities and differences between a set of networks; whereas the operation learning aspect of the test involved learning the role each spy played and what sequence of actions that spy played over a given year. While Entwistle noted difficulties regarding the length of such tests for groups of students who were engaged in the Spy Ring History test, the results of the test did seem to correspond with the type of learning strategies discussed. However, it has been noted that while Pask and associates work on learning styles has been influential in both the development of conceptual tools and methodology, the Spy Ring History test and Smuggler's test may have been biased towards STEM students than humanities in its implementation, with Entwistle arguing that the "rote learning of formulae and definitions, together with a positive reaction to solving puzzles and problems of a logical nature, are characteristics more commonly found in science than arts student". Applications One potential application of conversation theory that has been studied and developed is as an alternative approach to common types of search engine Information retrieval algorithms. Unlike PageRank-like algorithms, which determine the priority of a search result based on how many hyperlinks on the web link to them, conversation theory has been used to apply a discursive approach to web search requests.ThoughtShuffler is an attempt to build a search engine utilizing design principles from conversation theory: In this approach, terms that are input into a search request yield search results relating to other terms that derive or help provide context to the meaning of the first in a way that mimics derivations of topics in an entailment structure. For example, given the input of a search term, a neighbourhood of corresponding terms that comprise the meaning of the first term may be suggested for the user to explore. In doing this, the search engine interface highlights snippets of webpages corresponding to a neighbourhood terms that help provide meaning to the first. The aim of this design, is to provide just enough information for a user to become curious about a topic in order to induce the intention to explore other subtopics related to the main term input into the search engine. Gallery See also Conversational constraints theory Integrative learning Text and conversation theory Footnotes References Citation Sources Further reading Ranulph Glanville and Karl H. Muller (eds.), Gordon Pask, Philosopher Mechanic- An Introduction to the Cybernetician's Cybernetician edition echoraum 2007 Aleksej Heinze, Chris Procter, "Use of conversation theory to underpin blended learning", in: International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies (2007) – Vol. 1, No.1/2 pp. 108 – 120 W. R. Klemm, Software Issues for Applying Conversation Theory For Effective Collaboration Via the Internet, Manuscript 2002. Gordon Pask, Conversation, cognition and learning. New York: Elsevier, 1975. Gordon Pask, The Cybernetics of Human Learning and Performance, Hutchinson. 1975 Gordon Pask, Conversation Theory, Applications in Education and Epistemology, Elsevier, 1976. Gordon Pask, Heinz von Foerster's Self-Organisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories, 1996. Scott, B. (ed. and commentary) (2011). "Gordon Pask: The Cybernetics of Self-Organisation, Learning and Evolution Papers 1960-1972''" pp 648 Edition Echoraum (2011). External links PDFs of Pask's books and key papers at pangaro.com Conversation Theory – Gordon Pask overview from web.cortland.edu. Cybernetics And Conversation by Paul Pangaro, 1994–2000. Conversation Theory: Reasoning about significance and mutuality by Mike Martin and John Dobson, Conversation Theory developed by the cybernetician Gordon Pask by Yitzhak I. Hayut-Man ea, 1995. Educational psychology Oral communication Science and technology studies	0.786548	0.973881	0.766004
Leadership	Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the concept, sometimes contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also (within the West) North American versus European approaches. Some U.S. academic environments define leadership as "a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common and ethical task". In other words, leadership is an influential power-relationship in which the power of one party (the "leader") promotes movement/change in others (the "followers"). Some have challenged the more traditional managerial views of leadership (which portray leadership as something possessed or owned by one individual due to their role or authority), and instead advocate the complex nature of leadership which is found at all levels of institutions, both within formal and informal roles. Studies of leadership have produced theories involving (for example) traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, and intelligence, among others. Historical views The Chinese doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven postulated the need for rulers to govern justly, and the right of subordinates to overthrow emperors who appeared to lack divine sanction. Pro-aristocracy thinkers have postulated that leadership depends on one's "blue blood" or genes. Monarchy takes an extreme view of the same idea, and may prop up its assertions against the claims of mere aristocrats by invoking divine sanction (see the divine right of kings). On the other hand, more democratically inclined theorists have pointed to examples of meritocratic leaders, such as the Napoleonic marshals profiting from careers open to talent. In the autocratic/paternalistic strain of thought, traditionalists recall the role of leadership of the Roman . Feminist thinking, on the other hand, may object to such models as patriarchal and posit against them "emotionally attuned, responsive, and consensual empathetic guidance, which is sometimes associated with matriarchies". Machiavelli's The Prince, written in the early-16th century, provided a manual for rulers ("princes" or "tyrants" in Machiavelli's terminology) to gain and keep political power. Prior to the 19th century, the concept of leadership had less relevance than today—society expected and obtained traditional deference and obedience to lords, kings, master-craftsmen, and slave-masters. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word "leadership" in English only as far back as 1821. Historically, industrialization, opposition to the , and the phasing out of chattel slavery meant that some newly developing organizations (nation-state republics, commercial corporations) evolved a need for a new paradigm with which to characterize elected politicians and job-granting employers—thus the development and theorizing of the idea of "leadership". The functional relationship between leaders and followers may remain, but acceptable (perhaps euphemistic) terminology has changed. Starting in the 19th century, the elaboration of anarchist thought called the whole concept of leadership into question. One response to this denial of élitism came with Leninism—Lenin (1870–1924) demanded an élite group of disciplined cadres to act as the vanguard of a socialist revolution, which was to bring into existence the dictatorship of the proletariat. Other historical views of leadership have addressed the seeming contrasts between secular and religious leadership. The doctrines of Caesaro-papism have recurred and had their detractors over several centuries. Christian thinking on leadership has often emphasized stewardship of divinely-provided resources—human and material—and their deployment in accordance with a Divine plan. Compare this with servant leadership. For a more general view on leadership in politics, compare the concept of the statesperson. Theories Anecdotal and incidental observations aside, the serious discipline of theorising leadership began in the 19th century. Early Western history The search for the characteristics or traits of leaders has continued for centuries. Philosophical writings from Plato's Republic to Plutarch's Lives have explored the question "What qualities distinguish an individual as a leader?" Underlying this search was the early recognition of the importance of leadership and the assumption that leadership is rooted in the characteristics that certain individuals possess. This idea that leadership is based on individual attributes is known as the "trait theory of leadership". A number of works in the 19th century – when the traditional authority of monarchs, lords, and bishops had begun to wane – explored the trait theory at length: especially the writings of Thomas Carlyle and of Francis Galton. In Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), Carlyle identified the talents, skills, and physical characteristics of men who rose to power. Galton's Hereditary Genius (1869) examined leadership qualities in the families of powerful men. After showing that the numbers of eminent relatives dropped off when his focus moved from first-degree to second-degree relatives, Galton concluded that leadership was inherited. Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) believed that public-spirited leadership could be nurtured by identifying young people with "moral force of character and instincts to lead", and educating them in contexts (such as the collegiate environment of the University of Oxford) that further developed such characteristics. International networks of such leaders could help to promote international understanding and help "render war impossible". This vision of leadership underlay the creation of the Rhodes Scholarships, which have helped to shape notions of leadership since their creation in 1903. Rise of alternative theories In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a series of qualitative reviews prompted researchers to take a drastically different view of the driving forces behind leadership. In reviewing the extant literature, Stogdill and Mann found that while some traits were common across a number of studies, the overall evidence suggested that people who are leaders in one situation may not necessarily be leaders in other situations. Subsequently, leadership was no longer characterized as an enduring individual trait—situational approaches (see alternative leadership theories below) posited that individuals can be effective in certain situations, but not others. The focus then shifted away from traits of leaders to an investigation of the leader behaviors that were effective. This approach dominated much of the leadership theory and research for the next few decades. Reemergence of trait theory New methods and measurements were developed after these influential reviews that would ultimately reestablish trait theory as a viable approach to the study of leadership. For example, improvements in researchers' use of the round-robin research design methodology allowed researchers to see that individuals can and do emerge as leaders across a variety of situations and tasks. Additionally, during the 1980s statistical advances allowed researchers to conduct meta-analyses, in which they could quantitatively analyze and summarize the findings from a wide array of studies. This advent allowed trait theorists to create a comprehensive picture of previous leadership research rather than rely on the qualitative reviews of the past. Equipped with new methods, leadership researchers revealed the following: Individuals can and do emerge as leaders across a variety of situations and tasks. Significant relationships exist between leadership emergence and such individual traits as: Intelligence Adjustment Extraversion Conscientiousness Openness to experience General self-efficacy While the trait theory of leadership has certainly regained popularity, its reemergence has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in sophisticated conceptual frameworks. Specifically, Stephen Zaccaro noted that trait theories still: focus on a small set of individual attributes such as the "Big Five" personality traits, to the neglect of cognitive abilities, motives, values, social skills, expertise, and problem-solving skills fail to consider patterns or integrations of multiple attributes do not distinguish between the leadership attributes that are generally not malleable over time and those that are shaped by, and bound to, situational influences do not consider how stable leader attributes account for the behavioral diversity necessary for effective leadership Attribute pattern approach Considering the criticisms of the trait theory outlined above, several researchers adopted a different perspective of leader individual differences—the leader-attribute-pattern approach. In contrast to the traditional approach, the leader-attribute-pattern approach is based on theorists' arguments that the influence of individual characteristics on outcomes is best understood by considering the person as an integrated totality rather than a summation of individual variables. In other words, the leader-attribute-pattern approach argues that integrated constellations or combinations of individual differences may explain substantial variance in both leader emergence and leader effectiveness beyond that explained by single attributes, or by additive combinations of multiple attributes. Behavioral and style theories In response to the early criticisms of the trait approach, theorists began to research leadership as a set of behaviors by evaluating the behavior of successful leaders, determining a behavior taxonomy, and identifying broad leadership styles. David McClelland, for example, posited that leadership requires a strong personality with a well-developed positive ego. To lead, self-confidence and high self-esteem are useful, perhaps even essential. Kurt Lewin, Ronald Lipitt, and Ralph White developed in 1939 the seminal work on the influence of leadership styles and performance. The researchers evaluated the performance of groups of eleven-year-old boys under different types of work climate. In each, the leader exercised his influence regarding the type of group decision making, praise and criticism (feedback), and the management of the group tasks (project management) according to three styles: authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. In 1945, Ohio State University conducted a study which investigated observable behaviors portrayed by effective leaders. They identified particular behaviors that were reflective of leadership effectiveness. They narrowed their findings to two dimensions. The first dimension, "initiating structure", described how a leader clearly and accurately communicates with the followers, defines goals, and determines how tasks are performed. These are considered "task oriented" behaviors. The second dimension, "consideration", indicates the leader's ability to build an interpersonal relationship with their followers, and to establish a form of mutual trust. These are considered "social oriented" behaviors. The Michigan State Studies, which were conducted in the 1950s, made further investigations and findings that positively correlated behaviors and leadership effectiveness. Although they had similar findings as the Ohio State studies, they also contributed an additional behavior identified in leaders: participative behavior (also called "servant leadership"), or allowing the followers to participate in group decision making and encouraged subordinate input. This entails avoiding controlling types of leadership and allows more personal interactions between leaders and their subordinates. The managerial grid model is also based on a behavioral theory. The model was developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in 1964. It suggests five different leadership styles, based on the leaders' concern for people and their concern for goal achievement. Positive reinforcement B. F. Skinner is the father of behavior modification and developed the concept of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement occurs when a positive stimulus is presented in response to a behavior, which increases the likelihood of that behavior in the future. The following is an example of how positive reinforcement can be used in a business setting. Assume praise is a positive reinforcer for a particular employee. This employee does not show up to work on time every day. The manager decides to praise the employee for showing up on time every day the employee actually shows up to work on time. As a result, the employee comes to work on time more often because the employee likes to be praised. In this example, praise (the stimulus) is a positive reinforcer for this employee because the employee arrives at work on time (the behavior) more frequently after being praised for showing up to work on time. Positive reinforcement is a successful technique used by leaders to motivate and attain desired behaviors from subordinates. Organizations such as Frito-Lay, 3M, Goodrich, Michigan Bell, and Emery Air Freight have all used reinforcement to increase productivity. Empirical research covering the last 20 years suggests that applying reinforcement theory leads to a 17 percent increase in performance. Additionally, many reinforcement techniques such as the use of praise are inexpensive, providing higher performance for lower costs. Situational and contingency theories Situational theory is another reaction to the trait theory of leadership. Social scientists argued that history was more than the result of intervention of great men as Carlyle suggested. Herbert Spencer (1884) (and Karl Marx) said that the times produce the person and not the other way around. This theory assumes that different situations call for different characteristics: no single optimal psychographic profile of a leader exists. According to the theory, "what an individual actually does when acting as a leader is in large part dependent upon characteristics of the situation in which he functions." Some theorists synthesized the trait and situational approaches. Building upon the research of Lewin et al., academics normalized the descriptive models of leadership climates, defining three leadership styles and identifying which situations each style works better in. The authoritarian leadership style, for example, is approved in periods of crisis but fails to win the "hearts and minds" of followers in day-to-day management; the democratic leadership style is more adequate in situations that require consensus building; finally, the laissez-faire leadership style is appreciated for the degree of freedom it provides, but as the leaders do not "take charge", they can be perceived as a failure in protracted or thorny organizational problems. Theorists defined the style of leadership as contingent to the situation; this is sometimes called contingency theory. Three contingency leadership theories are the Fiedler contingency model, the Vroom-Yetton decision model, and the path-goal theory. The Fiedler contingency model bases the leader's effectiveness on what Fred Fiedler called situational contingency. This results from the interaction of leadership style and situational favorability (later called situational control). The theory defines two types of leader: those who tend to accomplish the task by developing good relationships with the group (relationship-oriented), and those who have as their prime concern carrying out the task itself (task-oriented). According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation. When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable situation". Fiedler found that task-oriented leaders are more effective in extremely favorable or unfavorable situations, whereas relationship-oriented leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favorability. Victor Vroom, in collaboration with Phillip Yetton and later with Arthur Jago, developed a taxonomy for describing leadership situations. They used this in a normative decision model in which leadership styles were connected to situational variables, defining which approach was more suitable to which situation. This approach supported the idea that a manager could rely on different group decision making approaches depending on the attributes of each situation. This model was later referred to as situational contingency theory. The path-goal theory of leadership was developed by Robert House and was based on the expectancy theory of Victor Vroom. According to House, "leaders, to be effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates' environments and abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to subordinate satisfaction and individual and work unit performance". The theory identifies four leader behaviors, achievement-oriented, directive, participative, and supportive, that are contingent to environment factors and follower characteristics. In contrast to the Fiedler contingency model, the path-goal model states that the four leadership behaviors are fluid, and that leaders can adopt any of the four depending on what the situation demands. The path-goal model can be classified both as a contingency theory, as it depends on the circumstances, and as a transactional leadership theory, as the theory emphasizes the reciprocity behavior between the leader and the followers. Functional theory Functional leadership theory addresses specific leader behaviors that contribute to organizational or unit effectiveness. This theory argues that the leader's main job is to see that whatever is necessary to group needs is taken care of; thus, a leader can be said to have done their job well when they have contributed to group effectiveness and cohesion. While functional leadership theory has most often been applied to team leadership, it has also been effectively applied to broader organizational leadership as well. In summarizing literature on functional leadership, researchers observed five broad functions a leader performs when promoting organization's effectiveness. These functions include environmental monitoring, organizing subordinate activities, teaching and coaching subordinates, motivating others, and intervening actively in the group's work. Various leadership behaviors facilitate these functions. In initial work identifying leader behavior, Fleishman observed that subordinates perceived their supervisors' behavior in terms of two broad categories referred to as consideration and initiating structure. Consideration includes behavior involved in fostering effective relationships. Examples of such behavior would include showing concern for a subordinate or acting in a supportive manner towards others. Initiating structure involves the actions of the leader focused specifically on task accomplishment. This could include role clarification, setting performance standards, and holding subordinates accountable to those standards. Integrated psychological theory The Integrated Psychological Theory of leadership attempts to integrate the strengths of the older theories (i.e. traits, behavioral/styles, situational and functional) while addressing their limitations, introducing a new element – the need for leaders to develop their leadership presence, attitude toward others, and behavioral flexibility by practicing psychological mastery. It also offers a foundation for leaders wanting to apply the philosophies of servant leadership and authentic leadership. Integrated psychological theory began to attract attention after the publication of James Scouller's Three Levels of Leadership model (2011). Scouller argued that older theories offered only limited assistance in developing a person's ability to lead effectively. He pointed out, for example, that: Traits theories, which tend to reinforce the idea that leaders are born not made, might help us select leaders, but they are less useful for developing leaders. An ideal style (e.g. Blake & Mouton's team style) would not suit all circumstances. Most of the situational/contingency and functional theories assume that leaders can change their behavior to meet differing circumstances or widen their behavioral range at will, when in practice many find it hard to do so because of unconscious beliefs, fears, or ingrained habits. Thus, he argued, leaders need to work on their inner psychology. None of the older theories successfully addressed the challenge of developing "leadership presence"—that certain "something" in leaders that commands attention, inspires people, wins their trust, and makes followers want to work with them. Scouller's model aims to summarize what leaders have to do, not only to bring leadership to their group or organization, but also to develop themselves technically and psychologically as leaders. The three levels in his model are public, private, and personal leadership: The first two—public and private leadership—are "outer" or behavioral levels. These behaviors address what Scouller called "the four dimensions of leadership". These dimensions are: (1) a shared, motivating group purpose; (2) action, progress and results; (3) collective unity or team spirit; and (4) individual selection and motivation. Public leadership focuses on the 34 behaviors involved in influencing two or more people simultaneously. Private leadership covers the 14 behaviors needed to influence individuals one-to-one. The third—personal leadership—is an "inner" level and concerns a person's growth toward greater leadership presence, know-how, and skill. Working on one's personal leadership has three aspects: (1) Technical know-how and skill, (2) Developing the right attitude toward other people, which is the basis of servant leadership, and (3) Psychological self-mastery, the foundation for authentic leadership. Scouller argued that self-mastery is the key to growing one's leadership presence, building trusting relationships with followers, and dissolving one's limiting beliefs and habits. This enables behavioral flexibility as circumstances change, while staying connected to one's core values (that is, while remaining authentic). To support leaders' development, he introduced a new model of the human psyche and outlined the principles and techniques of self-mastery, which include the practice of mindfulness meditation. Transactional and transformational theories Bernard Bass and colleagues developed the idea of two different types of leadership: transactional which involves exchange of labor for rewards, and transformational which is based on concern for employees, intellectual stimulation, and providing a group vision. The transactional leader is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team's performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct, and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level, and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached. Leader–member exchange theory Leader–member exchange (LMX) theory addresses a specific aspect of the leadership process, which evolved from an earlier theory called the vertical dyad linkage model. Both of these models focus on the interaction between leaders and individual followers. Similar to the transactional approach, this interaction is viewed as a fair exchange whereby the leader provides certain benefits such as task guidance, advice, support, and/or significant rewards and the followers reciprocate by giving the leader respect, cooperation, commitment to the task and good performance. However, LMX recognizes that leaders and individual followers will vary in the type of exchange that develops between them. LMX theorizes that the type of exchanges between the leader and specific followers can lead to the creation of in-groups and out-groups. In-group members are said to have high-quality exchanges with the leader, while out-group members have low-quality exchanges with the leader. In-group members In-group members are perceived by the leader as being more experienced, competent, and willing to assume responsibility than other followers. The leader begins to rely on these individuals to help with especially challenging tasks. If the follower responds well, the leader rewards him/her with extra coaching, favorable job assignments, and developmental experiences. If the follower shows high commitment and effort followed by additional rewards, both parties develop mutual trust, influence, and support of one another. Research shows the in-group members usually receive higher performance evaluations from the leader, higher satisfaction, and faster promotions than out-group members. In-group members are also likely to build stronger bonds with their leaders by sharing the same social backgrounds and interests. Out-group members Out-group members often receive less time and more distant exchanges than their in-group counterparts. With out-group members, leaders expect no more than adequate job performance, good attendance, reasonable respect, and adherence to the job description in exchange for a fair wage and standard benefits. The leader spends less time with out-group members, they have fewer developmental experiences, and the leader tends to emphasize his/her formal authority to obtain compliance to leader requests. Research shows that out-group members are less satisfied with their job and organization, receive lower performance evaluations from the leader, see their leader as less fair, and are more likely to file grievances or leave the organization. Emotions Leadership can be an emotion-laden process, with emotions entwined with the social influence process. A leader's mood affects his/her group. These effects can be described in three levels: The mood of individual group members Members of groups whose leaders are in a positive mood experience more positive mood than do group members with leaders in a negative mood. Leaders transmit their moods to other group members through the mechanism of emotional contagion. Mood contagion may be one of the psychological mechanisms by which charismatic leaders influence followers. The affective tone of the group Group affective tone represents the consistent or homogeneous affective reactions within a group. Group affective tone is an aggregate of the moods of the individual members of the group and refers to mood at the group level of analysis. Groups with leaders in a positive mood have a more positive affective tone than do groups with leaders in a negative mood. Group processes like coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy Public expressions of mood impact how group members think and act. When people experience and express mood, they send signals to others. Leaders signal their goals, intentions, and attitudes through their expressions of moods. For example, expressions of positive moods by leaders signal that leaders deem progress toward goals to be good. The group members respond to those signals cognitively and behaviorally in ways that are reflected in the group processes. In research about client service, it was found that expressions of positive mood by the leader improve the performance of the group, although in other sectors there were other findings. Beyond the leader's mood, her/his behavior is a source for employee positive and negative emotions at work. The leader's behavior creates situations and events that lead to emotional response, for example by giving feedback, allocating tasks, and distributing resources. Since employee behavior and productivity are affected by their emotional states, it is imperative to consider employee emotional responses to organizational leaders. Emotional intelligence—the ability to understand and manage moods and emotions in the self and others—contributes to effective leadership within organizations. Neo-emergent theory The neo-emergent leadership theory (from the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme) sees leadership as an impression formed through the communication of information by the leader or by other stakeholders, not through the actions of the leader. In other words, the reproduction of information or stories form the basis of the perception of leadership by the majority. It is well known by historians that the naval hero Lord Nelson often wrote his own versions of battles he was involved in, so that when he arrived home in England, he would receive a true hero's welcome. In modern society, various media outlets, including the press and blogs, present their own interpretations of leaders. These depictions can stem from actual circumstances, but they might also arise from political influences, monetary incentives, or the personal agendas of the author, media, or leader. Consequently, the impression of leaders is often constructed and may not accurately mirror their genuine leadership attributes. This highlights the historical role of concepts like royal lineage, which once stood as a substitute for evaluating or comprehending adept governance abilities. Constructivist analysis Some constructivists question whether leadership exists, or suggest that (for example) leadership "is a myth equivalent to a belief in UFOs". Leadership emergence Leadership emergence is the idea that people born with specific characteristics become leaders, and those without these characteristics do not become leaders. Many personality characteristics are reliably associated with leadership emergence. The list includes, but is not limited to: assertiveness, authenticity, Big Five personality factors, birth order, character strengths, dominance, emotional intelligence, gender identity, intelligence, narcissism, self-efficacy for leadership, self-monitoring, and social motivation. Other areas of study in relation to how and why leaders emerge include narcissistic traits, absentee leaders, and participation. Today's sophisticated research methods look at personality characteristics in combination to determine patterns of leadership emergence. Leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela share traits that an average person does not. Research indicates that up to 30% of leader emergence has a genetic basis. No research has found a “leadership gene”; instead we inherit certain traits that might influence our decision to seek leadership. Anecdotal and empirical evidence support a stable relationship between specific traits and leadership behavior. Using a large international sample researchers found three factors that motivate leaders: affective identity (enjoyment of leading), non-calculative (leading earns reinforcement), and social-normative (sense of obligation). Assertiveness The relationship between assertiveness and leadership emergence is curvilinear: individuals who are either low in assertiveness or very high in assertiveness are less likely to be identified as leaders. Authenticity Individuals who are more aware of their personality qualities, including their values and beliefs, and are less biased when processing self-relevant information, are more likely to be accepted as leaders. Big Five personality factors Those who emerge as leaders tend to be more extroverted, conscientious, emotionally stable, and open to experience, although these tendencies are stronger in laboratory studies of leaderless groups. However, introversion–extroversion appears to be the most influential quality in leadership emergence; specifically, leaders tend to be high in extroversion. Introversion–extroversion is also the quality that can be judged most easily among those in the Big Five Traits. Agreeableness, the last factor of the Big Five personality traits, does not seem to play any meaningful role in leadership emergence. Birth order Those born first in their families, and only children, are hypothesized to be more driven to seek leadership and control in social settings. Middle-born children tend to accept follower roles in groups, and later-borns are thought to be rebellious and creative. Character strengths Those seeking leadership positions in a military organization had elevated scores on a number of indicators of strength of character, including honesty, hope, bravery, industry, and teamwork. Dominance Individuals with dominant personalities (they describe themselves as high in the desire to control their environment and influence other people, and are likely to express their opinions in a forceful way) are more likely to act as leaders in small-group situations. Emotional intelligence Individuals with high emotional intelligence have increased ability to understand and relate to people. They have skills in communicating and decoding emotions and they deal with others wisely and effectively. Such people communicate their ideas in more robust ways, are better able to read the politics of a situation, are less likely to lose control of their emotions, are less likely to be inappropriately angry or critical, and in consequence are more likely to emerge as leaders. Intelligence Individuals with higher intelligence exhibit superior judgement, higher verbal skills (both written and oral), quicker learning and acquisition of knowledge, and are more likely to emerge as leaders. Correlation between IQ and leadership emergence was found to be between .25 and .30. However, groups generally prefer leaders that do not exceed in intelligence the prowess of average member by a wide margin, as they fear that high intelligence may be translated to differences in communication, trust, interests, and values Self-efficacy for leadership An individual's belief in their ability to lead is associated with an increased willingness to accept a leadership role and find success in its pursuit. There are no set conditions for this characteristic to become emergent. However, it must be sustained by an individual's belief that they have the ability to learn and improve it with time. Individuals partly evaluate their own capabilities by observing others; working with a superior who is seen as an effective leader may help the individual develop a belief that he or she can perform in a similar manner. Self-monitoring Individuals who closely manage and adjust their behavior based on the social context, often referred to as high self-monitors, have a greater tendency to assume leadership roles within a group. This propensity is attributed to their heightened interest in elevating their status and their readiness to conform their actions to match the requirements of the given situation. Social motivation People who exhibit both a drive for achievement and a desire for social connections tend to participate actively in group-based efforts to solve problems. Additionally, they have a higher likelihood of being chosen as leaders within these groups. Narcissism, hubris and other negative traits A number of negative traits of leadership have also been studied. Individuals who take on leadership roles in turbulent situations, such as groups facing a threat or ones in which status is determined by intense competition among rivals within the group, tend to be narcissistic: arrogant, self-absorbed, hostile, and very self-confident. Absentee leader Existing research has shown that absentee leaders—those who rise into power, but not necessarily because of their skills, and who are marginally engaging with their role—are actually worse than destructive leaders, because it takes longer to pinpoint their mistakes. Willingness to Participate A willingness to participate in a group can indicate a person's interest as well as their willingness to take responsibility for how the group performs. Those who do not say much during a group meeting are less likely to emerge as a leader than those who speak up. There is however some debate over whether the quality of participation in a group matters more than the quantity. A hypothesis termed the ‘babble effect’ or the ‘babble hypothesis’ has been studied as a factor in the emergence of leaders. It posits that leader emergence is highly correlated with the quantity of speaking time—specifically, those who speak a lot in a group setting are more likely to become a group leader. The quantity of participation is more important that the quality of these contributions when it comes to leader emergence. However, some studies indicate that there must be some element of quality combined with quantity to support leader emergence. Thus, while sheer quantity does matter to leadership, when the contributions made are also of high-quality leader emergence is further facilitated. Leadership styles A leadership style is a leader's way of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. It is the result of the philosophy, personality, and experience of the leader. Rhetoric specialists have also developed models for understanding leadership. Different situations call for different leadership styles. In an emergency when there is little time to converge on an agreement and where a designated authority has significantly more experience or expertise than the rest of the team, an autocratic leadership style may be most effective; however, in a highly motivated and aligned team with a homogeneous level of expertise, a more democratic or laissez-faire style may be more effective. The best style is one that most effectively achieves the objectives of the group while balancing the interests of its individual members. A field in which leadership style has gained attention is that of military science, which expresses a holistic and integrated view of leadership, including how a leader's physical presence determines how others perceive that leader. The factors of physical presence are military bearing, physical fitness, confidence, and resilience. The leader's intellectual capacity helps to conceptualize solutions and acquire knowledge to do the job. A leader's conceptual abilities apply agility, judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and domain knowledge. Domain knowledge for leaders encompasses tactical and technical knowledge as well as cultural and geopolitical awareness. Autocratic or authoritarian Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictators. Autocratic leaders do not ask for or entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates. Autocratic management can be been successful as it provides strong motivation to the manager. It permits quick decision-making, as only one person decides for the whole group and keeps each decision to him/herself until he/she feels it needs to be shared with the rest of the group. Participative or democratic The democratic or participative leadership style involves the leader actively sharing decision-making responsibilities with group members. This approach emphasizes collaboration and values the input of all team members, fostering a sense of ownership and inclusivity within the group. By promoting the interests and well-being of the team, democratic leaders encourage open communication and social equality. This style, also known as shared leadershipdistributes authority and decision-making power among all members rather than centralizing it with the leader alone. This method enhances team morale and engagement and leverages diverse perspectives to drive more well-rounded and informed decisions. Laissez-faire or free-rein leadership In laissez-faire or free-rein leadership, decision-making is passed on to the subordinates. (The phrase is French and literally means "let them do"). Subordinates are given the right and power to make decisions to establish goals and work out the problems or hurdles, and are given a high degree of independence and freedom to formulate their own objectives and ways to achieve them.. Task-oriented Task-oriented leadership is a style characterized by a leader's concentration on the necessary tasks to achieve specific production objectives. Leaders following this approach emphasize the creation of systematic solutions for given problems or goals, ensuring strict adherence to deadlines, and achieving targeted outcomes. Unlike leaders who prioritize accommodating group members, those with a task-oriented approach concentrate on obtaining precise solutions to fulfill production aims. Consequently, they are skilled at ensuring timely goal attainment, although the well-being of their group members might be compromised. These leaders maintain an unwavering focus on both the overall goal and the assigned tasks for each team member. Relationship-oriented Relationship-oriented leadership is a style in which the leader focuses on the relationships amongst the group and is generally more concerned with the overall well-being and satisfaction of group members. Relationship-oriented leaders emphasize communication within the group, show trust and confidence in group members, and show appreciation for work done. Relationship-oriented leaders are focused on developing the team and the relationships in it. The positives to having this kind of environment are that team members are more motivated and have support. However, the emphasis on relations as opposed to getting a job done might make productivity suffer. Paternalism Paternalism leadership styles often reflect a father-figure mindset. The structure of team is organized hierarchically where the leader is viewed above the followers. The leader also provides both professional and personal direction in the lives of the members. Members' choices are limited due to the rigid direction given by the leader. The term paternalism is from the Latin meaning "father". The leader is most often a male. This leadership style is often found in Russia, Africa, and Pacific Asian Societies. Servant leadership With the transformation into a knowledge society, the concept of servant leadership has become more popular, notably through modern technology management styles such as Agile. In this style, the leadership is externalized from the leader who serves as a guardian of the methodology and a "servant" or service provider to the team they lead. The cohesion and common direction of the team is dictated by a common culture, common goals and sometimes a specific methodology. This style is different from the laissez-faire in that the leader constantly works towards reaching the common goals as a team, but without giving explicit directions on tasks. Transactional and Transformational Leadership Transactional leadership refers to an exchange relationship between a leader and followers in which they both strive to meet their own self-interests. The term transactional leadership was introduced by Weber in 1947. There are several forms of transactional leadership, the first being contingent reward, in which the leader outlines what the follower must do to be rewarded for the effort. The second form of transactional leadership is management-by-exception, in which the leader monitors performance of the follower and takes corrective action if standards are not met. Finally transactional leaders may be laissez-faire, avoiding taking any action at all. Transformational leadership refers to a leader who moves beyond immediate self interests using idealized influence (charisma), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation (creativity), or individualized consideration. Idealized influence and inspirational motivation are when a leader is able to envision and communicate a mutually desirable future state. Intellectual stimulation is when a leader helps their followers to become more creative and innovative. Individualized consideration is when a leader pays attention to the developmental needs of their followers, supporting and coaching them. A transformational leader is one who lead others to lead themselves. Leadership differences affected by gender Another factor that affects leadership style is whether the leader is male or female. When men and women come together in groups, they tend to adopt different leadership styles. Men generally assume an agentic leadership style. They are task-oriented, active, decision focused, independent, and goal oriented. Women, on the other hand, are generally more communal when they assume a leadership position; they strive to be helpful towards others, warm in relation to others, understanding, and mindful of others' feelings. In general, when women are asked to describe themselves to others in newly formed groups, they emphasize their open, fair, responsible, and pleasant communal qualities. They give advice, offer assurances, and manage conflicts in an attempt to maintain positive relationships among group members. Women connect more positively to group members by smiling, maintaining eye contact, and responding tactfully to others' comments. Men, conversely, describe themselves as influential, powerful, and proficient at the task that needs to be done. They tend to place more focus on initiating structure within the group, setting standards and objectives, identifying roles, defining responsibilities and standard operating procedures, proposing solutions to problems, monitoring compliance with procedures, and emphasizing the need for productivity and efficiency in the work that needs to be done. As leaders, men are primarily task-oriented, but women tend to be both task- and relationship-oriented. However, these sex differences are only tendencies, and do not manifest themselves within men and women across all groups and situations. Meta-analyses show that people associate masculinity and agency more strongly with leadership than femininity and communion. Such stereotypes may have an effect on leadership evaluations of men and women. Psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic proposes that incompetent men are disproportionately promoted into leadership positions because instead of testing rigorously for competence, employers are attracted to confidence, charisma, and narcissism. He points out that even as most bosses are men, most employees dislike them and often quit jobs because of them, and many political and business leaders are disliked and demonstrably fail. Chamorro-Premuzic advocates that instead of teaching women to be more like men, people of both genders should be educated in and selected for leadership on the basis of traits that evidence shows make good leaders, including emotional intelligence, calmness, resilience, self-awareness, and humility. Barriers for non-western female leaders Many things contribute to barriers to women's entrance into leadership. These barriers also differ among cultures. Despite the increasing number of female leaders in the world, only a small fraction come from non-westernized cultures. Although the barriers listed below may be more severe in non-western cultures, this does not imply that westernized cultures do not have these barriers as well. These subsections aim to compare the differences between the two: Research and Literature Although there have been many studies done on leadership in women, comparatively little research has been done on women in paternalistic cultures. The literature and research done on women emerging as leaders in a society that prefers men is lacking. This hinders women from knowing how to reach their leadership goals, and fails to educate men about this disparity. Maternity Leave Studies have shown the importance of longer paid maternity leave and the positive effects it has on a female employee's mental health and return to work. In Sweden, it was shown that the increased flexibility in timing for mothers to return to work decreased the odds of poor mental health reports. In non-western cultures that mostly follow paternalism, lack of knowledge on the benefits of maternity leave impacts the support given to the women during an important time in their life. Society and Laws Countries that follow paternalism, such as India, allow for women to be treated unjustly. Issues such as child marriage and minor punishments for perpetrators in crimes against women shape society's view on how women should be treated. This can prevent women from feeling comfortable speaking out in personal and professional settings. Glass Ceilings and Glass Cliffs Women who work in a very paternalistic culture or industry (e.g. the oil or engineering industry), often deal with limitations in their careers that prevent them from advancing into leadership positions. This may be due to a mentality that insists only males carry leadership characteristics. The term glass cliff refers to undesired projects that are often given to women because they have an increased risk of failure. These undesired projects are given to female employees where they are more likely to fail and leave the organization. Performance Some researchers argued that the influence of leaders on organizational outcomes is overrated and romanticized as a result of biased attributions about leaders. Despite these assertions, however, it is largely recognized and accepted by practitioners and researchers that leadership is important, and research supports the notion that leaders do contribute to key organizational outcomes. To facilitate successful leadership performance it is important to understand and accurately measure it. Job performance generally refers to behavior that contributes to organizational success. Campbell identified a number of specific types of performance dimensions; leadership was one of them. There is no consistent, overall definition of leadership performance. Many distinct conceptualizations are often lumped together under the umbrella of leadership performance. "Leadership performance" may refer to the career success of the individual leader, performance of the group or organization, or even leader emergence. Each of these measures can be considered conceptually distinct. While they may be related, they are different outcomes and their inclusion should depend on the applied or research focus. A toxic leader is someone who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization, and who abuses the leader-follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a worse-off condition than when he/she joined it. Measuring leadership Measuring leadership has proven difficult and complex—even impossible. Attempts to assess leadership performance via group performance bring in multifarious different factors. Different perceptions of leadership itself may lead to differing measuring methods. Nevertheless, leadership theoreticians have proven perversely reluctant to abandon the vague subjective qualitative popular concept of "leaders". Traits Most theories in the 20th century argued that great leaders were born, not made. Later studies indicated that leadership is more complex and cannot be boiled down to a few key traits of an individual: One such trait or set of traits does not make an extraordinary leader. Scholars have found leadership traits of an individual that do not change from situation to situation—traits such as intelligence, assertiveness, or physical attractiveness. However, each key trait may be applied to situations differently, depending on the circumstances. Determination and drive include traits such as initiative, energy, assertiveness, perseverance, and sometimes dominance. People with these traits wholeheartedly pursue their goals, work long hours, are ambitious, and often are very competitive. Cognitive capacity includes intelligence, analytical and verbal ability, behavioral flexibility, and good judgment. Individuals with these traits can formulate solutions to difficult problems, work well under stress or deadlines, adapt to changing situations, and create well-thought-out plans for the future. Steve Jobs and Abraham Lincoln had the traits of determination and drive as well as possessing cognitive capacity, demonstrated by their ability to adapt to their continuously changing environments. Self-confidence encompasses the traits of high self-esteem, assertiveness, emotional stability, and self-assurance. Leaders who are self-confident do not doubt themselves or their abilities and decisions. They also can project this self-confidence onto others, building their trust and commitment. Integrity is demonstrated in leaders who are truthful, trustworthy, principled, consistent, dependable, loyal, and not deceptive. Leaders with integrity often share these values with their followers, as this trait is mainly an ethics issue. These leaders keep their word and are honest and open with their cohorts. Sociability describes leaders who are friendly, extroverted, tactful, flexible, and interpersonally competent. Such a trait enables leaders to be accepted by the public, use diplomatic measures to solve issues, and adapt their social persona to the situation at hand. Mother Teresa was an exceptional example who embodied integrity, assertiveness, and social abilities in her diplomatic dealings with the leaders of the world. Few great leaders encompass all of the traits listed above, but many have the ability to apply a number of them to succeed. Ontological-phenomenological model Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen, Steve Zaffron, and Kari Granger described leadership as "an exercise in language that results in the realization of a future that was not going to happen anyway, which future fulfills (or contributes to fulfilling) the concerns of the relevant parties." In this definition leadership concerns the future and includes the fundamental concerns of the relevant parties. This differs from relating to the relevant parties as "followers" and calling up an image of a single leader with others following. Rather, a future that fulfills the fundamental concerns of the relevant parties indicates the future that was not going to happen is not the "idea of the leader", but rather is what emerges from digging deep to find the underlying concerns of those who are impacted by the leadership. Contexts Organizations An organization that is established as an instrument or as a means for achieving defined objectives has been referred to by sociologists as a formal organization. Its design specifies how goals are subdivided and this is reflected in subdivisions of the organization. Divisions, departments, sections, positions, jobs, and tasks make up this work structure. The formal organization is expected to behave impersonally in regard to relationships with clients or with its members. According to Weber's model, entry and subsequent advancement is by merit or seniority. Employees receive a salary and enjoy a degree of tenure that safeguards them from the arbitrary influence of superiors or of powerful clients. The higher one's position in the hierarchy, the greater one's presumed expertise in adjudicating problems that may arise in the course of the work carried out at lower levels of the organization. This bureaucratic structure forms the basis for the appointment of heads or chiefs of administrative subdivisions in the organization and endows them with the authority attached to their position. In contrast to the appointed head or chief of an administrative unit, a leader emerges within the context of the informal organization that underlies the formal structure. The informal organization expresses the personal objectives and goals of the individual membership. Their objectives and goals may or may not coincide with those of the formal organization. The informal organization represents an extension of the social structures that generally characterize human life—the spontaneous emergence of groups and organizations as ends in themselves. In prehistoric times, humanity was preoccupied with personal security, maintenance, protection, and survival. Now humanity spends a major portion of its waking hours working for organizations. The need to identify with a community that provides security, protection, maintenance, and a feeling of belonging has continued unchanged from prehistoric times. This need is met by the informal organization and its emergent, or unofficial, leaders. Leaders emerge from within the structure of the informal organization. Their personal qualities, the demands of the situation, or a combination of these and other factors attract followers who accept their leadership within one or several overlay structures. Instead of the authority of position held by an appointed head or chief, the emergent leader wields influence or power. Influence is the ability of a person to gain co-operation from others by means of persuasion or control over rewards. Power is a stronger form of influence because it reflects a person's ability to enforce action through the control of a means of punishment. A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards a specific result. In this scenario, leadership is not dependent on title or formal authority. Ogbonnia defines an effective leader "as an individual with the capacity to consistently succeed in a given condition and be viewed as meeting the expectations of an organization or society". John Hoyle argues that leaders are recognized by their capacity for caring for others, clear communication, and a commitment to persist. A person who is appointed to a managerial position has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of their position. However, they must possess adequate personal attributes to match this authority, because authority is only potentially available to them. In the absence of sufficient personal competence, a manager may be confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge her/his role in the organization and reduce it to that of a figurehead. However, only authority of position has the backing of formal sanctions. It follows that whoever wields personal influence and power can legitimize this only by gaining a formal position in a hierarchy, with commensurate authority. Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Every organization needs leaders at every level. Management The terms "management" and "leadership" have, in the organizational context, been used both as synonyms and with clearly differentiated meanings. However Bennis and Nanus were clear in their distinction in their frequently quoted phrase "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing". Debate is common about whether the use of these terms should be restricted, and reflects an awareness of the distinction made by Burns between "transactional" leadership (characterized by emphasis on procedures, contingent reward, and management by exception) and "transformational" leadership (characterized by charisma, personal relationships, and creativity). The role of leader is one in which one can try to deal with trust issues and issues derived from lacking trust. Group In contrast to individual leadership, some organizations have adopted group leadership. In this so-called shared leadership, more than one person provides direction to the group as a whole. It is furthermore characterized by shared responsibility, cooperation, and mutual influence among team members. Some organizations have taken this approach in hopes of increasing creativity, reducing costs, or downsizing. Others may see the traditional leadership of a boss as costing too much in team performance. In some situations, the team members best able to handle any given phase of the project become the temporary leaders. Additionally, as each team member has the opportunity to experience the elevated level of empowerment, it energizes staff and feeds the cycle of success. Leaders who demonstrate persistence, tenacity, determination, and synergistic communication skills will bring out the same qualities in their groups. Good leaders use their own to energize their team and organizations and lead a team to achieve success. According to the National School Boards Association (U.S.A.), these group leaderships or leadership teams have these specific characteristics: Characteristics of a Team There must be an awareness of unity on the part of all its members. There must be interpersonal relationship. Members must have a chance to contribute, and to learn from and work with others. The members must have the ability to act together toward a common goal. Ten characteristics of well-functioning teams Purpose: Members proudly share a sense of why the team exists and are invested in accomplishing its mission and goals. Priorities: Members know what needs to be done next, by whom, and by when to achieve team goals. Roles: Members know their roles in getting tasks done and when to allow a more skillful member to do a certain task. Decisions: Authority and decision-making lines are clearly understood. Conflict: Conflict is dealt with openly and is considered important to decision-making and personal growth. Personal traits: Members feel their unique personalities are appreciated and well utilized. Norms: Group norms for working together are set and seen as standards for every one in the groups. Effectiveness: Members find team meetings efficient and productive and look forward to this time together. Success: Members know clearly when the team has met with success and share in this equally and proudly. Training: Opportunities for feedback and updating skills are provided and taken advantage of by team members. Self-leadership Self-leadership is a process that occurs within an individual. Self-leadership is having a developed sense of who you are, what you can achieve, and what are your goals are, coupled with the ability to affect your emotions, behaviors, and communication. At the center of leadership is the person who is motivated to make the difference. Self-leadership is a way toward more effectively leading other people. Biology and evolution of leadership Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja in Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership present cases of leadership in non-human animals, from ants and bees to baboons and chimpanzees. They suggest that leadership has a long evolutionary history and that the same mechanisms underpinning leadership in humans appear in other social species, too. They also suggest that the evolutionary origins of leadership differ from those of dominance. In one study, van Vugt and his team looked at the relation between basal testosterone and leadership versus dominance. They found that testosterone correlates with dominance but not with leadership. This was replicated in a sample of managers in which there was no relation between hierarchical position and testosterone level. Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, in Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, present evidence that only humans and chimpanzees, among all the animals living on Earth, share a similar tendency for a cluster of behaviors: violence, territoriality, and competition for uniting behind the one chief male of the land. This position is contentious. Many animals apart from apes are territorial, compete, exhibit violence, and have a social structure controlled by a dominant male (lions, wolves, etc.), suggesting Wrangham and Peterson's evidence is not empirical. However, we must examine other species as well, including elephants (which are matriarchal and follow an alpha female), meerkats (which are likewise matriarchal), sheep (which "follow" in some sense castrated bellwethers), and many others. By comparison, bonobos, the second-closest species-relatives of humans, do not unite behind the chief male of the land. Bonobos show deference to an alpha or top-ranking female that, with the support of her coalition of other females, can prove as strong as the strongest male. Thus, if leadership amounts to getting the greatest number of followers, then among the bonobos, a female almost always exerts the strongest and most effective leadership. (Incidentally, not all scientists agree on the allegedly peaceful nature of the bonobo or with its reputation as a "hippie chimp".) Myths Leadership has been described as one of the least understood concepts across all cultures and civilizations. Many researchers have stressed the prevalence of this misunderstanding, stating that several flawed assumptions, or myths, concerning leadership interfere with people's conception of what leadership is about. Leadership is innate According to some, leadership is determined by distinctive dispositional characteristics present at birth (e.g., extraversion, intelligence, or ingenuity). However, evidence shows that leadership also develops through hard work and careful observation. Thus, effective leadership can result from nature (i.e., innate talents) as well as nurture (i.e., acquired skills). Leadership is possessing power over others Although leadership is certainly a form of power, it is not demarcated by power over people. Rather, it is a power with people that exists as a reciprocal relationship between a leader and his/her followers. Despite popular belief, the use of manipulation, coercion, and domination to influence others is not a requirement for leadership. People who seek group consent and strive to act in the best interests of others can also become effective leaders. Leaders are positively influential The validity of the assertion that groups flourish when guided by effective leaders can be illustrated using several examples. For instance, the bystander effect (failure to respond or offer assistance) that tends to develop within groups faced with an emergency is significantly reduced in groups guided by a leader. Moreover, group performance, creativity, and efficiency all tend to climb in businesses with designated managers or CEOs. The difference leaders make is not always positive in nature. Leaders sometimes focus on fulfilling their own agendas at the expense of others, including their own followers. Leaders who focus on personal gain by employing stringent and manipulative leadership styles often make a difference, but usually do so through negative means. Leaders entirely control group outcomes In Western cultures it is generally assumed that group leaders make all the difference when it comes to group influence and overall goal-attainment. This view relates to reverence for leadership per se or for "heroic charismatic leadership" - a "cult of leadership" in the abstract (as distinct from the cult of a given leader/leadership-group or from some individual-oriented cult of personality). This romanticized view of leadership—the tendency to overestimate the degree of control leaders have over their groups and their groups' outcomes—ignores the existence of many other factors that influence group dynamics. For example, group cohesion, communication patterns, individual personality traits, group context, the nature or orientation of the work, as well as behavioral norms and established standards influence group functionality. For this reason, it is unwarranted to assume that all leaders are in complete control of their groups' achievements. All groups have a designated leader Not all groups need have a designated leader. Groups that are primarily composed of women, are limited in size, are free from stressful decision-making, or only exist for a short period of time (e.g., student work groups; pub quiz/trivia teams) often undergo a diffusion of responsibility, in which leadership tasks and roles are shared amongst members. Group members resist leaders Group members' dependence on group leaders can lead to reduced self-reliance and overall group strength. Most people prefer to be led than to be without a leader. This "need for a leader" becomes especially strong in troubled groups that are experiencing some sort of conflict. Group members tend to be more contented and productive when they have a leader to guide them. Although individuals filling leadership roles can be a direct source of resentment for followers, most people appreciate the contributions that leaders make to their groups and consequently welcome the guidance of a leader. Action-oriented environments One approach to team leadership examines action-oriented environments, where effective functional leadership is required to achieve critical or reactive tasks by small teams deployed into the field. Some examples of action-oriented leadership include extinguishing a rural fire, locating a missing person, leading a team on an outdoor expedition, or rescuing a person from a potentially hazardous environment. Leadership of small groups is often created to respond to a situation or critical incident. In most cases, these teams are tasked to operate in remote and changeable environments with limited support or backup ("action environments"). Leadership of people in these environments requires a different set of skills to that of leaders in front-line management. These leaders must effectively operate remotely and negotiate the needs of the individual, team, and task within a changeable environment. Other examples include modern technology deployments of small/medium-sized IT teams into client plant sites. Leadership of these teams requires hands-on experience and a lead-by-example attitude to empower team members to make well thought-out and concise decisions independent of executive management and/or home-base decision-makers. Early adoption of Scrum and Kanban branch development methodologies helped to alleviate the dependency that field teams had on trunk based development. This method of just-in-time action oriented development and deployment allowed remote plant sites to deploy up-to-date software patches frequently and without dependency on core team deployment schedules, satisfying the clients' needs to rapidly patch production environment bugs. Critical thought Carlyle's 1840 "Great Man theory", which emphasized the role of leading individuals, met opposition (from Herbert Spencer, Leo Tolstoy, and others) in the 19th and 20th centuries. Karl Popper noted in 1945 that leaders can mislead and make mistakes—he warns against deferring to "great men". Noam Chomsky and others have subjected the concept of leadership to critical thinking and assert that people abrogate their responsibility to think and will actions for themselves. While the conventional view of leadership may satisfy people who "want to be told what to do", these critics say that one should question subjection to a will or intellect other than one's own if the leader is not a subject-matter expert. Concepts such as autogestion, employeeship, and common civic virtue, challenge the fundamentally anti-democratic nature of the leadership principle by stressing individual responsibility and/or group authority in the workplace and elsewhere and by focusing on the skills and attitudes that a person needs in general rather than separating out "leadership" as the basis of a special class of individuals. Similarly, various historical calamities (such as World War II) can be attributed to a misplaced reliance on the principle of leadership as exhibited in dictatorship. The idea of leaderism paints leadership and its excesses in a negative light. See also References Citations Other Sources Books Journal articles Ahlquist, John S.; Levi, Margaret (2011). "Leadership: What It Means, What It Does, and What We Want to Know About It". Annual Review of Political Science. 14 (1): 1–24 Avolio, Bruce J.; Walumbwa, Fred O.; Weber, Todd J. (2009). "Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future Directions". Annual Review of Psychology. 60 (1): 421–449. Hadley Cantril (1958) "Effective democratic leadership: a psychological interpretation", Journal of Individual Psychology 14: 128–38, and pages 139–49 in Psychology, Humanism and Scientific Inquiry (1988) edited by Albert H. Cantril, Transaction Books. External links Management theory Industrial and organizational psychology Political science terminology Social concepts Majority–minority relations	0.767068	0.998577	0.765976
Sociocultural anthropology	Sociocultural anthropology is a term used to refer to social anthropology and cultural anthropology together. It is one of the four main branches of anthropology. Sociocultural anthropologists focus on the study of society and culture, while often interested in cultural diversity and universalism. Sociocultural anthropologists recognise a change in the nature of the field and that a previous focus on traditional tribal perspectives has shifted to a contemporary understanding. Methodologies have altered accordingly, and the discipline continues to evolve with that of society. Globalisation has contributed to the changing influence of the state on individuals and their interactions. Overview The rubric cultural anthropology is generally applied to ethnographic works that are holistic in approach, are oriented to the ways in which culture affects individual experience, or aim to provide a rounded view of the knowledge, customs, and institutions of a people. Cultural anthropology focuses on how individuals make sense of the world around them using knowledge, beliefs, morals, arts, laws and customs of groups. Social anthropology is a term applied to ethnographic works that attempt to isolate a particular system of social relations such as those that comprise domestic life, economy, law, politics, or religion, give analytical priority to the organizational bases of social life, and attend to cultural phenomena as somewhat secondary to the main issues of social scientific inquiry. Sociocultural anthropology, which is understood to include linguistic anthropology, is concerned with the problem of difference and similarity within and between human populations. The discipline arose through the expansion of European colonial empires, and its practices and theories have been questioned and reformulated along with processes of decolonization. Such issues have re-emerged as transnational processes have challenged the centrality of the nation-state to theorizations about culture and power. New challenges have emerged as public debates about multiculturalism and the increasing use of the culture concept outside of the academy and among peoples studied by anthropology. History The synergy of sociology and anthropology was initially developed during the early 1920s by European scholars. Both disciplines shared a common search for a science of society. During the 20th century, the disciplines diverged further to as cultural studies were integrated, centralising geographical and methodological features. 1920s-50s 'Social' and 'cultural' anthropology was developed in the 1920s. It was associated with the social sciences and linguistics rather than the human biology and archaeology studied in anthropology. Specialists in the respective fields of social and cultural anthropology were elemental in the foundations of the later developed synergy. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski marked the point of differentiation between social and cultural anthropology in 1930, evident in texts from this period. In the 1930s and 40s, an influx of monographs and comparative studies of 'tribal societies' emerged. Meyer Fortes and Edward Evans Pritchard described and classified African societies in African Political Systems (1940). Their comparative anthology aimed to provide a basis for sociological knowledge by classifying kin-based bans instead of relying on empirical observation. Claude Lévi-Strauss, used structuralism as a way to analyse cultural systems in terms of their structural relations, including that of kinship. In 1949, he attempted to classify marriage systems from diverse locations. Structuralism was applied to anthropology by Lévi-Strauss to reaffirms the coexistence between the individual and society and categorise information about cultural systems by the formal relationships among their elements. Structuralism remains a central concept involved in the study of sociocultural anthropology. 1960s–90s Before WWII, 'social' anthropology and 'cultural' anthropology were still separate entities in the field. The war called upon anthropologists from all countries to assist in the war effort. Anthropologists were extensively involved in resettlements in Europe and consulting issues of racial status in occupied areas. Ethical issues surrounding the allies involvement were topical among anthropologists and institutional development and practiced methodologies were altered by programs in 'developing countries'. As developing countries grew independence, they grew a dislike for an apparent imperialistic nature of anthropological studies, declining work in the field. After the war, anthropologists collaborated ideas and methodologies to form the collective 'sociocultural anthropology'. Topical interests included that of religion, kingship, acculturation, function, and community studies. During the 1970s, public spending was increased in most industrialised counties which expanded social rights, produced dramatic rises in wealth, living standards and overall equity. This neoliberal globalisation movement followed through until the 1990s. Increased spending assisted to provide academic opportunity in anthropology during 1974–1990. After this period, a steady decline in anthropology opportunity is the continued trend. The drastic growth of students in Ph.D. and M.A. programs, decline in university funding, downward shift in birth rates and decreased government funding are contributors to anthropologies current state. 2000s–present Traditional methodologies used to study sociocultural anthropology have changed with the shift in culture in modernised society. Individuals undergo daily routines differing to that of previous decades. Individuals participate in minority groups within which only certain aspects relate to the broader national culture. Anthropologists are unable to receive a holistic ethnography, as individuals return to the private sphere after interacting within their minority groups. Impacts of globalisation, neoliberalism, and capitalism have contributed to the decline in anthropology field work. The job market of the 2000s is centralised around those occupations that are income generating, reducing the number of university students in the social science fields. In accordance, universities have reduced funding for many anthropological programs. The 2008 global financial crisis enhanced this effect as universities had to decline spending as income generation was lesser. Decreased spending in the anthropological sector in combination with an increasing trend of anthropology university students has results in decreasing job opportunities. Sociocultural anthropological study of the 21st century, produces facts created by an intersection of cultural classification systems and heterogenous and dynamic societies. A contributor to this dynamic societal environment is the media. The influence of the media produces accessibility for all to gather experience and evidence, however charged political conditions sway social discourse. Anthropologists use theory such as structuralism to decipher epistemological obstacles. Considering that systems are defined by the laws of their constitutive elements rather than the content alone is a lens through which modern society is studied. Theoretical foundations Concepts Sociocultural anthropology divides into a broader national level and minority of subcultural groups to ethnographically study societies and cultures. The national culture is emitted through formally organised institutions including those of government forms and legal systems, economic institution, religious organisation, educational systems, law enforcement and military organisations. National achievements are influential on sociocultural integration however can be limited to upper class relevance only. Subcultural segments are groups of individuals behaving within the national culture. Subcultural groups are observed through vertical lens, differentiation because of national development, and horizontal lens, class and occupational divisions structured by societal hierarchy. Human Migration Human migration is a topic of anthropology which produced a macro and micro impact on society and its culture. Human migration is ‘the movement of persons away from their place of usual residence, either across an international border or within a state’. An interplay of social, political, economic, demographic, cultural and geographical factors remain central to the movement of individuals. Boas (1920) in his article The Methods of Ethnology (1920) states that it is the migration and dissemination of peoples rather than evolution that provides the basis for ethological research. Migration is accepted as the cause for the similarities of languages the dissemination of ideas and inventions across continents. The process of migration is responsible for the carrying of culture whilst the adaptation of culture to societies in different environments. Linguistics The discipline of linguistics is interrelated with the study of society and culture. Both fields share a common intellectual origin in 19th Century scholarship as archaeologists and early folklorists looked for origins of culture in folktales and shared memory. These early anthropologists narrowly focused on the influence structural codes had on the distinction between communities. The comparison of societies prompted early linguistic enquiries. In the 20th century, there became a distinction between linguistic anthropology and formal linguistics, with greater focus placed on the cultural and behaviour lens of language. Formal linguistics remains to be studied through a cognitive viewpoint. Linguistic anthropology looks at how language is used in the social and cultural life of people in different societies.Speech is used in societies as a system to indicate the series of certain events and how role relations effect such events. Sociology Sociocultural integration studies the interaction of the spheres and draws comparisons with alternate societies and cultures. Sociocultural anthropology is closely aligned with sociology sharing theoretical generalisation for social science and reflection of human lives. The 20th Century saw the separation of the two as differences in research topics, geographic focus and methodological emphasis diverged. Commonly, sociocultural anthropology centralises study of broader political, ethical, and economic subjects within small-scale societies whereas sociology looks at societies as a whole. Sociologically trained ethnographers have less regard for anthropological theory and place greater emphasis on empirical data. Recently, the two have reconverged as globalisation has aligned subject ideas and methodologies. Methodologies The traditional anthropological research method is to gather what people say and do through initial observations. Participant observation hinges on a synthesis of subjective insider and outsider elements. Insider elements rely on the fieldworker to learn what behaviour means to the people. Outsider elements are gathered through observations and experiences drawing comparisons with internal cultural customs and behaviours with alternate cultures. These observations are transferred into a monograph of elements sorted by importance and studied in relation to anthropological theories or questions. The process is controlled, and a hypothesis is tested reporting results after every return. Alternatively, the process may be more fortuitous if unique or unexpected events occur, and the writing processes is extended to make sense of elements. Since the 1960s, anthropologists have recognised the importance of collaboration through reflections of experiences in the field, relationships with informants and contexts used to gather material. The reflections provide a better understanding for readers of ethnographic texts and anthropologists in practicing with awareness of their own biases and emotions when writing. This has led to advancements in the field of sociocultural anthropology. The Marxist and Structuralist theories are methods for gathering anthropological information are being challenged. Marxism validifies the necessity for conventional field work, exploring the intersection between empirical observation and theoretical frameworks with the aim of improving each. Lévi-Straussian structuralists (Lévi-Strauss 1969) are more concerned with theoretical structures. See also Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's values orientation theory Claude Lévi-Strauss's Structuralism Human Migration Linguistics Sociology References Further reading Social anthropology Cultural anthropology Ethnography Linguistics	0.777239	0.985499	0.765968
Project-based learning	Project-based learning is a teaching method that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. Students learn about a subject by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question, challenge, or problem. It is a style of active learning and inquiry-based learning. Project-Based Learning is a form of experiential learning that emphasizes active, hands-on engagement with real-world problems. Project-based learning contrasts with paper-based, rote memorization, or teacher-led instruction that presents established facts or portrays a smooth path to knowledge by instead posing questions, problems, or scenarios. History John Dewey is recognized as one of the early proponents of project-based education or at least its principles through his idea of "learning by doing". In My Pedagogical Creed (1897) Dewey enumerated his beliefs including the view that "the teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these". For this reason, he promoted the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the centre of correlation. Educational research has advanced this idea of teaching and learning into a methodology known as "project-based learning". William Heard Kilpatrick built on the theory of Dewey, who was his teacher, and introduced the project method as a component of Dewey's problem method of teaching. Some scholars (e.g. James G. Greeno) also associated project-based learning with Jean Piaget's "situated learning" perspective and constructivist theories. Piaget advocated an idea of learning that does not focus on memorization. Within his theory, project-based learning is considered a method that engages students to invent and to view learning as a process with a future instead of acquiring knowledge bases as a matter of fact. Further developments to project-based education as a pedagogy later drew from the experience- and perception-based theories on education proposed by theorists such as Jan Comenius, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and Maria Montessori, among others. Concept In 2011, Thomas Markham described project-based learning as follows: Problem-based learning is a similar pedagogic approach; however, problem-based approaches structure students' activities more by asking them to solve specific (open-ended) problems rather than relying on students to come up with their own problems in the course of completing a project. Another seemingly similar approach is quest-based learning; unlike project-based learning, in questing, the project is determined specifically on what students find compelling (with guidance as needed), instead of the teacher being primarily responsible for forming the essential question and task. Blumenfeld et al. elaborate on the processes of Project-based learning: "Project-based learning is a comprehensive perspective focused on teaching by engaging students in investigation. Within this framework, students pursue solutions to nontrivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts." The basis of Project-based learning lies in the authenticity or real-life application of the research. Students working as a team are given a "driving question" to respond to or answer, then directed to create an artifact (or artifacts) to present their gained knowledge. Artifacts may include a variety of media such as writings, art, drawings, three-dimensional representations, videos, photography, or technology-based presentations. Another definition of project-based learning includes a type of instruction where students work together to solve real-world problems in their schools and communities. This type of problem-solving often requires students to draw on lessons from several disciplines and apply them in a very practical way and the promise of seeing a very real impact becomes the motivation for learning. In addition to learning the content of their core subjects, students have the potential to learn to work in a community, thereby taking on social responsibilities. According to Terry Heick on his blog, TeachThought, there are three types of project-based learning. The first is challenge-based learning/problem-based learning, the second is place-based education, and the third is activity-based learning. Challenge-based learning is "an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems through efforts in their homes, schools and communities." Place-based education "immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences; uses these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum, and emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community." Activity-based learning takes a kind of constructivist approach, the idea being students constructing their own meaning through hands-on activities, often with manipulatives and opportunities to experiment. Structure Project-based learning emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary, and student-centered. Unlike traditional, teacher-led classroom activities, students often must organize their own work and manage their own time in a project-based class. Project-based instruction differs from traditional inquiry by its emphasis on students' collaborative or individual artifact construction to represent what is being learned. Design principles thus emphasize "student agency, authenticity, and collaboration." Project-based learning also gives students the opportunity to explore problems and challenges that have real-world applications, increasing the possibility of long-term retention of skills and concepts. Elements The core idea of project-based learning is that real-world problems capture students' interest and provoke serious thinking as the students acquire and apply new knowledge in a problem-solving context. The teacher plays the role of facilitator, working with students to frame worthwhile questions, structuring meaningful tasks, coaching both knowledge development and social skills, and carefully assessing what students have learned from the experience. Typical projects present a problem to solve (What is the best way to reduce the pollution in the schoolyard pond?) or a phenomenon to investigate (What causes rain?). Project-based learning replaces other traditional models of instruction such as lectures, textbook-workbook-driven activities and inquiry as the preferred delivery method for key topics in the curriculum. It is an instructional framework that allows teachers to facilitate and assess deeper understanding rather than stand and deliver factual information. Project-based learning intentionally develops students' problem-solving and the creative making of products to communicate a deeper understanding of key concepts and mastery of 21st-century essential learning skills such as critical thinking. Students become active digital researchers and assessors of their own learning when teachers guide student learning so that students learn from the project-making processes. In this context, Project-based learning is units of self-directed learning from students' doing or making throughout the unit. Project-based learning is not just "an activity" (project) that is stuck at the end of a lesson or unit. Comprehensive project-based learning: is organized around an open-ended driving question or challenge. creates a need to know essential content and skills. requires inquiry to learn and/or create something new. requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication, often known as 21st century skills. allows some degree of student voice and choice. incorporates feedback and revision. results in a publicly presented product or performance. Examples Although projects are the primary vehicle for instruction in project-based learning, there are no commonly shared criteria for what constitutes an acceptable project. Projects vary greatly in the depth of the questions explored, the clarity of the learning goals, the content and structure of the activity, and guidance from the teacher. The role of projects in the overall curriculum is also open to interpretation. Projects can guide the entire curriculum (more common in charter or other alternative schools) or simply consist of a few hands-on activities. They might be multidisciplinary (more likely in elementary schools) or single-subject (commonly science and math). Some projects involve the whole class, while others are done in small groups or individually. For example, Perrault and Albert report the results of a Project-based learning assignment in a college setting surrounding creating a communication campaign for the campus' sustainability office, finding that after project completion in small groups that the students had significantly more positive attitudes toward sustainability than prior to working on the projects. Another example is Manor New Technology High School, a public high school that since opening in 2007 is a 100 percent project-based instruction school. Students average 60 projects a year across subjects. It is reported that 98 percent of seniors graduate, 100 percent of the graduates are accepted to college, and fifty-six percent of them have been the first in their family to attend college. Outside of the United States, the European Union has also providing funding for project-based learning projects within the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. In China, Project-based learning implementation has primarily been driven by international school offerings, although public schools use Project-based learning as a reference for Chinese Premier Ki Keqiang's mandate for schools to adopt maker education, in conjunction with micro-schools like Moonshot Academy and ETU, and maker education spaces such as SteamHead. In Uganda since the introduction of the new lower curriculum, students and teachers have been urged to embraced project based learning especially with training from the Ugandan Government and UNELTA Roles Project-based learning often relies on learning groups, but not always. Student groups may determine their projects, and in so doing, they engage student voice by encouraging students to take full responsibility for their learning. When students use technology as a tool to communicate with others, they take on an active role vs. a passive role of transmitting the information by a teacher, a book, or broadcast. The student is constantly making choices on how to obtain, display, or manipulate information. Technology makes it possible for students to think actively about the choices they make and execute. Every student has the opportunity to get involved, either individually or as a group. The instructor's role in project-based learning is that of a facilitator. They do not relinquish control of the classroom or student learning, but rather develop an atmosphere of shared responsibility. The instructor must structure the proposed question/issue so as to direct the student's learning toward content-based materials. Upfront planning is crucial, in that the instructor should plan out the structural elements and logistics of the project far in advance in order to reduce student confusion once they assume ownership of their projects. The instructor must regulate student success with intermittent, transitional goals to ensure student projects remain focused and students have a deep understanding of the concepts being investigated. The students are held accountable to these goals through ongoing feedback and assessments. The ongoing assessment and feedback are essential to ensure the student stays within the scope of the driving question and the core standards the project is trying to unpack. According to Andrew Miller of the Buck Institute of Education, "In order to be transparent to parents and students, you need to be able to track and monitor ongoing formative assessments that show work toward that standard." The instructor uses these assessments to guide the inquiry process and ensure the students have learned the required content. Once the project is finished, the instructor evaluates the finished product and the learning that it demonstrates. The student's role is to ask questions, build knowledge, and determine a real-world solution to the issue/question presented. Students must collaborate, expanding their active listening skills and requiring them to engage in intelligent, focused communication, therefore allowing them to think rationally about how to solve problems. Project-based learning forces students to take ownership of their success. Outcomes Proponents of project-based learning cite numerous benefits to the implementation of its strategies in the classroom – including a greater depth of understanding of concepts, a broader knowledge base, improved communication, and interpersonal/social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing skills. Some of the most significant contributions of Project-based learning have been in schools of comparative disadvantage where it has been linked to increased self-esteem, better work habits, and more positive attitudes toward learning.The pedagogical practice is also linked to conversations revolving around equitable instruction, as it presents opportunities to provide learning experiences that are "equitable, relevant, and meaningful to each and every student while supporting the development of not only students' academic learning, but also their social, emotional, and identity development." Teachers who implement Project-Based Learning assert that this approach emphasizes teachers helping their students track and develop their own processes of thinking, making them more aware of problem-solving strategies they can use in the future. Blumenfeld & Krajcik (2006) cited studies that show students in project-based learning classrooms obtain higher test scores than students in traditional classroom. Student-choice and autonomy may contribute to students growing more heavily interested in the subject, as discovered by researchers in a 2019 study in which they evaluated student engagement in a Project-Based after-school program. After learning more about environmental concerns and implementing a small scale community project, students in this program reported more positive attitudes towards science and literacy. Criticism Opponents of project-based learning caution against negative outcomes primarily in projects that become unfocused, as underdeveloped assignments or lessons may result in the waste of class time and inability to achieve the learning objectives. Since Project-based learning revolves around student autonomy, student's self-motivation and ability to balance work time both inside and outside of school are imperative to a successful project and teachers may be challenged to present students with sufficient time, flexibility, and resources to be successful. Furthermore, "Keeping these complex projects on track while attending to students' individual learning needs...requires artful teaching, as well as industrial-strength project management." See also Design-based learning Experiential education Fremdsprachen und Hochschule (German academic journal) Phenomenon-based learning Challenge-based learning Reggio Emilia approach Sudbury school Teaching for social justice References Notes John Dewey, Education and Experience, 1938/1997. New York. Touchstone. Hye-Jung Lee1, h., & Cheolil Lim1, c. (2012). Peer Evaluation in Blended Team Project-Based Learning: What Do Students Find Important?. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 15(4), 214-224. Markham, T. (2011). Project Based Learning. Teacher Librarian, 39(2), 38-42. Blumenfeld et al. 1991, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST, 26(3&4) 369-398 "Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning." Phyllis C. Blumenfeld, Elliot Soloway, Ronald W. Marx, Joseph S. Krajcik, Mark Guzdial, and Annemarie Palincsar. Sawyer, R. K. (2006), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. Buck Institute for Education (2009). PBL Starter Kit: To-the-Point Advice, Tools and Tips for Your First Project. Introduction chapter free to download at: https://web.archive.org/web/20101104022305/http://www.bie.org/tools/toolkit/starter Buck Institute for Education (2003). Project Based Learning Handbook: A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Based Learning for Middle and High School Teachers. Introduction chapter free to download at: https://web.archive.org/web/20110122135305/http://www.bie.org/tools/handbook Barron, B. (1998). Doing with understanding: Lessons from research on problem- and project-based learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences. 7 (3&4), 271-311. Blumenfeld, P.C. et al. (1991). Motivating project-based learning: sustaining the doing, supporting the learning. Educational Psychologist, 26, 369-398. Boss, S., & Krauss, J. (2007). Reinventing project-based learning: Your field guide to real-world projects in the digital age. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. Falk, B. (2008). Teaching the way children learn. New York: Teachers College Press. Katz, L. and Chard, S.C.. (2000) Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach (2d Edition), Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Keller, B. (2007, September 19). No Easy Project. Education Week, 27(4), 21-23. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database. Knoll, M. (1997). The project method: its origin and international development. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education 34 (3), 59-80. Knoll, M. (2012). "I had made a mistake": William H. Kilpatrick and the Project Method. Teachers College Record 114 (February), 2, 45 pp. Knoll, M. (2014). Project Method. Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy, ed. C.D. Phillips. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Vol. 2., pp. 665–669. Shapiro, B. L. (1994). What Children Bring to Light: A Constructivist Perspective on Children's Learning in Science; New York. Teachers College Press. Helm, J. H., Katz, L. (2001). Young investigators: The project approach in the early years. New York: Teachers College Press. Mitchell, S., Foulger, T. S., & Wetzel, K., Rathkey, C. (February, 2009). The negotiated project approach: Project-based learning without leaving the standards behind. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(4), 339-346. Polman, J. L. (2000). Designing project-based science: Connecting learners through guided inquiry. New York: Teachers College Press. Reeves, Diane Lindsey STICKY LEARNING. Raleigh, North Carolina: Bright Futures Press, 2009. . Foulger, T.S. & Jimenez-Silva, M. (2007). "Enhancing the writing development of English learners: Teacher perceptions of common technology in project-based learning". Journal of Research on Childhood Education, 22(2), 109-124. Shaw, Anne. 21st Century Schools. Wetzel, K., Mitchell-Kay, S., & Foulger, T. S., Rathkey, C. (June, 2009). Using technology to support learning in a first grade animal and habitat project. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning. Heick, Terry. (2013). 3 Types of Project-Based Learning Symbolize Its Evolution. Available at http://www.teachthought.com/learning/5-types-of-project-based-learning-symbolize-its-evolution/ External links PBLWorks – from the Buck Institute for Education North Lawndale College Prep High School's Interdisciplinary Projects – vertically aligned, high-bar problem- and project-based learning, 9–12, on Chicago's west side. Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning – from Edutopia by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Testing the Water: project-based learning and high standards at Shutesbury Elementary School – from Edutopia by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Intel Teach Elements: Project-Based Approaches is a free, online professional development course that explores project-based learning. Project Work in (English) Language Teaching provides a practical guide to running a successful 30-hour (15-lesson) short film project in English with (pre-)intermediate students: planning, lessons, evaluation, deliverables, samples and experiences, plus ideas for other projects. The 4Cs of Learning provides a guide for integration aspects of project-based learning. Applied learning Pedagogy School terminology Educational practices	0.771193	0.993124	0.76589
Dialectic	Dialectic (, dialektikḗ; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argumentation. Dialectic resembles debate, but the concept excludes subjective elements such as emotional appeal and rhetoric. It has its origins in ancient philosophy and continued to be developed in the Middle Ages. Hegelianism refigured "dialectic" to no longer refer to a literal dialogue. Instead, the term takes on the specialized meaning of development by way of overcoming internal contradictions. Dialectical materialism, a theory advanced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, adapted the Hegelian dialectic into a materialist theory of history. The legacy of Hegelian and Marxian dialectics has been criticized by philosophers such as Karl Popper and Mario Bunge, who considered it unscientific. Dialectic implies a developmental process and so does not naturally fit within classical logic. Nevertheless, some twentieth-century logicians have attempted to formalize it. History There are a variety of meanings of dialectic or dialectics within Western philosophy. Classical philosophy In classical philosophy, dialectic is a form of reasoning based upon dialogue of arguments and counter-arguments, advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses). The outcome of such a dialectic might be the refutation of a relevant proposition, or a synthesis, a combination of the opposing assertions, or a qualitative improvement of the dialogue. The term "dialectic" owes much of its prestige to its role in the philosophies of Socrates and Plato, in the Greek Classical period (5th to 4th centuries BC). Aristotle said that it was the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea who invented dialectic, of which the dialogues of Plato are examples of the Socratic dialectical method. Socratic method The Socratic dialogues are a particular form of dialectic known as the method of elenchus (literally, "refutation, scrutiny") whereby a series of questions clarifies a more precise statement of a vague belief, logical consequences of that statement are explored, and a contradiction is discovered. The method is largely destructive, in that false belief is exposed and only constructive in that this exposure may lead to further search for truth. The detection of error does not amount to a proof of the antithesis. For example, a contradiction in the consequences of a definition of piety does not provide a correct definition. The principal aim of Socratic activity may be to improve the soul of the interlocutors, by freeing them from unrecognized errors, or indeed, by teaching them the spirit of inquiry. In common cases, Socrates uses enthymemes as the foundation of his argument. For example, in the Euthyphro, Socrates asks Euthyphro to provide a definition of piety. Euthyphro replies that the pious is that which is loved by the gods. But, Socrates also has Euthyphro agreeing that the gods are quarrelsome and their quarrels, like human quarrels, concern objects of love or hatred. Therefore, Socrates reasons, at least one thing exists that certain gods love but other gods hate. Again, Euthyphro agrees. Socrates concludes that if Euthyphro's definition of piety is acceptable, then there must exist at least one thing that is both pious and impious (as it is both loved and hated by the gods)—which Euthyphro admits is absurd. Thus, Euthyphro is brought to a realization by this dialectical method that his definition of piety is not sufficiently meaningful. In another example, in Plato's Gorgias, dialectic occurs between Socrates, the Sophist Gorgias, and two men, Polus and Callicles. Because Socrates' ultimate goal was to reach true knowledge, he was even willing to change his own views in order to arrive at the truth. The fundamental goal of dialectic, in this instance, was to establish a precise definition of the subject (in this case, rhetoric) and with the use of argumentation and questioning, make the subject even more precise. In the Gorgias, Socrates reaches the truth by asking a series of questions and in return, receiving short, clear answers. Plato In Platonism and Neoplatonism, dialectic assumed an ontological and metaphysical role in that it became the process whereby the intellect passes from sensibles to intelligibles, rising from idea to idea until it finally grasps the supreme idea, the first principle which is the origin of all. The philosopher is consequently a "dialectician". In this sense, dialectic is a process of inquiry that does away with hypotheses up to the first principle. It slowly embraces multiplicity in unity. The philosopher Simon Blackburn wrote that the dialectic in this sense is used to understand "the total process of enlightenment, whereby the philosopher is educated so as to achieve knowledge of the supreme good, the Form of the Good". Medieval philosophy Logic, which could be considered to include dialectic, was one of the three liberal arts taught in medieval universities as part of the trivium; the other elements were rhetoric and grammar. Based mainly on Aristotle, the first medieval philosopher to work on dialectics was Boethius (480–524). After him, many scholastic philosophers also made use of dialectics in their works, such as Abelard, William of Sherwood, Garlandus Compotista, Walter Burley, Roger Swyneshed, William of Ockham, and Thomas Aquinas. This dialectic (a quaestio disputata) was formed as follows: The question to be determined ("It is asked whether..."); A provisory answer to the question ("And it seems that..."); The principal arguments in favor of the provisory answer; An argument against the provisory answer, traditionally a single argument from authority ("On the contrary..."); The determination of the question after weighing the evidence ("I answer that..."); The replies to each of the initial objections. ("To the first, to the second etc., I answer that...") Modern philosophy The concept of dialectics was given new life at the start of the 19th century by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, whose dialectical model of nature and of history made dialectics a fundamental aspect of reality, instead of regarding the contradictions into which dialectics leads as evidence of the limits of pure reason, as Immanuel Kant had argued. Hegel was influenced by Johann Gottlieb Fichte's conception of synthesis, although Hegel didn't adopt Fichte's "thesis–antithesis–synthesis" language except to describe Kant's philosophy: rather, Hegel argued that such language was "a lifeless schema" imposed on various contents, whereas he saw his own dialectic as flowing out of "the inner life and self-movement" of the content itself. In the mid-19th century, Hegelian dialectic was appropriated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and retooled in what they considered to be a nonidealistic manner. It would also become a crucial part of later representations of Marxism as a philosophy of dialectical materialism. These representations often contrasted dramatically and led to vigorous debate among different Marxist groups. Hegelian dialectic The Hegelian dialectic describes changes in the forms of thought through their own internal contradictions into concrete forms that overcome previous oppositions. This dialectic is sometimes presented in a threefold manner, as first stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus, as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis. Although, Hegel opposed these terms. By contrast, the terms abstract, negative, and concrete suggest a flaw or an incompleteness in any initial thesis. For Hegel, the concrete must always pass through the phase of the negative, that is, mediation. This is the essence of what is popularly called Hegelian dialectics. To describe the activity of overcoming the negative, Hegel often used the term Aufhebung, variously translated into English as "sublation" or "overcoming", to conceive of the working of the dialectic. Roughly, the term indicates preserving the true portion of an idea, thing, society, and so forth, while moving beyond its limitations. What is sublated, on the one hand, is overcome, but, on the other hand, is preserved and maintained. As in the Socratic dialectic, Hegel claimed to proceed by making implicit contradictions explicit: each stage of the process is the product of contradictions inherent or implicit in the preceding stage. On his view, the purpose of dialectics is "to study things in their own being and movement and thus to demonstrate the finitude of the partial categories of understanding". For Hegel, even history can be reconstructed as a unified dialectic, the major stages of which chart a progression from self-alienation as servitude to self-unification and realization as the rational constitutional state of free and equal citizens. Marxist dialectic Marxist dialectic is a form of Hegelian dialectic which applies to the study of historical materialism. Marxist dialectic is thus a method by which one can examine social and economic behaviors. It is the foundation of the philosophy of dialectical materialism, which forms the basis of historical materialism. In the Marxist tradition, "dialectic" refers to regular and mutual relationships, interactions, and processes in nature, society, and human thought. A dialectical relationship is a relationship in which two phenomena or ideas mutually impact each other, leading to development and negation. Development refers to the change and motion of phenomena and ideas from less advanced to more advanced or from less complete to more complete. Dialectical negation refers to a stage of development in which a contradiction between two previous subjects gives rise to a new subject. In the Marxist view, dialectical negation is never an endpoint, but instead creates new conditions for further development and negation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, writing several decades after Hegel's death, proposed that Hegel's dialectic is too abstract. Against this, Marx presented his own dialectic method, which he claimed to be "direct opposite" of Hegel's method. Marxist dialectics is exemplified in Das Kapital. As Marx explained dialectical materialism, Class struggle is the primary contradiction to be resolved by Marxist dialectics because of its central role in the social and political lives of a society. Nonetheless, Marx and Marxists developed the concept of class struggle to comprehend the dialectical contradictions between mental and manual labor and between town and country. Hence, philosophic contradiction is central to the development of dialectics: the progress from quantity to quality, the acceleration of gradual social change; the negation of the initial development of the status quo; the negation of that negation; and the high-level recurrence of features of the original status quo. Friedrich Engels further proposed that nature itself is dialectical, and that this is "a very simple process, which is taking place everywhere and every day". His dialectical "law of the transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa" corresponds, according to Christian Fuchs, to the concept of phase transition and anticipated the concept of emergence "a hundred years ahead of his time". For Vladimir Lenin, the primary feature of Marx's "dialectical materialism" (Lenin's term) is its application of materialist philosophy to history and social sciences. Lenin's main contribution to the philosophy of dialectical materialism is his theory of reflection, which presents human consciousness as a dynamic reflection of the objective material world that fully shapes its contents and structure. Later, Stalin's works on the subject established a rigid and formalistic division of Marxist–Leninist theory into dialectical materialism and historical materialism. While the first was supposed to be the key method and theory of the philosophy of nature, the second was the Soviet version of the philosophy of history. Soviet systems theory pioneer Alexander Bogdanov viewed Hegelian and materialist dialectic as progressive, albeit inexact and diffuse, attempts at achieving what he called tektology, or a universal science of organization. Dialectical naturalism Dialectical naturalism is a term coined by American philosopher Murray Bookchin to describe the philosophical underpinnings of the political program of social ecology. Dialectical naturalism explores the complex interrelationship between social problems, and the direct consequences they have on the ecological impact of human society. Bookchin offered dialectical naturalism as a contrast to what he saw as the "empyrean, basically antinaturalistic dialectical idealism" of Hegel, and "the wooden, often scientistic dialectical materialism of orthodox Marxists". Theological dialectics Neo-orthodoxy, in Europe also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology, is an approach to theology in Protestantism that was developed in the aftermath of the First World War (1914–1918). It is characterized as a reaction against doctrines of 19th-century liberal theology and a more positive reevaluation of the teachings of the Reformation, much of which had been in decline (especially in western Europe) since the late 18th century. It is primarily associated with two Swiss professors and pastors, Karl Barth (1886–1968) and Emil Brunner (1899–1966), even though Barth himself expressed his unease in the use of the term. In dialectical theology the difference and opposition between God and human beings is stressed in such a way that all human attempts at overcoming this opposition through moral, religious or philosophical idealism must be characterized as 'sin'. In the death of Christ humanity is negated and overcome, but this judgment also points forwards to the resurrection in which humanity is reestablished in Christ. For Barth this meant that only through God's 'no' to everything human can his 'yes' be perceived. Applied to traditional themes of Protestant theology, such as double predestination, this means that election and reprobation cannot be viewed as a quantitative limitation of God's action. Rather it must be seen as its "qualitative definition". As Christ bore the rejection as well as the election of God for all humanity, every person is subject to both aspects of God's double predestination. Dialectic prominently figured in Bernard Lonergan's philosophy, in his books Insight and Method in Theology. Michael Shute wrote about Lonergan's use of dialectic in The Origins of Lonergan's Notion of the Dialectic of History. For Lonergan, dialectic is both individual and operative in community. Simply described, it is a dynamic process that results in something new: Dialectic is one of the eight functional specialties Lonergan envisaged for theology to bring this discipline into the modern world. Lonergan believed that the lack of an agreed method among scholars had inhibited substantive agreement from being reached and progress from being made compared to the natural sciences. Karl Rahner, S.J., however, criticized Lonergan's theological method in a short article entitled "Some Critical Thoughts on 'Functional Specialties in Theology'" where he stated: "Lonergan's theological methodology seems to me to be so generic that it really fits every science, and hence is not the methodology of theology as such, but only a very general methodology of science." Criticisms Friedrich Nietzsche viewed dialectic as a method that imposes artificial boundaries and suppresses the richness and diversity of reality. He rejected the notion that truth can be fully grasped through dialectical reasoning and offered a critique of dialectic, challenging its traditional framework and emphasizing the limitations of its approach to understanding reality. He expressed skepticism towards its methodology and implications in his work Twilight of the Idols: "I mistrust all systematizers and I avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity". In the same book, Nietzsche criticized Socrates' dialectics because he believed it prioritized reason over instinct, resulting in the suppression of individual passions and the imposition of an artificial morality. Karl Popper attacked the dialectic repeatedly. In 1937, he wrote and delivered a paper entitled "What Is Dialectic?" in which he criticized the dialectics of Hegel, Marx, and Engels for their willingness "to put up with contradictions". He argued that accepting contradiction as a valid form of logic would lead to the principle of explosion and thus trivialism. Popper concluded the essay with these words: "The whole development of dialectic should be a warning against the dangers inherent in philosophical system-building. It should remind us that philosophy should not be made a basis for any sort of scientific system and that philosophers should be much more modest in their claims. One task which they can fulfill quite usefully is the study of the critical methods of science". Seventy years later, Nicholas Rescher responded that "Popper's critique touches only a hyperbolic version of dialectic", and he quipped: "Ironically, there is something decidedly dialectical about Popper's critique of dialectics." Around the same time as Popper's critique was published, philosopher Sidney Hook discussed the "sense and nonsense in dialectic" and rejected two conceptions of dialectic as unscientific but accepted one conception as a "convenient organizing category". The philosopher of science and physicist Mario Bunge repeatedly criticized Hegelian and Marxian dialectics, calling them "fuzzy and remote from science" and a "disastrous legacy". He concluded: "The so-called laws of dialectics, such as formulated by Engels (1940, 1954) and Lenin (1947, 1981), are false insofar as they are intelligible." Poe Yu-ze Wan, reviewing Bunge's criticisms of dialectics, found Bunge's arguments to be important and sensible, but he thought that dialectics could still serve some heuristic purposes for scientists. Wan pointed out that scientists such as the American Marxist biologists Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin (authors of The Dialectical Biologist) and the German-American evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, not a Marxist himself, have found agreement between dialectical principles and their own scientific outlooks, although Wan opined that Engels's "laws" of dialectics "in fact 'explain' nothing". Even some Marxists are critical of the term "dialectics". For instance, Michael Heinrich wrote, "More often than not, the grandiose rhetoric about dialectics is reducible to the simple fact that everything is dependent upon everything else and is in a state of interaction and that it's all rather complicated—which is true in most cases, but doesn't really say anything." Formalization Defeasibility Dialog games Mathematics Mathematician William Lawvere interpreted dialectics in the setting of categorical logic in terms of adjunctions between idempotent monads. This perspective may be useful in the context of theoretical computer science where the duality between syntax and semantics can be interpreted as a dialectic in this sense. For example, the Curry-Howard equivalence is such an adjunction or more generally the duality between closed monoidal categories and their internal logic. See also Conversation Dialogue A philosophical journal Various works on dialectics and logical reasoning Dialectical behavior therapy Dialectical research Dialogic Discourse Doublethink False dilemma Reflective equilibrium Relational dialectics Tarka sastra Unity of opposites Universal dialectic References External links v:Dialectic algorithm – An algorithm based on the principles of classical dialectics Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic by J. M. E. McTaggart (1896) at marxists.org Rhetoric Philosophical methodology Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics Ancient Greek logic	0.766486	0.999204	0.765876
Multipotentiality	Multipotentiality is an educational and psychological term referring to the ability and preference of a person, particularly one of strong intellectual or artistic curiosity, to excel in two or more different fields. It can also refer to an individual whose interests span multiple fields or areas, rather than being strong in just one. Such traits are called multipotentialities, while "multipotentialites" has been suggested as a name for those with this trait. By contrast, those whose interests lie mostly within a single field are called "specialists." History Etymology An early instance of the term in the record comes from relevant research in giftedness. In 1972, R.H. Frederickson et al. defined a multipotentialed person as someone who, “when provided with appropriate environments, can select and develop a number of competencies to a high level.” On October 22, 2008, Douglas Hannay began a blog that lasted some eight years. His first blog referred to multipotentializing as excelling in multiple fields of energy. The blog was then copied in its entirety to Facebook on September 22, 2016, after viewing Emilie Wapnick’s TED talk on being a multipotentialite during October 2015. In 2010, multipotentiality appeared again in Tamara Fisher's article in Education Week. She defines it thus: During 2015, Emilie Wapnick coined the term "multipotentialite", perhaps to establish a shared identity for the community. They define it this way: Relevant terminology While the term "multipotentialite" is often used interchangeably with polymath or Renaissance Person, the terms are not identical. One need not be an expert in any particular field to be a multipotentialite. Indeed, Isis Jade makes a clear distinction between multipotentiality and polymaths. Multipotentiality refers simply to one's potential in multiple fields owing to his/her diverse interests and attempts. Polymaths, on the other hand, are distinguished by their mastery and expertise in several fields. In this sense, multipotentialites can be viewed as potential polymaths. Other terms used to refer to multipotentialites are "scanners", "slashers", "generalist", "multipassionate", "RP2", and "multipods", among others. Context With the advent of the industrial age, cultural norms have shifted in favor of specialization. Indeed, in the modern day, the more narrow the specialization, the higher the pay and respect accorded, for example: PhD graduates, and specialized lawyers, doctors, and engineers. The aphorism Jack of all trades, master of none emphasizes this. Older emphasis towards generalism and multiple potentials such as Renaissance humanism and the Renaissance man were replaced. However, the convergence economy, Internet age, connectivity, the rise of the Creative Class, and other modern developments are bringing about a return of a more positive opinion for generalists and multipotentialites. In Specialization, Polymaths And The Pareto Principle In A Convergence Economy, Jake Chapman writes: Business Organizations such as startups that require adaptability and holding multiple roles can employ several multipotentialites and have one specialist as a resource. In Specialization, Polymaths And The Pareto Principle In A Convergence Economy, Chapman said: Stretch Magazine discusses the role of multipotentialites in organizations and how they will believe they will be more in demand in the future. Criticism of specialization Historical context, current conventional wisdom, comparative advantage, USP, among others contribute to the wide acceptance of specialization. Proponents of specialization above cite excellence and its perceived higher rewards compared to mediocrity in everything. Proponents of multiple capabilities below emphasize the importance of adaptability. In "Master of Many Trades", Robert Twigger goes so far as to coin the word "monopath": "It means a person with a narrow mind, a one-track brain, a bore, a super-specialist, an expert with no other interests — in other words, the role-model of choice in the Western world." This sentiment is not new. In Time Enough for Love (1973), Robert A. Heinlein wrote: In an article on the decline of polymathy, Felipe Fernández-Armesto wrote, "Universities bear some responsibility for its extinction. Classical Greece, Renaissance Italy and Victorian England all revered and rewarded generalists, for whom today universities have little or no space or patience. Enclosed departments in discrete spaces, with their own journals and jargons, are a legacy of lamentable, out-of-date ways of organising knowledge and work." Impact In a world that overvalues specialization, the term and its increasing popularity (especially among the blogging community) have contributed to the revival of awareness on the importance of generalists. It was even used in a competition's training session. In the current economy, Creativity and the rise of the Creative Class are linked to divergent thinking and innovative solutions to current problems. Because new ideas can be found in the intersection of multiple fields, they would benefit from the advantages of multipotentialites. See also Polymath Renaissance humanism Jack of all trades Generalist (disambiguation) Speed learning Creative Class Creativity Notes Further reading Araki, M. E. (2015). Polymathic Leadership: Theoretical Foundation and Construct Development (Master's thesis). Retrieved 29 January 2018. Burns, Peter, "What makes a Renaissance Man?". Edmonds, David (August 2017). Does the world need polymaths?, BBC. Frost, Martin, "Polymath: A Renaissance Man". Grafton, A, "The World of the Polyhistors: Humanism and Encyclopedism", Central European History, 18: 31–47. (1985). Jaumann, Herbert, "Was ist ein Polyhistor? Gehversuche auf einem verlassenen Terrain", Studia Leibnitiana, 22: 76–89. (1990) . Mirchandani, Vinnie, "The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations", John Wiley & Sons. (2010). Twigger, Robert, "Anyone can be a Polymath" . Waquet, F, (ed.) "Mapping the World of Learning: The 'Polyhistor' of Daniel Georg Morhof" (2000). Wiens, Kyle, "In defense of polymaths". Educational psychology Giftedness	0.772341	0.99157	0.76583
E-democracy	E-democracy (a blend of the terms electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is credited to digital activist Steven Clift. By using 21st-century ICT, e-democracy seeks to enhance democracy, including aspects like civic technology and E-government. Proponents argue that by promoting transparency in decision-making processes, e-democracy can empower all citizens to observe and understand the proceedings. Also, if they possess overlooked data, perspectives, or opinions, they can contribute meaningfully. This contribution extends beyond mere informal disconnected debate; it facilitates citizen engagement in the proposal, development, and actual creation of a country's laws. In this way, e-democracy has the potential to incorporate crowdsourced analysis more directly into the policy-making process. Electronic democracy incorporates a diverse range of tools that use both existing and emerging information sources. These tools provide a platform for the public to express their concerns, interests, and perspectives, and to contribute evidence that may influence decision-making processes at the community, national, or global level. E-democracy leverages both traditional broadcast technologies such as television and radio, as well as newer interactive internet-enabled devices and applications, including polling systems. These emerging technologies have become popular means of public participation, allowing a broad range of stakeholders to access information and contribute directly via the internet. Moreover, large groups can offer real-time input at public meetings using electronic polling devices. Utilizing information and communication technology (ICT), e-democracy bolsters political self-determination. It collects social, economic, and cultural data to enhance democratic engagement. As a concept that encompasses various applications within differing democratic structures, e-democracy has substantial impacts on political norms and public engagement. It emerges from theoretical explorations of democracy and practical initiatives to address societal challenges through technology. The extent and manner of its implementation often depend on the specific form of democracy adopted by a society, thus shaped by both internal dynamics and external technological developments. When designed to present both supporting and opposing evidence and arguments for each issue, apply conflict resolution and Cost–benefit analysis techniques, and actively address confirmation bias and other cognitive biases, E-Democracy could potentially foster a more informed citizenry. However, the development of such a system poses significant challenges. These include designing sophisticated platforms to achieve these aims, navigating the dynamics of populism while acknowledging that not everyone has the time or resources for full-time policy analysis and debate, promoting inclusive participation, and addressing cybersecurity and privacy concerns. Despite these hurdles, some envision e-democracy as a potential facilitator of more participatory governance, a countermeasure to excessive partisan dogmatism, a problem-solving tool, a means for evaluating the validity of pro/con arguments, and a method for balancing power distribution within society. Throughout history, social movements have adapted to use the prevailing technologies as part of their civic engagement and social change efforts. This trend persists in the digital era, illustrating how technology shapes democratic processes. As technology evolves, it inevitably impacts all aspects of society, including governmental operations. This ongoing technological advancement brings new opportunities for public participation and policy-making while presenting challenges such as cybersecurity threats, issues related to the digital divide, and privacy concerns. Society is actively grappling with these complexities, striving to balance leveraging technology for democratic enhancement and managing its associated risks. Considerations E-democracy incorporates elements of both representative and direct democracy. In representative democracies, which characterize most modern systems, responsibilities such as law-making, policy formation, and regulation enforcement are entrusted to elected officials. This differs from direct democracies, where citizens undertake these duties themselves. Motivations for e-democracy reforms are diverse and reflect the desired outcomes of its advocates. Some aim to align government actions more closely with the public's interest, akin to populism, diminish the influence of media, political parties, and lobbyists, or use public input to assess potential costs and benefits of each policy. E-democracy, in its unstructured form, emphasizes direct participation and has the potential to redistribute political power from elected officials to individuals or groups. However, reforms aimed at maximizing benefits and minimizing costs might require structures that mimic a form of representation, conceivable if the public had the capacity to debate and analyze issues full-time. Given the design of electronic forums that can accommodate extensive debate, e-democracy has the potential to mimic aspects of representation on a much larger scale. These structures could involve public education initiatives or systems that permit citizens to contribute based on their interests or expertise. From this standpoint, e-democracy appears less concerned with what the public believes to be true and more focused on the evidence the public can demonstrate as true. This view reveals a tension within e-democratic reforms between populism and an evidence-based approach akin to the scientific method or the Enlightenment principles. A key indicator of the effectiveness of a democratic system is the successful implementation of policy. To facilitate this, voters must comprehend the implications of each policy approach, evaluate its costs and benefits, and consider historical precedents for policy effectiveness. Some proponents of e-democracy argue that technology can enable citizens to perform these tasks as effectively, if not more so, than traditional political parties within representative democracies. By harnessing technological advancements, e-democracy has the potential to foster more informed decision-making and enhance citizen involvement in the democratic process. History E-democracy traces back to the development of information and communication technology (ICT) and the evolution of democratic structures. It encompasses initiatives from governments to interact with citizens through digital means and grassroots activities using electronic platforms to influence governmental practices. Early developments The inception of e-democracy corresponds with the rise of the Internet in the late 20th century. The diffusion of personal computers and the Internet during the 1990s led to the initiation of electronic government initiatives. Digital platforms, such as forums, chat rooms, and email lists, were pivotal in fostering public discourse, thereby encouraging informal civic engagement online. These platforms provided an accessible medium for individuals to discuss ideas and issues, and they were utilized by both governments and citizens to promote dialogue, advocate for change, and involve the public in decision-making processes. Concept and approach The structure of the Internet, which currently embodies characteristics such as decentralization, open standards, and universal access, has been observed to align with principles often associated with democracy. These democratic principles have their roots in federalism and Enlightenment values like openness and individual liberty. Steven Clift, a notable proponent of e-democracy, suggests that the Internet should be utilized to enhance democratic processes and provide increased opportunities for interaction between individuals, communities, and the government. He emphasizes the importance of structuring citizen-to-citizen discussions online within existing power structures and maintaining significant reach within the community for these discussions to hold agenda-setting potential. The concept involves endorsing individuals or policies committed to leveraging internet technologies to amplify public engagement without modifying or substituting existing constitutions. The approach includes data collection, analysis of advantages and disadvantages, evaluation of interests, and facilitating discussions around potential outcomes. Late 20th century to early 21st century In the late 20th century and early into the 21st century, e-democracy started to become more structured as governments worldwide started to explore its potential. One major development was the rise of e-government initiatives, which aimed to provide public services online. One of the first instances of such an initiative was the establishment of the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) by the United States government in 1994. GILS was a searchable database of government information accessible to citizens and businesses, and it served as a tool to improve agency electronic records management practices. Along with the rise of e-government services, government websites started to spring up, aiming to improve communication with citizens, increase transparency, and make administrative tasks easier to accomplish online. The mid-2000s ushered in the era of Web 2.0, emphasizing user-generated content, interoperability, and collaboration. This period witnessed the rise of social media platforms, blogs, and other collaborative tools, further amplifying the potential for e-democracy through increasing opportunities for public participation and interaction. Concepts like crowdsourcing and open-source governance gained traction, advocating for broader and more direct public involvement in policymaking. As the digital age progressed, so too did the interaction between governments and citizens. The advent and rapid adoption of the internet globally catalyzed this transformation. With high internet penetration in many regions, politics have increasingly relied on the internet as a primary source of information for numerous people. This digital shift has been supported by the rise in online advertising among political candidates and groups actively trying to sway public opinion or directly influence legislators. This trend is especially noticeable among younger voters, who often regard the internet as their primary source of information due to its convenience and ability to streamline their information-gathering process. The user-friendly nature of search engines like Google and social networks encourages increased citizen engagement in political research and discourse. Social networks, for instance, offer platforms where individuals can voice their opinions on governmental issues without fear of judgement. The vast scale and decentralized structure of the internet enable anyone to create viral content and influence a wide audience. The Internet facilitates citizens in accessing and disseminating information about politicians while simultaneously providing politicians with insights from a broader citizen base. This collaborative approach to decision-making and problem-solving empowers citizens. It accelerates decision-making processes by politicians, thereby fostering a more efficient society. Gathering citizen feedback and perspectives is essential to a politician's role. The Internet functions as a conduit for effective engagement with a larger audience. Consequently, this enhanced communication with the public strengthens the capability and effectiveness of the American government as a democracy. The 2016 U.S. presidential election is an example of social media integration in political campaigns, where both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton actively utilized Twitter as a communication tool. These platforms allow candidates to shape public perceptions while also humanizing their personas, suggesting that political figures are as approachable and relatable as ordinary individuals. Through resources such as Google, the Internet enables every citizen to readily research political topics. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram encourage political engagement, allowing users to share their political views and connect with like-minded individuals. Generation X's disillusionment with political processes, epitomized by large-scale public protests such as the U.K. miners' strike of 1984-1985 that appeared to fail, predated the widespread availability of information technology to individual citizens. There is a perception that e-democracy could address some of these concerns by offering a counter to the insularity, power concentration, and post-election accountability deficit often associated with traditional democratic processes organized primarily around political parties. Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader of the U.K. Labour Party, once stated: Despite the benefits of the digital shift, one of the challenges of e-democracy is the potential disconnect between politics and actual government implementation. While the internet provides a platform for robust political discourse, translating these discussions into effective government action can be complex. This gap can often be exacerbated by the rapid pace of digital dialogue, which may outpace the slower, more deliberative processes of policy-making. The rise of digital media has created new opportunities for citizens to participate in politics and to hold governments accountable. However, it has also created new challenges, such as the potential for echo chambers, and the need for governments to be responsive to citizen concerns. The challenge for e-democracy, therefore, is to ensure that the digital discourse contributes constructively to the functioning of the government and the decision-making processes, rather than becoming an echo chamber of opinions with little practical impact. As of the 2020s, e-democracy's landscape continues to evolve alongside advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and big data. These technologies promise to expand citizen participation further, enhance transparency, and boost the overall efficiency and responsiveness of democratic governance. The history of e-democracy exhibits significant progress, but it is also characterized by ongoing debates and challenges, such as the digital divide, data privacy, cybersecurity, and the impact of misinformation. As this journey continues, the emphasis remains on leveraging technology to enhance democratic processes and ensure all citizens' voices are heard and valued. E-democracy promotes wider access to information, and its inherent decentralization challenges censorship practices. It embodies elements of the internet's origins, including strong libertarian support for freedom of speech, widespread sharing culture, and the National Science Foundation's commercial use prohibition. The internet's capacity for mass communication, evident in newsgroups, chat rooms, and MUDs, surpasses traditional boundaries associated with broadcast media like newspapers or radio, as well as personal media such as letters or landline telephones. As the Internet represents a vast digital network supporting open standards, achieving widespread, cost-effective access to a diverse range of communication media and models is feasible. Practical issues pertaining to e-democracy include managing the agenda while encouraging meaningful participation and fostering enlightened understanding. Furthermore, efforts are evaluated based on their ability to ensure voting equality and promote inclusivity. The success or failure of e-democracy largely depends on its capability to accurately delineate each issue's relevant costs and benefits, identify their likelihood and significance, and align votes with this analysis. In addition, all internet forums, including Wikipedia, must address cybersecurity and protect sensitive data. Digital mobilization in social movements Occupy movement The Occupy movement, which proposed various demonstrations in response to the financial crisis of 2007–08, extensively utilized social networks. 15-M Movement Originating in Spain and subsequently spreading to other European countries, the 15-M Movement gave rise to proposals by the Partido X (X Party) in Spain. In 2016 and 2017, citizens involved in the movement together with the City Council of Barcelona developed a combined online and offline e-democracy project called Decidim, that self-describes as a "technopolitical network for participatory democracy", with the aim of implementing the hopes of participatory democracy raised by the movement. The project combines a free and open-source software (FOSS) software package together with a participatory political project and an organising community, "Metadecidim". Decidim participants refer to the software, political and organising components of the project as "technical", "political" and "technopolitical" levels, respectively. By 2023, Decidim estimated that 400 city and regional governments and civil society institutions were running Decidim instances. Arab Spring During the Arab Spring, uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East were spearheaded by online activists. Initially, pro-democracy movements harnessed digital media to challenge authoritarian regimes. These regimes, however, adapted and integrated social media into their counter-insurgency strategies over time. Digital media served as a critical tool in transforming localized and individual dissent into structured movements with a shared awareness of common grievances and opportunities for collective action. Egyptian Revolution The Egyptian Revolution began on 25 January 2011, prompted by mass protests in Cairo, Egypt, against the long reign of President Hosni Mubarak, high unemployment, governmental corruption, poverty, and societal oppression. The 18-day revolution gained momentum not through initial acts of violence or protests, but via a single Facebook page, which quickly attracted the attention of thousands and eventually millions of Egyptians, evolving into a global phenomenon. The Internet became a tool of empowerment for the protestors, facilitating participation in their government's democratization process. Protestors effectively utilized digital platforms to communicate, organize, and collaborate, generating real-time impact. In response to the regime's failed attempt to disrupt political online discussions by severing all internet access, Google and Twitter collaborated to create a system that allowed information to reach the public without internet access. The interactive nature of media during this revolution enhanced civic participation and played a significant role in shaping the political outcome of the revolution and the democratization of the entire nation. The Egyptian Revolution has been interpreted by some as a paradigm shift from a group-controlled system to one characterized by "networked individualism". This transformation is tied to the post-"triple revolution" of technology, consisting of three key developments. First, the shift towards social networks, second, the widespread propagation of the instantaneous internet, and third, the ubiquity of mobile phones. These elements significantly impacted change through the Internet, providing an alternative, unregulated sphere for idea formation and protests. For instance, the "6 April Youth Movement" in Egypt established their political group on Facebook and called for a national strike. Despite the subsequent suppression of this event, the Facebook group persisted, encouraging other activist groups to utilize online media. Moreover, the Internet served as a medium for building international connections, amplifying the impact of the revolt. The rapid transmission of information via Twitter hashtags, for example, made the uprising globally known. In particular, over three million tweets contained popular hashtags such as #Egypt and #sidibouzid, further facilitating the spread of knowledge and fostering change in Egypt. Kony 2012 The Kony 2012 video, released on 5 March 2012 by the non-profit organization Invisible Children, launched an online grassroots campaign aimed at locating and arresting Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa. The video's mission was to raise global awareness about Kony's activities, with Jason Russell, a founder of Invisible Children, emphasizing the necessity of public support to urge the government's continued search for Kony. The organization leveraged the extensive reach of social media and contemporary technology to spotlight Kony's crimes. In response to the campaign, on 21 March 2012, a resolution was introduced by 33 Senators denouncing "the crimes against humanity" perpetrated by Kony and the LRA. This resolution supported the US government's ongoing efforts to boost the capabilities of regional military forces for civilian protection and the pursuit of LRA commanders. It also advocated for cross-border initiatives to augment civilian protection and aid populations affected by the LRA. Co-sponsor Senator Lindsey Graham noted the significant impact of public attention driven by social media, stating that the YouTube sensation would "help the Congress be more aggressive and will do more to lead to his demise than all other action combined". India Against Corruption (2011–2012) The India Against Corruption (IAC) movement was an influential anti-corruption crusade in India, garnering substantial attention during the anti-corruption protests of 2011 and 2012. Its primary focus was the contention surrounding the proposed Jan Lokpal bill. IAC sought to galvanize the populace in their pursuit of a less corrupt Indian society. However, internal divisions within the IAC's central committee led to the movement's split. Arvind Kejriwal left to establish the Aam Aadmi Party, while Anna Hazare created the Jantantra Morcha. Long March (Pakistan) Long March is a socio-political movement in Pakistan initiated by Qadri after returning from a seven-year residence in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in December 2012. Qadri called for a "million-men" march in Islamabad to protest government corruption. The march commenced on 14 January 2013, with thousands pledging to participate in a sit-in until their demands were met. The march began in Lahore with about 25,000 participants. During a rally in front of the parliament, Qadri critiqued the legislators saying, "There is no Parliament; there is a group of looters, thieves and dacoits [bandits] ... Our lawmakers are the lawbreakers.". After four days of sit-in, Qadri and the government reached an agreement—termed the Islamabad Long March Declaration—which pledged electoral reforms and enhanced political transparency. Despite Qadri's call for a "million-men" march, the government estimated the sit-in participants in Islamabad to number around 50,000. Five Star Movement (Italy) The Five Star Movement (M5S), a prominent political party in Italy, has been utilizing online voting since 2012 to select its candidates for Italian and European elections. These votes are conducted through a web-based application called Rousseau, accessible to registered members of Beppe Grillo's blog. Within this platform, M5S users are able to discuss, approve, or reject legislative proposals. These proposals are then presented in Parliament by the M5S group. For instance, the M5S's electoral law and the selection of its presidential candidate were determined via online voting. Notably, the decision to abolish a law against immigrants was made by online voting among M5S members, in opposition to the views of Grillo and Casaleggio. M5S's alliance with the UK Independence Party was also determined by online voting, albeit with limited options for the choice of European Parliament group for M5S. These were Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD), European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), and "Stay independent" (Non-Inscrits). The possibility of joining the Greens/EFA group was discussed but not available at the time due to the group's prior rejection of M5S. When the Conte I Cabinet collapsed, a new coalition between the Democratic Party and M5S was endorsed after over 100,000 members voted online, with 79.3% supporting the new coalition. COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance and impact of e-democracy. In 2020, the advent of COVID-19 led countries worldwide to implement safety measures as recommended by public health officials. This abrupt societal shift constrained social movements, causing a temporary halt to certain political issues. Despite these limitations, individuals leveraged digital platforms to express their views, create visibility for social movements, and strive to instigate change and raise awareness through democracy in social media. As reported by news analysis firm The ASEAN Post, the pandemic-induced limitations on traditional democratic spaces such as public meetings have led Filipinos, among others, to resort to social media, digital media, and collaborative platforms for engaging in public affairs and practising "active citizenship" in the virtual domain. This shift has enabled active participation in social, written, or visual interaction and the rectification of misinformation in a virtual setting. Opportunities and challenges Potential impacts E-democracy has the potential to inspire greater community involvement in political processes and policy decisions, interlacing its growth with complex internal aspects such as political norms and public pressure. The manner in which it is implemented is also closely connected to the specific model of democracy employed. Consequently, e-democracy is profoundly influenced by a country's internal dynamics as well as the external drivers defined by standard innovation and diffusion theory. In the current age, where the internet and social networking dominate daily life, individuals are increasingly advocating for their public representatives to adopt practices similar to those in other states or countries concerning the online dissemination of government information. By making government data easily accessible and providing straightforward channels to communicate with government officials, e-democracy addresses the needs of modern society. E-democracy promotes more rapid and efficient dissemination of political information, encourages public debate, and boosts participation in decision-making processes. Social media platforms have emerged as tools of empowerment, particularly among younger individuals, stimulating their participation in electoral processes. These platforms also afford politicians opportunities for direct engagement with constituents. A notable example is the 2016 United States presidential elections, in which Donald Trump primarily used Twitter to communicate policy initiatives and goals. Similar practices have been observed among various global leaders, such as Justin Trudeau, Jair Bolsonaro, and Hassan Rouhani, who maintain active Twitter accounts. Some observers argue that the government's online publication of public information enhances its transparency, enabling more extensive public scrutiny, and consequently promoting a more equitable distribution of power within society. Jane Fountain, in her 2001 work Building the Virtual State, delves into the expansive reach of e-democracy and its interaction with traditional governmental structures. She offers a comprehensive model to understand how pre-existing norms, procedures, and rules within bureaucracies impact the adoption of new technological forms. Fountain suggests that this form of e-government, in its most radical manifestation, would necessitate a significant overhaul of the modern administrative state, with routine electronic consultations involving elected politicians, civil servants, pressure groups, and other stakeholders becoming standard practice at all stages of policy formulation. States where legislatures are controlled by the Republican Party, as well as those characterized by a high degree of legislative professionalization and active professional networks, have shown a greater propensity to embrace e-government and e-democracy. E-democracy provides numerous benefits, contributing to a more engaged public sphere. It encourages increased public participation by offering platforms for citizens to express their opinions through websites, emails, and other electronic communication channels, influencing planning and decision-making processes. This digital democracy model broadens the number and diversity of individuals who exercise their democratic rights by conveying their thoughts to decision-making bodies about various proposals and issues. Moreover, it cultivates a virtual public space, fostering interaction, discussion, and the exchange of ideas among citizens. E-democracy also promotes convenience, allowing citizens to participate at their own pace and comfort. Its digital nature enables it to reach vast audiences with relative ease and minimal cost. The system promotes interactive communication, encouraging dialogue between authorities and citizens. It also serves as an effective platform for disseminating large amounts of information, maintaining clarity and minimizing distortion. Challenges While e-democracy platforms, also known as digital democracy platforms, offer enhanced opportunities for exercising voting rights, they are also susceptible to disruption. Digital voting platforms, for example, have faced attacks aimed at influencing election outcomes. As Dobrygowski states, "cybersecurity threats to the integrity of both electoral mechanisms and government institutions are, quite uncomfortably, more intangible." While traditional paper ballots are often considered the most secure method for conducting elections, digital voting provides the convenience of electronic participation. However, the successful implementation of this system necessitates continual innovations and contributions from third parties. Ensuring digital inclusion To foster a robust digital democracy, it's imperative to promote digital inclusion that ensures all citizens, regardless of income, education, gender, religion, ethnicity, language, physical and mental health, have equal opportunities to participate in public policy formulation. During the 2020 elections, digital communications were utilized by various communities to cultivate a sense of inclusivity. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic saw a surge in online political participation among the youth, demonstrated by the signing of online petitions and participation in digital protests. Even as youth participation in traditional politics dwindles, young people show significant support for pressure groups mobilized through social media. For instance, the Black Lives Matter movement gained widespread recognition on social media, enabling many young people to participate in meaningful ways, including online interactions and protests. Requirements E-Democracy is facilitated by its significance in fostering participation, promoting social inclusivity, displaying sensitivity to individual perspectives, and offering flexible means of engagement. The Internet endows a sense of relevance to participation by giving everyone a platform for their voices to be heard and articulated. It also facilitates a structure of social inclusivity through a broad array of websites, groups, and social networks, each representing diverse viewpoints and ideas. Individual needs are met by enabling the public and rapid expression of personal opinions. Furthermore, the Internet offers an exceptionally flexible environment for engagement; it is cost-effective and widely accessible. Through these attributes, e-democracy and the deployment of the Internet can play a pivotal role in societal change. Internet accessibility The progression of e-democracy is impeded by the digital divide, which separates those actively engaged in electronic communities from those who do not participate. Proponents of e-democracy often recommend governmental actions to bridge this digital gap. The divergence in e-governance and e-democracy between the developed and the developing world is largely due to the digital divide. Practical concerns include the digital divide that separates those with access from those without, and the opportunity cost associated with investments in e-democracy innovations. There also exists a degree of skepticism regarding the potential impact of online participation. Security and privacy The government has a responsibility to ensure that online communications are both secure and respectful of individuals' privacy. This aspect gains prominence when considering electronic voting. The complexity of electronic voting systems surpasses other digital transaction mechanisms, necessitating authentication measures that can counter ballot manipulation or its potential threat. These measures may encompass the use of smart cards, which authenticate a voter's identity while maintaining the confidentiality of the cast vote. Electronic voting in Estonia exemplifies a successful approach to addressing the privacy-identity dilemma inherent in internet voting systems. However, the ultimate goal should be to match the security and privacy standards of existing manual systems. Despite these advancements, recent research has indicated, through a SWOT analysis, that the risks of an e-government are related to data loss, privacy and security, and user adoption. Government responsiveness To encourage citizens to engage in online consultations and discussions, the government needs to be responsive and clearly demonstrate that public engagement influences policy outcomes. It's crucial for citizens to have the opportunity to contribute at a time and place that suits them and when their viewpoints will make a difference. The government should put structures in place to accommodate increased participation. Considering the role that intermediaries and representative organizations might play could be beneficial to ensure issues are debated in a manner that is democratic, inclusive, tolerant, and productive. To amplify the efficacy of existing legal rights allowing public access to information held by public authorities, citizens ought to be granted the right to productive public deliberation and moderation. Some researchers argue that many initiatives have been driven by technology rather than by the core values of government, which has resulted in weakened democracy. Participation and engagement Interaction modes E-democracy presents an opportunity to reconcile the conventional trade-off between the size of the group involved in democratic processes and the depth of will expression (refer to the Figure). Historically, broad group participation was facilitated via simple ballot voting, but the depth of will expression was confined to predefined options (those on the ballot). Depth of will expression was obtained by limiting participant numbers through representative democracy (refer to the Table). The social media Web 2.0 revolution has demonstrated the possibility of achieving both large group sizes and depth of will expression. However, expressions of will in social media are unstructured, making their interpretation challenging and often subjective (see Table). Novel information processing methods, including big data analytics and the semantic web, suggest potential ways to exploit these capabilities for future e-democracy implementations. Currently, e-democracy processes are facilitated by technologies such as electronic mailing lists, peer-to-peer networks, collaborative software, and apps like GovernEye, Countable, VoteSpotter, wikis, internet forums, and blogs. The examination of e-democracy encompasses its various stages including "information provision, deliberation, and participation in decision-making." This assessment also takes into account the different hierarchical levels of governance such as local communities, states/regions, nations, and the global stage. Further, the scope of involvement is also considered, which includes the participation of citizens/voters, the media, elected officials, political organizations, and governments. Therefore, e-democracy's evolution is influenced by such broad changes as increased interdependency, technological multimediation, partnership governance, and individualism. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and Blogspot, are increasingly significant in democratic dialogues. The role of social media in e-democracy is an emerging field of study, along with technological developments such as argument maps and the semantic web. Another notable development is the combination of open social networking communication with structured communication from closed expert and/or policy-maker panels, such as through the modified Delphi method (HyperDelphi). This approach seeks to balance distributed knowledge and self-organized memories with critical control, responsibility, and decision-making in electronic democracy. Social networking serves as an entry point within the citizens' environment, engaging them on their terms. Proponents of e-government believe this helps the government act more in tune with its public. Examples of state usage include The Official Commonwealth of Virginia Homepage, where citizens can find Google tools and open social forums, considered significant steps towards the maturity of e-democracy. Community involvement Civic engagement encompasses three key aspects: understanding public affairs (political knowledge), trust in the political system (political trust), and involvement in governmental decision-making processes (political participation). The internet enhances civic engagement by creating a new medium for interaction with government institutions. Advocates of e-democracy propose that it can facilitate more active government engagement and inspire citizens to actively influence decisions that directly affect them. Numerous studies indicate an increased use of the internet for obtaining political information. From 1996 to 2002, the percentage of adults claiming that the internet played a significant role in their political choices rose from around 14 to 20 percent. In 2002, almost a quarter of the population stated that they had visited a website to research specific public policy issues. Research has indicated that people are more likely to visit websites that challenge their viewpoints rather than those that align with their own beliefs. Around 16 percent of the population has participated in online political activities such as joining campaigns, volunteering time, donating money, or participating in polls. A survey conducted by Philip N. Howard revealed that nearly two-thirds of the adult population in the United States has interacted with online political news, information, or other content over the past four election cycles. People tend to reference the websites of special interest groups more frequently than those of specific elected leaders, political candidates, political parties, nonpartisan groups, and local community groups. The vast informational capacity of the Internet empowers citizens to gain a deeper understanding of governmental and political affairs, while its interactive nature fosters new forms of communication with elected officials and public servants. By providing access to contact information, legislation, agendas, and policies, governments can enhance transparency, thereby potentially facilitating more informed participation both online and offline. As articulated by Matt Leighninger, the internet bolsters government by enhancing individual empowerment and reinforcing group agency. The internet avails vital information to citizens, empowering them to influence public policy more effectively. The utilization of online tools for organizing allows citizens to participate more easily in the government's policy-making process, leading to a surge in public engagement. Social media platforms foster networks of individuals whose online activities can shape the political process, including prompting politicians to intensify public appeal efforts in their campaigns. E-democracy offers a digital platform for public dialogue, enhancing the interaction between government and its residents. This form of online engagement enables the government to concentrate on key issues the community wishes to address. The underpinning philosophy is that every citizen should have the potential to influence their local governance. E-democracy aligns with local communities and provides an opportunity for any willing citizen to make a contribution. The essence of an effective e-democracy lies not just in citizen contribution to government activities, but in promoting mutual communication and collaboration among citizens for the improvement of their own communities. E-democracy utilizes information and communication technologies (ICT) to bolster the democratic processes of decision-making. These technologies play a pivotal role in informing and organizing citizens in different avenues of civic participation. Moreover, ICTs enhance the active engagement of citizens, and foster collaboration among stakeholders for policy formation within political processes across all stages of governance. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identifies three key aspects regarding the role of ICTs in fostering civic engagement. The first aspect is timing, with most civic engagement activities occurring during the agenda-setting phase of a cycle. The second factor is adaptation, which refers to how ICTs evolve to facilitate increased civic participation. The final aspect is integration, representing how emerging ICTs blend new and traditional methods to maximize civic engagement. ICT fosters the possibility of a government that is both more democratic and better informed by facilitating open online collaborations between professionals and the public. The responsibility of collecting information and making decisions is shared between those possessing technological expertise and the traditionally recognized decision-makers. This broadened public involvement in the exchange of ideas and policies results in more democratic decision-making. Furthermore, ICT enhances the notion of pluralism within a democracy, introducing fresh issues and viewpoints. Ordinary citizens have the opportunity to become creators of political content and commentary, for instance, by establishing individual blogs and websites. Collaborative efforts in the online political sphere, similar to ABC News' Campaign Watchdog initiative, allow citizens to report any rule violations committed by any political party during elections. In the 2000 United States presidential race, candidates frequently utilized their websites to not only encourage their supporters to vote but to motivate their friends to vote as well. This dual-process approach—urging an individual to vote and then to prompt their friends to vote—was just beginning to emerge during that time. Today, political participation through various social media platforms is typical, and civic involvement via online forums is common. Through the use of ICTs, individuals interested in politics have the ability to become more engaged. Youth involvement In previous years, individuals belonging to Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z, typically encompassing those aged 35 and below as of the mid-2000s, have been noted for their relative disengagement from political activities. The implementation of electronic democracy has been proposed as a potential solution to foster increased voter turnout, democratic participation, and political literacy among these younger demographics. E-citizenship Youth e-citizenship presents a dichotomy between two predominant approaches: management and autonomy. The strategy of "targeting" younger individuals, prompting them to "play their part," can be interpreted as either an incentive for youth activism or a mechanism to regulate it. Autonomous e-citizens argue that despite their relative inexperience, young people should have the right to voice their perspectives on issues that they personally consider important. Conversely, proponents of managed e-citizenship view youth as nascent citizens transitioning from childhood to adulthood, and hence not yet fully equipped to engage in political discourse without proper guidance. Another significant concern is the role of the Internet, with advocates of managed e-citizenship arguing that young people may be especially susceptible to misinformation or manipulation online. This discord manifests as two perspectives on democracy: one that sees democracy as an established and reasonably just system, where young people should be motivated to participate, and another that views democracy as a political and cultural goal best achieved through networks where young people interact. What might initially appear as mere differences in communication styles ultimately reveals divergent strategies for accessing and influencing power. In Scotland The Highland Youth Voice, an initiative in Scotland, is an exemplar of efforts to bolster democratic participation, particularly through digital means. Despite an increasing emphasis on the youth demographic in UK governmental policy and issues, their engagement and interest have been waning. During the 2001 elections to the Westminster Parliament in the UK, voter turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds was estimated to be a mere 40%. This contrasts starkly with the fact that over 80% of 16- to 24-year-olds have accessed the internet at some point. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the importance of educating young individuals as citizens of their respective nations. It advocates for the promotion of active political participation, which they can shape through robust debate and communication. The Highland Youth Voice strives to boost youth participation by understanding their governmental needs, perspectives, experiences, and aspirations. It provides young Scots, aged 14 to 18, an opportunity to influence decision-makers in the Highlands. This body, consisting of approximately 100 elected members, represents youth voices. Elections occur biennially and candidates are chosen directly from schools and youth forums. The Highland Youth Voice website serves as a pivotal platform where members can discuss issues pertinent to them, partake in online policy debates, and experience a model of e-democracy through simplified online voting. Thus, the website encompasses three key features, forming an online forum that enables youth self-education, participation in policy discourse, and engagement in the e-democracy process. Civil society's role Civil society organizations have a pivotal role in democracies, as highlighted by theorists such as Alexis de Tocqueville, acting as platforms for citizens to gain knowledge about public affairs and as sources of power beyond the state's reach. According to Hans Klein, a public policy researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, there exist several obstacles to participation in these forums, including logistical challenges of physical meetings. Klein's study of a civic association in the northeastern US revealed that electronic communication significantly boosted the organization's capacity to achieve its objectives. Given the relatively low cost of exchanging information over the Internet and its potential for wide reach, the medium has become an attractive venue for disseminating political information, especially among interest groups and parties operating on smaller budgets.'" For example, environmental or social interest groups might leverage the Internet as a cost-effective mechanism to raise awareness around their causes. Unlike traditional media outlets, like television or newspapers, which often necessitate substantial financial investments, the Internet provides an affordable and extensive platform for information dissemination. As such, the Internet could potentially supplant certain traditional modes of political communication, such as telephone, television, newspapers, and radio. Consequently, civil society has been increasingly integrating into the online realm. Civic society encompasses various types of associations. The term interest group is typically used to refer to formal organizations focused on specific social groups, economic sectors like trade unions, business and professional associations, or specific issues such as abortion, gun control, or the environment. Many of these traditional interest groups have well-established organizational structures and formal membership rules, primarily oriented towards influencing government and policy-making processes. Transnational advocacy networks assemble loose coalitions of these organizations under common umbrella organizations that cross national borders. Innovative tools are increasingly being developed to empower bloggers, webmasters, and social media owners. These aim to transition from the Internet's strictly informational use to its application as a medium for social organization, independent of top-down initiatives. For instance, the concept of Calls to action is a novel approach that enables webmasters to inspire their audience into action without the need for explicit leadership. This trend is global, with countries like India cultivating an active blogosphere that encourages internet users to express their perspectives and opinions. The Internet serves multifaceted roles for these organizations. It functions as a platform for lobbying elected officials, public representatives, and policy elites; networking with affiliated associations and groups; mobilizing organizers, activists, and members through action alerts, newsletters, and emails; raising funds and recruiting support; and conveying their messages to the public via traditional news media channels. Deliberative democracy The Internet holds a pivotal role in deliberative democracy, a model that underscores dialogue, open discussion, and access to diverse perspectives in decision-making. It provides an interactive platform and functions as a vital instrument for research within the deliberative process. The Internet facilitates the exchange of ideas through a myriad of platforms such as websites, blogs, and social networking sites like Twitter, all of which champion freedom of expression.[citation needed] It allows for easily accessible and cost-effective information, paving the way for change. One of the intrinsic attributes of the Internet is its unregulated nature, offering a platform for all viewpoints, regardless of their accuracy. The autonomy granted by the Internet can foster and advocate change, a critical factor in e-democracy. A notable development in the application of e-democracy in the deliberative process is the California Report Card. This tool was created by the Data and Democracy Initiative of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society at the University of California, Berkeley, in collaboration with Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. Launched in January 2014, the California Report Card is a web application optimized for mobile use, aimed at facilitating online deliberative democracy. The application features a brief opinion poll on six pertinent issues, after which participants are invited to join an online "café". In this space, they are grouped with users sharing similar views through Principal Component Analysis, and are encouraged to participate in the deliberative process by suggesting new political issues and rating the suggestions of other participants. The design of the California Report Card is intended to minimize the influence of private agendas on the discussion. Openforum.com.au also exemplifies eDemocracy. This non-profit Australian project facilitates high-level policy discussions, drawing participants such as politicians, senior public servants, academics, business professionals, and other influential stakeholders. The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN Act), presented as an alternative to SOPA and PIPA, garners the support of major companies like Google and Facebook. Its website, Keep The Web Open, not only provides full access to the bill but also incorporates public input—over 150 modifications have been made through user contributions. The peer-to-patent project allows public participation in the patent review process by providing research and 'prior art' publications for patent examiners to assess the novelty of an invention. In this process, the community nominates ten pieces of prior art to be reviewed by the patent examiner. This not only enables direct communication between the public and the patent examiner but also creates a structured environment that prompts participants to provide relevant information to aid in decision-making. By allowing experts and the general public to collaborate in finding solutions, the project aims to enhance the efficacy of the decision-making process. It offers a platform for citizens to participate and express their ideas beyond merely checking boxes that limit their opinions to predefined options. Voting and polling One significant challenge in implementing e-democracy is ensuring the security of internet-voting systems. The potential interference from viruses and malware, which could alter or inhibit citizens' votes on critical issues, hinders the widespread adoption of e-democracy as long as such cybersecurity threats persist. E-voting presents several practical challenges that can affect its legitimacy in elections. For instance, electronic voting machines can be vulnerable to physical interference, as they are often left unattended prior to elections, making them susceptible to tampering. This issue led to a decision by the Netherlands in 2017 to count election votes manually. Furthermore, 'Direct Recording Electronic' (DRE) systems, used in numerous US states, are quickly becoming outdated and prone to faults. A study by USENIX discovered that certain DREs in New Jersey inaccurately counted votes, potentially casting votes for unintended candidates without voters' knowledge. The study found these inconsistencies to be widespread with that specific machine. Despite the potential of electronic voting to increase voter turnout, the absence of a paper trail in DREs can lead to untraceable errors, which could undermine its application in digital democracy. Diminished participation in democracy may stem from the proliferation of polls and surveys, potentially leading to a condition known as survey fatigue. Government openness and accessibility Through Listserv's, RSS feeds, mobile messaging, micro-blogging services and blogs, government and its agencies can disseminate information to citizens who share common interests and concerns. For instance, many government representatives, including Rhode Island State Treasurer Frank T. Caprio, have begun to utilize Twitter as an easy medium for communication. Several non-governmental websites, like transparent.gov.com, and USA.gov, have developed cross-jurisdiction, customer-focused applications that extract information from thousands of governmental organizations into a unified system, making it easier for citizens to access information. E-democracy has led to a simplified process and access to government information for public-sector agencies and citizens. For example, the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles simplified the process of certifying driver records for admission in county court proceedings. Indiana became the first state to allow government records to be digitally signed, legally certified and delivered electronically using Electronic Postmark technology. The internet has increased government accessibility to news, policies, and contacts in the 21st century. In 2000, only two percent of government sites offered three or more services online; in 2007, that figure was 58 percent. Also, in 2007, 89 percent of government sites allowed the public to email a public official directly rather than merely emailing the webmaster (West, 2007)"(Issuu). Controversies and concern Opposition Information and communications technologies can be utilized for both democratic and anti-democratic purposes. For instance, digital technology can be used to promote both coercive control and active participation. The vision of anti-democratic use of technology is exemplified in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Critiques associated with direct democracy are also considered applicable to e-democracy. This includes the potential for direct governance to cause the polarization of opinions, populism, and demagoguery. Cybersecurity The current inability to protect internet traffic from interference and manipulation has significantly limited the potential of e-democracy for decision-making. As a result, most experts express opposition to the use of the internet for widespread voting. Internet censorship In countries with severe government censorship, the full potential of e-democracy might not be realized. Internet clampdowns often occur during extensive political protests. For instance, the series of internet blackouts in the Middle East in 2011, termed as the "Arab Net Crackdown", provides a significant example. Governments in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Iran, and Yemen have all implemented total internet censorship in response to the numerous pro-democracy demonstrations within their respective nations. These lockdowns were primarily instituted to prevent the dissemination of cell phone videos that featured images of government violence against protesters. Social media manipulation Joshua A. Tucker and his colleagues critique e-democracy, pointing out that the adaptability and openness of social media may allow political entities to manipulate it for their own ends. They suggest that authorities could use social media to spread authoritarian practices in several ways. Firstly, by intimidating opponents, monitoring private conversations, and even jailing those who voice undesirable opinions. Secondly, by flooding online spaces with pro-regime messages, thereby diverting and occupying these platforms. Thirdly, by disrupting signal access to hinder the flow of information. Lastly, by banning globalized platforms and websites. Populism concerns A study that interviewed elected officials in Austria's parliament revealed a broad and strong opposition to e-democracy. These officials held the view that citizens, generally uninformed, should limit their political engagement to voting. The task of sharing opinions and ideas, they contended, belonged solely to elected representatives. Contrary to this view, theories of epistemic democracy suggest that greater public engagement contributes to the aggregation of knowledge and intelligence. This active participation, proponents argue, enables democracies to better discern the truth. Stop Online Piracy Act The introduction of H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), in the United States House of Representatives, was perceived by many internet users as an attack on internet democracy. A contributor to the Huffington Post argued that defeating SOPA was crucial for the preservation of democracy and freedom of speech. Significantly, SOPA was indefinitely postponed following widespread protests, which included a site blackout by popular websites like Wikipedia on 18 January 2012. A comparable event occurred in India towards the end of 2011, when the country's Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal suggested pre-screening content for offensive material before its publication on the internet, with no clear mechanism for appeal. Subsequent reports, however, quote Sibal as stating that there would be no restrictions on internet use. Suitable government models Representative democracy A radical shift from a representative government to an internet-mediated direct democracy is not considered likely. Nonetheless, proponents suggest that a "hybrid model" which leverages the internet for enhanced governmental transparency and greater community involvement in decision-making could be forthcoming. The selection of committees, local town and city decisions, and other people-centric decisions could be more readily facilitated through this approach. This doesn't indicate a shift in the principles of democracy but rather an adaptation in the tools utilized to uphold them. E-democracy would not serve as a means to enact direct democracy, but rather as a tool to enable a more participatory form of democracy as it exists currently. Electronic direct democracy Supporters of e-democracy often foresee a transition from a representative democracy to a direct democracy, facilitated by technology, viewing this transition as an ultimate goal of e-democracy. In an electronic direct democracy (EDD) – also referred to as open source governance or collaborative e-democracy – citizens are directly involved in the legislative function through electronic means. They vote electronically on legislation, propose new legislation, and recall representatives, if any are retained. Technology supporting electronic direct democracy Technology to support electronic direct democracy (EDD) has been researched and developed at the Florida Institute of Technology, where it has been applied within student organizations. Many other software development projects are currently underway, along with numerous supportive and related projects. Several of these projects are now collaborating on a cross-platform architecture within the framework of the Meta-government project. EDD as a system is not fully implemented in a political government anywhere in the world, although several initiatives are currently forming. In the United States, businessman and politician Ross Perot was a prominent supporter of EDD, advocating for "electronic town halls" during his 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns. Switzerland, already partially governed by direct democracy, is making progress towards such a system. Senator On-Line, an Australian political party established in 2007, proposes to institute an EDD system so that Australians can decide which way the senators vote on each and every bill. A similar initiative was formed 2002 in Sweden where the party Direktdemokraterna, running for the Parliament, offered its members the power to decide the actions of the party over all or some areas of decision, or to use a proxy with immediate recall for one or several areas. Liquid democracy Liquid democracy, or direct democracy incorporating a delegable proxy, enables citizens to appoint a proxy for voting on their behalf, while retaining the ability to cast their own vote on legislation. This voting and proxy assignment could be conducted electronically. Extending this concept, proxies could establish proxy chains; for instance, if citizen A appoints citizen B, and B appoints citizen C, and only C votes on a proposed bill, C's vote will represent all three of them. Citizens could also rank their proxies by preference, meaning that if their primary proxy does not vote, their vote could be cast by their second-choice proxy. Wikidemocracy One form of e-democracy that has been proposed is "wikidemocracy", where the codex of laws in a government legislature could be editable via a wiki, similar to Wikipedia. In 2012, J Manuel Feliz-Teixeira suggested that the resources necessary for implementing wikidemocracy were already accessible. He envisages a system in which citizens can participate in legislative, executive, and judiciary roles via a wiki-system. Every citizen would have free access to this wiki and a personal ID to make policy reforms continuously until the end of December, when all votes would be tallied. Perceived benefits of wikidemocracy include a cost-free system that eliminates elections and the need for parliament or representatives, as citizens would directly represent themselves, and the ease of expressing one's opinion. However, there are several potential obstacles and disagreements. The digital divide and educational inequality could hinder the full potential of a wikidemocracy. Similarly, differing rates of technological adoption mean that some people might readily accept new methods, while others reject or are slow to adapt. Security is also a concern; we would need to trust that the system administrators would ensure a high level of integrity to safeguard votes in the public domain. Peter Levine concurs that wikidemocracy could increase discussion on political and moral issues but disagrees with Feliz-Teixeira, arguing that representatives and formal governmental structures would still be needed. The term "wikidemocracy" is also used to refer to more specific instances of e-democracy. For example, in August 2011 in Argentina, the voting records from the presidential election were made available to the public in an online format for scrutiny. More broadly, the term can refer to the democratic values and environments facilitated by wikis. In 2011, a group in Finland explored the concept of wikidemocracy by creating an online "shadow government program". This initiative was essentially a compilation of the political views and goals of various Finnish groups, assembled on a wiki. Egora Egora, also known as "intelligent democracy", is a free software application developed for political opinion formation and decision-making. It is filed under the copyleft licensing system. The name "Egora" is a blend of "electronic" and "agora", a term from Ancient Greek denoting the central public space in city-states (polis). The ancient agora was the hub of public life, facilitating social interactions, business transactions, and discussions. Drawing from this Ancient Greek concept, Egora aims to foster a new, rational, efficient, and incorruptible form of democratic organization. It allows users to form their own political philosophies from diverse ideas, ascertain the most popular ideas among the public, organize meetings to scrutinize and debate these ideas, and employ a simple algorithm to identify true representatives of the public will. In popular media The theme of e-democracy has frequently appeared in science fiction. Works such as David's Sling by Marc Stiegler and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card notably predicted forms of the internet before it actually came into existence. These early conceptualizations of the internet, and their implications for democracy, served as major plot drivers in these stories. David's Sling In David's Sling, Marc Stiegler presents e-democracy as a strategy leveraged by a team of hackers to construct a computer-controlled smart weapon. They utilize an online debate platform, the Information Decision Duel, where two parties delve deeply into the intricacies of their arguments, dissecting the pros and cons before a neutral referee selects the more convincing side. This fictional portrayal of an internet-like system for public discourse echoes real-world aspirations for e-democracy, underscoring thorough issue analysis, technological enablement, and transparency. The book's dedication, "To those who never stop seeking the third alternatives," epitomizes this emphasis on comprehensive issue scrutiny. Ender's Game Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game also explores e-democracy, with the internet portrayed as a powerful platform for political discourse and social change. Two of the characters, siblings Valentine and Peter, use this platform to anonymously share their political views, gaining considerable influence. Their activities lead to a significant political shift, even though they are just children posing as adults. This highlights the issue of true identity within online participation and raises questions about the potential for manipulation in e-democracy. Other portrayals E-democracy has also been depicted in: The Evitable Conflict by Isaac Asimov: Machines manage the economy for common welfare and make all key societal decisions. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein: A sentient computer assists Lunar colonists in their rebellion against Earth, with significant decisions made through public electronic voting. Distraction by Bruce Sterling: The novel explores potential perils of e-democracy in a future United States heavily influenced by the internet and electronic voting. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow: The future society in this work practices digital direct democracy with a reputation-based currency called "Whuffie". Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge: The novel imagines societal changes due to technological advancements, including more participatory democracy through continuous public polling and consensus-building tools. The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds: The narrative centers on a future society where an artificial intelligence, the Prefect, administers a democratic system. These works provide varied perspectives on the potential benefits and challenges of e-democracy. See also Collaborative e-democracy Collaborative governance Decidim, a "technopolitical network for participatory democracy" Democracy experiment Democratization of technology E2D International E-Government E-participation Electronic civil disobedience Electronic Democracy Party, a political party in Turkey Emergent democracy eRulemaking Hacktivism Index of Internet-related articles Internet activism Isocracy IserveU, a Canadian-based online voting platform Media democracy Online consultation Online deliberation Online Party of Canada, a political party in Canada Open politics Open source governance Outline of the Internet Parliamentary informatics ParoleWatch Party of Internet Democracy, a political party in Hungary Participation Platform cooperative Public Whip Second Superpower Smart mob Spatial Citizenship Technocracy Technology and society TheyWorkForYou References External links Council of Europe's work on e-Democracy - Including the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on e-Democracy IWG established in 2006 Edc.unigue.ch - Academic research centre on electronic democracy. Directed by Alexander H. Trechsel, e-DC is a joint-venture between the University of Geneva's c2d, the European University Institute in Florence and the Oxford University's OII. Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet Democras ICEGOV - International Conference on Electronic Governance NYTimes Op-Ed Digital Democracy UK - launched to elected local councillors across the UK in 2013 to enable them to work alongside local residents in the democratic determination of community priorities Transparent Government Balbis Platform for digital democracy which enables creation of proposals, debates and voting. The Blueprint of E-Democracy Egora Politics and technology Types of democracy	0.77178	0.992268	0.765813
Paralanguage	Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, is a component of meta-communication that may modify meaning, give nuanced meaning, or convey emotion, by using techniques such as prosody, pitch, volume, intonation, etc. It is sometimes defined as relating to nonphonemic properties only. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously. The study of paralanguage is known as paralinguistics and was invented by George L. Trager in the 1950s, while he was working at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State. His colleagues at the time included Henry Lee Smith, Charles F. Hockett (working with him on using descriptive linguistics as a model for paralanguage), Edward T. Hall developing proxemics, and Ray Birdwhistell developing kinesics. Trager published his conclusions in 1958, 1960 and 1961. His work has served as a basis for all later research, especially those investigating the relationship between paralanguage and culture (since paralanguage is learned, it differs by language and culture). A good example is the work of John J. Gumperz on language and social identity, which specifically describes paralinguistic differences between participants in intercultural interactions. The film Gumperz made for BBC in 1982, Multiracial Britain: Cross talk, does a particularly good job of demonstrating cultural differences in paralanguage and their impact on relationships. Paralinguistic information, because it is phenomenal, belongs to the external speech signal (Ferdinand de Saussure's parole) but not to the arbitrary conmodality. Even vocal language has some paralinguistic as well as linguistic properties that can be seen (lip reading, McGurk effect), and even felt, e.g. by the Tadoma method. Aspects of the speech signal Perspectival aspects Speech signals arrive at a listener's ears with acoustic properties that may allow listeners to identify location of the speaker (sensing distance and direction, for example). Sound localization functions in a similar way also for non-speech sounds. The perspectival aspects of lip reading are more obvious and have more drastic effects when head turning is involved. Organic aspects The speech organs of different speakers differ in size. As children grow up, their organs of speech become larger, and there are differences between male and female adults. The differences concern not only size, but also proportions. They affect the pitch of the voice and to a substantial extent also the formant frequencies, which characterize the different speech sounds. The organic quality of speech has a communicative function in a restricted sense, since it is merely informative about the speaker. It will be expressed independently of the speaker's intention. Expressive aspects Paralinguistic cues such as loudness, rate, pitch, pitch contour, and to some extent formant frequencies of an utterance, contribute to the emotive or attitudinal quality of an utterance. Typically, attitudes are expressed intentionally and emotions without intention, but attempts to fake or to hide emotions are not unusual. Consequently, paralinguistic cues relating to expression have a moderate effect of semantic marking. That is, a message may be made more or less coherent by adjusting its expressive presentation. For instance, upon hearing an utterance such as "I drink a glass of wine every night before I go to sleep" is coherent when made by a speaker identified as an adult, but registers a small semantic anomaly when made by a speaker identified as a child. This anomaly is significant enough to be measured through electroencephalography, as an N400. Autistic individuals have a reduced sensitivity to this and similar effects. Emotional tone of voice, itself paralinguistic information, has been shown to affect the resolution of lexical ambiguity. Some words have homophonous partners; some of these homophones appear to have an implicit emotive quality, for instance, the sad "die" contrasted with the neutral "dye"; uttering the sound /dai/ in a sad tone of voice can result in a listener writing the former word significantly more often than if the word is uttered in a neutral tone. Linguistic aspects Ordinary phonetic transcriptions of utterances reflect only the linguistically informative quality. The problem of how listeners factor out the linguistically informative quality from speech signals is a topic of current research. Some of the linguistic features of speech, in particular of its prosody, are paralinguistic or pre-linguistic in origin. A most fundamental and widespread phenomenon of this kind is described by John Ohala as the "frequency code". This code works even in communication across species. It has its origin in the fact that the acoustic frequencies in the voice of small vocalizers are high, while they are low in the voice of large vocalizers. This gives rise to secondary meanings such as "harmless", "submissive", "unassertive", which are naturally associated with smallness, while meanings such as "dangerous", "dominant", and "assertive" are associated with largeness. In most languages, the frequency code also serves the purpose of distinguishing questions from statements. It is universally reflected in expressive variation, and it is reasonable to assume that it has phylogenetically given rise to the sexual dimorphism that lies behind the large difference in pitch between average female and male adults. In text-only communication such as email, chatrooms and instant messaging, paralinguistic elements can be displayed by emoticons, font and color choices, capitalization and the use of non-alphabetic or abstract characters. Nonetheless, paralanguage in written communication is limited in comparison with face-to-face conversation, sometimes leading to misunderstandings. Specific forms of paralinguistic respiration Gasps A gasp is a kind of paralinguistic respiration in the form of a sudden and sharp inhalation of air through the mouth. A gasp may indicate difficulty breathing and a panicked effort to draw air into the lungs. Gasps also occur from an emotion of surprise, shock or disgust. Like a sigh, a yawn, or a moan, a gasp is often an automatic and unintentional act. Gasping is closely related to sighing, and the inhalation characterizing a gasp induced by shock or surprise may be released as a sigh if the event causing the initial emotional reaction is determined to be less shocking or surprising than the observer first believed. As a symptom of physiological problems, apneustic respirations (a.k.a. apneusis), are gasps related to the brain damage associated with a stroke or other trauma. Sighs A sigh is a kind of paralinguistic respiration in the form of a deep and especially audible, single exhalation of air out of the mouth or nose, that humans use to communicate emotion. It is a voiced pharyngeal fricative, sometimes associated with a guttural glottal breath exuded in a low tone. It often arises from a negative emotion, such as dismay, dissatisfaction, boredom, or futility. A sigh can also arise from positive emotions such as relief, particularly in response to some negative situation ending or being avoided. Like a gasp, a yawn, or a moan, a sigh is often an automatic and unintentional act. In literature, a sigh is often used to signify that the person producing it is lovelorn. Scientific studies show that babies sigh after 50 to 100 breaths. This serves to improve the mechanical properties of lung tissue, and it also helps babies to develop a regular breathing rhythm. Behaviors equivalent to sighing have also been observed in animals such as dogs, monkeys, and horses. In text messages and internet chat rooms, or in comic books, a sigh is usually represented with the word itself, 'sigh', possibly within asterisks, sigh. Sighing is also a reflex, governed by a few neurons. Moans and groans Moaning and groaning both refer to an extended sound emanating from the throat, which is typically made by engaging in sexual activity. Moans and groans are also noises traditionally associated with ghosts, and their supposed experience of suffering in the afterlife. They are sometimes used to indicate displeasure. Throat clearing Throat clearing is a metamessaging nonverbal form of communication used in announcing one's presence upon entering the room or approaching a group. It is done by individuals who perceive themselves to be of higher rank than the group they are approaching and utilize the throat-clear as a form of communicating this perception to others. It can convey nonverbalized disapproval. In chimpanzee social hierarchy, this utterance is a sign of rank, directed by alpha males and higher-ranking chimps to lower-ranking ones and signals a mild warning or a slight annoyance. As a form of metacommunication, the throat-clear is acceptable only to signal that a formal business meeting is about to start. It is not acceptable business etiquette to clear one's throat when approaching a group on an informal basis; the basis of one's authority has already been established and requires no further reiteration by this ancillary nonverbal communication. Mhm is between a literal language and movement, by making a noise "hmm" or "mhm", to make a pause for the conversation or as a chance to stop and think. The "mhm" utterance is often used in narrative interviews, such as an interview with a disaster survivor or sexual violence victim. In this kind of interview, it is better for the interviewers or counselors not to intervene too much when an interviewee is talking. The "mhm" assures the interviewee that they are being heard and can continue their story. Observing emotional differences and taking care of an interviewee's mental status is an important way to find slight changes during conversation. Huh? "Huh?", meaning "what?" (that is, used when an utterance by another is not fully heard or requires clarification), is an essentially universal expression, but may be a normal word (learned like other words) and not paralanguage. If it is a word, it is a rare (or possibly even unique) one, being found with basically the same sound and meaning in almost all languages. Physiology of paralinguistic comprehension fMRI studies Several studies have used the fMRI paradigm to observe brain states brought about by adjustments of paralinguistic information. One such study investigated the effect of interjections that differed along the criteria of lexical index (more or less "wordy") as well as neutral or emotional pronunciation; a higher hemodynamic response in auditory cortical gyri was found when more robust paralinguistic data was available. Some activation was found in lower brain structures such as the pons, perhaps indicating an emotional response. See also Business communication Intercultural competence Kinesics Meta message Meta-communication Metacommunicative competence Prosody (linguistics) Proxemics References Further reading Cook, Guy (2001) The Discourse of Advertising. (second edition) London: Routledge. (chapter 4 on paralanguage and semiotics). Robbins, S. and Langton, N. (2001) Organizational Behaviour: Concepts, Controversies, Applications (2nd Canadian ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Traunmüller, H. (2005) "Paralinguale Phänomene" (Paralinguistic phenomena), chapter 76 in: SOCIOLINGUISTICS An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society, 2nd ed., U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier, P. Trudgill (eds.), Vol. 1, pp. 653–665. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York. Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, Patrick Fanning [1983] (1995) Messages: The Communication Skills Book, Second Edition, New Harbinger Publications, , , pp. 63–67. Human communication Nonverbal communication Sociological terminology Social philosophy Online chat	0.770454	0.993925	0.765774
Cultural imperialism	Cultural imperialism (also cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" describes practices in which a country engages culture (language, tradition, and ritual, politics, economics) to create and maintain unequal social and economic relationships among social groups. Cultural imperialism often uses wealth, media power and violence to implement the system of cultural hegemony that legitimizes imperialism. Cultural imperialism may take various forms, such as an attitude, a formal policy, or military action—insofar as each of these reinforces the empire's cultural hegemony. Research on the topic occurs in scholarly disciplines, and is especially prevalent in communication and media studies, education, foreign policy, history, international relations, linguistics, literature, post-colonialism, science, sociology, social theory, environmentalism, and sports. Cultural imperialism may be distinguished from the natural process of cultural diffusion. The spread of culture around the world is referred to as cultural globalization. Background and definitions Although the Oxford English Dictionary has a 1921 reference to the "cultural imperialism of the Russians", John Tomlinson, in his book on the subject, writes that the term emerged in the 1960s and has been a focus of research since at least the 1970s. Terms such as "media imperialism", "structural imperialism", "cultural dependency and domination", "cultural synchronization", "electronic colonialism", "ideological imperialism", and "economic imperialism" have all been used to describe the same basic notion of cultural imperialism. The term refers largely to the exercise of power in a cultural relationship in which the principles, ideas, practices, and values of a powerful, invading society are imposed upon indigenous cultures in the occupied areas. The process is often used to describe examples of when the compulsory practices of the cultural traditions of the imperial social group are implemented upon a conquered social group. The process is also present when powerful nations are able to flood the information and media space with their ideas, limiting countries and communities ability to compete and expose people to locally created content. Cultural imperialism has been called a process that intends to transition the "cultural symbols of the invading communities from 'foreign' to 'natural,''domestic, comments Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera. He described the process as being carried out in three phases by merchants, then the military, then politicians. While the third phase continues "in perpetuity", cultural imperialism tends to be "gradual, contested (and continues to be contested), and is by nature incomplete. The partial and imperfect configuration of this ontology takes an implicit conceptualization of reality and attempts—and often fails—to elide other forms of collective existence." In order to achieve that end, cultural engineering projects strive to "isolate residents within constructed spheres of symbols" such that they (eventually, in some cases after several generations) abandon other cultures and identify with the new symbols. "The broader intended outcome of these interventions might be described as a common recognition of possession of the land itself (on behalf of the organizations publishing and financing the images)." For Herbert Schiller, cultural imperialism refers to the American Empire's "coercive and persuasive agencies, and their capacity to promote and universalize an American 'way of life' in other countries without any reciprocation of influence." According to Schiller, cultural imperialism "pressured, forced and bribed" societies to integrate with the U.S.'s expansive capitalist model but also incorporated them with attraction and persuasion by winning "the mutual consent, even solicitation of the indigenous rulers." He continues remarks that it is:the sum processes by which a society is brought into the modern [U.S.-centered] world system and how its dominating stratum is attracted, pressured, forced, and sometimes bribed into shaping social institutions to correspond to, or even promote, the values and structures of the dominating centres of the system. The public media are the foremost example of operating enterprises that are used in the penetrative process. For penetration on a significant scale the media themselves must be captured by the dominating/penetrating power. This occurs largely through the commercialization of broadcasting.The historical contexts, iterations, complexities, and politics of Schiller's foundational and substantive theorization of cultural imperialism in international communication and media studies are discussed in detail by political economy of communication researchers Richard Maxwell, Vincent Mosco, Graham Murdock, and Tanner Mirrlees. Downing and Sreberny-Mohammadi state: "Cultural imperialism signifies the dimensions of the process that go beyond economic exploitation or military force. In the history of colonialism, (i.e., the form of imperialism in which the government of the colony is run directly by foreigners), the educational and media systems of many Third World countries have been set up as replicas of those in Britain, France, or the United States and carry their values. Western advertising has made further inroads, as have architectural and fashion styles. Subtly but powerfully, the message has often been insinuated that Western cultures are superior to the cultures of the Third World." Poststructuralism In poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, cultural imperialism is often understood as the cultural legacy of Western colonialism, or forms of social action contributing to the continuation of Western hegemony. To some outside of the realm of this discourse, the term is critiqued as being unclear, unfocused, and/or contradictory in nature. The work of French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault has heavily influenced use of the term cultural imperialism, particularly his philosophical interpretation of power and his concept of governmentality. Following an interpretation of power similar to that of Machiavelli, Foucault defines power as immaterial, as a "certain type of relation between individuals" that has to do with complex strategic social positions that relate to the subject's ability to control its environment and influence those around itself. According to Foucault, power is intimately tied with his conception of truth. "Truth", as he defines it, is a "system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation, and operation of statements" which has a "circular relation" with systems of power. Therefore, inherent in systems of power, is always "truth", which is culturally specific, inseparable from ideology which often coincides with various forms of hegemony. Cultural imperialism may be an example of this. Foucault's interpretation of governance is also very important in constructing theories of transnational power structure. In his lectures at the , Foucault often defines governmentality as the broad art of "governing", which goes beyond the traditional conception of governance in terms of state mandates, and into other realms such as governing "a household, souls, children, a province, a convent, a religious order, a family". This relates directly back to Machiavelli's treatise on how to retain political power at any cost, The Prince, and Foucault's aforementioned conceptions of truth and power. (i.e. various subjectivities are created through power relations that are culturally specific, which lead to various forms of culturally specific governmentality such as neoliberal governmentality.) Post-colonialism Edward Saïd is a founding figure of postcolonialism, established with the book Orientalism (1978), a humanist critique of The Enlightenment, which criticises Western knowledge of "The East"—specifically the English and the French constructions of what is and what is not "Oriental". Whereby said "knowledge" then led to cultural tendencies towards a binary opposition of the Orient vs. the Occident, wherein one concept is defined in opposition to the other concept, and from which they emerge as of unequal value. In Culture and Imperialism (1993), the sequel to Orientalism, Saïd proposes that, despite the formal end of the "age of empire" after the Second World War (1939–1945), colonial imperialism left a cultural legacy to the (previously) colonised peoples, which remains in their contemporary civilisations; and that said American cultural imperialism is very influential in the international systems of power. In "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak critiques common representations in the West of the Sati, as being controlled by authors other than the participants (specifically English colonizers and Hindu leaders). Because of this, Spivak argues that the subaltern, referring to the communities that participate in the Sati, are not able to represent themselves through their own voice. Spivak says that cultural imperialism has the power to disqualify or erase the knowledge and mode of education of certain populations that are low on the social and economic hierarchy. In A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Spivak argues that Western philosophy has a history of not only exclusion of the subaltern from discourse, but also does not allow them to occupy the space of a fully human subject. Contemporary ideas and debate Cultural imperialism can refer to either the forced acculturation of a subject population, or to the voluntary embracing of a foreign culture by individuals who do so of their own free will. Since these are two very different referents, the validity of the term has been called into question. Cultural influence can be seen by the "receiving" culture as either a threat to or an enrichment of its cultural identity. It seems therefore useful to distinguish between cultural imperialism as an (active or passive) attitude of superiority, and the position of a culture or group that seeks to complement its own cultural production, considered partly deficient, with imported products. The imported products or services can themselves represent, or be associated with, certain values (such as consumerism). According to one argument, the "receiving" culture does not necessarily perceive this link, but instead absorbs the foreign culture passively through the use of the foreign goods and services. Due to its somewhat concealed, but very potent nature, this hypothetical idea is described by some experts as "banal imperialism". For example, it is argued that while "American companies are accused of wanting to control 95 percent of the world's consumers", "cultural imperialism involves much more than simple consumer goods; it involved the dissemination of American principles such as freedom and democracy", a process which "may sound appealing" but which "masks a frightening truth: many cultures around the world are disappearing due to the overwhelming influence of corporate and cultural America". Some believe that the newly globalised economy of the late 20th and early 21st century has facilitated this process through the use of new information technology. This kind of cultural imperialism is derived from what is called "soft power". The theory of electronic colonialism extends the issue to global cultural issues and the impact of major multi-media conglomerates, ranging from Paramount, WarnerMedia, AT&T, Disney, News Corp, to Google and Microsoft with the focus on the hegemonic power of these mainly United States–based communication giants. Cultural diversity One of the reasons often given for opposing any form of cultural imperialism, voluntary or otherwise, is the preservation of cultural diversity, a goal seen by some as analogous to the preservation of ecological diversity. Proponents of this idea argue either that such diversity is valuable in itself, to preserve human historical heritage and knowledge, or instrumentally valuable because it makes available more ways of solving problems and responding to catastrophes, natural or otherwise. African colonisation Of all the areas of the world that scholars have claimed to be adversely affected by imperialism, Africa is probably the most notable. In the expansive "age of imperialism" of the nineteenth century, scholars have argued that European colonisation in Africa has led to the elimination of many various cultures, worldviews, and epistemologies, particularly through neocolonisation of public education. This, arguably has led to uneven development, and further informal forms of social control having to do with culture and imperialism. A variety of factors, scholars argue, lead to the elimination of cultures, worldviews, and epistemologies, such as "de-linguicization" (replacing native African languages with European ones), devaluing ontologies that are not explicitly individualistic, and at times going as far as to not only define Western culture itself as science, but that non-Western approaches to science, the Arts, indigenous culture, etc. are not even knowledge. One scholar, Ali A. Abdi, claims that imperialism inherently "involve[s] extensively interactive regimes and heavy contexts of identity deformation, misrecognition, loss of self-esteem, and individual and social doubt in self-efficacy." Therefore, all imperialism would always, already be cultural. Neoliberalism Neoliberalism is often critiqued by sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural studies scholars as being culturally imperialistic. Critics of neoliberalism, at times, claim that it is the newly predominant form of imperialism. Other scholars, such as Elizabeth Dunn and Julia Elyachar have claimed that neoliberalism requires and creates its own form of governmentality. In Dunn's work, Privatizing Poland, she argues that the expansion of the multinational corporation, Gerber, into Poland in the 1990s imposed Western, neoliberal governmentality, ideologies, and epistemologies upon the post-soviet persons hired. Cultural conflicts occurred most notably the company's inherent individualistic policies, such as promoting competition among workers rather than cooperation, and in its strong opposition to what the company owners claimed was bribery. In Elyachar's work, Markets of Dispossession, she focuses on ways in which, in Cairo, NGOs along with INGOs and the state promoted neoliberal governmentality through schemas of economic development that relied upon "youth microentrepreneurs". Youth microentrepreneurs would receive small loans to build their own businesses, similar to the way that microfinance supposedly operates. Elyachar argues though, that these programs not only were a failure, but that they shifted cultural opinions of value (personal and cultural) in a way that favoured Western ways of thinking and being. Development studies Often, methods of promoting development and social justice are critiqued as being imperialistic in a cultural sense. For example, Chandra Mohanty has critiqued Western feminism, claiming that it has created a misrepresentation of the "third world woman" as being completely powerless, unable to resist male dominance. Thus, this leads to the often critiqued narrative of the "white man" saving the "brown woman" from the "brown man". Other, more radical critiques of development studies, have to do with the field of study itself. Some scholars even question the intentions of those developing the field of study, claiming that efforts to "develop" the Global South were never about the South itself. Instead, these efforts, it is argued, were made in order to advance Western development and reinforce Western hegemony. Media effects studies The core of cultural imperialism thesis is integrated with the political-economy traditional approach in media effects research. Critics of cultural imperialism commonly claim that non-Western cultures, particularly from the Third World, will forsake their traditional values and lose their cultural identities when they are solely exposed to Western media. Nonetheless, Michael B. Salwen, in his book Critical Studies in Mass Communication (1991), claims that cross-consideration and integration of empirical findings on cultural imperialist influences is very critical in terms of understanding mass media in the international sphere. He recognises both of contradictory contexts on cultural imperialist impacts. The first context is where cultural imperialism imposes socio-political disruptions on developing nations. Western media can distort images of foreign cultures and provoke personal and social conflicts to developing nations in some cases. Another context is that peoples in developing nations resist to foreign media and preserve their cultural attitudes. Although he admits that outward manifestations of Western culture may be adopted, but the fundamental values and behaviours remain still. Furthermore, positive effects might occur when male-dominated cultures adopt the "liberation" of women with exposure to Western media and it stimulates ample exchange of cultural exchange. Criticisms of "cultural imperialism theory" Critics of scholars who discuss cultural imperialism have a number of critiques. Cultural imperialism is a term that is only used in discussions where cultural relativism and constructivism are generally taken as true. (One cannot critique promoting Western values if one believes that said values are good. Similarly, one cannot argue that Western epistemology is unjustly promoted in non-Western societies if one believes that those epistemologies are good.) Therefore, those who disagree with cultural relativism and/or constructivism may critique the employment of the term, cultural imperialism on those terms. John Tomlinson provides a critique of cultural imperialism theory and reveals major problems in the way in which the idea of cultural, as opposed to economic or political, imperialism is formulated. In his book Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction, he delves into the much debated "media imperialism" theory. Summarizing research on the Third World's reception of American television shows, he challenges the cultural imperialism argument, conveying his doubts about the degree to which US shows in developing nations actually carry US values and improve the profits of US companies. Tomlinson suggests that cultural imperialism is growing in some respects, but local transformation and interpretations of imported media products propose that cultural diversification is not at an end in global society. He explains that one of the fundamental conceptual mistakes of cultural imperialism is to take for granted that the distribution of cultural goods can be considered as cultural dominance. He thus supports his argument highly criticising the concept that Americanization is occurring through global overflow of American television products. He points to a myriad of examples of television networks who have managed to dominate their domestic markets and that domestic programs generally top the ratings. He also doubts the concept that cultural agents are passive receivers of information. He states that movement between cultural/geographical areas always involves translation, mutation, adaptation, and the creation of hybridity. Other key critiques are that the term is not defined well, and employs further terms that are not defined well, and therefore lacks explanatory power, that cultural imperialism is hard to measure, and that the theory of a legacy of colonialism is not always true. Dealing with cultural dominance David Rothkopf, managing director of Kissinger Associates and an adjunct professor of international affairs at Columbia University (who also served as a senior U.S. Commerce Department official in the Clinton Administration), wrote about cultural imperialism in his provocatively titled In Praise of Cultural Imperialism? in the summer 1997 issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Rothkopf says that the United States should embrace "cultural imperialism" as in its self-interest. But his definition of cultural imperialism stresses spreading the values of tolerance and openness to cultural change in order to avoid war and conflict between cultures as well as expanding accepted technological and legal standards to provide free traders with enough security to do business with more countries. Rothkopf's definition almost exclusively involves allowing individuals in other nations to accept or reject foreign cultural influences. He also mentions, but only in passing, the use of the English language and consumption of news and popular music and film as cultural dominance that he supports. Rothkopf additionally makes the point that globalisation and the Internet are accelerating the process of cultural influence. Culture is sometimes used by the organisers of society—politicians, theologians, academics, and families—to impose and ensure order, the rudiments of which change over time as need dictates. One need only look at the 20th century's genocides. In each one, leaders used culture as a political front to fuel the passions of their armies and other minions and to justify their actions among their people. Rothkopf then cites genocide and massacres in Armenia, Russia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda and East Timor as examples of culture (in some cases expressed in the ideology of "political culture" or religion) being misused to justify violence. He also acknowledges that cultural imperialism in the past has been guilty of forcefully eliminating the cultures of natives in the Americas and in Africa, or through use of the Inquisition, "and during the expansion of virtually every empire." The most important way to deal with cultural influence in any nation, according to Rothkopf, is to promote tolerance and allow, or even promote, cultural diversities that are compatible with tolerance and to eliminate those cultural differences that cause violent conflict: Successful multicultural societies, be they nations, federations, or other conglomerations of closely interrelated states, discern those aspects of culture that do not threaten union, stability, or prosperity (such as food, holidays, rituals, and music) and allow them to flourish. But they counteract or eradicate the more subversive elements of culture (exclusionary aspects of religion, language, and political/ideological beliefs). History shows that bridging cultural gaps successfully and serving as a home to diverse peoples requires certain social structures, laws, and institutions that transcend culture. Furthermore, the history of a number of ongoing experiments in multiculturalism, such as in the European Union, India, South Africa, Canada and the United States, suggests that workable, if not perfected, integrative models exist. Each is built on the idea that tolerance is crucial to social well-being, and each at times has been threatened by both intolerance and a heightened emphasis on cultural distinctions. The greater public good warrants eliminating those cultural characteristics that promote conflict or prevent harmony, even as less-divisive, more personally observed cultural distinctions are celebrated and preserved. Cultural dominance can also be seen in the 1930s in Australia where the Aboriginal Assimilation Policy acted as an attempt to wipe out the Native Australian people. The British settlers tried to biologically alter the skin colour of the Australian Aboriginal people through mixed breeding with white people. The policy also made attempts to forcefully conform the Aborigines to western ideas of dress and education. In history Although the term was popularised in the 1960s, and was used by its original proponents to refer to cultural hegemonies in a post-colonial world, cultural imperialism has also been used to refer to times further in the past. Antiquity The Ancient Greeks are known for spreading their culture around the Mediterranean and Near East through trade and conquest. During the Archaic Period, the burgeoning Greek city-states established settlements and colonies across the Mediterranean Sea, especially in Sicily and southern Italy, influencing the Etruscan and Roman peoples of the region. In the late fourth century BC, Alexander the Great conquered Persian and Indian territories all the way to the Indus River Valley and Punjab, spreading Greek religion, art, and science along the way. This resulted in the rise of Hellenistic kingdoms and cities across Egypt, the Near East, Central Asia, and Northwest India where Greek culture fused with the cultures of the indigenous peoples. The Greek influence prevailed even longer in science and literature, where medieval Muslim scholars in the Middle East studied the writings of Aristotle for scientific learning. The Roman Empire was also an early example of cultural imperialism. Early Rome, in its conquest of Italy, assimilated the people of Etruria by replacing the Etruscan language with Latin, which led to the demise of that language and many aspects of Etruscan civilisation. Cultural Romanization was imposed on many parts of Rome's empire by "many regions receiving Roman culture unwillingly, as a form of cultural imperialism." For example, when Greece was conquered by the Roman armies, Rome set about altering the culture of Greece to conform with Roman ideals. For instance, the Greek habit of stripping naked, in public, for exercise, was looked on askance by Roman writers, who considered the practice to be a cause of the Greeks' effeminacy and enslavement. The Roman example has been linked to modern instances of European imperialism in African countries, bridging the two instances with Slavoj Zizek's discussions of 'empty signifiers'. The Pax Romana was secured in the empire, in part, by the "forced acculturation of the culturally diverse populations that Rome had conquered." British Empire British worldwide expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries was an economic and political phenomenon. However, "there was also a strong social and cultural dimension to it, which Rudyard Kipling termed the 'white man's burden'." One of the ways this was carried out was by religious proselytising, by, amongst others, the London Missionary Society, which was "an agent of British cultural imperialism." Another way, was by the imposition of educational material on the colonies for an "imperial curriculum". Robin A. Butlin writes, "The promotion of empire through books, illustrative materials, and educational syllabuses was widespread, part of an education policy geared to cultural imperialism". This was also true of science and technology in the empire. Douglas M. Peers and Nandini Gooptu note that "Most scholars of colonial science in India now prefer to stress the ways in which science and technology worked in the service of colonialism, as both a 'tool of empire' in the practical sense and as a vehicle for cultural imperialism. In other words, science developed in India in ways that reflected colonial priorities, tending to benefit Europeans at the expense of Indians, while remaining dependent on and subservient to scientific authorities in the colonial metropolis." British sports were spread across the Empire partially as a way of encouraging British values and cultural uniformity, though this was tempered by the fact that colonised peoples gained a sense of nationalistic pride by defeating the British in their own sports. The analysis of cultural imperialism carried out by Edward Said drew principally from a study of the British Empire. According to Danilo Raponi, the cultural imperialism of the British in the 19th century had a much wider effect than only in the British Empire. He writes, "To paraphrase Said, I see cultural imperialism as a complex cultural hegemony of a country, Great Britain, that in the 19th century had no rivals in terms of its ability to project its power across the world and to influence the cultural, political and commercial affairs of most countries. It is the 'cultural hegemony' of a country whose power to export the most fundamental ideas and concepts at the basis of its understanding of 'civilisation' knew practically no bounds." In this, for example, Raponi includes Italy. Other pre-Second World War examples The New Cambridge Modern History writes about the cultural imperialism of Napoleonic France. Napoleon used the Institut de France "as an instrument for transmuting French universalism into cultural imperialism." Members of the institute (who included Napoleon), descended upon Egypt in 1798. "Upon arrival they organised themselves into an Institute of Cairo. The Rosetta Stone is their most famous find. The science of Egyptology is their legacy." After the First World War, Germans were worried about the extent of French influence in the occupied Rhineland, which under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles was under Allied control from 1918 to 1930. An early use of the term appeared in an essay by Paul Ruhlmann (as "Peter Hartmann") at that date, entitled French Cultural Imperialism on the Rhine. North American colonisation Keeping in line with the trends of international imperialistic endeavours, the expansion of Canadian and American territory in the 19th century saw cultural imperialism employed as a means of control over indigenous populations. This, when used in conjunction of more traditional forms of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the United States, saw devastating, lasting effects on indigenous communities. In 2017 Canada celebrated its 150-year anniversary of the confederating of three British colonies. As Catherine Murton Stoehr points out in Origins, a publication organised by the history departments of Ohio State University and Miami University, the occasion came with remembrance of Canada's treatment of First Nations people. Numerous policies focused on indigenous persons came into effect shortly thereafter. Most notable is the use of residential schools across Canada as a means to remove indigenous persons from their culture and instill in them the beliefs and values of the majorised colonial hegemony. The policies of these schools, as described by Ward Churchill in his book Kill the Indian, Save the Man, were to forcefully assimilate students who were often removed with force from their families. These schools forbid students from using their native languages and participating in their own cultural practices. Residential schools were largely run by Christian churches, operating in conjunction with Christian missions with minimal government oversight. The book, Stolen Lives: The Indigenous peoples of Canada and the Indian Residentials Schools, describes this form of operation: "The government provided little leadership, and the clergy in charge were left to decide what to teach and how to teach it. Their priority was to impart the teachings of their church or order—not to provide a good education that could help students in their post-graduation lives." In a New York Times op-ed, Gabrielle Scrimshaw describes her grandparents being forced to send her mother to one of these schools or risk imprisonment. After hiding her mother on "school pick up day" so as to avoid sending their daughter to institutions whose abuse was well known at the time (mid-20th century). Scrimshaw's mother was left with limited options for further education she says and is today illiterate as a result. Scrimshaw explains, "Seven generations of my ancestors went through these schools. Each new family member enrolled meant a compounding of abuse and a steady loss of identity, culture and hope. My mother was the last generation. the experience left her broken, and like so many, she turned to substances to numb these pains." A report, republished by CBC News, estimates nearly 6,000 children died in the care of these schools. The colonisation of native peoples in North America remains active today despite the closing of the majority of residential schools. This form of cultural imperialism continues in the use of Native Americans as mascots for schools and athletic teams. Jason Edward Black, a professor and chair in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, describes how the use of Native Americans as mascots furthers the colonial attitudes of the 18th and 19th centuries. In Deciphering Pocahontas, Kent Ono and Derek Buescher wrote: "Euro-American culture has made a habit of appropriating, and redefining what is 'distinctive' and constitutive of Native Americans." Nazi colonialism Cultural imperialism has also been used in connection with the expansion of German influence under the Nazis in the middle of the twentieth century. Alan Steinweis and Daniel Rogers note that even before the Nazis came to power, "Already in the Weimar Republic, German academic specialists on eastern Europe had contributed through their publications and teaching to the legitimization of German territorial revanchism and cultural imperialism. These scholars operated primarily in the disciplines of history, economics, geography, and literature." In the area of music, Michael Kater writes that during the WWII German occupation of France, Hans Rosbaud, a German conductor based by the Nazi regime in Strasbourg, became "at least nominally, a servant of Nazi cultural imperialism directed against the French." In Italy during the war, Germany pursued "a European cultural front that gravitates around German culture". The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels set up the European Union of Writers, "one of Goebbels's most ambitious projects for Nazi cultural hegemony. Presumably a means of gathering authors from Germany, Italy, and the occupied countries to plan the literary life of the new Europe, the union soon emerged as a vehicle of German cultural imperialism." For other parts of Europe, Robert Gerwarth, writing about cultural imperialism and Reinhard Heydrich, states that the "Nazis' Germanization project was based on a historically unprecedented programme of racial stock-taking, theft, expulsion and murder." Also, "The full integration of the [Czech] Protectorate into this New Order required the complete Germanization of the Protectorate's cultural life and the eradication of indigenous Czech and Jewish culture." The actions by Nazi Germany reflect on the notion of race and culture playing a significant role in imperialism. The idea that there is a distinction between the Germans and the Jews has created the illusion of Germans believing they were superior to the Jewish inferiors, the notion of us/them and self/others. Western imperialism Cultural imperialism manifests in the Western world in the form legal system to include commodification and marketing of indigenous resources (example medicinal, spiritual or artistic) and genetic resources (example human DNA). Americanization The terms "McDonaldization", "Disneyization" and "Cocacolonization" have been coined to describe the spread of Western cultural influence, especially after the end of the Cold War. There are many countries affected by the US and their pop-culture. For example, the film industry in Nigeria referred to as "Nollywood" being the second largest as it produces more films annually than the United States, their films are shown across Africa. Another term that describes the spread of Western cultural influence is "Hollywoodization" it is when American culture is promoted through Hollywood films which can culturally affect the viewers of Hollywood films. See also Related negative concepts Impact Cultural examples Theocultural Processes Examples Notes References External links "In Praise of Cultural Imperialism?", by David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy no. 107, Summer 1997, pp. 38–53, which argues that cultural imperialism is a positive thing. "Reconsidering cultural imperialism theory" by Livingston A. White, Transnational Broadcasting Studies no. 6, Spring/Summer 2001, which argues that the idea of media imperialism is outdated. Academic Web page from 24 February 2000, discussing the idea of cultural imperialism "Cultural Imperialism", BBC Radio 4 discussion with Linda Colley, Phillip Dodd and Mary Beard (In Our Time, 27 June 2002) Cultural geography Cultural hegemony Cultural studies Cultural concepts Imperialism Political science	0.770098	0.99438	0.76577
Situated cognition	Situated cognition is a theory that posits that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts. Situativity theorists suggest a model of knowledge and learning that requires thinking on the fly rather than the storage and retrieval of conceptual knowledge. In essence, cognition cannot be separated from the context. Instead, knowing exists in situ, inseparable from context, activity, people, culture, and language. Therefore, learning is seen in terms of an individual's increasingly effective performance across situations rather than in terms of an accumulation of knowledge, since what is known is co-determined by the agent and the context. History While situated cognition gained recognition in the field of educational psychology in the late twentieth century, it shares many principles with older fields such as critical theory, anthropology (Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger, 1991), philosophy (Martin Heidegger, 1968), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989), and sociolinguistics theories (Bakhtin, 1981) that rejected the notion of truly objective knowledge and the principles of Kantian empiricism. Lucy Suchman's work on situated action at Xerox Labs was instrumental in popularizing the idea that an actor's understanding of how to perform work results from reflecting on interactions with the social and material (e.g. technology-mediated) situation in which she or he acts. More recent perspectives of situated cognition have focused on and draw from the concept of identity formation as people negotiate meaning through interactions within communities of practice. Situated cognition perspectives have been adopted in education, instructional design, online communities and artificial intelligence (see Brooks, Clancey). Grounded Cognition, concerned with the role of simulations and embodiment in cognition, encompasses Cognitive Linguistics, Situated Action, Simulation and Social Simulation theories. Research has contributed to the understanding of embodied language, memory, and the representation of knowledge. Situated cognition draws a variety of perspectives, from an anthropological study of human behavior in the context of technology-mediated work, or within communities of practice to the ecological psychology of the perception-action cycle and intentional dynamics, and even research on robotics with work on autonomous agents at NASA and elsewhere (e.g., work by W. J. Clancey). Early attempts to define situated cognition focused on contrasting the emerging theory with information processing theories dominant in cognitive psychology. Recently theorists have recognized a natural affinity between situated cognition, New Literacy Studies and new literacies research (Gee, 2010). This connection is made by understanding that situated cognition maintains that individuals learn through experiences. It could be stated that these experiences, and more importantly the mediators that affect attention during these experiences is affected by the tools, technologies and languages used by a socio-cultural group and the meanings given to these by the collective group. New literacies research examines the context and contingencies that language and tool use by individuals and how this changes as the Internet and other communication technologies affect literacy. Glossary Key principles Affordances/effectivities James J. Gibson introduced the idea of affordances as part of a relational account of perception. Perception should not be considered solely as the encoding of environmental features into the perceiver's mind, but as an element of an individual's interaction with her environment (Gibson, 1977). Central to his proposal of an ecological psychology was the notion of affordances. Gibson proposed that in any interaction between an agent and the environment, inherent conditions or qualities of the environment allow the agent to perform certain actions with the environment. He defined the term as properties in the environment that presented possibilities for action and were available for an agent to perceive directly and act upon. Gibson focused on the affordances of physical objects, such as doorknobs and chairs, and suggested that these affordances were directly perceived by an individual instead of mediated by mental representations such as mental models. It is important to note that Gibson's notion of direct perception as an unmediated process of noticing, perceiving, and encoding specific attributes from the environment, has long been challenged by proponents of a more category-based model of perception. This focus on agent-situation interactions in ecological psychology was consistent with the situated cognition program of researchers such as James G. Greeno (1994, 1998), who appreciated Gibson's apparent rejection of the factoring assumptions underlying experimental psychology. The situated cognition perspective focused on "perception-action instead of memory and retrieval…A perceiving/acting agent is coupled with a developing/adapting environment and what matters is how the two interact". Greeno (1994) also suggested that affordances are "preconditions for activity," and that while they do not determine behavior, they increase the likelihood that a certain action or behavior will occur. Shaw, Turvey, & Mace (as cited by Greeno, 1994) later introduced the term effectivities, the abilities of the agent that determined what the agent could do, and consequently, the interaction that could take place. Perception and action were co-determined by the effectivities and affordances, which acted 'in the moment' together. Therefore, the agent directly perceived and interacted with the environment, determining what affordances could be picked up, based on his effectivities. This view is consistent with Norman's (1988) theory of "perceived affordances," which emphasizes the agent's perception of an object's utility as opposed to focusing on the object itself. An interesting question is the relationship between affordances and mental representations as set forth in a more cognitivist perspective. While Greeno (1998) argues that attunements to affordances are superior to constructs such as schemata and mental models, Glenberg & Robertson (1999) suggested that affordances are the building blocks of mental models. Perception (variance/invariance) The work of Gibson (1986) in the field of visual perception greatly influences situated cognition. Gibson argued that visual perception is not a matter of the eye translating inputs into symbolic representation in the brain. Instead the viewer perceives and picks up on the infinite amount of information available in the environment. Specifically, an agent perceives affordances by discovering the variants, what changes, and more importantly the invariants, what does not change across different situations. Given a specific intention (or intentional set), perceptions of invariants are co-determined by the agent and the affordances of the environment, and are then built upon over time. Memory Situated cognition and ecological psychology perspectives emphasize perception and propose that memory plays a significantly diminished role in the learning process. Rather, focus is on the continuous tuning of perceptions and actions across situations based on the affordances of the environment and the interaction of the agent within that environment (Greeno, 1994). Representations are not stored and checked against past knowledge, but are created and interpreted in activity (Clancey, 1990). Situated cognition understands memory as an interaction with the world, bounded by meaningful situations, that brings an agent toward a specified goal (intention). Thus, perception and action are co-determined by the effectivities and affordances, which act 'in the moment' together. Therefore, the agent directly perceives and interacts with the environment, determining what affordances can be picked up, based on his effectivities, and does not simply recall stored symbolic representations. Knowing Situativity theorists recast knowledge not as an entity, thing, or noun, but as knowing as an action or verb. It is not an entity which can be collected as in knowledge acquisition models. Instead knowing is reciprocally co-determined between the agent and environment. This reciprocal interaction can not be separated from the context and its cultural and historical constructions. Therefore, knowing isn't a matter of arriving at any single truth but instead it is a particular stance that emerges from the agent-environment interaction. Knowing emerges as individuals develop intentions through goal-directed activities within cultural contexts which may in turn have larger goals and claims of truth. The adoption of intentions relates to the direction of the agent's attention to the detection of affordances in the environment that will lead to accomplishment of desired goals. Knowing is expressed in the agent's ability to act as an increasingly competent participant in a community of practice. As agents participate more fully within specific communities of practice, what constitutes knowing continuously evolves. For example, a novice environmentalist may not look at water quality by examining oxygen levels but may consider the color and smell. Through participation and enculturation within different communities, agents express knowing through action. Learning Since knowing is rooted in action and can not be decontextualized from individual, social, and historical goals teaching approaches that focus on conveying facts and rules separately from the contexts within which they are meaningful in real-life do not allow for learning that is based on the detection of invariants. They are therefore considered to be impoverished methods that are unlikely to lead to transfer. Learning must involve more than the transmission of knowledge but must instead encourage the expression of effectivities and the development of attention and intention through rich contexts that reflect real life learning processes. Learning, more specifically literacy learning is affected by the Internet and other communication technologies as also evidenced in other segments of society. As a result of this, youth are recently using affordances provided by these tools to become experts in a variety of domains. These practices by youth are viewed as them becoming "pro-ams" and becoming experts in whatever they have developed a passion for. Language Individuals don't just read or write texts, they interact with them, and often these interactions involve others in various socio-cultural contexts. Since language is often the basis for monitoring and tracking learning gains in comprehension, content knowledge, and tool use in and out of school, the role of situated cognition in language learning activities is important. Membership and interaction in social and cultural groups is often determined by tools, technologies and discourse use for full participation. Language learning or literacy in various social and cultural groups must include how the groups work with and interact with these texts. Language instruction in the context of situated cognition also involves the skilled or novice use of language by members of the group, and instruction of not only the elements of language, but what is needed to bring a student to the level of expert. Originating from emergent literacy, specialist-language lessons examines the formal and informal styles and discourses of language use in socio-cultural contexts. A function of specialist-language lessons includes "lucidly functional language", or complex specialist language is usually accompanied by clear and lucid language used to explain the rules, relationships or meanings existing between language and meaning. Legitimate peripheral participation According to Jean Lave and Wenger (1991) legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) provides a framework to describe how individuals ('newcomers') become part of a community of learners. Legitimate peripheral participation was central to Lave and Wenger's take on situated cognition (referred to as "situated activity") because it introduced socio-cultural and historical realizations of power and access to the way thinking and knowing are legitimated. They stated, "Hegemony over resources for learning and alienation from full participation are inherent in the shaping of the legitimacy and peripherality of participation in its historical realizations" (p. 42). Lave and Wenger's (1991) research on the phenomenon of apprenticeship in communities of practice not only provided a unit of analysis for locating an individual's multiple, changing levels and ways of participation, but also implied that all participants, through increased involvement, have access to, acquire, and use resources available to their particular community. To illustrate the role of LPP in situated activity, Lave and Wenger (1991) examined five apprenticeship scenarios (Yucatec midwives, Vai and Gola tailors, naval quartermasters, meat cutters, and non-drinking alcoholics involved in AA). Their analysis of apprenticeship across five different communities of learners lead them to several conclusions about the situatedness of LPP and its relationship to successful learning. Key to newcomers' success included: access to all that community membership entails, involvement in productive activity, learning the discourse(s) of the community including "talking about and talking within a practice," (p. 109), and willingness of the community to capitalize on the inexperience of newcomers, "Insofar as this continual interaction of new perspectives is sanctioned, everyone's participation is legitimately peripheral in some respect. In other words, everyone can to some degree be considered a 'newcomer' to the future of a changing community" Planning vs. action Suchman's book, Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-machine Communication (1987), provided a novel approach to the study of human-computer interaction (HCI). By adopting an anthropological approach to sensemaking and interpretation, Suchman was able to demonstrate how both action and planning were situated in the context of a flow of socially- and materially-mediated activities - an idea that stimulated many of the later conceptualizations of situated cognition. Her studies contrasted the deterministic approach to planning assumed by technology designers with the situated nature of planning as people make sense of the status of their workflow and adjust their course of action accordingly. For example, a photocopier will instruct its user to reload all pages in the original order after a jam, whereas the user understands that they only need to copy the last page again. By arguing that plans were the result of ongoing processes of prospective/retrospective sense making, Suchman identified the limits of technology system access to relevant social and material resources as a major cause of limitations in how technology supports human work. This position led to a major debate with Vera and Simon (1993), who argued that cognition is based on symbolic representations and that planning must therefore be deterministic, based on a pre-determined repertoire of learned response. Most organizational theorists would now see this debate as reflecting individual/cognitive vs. socially-situated levels of analysis (requiring a similar need for paradigmatic co-existence as Wave–particle duality). Suchman (1993) argues that planning in the context of work-activity is similar to navigating a canoe through rapids: you know what point on the river you are aiming for, but you constantly adjust your course as you interact with rocks, swells, and currents on the way. As a result, many organizational theorists argue that plans can only be viewed as post-hoc justifications of action, while Suchman herself appears to view plans and actions as interrelated in the moment of action. Representation, symbols, and schemata In situated theories, the term "representation" refers to external forms in the environment that are created through social interactions to express meaning (language, art, gestures, etc.) and are perceived and acted upon in the first person sense. "Representing" in the first person sense is conceived as an act of re-experiencing in the imagination that involves the dialectic of ongoing perceiving and acting in coordination with the activation of neural structures and processes. This form of reflective representation is considered to be a secondary type of learning, while the primary form of learning is found in the "adaptive recoordination that occurs with every behavior". Conceptualizing is considered to be a "prelinguistic" act, while "knowing" involves creative interaction with symbols in both their interpretation and use for expression. "Schema" develop as neural connections become biased through repeated activations to reactivate in situations that are perceived and conceived as temporally and compositionally similar to previous generalized situations. Goals, intention, and attention The Young-Barab Model (1997) pictured to the left, illustrates the dynamics of intentions and intentional dynamics involved in the agent's interaction with his environment when problem solving. Dynamics of Intentions: goal (intention) adoption from among all possible goals (ontological descent). This describes how the learner decides whether or not to adopt a particular goal when presented with a problem. Once a goal is adopted, the learner proceeds by interacting with their environment through intentional dynamics. There are many levels of intentions, but at the moment of a particular occasion, the agent has just one intention, and that intention constrains his behavior until it is fulfilled or annihilated. Intentional Dynamics: dynamics that unfold when the agent has only one intention (goal) and begins to act towards it, perceiving and acting. It is a trajectory towards the achievement of a solution or goal, the process of tuning one's perception (attention). Each intention is meaningfully bounded, where the dynamics of that intention inform the agent of whether or not he is getting closer to achieving his goal. If the agent is not getting closer to his goal, he will take corrective action, and then continue forward. This is the agent's intentional dynamics, and continues on until he achieves his goal. Transfer There are various definition of transfer found within the situated cognition umbrella. Researchers interested in social practice often define transfer as increased participation. Ecological psychology perspectives define transfer as the detection of invariance across different situations. Furthermore, transfer can only "occur when there is a confluence of an individual's goals and objectives, their acquired abilities to act, and a set of affordances for action". Embodied cognition The traditional cognition approach assumes that perception and motor systems are merely peripheral input and output devices. However, embodied cognition posits that the mind and body interact 'on the fly' as a single entity. An example of embodied cognition is seen in the area of robotics, where movements are not based on internal representations, rather, they are based on the robot's direct and immediate interaction with its environment. Additionally, research has shown that embodied facial expressions influence judgments, and arm movements are related to a person's evaluation of a word or concept. In the latter example, the individual would pull or push a lever towards his name at a faster rate for positive words, than for negative words. These results appeal to the embodied nature of situated cognition, where knowledge is the achievement of the whole body in its interaction with the world. Externalism As to the mind, by and large, situated cognition paves the way to various form of externalism. The issue is whether the situated aspect of cognition has only a practical value or it is somehow constitutive of cognition and perhaps of consciousness itself. As to the latter possibility, there are different positions. David Chalmers and Andy Clark, who developed the hugely debated model of the extended mind, explicitly rejected the externalization of consciousness. For them, only cognition is extended. On the other hand, others, like Riccardo Manzotti or Teed Rockwell, explicitly considered the possibility to situate conscious experience in the environment. Pedagogical implications Since situated cognition views knowing as an action within specific contexts and views direct instruction models of knowledge transmission as impoverished, there are significant implications for pedagogical practices. First, curriculum requires instructional design that draws on apprenticeship models common in real life. Second, curricular design should rely on contextual narratives that situate concepts in practice. Classroom practices such as project-based learning and problem-based learning would qualify as consistent with the situated learning perspective, as would techniques such as Case Base Learning, Anchored Instruction, and cognitive apprenticeship. Cognitive apprenticeship Cognitive apprenticeships were one of the earliest pedagogical designs to incorporate the theories of situated cognition (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). Cognitive apprenticeship uses four dimensions (e.g., content, methods, sequence, sociology) to embed learning in activity and make deliberate the use of the social and physical contexts present in the classroom (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989). Cognitive apprenticeship includes the enculturation of students into authentic practices through activity and social interaction (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). The technique draws on the principles of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984; 1989) in that a more knowledgeable other, i.e. a teacher, engages in a task with a more novice other, i.e. a learner, by describing their own thoughts as they work on the task, providing "just in time" scaffolding, modeling expert behaviors, and encouraging reflection. The reflection process includes having students alternate between novice and expert strategies in a problem-solving context, sensitizing them to specifics of an expert performance, and adjustments that may be made to their own performance to get them to the expert level (Collins & Brown, 1988; Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989). Thus, the function of reflection indicates "co-investigation" and/or abstracted replay by students. Collins, Brown, and Newman (1989) emphasized six critical features of a cognitive apprenticeship that included observation, coaching, scaffolding, modeling, fading, and reflection. Using these critical features, expert(s) guided students on their journey to acquire the cognitive and metacognitive processes and skills necessary to handle a variety of tasks, in a range of situations Reciprocal teaching, a form of cognitive apprenticeship, involves the modeling and coaching of various comprehension skills as teacher and students take turns in assuming the role of instructor. Anchored instruction Anchored instruction is grounded in a story or narrative that presents a realistic (but fictional) situation and raises an overarching question or problem (compare with an essential question posed by a teacher). This approach is designed to 1) engage the learner with a problem or series of related problems, 2) require the learner to develop goals and discover subgoals related to solving the problem(s), and 3) provide the learner with extensive and diverse opportunities to explore the problem(s) in a shared context with classmates. For example, a Spanish teacher uses a video drama series focused on the murder of a main character. Students work in small groups to summarize parts of the story, to create hypotheses about the murderer and motive, and to create a presentation of their solution to the class. Stories are often paired so that across the set students can detect the invariant structure of the underlying knowledge (so 2 episodes about distance-rate-time, one about boats and one about planes, so students can perceive how the distance-rate-time relationship holds across differences in vehicles). The ideal smallest set of instances needed provide students the opportunity to detect invariant structure has been referred to as a "generator set" of situations. The goal of anchored instruction is the engagement of intention and attention. Through authentic tasks across multiple domains, educators present situations that require students to create or adopt meaningful goals (intentions). One of the educator's objectives can be to set a goal through the use of an anchor problem. A classic example of anchored instruction is the Jasper series. The Jasper series includes a variety of videodisc adventures focused on problem formulation and problem solving. Each videodisc used a visual narrative to present an authentic, realistic everyday problem. The objective was for students to adopt specific goals (intentions) after viewing the story and defining a problem. These newly adopted goals guided students through the collaborative process of problem formulation and problem solving. Perceiving and acting in avatar-based virtual worlds Virtual worlds provide unique affordances for embodied learning, i.e. hands on, interactive, spatially oriented, that ground learning in experience. Here "embodied" means acting in a virtual world enabled by an avatar. Contextual affordances of online games and virtual environments allow learners to engage in goal-driven activity, authentic interactions, and collaborative problem-solving – all considered in situated theories of learning to be features of optimal learning. In terms of situated assessment, virtual worlds have the advantage of facilitating dynamic feedback that directs the perceiving/acting agent, through an avatar, to continually improve performance. Research methodologies The situative perspective is focused on interactive systems in which individuals interact with one another and physical and representational systems. Research takes place in situ and in real-world settings, reflecting assumptions that knowledge is constructed within specific contexts which have specific situational affordances. Mixed methods and qualitative methodologies are the most prominently used by researchers. In qualitative studies, methods used are varied but the focus is often on the increased participation in specific communities of practice, the affordances of the environment that are acted upon by the agent, and the distributed nature of knowing in specific communities. A major feature of quantitative methods used in situated cognition is the absence of outcome measures. Quantitative variables used in mixed methods often focus on process over product. For example, trace nodes, dribble files, and hyperlink pathways are often used to track how students interact in the environment. Critiques of situativity In "Situated Action: A Symbolic Interpretation" Vera and Simon wrote: " ... the systems usually regarded as exemplifying Situated Action are thoroughly symbolic (and representational), and, to the extent that they are limited in these respects, have doubtful prospects for extension to complex tasks" Vera and Simon (1993) also claimed that the information processing view is supported by many years of research in which symbol systems simulated "broad areas of human cognition" and that there is no evidence of cognition without representation. Anderson, Reder and Simon (1996) summarized what they considered to be the four claims of situated learning and argued against each claim from a cognitivist perspective. The claims and their arguments were: Claim: Activity and learning are bound to the specific situations in which they occur. Argument: Whether learning is bound to context or not depends on both the kind of learning and the way that it is learned. Claim: Knowledge does not transfer between tasks. Argument: There is ample evidence of successful transfer between tasks in the literature. Transfer depends on initial practice and the degree to which a successive task has similar cognitive elements to a prior task. Claim: Teaching abstractions is ineffective. Argument: Abstract instruction can be made effective by combining of abstract concepts and concrete examples. Claim: Instruction must happen in complex social contexts. Argument: Research shows value in individual learning and on focusing individually on specific skills in a skill set. Anderson, Reder and Simons summarize their concerns when they say: "What is needed to improve learning and teaching is to continue to deepen our research into the circumstances that determine when narrower or broader contexts are required and when attention to narrower or broader skills are optimal for effective and efficient learning" (p. 10). Considerations However, it is important to remember that a theory is neither wrong nor right but provides affordances for certain aspects of a problem. Lave and Wenger recognized this in their ironic comment, "How can we purport to be working out a theoretical conception of learning without engaging in the project of abstraction [decontextualized knowledge] rejected above?" (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 38). See also Action-specific perception Activity theory Cognitive biology Cognitive psychology Computer-supported collaborative learning Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) Distributed cognition Dynamical systems models of cognition Embodied cognition Extended cognition Enactivism Group cognition Pragmatism Situational awareness References Notes Sources Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1993). Anchored instruction and situated cognition revisited. Educational Technology March Issue, 52-70. Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. (1994). From visual word problems to learning communities: Changing conceptions of cognitive research. In K. McGilly (Ed.) Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom proactice. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Kugler, P. N., Shaw, R. E., Vicente, K. J., & Kinsella-Shaw, J. (1991). The role of attractors in the self-organization of intentional systems. In R. R. Hoffman and D. S. Palermo (Eds.) Cognition and the Symbolic Processes. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2003). Knowledge building. In J. W. Guthrie (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Education (2nd Ed., pp. 1370–1373). New York: Macmillan Reference. Wilson, B.B., & Myers, K. M. (2000). Situated Cognition in Theoretical and Practical Context. In D. Jonassen, & S. Land (Eds.) Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments. (pp. 57–88). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Young, M., & McNeese, M. (1995). A Situated Cognition Approach to Problem Solving. In P. Hancock, J. Flach, J. Caid, & K. Vicente (Eds.) Local Applications of the Ecological Approach to Human Machine Systems. (pp. 359–391). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Young, M. (2004a). An Ecological Description of Video Games in Education. Proceedings of the International Conference on Education and Information Systems Technologies and Applications (EISTA), July 22, Orlando, FL, pp. 203–208. Young, M. (2004b). An ecological psychology of instructional design: Learning and thinking by perceiving-acting systems. In D.H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology, 2nd Ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Citations and further reading Anderson, C. (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. New York: Hyperion. Collins, A., & Brown, J. (1988). The computer as a tool for learning through reflection. In H. Mandi & A. Lesgold (Eds.), Learning issues for intelligent tutoring systems (pp. 1–18). New York: Springer-Verlag. Collins, A., Brown, J., & Newman, S. (1989). Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Dickinson, D. K., & Neuman, S. B. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Vol. 2. New York: Guilford Press. Gallagher, S., Robbins, B.D., & Bradatan, C. (2007). Special issue on the situated body. Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts, 9(2). URL: http://www.janushead.org/9-2/ Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated Language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. London: Routledge. Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games and good learning: Collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy. New York: Lang. Gee, J. P. (2010). A Situated-Sociocultural Approach to Literacy and Technology. In E. Baker (Ed.), The New Literacies: Multiple Perspectives on Research and Practice, pp. 165–193. New York: Guilford Press. Keller, C. & Keller, J. (1996). Cognition and Tool Use: The Blacksmith at Work. Cambridge University Press Kirshner, D. & Whitson, J. A. (1997) Situated Cognition: Social, semiotic, and psychological perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Leadbeater, C., & Miller, P. (2004). The Pro-Am revolution: How enthusiasts are changing our society and economy. London: Demos. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1983). Child as co-investigator: Helping children gain insight into their own mental processes. In S. Paris, G. Olson, & H. Stevenson (Eds.), Learning and motivation in the classroom (pp. 83–107). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1985). Fostering the development of self-regulation in children's knowledge processing. In S. F. Chipman, J. W. Segal, & R. Glaser (Eds.), Thinking and learning skills: Research and open questions (pp. 563–577). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Suchman, L. (1987) Plans and situated actions : The Problem of Human-Machine Communication. Cambridge University Press, New York. Suchman, L. (1993) Response to Vera and Simon's Situated Action: A Symbolic Interpretation. Cognitive Science, 17:71—75, 1993 Cognitive science Enactive cognition Educational psychology	0.784609	0.975951	0.765741
Rigour	Rigour (British English) or rigor (American English; see spelling differences) describes a condition of stiffness or strictness. These constraints may be environmentally imposed, such as "the rigours of famine"; logically imposed, such as mathematical proofs which must maintain consistent answers; or socially imposed, such as the process of defining ethics and law. Etymology "Rigour" comes to English through old French (13th c., Modern French rigueur) meaning "stiffness", which itself is based on the Latin rigorem (nominative rigor) "numbness, stiffness, hardness, firmness; roughness, rudeness", from the verb rigere "to be stiff". The noun was frequently used to describe a condition of strictness or stiffness, which arises from a situation or constraint either chosen or experienced passively. For example, the title of the book Theologia Moralis Inter Rigorem et Laxitatem Medi roughly translates as "mediating theological morality between rigour and laxness". The book details, for the clergy, situations in which they are obligated to follow church law exactly, and in which situations they can be more forgiving yet still considered moral. Rigor mortis translates directly as the stiffness (rigor) of death (mortis), again describing a condition which arises from a certain constraint (death). Intellectualism Intellectual rigour is a process of thought which is consistent, does not contain self-contradiction, and takes into account the entire scope of available knowledge on the topic. It actively avoids logical fallacy. Furthermore, it requires a sceptical assessment of the available knowledge. If a topic or case is dealt with in a rigorous way, it typically means that it is dealt with in a comprehensive, thorough and complete way, leaving no room for inconsistencies. Scholarly method describes the different approaches or methods which may be taken to apply intellectual rigour on an institutional level to ensure the quality of information published. An example of intellectual rigour assisted by a methodical approach is the scientific method, in which a person will produce a hypothesis based on what they believe to be true, then construct experiments in order to prove that hypothesis wrong. This method, when followed correctly, helps to prevent against circular reasoning and other fallacies which frequently plague conclusions within academia. Other disciplines, such as philosophy and mathematics, employ their own structures to ensure intellectual rigour. Each method requires close attention to criteria for logical consistency, as well as to all relevant evidence and possible differences of interpretation. At an institutional level, peer review is used to validate intellectual rigour. Honesty Intellectual rigour is a subset of intellectual honesty—a practice of thought in which ones convictions are kept in proportion to valid evidence. Intellectual honesty is an unbiased approach to the acquisition, analysis, and transmission of ideas. A person is being intellectually honest when he or she, knowing the truth, states that truth, regardless of outside social/environmental pressures. It is possible to doubt whether complete intellectual honesty exists—on the grounds that no one can entirely master his or her own presuppositions—without doubting that certain kinds of intellectual rigour are potentially available. The distinction certainly matters greatly in debate, if one wishes to say that an argument is flawed in its premises. Politics and law The setting for intellectual rigour does tend to assume a principled position from which to advance or argue. An opportunistic tendency to use any argument at hand is not very rigorous, although very common in politics, for example. Arguing one way one day, and another later, can be defended by casuistry, i.e. by saying the cases are different. In the legal context, for practical purposes, the facts of cases do always differ. Case law can therefore be at odds with a principled approach; and intellectual rigour can seem to be defeated. This defines a judge's problem with uncodified law. Codified law poses a different problem, of interpretation and adaptation of definite principles without losing the point; here applying the letter of the law, with all due rigour, may on occasion seem to undermine the principled approach. Mathematics Mathematical rigour can apply to methods of mathematical proof and to methods of mathematical practice (thus relating to other interpretations of rigour). Mathematical proof Mathematical rigour is often cited as a kind of gold standard for mathematical proof. Its history traces back to Greek mathematics, especially to Euclid's Elements. Until the 19th century, Euclid's Elements was seen as extremely rigorous and profound, but in the late 19th century, Hilbert (among others) realized that the work left certain assumptions implicit—assumptions that could not be proved from Euclid's Axioms (e.g. two circles can intersect in a point, some point is within an angle, and figures can be superimposed on each other). This was contrary to the idea of rigorous proof where all assumptions need to be stated and nothing can be left implicit. New foundations were developed using the axiomatic method to address this gap in rigour found in the Elements (e.g., Hilbert's axioms, Birkhoff's axioms, Tarski's axioms). During the 19th century, the term "rigorous" began to be used to describe increasing levels of abstraction when dealing with calculus which eventually became known as mathematical analysis. The works of Cauchy added rigour to the older works of Euler and Gauss. The works of Riemann added rigour to the works of Cauchy. The works of Weierstrass added rigour to the works of Riemann, eventually culminating in the arithmetization of analysis. Starting in the 1870s, the term gradually came to be associated with Cantorian set theory. Mathematical rigour can be modelled as amenability to algorithmic proof checking. Indeed, with the aid of computers, it is possible to check some proofs mechanically. Formal rigour is the introduction of high degrees of completeness by means of a formal language where such proofs can be codified using set theories such as ZFC (see automated theorem proving). Published mathematical arguments have to conform to a standard of rigour, but are written in a mixture of symbolic and natural language. In this sense, written mathematical discourse is a prototype of formal proof. Often, a written proof is accepted as rigorous although it might not be formalised as yet. The reason often cited by mathematicians for writing informally is that completely formal proofs tend to be longer and more unwieldy, thereby obscuring the line of argument. An argument that appears obvious to human intuition may in fact require fairly long formal derivations from the axioms. A particularly well-known example is how in Principia Mathematica, Whitehead and Russell have to expend a number of lines of rather opaque effort in order to establish that, indeed, it is sensical to say: "1+1=2". In short, comprehensibility is favoured over formality in written discourse. Still, advocates of automated theorem provers may argue that the formalisation of proof does improve the mathematical rigour by disclosing gaps or flaws in informal written discourse. When the correctness of a proof is disputed, formalisation is a way to settle such a dispute as it helps to reduce misinterpretations or ambiguity. Physics The role of mathematical rigour in relation to physics is twofold: First, there is the general question, sometimes called Wigner's Puzzle, "how it is that mathematics, quite generally, is applicable to nature?" Some scientists believe that its record of successful application to nature justifies the study of mathematical physics. Second, there is the question regarding the role and status of mathematically rigorous results and relations. This question is particularly vexing in relation to quantum field theory, where computations often produce infinite values for which a variety of non-rigorous work-arounds have been devised. Both aspects of mathematical rigour in physics have attracted considerable attention in philosophy of science (see, for example, ref. and ref. and the works quoted therein). Education Rigour in the classroom is a hotly debated topic amongst educators. Even the semantic meaning of the word is contested. Generally speaking, classroom rigour consists of multi-faceted, challenging instruction and correct placement of the student. Students excelling in formal operational thought tend to excel in classes for gifted students. Students who have not reached that final stage of cognitive development, according to developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, can build upon those skills with the help of a properly trained teacher. Rigour in the classroom is commonly called "rigorous instruction". It is instruction that requires students to construct meaning for themselves, impose structure on information, integrate individual skills into processes, operate within but at the outer edge of their abilities, and apply what they learn in more than one context and to unpredictable situations See also Intellectual honesty Intellectual dishonesty Pedant Scientific method Self-deception Sophistry Cognitive rigor References Philosophical logic	0.7742	0.989019	0.765699
Peer learning	One of the most visible approaches to peer learning comes out of cognitive psychology, and is applied within a "mainstream" educational framework: "Peer learning is an educational practice in which students interact with other students to attain educational goals." Other authors including David Boud describe peer learning as a way of moving beyond independent to interdependent or mutual learning among peers. In this context, it can be compared to the practices that go by the name cooperative learning. However, other contemporary views on peer learning relax the constraints, and position "peer-to-peer learning" as a mode of "learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything." Whether it takes place in a formal or informal learning context, in small groups or online, peer learning manifests aspects of self-organization that are mostly absent from pedagogical models of teaching and learning. Connections with other practices Constructivism In his 1916 book, Democracy and Education, John Dewey wrote, “Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active and constructive process.” In a later essay, entitled "Experience and Education", Dewey went into greater detail about the science of child development and developed the basic Constructivist theory that knowledge is created through experience, rather than passed down from teacher to student through rote memorization. Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who developed the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, was another proponent of constructivist learning: his book, Thought and Language, provides evidence that students learn better through collaborative, meaningful problem-solving activities than through solo exercises. The three distinguishing features of constructivist theory are claims that: Learning occurs within a context that is itself part of what is learned Knowing and doing cannot be separated Learning is a process that is extended over time These are clearly meaningful propositions in a social context with sustained relationships, where people work on projects or tasks that are collaborative or otherwise shared. Educational Psychology Professor Alison King explains in "Promoting Thinking Through Peer Learning" that peer learning exercises as simple as having students explain concepts to one another are proof of social constructivism theory at work; the act of teaching another individual demands that students “clarify, elaborate on, and otherwise reconceptualize material.” Joss Winn, Senior Lecturer in Educational Research at University of Lincoln, proposes that schools radically redefine the teacher-student relationship to fit this constructivist theory of knowledge in his December 2011 paper, "Student as Producer". Carl Rogers' "Personal Thoughts on Learning" focus on the individual’s experience of effective learning, and eventually conclude that nearly the entire traditional educational structure is at odds with this experience. Self-discovered learning in a group that designates a facilitator is the “new approach” Rogers recommends for education. In general, peer learning may adapt constructivist or discovery learning methods for the peer-to-peer context: however, peer learning typically manifests constructivist ideas in a more informal way, when learning and collaboration are simply applied to solve some real shared problem. Critical pedagogy Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed advocated a more equitable relationship between teachers and students, one in which information is questioned and situated in political context, and all participants in the classroom work together to create knowledge. Paulo Blikstein, Assistant Professor of Education at Stanford University wrote in Travels in Troy with Freire: Technology as an Agent of Emancipation that through exploratory building activities, “Not only did students become more autonomous and responsible, they learned to teach one another.” Connectivism Yochai Benkler explains how the now-ubiquitous computer helps us produce and process knowledge together with others in his book, The Wealth of Networks. George Siemens argues in Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, that technology has changed the way we learn, explaining how it tends to complicate or expose the limitations of the learning theories of the past. In practice, the ideas of connectivism developed in and alongside the then-new social formation, "massive open online courses" or MOOCs. Connectivism proposes that the knowledge we can access by virtue of our connections with others is just as valuable as the information carried inside our minds. The learning process, therefore, is not entirely under an individual’s control—learning can happen outside ourselves, as if we are a member of a large organization where many people are continuously updating a shared database. Rita Kop and Adrian Hill, in their critique of connectivism, state that: it does not seem that connectivism’s contributions to the new paradigm warrant it being treated as a separate learning theory in and of its own right. Connectivism, however, continues to play an important role in the development and emergence of new pedagogies, where control is shifting from the tutor to an increasingly more autonomous learner. Perspectives of other modern theorists In a joint paper, Roy Williams, Regina Karousou, and Jenny Mackness argue that educational institutions should consider "emergent learning," in which learning arises from a self-organized group interaction, as a valuable component of education in the Digital Age. Web 2.0 puts distributed individuals into a group setting where emergent learning can occur. However, deciding how to manage emergence is important; “fail-safe” management drives activity towards pre-determined outcomes, while “safe/fail experiments” steer away from negative outcomes while leaving space open for mistakes and innovation. Williams et al. also distinguish between the term “environment” as controlled, and “ecology” as free/open. Cathy Davidson and David Theo Goldberg write in The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age about the potential of “participatory learning,” and a new paradigm of education that is focused on mediated interactions between peers. They argue that if institutions of higher learning could begin to value this type of learning, instead of simply trying to implement “Instructional Technology” in classrooms, they could transform old models of university education. Davidson and Goldberg introduce “Ten Principles for the Future of Learning,” which include self-learning, horizontal structures, and open source education. Peter Sloterdijk's recent book "You Must Change Your Life" proposes similar ideas in the context of a "General Disciplinics" that would "counteract the atrophy of the educational system" by focusing on forms of learning that takes place through direct participation in the disciplines. (p. 156) Yochai Benkler and Helen Nissenbaum discuss implications for the realm of moral philosophy in their 2006 essay, "Commons-Based Peer Production and Virtue". They argue that the “socio-technical systems” of today’s Internet make it easier for people to role-model and adopt positive, virtuous behaviors on a large scale. Joseph Corneli and Charles Jeffrey Danoff proposed the label “paragogy” to describe a collection of “best practices of effective peer learning”. They published a short book along with several papers in which they discuss five "paragogical principles" that form the core of their proposed learning theory. These were generated by rethinking Malcolm Knowles principles of andragogy for a learning context that is co-created by the learners. Experiments The learning theories and approaches described above are currently being tested in peer-learning communities around the world, often adapting educational technology to support informal learning, though results in formal learning contexts exist too. For example, Eric Mazur and colleagues report on "Ten years of experience and results" with a teaching technique they call "Peer Instruction": Peer Instruction engages students during class through activities that require each student to apply the core concepts being presented, and then to explain those concepts to their fellow students. This approach made early use of a variant of the technique that is now known as the "flipped classroom": To free up class time for ConcepTests, and to prepare students better to apply the material during class, students are required to complete the reading on the topics to be covered before class. Peer 2 Peer University, or P2PU, which was founded in 2009 by Philipp Schmidt and others, is an example from the informal learning side. Speaking about the beginnings of P2PU, Schmidt echoes Siemens’ connectivism ideas and explains that, “The expertise is in the group. That’s the message, that everyone can bring something to the conversation.” In numerous public talks, Schmidt argues that current educational models are "broken" (particularly on the basis of the high cost of university-level training). He suggests that social assessment mechanisms similar to those applied in open-source software development can be applied to education. In practice, this approach uses peer-based assessment including recommendations and badges to provide an alternative form of accreditation. Jeff Young’s article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "When Professors Print Their Own Diplomas", sparked a conversation about the necessity of formal degrees in an age when class lectures can be uploaded for free. The MIT Open Teaching initiative, for example, has since 2001 put all of its course materials online. But David A. Wiley, then Psychology Professor at Utah State, went further, signing certificates for whoever takes his class. A similar practice has become even more visible in learning projects like Udacity, Coursera, and EdX. Although these projects attempt to "scale education" by distributing learning materials produced by experts (not classic examples of peer learning), they do frequently feature peer-to-peer discussions in forums or offline. Applications in development In the forward to a book on the Power of peer learning by Jean-H. Guilmette, Maureen O'Neil, then president of Canada's International Development Research Centre, states that Our experience has proven that [peer learning] is an efficient way to transmit knowledge across a wide range of groups or regions. Peer learning, based on jointly generated evidence, is also an effective means to build capacity and foster scientific excellence. The body of knowledge it generates is a powerful tool for the development of evidence-based policy. Guilmette suggests that peer learning is useful in the development context because It is my view that managing networks, especially those that are made up of sovereign nations, is fundamentally different from managing companies, organizations, or ministries that fall under a single authority. In essence, the dominant management approach for companies and institutions rests on cybernetics, with the view of keeping communications and accountability simple and clear. Managing methods that are successful in such a context [are] counterproductive when managing networks. Guilmette cites Anne K. Bernard, who in a report based on extensive interviews, concludes: Effective networks act not simply on the basis of optimizing within constraints by attempting to force-fit predicted, linear and regulated programmes of work onto dynamic policy and client communities. Rather, they hone capacities and create mechanisms for the regular feedback and reflected analyses which are needed to deal with the ambiguity of these environments, and to adapt interactively with them. Criticism Scardamalia and Bereiter explain in "Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities" that computers in the classroom have the opportunity to restructure the learning environment, but too often they are simply used to provide a digital version of a normal lesson or exam. They propose that classrooms be exchanged for “knowledge-building communities” where students can use computers to connect to and create knowledge in the outside world. However, as illustrated in citations above, this way of thinking about learning is often at odds with traditional educational praxis. In "The Role of the Learning Platform in Student-Centered E-Learning", Kurliha, Miettinen, Nokelainen, and Tirri found a "difference in learning outcomes based on the tools used." However, the variables at work are not well understood, and are the subject of ongoing research. Within a formal education setting, a 1994 study found that students were more responsive to feedback from a teacher than they were to peer feedback. However, another later study showed that training in assessment techniques had a positive impact on individual student performance. A classic study on motivation in peer tutoring showed that "reward is no motivator." Although other more recent work has shown that non-monetary rewards or acknowledgement can make a difference in performance (for certain populations of peer producers), the exact motivations for going out of the way to teach or tutor someone else are not clearly understood. As mentioned above, learning is often just part of solving a problem, so "peer learning" and "peer teaching" would tend to happen informally when people solve problems in groups. In practice Research Research on peer learning may involve participant observation, and may itself be peer produced. Some of this research falls under the broader umbrella of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Computer-supported collaborative learning is one obvious context in which to study peer learning, since in such settings "learning is observably and accountably embedded in collaborative activity." However, peer learning can play a role in settings where traditional conceptions of both "teaching" and "learning" do not apply, for instance, in academic peer review, in organizational learning, in development work, and in public health programmes. Research in these areas may fall within the area of organization science, science, technology and society (STS) or other fields. See also Action learning Andragogy Autodidactism Cooperative learning Learning by teaching Networked learning Peer assessment Peer mentoring Peer production Peer support Reciprocal teaching Supplemental Instruction References Education by method Philosophy of education Learning Social constructionism	0.788346	0.971252	0.765683
Evolutionary anthropology	Evolutionary anthropology, the interdisciplinary study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and of the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates, builds on natural science and on social science. Various fields and disciplines of evolutionary anthropology include: human evolution and anthropogeny paleoanthropology and paleontology of both human and non-human primates primatology and primate ethology the sociocultural evolution of human behavior, including phylogenetic approaches to historical linguistics the cultural anthropology and sociology of humans the archaeological study of human technology and of its changes over time and space human evolutionary genetics and changes in the human genome over time the neuroscience, endocrinology, and neuroanthropology of human and primate cognition, culture, actions and abilities human behavioural ecology and the interaction between humans and the environment studies of human anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and differences and changes between species, variation between human groups, and relationships to cultural factors Evolutionary anthropology studies both the biological and the cultural evolution of humans, past and present. Based on a scientific approach, it brings together fields such as archaeology, behavioral ecology, psychology, primatology, and genetics. As a dynamic and interdisciplinary field, it draws on many lines of evidence to understand the human experience, past and present. Studies of human biological evolution generally focus on the evolution of the human form. Cultural evolution involves the study of cultural change over time and space and frequently incorporates cultural-transmission models. Cultural evolution is not the same as biological evolution: human culture involves the transmission of cultural information (compare memetics), and such transmission can behave in ways quite distinct from human biology and genetics. The study of cultural change increasingly takes place through cladistics and genetic models. See also References Anthropology Anthropology	0.784242	0.976316	0.765668
Content analysis	Content analysis is the study of documents and communication artifacts, which might be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video. Social scientists use content analysis to examine patterns in communication in a replicable and systematic manner. One of the key advantages of using content analysis to analyse social phenomena is their non-invasive nature, in contrast to simulating social experiences or collecting survey answers. Practices and philosophies of content analysis vary between academic disciplines. They all involve systematic reading or observation of texts or artifacts which are assigned labels (sometimes called codes) to indicate the presence of interesting, meaningful pieces of content. By systematically labeling the content of a set of texts, researchers can analyse patterns of content quantitatively using statistical methods, or use qualitative methods to analyse meanings of content within texts. Computers are increasingly used in content analysis to automate the labeling (or coding) of documents. Simple computational techniques can provide descriptive data such as word frequencies and document lengths. Machine learning classifiers can greatly increase the number of texts that can be labeled, but the scientific utility of doing so is a matter of debate. Further, numerous computer-aided text analysis (CATA) computer programs are available that analyze text for predetermined linguistic, semantic, and psychological characteristics. Goals Content analysis is best understood as a broad family of techniques. Effective researchers choose techniques that best help them answer their substantive questions. That said, according to Klaus Krippendorff, six questions must be addressed in every content analysis: Which data are analyzed? How are the data defined? From what population are data drawn? What is the relevant context? What are the boundaries of the analysis? What is to be measured? The simplest and most objective form of content analysis considers unambiguous characteristics of the text such as word frequencies, the page area taken by a newspaper column, or the duration of a radio or television program. Analysis of simple word frequencies is limited because the meaning of a word depends on surrounding text. Key Word In Context (KWIC) routines address this by placing words in their textual context. This helps resolve ambiguities such as those introduced by synonyms and homonyms. A further step in analysis is the distinction between dictionary-based (quantitative) approaches and qualitative approaches. Dictionary-based approaches set up a list of categories derived from the frequency list of words and control the distribution of words and their respective categories over the texts. While methods in quantitative content analysis in this way transform observations of found categories into quantitative statistical data, the qualitative content analysis focuses more on the intentionality and its implications. There are strong parallels between qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. Qualitative and quantitative content analysis Quantitative content analysis highlights frequency counts and statistical analysis of these coded frequencies. Additionally, quantitative content analysis begins with a framed hypothesis with coding decided on before the analysis begins. These coding categories are strictly relevant to the researcher's hypothesis. Quantitative analysis also takes a deductive approach. Examples of content-analytical variables and constructs can be found, for example, in the open-access database DOCA. This database compiles, systematizes, and evaluates relevant content-analytical variables of communication and political science research areas and topics. Siegfried Kracauer provides a critique of quantitative analysis, asserting that it oversimplifies complex communications in order to be more reliable. On the other hand, qualitative analysis deals with the intricacies of latent interpretations, whereas quantitative has a focus on manifest meanings. He also acknowledges an "overlap" of qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Patterns are looked at more closely in qualitative analysis, and based on the latent meanings that the researcher may find, the course of the research could be changed. It is inductive and begins with open research questions, as opposed to a hypothesis. Codebooks The data collection instrument used in content analysis is the codebook or coding scheme. In qualitative content analysis the codebook is constructed and improved during coding, while in quantitative content analysis the codebook needs to be developed and pretested for reliability and validity before coding. The codebook includes detailed instructions for human coders plus clear definitions of the respective concepts or variables to be coded plus the assigned values. According to current standards of good scientific practice, each content analysis study should provide their codebook in the appendix or as supplementary material so that reproducibility of the study is ensured. On the Open Science Framework (OSF) server of the Center for Open Science a lot of codebooks of content analysis studies are freely available via search for "codebook". Furthermore, the Database of Variables for Content Analysis (DOCA) provides an open access archive of pretested variables and established codebooks for content analyses. Measures from the archive can be adopted in future studies to ensure the use of high-quality and comparable instruments. DOCA covers, among others, measures for the content analysis of fictional media and entertainment (e.g., measures for sexualization in video games), of user-generated media content (e.g., measures for online hate speech), and of news media and journalism (e.g., measures for stock photo use in press reporting on child sexual abuse, and measures of personalization in election campaign coverage). Computational tools With the rise of common computing facilities like PCs, computer-based methods of analysis are growing in popularity. Answers to open ended questions, newspaper articles, political party manifestos, medical records or systematic observations in experiments can all be subject to systematic analysis of textual data. By having contents of communication available in form of machine readable texts, the input is analyzed for frequencies and coded into categories for building up inferences. Computer-assisted analysis can help with large, electronic data sets by cutting out time and eliminating the need for multiple human coders to establish inter-coder reliability. However, human coders can still be employed for content analysis, as they are often more able to pick out nuanced and latent meanings in text. A study found that human coders were able to evaluate a broader range and make inferences based on latent meanings. Reliability and Validity Robert Weber notes: "To make valid inferences from the text, it is important that the classification procedure be reliable in the sense of being consistent: Different people should code the same text in the same way". The validity, inter-coder reliability and intra-coder reliability are subject to intense methodological research efforts over long years. Neuendorf suggests that when human coders are used in content analysis at least two independent coders should be used. Reliability of human coding is often measured using a statistical measure of inter-coder reliability or "the amount of agreement or correspondence among two or more coders". Lacy and Riffe identify the measurement of inter-coder reliability as a strength of quantitative content analysis, arguing that, if content analysts do not measure inter-coder reliability, their data are no more reliable than the subjective impressions of a single reader. According to today's reporting standards, quantitative content analyses should be published with complete codebooks and for all variables or measures in the codebook the appropriate inter-coder or inter-rater reliability coefficients should be reported based on empirical pre-tests. Furthermore, the validity of all variables or measures in the codebook must be ensured. This can be achieved through the use of established measures that have proven their validity in earlier studies. Also, the content validity of the measures can be checked by experts from the field who scrutinize and then approve or correct coding instructions, definitions and examples in the codebook. Kinds of text There are five types of texts in content analysis: written text, such as books and papers oral text, such as speech and theatrical performance iconic text, such as drawings, paintings, and icons audio-visual text, such as TV programs, movies, and videos hypertexts, which are texts found on the Internet History Content analysis is research using the categorization and classification of speech, written text, interviews, images, or other forms of communication. In its beginnings, using the first newspapers at the end of the 19th century, analysis was done manually by measuring the number of columns given a subject. The approach can also be traced back to a university student studying patterns in Shakespeare's literature in 1893. Over the years, content analysis has been applied to a variety of scopes. Hermeneutics and philology have long used content analysis to interpret sacred and profane texts and, in many cases, to attribute texts' authorship and authenticity. In recent times, particularly with the advent of mass communication, content analysis has known an increasing use to deeply analyze and understand media content and media logic. The political scientist Harold Lasswell formulated the core questions of content analysis in its early-mid 20th-century mainstream version: "Who says what, to whom, why, to what extent and with what effect?". The strong emphasis for a quantitative approach started up by Lasswell was finally carried out by another "father" of content analysis, Bernard Berelson, who proposed a definition of content analysis which, from this point of view, is emblematic: "a research technique for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication". Quantitative content analysis has enjoyed a renewed popularity in recent years thanks to technological advances and fruitful application in of mass communication and personal communication research. Content analysis of textual big data produced by new media, particularly social media and mobile devices has become popular. These approaches take a simplified view of language that ignores the complexity of semiosis, the process by which meaning is formed out of language. Quantitative content analysts have been criticized for limiting the scope of content analysis to simple counting, and for applying the measurement methodologies of the natural sciences without reflecting critically on their appropriateness to social science. Conversely, qualitative content analysts have been criticized for being insufficiently systematic and too impressionistic. Krippendorff argues that quantitative and qualitative approaches to content analysis tend to overlap, and that there can be no generalisable conclusion as to which approach is superior. Content analysis can also be described as studying traces, which are documents from past times, and artifacts, which are non-linguistic documents. Texts are understood to be produced by communication processes in a broad sense of that phrase—often gaining mean through abduction. Latent and manifest content Manifest content is readily understandable at its face value. Its meaning is direct. Latent content is not as overt, and requires interpretation to uncover the meaning or implication. Uses Holsti groups fifteen uses of content analysis into three basic categories: make inferences about the antecedents of a communication describe and make inferences about characteristics of a communication make inferences about the effects of a communication. He also places these uses into the context of the basic communication paradigm. The following table shows fifteen uses of content analysis in terms of their general purpose, element of the communication paradigm to which they apply, and the general question they are intended to answer. As a counterpoint, there are limits to the scope of use for the procedures that characterize content analysis. In particular, if access to the goal of analysis can be obtained by direct means without material interference, then direct measurement techniques yield better data. Thus, while content analysis attempts to quantifiably describe communications whose features are primarily categorical——limited usually to a nominal or ordinal scale——via selected conceptual units (the unitization) which are assigned values (the categorization) for enumeration while monitoring intercoder reliability, if instead the target quantity manifestly is already directly measurable——typically on an interval or ratio scale——especially a continuous physical quantity, then such targets usually are not listed among those needing the "subjective" selections and formulations of content analysis. For example (from mixed research and clinical application), as medical images communicate diagnostic features to physicians, neuroimaging's stroke (infarct) volume scale called ASPECTS is unitized as 10 qualitatively delineated (unequal) brain regions in the middle cerebral artery territory, which it categorizes as being at least partly versus not at all infarcted in order to enumerate the latter, with published series often assessing intercoder reliability by Cohen's kappa. The foregoing italicized operations impose the uncredited form of content analysis onto an estimation of infarct extent, which instead is easily enough and more accurately measured as a volume directly on the images. ("Accuracy ... is the highest form of reliability.") The concomitant clinical assessment, however, by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) or the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), retains the necessary form of content analysis. Recognizing potential limits of content analysis across the contents of language and images alike, Klaus Krippendorff affirms that "comprehen[sion] ... may ... not conform at all to the process of classification and/or counting by which most content analyses proceed," suggesting that content analysis might materially distort a message. The development of the initial coding scheme The process of the initial coding scheme or approach to coding is contingent on the particular content analysis approach selected. Through a directed content analysis, the scholars draft a preliminary coding scheme from pre-existing theory or assumptions. While with the conventional content analysis approach, the initial coding scheme developed from the data. The conventional process of coding With either approach above, immersing oneself into the data to obtain an overall picture is recommendable for researchers to conduct. Furthermore, identifying a consistent and clear unit of coding is vital, and researchers' choices range from a single word to several paragraphs, from texts to iconic symbols. Last, constructing the relationships between codes by sorting out them within specific categories or themes. See also Donald Wayne Foster Hermeneutics Text mining The Polish Peasant in Europe and America Transition words Video content analysis Grounded theory References Further reading Quantitative research Qualitative research Hermeneutics	0.772401	0.991254	0.765646
Critical social work	Critical social work is the application to social work of a critical theory perspective. Critical social work seeks to address social injustices, as opposed to focusing on individualized issues. Critical theories explain social problems as arising from various forms of oppression and injustice in globalized capitalist societies and forms of neoliberal governance. This approach to social work theory is formed by a polyglot of theories from across the humanities and social sciences, borrowing from various schools of thought, including anarchism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, Marxism, feminism, and social democracy. Introduction Social workers have an ethical commitment to working to overcome inequality and oppression. For radical social workers, this implies working towards the transformation of capitalist society towards building social arrangements which are more compatible with these commitments. Mullaly & Keating (1991) suggest three schools of radical thought corresponding to three versions of socialist analysis; social democracy, eurocommunist, and revolutionary Marxism. However, they work in institutional contexts which paradoxically implicates them in maintaining capitalist functions. Social work theories have three possible strategies of analysis, as identified by Rojek et al. (1986). These are: The progressive position. Social work is seen as a catalyst for social change. Social workers work with the oppressed and marginalized and so are in a good position to harness class resistance to capitalism and transform society into a more social democracy or socialist state. ( Bailey & Brake, 1975, Galper, 1975, Simpkin, 1979, Ginsberg, 1979) The reproductive position. Social work is seen as an indispensable tool of the capitalist social order. Its function is to produce and maintain the capitalist state machine and to ensure working class subordination. Social workers are the ‘soft cops’ of the capitalist state machine. (Althusser, 1971, Poulantzas, 1975, Donzelot, 1976, Muller & Neususs, 1978, Webb, 2016) The contradictory position. Social work can undermine capitalism and class society. While it acts as an instrument of class control it can simultaneously create the conditions for the overthrow of capitalist social relations. (Corrigan & Leonard, Phillipson, 1979, Bolger, 1981) History Critical social work is heavily influenced by Marxism, the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory and by the earlier approach of Radical social work, which was focused on class oppression. Critical social work evolved from this to oppose all forms of oppression. Several writers helped codify radical social work, such as Jeffry Galper (1975), Mike Brake (1975) and Harold Throssell (1975). They were building on the views expounded by earlier social workers such as Octavia Hill, Jane Addams & Bertha Reynolds, who had at various points over the previous 200 years sought to make social work & charity more focused on structural forces. More recently writers such as Stephen A. Webb, Iain Ferguson, Susan White, Lena Dominelli, Paul Michael-Garrett, and Stan Houston have further developed the paradigm by incorporating inter-disciplinary ideas from contemporary political philosophy, anthropology and social theory. These include the ideas of Michel Foucault, Jacques Donzelot, Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler, Pierre Bourdieu and Jürgen Habermas. More recently the writings of Italian political philosophers such as Giorgio Agamben and Roberto Esposito, especially their theorizing about community and governance have come to the fore in critical social work. A new journal published by Policy Press called Critical and Radical Social Work: An international journal promotes debate and scholarship around a range of engaged social work themes and issues. The journal publishes papers which seek to analyze and respond to issues, such as the impact of global neo-liberalism on social welfare; austerity and social work; social work and social movements; social work, inequality and oppression. Stephen A. Webb was commissioned by Routledge to edit a major international reference work 'A Handbook of Critical Social Work' (due for publication 2018). Webb published 'The New Politics of Social Work' in 2013 written closely in the tradition of critical social work. Focus Major themes that critical social work seeks to address are: Poverty, unemployment and social exclusion Racism and other forms of discrimination relating to disability, age and gender. Inadequacies in housing, health care and education and workplace opportunities Crime and social unrest (although the critical approach would be more focused on the structural causes than the behaviour itself) Abuse and exploitation The inhumane impacts of neoliberalism and austerity capitalism such as the introduction of food banks and precarious zero hours work. Sub-theories As critical social work grew out of radical social work, it split into various theories. They are listed below, with a selection of writers who have influenced the theory. Structural social work theory ( Ann Davis, Maurice Moreau, Robert Mullaly) Anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive social work theory (Neil Thompson, Dalrymple & Burke) Postcolonial social work theory (Linda Briskman) New structural social work theory (Robert Mullaly) Critical social work theory (Jan Fook, Karen Healy, Stephen A. Webb, Bob Pease, Paul Michael Garrett) Radical social work theory (Mike Brake, Iain Ferguson) Structural and Dialectic critiques of human agency While critical social work has a strong commitment to structural change, it does not discount the role of agency, albeit a constrained form of potential. Critical analysis in social work looks at competing forces such as the capitalist economic system, the welfare state as all affecting individual choices. Therefore, according to the critical theory, the aim of social work is to emancipate people from oppression and allow a critique of the ideology of "operativity", State law and governance. Critical social work takes a stance against common assumptions about the necessity of work, capitalist labor and managerial systems of control. "A dialectical approach to social work avoids the simplistic linear cause-effect notion of historical materialism and the naïve romanticism associated with the notion of totally free human will." (Mullaly and Keating, 1991). "Dialectical analysis helps to illuminate the complex interplay between people and the world around them and to indicate the role of social work within society" (Mullaly, 2007:241). Critical Practice models Various practice theories influence critical social work including: Working collectively and recognizing that "community" emerges temporarily around issues and matters of concern. Relationship based social work (Sue White and Brigid Featherstone) Finding ways in which community, cooperation and consciousness can empower disadvantaged people Helping people to understand the social consequences of the market system, neo liberalism and the economisation of life Helping people deal collectively with social issues rather than individualising them Making alliances with working class organisations and recognise social workers as 'workers' themselves Civil disobedience, such as the intentional and surreptitious violation of agency policies that perpetuate capitalist oppression References External links Interprofessional and inter-agency collaboration Exploring Stress Resilience in Trainee Social Workers Identifying ‘the critical’ in a relationship-based model of reflection Social work Critical theory	0.791151	0.967759	0.765644
Microlearning	Microlearning refers to a set of compact e-learning modules that are designed to reduce learner fatigue. The modules can be educational, professional, or skill-based, and are usually designed to be less than 20 minutes long, with a single learning objective or topic. The name originates from the Greek word 'micro' meaning 'small'. Concept As an instructional technology, microlearning focuses on the design of learning modules through microsteps in digital media environments. These activities can be incorporated into the learner's daily routines and tasks. Unlike "traditional" e-learning approaches, microlearning often tends towards push technology through push media, which reduces the cognitive load on the learner. In a wide sense, microlearning can be understood as a metaphor which refers to micro-aspects of a variety of learning models, concepts, and processes and is capable enough to address challenges associated with the learning process. Breaking the information down into topical, bite-sized chunks helps to increase attention and promotes higher retention rates. Research shows that microlearning can result in significant increase of exam pass rates (up to 18%). The technique has also been shown to increase learner confidence with the material. A modern definition of microlearning refers to a learning technique that involves bite-size lessons to engage learners in the process. Furthermore, microlearning marks a transition from common models of learning towards micro-perspectives on, and the significance of, micro-dimensions in the process of learning. Microlearning has also been considered as a promising topic in work-based learning, and the applications of microlearning have been widely studied in different fields. As of 2020, there were at least 476 relevant publications exploring the concept. The technique is capable of addressing challenges associated with slow learners. It is functional not only for skill-based education but also for sustainable socioeconomic development, and without taking care of micro-perspectives in the context of learning, education, training, and skill development, a skill-based education cannot be imparted effectively. Framework A microlearning framework is characterized by the following parameters: Time. Microlearning modules are specifically designed as concise and short courses. Content. The design allows course content to be divided into smaller segments that would usually cover a single topic. Curriculum. A short course covering a specific topic or a series of short courses covering a bigger module. Form. It could vary depending on its intended use, like knowledge nuggets, episodes, skill sets, etc. Process. The process of microlearning involves an integrated learning segment that could be in the form of in-person sessions, video, or text, followed by an assessment to gauge the learner's performance. Media. In-person classes or distance learning, both of which may be based on multimedia activities. Subscription learning Subscription learning provides an intermittent stream of learning-related interactions to subscribers. These learning-related interactions (also called "nuggets") can involve a great variety of learning-related events, including content presentation, diagnostics, scenario-based questions, job aids, reflection questions, assignments, discussions, etc. Nuggets are short, usually presented in less than ten minutes. Nuggets are intentionally scheduled over time to support learning, often utilizing research-based findings related to the spacing effect. Learners subscribe (or are subscribed) to one or more series of learning nuggets, called "threads". Learning threads can be predesigned, selecting nuggets based on anticipated learner needs, or they can be dynamically created based on learner performance. Action plan Microlearning activity can be designed as an individual or group experience with appropriate prompts to gauge performance of the learners. The focus, however, is to keep the information short and relevant in order to maintain concentration. The activity itself could include reading a paragraph, listening to an informational podcast, watching a video clip, etc. Once observation of the content is completed, it is then followed by assessment in the form of short quizzes, micro-games, reflection of viewed content, etc. The content of the design depends upon the mode of delivery. For example, an informational podcast would be more suitable for self-paced learners who have access to the relevant source; on the other hand, reading a paragraph from a book could be more functional for more traditional learners. Examples Screensavers which prompt the user to solve a small series of simple tasks after a certain amount of inactivity Quizzes with multiple choice options on cell phones by use of SMS or mobile applications (Java midlets, Symbian) Word of the day as a daily RSS feed or email Flashcard software for memorizing content through spaced repetition Short videos (2–10 minutes), either presented standalone or in a series See also Microformats Microlecture References Bibliography Giurgiu, Luminiţa (2017) : Microlearning an Evolving Elearning Trend Gassler, Gerhard; Hug, Theo & Glahn, Christian (2004): Integrated Micro Learning – An outline of the basic method and first results. In: Auer, Michael E. & Auer, Ursula (eds.): International Conference on Interactive Computer Aided Learning, ICL 2004, Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2004, Villach, Austria (CD-ROM). Gstrein, Silvia & Hug, Theo (2005): Integrated Micro Learning during Access Delays. A new approach to second language learning. In: Zaphiris, Panayiotis (ed.): User-centered computer assisted language learning. Hershey:Idea Group Publishing, pp. 152–175. Hagleitner, Wolfgang; Drexler, Arthur; Hug, Theo (2006). Evaluation of a prototypic version of Knowledge Pulse in the context of a management course. Paper presented at the Multimedia Applications in Education Conference, 2006, September 4–6, FH Joanneum, Graz, Austria. Hug, Theo; Lindner, Martin; Bruck, Peter A. (eds.) (2006): Microlearning: Emerging Concepts, Practices and Technologies after e-Learning. Proceedings of Microlearning 2005. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2006. Weber, Charles M. (2003): Rapid Learning in High Velocity Environments. Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) / Cambridge (U.S.A.). Leong, K., Sung, A., Au, D., & Blanchard, C. (2020). A review of the trend of microlearning. Journal of Work-Applied Management. Educational technology Learning Technical communication E-learning	0.778143	0.983848	0.765574
Activity theory	Activity theory (AT; ) is an umbrella term for a line of eclectic social-sciences theories and research with its roots in the Soviet psychological activity theory pioneered by Sergei Rubinstein in the 1930s. It was later advocated for and popularized by Alexei Leont'ev. Some of the traces of the theory in its inception can also be found in a few works of Lev Vygotsky. These scholars sought to understand human activities as systemic and socially situated phenomena and to go beyond paradigms of reflexology (the teaching of Vladimir Bekhterev and his followers) and classical conditioning (the teaching of Ivan Pavlov and his school), psychoanalysis and behaviorism. It became one of the major psychological approaches in the former USSR, being widely used in both theoretical and applied psychology, and in education, professional training, ergonomics, social psychology and work psychology. Activity theory is more of a descriptive meta-theory or framework than a predictive theory. It considers an entire work/activity system (including teams, organizations, etc.) beyond just one actor or user. It accounts for environment, history of the person, culture, role of the artifact, motivations, and complexity of real-life activity. One of the strengths of AT is that it bridges the gap between the individual subject and the social reality—it studies both through the mediating activity. The unit of analysis in AT is the concept of object-oriented, collective and culturally mediated human activity, or activity system. This system includes the object (or objective), subject, mediating artifacts (signs and tools), rules, community and division of labor. The motive for the activity in AT is created through the tensions and contradictions within the elements of the system. According to ethnographer Bonnie Nardi, a leading theorist in AT, activity theory "focuses on practice, which obviates the need to distinguish 'applied' from 'pure' science—understanding everyday practice in the real world is the very objective of scientific practice. ... The object of activity theory is to understand the unity of consciousness and activity." Sometimes called "Cultural-Historical Activity Theory", this approach is particularly useful for studying a group that exists "largely in virtual form, its communications mediated largely through electronic and printed texts." Cultural-Historical Activity Theory has accordingly also been applied to genre theory within writing studies to consider how quasi-stabilized forms of communication regularize relations and work while forming communally shared knowledge and values in both educational and workplace settings. AT is particularly useful as a lens in qualitative research methodologies (e.g., ethnography, case study). AT provides a method of understanding and analyzing a phenomenon, finding patterns and making inferences across interactions, describing phenomena and presenting phenomena through a built-in language and rhetoric. A particular activity is a goal-directed or purposeful interaction of a subject with an object through the use of tools. These tools are exteriorized forms of mental processes manifested in constructs, whether physical or psychological. As a result the notion of tools in AT is broad and can involve stationary, digital devices, library materials, or even physical meeting spaces. AT recognizes the internalization and externalization of cognitive processes involved in the use of tools, as well as the transformation or development that results from the interaction. History The origins of activity theory can be traced to several sources, which have subsequently given rise to various complementary and intertwined strands of development. This account will focus on three of the most important of these strands. The first is associated with the Moscow Institute of Psychology and in particular the "troika" of young Russian researchers, Vygotsky, Leont'ev and Luria. Vygotsky founded cultural-historical psychology, a field that became the basis for modern AT; Leont'ev, one of the principal founders of activity theory, both developed and reacted against Vygotsky's work. Leont'ev's formulation of general activity theory is currently a strong influence in post-Soviet developments in AT, which have largely been in social-scientific, organizational, and writing-studies rather than psychological research and organization. The second major line of development within activity theory involves Russian scientists, such as P. K. Anokhin and Nikolai Bernstein, more directly concerned with the neurophysiological basis of activity; its foundation is associated with the Soviet philosopher of psychology Sergei Rubinstein. This work was subsequently developed by researchers such as Pushkin, Zinchenko & Gordeeva, Ponomarenko, Zarakovsky and others, and is currently most well-known through the work on systemic-structural activity theory being carried out by G. Z. Bedny and his associates, including a focus on the application of this theory as well as other related theories. Finally, in the Western world, discussions and use of AT are primarily framed within the Scandinavian activity theory strand, developed by Yrjö Engeström. Russian After Vygotsky's early death, Leont'ev became the leader of the research group nowadays known as the Kharkov School of Psychology and extended Vygotsky's research framework in significantly new ways. Leont'ev first examined the psychology of animals, looking at the different degrees to which animals can be said to have mental processes. He concluded that Pavlov's reflexionism was not a sufficient explanation of animal behaviour and that animals have an active relation to reality, which he called "activity". In particular, the behaviour of higher primates such as chimpanzees could only be explained by the ape's formation of multi-phase plans using tools. Leont'ev then progressed to humans and pointed out that people engage in "actions" that do not in themselves satisfy a need, but contribute towards the eventual satisfaction of a need. Often, these actions only make sense in a social context of a shared work activity. This led him to a distinction between "activities", which satisfy a need, and the "actions" that constitute the activities. Leont'ev also argued that the activity in which a person is involved is reflected in their mental activity, that is (as he puts it) material reality is "presented" to consciousness, but only in its vital meaning or significance. Activity theory also influenced the development of organizational-activity game as developed by Georgy Shchedrovitsky. Scandinavian AT remained virtually unknown outside the Soviet Union until the mid-1980s, when it was picked up by Scandinavian researchers. The first international conference on activity theory was not held until 1986. The earliest non-Soviet paper cited by Nardi is a 1987 paper by Yrjö Engeström: "Learning by expanding". This resulted in a reformulation of AT. Kuutti notes that the term "activity theory" "can be used in two senses: referring to the original Soviet tradition or referring to the international, multi-voiced community applying the original ideas and developing them further." The Scandinavian AT school of thought seeks to integrate and develop concepts from Vygotsky's Cultural-historical psychology and Leont'ev's activity theory with Western intellectual developments such as Cognitive Science, American Pragmatism, Constructivism, and Actor-Network Theory. It is known as Scandinavian activity theory. Work in the systems-structural theory of activity is also being carried on by researchers in the US and UK. Some of the changes are a systematisation of Leont'ev's work. Although Leont'ev's exposition is clear and well structured, it is not as well-structured as the formulation by Yrjö Engeström. Kaptelinin remarks that Engeström "proposed a scheme of activity different from that by Leont'ev; it contains three interacting entities—the individual, the object and the community—instead of the two components—the individual and the object—in Leont'ev's original scheme." Some changes were introduced, apparently by importing notions from human–computer interaction theory. For instance, the notion of rules, which is not found in Leont'ev, was introduced. Also, the notion of collective subject was introduced in the 1970s and 1980s (Leont'ev refers to "joint labour activity", but only has individuals, not groups, as activity subjects). Theory The goal of activity theory is understanding the mental capabilities of a single individual. However, it rejects the isolated individuals as insufficient unit of analysis, analyzing the cultural and technical aspects of human actions. Activity theory is most often used to describe actions in a socio-technical system through six related elements (Bryant et al. as defined by Leonti'ev 1981 and redefined in Engeström 1987) of a conceptual system expanded by more nuanced theories: Object-orientedness – the objective of the activity system. Object refers to the objectiveness of the reality; items are considered objective according to natural sciences but also have social and cultural properties. Subject or internalization – actors engaged in the activities; the traditional notion of mental processes Community or externalization – social context; all actors involved in the activity system Tools or tool mediation – the artifacts (or concepts) used by actors in the system (both material and abstract artifacts). Tools influence actor-structure interactions, they change with accumulating experience. In addition to physical shape, the knowledge also evolves. Tools are influenced by culture, and their use is a way for the accumulation and transmission of social knowledge. Tools influence both the agents and the structure. Division of labor – social strata, hierarchical structure of activity, the division of activities among actors in the system Rules – conventions, guidelines and rules regulating activities in the system Activity theory helps explain how social artifacts and social organization mediate social action (Bryant et al.). Information systems The application of activity theory to information systems derives from the work of Bonnie Nardi and Kari Kuutti. Kuutti's work is addressed below. Nardi's approach is, briefly, as follows: Nardi (p. 6) described activity theory as "...a powerful and clarifying descriptive tool rather than a strongly predictive theory. The object of activity theory is to understand the unity of consciousness and activity...Activity theorists argue that consciousness is not a set of discrete disembodied cognitive acts (decision making, classification, remembering), and certainly it is not the brain; rather, consciousness is located in everyday practice: you are what you do." Nardi (p. 5) also argued that "activity theory proposes a strong notion of mediation—all human experience is shaped by the tools and sign systems we use." Nardi (p. 6) explained that "a basic tenet of activity theory is that a notion of consciousness is central to a depiction of activity. Vygotsky described consciousness as a phenomenon that unifies attention, intention, memory, reasoning, and speech..." and (p. 7) "Activity theory, with its emphasis on the importance of motive and consciousness—which belongs only to humans—sees people and things as fundamentally different. People are not reduced to 'nodes' or 'agents' in a system; 'information processing' is not seen as something to be modelled in the same way for people and machines." In a later work, Nardi et al. in comparing activity theory with cognitive science, argue that "activity theory is above all a social theory of consciousness" and therefore "... activity theory wants to define consciousness, that is, all the mental functioning including remembering, deciding, classifying, generalising, abstracting and so forth, as a product of our social interactions with other people and of our use of tools." For Activity Theorists "consciousness" seems to refer to any mental functioning, whereas most other approaches to psychology distinguish conscious from unconscious functions. Over the last 15 years the use and exploration of activity theory in information systems has grown. One stream of research has focused on technology mediated change and the implementation of technologies and how they disrupt, change and improve organisational work activity. In these studies, activity systems are used to understand emergent contradictions in the work activity, which are temporarily resolved using information systems (tools) and/or arising from the introduction of information systems. Information science studies use a similar approach to activity theory in order to understand information behaviour "in context". In the field of Information and communications technology (ICT) and development (a field of study within information systems), activity theory has also been used to inform development of IT systems and to frame the study of ICT in development settings. In addition, Etengoff & Daiute have conducted recent work exploring how social media interfaces can be productively used to mediate conflicts. Their work has illustrated this perspective with analyses of online interactions between gay men and their religious family members and Sunni-Muslim emerging adults' efforts to maintain a positive ethnic identity via online religious forums in post 9/11 contexts. Human–computer interaction The rise of the personal computer challenged the focus in traditional systems developments on mainframe systems for automation of existing work routines. It furthermore brought forth a need to focus on how to work on materials and objects through the computer. In the search of theoretical and methodical perspectives suited to deal with issues of flexibility and more advanced mediation between the human being, material and outcomes through the interface, it seemed promising to turn to the still rather young HCI research tradition that had emerged primarily in the US (for further discussion see Bannon & Bødker, 1991). Specifically the cognitive science-based theories lacked means of addressing a number of issues that came out of the empirical projects (see Bannon & Bødker, 1991): 1. Many of the early advanced user interfaces assumed that the users were the designers themselves, and accordingly built on an assumption of a generic user, without concern for qualifications, work environment, division of work, etc. 2.In particular the role of the artifact as it stands between the user and her materials, objects and outcomes was ill understood. 3. In validating findings and designs there was a heavy focus on novice users whereas everyday use by experienced users and concerns for the development of expertise were hardly addressed. 4.Detailed task analysis and the idealized models created through task analysis failed to capture the complexity and contingency of real-life action. 5.From the point of view of complex work settings, it was striking how most HCI focused on one user – one computer in contrast to the ever-ongoing cooperation and coordination of real work situations (this problem later lead to the development of CSCW). 6.Users were mainly seen as objects of study. Because of these shortcomings, it was necessary to move outside cognitive science-based HCI to find or develop the necessary theoretical platform. European psychology had taken different paths than had American with much inspiration from dialectical materialism (Hydén 1981, Engeström, 1987). Philosophers such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein came to play an important role, primarily through discussions of the limitations of AI (Winograd & Flores 1986, Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1986). Suchman (1987) with a similar focus introduced ethnomethodology into the discussions, and Ehn (1988) based his treatise of design of computer artifacts on Marx, Heidegger and Wittgenstein. The development of the activity theoretical angle was primarily carried out by Bødker (1991, 1996) and by Kuutti (Bannon & Kuutti, 1993, Kuutti, 1991, 1996), both with strong inspiration from Scandinavian activity theory groups in psychology. Bannon (1990, 1991) and Grudin (1990a and b) made significant contributions to the furthering of the approach by making it available to the HCI audience. The work of Kaptelinin (1996) has been important to connect to the earlier development of activity theory in Russia. Nardi produced the, hitherto, most applicable collection of activity theoretical HCI literature (Nardi, 1996). Systemic-structural activity theory (SSAT) At the end of the 1990s, a group of Russian and American activity theorists working in the systems-cybernetic tradition of Bernshtein and Anokhin began to publish English-language articles and books dealing with topics in human factors and ergonomics and, latterly, human–computer interaction. Under the rubric of systemic-structural activity theory (SSAT), this work represents a modern synthesis within activity theory which brings together the cultural-historical and systems-structural strands of the tradition (as well as other work within Soviet psychology such as the Psychology of Set) with findings and methods from Western human factors/ergonomics and cognitive psychology. The development of SSAT has been specifically oriented toward the analysis and design of the basic elements of human work activity: tasks, tools, methods, objects and results, and the skills, experience and abilities of involved subjects. SSAT has developed techniques for both the qualitative and quantitative description of work activity. Its design-oriented analyses specifically focus on the interrelationship between the structure and self-regulation of work activity and the configuration of its material components. An explanation This section presents a short introduction to activity theory, and some brief comments on human creativity in activity theory and the implications of activity theory for tacit knowledge and learning. Activities Activity theory begins with the notion of activity. An activity is seen as a system of human "doing" whereby a subject works on an object in order to obtain a desired outcome. In order to do this, the subject employs tools, which may be external (e.g. an axe, a computer) or internal (e.g. a plan). As an illustration, an activity might be the operation of an automated call centre. As we shall see later, many subjects may be involved in the activity and each subject may have one or more motives (e.g. improved supply management, career advancement or gaining control over a vital organisational power source). A simple example of an activity within a call centre might be a telephone operator (subject) who is modifying a customer's billing record (object) so that the billing data is correct (outcome) using a graphical front end to a database (tool). Kuutti formulates activity theory in terms of the structure of an activity. "An activity is a form of doing directed to an object, and activities are distinguished from each other according to their objects. Transforming the object into an outcome motivates the existence of an activity. An object can be a material thing, but it can also be less tangible." Kuutti then adds a third term, the tool, which 'mediates' between the activity and the object. "The tool is at the same time both enabling and limiting: it empowers the subject in the transformation process with the historically collected experience and skill 'crystallised' to it, but it also restricts the interaction to be from the perspective of that particular tool or instrument; other potential features of an object remain invisible to the subject...". As Verenikina remarks, tools are "social objects with certain modes of operation developed socially in the course of labour and are only possible because they correspond to the objectives of a practical action." Levels An activity is modelled as a three-level hierarchy. Kuutti schematises processes in activity theory as a three-level system. Verenikina paraphrases Leont'ev as explaining that "the non-coincidence of action and operations... appears in actions with tools, that is, material objects which are crystallised operations, not actions nor goals. If a person is confronted with a specific goal of, say, dismantling a machine, then they must make use of a variety of operations; it makes no difference how the individual operations were learned because the formulation of the operation proceeds differently to the formulation of the goal that initiated the action." The levels of activity are also characterised by their purposes: "Activities are oriented to motives, that is, the objects that are impelling by themselves. Each motive is an object, material or ideal, that satisfies a need. Actions are the processes functionally subordinated to activities; they are directed at specific conscious goals... Actions are realised through operations that are determined by the actual conditions of activity." Engeström developed an extended model of an activity, which adds another component, community ("those who share the same object"), and then adds rules to mediate between subject and community, and the division of labour to mediate between object and community. Kuutti asserts that "These three classes should be understood broadly. A tool can be anything used in the transformation process, including both material tools and tools for thinking. Rules cover both explicit and implicit norms, conventions, and social relations within a community. Division of labour refers to the explicit and implicit organisation of the community as related to the transformation process of the object into the outcome." Activity theory therefore includes the notion that an activity is carried out within a social context, or specifically in a community. The way in which the activity fits into the context is thus established by two resulting concepts: rules: these are both explicit and implicit and define how subjects must fit into the community; division of labour: this describes how the object of the activity relates to the community. The internal plane of action Activity theory provides a number of useful concepts that can be used to address the lack of expression for 'soft' factors which are inadequately represented by most process modelling frameworks. One such concept is the internal plane of action. Activity theory recognises that each activity takes place in two planes: the external plane and the internal plane. The external plane represents the objective components of the action while the internal plane represents the subjective components of the action. Kaptelinin defines the internal plane of actions as "[...] a concept developed in activity theory that refers to the human ability to perform manipulations with an internal representation of external objects before starting actions with these objects in reality." The concepts of motives, goals and conditions discussed above also contribute to the modelling of soft factors. One principle of activity theory is that many activities have multiple motivation ('polymotivation'). For instance, a programmer in writing a program may address goals aligned towards multiple motives such as increasing his or her annual bonus, obtaining relevant career experience and contributing to organisational objectives. Activity theory further argues that subjects are grouped into communities, with rules mediating between subject and community and a division of labour mediating between object and community. A subject may be part of several communities and a community, itself, may be part of other communities. Human creativity Human creativity plays an important role in activity theory, that "human beings... are essentially creative beings" in "the creative, non-predictable character". Tikhomirov also analyses the importance of creative activity, contrasting it to routine activity, and notes the important shift brought about by computerisation in the balance towards creative activity. Karl Marx, a sociological theorist, argued that humans are unique compared to other species in that humans create everything they need to survive. According to Marx, this is described as species-being. Marx believed we find our true identity in what we produce in our personal labor. Learning and tacit knowledge Activity theory has an interesting approach to the difficult problems of learning and, in particular, tacit knowledge. Learning has been a favourite subject of management theorists, but it has often been presented in an abstract way separated from the work processes to which the learning should apply. Activity theory provides a potential corrective to this tendency. For instance, Engeström's review of Nonaka's work on knowledge creation suggests enhancements based on activity theory, in particular suggesting that the organisational learning process includes preliminary stages of goal and problem formation not found in Nonaka. Lompscher, rather than seeing learning as transmission, sees the formation of learning goals and the student's understanding of which things they need to acquire as the key to the formation of the learning activity. Of particular importance to the study of learning in organisations is the problem of tacit knowledge, which according to Nonaka, "is highly personal and hard to formalise, making it difficult to communicate to others or to share with others." Leont'ev's concept of operation provides an important insight into this problem. In addition, the key idea of internalisation was originally introduced by Vygotsky as "the internal reconstruction of an external operation." Internalisation has subsequently become a key term of the theory of tacit knowledge and has been defined as "a process of embodying explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge." Internalisation has been described by Engeström as the "key psychological mechanism" discovered by Vygotsky and is further discussed by Verenikina. See also Active learning Activity-centered design Anna Stetsenko Critical psychology Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) Distributed cognition Distributed leadership Educational psychology Enactivism Interaction design Leading activity Organization Workshop Post-rationalist cognitive therapy Situated cognition Social constructivism (learning theory) References Sources Leont'ev, A. Problems of the development of mind. English translation, Progress Press, 1981, Moscow. (Russian original 1947). Leont'ev, A. Activity, Consciousness, and Personality Engeström, Y. Learning by expanding Yasnitsky, A. (2011). Vygotsky Circle as a Personal Network of Scholars: Restoring Connections Between People and Ideas. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, pdf Verenikina, I. & Gould, E. (1998) Cultural-historical Psychology & Activity Theory. In Hasan, H., Gould., E. & Hyland, P. (Eds.) Activity Theory and Information Systems (7–18), Vol. 1.Wollongong: UOW Press Further reading Bertelsen, O.W. and Bødker, S., 2003. Activity theory. In J. M. Carroll (Ed.) HCI models, theories, and frameworks: Toward a multidisciplinary science, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco. pp. 291–324. Bryant, Susan, Andrea Forte and Amy Bruckman, Becoming Wikipedian: Transformation of participation in a collaborative online encyclopedia, Proceedings of GROUP International Conference on Supporting Group Work, 2005. pp 1.-10 Kaptelinin, Victor, and Bonnie A. Nardi. (2006) Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design., MIT Press. Mazzoni, E. (2006). "Extending Web Sites' Usability: from a Cognitive Perspective to an Activity Theory Approach". In S. Zappala and C. Gray (Eds.) Impact of e-Commerce on Consumers and Small Firms. Aldershot, Hampshire (England), Ashgate. External links What is Activity Theory? The Future of Activity Theory Giorgos Kakarinos (2013): Methodological reflections on Leontiev's Activity Theory: Activity Theory and "The Logic of History" Psychological theories Social constructionism Social philosophy Sociological theories de:Handlungsregulationstheorie	0.777543	0.984502	0.765493
Conformity	Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, guidance shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often choose to conform to society rather than to pursue personal desires – because it is often easier to follow the path others have made already, rather than forging a new one. Thus, conformity is sometimes a product of group communication. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or in society as a whole and may result from subtle unconscious influences (predisposed state of mind), or from direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when an individual is alone. For example, people tend to follow social norms when eating or when watching television, even if alone. The Asch conformity experiment demonstrates how much influence conformity has on people. In a laboratory experiment, Asch asked 50 male students from Swarthmore College in the US to participate in a 'vision test'. Asch put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates/stooges in a line judgment task. When confronted with the line task, each confederate had already decided what response they would give. The real members of the experimental group sat in the last position, while the others were pre-arranged experimenters who gave apparently incorrect answers in unison; Asch recorded the last person's answer to analyze the influence of conformity. Surprisingly, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation sided with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials. Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of participants conformed at least once. After being interviewed, subjects acknowledged that they did not actually agree with the answers given by others. The majority of them, however, believe that groups are wiser or do not want to appear as mavericks and choose to repeat the same obvious misconception. It is clear from this that conformity has a powerful effect on human perception and behavior, even to the extent that it can be faked against a person's basic belief system. Changing one's behaviors to match the responses of others, which is conformity, can be conscious or not. People have an intrinsic tendency to unconsciously imitate other's behaviors such as gesture, language, talking speed, and other actions of the people they interact with. There are two other main reasons for conformity: informational influence and normative influence. People display conformity in response to informational influence when they believe the group is better informed, or in response to normative influence when they are afraid of rejection. When the advocated norm could be correct, the informational influence is more important than the normative influence, while otherwise the normative influence dominates. People often conform from a desire for security within a group, also known as normative influence—typically a group of a similar age, culture, religion or educational status. This is often referred to as groupthink: a pattern of thought characterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics, which ignores realistic appraisal of other courses of action. Unwillingness to conform carries the risk of social rejection. Conformity is often associated in media with adolescence and youth culture, but strongly affects humans of all ages. Although peer pressure may manifest negatively, conformity can be regarded as either good or bad. Driving on the conventionally-approved side of the road may be seen as beneficial conformity. With the appropriate environmental influence, conforming, in early childhood years, allows one to learn and thus, adopt the appropriate behaviors necessary to interact and develop "correctly" within one's society. Conformity influences the formation and maintenance of social norms, and helps societies function smoothly and predictably via the self-elimination of behaviors seen as contrary to unwritten rules. Conformity was found to impair group performance in a variable environment, but was not found to have a significant effect on performance in a stable environment. According to Herbert Kelman, there are three types of conformity: 1) compliance (which is public conformity, and it is motivated by the need for approval or the fear of disapproval; 2) identification (which is a deeper type of conformism than compliance); 3) internalization (which is to conform both publicly and privately). Major factors that influence the degree of conformity include culture, gender, age, size of the group, situational factors, and different stimuli. In some cases, minority influence, a special case of informational influence, can resist the pressure to conform and influence the majority to accept the minority's belief or behaviors. Definition and context Definition Conformity is the tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms. Norms are implicit, specific rules shared by a group of individuals on how they should behave. People may be susceptible to conform to group norms because they want to gain acceptance from their group. Peer Some adolescents gain acceptance and recognition from their peers by conformity. This peer moderated conformity increases from the transition of childhood to adolescence. It follows a U-shaped age pattern wherein conformity increases through childhood, peaking at sixth and ninth grades and then declines. Adolescents often follow the logic that "if everyone else is doing it, then it must be good and right". However, it is found that they are more likely to conform if peer pressure involves neutral activities such as those in sports, entertainment, and prosocial behaviors rather than anti-social behaviors. Researchers have found that peer conformity is strongest for individuals who reported strong identification with their friends or groups, making them more likely to adopt beliefs and behaviors accepted in such circles. There is also the factor that the mere presence of a person can influence whether one is conforming or not. Norman Triplett (1898) was the researcher that initially discovered the impact that mere presence has, especially among peers. In other words, all people can affect society. We are influenced by people doing things beside us, whether this is in a competitive atmosphere or not. People tend to be influenced by those who are their own age especially. Co-actors that are similar to us tend to push us more than those who are not. Social responses According to Donelson Forsyth, after submitting to group pressures, individuals may find themselves facing one of several responses to conformity. These types of responses to conformity vary in their degree of public agreement versus private agreement. When an individual finds themselves in a position where they publicly agree with the group's decision yet privately disagrees with the group's consensus, they are experiencing compliance or acquiescence. This is also referenced as apparent conformity. This type of conformity recognizes that behavior is not always consistent with our beliefs and attitudes, which mimics Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory. In turn, conversion, otherwise known as private acceptance or "true conformity", involves both publicly and privately agreeing with the group's decision. In the case of private acceptance, the person conforms to the group by changing their beliefs and attitudes. Thus, this represents a true change of opinion to match the majority. Another type of social response, which does not involve conformity with the majority of the group, is called convergence. In this type of social response, the group member agrees with the group's decision from the outset and thus does not need to shift their opinion on the matter at hand. In addition, Forsyth shows that nonconformity can also fall into one of two response categories. Firstly, an individual who does not conform to the majority can display independence. Independence, or dissent, can be defined as the unwillingness to bend to group pressures. Thus, this individual stays true to his or her personal standards instead of the swaying toward group standards. Secondly, a nonconformist could be displaying anticonformity or counterconformity which involves the taking of opinions that are opposite to what the group believes. This type of nonconformity can be motivated by a need to rebel against the status quo instead of the need to be accurate in one's opinion. To conclude, social responses to conformity can be seen to vary along a continuum from conversion to anticonformity. For example, a popular experiment in conformity research, known as the Asch situation or Asch conformity experiments, primarily includes compliance and independence. Also, other responses to conformity can be identified in groups such as juries, sports teams and work teams. Main experiments Sherif's experiment (1935) Muzafer Sherif was interested in knowing how many people would change their opinions to bring them in line with the opinion of a group. In his experiment, participants were placed in a dark room and asked to stare at a small dot of light 15 feet away. They were then asked to estimate the amount it moved. The trick was, there was no movement, it was caused by a visual illusion known as the autokinetic effect. The participants stated estimates ranging from 1–10 inches. On the first day, each person perceived different amounts of movement, but from the second to the fourth day, the same estimate was agreed on and others conformed to it. Over time, the personal estimates converged with the other group members' estimates once discussing their judgments aloud. Sherif suggested this was a simulation for how social norms develop in a society, providing a common frame of reference for people. His findings emphasize that people rely on others to interpret ambiguous stimuli and new situations. Subsequent experiments were based on more realistic situations. In an eyewitness identification task, participants were shown a suspect individually and then in a lineup of other suspects. They were given one second to identify him, making it a difficult task. One group was told that their input was very important and would be used by the legal community. To the other it was simply a trial. Being more motivated to get the right answer increased the tendency to conform. Those who wanted to be more accurate conformed 51% of the time as opposed to 35% in the other group. Sherif's study provided a framework for subsequent studies of influence such as Solomon Asch's 1955 study. Asch's experiment (1951) Solomon E. Asch conducted a modification of Sherif's study, assuming that when the situation was very clear, conformity would be drastically reduced. He exposed people in a group to a series of lines, and the participants were asked to match one line with a standard line. All participants except one were accomplices and gave the wrong answer in 12 of the 18 trials. The results showed a surprisingly high degree of conformity: 74% of the participants conformed on at least one trial. On average people conformed one third of the time. A question is how the group would affect individuals in a situation where the correct answer is less obvious. After his first test, Asch wanted to investigate whether the size or unanimity of the majority had greater influence on test subjects. "Which aspect of the influence of a majority is more important – the size of the majority or its unanimity? The experiment was modified to examine this question. In one series the size of the opposition was varied from one to 15 persons." The results clearly showed that as more people opposed the subject, the subject became more likely to conform. However, the increasing majority was only influential up to a point: from three or more opponents, there is more than 30% of conformity. Besides that, this experiment proved that conformity is powerful, but also fragile. It is powerful because just by having actors giving the wrong answer made the participant to also give the wrong answer, even though they knew it was not correct. It is also fragile, however, because in one of the variants for the experiment, one of the actors was supposed to give the correct answer, being an "ally" to the participant. With an ally, the participant was more likely to give the correct answer than he was before the ally. In addition, if the participant was able to write down the answer, instead of saying out loud, he was also more likely to put the correct answer. The reason for that is because he was not afraid of being different from the rest of the group since the answers were hidden. Milgram's shock experiment (1961) This experiment was conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in order to portray obedience to authority. They measured the willingness of participants (men aged 20 to 50 from a diverse range of occupations with different levels of education) to obey the instructions from an authority figure to supply fake electric shocks that would gradually increase to fatal levels. Regardless of these instructions going against their personal conscience, 65% of the participants shocked all the way to 450 volts, fully obeying the instruction, even if they did so reluctantly. Additionally, all participants shocked to at least 300 volts. In this experiment, the subjects did not have punishments or rewards if they chose to disobey or obey. All they might receive is disapproval or approval from the experimenter. Since this is the case they had no motives to sway them to perform the immoral orders or not. One of the most important factors of the experiment is the position of the authority figure relative to the subject (the shocker) along with the position of the learner (the one getting shocked). There is a reduction in conformity depending on if the authority figure or learner was in the same room as the subject. When the authority figure was in another room and only phoned to give their orders the obedience rate went down to 20.5%. When the learner was in the same room as the subject the obedience rate dropped to 40%. Stanford prison experiment (August 15–21, 1971) This experiment, led by psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo, recruited Stanford students using a local newspaper ad, who he checked to be both physically and mentally healthy. Subjects were either assigned the role of a "prisoner" or "guard" at random over an extended period of time, within a pretend prison setting on the Stanford University Campus. The study was set to be over the course of two weeks but it was abruptly cut short because of the behaviors the subjects were exuding. It was terminated due to the "guards" taking on tyrannical and discriminatory characteristics while "prisoners" showed blatant signs of depression and distress. In essence, this study showed us a lot about conformity and power imbalance. For one, it demonstrates how situations determines the way our behavior is shaped and predominates over our personality, attitudes, and individual morals. Those chosen to be "guards" were not mean-spirited. But, the situation they were put in made them act accordingly to their role. Furthermore, this study elucidates the idea that humans conform to expected roles. Good people (i.e. the guards before the experiment) were transformed into perpetrators of evil. Healthy people (i.e. the prisoners before the experiment) were subject to pathological reactions. These aspects are also traceable to situational forces. This experiment also demonstrated the notion of the banality of evil which explains that evil is not something special or rare, but it is something that exists in all ordinary people. Varieties Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three major types of conformity. Compliance is public conformity, while possibly keeping one's own original beliefs for yourself. Compliance is motivated by the need for approval and the fear of being rejected. Identification is conforming to someone who is liked and respected, such as a celebrity or a favorite uncle. This can be motivated by the attractiveness of the source, and this is a deeper type of conformism than compliance. Internalization is accepting the belief or behavior and conforming both publicly and privately, if the source is credible. It is the deepest influence on people, and it will affect them for a long time. Although Kelman's distinction has been influential, research in social psychology has focused primarily on two varieties of conformity. These are informational conformity, or informational social influence, and normative conformity, also called normative social influence. In Kelman's terminology, these correspond to internalization and compliance, respectively. There are naturally more than two or three variables in society influential on human psychology and conformity; the notion of "varieties" of conformity based upon "social influence" is ambiguous and indefinable in this context. According to Deutsch and Gérard (1955), conformity results from a motivational conflict (between the fear of being socially rejected and the wish to say what we think is correct) that leads to normative influence, and a cognitive conflict (others create doubts in what we think) which leads to informational influence. Informational influence Informational social influence occurs when one turns to the members of one's group to obtain and accept accurate information about reality. A person is most likely to use informational social influence in certain situations: when a situation is ambiguous, people become uncertain about what to do and they are more likely to depend on others for the answer; and during a crisis when immediate action is necessary, in spite of panic. Looking to other people can help ease fears, but unfortunately, they are not always right. The more knowledgeable a person is, the more valuable they are as a resource. Thus, people often turn to experts for help. But once again people must be careful, as experts can make mistakes too. Informational social influence often results in internalization or private acceptance, where a person genuinely believes that the information is right. Normative influence Normative social influence occurs when one conforms to be liked or accepted by the members of the group. This need of social approval and acceptance is part of our state of humans. In addition to this, we know that when people do not conform with their group and therefore are deviants, they are less liked and even punished by the group. Normative influence usually results in public compliance, doing or saying something without believing in it. The experiment of Asch in 1951 is one example of normative influence. Even though John Turner et al. argued that the post experimental interviews showed that the respondents were uncertain about the correct answers in some cases. The answers might have been evident to the experimenters, but the participants did not have the same experience. Subsequent studies pointed out the fact that the participants were not known to each other and therefore did not pose a threat against social rejection. See: Normative influence vs. referent informational influence In a reinterpretation of the original data from these experiments Hodges and Geyer (2006) found that Asch's subjects were not so conformist after all: The experiments provide powerful evidence for people's tendency to tell the truth even when others do not. They also provide compelling evidence of people's concern for others and their views. By closely examining the situation in which Asch's subjects find themselves they find that the situation places multiple demands on participants: They include truth (i.e., expressing one's own view accurately), trust (i.e., taking seriously the value of others' claims), and social solidarity (i.e., a commitment to integrate the views of self and others without deprecating). In addition to these epistemic values, there are multiple moral claims as well: These include the need for participants to care for the integrity and well-being of other participants, the experimenter, themselves, and the worth of scientific research. Deutsch & Gérard (1955) designed different situations that variated from Asch' experiment and found that when participants were writing their answer privately, they were giving the correct one Normative influence, a function of social impact theory, has three components. The number of people in the group has a surprising effect. As the number increases, each person has less of an impact. A group's strength is how important the group is to a person. Groups we value generally have more social influence. Immediacy is how close the group is in time and space when the influence is taking place. Psychologists have constructed a mathematical model using these three factors and are able to predict the amount of conformity that occurs with some degree of accuracy. Baron and his colleagues conducted a second eyewitness study that focused on normative influence. In this version, the task was easier. Each participant had five seconds to look at a slide instead of just one second. Once again, there were both high and low motives to be accurate, but the results were the reverse of the first study. The low motivation group conformed 33% of the time (similar to Asch's findings). The high motivation group conformed less at 16%. These results show that when accuracy is not very important, it is better to get the wrong answer than to risk social disapproval. An experiment using procedures similar to Asch's found that there was significantly less conformity in six-person groups of friends as compared to six-person groups of strangers. Because friends already know and accept each other, there may be less normative pressure to conform in some situations. Field studies on cigarette and alcohol abuse, however, generally demonstrate evidence of friends exerting normative social influence on each other. Minority influence Although conformity generally leads individuals to think and act more like groups, individuals are occasionally able to reverse this tendency and change the people around them. This is known as minority influence, a special case of informational influence. Minority influence is most likely when people can make a clear and consistent case for their point of view. If the minority fluctuates and shows uncertainty, the chance of influence is small. However, a minority that makes a strong, convincing case increases the probability of changing the majority's beliefs and behaviors. Minority members who are perceived as experts, are high in status, or have benefited the group in the past are also more likely to succeed. Another form of minority influence can sometimes override conformity effects and lead to unhealthy group dynamics. A 2007 review of two dozen studies by the University of Washington found that a single "bad apple" (an inconsiderate or negligent group member) can substantially increase conflicts and reduce performance in work groups. Bad apples often create a negative emotional climate that interferes with healthy group functioning. They can be avoided by careful selection procedures and managed by reassigning them to positions that require less social interaction. Specific predictors Culture Stanley Milgram found that individuals in Norway (from a collectivistic culture) exhibited a higher degree of conformity than individuals in France (from an individualistic culture). Similarly, Berry studied two different populations: the Temne (collectivists) and the Inuit (individualists) and found that the Temne conformed more than the Inuit when exposed to a conformity task. Bond and Smith compared 134 studies in a meta-analysis and found that there is a positive correlation between a country's level of collectivistic values and conformity rates in the Asch paradigm. Bond and Smith also reported that conformity has declined in the United States over time. Influenced by the writings of late-19th- and early-20th-century Western travelers, scholars or diplomats who visited Japan, such as Basil Hall Chamberlain, George Trumbull Ladd and Percival Lowell, as well as by Ruth Benedict's influential book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, many scholars of Japanese studies speculated that there would be a higher propensity to conform in Japanese culture than in American culture. However, this view was not formed on the basis of empirical evidence collected in a systematic way, but rather on the basis of anecdotes and casual observations, which are subject to a variety of cognitive biases. Modern scientific studies comparing conformity in Japan and the United States show that Americans conform in general as much as the Japanese and, in some situations, even more. Psychology professor Yohtaro Takano from the University of Tokyo, along with Eiko Osaka reviewed four behavioral studies and found that the rate of conformity errors that the Japanese subjects manifested in the Asch paradigm was similar with that manifested by Americans. The study published in 1970 by Robert Frager from the University of California, Santa Cruz found that the percentage of conformity errors within the Asch paradigm was significantly lower in Japan than in the United States, especially in the prize condition. Another study published in 2008, which compared the level of conformity among Japanese in-groups (peers from the same college clubs) with that found among Americans found no substantial difference in the level of conformity manifested by the two nations, even in the case of in-groups. Gender Societal norms often establish gender differences and researchers have reported differences in the way men and women conform to social influence. For example, Alice Eagly and Linda Carli performed a meta-analysis of 148 studies of influenceability. They found that women are more persuadable and more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve surveillance. Eagly has proposed that this sex difference may be due to different sex roles in society. Women are generally taught to be more agreeable whereas men are taught to be more independent. The composition of the group plays a role in conformity as well. In a study by Reitan and Shaw, it was found that men and women conformed more when there were participants of both sexes involved versus participants of the same sex. Subjects in the groups with both sexes were more apprehensive when there was a discrepancy amongst group members, and thus the subjects reported that they doubted their own judgments. Sistrunk and McDavid made the argument that women conformed more because of a methodological bias. They argued that because stereotypes used in studies are generally male ones (sports, cars..) more than female ones (cooking, fashion..), women are feeling uncertain and conformed more, which was confirmed by their results. Age Research has noted age differences in conformity. For example, research with Australian children and adolescents ages 3 to 17 discovered that conformity decreases with age. Another study examined individuals that were ranged from ages 18 to 91. The results revealed a similar trend – older participants displayed less conformity when compared to younger participants. In the same way that gender has been viewed as corresponding to status, age has also been argued to have status implications. Berger, Rosenholtz and Zelditch suggest that age as a status role can be observed among college students. Younger students, such as those in their first year in college, are treated as lower-status individuals and older college students are treated as higher-status individuals. Therefore, given these status roles, it would be expected that younger individuals (low status) conform to the majority whereas older individuals (high status) would be expected not to conform. Researchers have also reported an interaction of gender and age on conformity. Eagly and Chrvala examined the role of age (under 19 years vs. 19 years and older), gender and surveillance (anticipating responses to be shared with group members vs. not anticipating responses being shared) on conformity to group opinions. They discovered that among participants that were 19 years or older, females conformed to group opinions more so than males when under surveillance (i.e., anticipated that their responses would be shared with group members). However, there were no gender differences in conformity among participants who were under 19 years of age and in surveillance conditions. There were also no gender differences when participants were not under surveillance. In a subsequent research article, Eagly suggests that women are more likely to conform than men because of lower status roles of women in society. She suggests that more submissive roles (i.e., conforming) are expected of individuals that hold low status roles. Still, Eagly and Chrvala's results do conflict with previous research which have found higher conformity levels among younger rather than older individuals. Size of the group Although conformity pressures generally increase as the size of the majority increases, Asch's experiment in 1951 stated that increasing the size of the group will have no additional impact beyond a majority of size three. Brown and Byrne's 1997 study described a possible explanation that people may suspect collusion when the majority exceeds three or four. Gerard's 1968 study reported a linear relationship between the group size and conformity when the group size ranges from two to seven people. According to Latane's 1981 study, the number of the majority is one factor that influences the degree of conformity, and there are other factors like strength and immediacy. Moreover, a study suggests that the effects of group size depend on the type of social influence operating. This means that in situations where the group is clearly wrong, conformity will be motivated by normative influence; the participants will conform in order to be accepted by the group. A participant may not feel much pressure to conform when the first person gives an incorrect response. However, conformity pressure will increase as each additional group member also gives the same incorrect response. Situational factors Research has found different group and situation factors that affect conformity. Accountability increases conformity, if an individual is trying to be accepted by a group which has certain preferences, then individuals are more likely to conform to match the group. Similarly, the attractiveness of group members increases conformity. If an individual wishes to be liked by the group, they are increasingly likely to conform. Accuracy also effects conformity, as the more accurate and reasonable the majority is in their decision than the more likely the individual will be to conform. As mentioned earlier, size also effects individuals' likelihood to conform. The larger the majority the more likely an individual will conform to that majority. Similarly, the less ambiguous the task or decision is, the more likely someone will conform to the group. When tasks are ambiguous people are less pressured to conform. Task difficulty also increases conformity, but research has found that conformity increases when the task is difficult but also important. Research has also found that as individuals become more aware that they disagree with the majority they feel more pressure, and hence are more likely to conform to the decisions of the group. Likewise, when responses must be made face-face, individuals increasingly conform, and therefore conformity increases as the anonymity of the response in a group decreases. Conformity also increases when individuals have committed themselves to the group making decisions. Conformity has also been shown to be linked to cohesiveness. Cohesiveness is how strongly members of a group are linked together, and conformity has been found to increase as group cohesiveness increases. Similarly, conformity is also higher when individuals are committed and wish to stay in the group. Conformity is also higher when individuals are in situations involving existential thoughts that cause anxiety, in these situations individuals are more likely to conform to the majority's decisions. Different stimuli In 1961 Stanley Milgram published a study in which he utilized Asch's conformity paradigm using audio tones instead of lines; he conducted his study in Norway and France. He found substantially higher levels of conformity than Asch, with participants conforming 50% of the time in France and 62% of the time in Norway during critical trials. Milgram also conducted the same experiment once more, but told participants that the results of the study would be applied to the design of aircraft safety signals. His conformity estimates were 56% in Norway and 46% in France, suggesting that individuals conformed slightly less when the task was linked to an important issue. Stanley Milgram's study demonstrated that Asch's study could be replicated with other stimuli, and that in the case of tones, there was a high degree of conformity. Neural correlates Evidence has been found for the involvement of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) in conformity, an area associated with memory and decision-making. For example, Klucharev et al. revealed in their study that by using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on the pMFC, participants reduced their tendency to conform to the group, suggesting a causal role for the brain region in social conformity. Neuroscience has also shown how people quickly develop similar values for things. Opinions of others immediately change the brain's reward response in the ventral striatum to receiving or losing the object in question, in proportion to how susceptible the person is to social influence. Having similar opinions to others can also generate a reward response. The amygdala and hippocampus have also been found to be recruited when individuals participated in a social manipulation experiment involving long-term memory. Several other areas have further been suggested to play a role in conformity, including the insula, the temporoparietal junction, the ventral striatum, and the anterior and posterior cingulate cortices. More recent work stresses the role of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in conformity not only at the time of social influence, but also later on, when participants are given an opportunity to conform by selecting an action. In particular, Charpentier et al. found that the OFC mirrors the exposure to social influence at a subsequent time point, when a decision is being made without the social influence being present. The tendency to conform has also been observed in the structure of the OFC, with a greater grey matter volume in high conformers. See also Authoritarian personality Bandwagon effect Behavioral contagion Convention (norm) Conventional wisdom Countersignaling Cultural assimilation Honne and tatemae Knowledge falsification Milieu control Preference falsification Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes Spiral of silence Social inertia References External links Group processes Organizational behavior Social influence Social agreement	0.768834	0.995651	0.76549
Parenting	Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and educational development from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a biological relationship. The most common caretakers in parenting are the biological parents of the child in question. However, a caretaker may be an older sibling, step-parent, grandparent, legal guardian, aunt, uncle, other family members, or a family friend. Governments and society may also have a role in child-rearing or upbringing. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent or non-blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised in foster care, or placed in an orphanage. Parenting skills vary, and a parent or surrogate with good parenting skills may be referred to as a good parent. Parenting styles vary by historical period, race/ethnicity, social class, preference, and a few other social features. Additionally, research supports that parental history, both in terms of attachments of varying quality and parental psychopathology, particularly in the wake of adverse experiences, can strongly influence parental sensitivity and child outcomes. Parenting may have long-term impacts on adoptive children as well, as recent research has shown that warm adoptive parenting reduces internalizing and externalizing problems of the adoptive children over time. Factors that affect decisions Social class, wealth, culture and income have a very strong impact on what methods of child rearing parents use. Cultural values play a major role in how a parent raises their child. However, parenting is always evolving, as times, cultural practices, social norms, and traditions change. Studies on these factors affecting parenting decisions have shown just that. In psychology, the parental investment theory suggests that basic differences between males and females in parental investment have great adaptive significance and lead to gender differences in mating propensities and preferences. Styles A parenting style is indicative of the overall emotional climate in the home. Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind proposed three main parenting styles in early child development: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. These parenting styles were later expanded to four to include an uninvolved style. These four styles involve combinations of acceptance and responsiveness, and also involve demand and control. Research has found that parenting style is significantly related to a child's subsequent mental health and well-being. In particular, authoritative parenting is positively related to mental health and satisfaction with life, and authoritarian parenting is negatively related to these variables. With authoritarian and permissive parenting on opposite sides of the spectrum, most conventional modern models of parenting fall somewhere in between. Although it is influential, Baumrind's typology has received significant criticism for containing overly broad categorizations and an imprecise and overly idealized description of authoritative parenting. Authoritative parenting Described by Baumrind as the "just right" style, it combines medium level demands on the child and a medium level responsiveness from the parents. Authoritative parents rely on positive reinforcement and infrequent use of punishment. Parents are more aware of a child's feelings and capabilities and support the development of a child's autonomy within reasonable limits. There is a give-and-take atmosphere involved in parent-child communication, and both control and support are balanced. Some research has shown that this style of parenting is more beneficial than the too-hard authoritarian style or the too-soft permissive style. These children score higher in terms of competence, mental health, and social development than those raised in permissive, authoritarian, or neglectful homes. However, Dr. Wendy Grolnick has critiqued Baumrind's use of the term "firm control" in her description of authoritative parenting and argued that there should be clear differentiation between coercive power assertion (which is associated with negative effects on children) and the more positive practices of structure and high expectations. Authoritarian parenting Authoritarian parents are very rigid and strict. High demands are placed on the child, but there is little responsiveness to them. Parents who practice authoritarian-style parenting have a non-negotiable set of rules and expectations strictly enforced and require rigid obedience. When the rules are not followed, punishment is often used to promote and ensure future compliance. There is usually no explanation of punishment except that the child is in trouble for breaking a rule. This parenting style is strongly associated with corporal punishment, such as spanking. This type of parenting seems to be seen more often in working-class families than in the middle class. In 1983, Diana Baumrind found that children raised in an authoritarian-style home were less cheerful, moodier, and more vulnerable to stress. In many cases, these children also demonstrated passive hostility. This parenting style can negatively impact the educational success and career path, while a firm and reassuring parenting style impact positively. Permissive parenting Permissive parenting has become a more popular parenting method for middle-class families than working-class families roughly since the end of WWII. In these settings, a child's freedom and autonomy are highly valued, and parents rely primarily on reasoning and explanation. Parents are undemanding, and thus there tends to be little if any punishment or explicit rules in this parenting style. These parents say that their children are free from external constraints and tend to be highly responsive to whatever it is that the child wants. Children of permissive parents are generally happy but sometimes show low levels of self-control and self-reliance because they lack structure at home. Author Alfie Kohn criticized the study and categorization of permissive parenting, arguing that it serves to "blur the differences between 'permissive' parents who were really just confused and those who were deliberately democratic." Uninvolved parenting An uninvolved or neglectful parenting style is when parents are often emotionally or physically absent. They have little to no expectations from the child and regularly have no communication. They are not responsive to a child's needs and have little to no behavioral expectations. They may consider their children to be "emotionally priceless" and may not engage with them and believe they are giving the child its personal space. If present, they may provide what the child needs for survival with little to no engagement. There is often a large gap between parents and children with this parenting style. Children with little or no communication with their own parents tend to be victimized by other children and may exhibit deviant behavior themselves. Children of uninvolved parents suffer in social competence, academic performance, psychosocial development, and problematic behavior. Intrusive parenting Intrusive parenting is when parents use "parental control and inhibition of adolescents' thoughts, feelings, and emotional expression through the use of love withdrawal, guilt induction, and manipulative tactics" for protecting them from the possible pitfalls, without knowing it can deprive/disturb the adolescents' development and growth period. Intrusive parents may try to set unrealistic expectations on their children by overestimating their intellectual capability and underestimating their physical capability or developmental capability, like enrolling them into more extracurricular activities or enrolling them into certain classes without understanding their child's passion, and it may eventually lead children not taking ownership of activities or develop behavioral problems. Children, especially adolescents might become victims and be "unassertive, avoid confrontation, being eager to please others, and suffer from low self-esteem." They may compare their children to others, like friends and family, and also force their child to be codependent—to a point where the children feel unprepared when they go into the world. Research has shown that this parenting style can lead to "greater under-eating behaviors, risky cyber behaviors, substance use, and depressive symptoms among adolescents." Unconditional parenting Unconditional parenting refers to a parenting approach that is focused on the whole child, emphasizes working with a child to solve problems, and views parental love as a gift. It contrasts with conditional parenting, which focuses on the child's behavior, emphasizes controlling children using rewards and punishments, and views parental love as a privilege to be earned. The concept of unconditional parenting was popularized by author Alfie Kohn in his 2005 book Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason. Kohn differentiates unconditional parenting from what he sees as the caricature of permissive parenting by arguing that parents can be anti-authoritarian and opposed to exerting control while also recognizing the value of respectful adult guidance and a child's need for non-coercive structure in their lives. Trustful parenting Trustful parenting is a child-centered parenting style in which parents trust their children to make decisions, play and explore on their own, and learn from their own mistakes. Research professor Peter Gray argues that trustful parenting was the dominant parenting style in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. Gray contrasts trustful parenting with "directive-domineering" parenting, which emphasizes controlling children to train them in obedience (historically involving using child labor to teach subservience to lords and masters), and "directive-protective" parenting, which involves controlling children to protect them from harm. Gray argues that the directive-domineering approach became the predominant parenting style with the spread of agriculture and industry, while the directive-protective approach took over as the dominant approach in the late 20th century. Practices A parenting practice is a specific behavior that a parent uses in raising a child. These practices are used to socialize children. Kuppens et al. found that "researchers have identified overarching parenting dimensions that reflect similar parenting practices, mostly by modeling the relationships among these parenting practices using factor analytic techniques." For example, many parents read aloud to their offspring in the hopes of supporting their linguistic and intellectual development. In cultures with strong oral traditions, such as Indigenous American communities and New Zealand Maori communities, storytelling is a critical parenting practice for children. Parenting practices reflect the cultural understanding of children. Parents in individualistic countries like Germany spend more time engaged in face-to-face interaction with babies and more time talking to the baby about the baby. Parents in more communal cultures, such as West African cultures, spend more time talking to the baby about other people and more time with the baby facing outwards so that the baby sees what the mother sees. Skills and behaviors Parenting skills and behaviors assist parents in leading children into healthy adulthood and development of the child's social skills. The cognitive potential, social skills, and behavioral functioning a child acquires during the early years are positively correlated with the quality of their interactions with their parents. According to the Canadian Council on Learning, children benefit (or avoid poor developmental outcomes) when their parents: Communicate truthfully about events: Authenticity from parents who explain can help their children understand what happened and how they are involved; Maintain consistency: Parents that regularly institute routines can see benefits in their children's behavioral patterns; Utilize resources available to them, reaching out into the community and building a supportive social network; Take an interest in their child's educational and early developmental needs (e.g., Play that enhances socialization, autonomy, cohesion, calmness, and trust.); and Keep open communication lines about what their child is seeing, learning, and doing, and how those things are affecting them. Parenting skills are widely thought to be naturally present in parents; however, there is substantial evidence to the contrary. Those who come from a negative or vulnerable childhood environment frequently (and often unintentionally) mimic their parents' behavior during interactions with their own children. Parents with an inadequate understanding of developmental milestones may also demonstrate problematic parenting. Parenting practices are of particular importance during marital transitions like separation, divorce, and remarriage; if children fail to adequately adjust to these changes, they are at risk of negative outcomes (e.g. increased rule-breaking behavior, problems with peer relationships, and increased emotional difficulties). Research classifies competence and skills required in parenting as follows: Parent-child relationship skills: quality time spent, positive communications, and delighted show of affection. Encouraging desirable behavior: praise and encouragement, nonverbal attention, facilitating engaging activities. Teaching skills and behaviors: being a good example, incidental teaching, human communication of the skill with role-playing and other methods, communicating logical incentives and consequences. Managing misbehavior: establishing firm ground rules and limits, directing discussion, providing clear and calm instructions, communicating and enforcing appropriate consequences, using restrictive tactics like quiet time and time out with an authoritative stance rather than an authoritarian one. Anticipating and planning: advanced planning and preparation for readying the child for challenges, finding out engaging and age-appropriate developmental activities, preparing the token economy for self-management practice with guidance, holding follow-up discussions, identifying possible negative developmental trajectories. Self-regulation skills: monitoring behaviors (own and children's), setting developmentally appropriate goals, evaluating strengths and weaknesses and setting practice tasks, monitoring and preventing internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Mood and coping skills: reframing and discouraging unhelpful thoughts (diversions, goal orientation, and mindfulness), stress and tension management (own and children's), developing personal coping statements and plans for high-risk situations, building mutual respect and consideration between members of the family through collaborative activities and rituals. Partner support skills: improving personal communication, giving and receiving constructive feedback and support, avoiding negative family interaction styles, supporting and finding hope in problems for adaptation, leading collaborative problem solving, promoting relationship happiness and cordiality. Consistency is considered the "backbone" of positive parenting skills and "overprotection" the weakness. The Arbinger Institute adds to these skills and methods of parenting with what the authors of The Parenting Pyramid claims are methods to "parent for things to go right," or in other words steps that should be taken to ensure good positive relationships are occurring in the home which can help children be more willing to listen. Their methods are described as The Parenting Pyramid. The Parenting Pyramid starting at the foundational level and working up to the top: Ways of being Relationship with spouse Relationship with child Teaching and finally, Corrections Believing that as parents are focused on this order of establishing their homes and parenting styles, then if a parent has to encourage different behaviors from children this correction will come from a better place and therefore the children may be more receptive to such feedback, compared to if a parent attempts to correct behaviors before focusing on the previous steps. Parent training Parent psychosocial health can have a significant impact on the parent-child relationship. Group-based parent training and education programs have proven to be effective at improving short-term psychosocial well-being for parents. There are many different types of training parents can take to support their parenting skills. Some groups include Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Parents Management Training (PMT), Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), The Incredible Years, and Behavioral and Emotional Skills Training (BEST). PCIT works with both parents and children in teaching skills to interact more positively and productive. PMT is focused for children aged 3–13, in which parents are the main trainee. They are taught skills to help deal with challenging behaviors from their children. Triple P focus on equipping parents with the information they need to increase confidence and self-sufficiency in managing their children's behavior. The Incredible Years focuses in age infancy-age 12, in which they are broken into small-group-based training in different areas. BEST introduces effective behavior management techniques in one day rather than over the course of a few weeks. Courses are offered to families based on effective training to support additional needs, behavioral guidelines, communication and many others to give guidance throughout learning how to be a parent. Cultural values Parents around the world want what they believe is best for their children. However, parents in different cultures have different ideas of what is best. For example, parents in hunter–gatherer societies or those who survive through subsistence agriculture are likely to promote practical survival skills from a young age. Many such cultures begin teaching children to use sharp tools, including knives, before their first birthdays. In some Indigenous American communities, child work provides children the opportunity to absorb cultural values of collaborative participation and prosocial behavior through observation and activity alongside adults. These communities value respect, participation, and non-interference, the Cherokee principle of respecting autonomy by withholding unsolicited advice. Indigenous American parents also try to encourage curiosity in their children via a permissive parenting style that enables them to explore and learn through observation of the world. Differences in cultural values cause parents to interpret the same behaviors in different ways. For instance, European Americans prize intellectual understanding, especially in a narrow "book learning" sense, and believe that asking questions is a sign of intelligence. Italian parents value social and emotional competence and believe that curiosity demonstrates good interpersonal skills. Dutch parents, however, value independence, long attention spans, and predictability; in their eyes, asking questions is a negative behavior, signifying a lack of independence. Even so, parents around the world share specific prosocial behavioral goals for their children. Hispanic parents value respect and emphasize putting family above the individual. Parents in East Asia prize order in the household above all else. In some cases, this gives rise to high levels of psychological control and even manipulation on the part of the head of the household. The Kipsigis people of Kenya value children who are innovative and wield that intelligence responsibly and helpfully—a behavior they call ng/om. Other cultures, such as in Sweden and Spain, value sociality and happiness as well. Indigenous American cultures It is common for parents in many Indigenous American communities to use different parenting tools such as storytelling —like myths— Consejos (Spanish for "advice"), educational teasing, nonverbal communication, and observational learning to teach their children important values and life lessons. Storytelling is a way for Indigenous American children to learn about their identity, community, and cultural history. Indigenous myths and folklore often personify animals and objects, reaffirming the belief that everything possesses a soul and deserves respect. These stories also help preserve the language and are used to reflect certain values or cultural histories. The Consejo is a narrative form of advice-giving. Rather than directly telling the child what to do in a particular situation, the parent might instead tell a story about a similar situation. The main character in the story is intended to help the child see their decision's implications without directly deciding for them; this teaches the child to be decisive and independent while still providing some guidance. The playful form of teasing is a parenting method used in some Indigenous American communities to keep children out of danger and guide their behavior. This parenting strategy uses stories, fabrications, or empty threats to guide children in making safe, intelligent decisions. For example, a parent may tell a child that there is a monster that jumps on children's backs if they walk alone at night. This explanation can help keep the child safe because instilling that fear creates greater awareness and lessens the likelihood that they will wander alone into trouble. In Navajo families, a child's development is partly focused on the importance of "respect" for all things. "Respect" consists of recognizing the significance of one's relationship with other things and people in the world. Children largely learn about this concept via nonverbal communication between parents and other family members. For example, children are initiated at an early age into the practice of an early morning run under any weather conditions. On this run, the community uses humor and laughter with each other, without directly including the child—who may not wish to get up early and run—to encourage the child to participate and become an active member of the community. Parents also promote participation in the morning runs by placing their child in the snow and having them stay longer if they protest. Indigenous American parents often incorporate children into everyday life, including adult activities, allowing the child to learn through observation. This practice is known as LOPI, Learning by Observing and Pitching In, where children are integrated into all types of mature daily activities and encouraged to observe and contribute in the community. This inclusion as a parenting tool promotes both community participation and learning. One notable example appears in some Mayan communities: young girls are not permitted around the hearth for an extended period of time, since corn is sacred. Although this is an exception to their cultural preference for incorporating children into activities, including cooking, it is a strong example of observational learning. Mayan girls can only watch their mothers making tortillas for a few minutes at a time, but the sacredness of the activity captures their interest. They will then go and practice their mother's movements on other objects, such as kneading thin pieces of plastic like a tortilla. From this practice, when a girl comes of age, she is able to sit down and make tortillas without having ever received any explicit verbal instruction. However, in many cases oppressive circumstances such as forced conversion, land loss, and displacement led to diminishment of traditional Native American parenting techniques. Immigrants in the United States: Ethnic-racial socialization Due to the increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the United States, ethnic-racial socialization research has gained some attention. Parental ethnic-racial socialization is a way of passing down cultural resources to support children of color's psychosocial wellness. The goals of ethnic-racial socialization are: to pass on a positive view of one's ethnic group and to help children cope with racism. Through a meta-analysis of published research on ethnic-racial socialization, ethnic-racial socialization positively affects psychosocial well-being. This meta-analytic review focuses on research relevant to four indicators of psychosocial skills and how they are influenced by developmental stage, race and ethnicity, research designs, and the differences between parent and child self-reports. The dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization that are considered when looking for correlations with psychosocial skills are cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and egalitarianism. Ethnic-racial socialization dimensions are defined as follows: cultural socialization is the process of passing down cultural customs, preparation for bias ranges from positive or negative reactions to racism and discrimination, promotion of mistrust conditions synergy when dealing with other races, and egalitarianism puts similarities between races first. Psychosocial competencies are defined as follows: self-perceptions involve perceived beliefs of academic and social capabilities, interpersonal relationships deal with the quality of relationships, externalizing behaviors deal with observable troublesome behavior, and internalizing behavior deals with emotional intelligence regulation. The multiple ways these domains and competencies interact show small correlations between ethnic-racial socialization and psychosocial wellness, but this parenting practice needs further research. This meta-analysis showed that developmental stages affect how children perceived ethnic-racial socialization. Cultural socialization practices appear to affect children similarly across developmental stages except for preparation for bias and promotion of mistrust which are encouraged for older-aged children. Existing research shows ethnic-racial socialization serves African Americans positively against discrimination. Cross-sectional studies were predicted to have greater effect sizes because correlations are inflated in these kinds of studies. Parental reports of ethnic-racial socialization influence are influenced by "intentions", so child reports tend to be more accurate. Among other conclusions derived from this meta-analysis, cultural socialization and self-perceptions had a small positive correlation. Cultural socialization and promotion of mistrust had a small negative correlation, and interpersonal relationships positively impacted cultural socialization and preparation for bias. In regard to developmental stages, ethnic-racial socialization had a small but positive correlation with self-perceptions during childhood and early adolescence. Based on study designs, there were no significant differences, meaning that cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies both showed small positive correlations between ethnic-racial socialization and self-perceptions. Reporter differences between parents and children showed positive correlations between ethnic-racial socialization when associated with internalizing behavior and interpersonal relationships. These two correlations showed a greater effect size with child reports compared to parent reports. The meta-analysis on previous research shows only correlations, so there is a need for experimental studies that can show causation amongst the different domains and dimensions. Children's behavior and adaptation to this behavior may indicate a bidirectional effect that can also be addressed by an experimental study. There is evidence to show that ethnic-racial socialization can help children of color obtain social-emotional skills that can help them navigate through racism and discrimination, but further research needs to be done to increase the generalizability of existing research. Across the lifespan Pre-pregnancy Family planning is the decision-making process surrounding whether to become parents or not, and when the right time would be, including planning, preparing, and gathering resources. Prospective parents may assess (among other matters) whether they have access to sufficient financial resources, whether their family situation is stable, and whether they want to undertake the responsibility of raising a child. Worldwide, about 40% of all pregnancies are not planned, and more than 30 million babies are born each year as a result of unplanned pregnancies. Reproductive health and preconception care affect pregnancy, reproductive success, and the physical and mental health of both mother and child. A woman who is underweight, whether due to poverty, eating disorders, or illness, is less likely to have a healthy pregnancy and give birth to a healthy baby than a woman who is healthy. Similarly, a woman who is obese has a higher risk of difficulties, including gestational diabetes. Other health problems, such as infections and iron-deficiency anemia, can be detected and corrected before conception. Pregnancy and prenatal parenting During pregnancy, the unborn child is affected by many decisions made by the parents, particularly choices linked to their lifestyle. The health, activity level, and nutrition available to the mother can affect the child's development before birth. Some mothers, especially in relatively wealthy countries, overeat and spend too much time resting. Other mothers, especially if they are poor or abused, may be overworked and may not be able to eat enough, or may not be able to afford healthful foods with sufficient iron, vitamins, and protein, for the unborn child to develop properly. Newborns and infants Newborn parenting is where the responsibilities of parenthood begin. A newborn's basic needs are food, sleep, comfort, and cleaning, which the parent provides. An infant's only form of communication is crying, while there is some argument that infants have different types of cries for being hungry or in pain, that has largely been refuted. Newborns and young infants require feedings every few hours, which is disruptive to adult sleep cycles. They respond enthusiastically to soft stroking, cuddling, and caressing. Gentle rocking back and forth often calms a crying infant, as do massages and warm baths. Newborns may comfort themselves by sucking their thumb or by using a pacifier. The need to suckle is instinctive and allows newborns to feed. Breastfeeding is the recommended method of feeding by all major infant health organizations. If breastfeeding is not possible or desired, bottle feeding is a common alternative. Other alternatives include feeding breastmilk or formula with a cup, spoon, feeding syringe, or nursing supplement. The forming of attachments is considered the foundation of the infant's capacity to form and conduct relationships throughout life. Attachment is not the same as love or affection, although they often go together. Attachments develop immediately, and a lack of attachment or a seriously disrupted attachment has the potential to cause severe damage to a child's health and well-being. Physically, one may not see symptoms or indications of a disorder, but the child may be affected emotionally. Studies show that children with secure attachments have the ability to form successful relationships, express themselves on an interpersonal basis, and have higher self-esteem. Conversely children who have neglectful or emotionally unavailable caregivers can exhibit behavioral problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder or oppositional defiant disorder. Oppositional-defiant disorder is a pattern of disobedient and rebellious behavior toward authority figures. Toddlers Toddlers are small children between 12 and 36 months old who are much more active than infants and become challenged with learning how to do simple tasks by themselves. At this stage, parents are heavily involved in showing the small child how to do things rather than just doing things for them; it is normal for the toddler to mimic the parents. Toddlers need help to build their vocabulary, increase their communication skills, and manage their emotions. Toddlers will also begin to understand social etiquette, such as being polite and taking turns. Toddlers are very curious about the world around them and are eager to explore it. They seek greater independence and responsibility and may become frustrated when things do not go the way that they want or expect. Tantrums begin at this stage, which is sometimes referred to as the 'Terrible Twos'. Tantrums are often caused by the child's frustration over the particular situation, and are sometimes caused, simply because they are not able to communicate properly. Parents of toddlers are expected to help guide and teach the child, establish basic routines (such as washing hands before meals or brushing teeth before bed), and increase the child's responsibilities. It is also normal for toddlers to be frequently frustrated. It is an essential step to their development. They will learn through experience, trial, and error. This means that they need to experience being frustrated when something does not work for them in order to move on to the next stage. When the toddler is frustrated, they will often misbehave with actions like screaming, hitting or biting. Parents need to be careful when reacting to such behaviors; giving threats or punishments is usually not helpful and might only make the situation worse. Research groups led by Daniel Schechter, Alytia Levendosky, and others have shown that parents with histories of maltreatment and violence exposure often have difficulty helping their toddlers and preschool-age children with the very same emotionally dysregulated behaviors which can remind traumatized parents of their adverse experiences and associated mental states. Regarding gender differences in parenting, data from the US in 2014 states that, on an average day, among adults living in households with children under age 6, women spent 1.0 hours providing physical care (such as bathing or feeding a child) to household children. By contrast, men spent 23 minutes providing physical care. Child Younger children start to become more independent and begin to build friendships. They are able to reason and can make their own decisions in many hypothetical situations. Young children demand constant attention but gradually learn how to deal with boredom and begin to be able to play independently. They enjoy helping and also feeling useful and capable. Parents can assist their children by encouraging social interactions and modeling proper social behaviors. A large part of learning in the early years comes from being involved in activities and household duties. Parents who observe their children in play or join with them in child-driven play have the opportunity to glimpse into their children's world, learn to communicate more effectively with their children, and are given another setting to offer gentle, nurturing guidance. Parents also teach their children health, hygiene, and eating habits through instruction and by example. Parents are expected to make decisions about their child's education. Parenting styles in this area diverge greatly at this stage, with some parents they choose to become heavily involved in arranging organized activities and early learning programs. Other parents choose to let the child develop with few organized activities. Children begin to learn responsibility and consequences for their actions with parental assistance. Some parents provide a small allowance that increases with age to help teach children the value of money and how to be responsible. Parents who are consistent and fair with their discipline, who openly communicate and offer explanations to their children, and who do not neglect the needs of their children in any way often find they have fewer problems with their children as they mature. When child conduct problems are encountered, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral group-based parenting interventions have been found to be effective at improving child conduct, parenting skills, and parental mental health. Adolescents Parents often feel isolated and alone when parenting adolescents. Adolescence can be a time of high risk for children, where newfound freedoms can result in decisions that drastically open up or close off life opportunities. There are also large changes that occur in the brain during adolescence; the emotional center of the brain is now fully developed, but the rational frontal cortex has not matured fully and still is not able to keep all of those emotions in check. Adolescents tend to increase the amount of time spent with peers of the opposite gender; however, they still maintain the amount of time spent with those of the same gender—and do this by decreasing the amount of time spent with their parents. Although adolescents look to peers and adults outside the family for guidance and models for how to behave, parents can remain influential in their development. Studies have shown that parents can have a significant impact, for instance, on how much teens drink. Other studies show that parents continued presence in provides stability and nurture to their developing adolescents. During adolescence children begin to form their identity and start to test and develop the interpersonal and occupational roles that they will assume as adults. Therefore, it is important that parents treat them as young adults. Parental issues at this stage of parenting include dealing with rebelliousness related to a greater desire to partake in risky behaviors. In order to prevent risky behaviors, it is important for the parents to build a trusting relationship with their children. This can be achieved through behavioral control, parental monitoring, consistent discipline, parental warmth and support, inductive reasoning, and strong parent-child communication. When a trusting relationship is built up, adolescents are more likely to approach their parents for help when faced with negative peer pressure. Helping children build a strong foundation will ultimately help them resist negative peer pressure. Not only will a positive relationship between adolescent and parent benefit when faced with peer pressure, it will help with identity-processing in early adolescents. Research by Berzonsky et al. found that adolescents that were open and trusting of their parents were given more freedom and their parents were less likely to track them and control their behavior. Adults Parenting does not usually end when a child turns 18. Support may be needed in a child's life well beyond the adolescent years and can continue into middle and later adulthood. Parenting can be a lifelong process. Parents may provide financial support to their adult children, which can also include providing an inheritance after death. The life perspective and wisdom given by a parent can benefit their adult children in their own lives. Becoming a grandparent is another milestone and has many similarities with parenting. Roles can be reversed in some ways when adult children become caregivers to their elderly parents. Assistance Parents may receive assistance with caring for their children through child care programs. Article 25.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that: Childbearing and happiness Data from the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel suggests that having up to two children increases happiness in the years around the birth, and mostly only for those who have postponed childbearing. However, having a third child is not shown to increase happiness. Data from a private opinion American survey, called Success Index, suggests that parenting is deemed important for people, especially for those aged 65 and older as compared to those aged 18 to 35. According to the survey, being a parent is now an integral part of the new American Dream. See also References Further reading External links Childhood	0.769713	0.994323	0.765344
Ekistics	Ekistics is the science of human settlements including regional, city, community planning and dwelling design. Its major incentive was the emergence of increasingly large and complex conurbations, tending even to a worldwide city. The study involves every kind of human settlement, with particular attention to geography, ecology, human psychology, anthropology, culture, politics, and occasionally aesthetics. As a scientific mode of study, ekistics currently relies on statistics and description, organized in five ekistic elements or principles: nature, anthropos, society, shells, and networks. It is generally a more scientific field than urban planning, and has considerable overlap with some of the less restrained fields of architectural theory. In application, conclusions are drawn aimed at achieving harmony between the inhabitants of a settlement and their physical and socio-cultural environments. Etymology The term ekistics was coined by Constantinos Apostolos Doxiadis in 1942. The word is derived from the Greek adjective more particularly from the neuter plural . The ancient Greek adjective meant . It was derived from , an ancient Greek noun meaning . This may be regarded as deriving indirectly from another ancient Greek noun, , meaning , and especially (used by Plato), or . All these words grew from the verb , , and were ultimately derived from the noun , . The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains a reference to an ecist, oekist or oikist, defining him as: "the founder of an ancient Greek ... colony". The English equivalent of oikistikē is ekistics (a noun). In addition, the adjectives ekistic and ekistical, the adverb ekistically, and the noun ekistician are now also in current use. Scope In terms of outdoor recreation, the term ekistic relationship is used to describe one's relationship with the natural world and how they view the resources within it. The notion of ekistics implies that understanding the interaction between and within human groups—infrastructure, agriculture, shelter, function (job)—in conjunction with their environment directly affects their well-being (individual and collective). The subject begins to elucidate the ways in which collective settlements form and how they inter-relate. By doing so, humans begin to understand how they 'fit' into a species, i.e. Homo sapiens, and how Homo sapiens 'should' be living in order to manifest our potential—at least as far as this species is concerned (as the text stands now). Ekistics in some cases argues that in order for human settlements to expand efficiently and economically we must reorganize the way in which the villages, towns, cities, metropolises are formed. As Doxiadis put it, "... This field (ekistics) is a science, even if in our times it is usually considered a technology and an art, without the foundations of a science - a mistake for which we pay very heavily." Having recorded very successfully the destructions of the ekistic wealth in Greece during WWII, Doxiadis became convinced that human settlements are subjectable to systematic investigation. Doxiadis, being aware of the unifying power of systems thinking and particularly of the biological and evolutionary reference models as used by many famous biologists-philosophers of his generation, especially Sir Julian Huxley (1887–1975), Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900–75), Dennis Gabor (1900–79), René Dubos (1901–82), George G. Simpson (1902–84), and Conrad Waddington (1905–75), used the biological model to describe the "ekistic behavior" of anthropos (the five principles) and the evolutionary model to explain the morphogenesis of human settlements (the eleven forces, the hierarchical structure of human settlements, dynapolis, ecumenopolis). Finally, he formulated a general theory which considers human settlements as living organisms capable of evolution, an evolution that might be guided by Man using "ekistic knowledge". Units Doxiadis believed that the conclusion from biological and social experience was clear: to avoid chaos we must organize our system of life from anthropos (individual) to ecumenopolis (global city) in hierarchical levels, represented by human settlements. So he articulated a general hierarchical scale with fifteen levels of ekistic units: anthropos – 1 room – 2 house – 5 housegroup (hamlet) – 40 small neighborhood (village) – 250 neighborhood – 1,500 small polis (town) – 10,000 polis (city) – 75,000 small metropolis – 500,000 metropolis – 4 million small megalopolis – 25 million megalopolis – 150 million small eperopolis – 750 million eperopolis – 7.5 billion ecumenopolis – 50 billion The population figures above are for Doxiadis' ideal future ekistic units for the year 2100, at which time he estimated (in 1968) that Earth would achieve zero population growth at a population of 50,000,000,000 with human civilization being powered by fusion energy. Publications The Ekistics and the New Habitat, printed from 1957 to 2006 and began calling for new papers to be published online in 2019. Ekistics is a 1968 book by Konstantinos Doxiadis, often titled Introduction to Ekistics. See also Arcology Conurbation Consolidated city-county Global city Human ecosystem Megacity Megalopolis (term) Metropolitan area Permaculture Principles of intelligent urbanism Further reading Doxiadis, Konstantinos Ekistics 1968 References External links The Institute of Ekistics World Society for Ekistics Ekistic Units City of the Future Urban studies and planning terminology Architectural terminology	0.775914	0.986321	0.7653
Persuasion	Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours. Persuasion is studied in many disciplines. Rhetoric studies modes of persuasion in speech and writing and is often taught as a classical subject. Psychology looks at persuasion through the lens of individual behaviour and neuroscience studies the brain activity associated with this behaviour. History and political science are interested in the role of propaganda in shaping historical events. In business, persuasion is aimed at influencing a person's (or group's) attitude or behaviour towards some event, idea, object, or another person (s) by using written, spoken, or visual methods to convey information, feelings, or reasoning, or a combination thereof. Persuasion is also often used to pursue personal gain, such as election campaigning, giving a sales pitch, or in trial advocacy. Persuasion can also be interpreted as using personal or positional resources to change people. Forms Propaganda is a form of persuasion used to indoctrinate a population towards an individual or a particular agenda. Coercion is a form of persuasion that uses aggressive threats and the provocation of fear and/or shame to influence a person's behavior. Systematic persuasion is the process through which attitudes or beliefs are leveraged by appeals to logic and reason. Heuristic persuasion, on the other hand, is the process through which attitudes or beliefs are leveraged by appeals to habit or emotion. History and philosophy The academic study of persuasion began with the Greeks, who emphasized rhetoric and elocution as the highest standard for a successful politician. All trials were held in front of the Assembly, and the likelihood of success of the prosecution versus the defense rested on the persuasiveness of the speaker. Rhetoric is the art of effective persuasive speaking, often through the use of figures of speech, metaphors, and other techniques. The Greek philosopher Aristotle listed four reasons why one should learn the art of persuasion: Truth and justice are perfect; thus if a case loses, it is the fault of the speaker. It is an excellent tool for teaching. A good rhetorician must be able to argue both sides to understand the whole problem, and There is no better way to defend one's self. He described three fundamental ways to communicate persuasively: Ethos (credibility): refers to the effort to convince your audience of your credibility or character. It is not automatic and can be created through actions, deeds, understanding, or expertise by the speaker. Logos (reason): refers to the effort to convince your audience by using logic and reason. This can be formal and non-formal. Formal reasoning uses syllogisms, arguments where two statements validly imply a third statement. Non-formal reasoning uses enthymemes, arguments that have valid reasoning but are informal and assume the audience has prior knowledge. Pathos (emotion): refers to the effort to persuade your audience by making an appeal to their feelings. Ethics of persuasion Many philosophers have commented on the morality of persuasion. Socrates argued that rhetoric was based on appearances rather than the essence of a matter. Thomas Hobbes was critical of use rhetoric to create controversy, particularly the use of metaphor. Immanuel Kant was critical of rhetoric, arguing that it could cause people to reach conclusions that are at odds with those that they would have reached if they had applied their full judgment. He draws parallels between the function of rhetoric and the deterministic function of the mind like a machine. Aristotle was critical of persuasion, though argued that judges would often allow themselves to be persuaded by choosing to apply emotions rather than reason. However, he argued that persuasion could be used to induce an individual to apply reason and judgment. Writers such as William Keith and Christian O. Lundberg argue that uses of force and threats in trying to influence others does not lead to persuasion, but rather talking to people does, going further to add "While Rhetoric certainly has its dark side that deals in tricks and perceptions... the systematic study of rhetoric generally ignores these techniques, in part because they are not very systematic or reliable." There is also in legal disputes, the matter of the burden of proof when bringing up an argument, where it often falls on the hands of the one presenting a case to prove its validity to another person and where presumptions may be made where of the burden of proof has not been met, an argument may be dropped such as in a more famous example of "Innocent until proven guilty", although this line of presumption or burden of proof may not always be followed. While Keith and Lundberg do go into detail about the different intricacies of persuasion, they do explain that lapses in logic and or reasoning could lead to persuasive arguments with faults. These faults can come as enthymemes, where more likely than not only certain audiences with specific pieces of knowledge may understand the reasoning being presented with missing logic, or the more egregious example of fallacies where conclusions may be drawn (almost always incorrectly) through invalid argument. In contrast to the reasoning behind enthymemes, the use of examples can help prove a person's rhetorical claims through inductive reasoning, which assumes that "if something is true in specific cases, it is true in general". Examples can be split into two categories real and hypothetical. Real examples come from personal experience or academic/scientific research which can support the argument you're making. Hypothetical examples are made-up. When arguing something, speakers can put forward a hypothetical situation that illustrates the point they are making to connect better with the audience. These examples must be plausible to properly illustrate a persuasive argument. Theories There are many psychological theories for what influences an individual's behaviour in different situations. These theories will have implications about how persuasion works. Attribution theory Humans attempt to explain the actions of others through either dispositional attribution or situational attribution. Dispositional attribution, also referred to as internal attribution, attempts to point to a person's traits, abilities, motives, or dispositions as a cause or explanation for their actions. A citizen criticizing a president by saying the nation is lacking economic progress and health because the president is either lazy or lacking in economic intuition is utilizing a dispositional attribution. Situational attribution, also referred to as external attribution, attempts to point to the context around the person and factors of his surroundings, particularly things that are completely out of his control. A citizen claiming that a lack of economic progress is not a fault of the president but rather the fact that he inherited a poor economy from the previous president is situational attribution. A fundamental attribution error occurs when people wrongly attribute either a shortcoming or accomplishment to internal factors while disregarding all external factors. In general, people use dispositional attribution more often than situational attribution when trying to explain or understand the behavior of others. This happens because we focus more on the individual when we lack information about that individual's situation and context. When trying to persuade others to like us or another person, we tend to explain positive behaviors and accomplishments with dispositional attribution and negative behaviors and shortcomings with situational attributions. Behaviour change theories The Theory of Planned Behavior is the foremost theory of behaviour change. It has support from meta-analyses which reveals it can predict around 30% of behaviour. Theories, by nature however, prioritize internal validity, over external validity. They are coherent and therefore make for an easily reappropriated story. On the other hand, they will correspond more poorly with the evidence, and mechanics of reality, than a straightforward itemization of the behaviour change interventions (techniques) by their individual efficacy. These behaviour change interventions have been categorized by behavioral scientists. A mutually exclusive, comprehensively exhaustive (MECE) translation of this taxonomy, in decreasing order of effectiveness are: positive and negative consequences offering/removing incentives, offering/removing threats/punishments, distraction, changing exposure to cues (triggers) for the behaviour, prompts/cues, goal-setting, (increasing the salience of) emotional/health/social/environmental/regret consequences, self-monitoring of the behaviour and outcomes of behaviour, mental rehearsal of successful performance (planning?), self-talk, focus on past success, comparison of outcomes via persuasive argument, pros/cons and comparative imaging of future outcomes, identification of self as role model, self-affirmation, reframing, cognitive dissonance, reattribution, (increasing salience of) antecedents A typical instantiations of these techniques in therapy isexposure / response prevention for OCD. Conditioning theories Conditioning plays a huge part in the concept of persuasion. It is more often about leading someone into taking certain actions of their own, rather than giving direct commands. In advertisements for example, this is done by attempting to connect a positive emotion to a brand/product logo. This is often done by creating commercials that make people laugh, using a sexual undertone, inserting uplifting images and/or music etc. and then ending the commercial with a brand/product logo. Great examples of this are professional athletes. They are paid to connect themselves to things that can be directly related to their roles; sport shoes, tennis rackets, golf balls, or completely irrelevant things like soft drinks, popcorn poppers and panty hose. The important thing for the advertiser is to establish a connection to the consumer. This conditioning is thought to affect how people view certain products, knowing that most purchases are made on the basis of emotion. Just like you sometimes recall a memory from a certain smell or sound, the objective of some ads is solely to bring back certain emotions when you see their logo in your local store. The hope is that repeating the message several times makes consumers more likely to purchase the product because they already connect it with a good emotion and positive experience. Stefano DellaVigna and Matthew Gentzkow did a comprehensive study on the effects of persuasion in different domains. They discovered that persuasion has little or no effect on advertisement; however, there was a substantial effect of persuasion on voting if there was face-to-face contact. Cognitive dissonance theory Leon Festinger originally proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance in 1957. He theorized that human beings constantly strive for mental consistency. Our cognition (thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes) can be in agreement, unrelated, or in disagreement with each other. Our cognition can also be in agreement or disagreement with our behaviors. When we detect conflicting cognition, or dissonance, it gives us a sense of incompleteness and discomfort. For example, a person who is addicted to smoking cigarettes but also suspects it could be detrimental to their health suffers from cognitive dissonance. Festinger suggests that we are motivated to reduce this dissonance until our cognition is in harmony with itself. We strive for mental consistency. There are four main ways we go about reducing or eliminating our dissonance: changing our minds about one of the facets of cognition reducing the importance of a cognition increasing the overlap between the two, and re-evaluating the cost/reward ratio. Revisiting the example of the smoker, they can either quit smoking, reduce the importance of their health, convince themself they are not at risk, or decide that the reward of smoking is worth the cost of their health. Cognitive dissonance is powerful when it relates to competition and self-concept. The most famous example of how cognitive dissonance can be used for persuasion comes from Festinger and Carlsmith's 1959 experiment in which participants were asked to complete a very dull task for an hour. Some were paid $20, while others were paid $1, and afterwards they were instructed to tell the next waiting participants that the experiment was fun and exciting. Those who were paid $1 were much more likely to convince the next participants that the experiment really was enjoyable than those who received $20. This is because $20 is enough reason to participate in a dull task for an hour, so there is no dissonance. Those who received $1 experienced great dissonance, so they had to truly convince themselves that the task actually was enjoyable to avoid feeling taken advantage of, and therefore reduce their dissonance. Elaboration likelihood model Persuasion has traditionally been associated with two routes: Central route: Whereby an individual evaluates information presented to them based on the pros and cons of it and how well it supports their values Peripheral route: Change is mediated by how attractive the source of communication is and by bypassing the deliberation process. The Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) forms a new facet of the route theory. It holds that the probability of effective persuasion depends on how successful the communication is at bringing to mind a relevant mental representation, which is the elaboration likelihood. Thus if the target of the communication is personally relevant, this increases the elaboration likelihood of the intended outcome and would be more persuasive if it were through the central route. Communication which does not require careful thought would be better suited to the peripheral route. Functional theories Functional theorists attempt to understand the divergent attitudes individuals have towards people, objects or issues in different situations. There are four main functional attitudes: Adjustment function: A main motivation for individuals is to increase positive external rewards and minimize the costs. Attitudes serve to direct behavior towards the rewards and away from punishment. Ego Defensive function: The process by which an individual protects their ego from being threatened by their own negative impulses or threatening thoughts. Value-expressive: When an individual derives pleasure from presenting an image of themselves which is in line with their self-concept and the beliefs that they want to be associated with. Knowledge function: The need to attain a sense of understanding and control over one's life. An individual's attitudes therefore serve to help set standards and rules which govern their sense of being. When communication targets an underlying function, its degree of persuasiveness influences whether individuals change their attitude after determining that another attitude would more effectively fulfill that function. Inoculation theory A vaccine introduces a weak form of a virus that can easily be defeated to prepare the immune system should it need to fight off a stronger form of the same virus. In much the same way, the theory of inoculation suggests that a certain party can introduce a weak form of an argument that is easily thwarted in order to make the audience inclined to disregard a stronger, full-fledged form of that argument from an opposing party. This often occurs in negative advertisements and comparative advertisements—both for products and political causes. An example would be a manufacturer of a product displaying an ad that refutes one particular claim made about a rival's product, so that when the audience sees an ad for said rival product, they refute the product claims automatically. Narrative transportation theory Narrative transportation theory proposes that when people lose themselves in a story, their attitudes and intentions change to reflect that story. The mental state of narrative transportation can explain the persuasive effect of stories on people, who may experience narrative transportation when certain contextual and personal preconditions are met, as Green and Brock postulate for the transportation-imagery model. Narrative transportation occurs whenever the story receiver experiences a feeling of entering a world evoked by the narrative because of empathy for the story characters and imagination of the story plot. Social judgment theory Social judgment theory suggests that when people are presented with an idea or any kind of persuasive proposal, their natural reaction is to immediately seek a way to sort the information subconsciously and react to it. We evaluate the information and compare it with the attitude we already have, which is called the initial attitude or anchor point. When trying to sort incoming persuasive information, an audience evaluates whether it lands in their latitude of acceptance, latitude of non-commitment or indifference, or the latitude of rejection. The size of these latitudes varies from topic to topic. Our "ego-involvement" generally plays one of the largest roles in determining the size of these latitudes. When a topic is closely connected to how we define and perceive ourselves, or deals with anything we care passionately about, our latitudes of acceptance and non-commitment are likely to be much smaller and our attitude of rejection much larger. A person's anchor point is considered to be the center of their latitude of acceptance, the position that is most acceptable to them. An audience is likely to distort incoming information to fit into their unique latitudes. If something falls within the latitude of acceptance, the subject tends to assimilate the information and consider it closer to his anchor point than it really is. Inversely, if something falls within the latitude of rejection, the subject tends to contrast the information and convince themself the information is farther away from their anchor point than it really is. When trying to persuade an individual target or an entire audience, it is vital to first learn the average latitudes of acceptance, non-commitment, and rejection of your audience. It is ideal to use persuasive information that lands near the boundary of the latitude of acceptance if the goal is to change the audience's anchor point. Repeatedly suggesting ideas on the fringe of the acceptance latitude makes people gradually adjust their anchor points, while suggesting ideas in the rejection latitude or even the non-commitment latitude does not change the audience's anchor point. Methods Persuasion methods are also sometimes referred to as persuasion tactics or persuasion strategies. Use of force There is the use of force in persuasion, which does not have any scientific theories, except for its use to make demands. The use of force is then a precedent to the failure of less direct means of persuasion. Application of this strategy can be interpreted as a threat since the persuader does not give options to their request. Weapons of influence Robert Cialdini, in Influence, his book on persuasion, defined six "influence cues or weapons of influence": Influence is the process of changing. Reciprocity The principle of reciprocity states that when a person provides us with something, we attempt to repay them in kind. Reciprocation produces a sense of obligation, which can be a powerful tool in persuasion. The reciprocity rule is effective because it can be overpowering and instill in us a sense of obligation. Generally, we have a dislike for individuals who neglect to return a favor or provide payment when offered a free service or gift. As a result, reciprocation is a widely held principle. This societal standard makes reciprocity extremely powerful persuasive technique, as it can result in unequal exchanges and can even apply to an uninvited first favor. Reciprocity applies to the marketing field because of its use as a powerful persuasive technique. The marketing tactic of "free samples" demonstrates the reciprocity rule because of the sense of obligation that the rule produces. This sense of obligation comes from the desire to repay the marketer for the gift of a "free sample." Commitment and consistency Consistency is an important aspect of persuasion because it: is highly valued by society, results in a beneficial approach to daily life, and provides a valuable shortcut through the complicated nature of modern existence. Consistency allows us to more effectively make decisions and process information. The concept of consistency states that someone who commits to something, orally or in writing, is more likely to honor that commitment. This is especially true for written commitments, as they appear psychologically more concrete and can create hard proof. Someone who commits to a stance tends to behave according to that commitment. Commitment is an effective persuasive technique, because once you get someone to commit, they are more likely to engage in self-persuasion, providing themselves and others with reasons and justifications to support their commitment in order to avoid dissonance. Cialdini notes Chinese brainwashing of American prisoners of war in Korean War to rewrite their self-image and gain automatic unenforced compliance. Another example is children being made to repeat the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and why marketers make you close popups by saying "I'll sign up later" or "No thanks, I prefer not making money". Social proof Social learning, also known as social proof, is a core principle among almost all forms of persuasion. It is based on the idea of peer influence, and is considered essential for audience-centered approaches to persuasive messages. The principle of social proof suggests what people believe or do is typically learned by observing the norms of those around us. People naturally conform their actions and beliefs to fit what society expects, as the rewards for doing so are usually greater than standing out. "The power of the crowd" is thought to be highly involved in the decisions we make. Social proof is often utilized by people in a situation that requires a decision be made. In uncertain or ambiguous situations, when multiple possibilities create choices we must make, people are likely to conform to what others do. We take cues from those around us as to what the appropriate behavior is in that moment. People often feel they will make fewer mistakes "by acting in accord with social evidence than by behaving contrary to it." Likeness This principle is simple and concise. People say "yes" to people that they like. Two major factors contribute to overall likeness. The first is physical attractiveness. People who are physically attractive seem more persuasive. They get what they want and they can easily change others' attitudes. This attractiveness is proven to send favorable messages/impressions of other traits that a person may have, such as talent, kindness, and intelligence. The second factor is similarity. People are more easily persuaded by others they deem as similar to themselves. Authority People are more prone to believing those with authority. They have the tendency to believe that if an expert says something, it must be true. People are more likely to adhere to opinions of individuals who are knowledgeable and trustworthy. Although a message often stands or falls on the weight of its ideas and arguments, a person's attributes or implied authority can have a large effect on the success of their message. In The True Believer, Eric Hoffer noted, "People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. . . . They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility." In the Milgram study, a series of experiments begun in 1961, a "teacher" and a "learner" were placed in two different rooms. The "learner" was attached to an electric harness that could administer shock. The "teacher" was told by a supervisor, dressed in a white scientist's coat, to ask the learner questions and punish him when he got a question wrong. The teacher was instructed by the study supervisor to deliver an electric shock from a panel under the teacher's control. After delivery, the teacher had to up the voltage to the next notch. The voltage went up to 450 volts. The catch to this experiment was that the teacher did not know that the learner was an actor faking the pain sounds he heard and was not actually being harmed. The experiment was being done to see how obedient we are to authority. "When an authority tells ordinary people it is their job to deliver harm, how much suffering will each subject be willing to inflict on an entirely innocent other person if the instructions come 'from above'?." In this study, the results showed that the teachers were willing to give as much pain as was available to them. The conclusion was that people are willing to bring pain upon others when they are directed to do so by some authority figure. Scarcity Scarcity could play an important role in the process of persuasion. When something has limited availability, people assign it more value. As one of the six basic principles behind the science of persuasion, then, "scarcity" can be leveraged to convince people to buy into some suggestions, heed the advice or accept the business proposals. According to Robert Cialdini, Regents' Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and Distinguished Professor of Marketing in the W. P. Carey School, whatever is rare, uncommon or dwindling in availability — this idea of scarcity — confers value on objects, or even relationships. There are two major reasons why the scarcity principle works: When things are difficult to get, they are usually more valuable, so that can make it seem to have better quality. When things become less available, we could lose the chance to acquire them. When this happens, people usually assign the scarce item or service more value simply because it is harder to acquire. This principle is that everyone wants things that are out of their reach. Something easily available is not that desirable as something very rare. Persuasive technology List of methods By appeal to reason: Logic Logical argument Rhetoric Scientific evidence (proof) Scientific method By appeal to emotion: Cosmetic Advertising Presentation and Imagination Pity Propaganda Manipulation (psychology) Seduction Tradition Aids to persuasion: Body language Communication skill or Rhetoric Personality tests and conflict style inventory help devise strategy based on an individual's preferred style of interaction Sales techniques Other techniques: Deception Hypnosis Power (social and political) Subliminal advertising Coercive techniques, some of which are highly controversial or not scientifically proven effective: Brainwashing Coercive persuasion Force Mind control Torture In culture It is through a basic cultural personal definition of persuasion that everyday people understand how others are attempting to influence them and then how they influence others. The dialogue surrounding persuasion is constantly evolving because of the necessity to use persuasion in everyday life. Persuasion tactics traded in society have influences from researchers, which may sometimes be misinterpreted. To keep evolutionary advantage, in the sense of wealth and survival, you must persuade and not be persuaded. To understand cultural persuasion, researchers gather knowledge from domains such as "buying, selling, advertising, and shopping, as well as parenting and courting." Methods of persuasion vary by culture, both in prevalence and effectiveness. For example, advertisements tend to appeal to different values according to whether they are used in collectivistic or individualistic cultures. Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) The Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) was created by Friestad and Wright in 1994. This framework allows the researchers to analyze the process of gaining and using everyday persuasion knowledge. The researchers suggest the necessity of including "the relationship and interplay between everyday folk knowledge and scientific knowledge on persuasion, advertising, selling, and marketing in general." To educate the general population about research findings and new knowledge about persuasion, a teacher must draw on their pre-existing beliefs from folk persuasion to make the research relevant and informative to lay people, which creates "mingling of their scientific insights and commonsense beliefs." As a result of this constant mingling, the issue of persuasion expertise becomes messy. Expertise status can be interpreted from a variety of sources like job titles, celebrity, or published scholarship. It is through this multimodal process that we create concepts like, "Stay away from car salesmen, they will try to trick you." The kind of persuasion techniques blatantly employed by car salesmen creates an innate distrust of them in popular culture. According to Psychology Today, they employ tactics ranging from making personal life ties with the customer to altering reality by handing the customer the new car keys before the purchase. Campbell proposed and empirically demonstrated that some persuasive advertising approaches lead consumers to infer manipulative intent on the marketer's part. Once consumers infer manipulative intent, they are less persuaded by the marketer, as indicated by attenuated advertising attitudes, brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Campbell and Kirmani developed an explicit model of the conditions under which consumers use persuasion knowledge in evaluating influence agents such as salespersons. Neurobiology An article showed that EEG measures of anterior prefrontal asymmetry might be a predictor of persuasion. Research participants were presented with arguments that favored and arguments that opposed the attitudes they already held. Those whose brain was more active in left prefrontal areas said that they paid the most attention to statements with which they agreed while those with a more active right prefrontal area said that they paid attention to statements that disagreed. This is an example of defensive repression, the avoidance or forgetting of unpleasant information. Research has shown that the trait of defensive repression is related to relative left prefrontal activation. In addition, when pleasant or unpleasant words, probably analogous to agreement or disagreement, were seen incidental to the main task, an fMRI scan showed preferential left prefrontal activation to the pleasant words. One way therefore to increase persuasion would seem to be to selectively activate the right prefrontal cortex. This is easily done by monaural stimulation to the contralateral ear. The effect apparently depends on selective attention rather than merely the source of stimulation. This manipulation had the expected outcome: more persuasion for messages coming from the left. Modern Persuasion and Fallacies "Persuasion, traditionally studied through classical frameworks such as Aristotle's appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos, has evolved with modern rhetorical theories. Kenneth Burke, a prominent 20th-century rhetorician, expanded the understanding of persuasion by introducing the concept of identification. According to Burke, effective persuasion is not merely about logical argumentation or emotional appeal but about creating a sense of shared identity and values between the speaker and the audience. In Burke’s view, persuasion works when the audience feels a connection or alignment with the speaker's perspective, thus making the message more compelling. This contrasts with the more transactional nature of classical persuasion and highlights a relational and symbolic aspect of communication. Burke also pointed out that rhetoric is deeply embedded in social interactions, not just in public speeches or debates but in everyday communication. He argued that language shapes how people perceive their social world, influencing actions and decisions. Thus, persuasion is fundamentally about how language constructs and maintains social realities, making it a critical force in both personal and public life. In addition to these modern perspectives, understanding fallacies is crucial for effective persuasion. Fallacies are logical errors that can compromise the integrity of an argument. Kenneth Burke’s emphasis on ethical persuasion highlights the importance of recognizing these fallacies to avoid manipulation and misinformation. Examples of common fallacies include: Ad Hominem: Attacking the character of the speaker rather than the argument itself. This shifts focus from the message to irrelevant personal traits. Appeal to Ignorance: Arguing that something is true because it has not been proven false, which bypasses the need for evidence and logical reasoning. Slippery Slope: Suggesting that a minor action will inevitably lead to a series of negative consequences without providing evidence for this causal chain. Understanding these fallacies allows individuals to critique arguments effectively and ensures that persuasion remains an ethical practice. In this way, Burke’s theory not only broadens the scope of persuasion to include identification and shared meaning but also reinforces the need for ethical and transparent communication practices." See also References Further reading Cialdini, Robert B. "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion" (Archive). Harvard Business Review. October 2001. Druckman, James N. 2022. "A Framework for the Study of Persuasion." Annual Review of Political Science. Herbert I. Abelson, Persuasion: How opinions and attitudes are changed, Springer Publishing Company, 1965 Jacquelyn Kegley and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, eds. Persuasion and Compulsion in Democracy, Lexington 2013. Richard E. Vatz, The Only Authentic Book of Persuasion, Kendall Hunt, 2013 External links Attitude change Belief	0.770461	0.993296	0.765296
Anthrozoology	Anthrozoology, also known as human–animal studies (HAS), is the subset of ethnobiology that deals with interactions between humans and other animals. It is an interdisciplinary field that overlaps with other disciplines including anthropology, ethnology, medicine, psychology, social work, veterinary medicine, and zoology. A major focus of anthrozoologic research is the quantifying of the positive effects of human–animal relationships on either party and the study of their interactions. It includes scholars from fields such as anthropology, sociology, biology, history and philosophy. Anthrozoology scholars, such as Pauleen Bennett, recognize the lack of scholarly attention given to non-human animals in the past, and to the relationships between human and non-human animals, especially in the light of the magnitude of animal representations, symbols, stories and their actual physical presence in human societies. Rather than a unified approach, the field currently consists of several methods adapted from the several participating disciplines to encompass human–nonhuman animal relationships and occasional efforts to develop sui generis methods. Areas of study The interaction and enhancement within captive animal interactions. Affective (emotional) or relational bonds between humans and animals Human perceptions and beliefs in respect of other animals How some animals fit into human societies How these vary between cultures, and change over times The study of animal domestication: how and why domestic animals evolved from wild species (paleoanthrozoology) Captive zoo animal bonds with keepers The social construction of animals and what it means to be animal The human–animal bond Parallels between human–animal interactions and human–technology interactions The symbolism of animals in literature and art The history of animal domestication The intersections of speciesism, racism, and sexism The place of animals in human-occupied spaces The religious significance of animals throughout human history Exploring the cross-cultural ethical treatment of animals The critical evaluation of animal abuse and exploitation Mind, self, and personhood in nonhuman animals The potential human health benefits of companion animal ownership Human-animal hybrids (where each cell has partly human and partly animal genetic contents) Human-animal chimeras (where some cells are human and some cells are animal in origin) Growth of the field There are currently 23 college programs in HAS or a related field in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Israel and the Netherlands, as well as an additional eight veterinary school programs in North America, and over thirty HAS organizations in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Israel, Sweden, and Switzerland. In the UK, the University of Exeter runs an MA in Anthrozoology which explores human–animal interactions from anthropological (cross-cultural) perspectives. Human animal interactions (HAI) involving companion animals are also studied by the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, which partners with the US National Institutes of Health to research HAI in relation to child development and aging. There are now three primary lists for HAS scholars and students—H-Animal, the Human-Animal Studies listserv, and NILAS, as well as the Critical Animal Studies list. There are now over a dozen journals covering HAS issues, many of them founded in the last decade, and hundreds of HAS books, most of them published in the last decade (see for example, Humanimalia). Brill, Berg, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Columbia, Reaktion, Palgrave-Macmillan, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, and Oxford all offer either a HAS series or a large number of HAS books. In addition, in 2006, Animals and Society Institute (ASI) began hosting the Human-Animal Studies Fellowship, a six-week program in which pre- and post-doctoral scholars work on a HAS research project at a university under the guidance of host scholars and distance peer scholars. Beginning in 2011, ASI has partnered with Wesleyan Animal Studies, who will be hosting the fellowship in conjunction with ASI. There are also a handful of HAS conferences per year, including those organized by ISAZ and NILAS, and the Minding Animals conference, held in 2009 in Australia. Finally, there are more HAS courses being taught now than ever before. The ASI website lists over 300 courses (primarily in North America, but also including Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and Poland) in 29 disciplines at over 200 colleges and universities, not including over 100 law school courses. See also Animal behavior ABMAP Animal rights Animal studies Anthropomorphism Birds in culture Cognitive ethology Companion animal Critical animal studies Domestication of the horse Ethnozoology Human–animal bonding Human–canine bond Intersectionality Insects in culture Origin of the domestic dog Pauleen Bennett Pet humanization Service animal Social grooming Trans-species psychology Zooarchaeology References External links Animals and Society Institute Anthrozoology Research Group H-Animal Human-Animal Studies listserve Humanimalia: a journal of human-animal interface studies NILAS Animal rights Animal welfare Anthropology Ethology Interdisciplinary subfields of sociology Environmental humanities Environmental social science Zoology	0.778405	0.983045	0.765207
Dogma	Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam, the positions of a philosopher or philosophical school, such as Stoicism, and political belief systems such as fascism, socialism, progressivism, liberalism, and conservatism. In the pejorative sense, dogma refers to enforced decisions, such as those of aggressive political interests or authorities. More generally, it is applied to some strong belief that its adherents are not willing to discuss rationally. This attitude is named as a dogmatic one, or dogmatism, and is often used to refer to matters related to religion, though this pejorative sense strays far from the formal sense in which it is applied to religious belief. The pejorative sense is not limited to theistic attitudes alone and is often used with respect to political or philosophical dogmas. Etymology The word dogma was adopted in the 17th century from , derived from the from the . The plural is based on the , though dogmas may be more commonly used in English. In philosophy Pyrrhonism In Pyrrhonism, "dogma" refers to assent to a proposition about a non-evident matter. The main principle of Pyrrhonism is expressed by the word acatalepsia, which connotes the ability to withhold assent from doctrines regarding the truth of things in their own nature; against every statement its contradiction may be advanced with equal justification. Consequently, Pyrrhonists withhold assent with regard to non-evident propositions, i.e., dogmas. Pyrrhonists argue that dogmatists, such as the Stoics, Epicureans, and Peripatetics, have failed to demonstrate that their doctrines regarding non-evident matters are true. In religion Christianity In Christianity, a dogma is a belief communicated by divine revelation and defined by the Church, The organization's formal religious positions may be taught to new members or simply communicated to those who choose to become members. It is rare for agreement with an organization's formal positions to be a requirement for attendance, though membership may be required for some church activities. In the narrower sense of the church's official interpretation of divine revelation, theologians distinguish between defined and non-defined dogmas, the former being those set out by authoritative bodies such as the Roman Curia for the Catholic Church, the latter being those which are universally held but have not been officially defined, the nature of Christ as universal redeemer being an example. The term originated in late Greek philosophy legal usage, in which it meant a decree or command, and came to be used in the same sense in early Christian theology. Protestants to differing degrees are less formal about doctrine, and often rely on denomination-specific beliefs, but seldom refer to these beliefs as dogmata. The first unofficial institution of dogma in the Christian church was by Saint Irenaeus in his Demonstration of Apostolic Teaching, which provides a 'manual of essentials' constituting the 'body of truth'. Catholicism and Eastern Christianity For Catholicism and Eastern Christianity, the dogmata are contained in the Nicene Creed and the canon laws of two, three, seven, or twenty ecumenical councils (depending on whether one is Church of the East, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, or Roman Catholic). These tenets are summarized by John of Damascus in his Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, which is the third book of his main work, titled The Fount of Knowledge. In this book he takes a dual approach in explaining each article of the faith: one, directed at Christians, where he uses quotes from the Bible and, occasionally, from works of other Church Fathers, and the second, directed both at members of non-Christian religions and at atheists, for whom he employs Aristotelian logic and dialectics. The decisions of fourteen later councils that Catholics hold as dogmatic and a small number of decrees promulgated by popes exercising papal infallibility (for examples, see Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary) are considered as being a part of the Catholic Church's sacred body of doctrine. Judaism In the Jewish commentary tradition, dogma is a principle by which the Rabbanim can try the proofs of faith about the existence of God and truth; dogma is what is necessarily true for rational thinking. In Jewish Kabbalah, a dogma is an archetype of the Pardes or Torah Nistar, the secrets of Bible. In the relation between "logical thinking" and "rational Kabbalah" the "Partzuf" is the means to identify "dogma". Buddhism View or position (; ) is a central idea in Buddhism that corresponds with the Western notion of dogma. In Buddhist thought, a view is not a simple, abstract collection of propositions, but a charged interpretation of experience which intensely shapes and affects thought, sensation, and action. Having the proper mental attitude toward views is therefore considered an integral part of the Buddhist path, as sometimes correct views need to be put into practice and incorrect views abandoned, while at other times all views are seen as obstacles to enlightenment. Islam Taqlid is a term in Islam that refers to conforming to the teachings of a particular person. Classical usage of the term differs between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. In Sunni Islam, taqlid refers to the unjustified conformity to the teachings of a person without inquiring or thinking about said teachings, rather than the justified conformity of a layperson to the teaching of mujtahid (a person who is qualified for independent reasoning). In Shia Islam, taqlid refers to the general conformity of non-mujtahid to the teaching of mujtahid, without a negative connotation. The discrepancy corresponds to differing views on Shia views on the Imamate and Sunni imams. Taqlid can be seen as a form of dogma, as no particular scholar can always be correct, so their rulings should not be taken uncritically. See also Faith – Confidence or trust, often characterized as without evidence References Bibliography External links Dogma – Strong's N.T. Greek Lexicon Il Domani – terribile o radioso? – del Dogma , a book by Enrico Maria Radaelli with a Preface by Roger Scruton and comments by Brunero Gherardini, Alessandro Gnocchi-Mario Palmaro, and Mario Oliveri (Roma 2012) Irenaeus. Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. pp. 70–75. [online] available at: Christian Classics ethereal library St. Irenaeus: Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching – Christian Classics Ethereal Library [Accessed 20 June 2017] Christian terminology Epicureanism Epistemology of religion Greek words and phrases Justification (epistemology) Principles Pyrrhonism Religious belief and doctrine Stoicism Concepts in ancient Greek epistemology	0.766865	0.997828	0.765199
Maslow's hierarchy of needs	Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an idea in psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in the journal Psychological Review. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, some of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. The theory is a classification system intended to reflect the universal needs of society as its base, then proceeding to more acquired emotions. The hierarchy of needs is split between deficiency needs and growth needs, with two key themes involved within the theory being individualism and the prioritization of needs. While the theory is usually shown as a pyramid in illustrations, Maslow himself never created a pyramid to represent the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs is a psychological idea and an assessment tool, particularly in education, healthcare and social work. The hierarchy remains a popular framework, including sociology research, management training, and higher education. Moreover, the hierarchy of needs is used to study how humans intrinsically partake in behavioral motivation. Maslow used the terms "physiological", "safety", "belonging and love", "social needs" or "esteem", "self-actualization" and "transcendence" to describe the pattern through which human needs and motivations generally move. According to the theory, this means that for motivation to arise at the next stage, each prior stage must be satisfied by an individual. The hierarchy has been used to explain how effort and motivation are correlated in the context of human behavior. Each of these individual levels contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in order for an individual to complete their hierarchy. The goal in Maslow's hierarchy is to attain the level or stage of self-actualization. Although widely used and researched, Maslow's hierarchy of needs lacks conclusive supporting evidence and the validity of the theory remains contested in academia. One criticism of the original theory which has been revised into newer versions of the theory, was that the original hierarchy states that a lower level must be completely satisfied and fulfilled before moving onto a higher pursuit; there is evidence to suggest that levels continuously overlap each other. Stages Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest, most fundamental needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization and transcendence at the top. In other words, the idea is that individuals' most basic needs must be met before they become motivated to achieve higher-level needs. Despite the fact that the ideas behind the hierarchy are Maslow's, the pyramid itself does not exist anywhere in Maslow's original work. The most fundamental four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem, friendship and love, security, and physical needs. If these "deficiency needs" are not met – except for the most fundamental (physiological) need – there may not be a physical indication, but the individual will feel anxious and tense. Deprivation is what causes deficiency, so when one has unmet needs, this motivates them to fulfill what they are being denied. Maslow's idea suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher-level needs. Maslow also coined the term "metamotivation" to describe the motivation of people who go beyond the scope of basic needs and strive for constant betterment. The human brain is a complex system and has parallel processes running at the same time, thus many different motivations from various levels of Maslow's hierarchy can occur at the same time. Maslow spoke clearly about these levels and their satisfaction in terms such as "relative", "general", and "primarily". Instead of stating that the individual focuses on a certain need at any given time, Maslow stated that a certain need "dominates" the human organism. Thus Maslow acknowledged the likelihood that the different levels of motivation could occur at any time in the human mind, but he focused on identifying the basic types of motivation and the order in which they would tend to be met. Physiological needs Physiological needs are the base of the hierarchy. These needs are the biological component for human survival. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, physiological needs are factored into internal motivation. According to Maslow's theory, humans are compelled to satisfy physiological needs first to pursue higher levels of intrinsic satisfaction. To advance higher-level needs in Maslow's hierarchy, physiological needs must be met first. This means that if a person is struggling to meet their physiological needs, they are unwilling to seek safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization on their own. Physiological needs may include: Air Water Food Heat Clothes Reproduction Shelter Sleep Many of these physiological needs must be met for the human body to remain in homeostasis. Air, for example, is a physiological need; a human being requires air more urgently than higher-level needs, such as a sense of social belonging. Physiological needs are critical to "meet the very basic essentials of life". This allows for cravings such as hunger and thirst to be satisfied and not disrupt the regulation of the body. Safety needs Once a person's physiological needs are satisfied, their safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. In the absence of physical safety – due to war, natural disaster, family violence, childhood abuse, etc. and/or in the absence of economic safety – (due to an economic crisis and lack of work opportunities) these safety needs manifest themselves in ways such as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, disability accommodations, etc. This level is more likely to predominate in children as they generally have a greater need to feel safe – especially children who have disabilities. Adults are also impacted by this, typically in economic matters; "adults are not immune to the need of safety". It includes shelter, job security, health, and safe environments. If a person does not feel safe in an environment, they will seek safety before attempting to meet any higher level of survival. This is why the "goal of consistently meeting the need for safety is to have stability in one's life", stability brings back the concept of homeostasis for humans which our bodies need. Safety needs include: Health Personal security Emotional security Financial security Love and social needs After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of belongingness. According to Maslow, humans possess an effective need for a sense of belonging and acceptance among social groups, regardless of whether these groups are large or small; being a part of a group is crucial, regardless if it is work, sports, friends or family. The sense of belongingness is "being comfortable with and connection to others that results from receiving acceptance, respect, and love." For example, some large social groups may include clubs, co-workers, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs or online communities. Some examples of small social connections include family members, intimate partners, mentors, colleagues, and confidants. Humans need to love and be loved – both sexually and non-sexually – by others according to Maslow. Many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression in the absence of this love or belonging element. This need is especially strong in childhood and it can override the need for safety as witnessed in children who cling to abusive parents. Deficiencies due to hospitalism, neglect, shunning, ostracism, etc. can adversely affect the individual's ability to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships in general. Mental health can be a huge factor when it comes to an individual's needs and development. When an individual's needs are not met, it can cause depression during adolescence. When an individual grows up in a higher-income family, it is much more likely that they will have a lower rate of depression. This is because all of their basic needs are met. Studies have shown that when a family goes through financial stress for a prolonged time, depression rates are higher, not only because their basic needs are not being met, but because this stress strains the parent-child relationship. The parent(s) is stressed about providing for their children, and they are also likely to spend less time at home because they are working more to make more money and provide for their family. Social belonging needs include: Family Friendship Intimacy Trust Acceptance Receiving and giving love and affection In certain situations, the need for belonging may overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure. In contrast, for some individuals, the need for self-esteem is more important than the need for belonging; and for others, the need for creative fulfillment may supersede even the most basic needs. Esteem needs Esteem is the respect, and admiration of a person, but also "self-respect and respect from others". Most people need stable esteem, meaning that which is soundly based on real capacity or achievement. Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs. The "lower" version of esteem is the need for respect from others and may include a need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The "higher" version of esteem is the need for self-respect, and can include a need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence, and freedom. This "higher" version takes guidelines, the "hierarchies are interrelated rather than sharply separated". This means that esteem and the subsequent levels are not strictly separated; instead, the levels are closely related. Esteem comes from day-to-day experiences which provide a learning opportunity that allows us to discover ourselves. This is incredibly important for children, which is why giving them "the opportunity to discover they are competent and capable learners" is crucial. To boost this, adults must provide opportunities for children to have successful and positive experiences to give children a greater "sense of self". Adults, especially parents and educators must create and ensure an environment for children that is supportive and provides them with opportunities that "helps children see themselves as respectable, capable individuals". It can also be found that "Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most important for children ... and precedes real self-esteem or dignity", which reflects the two aspects of esteem: for oneself and others. Extended hierarchy of needs Cognitive needs It has been suggested that Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be extended after esteem needs into two more categories: cognitive needs and aesthetic needs. Cognitive needs crave meaning, information, comprehension and curiosity – this creates a will to learn and attain knowledge. From an educational viewpoint, Maslow wanted humans to have intrinsic motivation to become educated people. People have cognitive needs such as creativity, foresight, curiosity, and meaning. Individuals who enjoy activities that require deliberation and brainstorming have a greater need for cognition. Individuals who are unmotivated to participate in the activity, on the other hand, have a low demand for cognitive abilities. Aesthetic needs After reaching one's cognitive needs, it would progress to aesthetic needs to beautify one's life. This would consist of having the ability to appreciate the beauty within the world around one's self, on a day-to-day basis. According to Maslow's theories, to progress toward Self-Actualization, humans require beautiful imagery or novel and aesthetically pleasing experiences. Humans must immerse themselves in nature's splendor while paying close attention to their surroundings and observing them in order to extract the world's beauty. One would accomplish this by making their environment pleasant to look at or be around. They might discover personal style choices that they feel represent them and make their environment a place that they fit well into. This higher level of need to connect with nature results in a sense of intimacy with nature and all that is endearing. Aesthetic needs also relate to beautifying oneself. This would consist of improving one's physical appearance to ensure its beauty to balance the rest of the body. This is done by making and finding ways one wants to dress and express oneself through personal beauty and grooming standards and ideas. Self-actualization "What a man can be, he must be." This quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to the realization of one's full potential. Maslow describes this as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. People may have a strong, particular desire to become an ideal parent, succeed athletically, or create paintings, pictures, or inventions. To understand this level of need, a person must not only succeed in the previous needs but master them. Self-actualization can be described as a value-based system when discussing its role in motivation. Self-actualization is understood as the goal or explicit motive, and the previous stages in Maslow's hierarchy fall in line to become the step-by-step process by which self-actualization is achievable; an explicit motive is the objective of a reward-based system that is used to intrinsically drive the completion of certain values or goals. Individuals who are motivated to pursue this goal seek and understand how their needs, relationships, and sense of self are expressed through their behavior. Self-actualization needs include: Partner acquisition Parenting Utilizing and developing talents and abilities Pursuing goals Transcendence needs Maslow later subdivided the triangle's top to include self-transcendence, also known as spiritual needs. Spiritual needs differ from other types of needs in that they can be met on multiple levels. When this need is met, it produces feelings of integrity and raises things to a higher plane of existence. In his later years, Maslow explored a further dimension of motivation, while criticizing his original vision of self-actualization. Maslow tells us that by transcending you have a set of roots in your current culture but you are able to look over it as well and see other viewpoints and ideas. By these later ideas, one finds the fullest realization in giving oneself to something beyond oneself—for example, in altruism or spirituality. He equated this with the desire to reach the infinite. "Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos." History Maslow's hierarchy of needs was created as Maslow "studied and observed monkeys [...] noticing their unusual pattern of behavior that addressed priorities based on individual needs". Some Indigenous academics have speculated that his theories, including the hierarchy, may have been influenced by the teachings and philosophy of the Blackfeet tribe, where he spent several weeks doing fieldwork in 1938; however, while this idea has gained attention on social media, there is no evidence to suggest he borrowed or stole ideas for his hierarchy of needs, which he only first published in 1943. Maslow's idea was further described in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality. At the time of its original publication in 1943, there was no empirical evidence to support the theory. Criticism Maslow's hierarchy of needs has widespread influence outside academia, perhaps because it explains things "that most humans immediately recognize in themselves and others". Still, academically, Maslow's idea is heavily contested. Although recent research appears to validate the existence of universal human needs, as well as shared ordering of the way in which people seek and satisfy needs, the exact hierarchy proposed by Maslow is called into question. The most common criticism is the expectation that different individuals, with similar backgrounds and at similar junctures in their respective lives, when faced with the same situation, would end up taking the same decision. Instead of that, a common observation is that humans are driven by a unique set of motivations, and their behavior cannot be reliably predicted based on the Maslowian principles. Maslow has also been criticized for originally theorizing that people generally move from the bottom of the pyramid to the top during their lifetime, when in fact, most people move up and down the pyramid constantly. However, Maslow later revised this model, proposing that the pyramid is not the same for each individual, that it is not a rigid linear process and that individuals can have various needs at the same time or shift between levels. Methodology Maslow studied people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Baruch Spinoza, rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy". Ranking Global ranking In a 1976 review of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, little evidence was found for the specific ranking of needs that Maslow described or for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all. This refutation was claimed to be supported by the majority of longitudinal data and cross-sectional studies at the time, with the limited support for Maslow's hierarchy criticized due to poor measurement criteria and selection of control groups. In 1984, the order in which the hierarchy is arranged was criticized as being ethnocentric by Geert Hofstede. In turn, Hofstede's work was criticized by others. Maslow's hierarchy of needs was argued as failing to illustrate and expand upon the difference between the social and intellectual needs of those raised in individualistic societies and those raised in collectivist societies. The needs and drives of those in individualistic societies tend to be more self-centered than those in collectivist societies, focusing on the improvement of the self, with self-actualization being the apex of self-improvement. In collectivist societies, the needs of acceptance and community will outweigh the needs for freedom and individuality. Criticisms towards the theory have also been expressed on the lack of consideration towards individualism and collectivism in the context of spirituality. Sex ranking The position and value of sex within Maslow's hierarchy have been a source of criticism. Maslow's hierarchy places sex in the physiological needs category, alongside food and breathing. Some critics argue that this placement of sex neglects the emotional, familial, and evolutionary implications of sex within the community, although others point out that this critique could apply to all of the basic needs. However, Maslow himself acknowledged that the satisfaction of sexual desire was likely linked to other social motives as well. Furthermore, it is recognized that physiological needs such as sex and hunger can be related to higher-order motivations. Hierarchy changes by circumstance The higher-order (self-esteem and self-actualization) and lower-order (physiological, safety, and love) need classification of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is not universal and may vary across cultures due to individual differences and availability of resources in the region or geopolitical entity/country. In a 1997 study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of a thirteen-item scale showed there were two particularly important levels of needs in the US during the peacetime of 1993 to 1994: survival (physiological and safety) and psychological (love, self-esteem, and self-actualization). In 1991, a retrospective peacetime measure was established and collected during the Persian Gulf War, and US citizens were asked to recall the importance of needs from the previous year. Once again, only two levels of needs were identified; therefore, people have the ability and competence to recall and estimate the importance of needs. For citizens in the Middle East (Egypt and Saudi Arabia), three levels of needs regarding importance and satisfaction surfaced during the 1990 retrospective peacetime. These three levels were completely different from those of US citizens. Changes regarding the importance and satisfaction of needs from the retrospective peacetime to wartime due to stress varied significantly across cultures (the US vs. the Middle East). For the US citizens, there was only one level of needs, since all needs were considered equally important. With regards to satisfaction of needs during the war, in the US there were three levels: physiological needs, safety needs, and psychological needs (social, self-esteem, and self-actualization). During the war, the satisfaction of physiological needs and safety needs were separated into two independent needs, while during peacetime, they were combined as one. For the people of the Middle East, the satisfaction of needs changed from three levels to two during wartime. A study of the ordering of needs in Asia found differences between the ordering of lower and higher order needs. For instance, community (related to belongingness and considered a lower order need in Maslow's hierarchy) was found to be the highest order need across Asia, followed closely by self-acceptance and growth. A 1981 study looked at how Maslow's hierarchy might vary across age groups. A survey asked participants of varying ages to rate a set number of statements from most important to least important. The researchers found that children had higher physical need scores than the other groups, the love need emerged from childhood to young adulthood, the esteem need was highest among the adolescent group, young adults had the highest self-actualization level, and old age had the highest level of security, it was needed across all levels comparably. The authors argued that this suggested Maslow's hierarchy may be limited as a theory for developmental sequence since the sequence of the love need and the self-esteem need should be reversed according to age. See also ERG theory, further expands and explains Maslow's theory First World problem reflects on trivial concerns in the context of more pressing needs Manfred Max-Neef's Fundamental human needs, Manfred Max-Neef's model Functional prerequisites Human givens, a theory in psychotherapy that offers descriptions of the nature, needs, and innate attributes of humans Need theory, David McClelland's model Positive disintegration Self-determination theory, Edward L. Deci's and Richard Ryan's model References Further reading Reprinted from Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1969, 1 (2): 31–47. External links 1943 introductions Developmental psychology Happiness Human development Interpersonal relationships Motivational theories Organizational behavior Personal development Personal life Positive psychology Psychological concepts	0.765281	0.999864	0.765177
Acclimatization	Acclimatization or acclimatisation (also called acclimation or acclimatation) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), allowing it to maintain fitness across a range of environmental conditions. Acclimatization occurs in a short period of time (hours to weeks), and within the organism's lifetime (compared to adaptation, which is evolution, taking place over many generations). This may be a discrete occurrence (for example, when mountaineers acclimate to high altitude over hours or days) or may instead represent part of a periodic cycle, such as a mammal shedding heavy winter fur in favor of a lighter summer coat. Organisms can adjust their morphological, behavioral, physical, and/or biochemical traits in response to changes in their environment. While the capacity to acclimate to novel environments has been well documented in thousands of species, researchers still know very little about how and why organisms acclimate the way that they do. Names The nouns acclimatization and acclimation (and the corresponding verbs acclimatize and acclimate) are widely regarded as synonymous, both in general vocabulary and in medical vocabulary. The synonym acclimation is less commonly encountered, and fewer dictionaries enter it. Methods Biochemical In order to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions, there are several strategies organisms use to acclimate. In response to changes in temperature, organisms can change the biochemistry of cell membranes making them more fluid in cold temperatures and less fluid in warm temperatures by increasing the number of membrane proteins. In response to certain stressors, some organisms express so-called heat shock proteins that act as molecular chaperones and reduce denaturation by guiding the folding and refolding of proteins. It has been shown that organisms which are acclimated to high or low temperatures display relatively high resting levels of heat shock proteins so that when they are exposed to even more extreme temperatures the proteins are readily available. Expression of heat shock proteins and regulation of membrane fluidity are just two of many biochemical methods organisms use to acclimate to novel environments. Morphological Organisms are able to change several characteristics relating to their morphology in order to maintain performance in novel environments. For example, birds often increase their organ size to increase their metabolism. This can take the form of an increase in the mass of nutritional organs or heat-producing organs, like the pectorals (with the latter being more consistent across species). The theory While the capacity for acclimatization has been documented in thousands of species, researchers still know very little about how and why organisms acclimate in the way that they do. Since researchers first began to study acclimation, the overwhelming hypothesis has been that all acclimation serves to enhance the performance of the organism. This idea has come to be known as the beneficial acclimation hypothesis. Despite such widespread support for the beneficial acclimation hypothesis, not all studies show that acclimation always serves to enhance performance (See beneficial acclimation hypothesis). One of the major objections to the beneficial acclimation hypothesis is that it assumes that there are no costs associated with acclimation. However, there are likely to be costs associated with acclimation. These include the cost of sensing the environmental conditions and regulating responses, producing structures required for plasticity (such as the energetic costs in expressing heat shock proteins), and genetic costs (such as linkage of plasticity-related genes with harmful genes). Given the shortcomings of the beneficial acclimation hypothesis, researchers are continuing to search for a theory that will be supported by empirical data. The degree to which organisms are able to acclimate is dictated by their phenotypic plasticity or the ability of an organism to change certain traits. Recent research in the study of acclimation capacity has focused more heavily on the evolution of phenotypic plasticity rather than acclimation responses. Scientists believe that when they understand more about how organisms evolved the capacity to acclimate, they will better understand acclimation. Examples Plants Many plants, such as maple trees, irises, and tomatoes, can survive freezing temperatures if the temperature gradually drops lower and lower each night over a period of days or weeks. The same drop might kill them if it occurred suddenly. Studies have shown that tomato plants that were acclimated to higher temperature over several days were more efficient at photosynthesis at relatively high temperatures than were plants that were not allowed to acclimate. In the orchid Phalaenopsis, phenylpropanoid enzymes are enhanced in the process of plant acclimatisation at different levels of photosynthetic photon flux. Animals Animals acclimatize in many ways. Sheep grow very thick wool in cold, damp climates. Fish are able to adjust only gradually to changes in water temperature and quality. Tropical fish sold at pet stores are often kept in acclimatization bags until this process is complete. Lowe & Vance (1995) were able to show that lizards acclimated to warm temperatures could maintain a higher running speed at warmer temperatures than lizards that were not acclimated to warm conditions. Fruit flies that develop at relatively cooler or warmer temperatures have increased cold or heat tolerance as adults, respectively (See Developmental plasticity). Humans The salt content of sweat and urine decreases as people acclimatize to hot conditions. Plasma volume, heart rate, and capillary activation are also affected. Acclimatization to high altitude continues for months or even years after initial ascent, and ultimately enables humans to survive in an environment that, without acclimatization, would kill them. Humans who migrate permanently to a higher altitude naturally acclimatize to their new environment by developing an increase in the number of red blood cells to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, in order to compensate for lower levels of oxygen intake. See also Acclimatisation society Beneficial acclimation hypothesis Heat index Introduced species Phenotypic plasticity Wind chill References Physiology Ecological processes Climate Biology terminology	0.76951	0.994293	0.765118
Digital collaboration	Digital collaboration is using digital technologies for collaboration. Dramatically different from traditional collaboration, it connects a broader network of participants who can accomplish much more than they would on their own. Digital Collaboration is used in many fields, for example digital collaboration in classrooms. Examples Online meetings and webinars Online team chatrooms Co-authoring documents and shared spreadsheets Social media Shared task lists or issue tracking systems Wikis Email Digital Collaboration in Classrooms Background 21st century mobile devices such as apps, social media, bandwidth and open data, connect people on a global level. This has led to an increase in information and at the same time increased levels of stress. As a result, workplace innovators and visionaries want to discover new digital tools and are rethinking how, when and where they work. Processes E-mail A collaborative system through electronic devices which allows users to exchange messages and information online by way of computer, tablet, or smartphone. Users develop accounts and use E-mail for work and leisure related topics. A great reliance is placed on e-mail to communicate, gone are the days when a message can go unread. Adapting digital tools such as notetaking apps, task lists and ical to David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity workflow, users can find "weird time", to process the e-mail in box. GTD principles can be difficult to maintain over the long term. Examples of providers for e-mail are Gmail, Comcast, and Outlook. Social media Social Media networks foster collaboration as well as manage and share knowledge between peers and interested groups. Participation in these networks builds trust among peers, which leads to open sharing of ideas. News and information can be activity filtered through subscription, allowing users to focus on what interests them, as opposed to passively receiving information. Events, activities, files and discussions are searchable and presented as a timeline. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram bring users together by connecting them on the internet. Open data sources Applications that can deliver data to help make decisions. Public agencies and GIS services provide, what was once thought of as proprietary data, to the private sector developers to present useful context and decision-making. People themselves can also provide data about their location or experience, which has social value to interested users. Wikis Wikis are websites which allow collaborative modification of its content and structure directly from the web browser. In a typical wiki, text is written using a simplified markup language (known as "wiki markup"), and often edited with the help of a rich-text editor. A wiki is run using wiki software, otherwise known as a wiki engine. There are dozens of different wiki engines in use, both standalone and part of other software, such as bug tracking systems. Some wiki engines are open source, whereas others are proprietary. Identity and adoption Innovators and visionaries of both Generations X and Y are leading the mainstream pragmatist to digitally collaborative tools. The Net Generation is growing up with digital collaborative tools such as Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Flipboard and Pinterest, building trust among peers and openness in their online communities. Influenced by cautious optimism about employment, post turbulent 2008 economy, and trust among peers, this generation will culturally tend to share and sustain resources. These factors contribute to increased adoption of digitally collaborative tools and active participation over the previous Generation X. See also Cloud collaboration Collaborative consumption Collaborative editing Collaborative software Collaborative writing Commons-based peer production Document collaboration Mass collaboration Open collaboration Open-source model Open-source software movement References Further reading Knowledge management Collaboration Digital technology	0.784352	0.975458	0.765103
Salutogenesis	Salutogenesis is the study of the origins of health and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis). More specifically, the "salutogenic model" was originally concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping through a study of Holocaust survivors. Despite going through the dramatic tragedy of the holocaust, some survivors were able to thrive later in life. The discovery that there must be powerful health causing factors led to the development of salutogenesis. The term was coined by Aaron Antonovsky (1923-1994), a professor of medical sociology. The salutogenic question posed by Aaron Antonovsky is, "How can this person be helped to move toward greater health?" Antonovsky's theories reject the "traditional medical-model dichotomy separating health and illness". He described the relationship as a continuous variable, what he called the "health-ease versus dis-ease continuum". Salutogenesis now encompasses more than the origins of health and has evolved to be about multidimensional causes of higher levels of health. Models associated with salutogenesis generally include wholistic approaches related to at least the physical, social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, vocational, and environmental dimensions. Derivation The word "salutogenesis" comes from the Latin salus (meaning health) and the Greek genesis (meaning origin). Antonovsky developed the term from his studies of "how people manage stress and stay well" (unlike pathogenesis which studies the causes of diseases). He observed that stress is ubiquitous, but not all individuals have negative health outcomes in response to stress. Instead, some people achieve health despite their exposure to potentially disabling stress factors. Development In his 1979 book, Health, Stress and Coping, Antonovsky described a variety of influences that led him to the question of how people survive, adapt, and overcome in the face of even the most punishing life-stress experiences. In his 1987 book, Unraveling the Mysteries of Health, he focused more specifically on a study of women and aging; he found that 29% of women who had survived Nazi concentration camps had positive emotional health, compared to 51% of a control group. His insight was that 29% of the survivors were not emotionally impaired by the stress. Antonovsky wrote: "this for me was the dramatic experience that consciously set me on the road to formulating what I came to call the 'salutogenic model'." In salutogenic theory, people continually battle with the effects of hardship. These ubiquitous forces are called generalized resource deficits (GRDs). On the other hand, there are generalized resistance resources (GRRs), which are all of the resources that help a person cope and are effective in avoiding or combating a range of psychosocial stressors. Examples are resources such as money, ego-strength, and social support. Generalized resource deficits will cause the coping mechanisms to fail whenever the sense of coherence is not robust to weather the current situation. This causes illness and possibly even death. However, if the sense of coherence is high, a stressor will not necessarily be harmful. But it is the balance between generalized resource deficits and resources that determines whether a factor will be pathogenic, neutral, or salutary. Antonovsky's formulation was that the generalized resistance resources enabled individuals to make sense of and manage events. He argued that over time, in response to positive experiences provided by successful use of different resources, an individual would develop an attitude that was "in itself the essential tool for coping". Sense of coherence The "sense of coherence" is a theoretical formulation that provides a central explanation for the role of stress in human functioning. "Beyond the specific stress factors that one might encounter in life, and beyond your perception and response to those events, what determines whether stress will cause you harm is whether or not the stress violates your sense of coherence." Antonovsky defined Sense of Coherence as: "a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that (1) the stimuli deriving from one's internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable and explicable; (2) the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and (3) these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement." In his formulation, the sense of coherence has three components: Comprehensibility: a belief that things happen in an orderly and predictable fashion and a sense that you can understand events in your life and reasonably predict what will happen in the future. Manageability: a belief that you have the skills or ability, the support, the help, or the resources necessary to take care of things, and that things are manageable and within your control. Meaningfulness: a belief that things in life are interesting and a source of satisfaction, that things are really worthwhile and that there is good reason or purpose to care about what happens. According to Antonovsky, the third element is the most important. If a person believes there is no reason to persist and survive and confront challenges, if they have no sense of meaning, then they will have no motivation to comprehend and manage events. His essential argument is that "salutogenesis" depends on experiencing a strong "sense of coherence". His research demonstrated that the sense of coherence predicts positive health outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one's sense of coherence was shown to be associated with the likelihood of their adherence to the pandemic safety guidelines. Fields of application Health and medicine Antonovsky viewed his work as primarily addressed to the fields of health psychology, behavioral medicine, and the sociology of health. It has been adopted as a term to describe contemporary approaches to nursing, psychiatry, integrative medicine, and healthcare architecture. The salutogenic framework has also been adapted as a method for decision making on the fly; the method has been applied for emergency care and for healthcare architecture. Incorporating concepts from salutogenesis can support a transition from curative to preventive medicine. Workplace The sense of coherence with its three components meaningfulness, manageability and understandability has also been applied to the workplace. Meaningfulness is considered to be related to the feeling of participation and motivation and to a perceived meaning of the work. The meaningfulness component has also been linked with job control and task significance. Job control implies that employees have more authority to make decisions concerning their work and the working process. Task significance involves "the experience of congruence between personal values and work activities, which is accompanied by strong feelings of identification with the attitudes, values or goals of the working tasks and feelings of motivation and involvement". The manageability component is considered to be linked to job control as well as to access to resources. It has also been considered to be linked with social skills and trust. Social relations relate also to the meaningfulness component. The comprehensibility component may be influenced by consistent feedback at work, for example concerning the performance appraisal. Salutogenics perspectives are also considered in the design of offices. See also References Further reading Becker, C. M., Glascoff, M. A., & Felts, W. M. (2010). "Salutogenesis 30 Years Later: Where do we go from here?" International Electronic Journal of Health Education, 13, 25-32. Can access at: Studying Health vs. Studying Disease - Aaron Antonovsky. Lecture at the Congress for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Berlin, 19 February 1990. Coping with Existential Threats and the Inevitability of Asking for Meaningfulness - Peter Novak. A philosophical perspective Start making sense - Start Making Sense; Applying a salutogenic model to architectural design for psychiatric care - Jan Golembiewski. A method of applying salutogenic theory. Salutogenesis Bengt Lindström, "Salutogenesis – an introduction" Golembiewski, J. (2012). "Salutogenic design: The neural basis for health promoting environments." World Health Design Scientific Review 5(4): 62-68.https://www.academia.edu/2456916/Salutogenic_design_The_neural_basis_for_health_promoting_environments Mayer, C.-H. & Krause, C. (Eds.)(2012): Exploring Mental Health: Theoretical and Empirical Discourses on Salutogenesis. Pabst Science Publishers. Mayer, C.-H. & Hausner, s. (Eds.) (2015): Salutogene Aufstellungen. Beiträge zur Gesundheitsförderung in der systemischen Arbeit. - Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Mittelmark, M.B., Sagy, S., Eriksson, M., Bauer, G., Pelikan, J.M., Lindström, B., Espnes, G.A. (Eds.) (2016): The Handbook of Salutogenesis Comprehensive overview of salutogenesis and its contribution to health promotion theory. Medical sociology Positive psychology Health psychology Public health Determinants of health	0.774999	0.987211	0.765087
Cognitive restructuring	Cognitive restructuring (CR) is a psychotherapeutic process of learning to identify and dispute irrational or maladaptive thoughts known as cognitive distortions, such as all-or-nothing thinking (splitting), magical thinking, overgeneralization, magnification, and emotional reasoning, which are commonly associated with many mental health disorders. CR employs many strategies, such as Socratic questioning, thought recording, and guided imagery, and is used in many types of therapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT). A number of studies demonstrate considerable efficacy in using CR-based therapies. Overview Cognitive restructuring involves four steps: Identification of problematic cognitions known as "automatic thoughts" (ATs) which are dysfunctional or negative views of the self, world, or future based upon already existing beliefs about oneself, the world, or the future Identification of the cognitive distortions in the ATs Rational disputation of ATs with the Socratic method Development of a rational rebuttal to the ATs There are six types of automatic thoughts: Self-evaluated thoughts Thoughts about the evaluations of others Evaluative thoughts about the other person with whom they are interacting Thoughts about coping strategies and behavioral plans Thoughts of avoidance Any other thoughts that were not categorized Clinical applications Cognitive restructuring has been used to help individuals experiencing a variety of psychiatric conditions, including depression, substance abuse disorders, anxiety disorders collectively, bulimia, social phobia, borderline personality disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and problem gambling. When utilizing cognitive restructuring in rational emotive therapy (RET), the emphasis is on two central notions: (1) thoughts affect human emotion as well as behavior and (2) irrational beliefs are mainly responsible for a wide range of disorders. RET also classifies four types of irrational beliefs: dire necessity, feeling awful, cannot stand something, and self-condemnation. It is described as cognitive-emotional retraining. The rationale used in cognitive restructuring attempts to strengthen the client's belief that (1) "self-talk" can influence performance, and (2) in particular self-defeating thoughts or negative self-statements can cause emotional distress and interfere with performance, a process that then repeats again in a cycle. Mood repair strategies are implemented in cognitive restructuring in hopes of contributing to a cessation of the negative cycle. When utilizing cognitive restructuring in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), it is combined with psychoeducation, monitoring, in vivo experience, imaginal exposure, behavioral activation, and homework assignments to achieve remission. The cognitive behavioral approach is said to consist of three core techniques: cognitive restructuring, training in coping skills, and problem solving. Applications within therapy There are many methods used in cognitive restructuring, which usually involve identifying and labelling distorted thoughts, such as "all or none thinking, disqualifying the positive, mental filtering, jumping to conclusions, catastrophizing, emotional reasoning, should statements, and personalization." The following lists methods commonly used in cognitive restructuring: Socratic questioning Thought recording Identifying cognitive errors Examining the evidence (pro-con analysis or cost-benefits analysis) Understanding idiosyncratic meaning/semantic techniques Labeling distortions Decatastrophizing Reattribution Cognitive rehearsal Guided imagery Listing rational alternatives Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) includes awfulizing, when a person causes themselves disturbance by labelling an upcoming situation as 'awful', rather than envisaging how the situation may actually unfold, and Must-ing, when a person places a false demand on themselves that something 'must' happen (e.g. 'I must get an A in this exam'.) Criticism Critics of cognitive restructuring claim that the process of challenging dysfunctional thoughts will "teach clients to become better suppressors and avoiders of their unwanted thoughts" and that cognitive restructuring shows less immediate improvement because real-world practice is often required. Other criticisms include that the approach is mechanistic and impersonal and that the relationship between therapist and client is irrelevant. Neil Jacobson's component analysis of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), claims that the cognitive restructuring component is unnecessary, at least with depression. He argues that it is the behavioural activation components of CBT that are effective in giving therapy, not cognitive restructuring, as delivered by cognitive behavioural therapy. Others also argue that it's not necessary to challenge thoughts with cognitive restructuring. See also Cognitive appraisal Cognitive reframing Cognitive science Cognitive psychology References External links A free Thinking Matters Facilitator Manual National Institute of Corrections An Overview of Cognitive-behavioral Group Therapy for Social Phobia Cognitive Restructuring - ACCI's list of erroneous beliefs of the criminal mind. Cognitive Restructuring Techniques - as pioneered by Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck, and others. Cognitive restructuring worksheets - Tools that therapists use to help guide cognitive restructuring Cognitive therapy	0.775117	0.987028	0.765062
Glasser's choice theory	The term "choice theory" is the work of William Glasser, MD, author of the book so named, and is the culmination of some 50 years of theory and practice in psychology and counselling. Characteristics Choice theory posits that the behaviors we choose are central to our existence. Our behavior (choices) is driven by five genetically driven needs in hierarchical order: survival, love, power, freedom, and fun. The most basic human needs are survival (physical component) and love (mental component). Without physical (nurturing) and emotional (love), an infant will not survive to attain power, freedom, and fun. “No matter how well-nourished and intellectually stimulated a child is, going without human touch can stunt his mental, emotional, and even physical growth”,which is proved by the research of livestrong on the influence of physical touch on a child's development “Touching Empathy: Lack of Physical Affection Can Actually Kill Babies”, Psychology Today, October 1, 2010. Survival needs include: Food Clothing Shelter Breathing personal safety security and sex, having children And four fundamental psychological needs: Belonging/connecting/love Power/significance/competence Freedom/autonomy Fun/learning Choice theory suggests the existence of a "quality world." The idea of a "quality world" in choice theory has been compared to Jungian archetypes, but Glasser's acknowledgement of this connection is unclear. Some argue that Glasser's "quality world" and what Jung would call healthy archetypes share similarities. Our "quality world" images are our role models of an individual's "perfect" world of parents, relations, possessions, beliefs, etc. How each person's "quality world" is somewhat unusual, even in the same family of origin, is taken for granted. Starting from birth and continuing throughout our lives, each person places significant role models, significant possessions, and significant systems of belief (religion, cultural values, icons, etc.) into a mostly unconscious framework Glasser called our "quality world". The issue of negative role models and stereotypes is not extensively discussed in choice theory. Glasser also posits a "comparing place," where we compare and contrast our perceptions of people, places, and things immediately in front of us against our ideal images (archetypes) of these in our Quality World framework. Our subconscious pushes us towards calibrating—as best we can—our real-world experience with our quality world (archetypes). Behavior ("total behavior" in Glasser's terms) is made up of these four components: acting, thinking, feeling, and physiology. Glasser suggests we have considerable control or choice over the first two of these, yet little ability to directly choose the latter two as they are more deeply sub- and unconscious. These four components remain closely intertwined, and the choices we make in our thinking and acting will greatly affect our feelings and physiology. Glasser frequently emphasizes that failed or strained relationships with significant individuals can contribute to personal unhappiness. spouses, parents, children, friends, and colleagues. The symptoms of unhappiness are widely variable and are often seen as mental illnesses. Glasser believed that "pleasure" and "happiness" are related but far from synonymous. Sex, for example, is a "pleasure" but may well be divorced from a "satisfactory relationship," which is a precondition for lasting "happiness" in life. Hence the intense focus on the improvement of relationships in counseling with choice theory—the "new reality therapy". Individuals who are familiar with both reality therapy and choice theory may have a preference for the latter, which is considered a more modern approach. According to choice theory, mental illness can be linked to personal unhappiness. Glasser champions how we are able to learn and choose alternate behaviors that result in greater personal satisfaction. Reality therapy is a choice theory-based counseling process focused on helping clients learn to make those self-optimizing choices. The Ten Axioms of Choice The only person whose behavior we can control is ourselves. All we can give another person is information. All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems. The problem relationship is always part of our present life. What happened in the past has everything to do with who we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future. We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in our quality world. All we do is behave. All behavior is total behavior and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling, and physiology. All of our total behavior is chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can only control our feelings and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think. All total behavior is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognizable. In Classroom Management William Glasser's choice theory begins: Behavior is not separate from choice; we all choose how to behave at any time. Second, we cannot control anyone's behavior but our own. Glasser emphasized the importance of classroom meetings as a means to improve communication and solve classroom problems. Glasser suggested that teachers should assist students in envisioning a fulfilling school experience and planning the choices that would enable them to achieve it. For example, Johnny Waits is an 18-year-old high school senior and plans on attending college to become a computer programmer. Glasser suggests that Johnny could be learning as much as he can about computers instead of reading Plato. Glasser proposed a curriculum approach that emphasizes practical, real-world topics chosen by students based on their interests and inclinations. This approach is referred to as the quality curriculum. The quality curriculum places particular emphasis on topics that have practical career applications. According to Glasser's approach, teachers facilitate discussions with students to identify topics they are interested in exploring further when introducing new material. In line with Glasser's approach, students are expected to articulate the practical value of the material they choose to explore. Education Glasser did not endorse Summerhill, and the quality schools he oversaw typically had conventional curriculum topics. The main innovation of these schools was a deeper, more humanistic approach to the group process between teachers, students, and learning. Critiques In a book review, Christopher White writes that Glasser believes everything in the DSM-IV-TR is a result of an individual's brain creatively expressing its unhappiness. White also notes that Glasser criticizes the psychiatric profession and questions the effectiveness of medications in treating mental illness. White points out that the book does not provide a set of randomized clinical trials demonstrating the success of Glasser's teachings. See also Cognitive psychology Introspection illusion Léopold Szondi References Bourbon, W. Thomas and Ford, Ed. (1994) Discipline at Home and at School. Brandt: New York. Personal observations (1996–2005). Teacher. Centennial High School, Champaign, Illinois. Weinstein, Jay. (2000). "The Place of Theory in Applied Sociology: A Reflection." Theory and Science 1, 1. External links The William Glasser Institute official website The Sudbury Valley School official website Cognitive science	0.775893	0.986021	0.765047
Curiosity	Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps human development, from which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill. The term curiosity can also denote the behavior, characteristic, or emotion of being curious, in regard to the desire to gain knowledge or information. Curiosity as a behavior and emotion is the driving force behind human development, such as progress in science, language, and industry. Curiosity can be considered to be an evolutionary adaptation based on an organism's ability to learn. Certain curious animals (namely, corvids, octopuses, dolphins, elephants, rats, etc.) will pursue information in order to adapt to their surrounding and learn how things work. This behavior is termed neophilia, the love of new things. For animals, a fear of the unknown or the new, neophobia, is much more common, especially later in life. Causes Many species display curiosity including apes, cats, and rodents. It is common in human beings at all ages from infancy through adulthood. Research has shown that curiosity is not a fixed attribute amongst humans but rather can be nurtured and developed. Early definitions of curiosity call it a motivated desire for information. This motivational desire has been said to stem from a passion or an appetite for knowledge, information, and understanding. Traditional ideas of curiosity have expanded to consider the difference between perceptual curiosity, as the innate exploratory behavior that is present in all animals, and epistemic curiosity, as the desire for knowledge that is specifically attributed to humans. Daniel Berlyne recognized three classes of variables playing a role in evoking curiosity: psychophysical variables, ecological variables, and collative variables. Psychophysical variables correspond to physical intensity, ecological variables to motivational significance and task relevance. Collative variables involve a comparison between different stimuli or features, which may be actually perceived or which may be recalled from memory. Berlyne mentioned four collative variables: novelty, complexity, uncertainty, and conflict (though he suggested that all collative variables probably involve conflict). Additionally, he considered three variables supplementary to novelty: change, surprisingness, and incongruity. Finally, curiosity may not only be aroused by the perception of some stimulus associated with the aforementioned variables ("specific exploration"), but also by a lack of stimulation, out of "boredom" ("diversive exploration"). Curiosity-driven behavior Curiosity-driven behavior is often defined as behavior through which knowledge is gained – a form of exploratory behavior. It therefore encompasses all behaviors that provide access to or increase sensory information. Berlyne divided curiosity-driven behavior into three categories: orienting responses, locomotor exploration, and investigatory responses or investigatory manipulation. Previously, Berlyne suggested that curiosity also includes verbal activities, such as asking questions, and symbolic activities, consisting of internally fueled mental processes such as thinking ("epistemic exploration"). Theories Like other desires and need-states that take on an appetitive quality (e.g. food/hunger), curiosity is linked with exploratory behavior and experiences of reward. Curiosity can be described in terms of positive emotions and acquiring knowledge; when one's curiosity has been aroused it is considered inherently rewarding and pleasurable. Discovering new information may also be rewarding because it can help reduce undesirable states of uncertainty rather than stimulating interest. Theories have arisen in attempts to further understand this need to rectify states of uncertainty and the desire to participate in pleasurable experiences of exploratory behaviors. Curiosity-drive theory Curiosity-drive theory posits undesirable experiences of "uncertainty" and "ambiguity". The reduction of these unpleasant feelings is rewarding. This theory suggests that people desire coherence and understanding in their thought processes. When this coherence is disrupted by something that is unfamiliar, uncertain, or ambiguous, an individual's curiosity-drive causes them to collect information and knowledge of the unfamiliar to restore coherent thought processes. This theory suggests that curiosity is developed out of the desire to make sense of unfamiliar aspects of one's environment through exploratory behaviors. Once understanding of the unfamiliar has been achieved and coherence has been restored, these behaviors and desires subside. Derivations of curiosity-drive theory differ on whether curiosity is a primary or secondary drive and if this curiosity-drive originates due to one's need to make sense of and regulate one's environment or if it is caused by an external stimulus. Causes can range from basic needs that need to be satisfied (e.g. hunger, thirst) to needs in fear-induced situations. Each of these derived theories state that whether the need is primary or secondary, curiosity develops from experiences that create a sensation of uncertainty or perceived unpleasantness. Curiosity then acts to dispel this uncertainty. By exhibiting curious and exploratory behavior, one is able to gain knowledge of the unfamiliar and thus reduce the state of uncertainty or unpleasantness. This theory, however, does not address the idea that curiosity can often be displayed even in the absence of new or unfamiliar situations. This type of exploratory behavior, too, is common in many species. A human toddler, if bored in his current situation devoid of arousing stimuli, will walk about until he finds something interesting. The observation of curiosity even in the absence of novel stimuli pinpoints one of the major shortcomings in the curiosity-drive model. Optimal-arousal theory Optimal-arousal theory developed out of the need to explain this desire to seek out opportunities to engage in exploratory behaviors without the presence of uncertain or ambiguous situations. Optimal-arousal suggests that one can be motivated to maintain a pleasurable sense of arousal through such exploratory behaviors. When a stimulus is encountered that is associated with complexity, uncertainty, conflict, or novelty, this increases arousal above the optimal point, and exploratory behavior is employed to learn about that stimulus and thereby reduce arousal again. In contrast, if the environment is boring and lacks excitement, arousal is reduced below the optimal point and exploratory behavior is employed to increase information input and stimulation, and thereby increasing arousal again. This theory addresses both curiosity elicited by uncertain or unfamiliar situations and curiosity elicited in the absence of such situations. Cognitive-consistency theory Cognitive-consistency theories assume that "when two or more simultaneously active cognitive structures are logically inconsistent, arousal is increased, which activates processes with the expected consequence of increasing consistency and decreasing arousal." Similar to optimal-arousal theory, cognitive-consistency theory suggests that there is a tendency to maintain arousal at a preferred, or expected, level, but it also explicitly links the amount of arousal to the amount of experienced inconsistency between an expected situation and the actually perceived situation. When this inconsistency is small, exploratory behavior triggered by curiosity is employed to gather information with which expectancy can be updated through learning to match perception, thereby reducing inconsistency. This approach associates curiosity with aggression and fear. If the inconsistency is larger, fear or aggressive behavior may be employed to alter the perception in order to make it match expectancy, depending on the size of the inconsistency as well as the specific context. Aggressive behavior alters perception by forcefully manipulating it into matching the expected situation, while fear prompts flight, which removes the inconsistent stimulus from the perceptual field and thus resolves the inconsistency. Integration of the reward pathway into theory Taking into account the shortcomings of both curiosity-drive and optimal-arousal theories, attempts have been made to integrate neurobiological aspects of reward, wanting, and pleasure into a more comprehensive theory for curiosity. Research suggests that desiring new information involves mesolimbic pathways of the brain that dopamine activation. The use of these pathways, and dopamine activation, may be how the brain assigns value to new information and interprets this as reward. This theory from neurobiology can supplement curiosity-drive theory by explaining the motivation of exploratory behavior. Role of neurological aspects and structures Although curiosity is widely regarded, its root causes are largely empirically unknown. However, some studies have provided insight into the neurological mechanisms that make up what is known as the reward pathway which may influence characteristics associated with curiosity, such as learning, memory, and motivation. Due to the complex nature of curiosity, research that focuses on specific neural processes with these characteristics can help us understand of the phenomenon of curiosity as a whole. The following are descriptions of characteristics of curiosity and their links to neurological aspects that are essential in creating exploratory behaviors: Motivation and reward The drive to learn new information or perform some action may be prompted by the anticipation of reward. So what we learn about motivation and reward may help us to understand curiosity. Reward is defined as the positive reinforcement of an action, reinforcement that encourages a particular behavior by means of the emotional sensations of relief, pleasure, and satisfaction that correlate with happiness. Many areas in the brain process reward and come together to form what is called the reward pathway. In this pathway many neurotransmitters play a role in the activation of the reward sensation, including dopamine, serotonin, and opioids. Dopamine is linked to curiosity, as it assigns and retains reward values of information gained. Research suggests and the stimulus is unfamiliar, compared to activation of dopamine when stimulus is familiar. Nucleus accumbens The nucleus accumbens is a formation of neurons that is important in reward pathway activation—such as the release of dopamine in investigating response to novel or exciting stimuli. The fast dopamine release observed during childhood and adolescence is important in development, as curiosity and exploratory behavior are the largest facilitators of learning during early years. The sensation pleasure of "liking" can occur when opioids are released by the nucleus accumbens. This helps someone evaluate the unfamiliar situation or environment and attach value to the novel object. These processes of both wanting and liking play a role in activating the reward system of the brain, and perhaps in the stimulation of curious or information-seeking tendencies as well. Caudate nucleus The caudate nucleus is a region of the brain that is highly responsive to dopamine, and is another component of the reward pathway. Research suggests that the caudate nucleus anticipates the possibility of and reward of exploratory behavior and gathered information, thus contributing to factors of curiosity. Anterior cortices Regions of the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex both conflict and arousal and, as such, seem to reinforce certain exploratory models of curiosity. Cortisol Cortisol is a chemical known for its role in stress regulation. However, cortisol may also be associated with curious or exploratory behavior. Studies suggesting a role of cortisol in curiosity support optimal arousal theory. They suggest the release of some cortisol, causing some stress, encourages curious behavior, while too much stress can initiate a "back away" response. Attention Attention is important to curiosity because it allows one to selectively focus and concentrate on particular stimuli in the surrounding environment. As there are limited cognitive and sensory resources to understand and evaluate stimuli, attention allows the brain to better focus on what it perceives to be the most important or relevant of these stimuli. Individuals tend to focus on stimuli that are particularly stimulating or engaging. The more attention a stimulus garners, the more frequent one's energy and focus will be directed towards that stimulus. This suggests an individual will focus on new or unfamiliar stimuli in an effort to better understand or make sense of the unknown, rather than on more familiar or repetitive stimuli. Striatum The striatum is a part of the brain that coordinates motivation with body movement.The striatum likely plays a role in attention and reward anticipation, both of which are important in provoking curiosity. Precuneus The precuneus is a region of the brain that is involved in attention, episodic memory, and visuospatial processing. There is a correlation between the amount of grey matter in the precuneus and levels of curious and exploratory behaviors. This suggests that precuneus density has an influence on levels of curiosity. Memory and learning Memory plays an important role in curiosity. Memory is how the brain stores and accesses stored information. If curiosity is the desire to seek out and understand unfamiliar or novel stimuli, memory helps determine if the stimulus is indeed unfamiliar. In order to determine if a stimulus is novel, an individual must remember if the stimulus has been encountered before. Curiosity may also affect memory. Stimuli that are novel tend to capture more of our attention. Additionally, novel stimuli usually have a reward value associated with them, the anticipated reward of what learning that new information may bring. With stronger associations and more attention devoted to a stimulus, it is probable that the memory formed from that stimulus will be longer lasting and easier to recall, both of which facilitate better learning. Hippocampus and the parahippocampal gyrus The hippocampus is important in memory formation and recall and therefore in determining the novelty of various stimuli. Research suggests the hippocampus is involved in generating the motivation to explore for the purpose of learning. The parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), an area of grey matter surrounding the hippocampus, has been implicated in the amplification of curiosity. Amygdala The amygdala is associated with emotional processing, particularly for the emotion of fear, as well as memory. It is important in processing emotional reactions towards novel or unexpected stimuli and the induction of exploratory behavior. This suggests a connection between curiosity levels and the amygdala. However, more research is needed on direct correlation. Early development Jean Piaget argued that babies and children constantly try to make sense of their reality and that this contributes to their intellectual development. According to Piaget, children develop hypotheses, conduct experiments, and then reassess their hypotheses depending on what they observe. Piaget was the first to closely document children's actions and interpret them as consistent, calculated efforts to test and learn about their environment. There is no universally accepted definition for curiosity in children. Most research on curiosity focused on adults and used self-report measures that are inappropriate and inapplicable for studying children. Exploratory behaviour is commonly observed in children and is associated with their curiosity development. Several studies of children's curiosity simply observe their interaction with novel and familiar toys. Evidence suggests a relationship between the anxiety children might feel and their curiosity. One study found that in 11-year-olds was so children who exhibit more anxiety in classroom settings engage in less curious behaviour. Certain aspects of classroom learning may depend on curiosity, which can be affected by students' anxiety. An aptitude for curiosity in adolescents may produce higher academic performance. One study revealed that, of 568 high school students, those who exhibited an aptitude for curiosity, in conjunction with motivation and creativity, showed a 33.1% in math scores and 15.5% in science scores when tested on a standardized academic exam. Other measures of childhood curiosity used exploratory behaviour as a basis but differed on which parts of this behaviour to focus on. Some studies examined children's preference for complexity/the unknown as a basis for their curiosity measure; others relied on novelty preference as their basis. Researchers also examined the relationship between a child's reaction to surprise and their curiosity. Children may be further motivated to learn when dealing with uncertainty. Their reactions to not having their expectations met may fuel their curiosity more than the introduction of a novel or complex object would. Curiosity as a virtue Curiosity has been of interest to philosophers. Curiosity has been recognised as an important intellectual (or "epistemic") virtue, due to the role that it plays in motivating people to acquire knowledge and understanding. It has also been considered an important moral virtue, as curiosity can help humans find meaning in their lives and to cultivate a sense of care about others and things in the world. When curiosity in young people leads to knowledge-gathering it is widely seen as a positive. Due to the importance of curiosity, people debate about whether contemporary societies effectively cultivate the right type of curiosity. Some believe that children's curiosity is discouraged throughout the process of formal education: "Children are born scientists. From the first ball they send flying to the ant they watch carry a crumb, children use science's tools—enthusiasm, hypotheses, tests, conclusions—to uncover the world's mysteries. But somehow students seem to lose what once came naturally." Impact from disease Neurodegenerative diseases and psychological disorders can affect various characteristics of curiosity. For example Alzheimer's disease's effects on memory or depression affect motivation and reward. Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that degrades memory. Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by a lack of interest in one's environment and feelings of sadness or hopelessness. A lack of curiosity for novel stimuli might be a predictor for these and other illnesses. Social curiosity Social curiosity is defined as a drive to understand one's environment as it relates to sociality with others. Such curiosity plays a role in one's ability to successfully navigate social interactions by perceiving and processing one's own behavior and the behavior of others. It also plays a role in helping one adapt to varying social situations. Morbid curiosity Morbid curiosity is focused on death, violence, or any other event that may cause harm physically or emotionally. It typically is described as having an addictive quality, associated with a need to understand or make sense of topics that surround harm, violence, or death. This can be attributed to one's need to relate unusual and often difficult circumstances to a primary emotion or experience of one's own, described as meta-emotions. One explanation evolutionary biologists offer for curiosity about death is that by learning about life-threatening situations, death can be avoided. Another suggestion some psychologists posit is that as spectators of gruesome events, humans are seeking to empathize with the victim. Alternatively, people may be trying to understand how another person can become the perpetrator of harm. According to science journalist Erika Engelhaupt, morbid curiosity is not "a desire to be sad", instead it "has the ability to set our minds ... at ease be reassuring us that even death follows the rules of the natural world." Interest in human curiosity about difficult circumstances dates back to Aristotle in his Poetics, in which he noted, "We enjoy and admire paintings of objects that in themselves would annoy or disgust us." In a 2017 paper, Suzanne Oosterwijk, a psychologist from the Netherlands, concluded that people choose to see graphic images even when presented the option to avoid them and look at them for a longer period of time than neutral or positive images. State and trait curiosity Curiosity can be a temporary state of being, or a stable trait in an individual. State curiosity is external—wondering why things happen just for the sake of curiousness, for example wondering why most stores open at 8 a.m. Trait curiosity describes people who are interested in learning, for example by trying out a new sport or food, or traveling to an unfamiliar place. One can look at curiosity as the urge that draws people out of their comfort zones and fears as the agents that keep them within those zones. Curiosity in artificial intelligence AI agents can exhibit curiosity through intrinsic motivation. This can improve the success of an AI agent at various tasks. In artificial intelligence, curiosity is typically defined quantitatively, as the uncertainty the agent has in predicting its own actions given its current state. In 2019, a study trained AI agents to play video games, but they were rewarded only for . The agents reliably learned advantageous game behaviors based solely on the curiosity reward. See also References Further reading Interest (psychology) Motivation Problem solving skills Psychological attitude Virtue	0.769234	0.994514	0.765014
Misanthropy	Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, or distrust of the human species, human behavior, or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. Misanthropy involves a negative evaluative attitude toward humanity that is based on humankind's flaws. Misanthropes hold that these flaws characterize all or at least the greater majority of human beings. They claim that there is no easy way to rectify them short of a complete transformation of the dominant way of life. Various types of misanthropy are distinguished in the academic literature based on what attitude is involved, at whom it is directed, and how it is expressed. Either emotions or theoretical judgments can serve as the foundation of the attitude. It can be directed toward all humans without exception or exclude a few idealized people. In this regard, some misanthropes condemn themselves while others consider themselves superior to everyone else. Misanthropy is sometimes associated with a destructive outlook aiming to hurt other people or an attempt to flee society. Other types of misanthropic stances include activism by trying to improve humanity, quietism in the form of resignation, and humor mocking the absurdity of the human condition. The negative misanthropic outlook is based on different types of human flaws. Moral flaws and unethical decisions are often seen as the foundational factor. They include cruelty, selfishness, injustice, greed, and indifference to the suffering of others. They may result in harm to humans and animals, such as genocides and factory farming of livestock. Other flaws include intellectual flaws, like dogmatism and cognitive biases, as well as aesthetic flaws concerning ugliness and lack of sensitivity to beauty. Many debates in the academic literature discuss whether misanthropy is a valid viewpoint and what its implications are. Proponents of misanthropy usually point to human flaws and the harm they have caused as a sufficient reason for condemning humanity. Critics have responded to this line of thought by claiming that severe flaws concern only a few extreme cases, like mentally ill perpetrators, but not humanity at large. Another objection is based on the claim that humans also have virtues besides their flaws and that a balanced evaluation might be overall positive. A further criticism rejects misanthropy because of its association with hatred, which may lead to violence, and because it may make people friendless and unhappy. Defenders of misanthropy have responded by claiming that this applies only to some forms of misanthropy but not to misanthropy in general. A related issue concerns the question of the psychological and social factors that cause people to become misanthropes. They include socio-economic inequality, living under an authoritarian regime, and undergoing personal disappointments in life. Misanthropy is relevant in various disciplines. It has been discussed and exemplified by philosophers throughout history, like Heraclitus, Diogenes, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Misanthropic outlooks form part of some religious teachings discussing the deep flaws of human beings, like the Christian doctrine of original sin. Misanthropic perspectives and characters are also found in literature and popular culture. They include William Shakespeare's portrayal of Timon of Athens, Molière's play The Misanthrope, and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Misanthropy is closely related to but not identical to philosophical pessimism. Some misanthropes promote antinatalism, the view that humans should abstain from procreation. Definition Misanthropy is traditionally defined as hatred or dislike of humankind. The word originated in the 17th century and has its roots in the Greek words μῖσος mīsos 'hatred' and ἄνθρωπος ānthropos 'man, human'. In contemporary philosophy, the term is usually understood in a wider sense as a negative evaluation of humanity as a whole based on humanity's vices and flaws. This negative evaluation can express itself in various forms, hatred being only one of them. In this sense, misanthropy has a cognitive component based on a negative assessment of humanity and is not just a blind rejection. Misanthropy is usually contrasted with philanthropy, which refers to the love of humankind and is linked to efforts to increase human well-being, for example, through good will, charitable aid, and donations. Both terms have a range of meanings and do not necessarily contradict each other. In this regard, the same person may be a misanthrope in one sense and a philanthrope in another sense. One central aspect of all forms of misanthropy is that their target is not local but ubiquitous. This means that the negative attitude is not just directed at some individual persons or groups but at humanity as a whole. In this regard, misanthropy is different from other forms of negative discriminatory attitudes directed at a particular group of people. This distinguishes it from the intolerance exemplified by misogynists, misandrists, and racists, which hold a negative attitude toward women, men, or certain races. According to literature theorist Andrew Gibson, misanthropy does not need to be universal in the sense that a person literally dislikes every human being. Instead, it depends on the person's horizon. For instance, a villager who loathes every other villager without exception is a misanthrope if their horizon is limited to only this village. Both misanthropes and their critics agree that negative features and failings are not equally distributed, i.e. that the vices and bad traits are exemplified much more strongly in some than in others. But for misanthropy, the negative assessment of humanity is not based on a few extreme and outstanding cases: it is a condemnation of humanity as a whole that is not just directed at exceptionally bad individuals but includes regular people as well. Because of this focus on the ordinary, it is sometimes held that these flaws are obvious and trivial but people may ignore them due to intellectual flaws. Some see the flaws as part of human nature as such. Others also base their view on non-essential flaws, i.e. what humanity has come to be. This includes flaws seen as symptoms of modern civilization in general. Nevertheless, both groups agree that the relevant flaws are "entrenched". This means that there is either no or no easy way to rectify them and nothing short of a complete transformation of the dominant way of life would be required if that is possible at all. Types Various types of misanthropy are distinguished in the academic literature. They are based on what attitude is involved, how it is expressed, and whether the misanthropes include themselves in their negative assessment. The differences between them often matter for assessing the arguments for and against misanthropy. An early categorization suggested by Immanuel Kant distinguishes between positive and negative misanthropes. Positive misanthropes are active enemies of humanity. They wish harm to other people and undertake attempts to hurt them in one form or another. Negative misanthropy, by contrast, is a form of peaceful anthropophobia that leads people to isolate themselves. They may wish others well despite seeing serious flaws in them and prefer to not involve themselves in the social context of humanity. Kant associates negative misanthropy with moral disappointment due to previous negative experiences with others. Another distinction focuses on whether the misanthropic condemnation of humanity is only directed at other people or at everyone including oneself. In this regard, self-inclusive misanthropes are consistent in their attitude by including themselves in their negative assessment. This type is contrasted with self-aggrandizing misanthropes, who either implicitly or explicitly exclude themselves from the general condemnation and see themselves instead as superior to everyone else. In this regard, it may be accompanied by an exaggerated sense of self-worth and self-importance. According to literature theorist Joseph Harris, the self-aggrandizing type is more common. He states that this outlook seems to undermine its own position by constituting a form of hypocrisy. A closely related categorization developed by Irving Babbitt distinguishes misanthropes based on whether they allow exceptions in their negative assessment. In this regard, misanthropes of the naked intellect regard humanity as a whole as hopeless. Tender misanthropes exclude a few idealized people from their negative evaluation. Babbitt cites Rousseau and his fondness for natural uncivilized man as an example of tender misanthropy and contrasts it with Jonathan Swift's thorough dismissal of all of humanity. A further way to categorize forms of misanthropy is in relation to the type of attitude involved toward humanity. In this regard, philosopher Toby Svoboda distinguishes the attitudes of dislike, hate, contempt, and judgment. A misanthrope based on dislike harbors a distaste in the form of negative feelings toward other people. Misanthropy focusing on hatred involves an intense form of dislike. It includes the additional component of wishing ill upon others and at times trying to realize this wish. In the case of contempt, the attitude is not based on feelings and emotions but on a more theoretical outlook. It leads misanthropes to see other people as worthless and look down on them while excluding themselves from this assessment. If the misanthropic attitude has its foundation in judgment, it is also theoretical but does not distinguish between self and others. It is the view that humanity is in general bad without implying that the misanthrope is in any way better than the rest. According to Svoboda, only misanthropy based on judgment constitutes a serious philosophical position. He holds that misanthropy focusing on contempt is biased against other people while misanthropy in the form of dislike and hate is difficult to assess since these emotional attitudes often do not respond to objective evidence. Misanthropic forms of life Misanthropy is usually not restricted to a theoretical opinion but involves an evaluative attitude that calls for a practical response. It can express itself in different forms of life. They come with different dominant emotions and practical consequences for how to lead one's life. These responses to misanthropy are sometimes presented through simplified archetypes that may be too crude to accurately capture the mental life of any single person. Instead, they aim to portray common attitudes among groups of misanthropes. The two responses most commonly linked to misanthropy involve either destruction or fleeing from society. The destructive misanthrope is said to be driven by a hatred of humankind and aims at tearing it down, with violence if necessary. For the fugitive misanthrope, fear is the dominant emotion and leads the misanthrope to seek a secluded place in order to avoid the corrupting contact with civilization and humanity as much as possible. The contemporary misanthropic literature has also identified further less-known types of misanthropic lifestyles. The activist misanthrope is driven by hope despite their negative appraisal of humanity. This hope is a form of meliorism based on the idea that it is possible and feasible for humanity to transform itself and the activist tries to realize this ideal. A weaker version of this approach is to try to improve the world incrementally to avoid some of the worst outcomes without the hope of fully solving the basic problem. Activist misanthropes differ from quietist misanthropes, who take a pessimistic approach toward what the person can do for bringing about a transformation or significant improvements. In contrast to the more drastic reactions of the other responses mentioned, they resign themselves to quiet acceptance and small-scale avoidance. A further approach is focused on humor based on mockery and ridicule at the absurdity of the human condition. An example is that humans hurt each other and risk future self-destruction for trivial concerns like a marginal increase in profit. This way, humor can act both as a mirror to portray the terrible truth of the situation and as its palliative at the same time. Forms of human flaws A core aspect of misanthropy is that its negative attitude toward humanity is based on human flaws. Various misanthropes have provided extensive lists of flaws, including cruelty, greed, selfishness, wastefulness, dogmatism, self-deception, and insensitivity to beauty. These flaws can be categorized in many ways. It is often held that moral flaws constitute the most serious case. Other flaws discussed in the contemporary literature include intellectual flaws, aesthetic flaws, and spiritual flaws. Moral flaws are usually understood as tendencies to violate moral norms or as mistaken attitudes toward what is the good. They include cruelty, indifference to the suffering of others, selfishness, moral laziness, cowardice, injustice, greed, and ingratitude. The harm done because of these flaws can be divided into three categories: harm done directly to humans, harm done directly to other animals, and harm done indirectly to both humans and other animals by harming the environment. Examples of these categories include the Holocaust, factory farming of livestock, and pollution causing climate change. In this regard, it is not just relevant that human beings cause these forms of harm but also that they are morally responsible for them. This is based on the idea that they can understand the consequences of their actions and could act differently. However, they decide not to, for example, because they ignore the long-term well-being of others in order to get short-term personal benefits. Intellectual flaws concern cognitive capacities. They can be defined as what leads to false beliefs, what obstructs knowledge, or what violates the demands of rationality. They include intellectual vices, like arrogance, wishful thinking, and dogmatism. Further examples are stupidity, gullibility, and cognitive biases, like the confirmation bias, the self-serving bias, the hindsight bias, and the anchoring bias. Intellectual flaws can work in tandem with all kinds of vices: they may deceive someone about having a vice. This prevents the affected person from addressing it and improving themselves, for instance, by being mindless and failing to recognize it. They also include forms of self-deceit, wilful ignorance, and being in denial about something. Similar considerations have prompted some traditions to see intellectual failings, like ignorance, as the root of all evil. Aesthetic flaws are usually not given the same importance as moral and intellectual flaws, but they also carry some weight for misanthropic considerations. These flaws relate to beauty and ugliness. They concern ugly aspects of human life itself, like defecation and aging. Other examples are ugliness caused by human activities, like pollution and litter, and inappropriate attitudes toward aesthetic aspects, like being insensitive to beauty. Causes Various psychological and social factors have been identified in the academic literature as possible causes of misanthropic sentiments. The individual factors by themselves may not be able to fully explain misanthropy but can show instead how it becomes more likely. For example, disappointments and disillusionments in life can cause a person to adopt a misanthropic outlook. In this regard, the more idealistic and optimistic the person initially was, the stronger this reversal and the following negative outlook tend to be. This type of psychological explanation is found as early as Plato's Phaedo. In it, Socrates considers a person who trusts and admires someone without knowing them sufficiently well. He argues that misanthropy may arise if it is discovered later that the admired person has serious flaws. In this case, the initial attitude is reversed and universalized to apply to all others, leading to general distrust and contempt toward other humans. Socrates argues that this becomes more likely if the admired person is a close friend and if it happens more than once. This form of misanthropy may be accompanied by a feeling of moral superiority in which the misanthrope considers themselves to be better than everyone else. Other types of negative personal experiences in life may have a similar effect. Andrew Gibson uses this line of thought to explain why some philosophers became misanthropes. He uses the example of Thomas Hobbes to explain how a politically unstable environment and the frequent wars can foster a misanthropic attitude. Regarding Arthur Schopenhauer, he states that being forced to flee one's home at an early age and never finding a place to call home afterward can have a similar effect. Another psychological factor concerns negative attitudes toward the human body, especially in the form of general revulsion from sexuality. Besides the psychological causes, some wider social circumstances may also play a role. Generally speaking, the more negative the circumstances are, the more likely misanthropy becomes. For instance, according to political scientist Eric M. Uslaner, socio-economic inequality in the form of unfair distribution of wealth increases the tendency to adopt a misanthropic perspective. This has to do with the fact that inequality tends to undermine trust in the government and others. Uslaner suggests that it may be possible to overcome or reduce this source of misanthropy by implementing policies that build trust and promote a more equal distribution of wealth. The political regime is another relevant factor. This specifically concerns authoritarian regimes using all means available to repress their population and stay in power. For example, it has been argued that the severe forms of repression of the Ancien Régime in the late 17th century made it more likely for people to adopt a misanthropic outlook because their freedom was denied. Democracy may have the opposite effect since it allows more personal freedom due to its more optimistic outlook on human nature. Empirical studies often use questions related to trust in other people to measure misanthropy. This concerns specifically whether the person believes that others would be fair and helpful. In an empirical study on misanthropy in American society, Tom W. Smith concludes that factors responsible for an increased misanthropic outlook are low socioeconomic status, being from racial and ethnic minorities, and having experienced recent negative events in one's life. In regard to religion, misanthropy is higher for people who do not attend church and for fundamentalists. Some factors seem to play no significant role, like gender, having undergone a divorce, and never having been married. Another study by Morris Rosenberg finds that misanthropy is linked to certain political outlooks. They include being skeptical about free speech and a tendency to support authoritarian policies. This concerns, for example, tendencies to suppress political and religious liberties. Arguments Various discussions in the academic literature concern the question of whether misanthropy is an accurate assessment of humanity and what the consequences of adopting it are. Many proponents of misanthropy focus on human flaws together with examples of when they exercise their negative influences. They argue that these flaws are so severe that misanthropy is an appropriate response. Special importance in this regard is usually given to moral faults. This is based on the idea that humans do not merely cause a great deal of suffering and destruction but are also morally responsible for them. The reason is that they are intelligent enough to understand the consequences of their actions and could potentially make balanced long-term decisions instead of focusing on personal short-term gains. Proponents of misanthropy sometimes focus on extreme individual manifestations of human flaws, like mass killings ordered by dictators. Others emphasize that the problem is not limited to a few cases, for example, that many ordinary people are complicit in their manifestation by supporting the political leaders committing them. A closely related argument is to claim that the underlying flaws are there in everyone, even if they reach their most extreme manifestation only in a few. Another approach is to focus not on the grand extreme cases but on the ordinary small-scale manifestations of human flaws in everyday life, such as lying, cheating, breaking promises, and being ungrateful. Some arguments for misanthropy focus not only on general tendencies but on actual damage caused by humans in the past. This concerns, for instance, damages done to the ecosystem, like ecological catastrophes resulting in mass extinctions. Criticism Various theorists have criticized misanthropy. Some opponents acknowledge that there are extreme individual manifestations of human flaws, like mentally ill perpetrators, but claim that these cases do not reflect humanity at large and cannot justify the misanthropic attitude. For instance, while there are cases of extreme human brutality, like the mass killings committed by dictators and their forces, listing such cases is not sufficient for condemning humanity at large. Some critics of misanthropy acknowledge that humans have various flaws but state that they present just one side of humanity while evaluative attitudes should take all sides into account. This line of thought is based on the idea that humans possess equally important virtues that make up for their shortcomings. For example, accounts that focus only on the great wars, cruelties, and tragedies in human history ignore its positive achievements in the sciences, arts, and humanities. Another explanation given by critics is that the negative assessment should not be directed at humanity but at some social forces. These forces can include capitalism, racism, religious fundamentalism, or imperialism. Supporters of this argument would adopt an opposition to one of these social forces rather than a misanthropic opposition to humanity. Some objections to misanthropy are based not on whether this attitude appropriately reflects the negative value of humanity but on the costs of accepting such a position. The costs can affect both the individual misanthrope and the society at large. This is especially relevant if misanthropy is linked to hatred, which may turn easily into violence against social institutions and other humans and may result in harm. Misanthropy may also deprive the person of most pleasures by making them miserable and friendless. Another form of criticism focuses more on the theoretical level and claims that misanthropy is an inconsistent and self-contradictory position. An example of this inconsistency is the misanthrope's tendency to denounce the social world while still being engaged in it and being unable to fully leave it behind. This criticism applies specifically to misanthropes who exclude themselves from the negative evaluation and look down on others with contempt from an arrogant position of inflated ego but it may not apply to all types of misanthropy. A closely related objection is based on the claim that misanthropy is an unnatural attitude and should therefore be seen as an aberration or a pathological case. In various disciplines History of philosophy Misanthropy has been discussed and exemplified by philosophers throughout history. One of the earliest cases was the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus. He is often characterized as a solitary person who is not fond of social interactions with others. A central factor to his negative outlook on human beings was their lack of comprehension of the true nature of reality. This concerns especially cases in which they remain in a state of ignorance despite having received a thorough explanation of the issue in question. Another early discussion is found in Plato's Phaedo, where misanthropy is characterized as the result of frustrated expectations and excessively naïve optimism. Various reflections on misanthropy are also found in the cynic school of philosophy. There it is argued, for instance, that humans keep on reproducing and multiplying the evils they are attempting to flee. An example given by the first-century philosopher Dio Chrysostom is that humans move to cities to defend themselves against outsiders but this process thwarts their initial goal by leading to even more violence due to high crime rates within the city. Diogenes is a well-known cynic misanthrope. He saw other people as hypocritical and superficial. He openly rejected all kinds of societal norms and values, often provoking others by consciously breaking conventions and behaving rudely. Thomas Hobbes is an example of misanthropy in early modern philosophy. His negative outlook on humanity is reflected in many of his works. For him, humans are egoistic and violent: they act according to their self-interest and are willing to pursue their goals at the expense of others. In their natural state, this leads to a never-ending war in which "every man to every man ... is an enemy". He saw the establishment of an authoritative state characterized by the strict enforcement of laws to maintain order as the only way to tame the violent human nature and avoid perpetual war. A further type of misanthropy is found in Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He idealizes the harmony and simplicity found in nature and contrasts them with the confusion and disorder found in humanity, especially in the form of society and institutions. For instance, he claims that "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains". This negative outlook was also reflected in his lifestyle: he lived solitary and preferred to be with plants rather than humans. Arthur Schopenhauer is often mentioned as a prime example of misanthropy. According to him, everything in the world, including humans and their activities, is an expression of one underlying will. This will is blind, which causes it to continuously engage in futile struggles. On the level of human life, this "presents itself as a continual deception" since it is driven by pointless desires. They are mostly egoistic and often result in injustice and suffering to others. Once they are satisfied, they only give rise to new pointless desires and more suffering. In this regard, Schopenhauer dismisses most things that are typically considered precious or meaningful in human life, like romantic love, individuality, and liberty. He holds that the best response to the human condition is a form of asceticism by denying the expression of the will. This is only found in rare humans and "the dull majority of men" does not live up to this ideal. Friedrich Nietzsche, who was strongly influenced by Schopenhauer, is also often cited as an example of misanthropy. He saw man as a decadent and "sick animal" that shows no progress over other animals. He even expressed a negative attitude toward apes since they are more similar to human beings than other animals, for example, with regard to cruelty. For Nietzsche, a noteworthy flaw of human beings is their tendency to create and enforce systems of moral rules that favor weak people and suppress true greatness. He held that the human being is something to be overcome and used the term Übermensch to describe an ideal individual who has transcended traditional moral and societal norms. Religion Some misanthropic views are also found in religious teachings. In Christianity, for instance, this is linked to the sinful nature of humans and the widespread manifestation of sin in everyday life. Common forms of sin are discussed in terms of the seven deadly sins. Examples are an excessive sense of self-importance in the form of pride and strong sexual cravings constituting lust. They also include the tendency to follow greed for material possessions as well as being envious of the possessions of others. According to the doctrine of original sin, this flaw is found in every human being since the doctrine states that human nature is already tainted by sin from birth by inheriting it from Adam and Eve's rebellion against God's authority. John Calvin's theology of Total depravity has been described by some theologians as misanthropic. Misanthropic perspectives can also be discerned in various Buddhist teachings. For example, Buddha had a negative outlook on the widespread flaws of human beings, including lust, hatred, delusion, sorrow, and despair. These flaws are identified with some form of craving or attachment (taṇhā) and cause suffering (dukkha). Buddhists hold that it is possible to overcome these failings in the process of achieving Buddhahood or enlightenment due to an innate Buddha nature. However, this is seen as a rare achievement in one lifetime in some of the Indian traditions whereas within East Asian Mahayana Chan, Zen and Pureland practice's it is achievable to become suddenly enlightened in one life time , In contrast to Indian Buddhist's doctrine regard that most human beings carry these deep flaws with them throughout their lives and to the next through the law of karma. However, there are also many religious teachings opposed to misanthropy, such as the emphasis on kindness and helping others. In Christianity, this is found in the concept of agape, which involves selfless and unconditional love in the form of compassion and a willingness to help others. Buddhists see the practice of loving kindness (metta) as a central aspect that implies a positive intention of compassion and the expression of kindness toward all sentient beings. Literature and popular culture Many examples of misanthropy are also found in literature and popular culture. Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare is a famous portrayal of the life of the Ancient Greek Timon, who is widely known for his extreme misanthropic attitude. Shakespeare depicts him as a wealthy and generous gentleman. However, he becomes disillusioned with his ungrateful friends and humanity at large. This way, his initial philanthropy turns into an unrestrained hatred of humanity, which prompts him to leave society in order to live in a forest. Molière's play The Misanthrope is another famous example. Its protagonist, Alceste, has a low opinion of the people around him. He tends to focus on their flaws and openly criticizes them for their superficiality, insincerity, and hypocrisy. He rejects most social conventions and thereby often offends others, for example, by refusing to engage in social niceties like polite small talk. The author Jonathan Swift had a reputation for being misanthropic. In some statements, he openly declares that he hates and detests "that animal called man". Misanthropy is also found in many of his works. An example is Gulliver's Travels, which tells the adventures of the protagonist Gulliver, who journeys to various places, like an island inhabited by tiny people and a land ruled by intelligent horses. Through these experiences of the contrast between humans and other species, he comes to see more and more the deep flaws of humanity, leading him to develop a revulsion toward other human beings. Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is an often-cited example of misanthropy. He is described as a cold-hearted, solitary miser who detests Christmas. He is greedy, selfish, and has no regard for the well-being of others. Other writers associated with misanthropy include Gustave Flaubert and Philip Larkin. The Joker from the DC Universe is an example of misanthropy in popular culture. He is one of the main antagonists of Batman and acts as an agent of chaos. He believes that people are selfish, cruel, irrational, and hypocritical. He is usually portrayed as a sociopath with a twisted sense of humor who uses violent means to expose and bring down organized society. Related concepts Philosophical pessimism Misanthropy is closely related but not identical to philosophical pessimism. Philosophical pessimism is the view that life is not worth living or that the world is a bad place, for example, because it is meaningless and full of suffering. This view is exemplified by Arthur Schopenhauer and Philipp Mainländer. Philosophical pessimism is often accompanied by misanthropy if the proponent holds that humanity is also bad and partially responsible for the negative value of the world. However, the two views do not require each other and can be held separately. A non-misanthropic pessimist may hold, for instance, that humans are just victims of a terrible world but not to blame for it. Eco-misanthropists, by contrast, may claim that the world and its nature are valuable but that humanity exerts a negative and destructive influence. Antinatalism and human extinction Antinatalism is the view that coming into existence is bad and that humans have a duty to abstain from procreation. A central argument for antinatalism is called the misanthropic argument. It sees the deep flaws of humans and their tendency to cause harm as a reason for avoiding the creation of more humans. These harms include wars, genocides, factory farming, and damages done to the environment. This argument contrasts with philanthropic arguments, which focus on the future suffering of the human about to come into existence. They argue that the only way to avoid their future suffering is to prevent them from being born. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement and the Church of Euthanasia are well-known examples of social movements in favor of antinatalism and human extinction. Antinatalism is commonly endorsed by misanthropic thinkers but there are also many other ways that could lead to the extinction of the human species. This field is still relatively speculative but various suggestions have been made about threats to the long-term survival of the human species, like nuclear wars, self-replicating nanorobots, or super-pathogens. Such cases are usually seen as terrible scenarios and dangerous threats but misanthropes may instead interpret them as reasons for hope because the abhorrent age of humanity in history may soon come to an end. A similar sentiment is expressed by Bertrand Russell. He states in relation to the existence of human life on earth and its misdeeds that they are "a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return." Human exceptionalism and deep ecology Human exceptionalism is the claim that human beings have unique importance and are exceptional compared to all other species. It is often based on the claim that they stand out because of their special capacities, like intelligence, rationality, and autonomy. In religious contexts, it is frequently explained in relation to a unique role that God foresaw for them or that they were created in God's image. Human exceptionalism is usually combined with the claim that human well-being matters more than the well-being of other species. This line of thought can be used to draw various ethical conclusions. One is the claim that humans have the right to rule the planet and impose their will on other species. Another is that inflicting harm on other species may be morally acceptable if it is done with the purpose of promoting human well-being and excellence. Generally speaking, the position of human exceptionalism is at odds with misanthropy in relation to the value of humanity. But this is not necessarily the case and it may be possible to hold both positions at the same time. One way to do this is to claim that humanity is exceptional because of a few rare individuals but that the average person is bad. Another approach is to hold that human beings are exceptional in a negative sense: given their destructive and harmful history, they are much worse than any other species. Theorists in the field of deep ecology are also often critical of human exceptionalism and tend to favor a misanthropic perspective. Deep ecology is a philosophical and social movement that stresses the inherent value of nature and advocates a radical change in human behavior toward nature. Various theorists have criticized deep ecology based on the claim that it is misanthropic by privileging other species over humans. For example, the deep ecology movement Earth First! faced severe criticism when they praised the AIDS epidemic in Africa as a solution to the problem of human overpopulation in their newsletter. See also Asociality – lack of motivation to engage in social interaction Antihumanism – rejection of humanism Antisocial personality disorder Cosmicism Emotional isolation Hatred (video game) Nihilism Social alienation References Citations Sources External links Anti-social behaviour Concepts in social philosophy Human behavior Philosophical pessimism Philosophy of life Psychological attitude Social emotions	0.765126	0.99978	0.764958
Digital pedagogy	Digital pedagogy is the study and use of contemporary digital technologies in teaching and learning. Digital pedagogy may be applied to online, hybrid, and face-to-face learning environments. Digital pedagogy also has roots in the theory of constructivism. History Digital pedagogy has its origins in distance learning, which took the form of correspondence courses delivered by mail during the early twentieth century. In 1858 the University of London offered the first distance learning degree, known as the External Programme. Charles Dickens referred to the institution as the "peoples' university” as it allowed broader access to higher education. In the United States, educational TV programs and radio broadcasts were created by academic institutions such as the University of Louisville, with the cooperation of NBC. Telecourses saw a resurgence in the early 1970s with the spread of community colleges. These distance courses paved the way for online education, which came to prevalence during the popularization of the Internet, beginning at the end of the twentieth century In the 1980s and 1990s, the Association for Computers and the Humanities offered workshops and conferences on teaching computers and the humanities, just as digital humanities centres were becoming widespread. In 1965, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) was created. This organization was far ahead of its time. It even launched the Office of Digital Humanities. There is now an annual conference entitled the International Conference on Digital Pedagogies which takes place in a different country each year. The University of Waterloo, the University of Guelph, Brock University, Ryerson University and the University of Toronto have recently come together to develop a joint conference. Definition A definition and circumscription of the digital pedagogy domain starts from a good knowledge of pedagogy. This is because digital pedagogy is and will remain a projection of pedagogy in the digital space. Also, the definition of digital pedagogy requires a good knowledge of the technological possibilities translated into concrete educational situations – the experience of the last years shows that only certain aspects of the use of digital technologies in education have authentic value and can add new pedagogical meanings. A working definition for digital pedagogy is given by JISC: “We define digital pedagogy as the study of how digital technologies can be used to best effect in teaching and learning” (JISC, 2020/ 2021), a completion of an older short definition: “In simple terms, a digital pedagogy is the study of how to teach using digital technologies” (Howell, 2013). Various definitions in the specialized literature are centred (exclusively) on the practical aspect of teaching and/or learning, sometimes in relation to certain pedagogical currents or in contrast to certain aspects of “traditional” education. In analysing the praxeological and epistemological area covered by the term digital pedagogy, one can notice that it is rather a pedagogy of digitalization of education or a pedagogy for the digital age than a digital pedagogy.Digital pedagogy is the part of pedagogy that studies the design, implementation and evaluation of educational situations comprising a significant component of digital technologies, as well as the necessary conditions for their implementation – synchronous and asynchronous interactions in virtual and mixed learning environments, learning management platforms and tools, digital educational resources, educational usage of various digital applications and tools, virtual assistants for learning and teaching, digital competences of teachers, educational policies and specific programs.In essence, digital pedagogy deals with education – principles and legalities, characteristics, limits – and the specificity of the field is given by the distinctive note that the digital component adds to learning, teaching methods, assessment of learning, learning content, learning conditions, as well as the extent to which it contributes to their efficiency. In situations where a teaching, learning and/or assessment experience supported by digital technologies cannot be transposed into the “analogue environment” without altering its essence (the learning objectives and/or the didactic strategy), then we can speak of innovation exclusive to the field of study of digital pedagogy. Values and Methods Digital pedagogy values: open education, including open educational resources; sharing syllabi; sharing teaching resources through tools such as GitHub and Creative Commons; self-directed interest-based student project; publishing using open access and open peer review. The book Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities lists and defines words associated with digital pedagogy. Digital Pedagogy is not only about using digital technologies for teaching and learning but rather approaching digital tools from a critical pedagogical perspective. So, it is as much about using digital tools thoughtfully as it is about deciding when not to use digital tools, and about paying attention to the impact of digital tools on learning. Immersive technology can be used in the classroom as a form of digital pedagogy. It provides students with the ability to engage in 3D modelling and collaborative world building. Examples of 3D modelling include Matthew Nicholls' Virtual Rome and SketchUp Pro which allows users to create 3D models of historical structures. Digital media enables experiments in collaborative learning that would not otherwise be possible, such as Looking for Whitman, which was a collaborative collection of courses among four different institutions in different geographic areas. Practical Application Digital pedagogy looks critically at digital tools as potential means for learning and teaching. It considers digital content and space as valuable sites for information and knowledge, in addition to traditional mediums such as books or the classroom. These multimodal forms of learning allow the user to have more freedom in terms of creating meaning making activities. Digital pedagogy itself is also sensitive to the ongoing discussions and debates happening within the sphere of digital humanities, namely to its practices, principles and politics. The experimental nature of digital pedagogy enables critical reflection on its successes and contradictions in its educative possibilities. As such, it becomes a key foray into the ongoing discussion of educational technology. For example, engagement in the philosophies of digital pedagogy has renewed discussion on the politics and ethics of technology and its implication of learning as a whole. Acknowledging the changing nature of new media practices and interaction, digital pedagogy centres the student by designing various student-led, collaborative and project-based activities to allow students to control the pace and space of learning. It is within the digital geography where new collaborative, interactive, and participatory possibilities are introduced. Platforms, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), now supplement the physically-located classrooms. New literacy studies is also linked to the study of digital pedagogy. Each countries' political thoughts regarding digital pedagogies vary across the globe. Globalization has also made an impact on teaching and learning. Critical Digital Pedagogy Based on theories stemming from Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theory, Liberation Theory and other philosophical approaches that address how understanding power structures is essential to the dismantling of oppression, Critical Digital Pedagogy follows the ethics of acknowledging no information, knowledge, learning or teaching is ever neutral of political meaning. Reflective dialogue is a key component of a critical consciousness-raising, a liberatory praxis attributed to Paulo Freire, in learning so that the learning process itself is a praxis of liberation. Critical Digital Pedagogy integrates a second-order, meta-level analysis as part of teaching and learning about or through the use of web-based tools, digital platforms and other forms of technology. As a method or resistance against oppression, Critical Digital Pedagogy seeks to engage individuals in collaborative practices, is inclusive of voices across social-political identities, and situates itself outside boundaries of traditional education, which is considered to be based on a banking model of teaching. Response/Criticism Schools/programs that have incorporated digital pedagogy K-12 Education Digital pedagogy for K-12 education follows models such as hybrid or blended learning and online-only classes. The implementation of online-only courses in K-12 education has become more popular as budget cuts make offering higher-level courses such as AP classes less feasible, or if there is not enough student interest to warrant offering the subject. Fully online courses involve a digital teacher who has many digital students with no in-class or face-to-face time. These courses can be facilitated either within a school or made accessible to home-school or abroad students. Many virtual school options receive at least partial funding from state education initiatives and are monitored by state educational committees. Florida Virtual School is funded through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP), and is free to Florida residents. FLVS is governed by a board of trustees appointed by the governor, and its performance is monitored by the Commissioner of Education and reported to the State Board of Education and Legislature. There is much debate over the efficacy of virtual school options. The consensus on blended education, where students receive face-to-face instruction from teachers and the online portions are only conducted in partial time, is largely positive. Blended learning is credited with allowing students to take some agency with the pace of learning, something that would not otherwise be available to them in a traditional classroom. It allows students to make meaningful decisions about their learning and sets a basis for lifelong self-motivation and learning. The use of new technologies in classrooms also allows students to keep pace with innovations in learning technologies, to expand the pedagogical toolset available to them, such as message-boards and videos, and to have instantaneous feedback and evaluation. However, in fully online courses, the benefits of online learning are less clear. As reported in one study about online mathematics for grade 8 students, while more advanced students may excel in online courses, the students who need the most help may suffer disproportionately to their peers, when compared to traditional face-to-face courses. It would appear that online-only courses exacerbate difficulties for students with difficulties, while allowing more advanced students the agency desired to excel in individual learning. Digital technology platforms (DTP) are now being implemented in numerous classrooms in order to facilitate digital learning Higher Education Digital pedagogy is also used at the undergraduate level in varying ways, including the use of digital tools for assignments, hybrid or fully online courses, and open/collaborative online learning. Digital Mapping One increasingly common tool in the undergraduate classroom is digital mapping. In digital mapping, students use visual maps made with software like ESRI and ArcGIS to aid their work. Courses are typically interactive, project focused, and designed to for students with varied levels of skills. Cartographic fundamentals are taught to students through a scaffolded curriculum that combines both theory and technical skills. Courses also familiarize students with the practical applications of new technologies such as GPS and kml scripting. Online Courses Digital pedagogy allows for flexibility in undergraduate study. Students with long commutes can access, read, and respond to course materials on digital devices such as phones while in transit. Comparisons of student outcomes between online courses and face-to-face courses suggest that there is a negligible difference between the two formats. Some evidence suggests that this difference, independent of other academic and demographic variables, is as small as 0.07 grade points on a 4-point scale. However, data also indicate that students with higher GPA tend to do better in online courses, while those with lower GPAs perform worse While most universities in the 21st century use online learning management systems to help teachers communicate with their students, receive assignments, and post grades, some schools are adopting "open pedagogy" platforms that enable students and teachers to work collaboratively on course content and display their work to the public if they wish. Two examples of open pedagogy platforms are the City University of New York's CUNY Commons and the Open Lab, a similar platform used by the New York City College of Technology. Whereas in a traditional learning management system, the teacher retains all control over the content of the course and student work is only visible to the student and the teacher, the CUNY Commons and the Open Lab enable students to post to the course sites themselves, read each other's work, and visit other classes’ course sites to learn and benefit from course materials without enrolling in the class. The City University of New York The Graduate Center of the City University of New York has made a commitment to featuring digital initiatives across its educational programs and public programming. Recent initiatives include the MA Program in Digital Humanities, the MA program in Data Analysis and Visualization and the Certificate Program in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. The CUNY Center for Digital Scholarship and Data Visualization is forthcoming in the spring of 2020. Graduate Programs in Digital Humanities & Pedagogy According to research published in the Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy, , the number of graduate programs in digital pedagogy and related fields has steadily increased since 2008, especially in Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States. See also Digital humanities Virtual Academies Blended Learning Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Distance Education Online classes E-learning List of virtual schools History of virtual learning environments Information and communication technologies in education References Further reading Brett Hirsch, ed. Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics. Open Book Publishers, 2012. The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Hybrid Pedagogy Debates in the Digital Humanities External links Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: Concepts, Models, and Experiments (Peer-Reviewed Open Access) MA Program in Digital Humanities, Graduate Center, CUNY New Media Lab, Graduate Center, CUNY GC Digital Initiatives, Graduate Center, CUNY Digital Humanities Program - Michigan State University Github list of Digital Humanities programs worldwide The Open Syllabus Project ProfHacker blog at The Chronicle of Higher Education Learning methods Pedagogical disciplines	0.793649	0.963846	0.764956
Humanism	Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has changed according to successive intellectual movements that have identified with it. During the Italian Renaissance, ancient works inspired Italian scholars, giving rise to the Renaissance humanism movement. During the Age of Enlightenment, humanistic values were reinforced by advances in science and technology, giving confidence to humans in their exploration of the world. By the early 20th century, organizations dedicated to humanism flourished in Europe and the United States, and have since expanded worldwide. In the early 21st century, the term generally denotes a focus on human well-being and advocates for human freedom, autonomy, and progress. It views humanity as responsible for the promotion and development of individuals, espouses the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings, and emphasizes a concern for humans in relation to the world. Starting in the 20th century, humanist movements are typically non-religious and aligned with secularism. Most frequently, humanism refers to a non-theistic view centered on human agency, and a reliance on science and reason rather than revelation from a supernatural source to understand the world. Humanists tend to advocate for human rights, free speech, progressive policies, and democracy. People with a humanist worldview maintain religion is not a precondition of morality, and object to excessive religious entanglement with education and the state. Contemporary humanist organizations work under the umbrella of Humanists International. Well-known humanist associations are Humanists UK and the American Humanist Association. Etymology The word "humanism" derives from the Latin word , which was first used in ancient Rome by Cicero and other thinkers to describe values related to liberal education. This etymology survives in the modern university concept of the humanities—the arts, philosophy, history, literature, and related disciplines. The word reappeared during the Italian Renaissance as umanista and entered the English language in the 16th century. The word "humanist" was used to describe a group of students of classical literature and those advocating for a classical education. In 1755, in Samuel Johnson's influential A Dictionary of the English Language, the word humanist is defined as a philologer or grammarian, derived from the French word . In a later edition of the dictionary, the meaning "a term used in the schools of Scotland" was added. In the 1780s, Thomas Howes was one of Joseph Priestley's many opponents during the celebrated Unitarian disputes. Because of the different doctrinal meanings of Unitarian and Unitarianism, Howes used "the more precise appellations of humanists and humanism" when referring to those like Priestley "who maintain the mere humanity of Christ". This theological origin of humanism is considered obsolete. In the early 19th century, the term humanismus was used in Germany with several meanings and from there, it re-entered the English language with two distinct denotations; an academic term linked to the study of classic literature and a more-common use that signified a non-religious approach to life contrary to theism. It is probable Bavarian theologian Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer coined the term humanismus to describe the new classical curriculum he planned to offer in German secondary schools. Soon, other scholars such as Georg Voigt and Jacob Burckhardt adopted the term. In the 20th century, the word was further refined, acquiring its contemporary meaning of a naturalistic approach to life, and a focus on the well-being and freedom of humans. Definition There is no single, widely accepted definition of humanism, and scholars have given different meanings to the term. For philosopher Sidney Hook, writing in 1974, humanists are opposed to the imposition of one culture in some civilizations, do not belong to a church or established religion, do not support dictatorships, and do not justify the use of violence for social reforms. Hook also said humanists support the elimination of hunger and improvements to health, housing, and education. In the same edited collection, Humanist philosopher H. J. Blackham argued humanism is a concept focusing on improving humanity's social conditions by increasing the autonomy and dignity of all humans. In 1999, Jeaneane D. Fowler said the definition of humanism should include a rejection of divinity, and an emphasis on human well-being and freedom. She also noted there is a lack of shared belief system or doctrine but, in general, humanists aim for happiness and self-fulfillment. In 2015, prominent humanist Andrew Copson defined humanism as follows: Humanism is naturalistic in its understanding of the universe; science and free inquiry will help us comprehend more about the universe. This scientific approach does not reduce humans to anything less than human beings. Humanists place importance of the pursuit of a self-defined, meaningful, and happy life. Humanism is moral; morality is a way for humans to improve their lives. Humanists engage in practical action to improve personal and social conditions. According to the International Humanist and Ethical Union: Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality. Dictionaries define humanism as a worldview or philosophical stance. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, humanism is " ... a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially: a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason". History Predecessors Traces of humanism can be found in ancient Greek philosophy. Pre-Socratic philosophers were the first Western philosophers to attempt to explain the world in terms of human reason and natural law without relying on myth, tradition, or religion. Protagoras, who lived in Athens , put forward some fundamental humanist ideas, although only fragments of his work survive. He made one of the first agnostic statements; according to one fragment: "About the gods I am able to know neither that they exist nor that they do not exist nor of what kind they are in form: for many things prevent me for knowing this, its obscurity and the brevity of man's life". Socrates spoke of the need to "know thyself"; his thought changed the focus of then-contemporary philosophy from nature to humans and their well-being. He was a theist executed for atheism, who investigated the nature of morality by reasoning. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) taught rationalism and a system of ethics based on human nature that also parallels humanist thought. In the third century BCE, Epicurus developed an influential, human-centered philosophy that focused on achieving eudaimonia. Epicureans continued Democritus' atomist theory—a materialistic theory that suggests the fundamental unit of the universe is an indivisible atom. Human happiness, living well, friendship, and the avoidance of excesses were the key ingredients of Epicurean philosophy that flourished in and beyond the post-Hellenic world. It is a repeated view among scholars that the humanistic features of ancient Greek thought are the roots of humanism 2,000 years later. Other predecessor movements that sometimes use the same or equivalent vocabulary to modern Western humanism can be found in Chinese philosophy and religions such as Taoism and Confucianism. Arabic translations of Ancient Greek literature during the Abbasid Caliphate in the eighth and ninth centuries influenced Islamic philosophers. Many medieval Muslim thinkers pursued humanistic, rational, and scientific discourse in their search for knowledge, meaning, and values. A wide range of Islamic writings on love, poetry, history, and philosophical theology show medieval Islamic thought was open to humanistic ideas of individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, liberalism, and free speech; schools were established at Baghdad, Basra and Isfahan. Renaissance The intellectual movement later known as Renaissance humanism first appeared in Italy and has greatly influenced both contemporaneous and modern Western culture. Renaissance humanism emerged in Italy and a renewed interest in literature and the arts occurred in 13th-century Italy. Italian scholars discovered Ancient Greek thought, particularly that of Aristotle, through Arabic translations from Africa and Spain. Other centers were Verona, Naples, and Avignon. Petrarch, who is often referred to as the father of humanism, is a significant figure. Petrarch was raised in Avignon; he was inclined toward education at a very early age and studied alongside his well-educated father. Petrarch's enthusiasm for ancient texts led him to discover manuscripts such as Cicero's Pro Archia and Pomponius Mela's De Chorographia that were influential in the development of the Renaissance. Petrarch wrote Latin poems such as Canzoniere and De viris illustribus, in which he described humanist ideas. His most-significant contribution was a list of books outlining the four major disciplines—rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry, and grammar—that became the basis of humanistic studies (studia humanitatis). Petrarch's list relied heavily on ancient writers, especially Cicero. The revival of classicist authors continued after Petrarch's death. Florence chancellor and humanist Coluccio Salutati made his city a prominent center of Renaissance humanism; his circle included other notable humanists—including Leonardo Bruni, who rediscovered, translated, and popularized ancient texts. Humanists heavily influenced education. Vittorino da Feltre and Guarino Veronese created schools based on humanistic principles; their curriculum was widely adopted and by the 16th century, humanistic paideia was the dominant outlook of pre-university education. Parallel with advances in education, Renaissance humanists made progress in fields such as philosophy, mathematics, and religion. In philosophy, Angelo Poliziano, Nicholas of Cusa, and Marsilio Ficino further contributed to the understanding of ancient classical philosophers and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola undermined the dominance of Aristotelian philosophy by revitalizing Sextus Empiricus' skepticism. Religious studies were affected by the growth of Renaissance humanism when Pope Nicholas V initiated the translation of Hebrew and Greek biblical texts, and other texts in those languages, to contemporaneous Latin. Humanist values spread from Italy in the 15th century. Students and scholars went to Italy to study before returning to their homelands carrying humanistic messages. Printing houses dedicated to ancient texts were established in Venice, Basel, and Paris. By the end of the 15th century, the center of humanism had shifted from Italy to northern Europe, with Erasmus of Rotterdam being the leading humanist scholar. The longest-lasting effect of Renaissance humanism was its education curriculum and methods. Humanists insisted on the importance of classical literature in providing intellectual discipline, moral standards, and a civilized taste for the elite—an educational approach that reached the contemporary era. Enlightenment During the Age of Enlightenment, humanistic ideas resurfaced, this time further from religion and classical literature. Science and intellectualism advanced, and humanists argued that rationality could replace deism as the means with which to understand the world. Humanistic values, such as tolerance and opposition to slavery, started to take shape. New philosophical, social, and political ideas appeared. Some thinkers rejected theism outright; and atheism, deism, and hostility to organized religion were formed. During the Enlightenment, Baruch Spinoza redefined God as signifying the totality of nature; Spinoza was accused of atheism but remained silent on the matter. Naturalism was also advanced by prominent Encyclopédistes. Baron d'Holbach wrote the polemic System of Nature, claiming that religion was built on fear and had helped tyrants throughout history. Diderot and Helvetius combined their materialism with sharp, political critique. Also during the Enlightenment, the abstract conception of humanity started forming—a critical juncture for the construction of humanist philosophy. Previous appeals to "men" now shifted toward "man"; to illustrate this point, scholar Tony Davies points to political documents like The Social Contract (1762) of Rousseau, in which he says "Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains". Likewise, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man uses the singular form of the word, revealing a universal conception of "man". In parallel, Baconian empiricism—though not humanism per se—led to Thomas Hobbes's materialism. Scholar J. Brent Crosson argues that, while there is a widely-held belief that the birth of humanism was solely a European affair, intellectual thought from Africa and Asia significantly contributed as well. He also notes that during enlightenment, the universal man did not encompass all humans but was shaped by gender and race. According to Crosson, the shift from man to human started during enlightenment and is still ongoing. Crosson also argues that enlightenment, especially in Britain, produced not only a notion of universal man, but also gave birth to pseudoscientific ideas, such as those about differences between races, that shaped European history. From Darwin to current era French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) introduced the idea—which is sometimes attributed to Thomas Paine—of a "religion of humanity". According to scholar Tony Davies, this was intended to be an atheist cult based on some humanistic tenets, and had some prominent members but soon declined. It was nonetheless influential during the 19th century, and its humanism and rejection of supernaturalism are echoed in the works of later authors such as Oscar Wilde, George Holyoake—who coined the word secularism—George Eliot, Émile Zola, and E. S. Beesly. Paine's The Age of Reason, along with the 19th-century Biblical criticism of the German Hegelians David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach, also contributed to new forms of humanism. Advances in science and philosophy provided scholars with further alternatives to religious belief. Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection offered naturalists an explanation for the plurality of species. Darwin's theory also suggested humans are simply a natural species, contradicting the traditional theological view of humans as more than animals. Philosophers Ludwig Feuerbach, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Karl Marx attacked religion on several grounds, and theologians David Strauss and Julius Wellhausen questioned the Bible. In parallel, utilitarianism was developed in Britain through the works of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism, a moral philosophy, centers its attention on human happiness, aiming to eliminate human and animal pain via natural means. In Europe and the US, as philosophical critiques of theistic beliefs grew, large parts of society distanced themselves from religion. Ethical societies were formed, leading to the contemporary humanist movement. The rise of rationalism and the scientific method was followed in the late 19th century in Britain by the start of many rationalist and ethical associations, such as the National Secular Society, the Ethical Union, and the Rationalist Press Association. In the 20th century, humanism was further promoted by the work of philosophers such as A. J. Ayer, Antony Flew, and Bertrand Russell, whose advocacy of atheism in Why I Am Not a Christian further popularized humanist ideas. In 1963, the British Humanist Association evolved out of the Ethical Union, and merged with many smaller ethical and rationalist groups. Elsewhere in Europe, humanist organizations also flourished. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Humanist Alliance gained a wide base of support after World War II; in Norway, the Norwegian Humanist Association gained popular support. In the US, humanism evolved with the aid of significant figures of the Unitarian Church. Humanist magazines began to appear, including The New Humanist, which published the Humanist Manifesto I in 1933. The American Ethical Union emerged from newly founded, small, ethicist societies. The American Humanist Association (AHA) was established in 1941 and became as popular as some of its European counterparts. The AHA spread to all states, and some prominent public figures such as Isaac Asimov, John Dewey, Erich Fromm, Paul Kurtz, Carl Sagan, and Gene Roddenberry became members. Humanist organizations from all continents formed the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), which is now known as Humanists International, and promotes the humanist agenda via the United Nations organizations UNESCO and UNICEF. Varieties of humanism Early 20th century naturalists, who viewed their humanism as a religion and participated in church-like congregations, used the term "religious humanism". Religious humanism appeared mostly in the US and is now rarely practiced. The American Humanist Association arose from religious humanism. The same term has been used by religious groups such as the Quakers to describe their humanistic theology. The term "Renaissance humanism" was given to a tradition of cultural and educational reform engaged in by civic and ecclesiastical chancellors, book collectors, educators, and writers that developed during the 14th and early 15th centuries. By the late 15th century, these academics began to be referred to as umanisti (humanists). While modern humanism's roots can be traced to the Renaissance, Renaissance humanism vastly differs from it. Other terms using "humanism" in their name include: Christian humanism: a historical current in the late Middle Ages in which Christian scholars combined Christian faith with interest in classical antiquity and a focus on human well-being. Ethical humanism: a synonym of Ethical culture, was prominent in the US in the early 20th century and focused on relations between humans. Scientific humanism: this emphasizes belief in the scientific method as a component of humanism as described in the works of John Dewey and Julian Huxley; scientific humanism is largely synonymous with secular humanism. Secular humanism: coined in the mid-20th century, it was initially an attempt to denigrate humanism, but some humanist associations embraced the term. Secular humanism is synonymous with the contemporary humanist movement. Marxist humanism: one of several rival schools of Marxist thought that accepts basic humanistic tenets such as secularism and naturalism, but differs from other strands of humanism because of its vague stance on democracy and rejection of free will. Digital humanism: an emerging philosophical and ethical framework that seeks to preserve and promote human values, dignity, and well-being in the context of rapid technological advancements, particularly in the digital realm. These varieties of humanism are now largely of historical interest only. Some ethical movements continue (eg New York Society for Ethical Culture) but in general humanism no longer needs any qualification "because the lifestance is by definition naturalistic, scientific, and secular". However, according to Andrew Copson the view that there are still two types of humanism – religious and secular – "has begun to seriously muddy the conceptual water". Philosophy Humanism is strongly linked to rationality. For humanists, humans are reasonable beings, and reasoning and the scientific method are means of finding truth. Humanists argue science and rationality have driven successful developments in various fields while the invocation of supernatural phenomena fails to coherently explain the world. One form of irrational thinking is adducing. Humanists are skeptical of explanations of natural phenomena or diseases that rely on hidden agencies. Human autonomy is another hallmark of humanist philosophy. For people to be autonomous, their beliefs and actions must be the result of their own reasoning. For humanists, autonomy dignifies each individual; without autonomy, people's humanity is lessened. Humanists also consider human essence to be universal, irrespective of race and social status, diminishing the importance of collective identities and signifying the importance of individuals. Immanuel Kant provided the modern philosophical basis of the humanist narrative. His theory of critical philosophy formed the basis of the world of knowledge, defending rationalism and grounding it in the empirical world. He also supported the idea of the moral autonomy of the individual, which is fundamental to his philosophy. According to Kant, morality is the product of the way humans live and not a set of fixed values. Instead of a universal ethic code, Kant suggested a universal procedure that shapes the ethics that differ among groups of people. Philosopher and humanist advocate Corliss Lamont, in his book The Philosophy of Humanism (1997), states: In the Humanist ethics the chief end of thought and action is to further this-earthly human interests on behalf of the greater glory of people. The watchword of Humanism is happiness for all humanity in this existence as contrasted with salvation for the individual soul in a future existence and the glorification of a supernatural Supreme Being ... It heartily welcomes all life-enhancing and healthy pleasures, from the vigorous enjoyments of youth to the contemplative delights of mellowed age, from the simple gratifications of food and drink, sunshine and sports, to the more complex appreciation of art and literature, friendship and social communion. Themes Morality The humanist attitude toward morality has changed since its beginning. Starting in the 18th century, humanists were oriented toward an objective and universalist stance on ethics. Both Utilitarian philosophy—which aims to increase human happiness and decrease suffering—and Kantian ethics, which states one should act in accordance with maxims one could will to become a universal law, shaped the humanist moral narrative until the early 20th century. Because the concepts of free will and reason are not based on scientific naturalism, their influence on humanists remained in the early 20th century but was reduced by social progressiveness and egalitarianism. As part of social changes in the late 20th century, humanist ethics evolved to support secularism, civil rights, personal autonomy, religious toleration, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. A naturalistic criticism of humanistic morality is the denial of the existence of morality. For naturalistic skeptics, morality was not hardwired within humans during their evolution; humans are primarily selfish and self-centered. Defending humanist morality, humanist philosopher John R. Shook makes three observations that lead him to the acceptance of morality. According to Shook, homo sapiens has a concept of morality that must have been with the species since the beginning of human history, developing by recognizing and thinking upon behaviors. He adds morality is universal among human cultures and all cultures strive to improve their moral level. Shook concludes that while morality was initially generated by our genes, culture shaped human morals and continues to do so. He calls "moral naturalism" the view that morality is a natural phenomenon, can be scientifically studied, and is a tool rather than a set of doctrines that was used to develop human culture. Humanist philosopher Brian Ellis advocates a social humanist theory of morality called "social contractual utilitarianism", which is based on Hume's naturalism and empathy, Aristotelian virtue theory, and Kant's idealism. According to Ellis, morality should aim for eudaimonia, an Aristotelian concept that combines a satisfying life with virtue and happiness by improving societies worldwide. Humanist Andrew Copson takes a consequentialist and utilitarian approach to morality; according to Copson, all humanist ethical traits aim at human welfare. Philosopher Stephen Law emphasizes some principles of humanist ethics; respect for personal moral autonomy, rejection of god-given moral commands, an aim for human well-being, and "emphasiz[ing] the role of reason in making moral judgements". Humanism's godless approach to morality has driven criticism from religious commentators. The necessity for a divine being delivering sets of doctrines for morals to exist is a common argument; according to Dostoevsky's character Ivan Karamázov in The Brothers Karamazov, "if God does not exist, then everything is permitted". This argument suggests chaos will ensue if religious belief disappears. For humanists, theism is an obstacle to morality rather than a prerequisite for it. According to humanists, acting only out of fear, adherence to dogma, and expectation of a reward is a selfish motivation rather than morality. Humanists point to the subjectivity of the supposedly objective divine commands by referring to the Euthyphro dilemma, originally posed by Socrates: "does God command something because it is good or is something good because God commands it?" If goodness is independent from God, humans can reach goodness without religion but relativism is elicited if God creates goodness. Another argument against this religious criticism is the human-made nature of morality, even through religious means. The interpretation of holy scriptures almost always includes human reasoning; different interpreters reach contradictory theories. Religion Humanism has widely been seen as antithetical to religion. Philosopher of religion David Kline, traces the roots of this animosity since the Renaissance, when humanistic views deconstructed the previous religiously defined order. Kline describes several ways this antithesis has evolved. Kline notes the emergence of a confident human-made knowledge, which was a new way of epistemology, repelled the church from its authoritative position. Kline uses the paradigm of non-humanists Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo to illustrate how scientific discoveries added to the deconstruction of the religious narrative in favor of human-generated knowledge. This ultimately uncoupled the fate of humans from the divine will, prompting social and political shifts. The relation of state and citizens changed as civic humanistic principles emerged; people were no longer to be servile to religiously grounded monarchies but could pursue their own destinies. Kline also points at the aspects of personal belief that added to the hostility between humanism and religion. Humanism was linked with prominent thinkers who advocated against the existence of God using rationalistic arguments. Critique of theism continued through the humanistic revolutions in Europe, challenging religious worldviews, attitudes and superstitions on a rational basis—a tendency that continued to the 20th century. According to Stephen Law, humanist adherence to secularism placed humans at odds with religion, especially nationally dominant religions striving to retain privileges gained in the last centuries. Worth notes religious persons can be secularists. Law notes secularism is criticized for suppressing freedom of expression of religious persons but firmly denies such accusation; instead, he says, secularism protects this kind of freedom but opposes the privileged status of religious views. According to Andrew Copson, humanism is not incompatible with some aspects of religion. He observes that components like belief, practice, identity, and culture can coexist, allowing an individual who subscribes to only a few religious doctrines to also identify as a humanist. Copson adds that religious critics usually frame humanism as an enemy of religion but most humanists are proponents of religious tolerance or exhibit a curiosity about religion's effects in society and politics, commenting: "Only a few are regularly outraged by other people's false beliefs per se". The meaning of life In the 19th century, along with the decline of religion and its accompanied teleology, the question of the meaning of life became more prominent. Unlike religions, humanism does not have a definite view on the meaning of life. Humanists commonly say people create rather than discover meaning. While philosophers such as Nietzsche and Sartre wrote on the meaning of life in a godless world, the work of Albert Camus has echoed and shaped humanism. In Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, he quotes a Greek myth in which the absurd hero Sisyphus is destined to push a heavy rock up a hill; the rock slips back and he must repeat the task. Sisyphus is negating Gods and preset meanings of life, but argues that life has value and significance, and that each individual is able to create their meanings of life. Camus thus highlights the importance of personal agency and self-determination that lie at the centre of humanism. Personal humanist interpretations of the meaning of life vary from the pursuit of happiness without recklessness and excesses to participation in human history, and connection with loved ones, living animals, and plants. Some answers are close to those of religious discourse if the appeal to divinity is overlooked. According to humanist professor Peter Derks, elements that contribute to the meaning of life are a morally worthy purpose in life, positive self-evaluation, an understanding of one's environment, being seen and understood by others, the ability to emotionally connect with others, and a desire to have a meaning in life. Humanist professor Anthony B. Pinn places the meaning of life in the quest of what he calls "complex subjectivity". Pinn, who is advocating for a non-theistic, humanistic religion inspired by African cultures, says seeking the never-reaching meaning of life contributes to well-being, and that rituals and ceremonies, which are occasions for reflection, provide an opportunity to assess the meaning of life, improving well-being. In public life In politics The hallmark of contemporary humanism in politics is the demand for secularism. Philosopher Alan Haworth said secularism delivers fair treatment to all citizens of a nation-state since all are treated without discrimination; religion is a private issue and the state should have no power over it. He also argues that secularism helps plurality and diversity, which are fundamental aspects of our modern world. While barbarism and violence can be found in most civilizations, Haworth notes religion usually fuels rhetoric and enables these actions. He also said the values of hard work, honesty, and charity are found in other civilizations. According to Haworth, humanism opposes the irrationality of nationalism and totalitarianism, whether these are part of fascism or Marxist–Leninist communism. According to professor Joseph O. Baker, in political theory, contemporary humanism is formed by two main tendencies; the first is individualistic and the second inclines to collectivism. The trajectory of each tendency can lead to libertarianism and socialism respectively, but a range of combinations exists. Individualistic humanists often have a philosophical perspective of humanism; in politics, these are inclined to libertarianism and in ethics tend to follow a scientistic approach. Collectivists have a more-applied view of humanism, lean toward socialism, and have a humanitarian approach to ethics. The second group has connections with the thought of young Marx, especially his anthropological views rejecting his political practices. A factor that repels many humanists from the libertarian view is the neoliberal or capitalistic consequences they feel it entails. Humanism has been a part of both major 20th-century ideological currents—liberalism and Marxism. Early 19th-century socialism was connected to humanism. In the 20th century, a humanistic interpretation of Marxism focused on Marx's early writings, viewing Marxism not as "scientific socialism" but as a philosophical critique aimed at the overcoming of "alienation". In the US, liberalism is associated mostly with humanistic principles, which is distinct from the European use of the same word, which has economical connotations. In the post-1945 era, Jean-Paul Sartre and other French existentialists advocated for humanism, linking it to socialism while trying to stay neutral during the Cold War. In psychology and counseling Humanist counseling is humanism-inspired applied psychology, which is a major current of counseling. There are various approaches such as discussion and critical thinking, replying to existential anxiety, and focusing on social and political dimensions of problems. Humanist counseling focuses on respecting the client's worldview and placing it in the correct cultural context. The approach emphasizes an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualization and creativity. It also recognizes the importance of moral questions about one's interactions with people according to one's worldview. This is examined using a process of dialogue. Humanist counseling originated in post-World War II Netherlands. Humanistic counseling is based on the works of psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It introduced a positive, humanistic psychology in response to what Rogers and Maslow viewed as the over-pessimistic view of psychoanalysis in the early 1960s. Other sources include the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology. Some modern counseling organizations have humanist origins, like the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, which was founded by Harold Blackham, which he developed alongside the British Humanist Association's Humanist Counselling Service. Modern-day humanist pastoral care in the UK and the Netherlands draws on elements of humanistic psychology. Demographics Demographic data about humanists is sparse. Scholar Yasmin Trejo examined the results of Pew Research Center's 2014 Religious Landscape Study. Trejo did not use self-identification to measure humanists but combined the answers of two questions: "Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?" (she chose those who answered 'no') and "when it comes to questions of right or wrong, which of the following do you look to most for guidance?" (picking answers 'scientific information' and 'philosophy and reason'). According to Trejo, most humanists identify as atheist or agnostic (37% and 18%), 29% as "nothing in particular", while 16% of humanists identify as religious. She also found most humanists (80%) were raised in a religious background. Sixty percent of humanists are married to non-religious spouses, while one quarter are married to a Christian. There is a gender divide among humanists: 67 percent are male. Trejo says this can be explained by the fact that more males self-identify as atheist, while women have stronger connections to religion because of socialization, community influence, and stereotypes; some women, especially Catholic Latinas, are expected to be religious and many of them abide by their community expectations. Other findings note the high level of education of most humanists, indicating a higher socioeconomic status. The population of humanists is overwhelming non-Hispanic white; according to Trejo, this is because minority groups are usually very religious. Criticisms Western and Christian Criticism of humanism focus on its adherence to human rights, which some critics have called "Western". Critics say humanist values have become a tool of Western moral dominance, which is a form of neo-colonialism that leads to oppression and a lack of ethical diversity. Other critics, namely feminists, black activists, postcolonial critics, and gay and lesbian advocates, say humanism is an oppressive philosophy because it is not free from the biases of the white, heterosexual males who shaped it. History professor Samuel Moyn attacks humanism for its connection to human rights. According to Moyn, the concept of human rights in the 1960s was a declaration of anti-colonial struggle, but that idea was later transformed into an impossible utopian vision, replacing the failing utopias of the 20th century. The humanist use of human rights rhetoric thus turns human rights into a moral tool that is impractical and ultimately non-political. He also notes a commonality between humanism and the Catholic discourse on human dignity. Anthropology professor Talal Asad argues humanism is a project of modernity and a secularized continuation of Western Christian theology. According to Asad, just as the Catholic Church passed the Christian doctrine of love to Africa and Asia while assisting in the enslavement of large parts of their population, humanist values have at times been a pretext for Western countries to expand their influence to other parts of the world to humanize "barbarians". Asad has also said humanism is not a purely secular phenomenon but takes the idea of the essence of humanity from Christianity. According to Asad, Western humanism cannot incorporate other humanistic traditions, such as those from India and China, without subsuming and ultimately eliminating them. Sociology professor Didier Fassin has stated that humanism's focus on empathy and compassion, rather than goodness and justice, is a problem. According to Fassin, humanism originated in the Christian tradition, particularly the Parable of the Good Samaritan, in which empathy is universalized. Fassin has also argued that humanism's central essence, the sanctity of human life, is a religious victory hidden in a secular wrapper. Amoral and materialistic The main criticism from evangelical Christians, such as Tim LaHaye, is that humanism destroys traditional family and moral values. According to Corliss Lamont, this criticism is a malicious campaign by religious fanatics, the so-called Moral Majority, who need a demonic scapegoat to rally its followers. Other religious opponents scorn humanism by stating it is materialistic thereby diminishing humanity because it denies the spiritual nature and needs of man. Also, because the goal in life is the acquisition of material goods, humanism produces greed and selfishness. In response to this criticism Norman states that there is absolutely no reason why humanists should be committed to the view that the only things worth living for are 'material goods'. Such an accusation, he says, is based on a "sloppy" understanding of materialism. However, he does acknowledge a "tension" in humanism that because of its championing of scientific knowledge, it appears to be committed to a materialistic conception of human beings as physical systems and therefore as not much different from anything else in the universe. Vague and indefinable Humanism has frequently been criticised for its vagueness and the difficulty of defining the term. According to Paul Kurtz, “Humanism is so charged with levels of emotion and rhetoric that its meaning is often vague and ambiguous”. For Giustiniani, “the meaning of ‘humanism’ has so many shades that to analyze all of them is hardly feasible”. Nicolas Walter points out that most of the people in the past who have called themselves or been called humanists would reject many of today's tenets. The origins of humanism, he writes, “are so contradictory and confusing that it is often meaningless on its own”. Andrew Copson notes that the suggestion that there are two types of humanism – religious and secular – “has begun to seriously muddy the conceptual water”. According to Tony Davies, “the meaning of ‘humanism’ is the semantic tangle, or grapple, that makes its meaning so difficult to grasp”. For Sarah Bakewell, humanism “is a semantic cloud of meanings and implications, none attachable to any particular theorist or practitioner”. Yet, the difficulty of defining humanism is not necessarily a problem. Davies avoids offering a definition, choosing instead “to stress the plurality, complexity and fluidity of meanings”. Jeaneane Fowler argues that humanism is indefinable precisely because of its “particular dynamism” and the acknowledged vagueness of the term “far from being a disadvantage, is an asset”. Antihumanism Antihumanism is a philosophical theory that rejects humanism as a pre-scientific ideology. This argument developed during the 19th and 20th centuries in parallel with the advancement of humanism. Prominent thinkers questioned the metaphysics of humanism and the human nature of its concept of freedom. Nietzsche, while departing from a humanistic, pro-Enlightenment viewpoint, criticized humanism for illusions on a number of topics, especially the nature of truth. According to Nietzsche, objective truth is an anthropomorphic illusion and humanism is meaningless, and replacing theism with reason and science simply replaces one religion with another. According to Karl Marx, humanism is a bourgeois project that inaccurately attempts to present itself as radical. After the atrocities of World War II, questions about human nature and the concept of humanity were renewed. During the Cold War, influential Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser introduced the term "theoretical antihumanism" to attack both humanism and humanist-like socialist currents, eschewing more structural and formal interpretations of Marx. According to Althusser, Marx's early writings resonate with the humanistic idealism of Hegel, Kant, and Feuerbach, but Marx radically moved toward scientific socialism in 1845, rejecting concepts such as the essence of man. Humanist organizations Humanist organizations exist in several countries. Humanists International is a global organization. The three countries with the highest numbers of Humanist International member organisations are the UK, India, and the US. The largest humanist organisation is the Norwegian Humanist Association. Humanists UK – formerly the British Humanist Association – and the American Humanist Association are two of the oldest humanist organizations. In 2015, London-based Humanists UK had around 28,000 members. Its membership includes some high-profile people such as Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Salman Rushdie, Polly Toynbee, and Stephen Fry, who are known for their participation in public debate, promoting secularism, and objecting to state funding for faith-based institutions. Humanists UK organizes and conducts non-religious ceremonies for weddings, namings, comings of age, and funerals. The American Humanist Association (AHA) was formed in 1941 from previous humanist associations. Its journal The Humanist is the continuation of a previous publication The Humanist Bulletin. In 1953, the AHA established the "Humanist of the Year" award to honor individuals who promote science. By the 1970s, it became a well-recognized organization, initiating campaigns for abortion rights and opposing discriminatory policies. This resulted in the organization becoming a target of the religious right by the 1980s. See also Notes References Sources Further reading External links American Humanist Association International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists UK	0.765327	0.999418	0.764882
Social determinism	Social determinism is the theory that social interactions alone determine individual behavior (as opposed to biological or objective factors). A social determinist would only consider social dynamics like customs, cultural expectations, education, and interpersonal interactions as the contributing factors to shape human behavior. Non-social influences, like biology, would be ignored in their contribution towards behavior. Thus, in line with the nature-nurture debate, social determinism is analogous to the 'nurture' side of the argument. Overview Social determinism was studied by the French philosopher Emile Durkheim (1858–1917), who was considered the father of social science. Social determinism is most commonly understood in opposition to biological determinism. However, within the media studies discipline, social determinism is understood as the counterpart of technological determinism. Technological determinism is the notion that technological change and development are inevitable and that the characteristics of any given technology determine how it is used by the society in which it is developed. The concept of technological determinism is dependent on the premise that social changes come about as a result of the new capabilities that new technologies enable. Technological determinism Social determinism perceives technology as a result of the society in which it is developed. A number of contemporary media theorists have provided persuasive accounts of social determinism, including Lelia Green (2001). In her book Technoculture, Green examines in detail the workings of a social determinist perspective, and argues “social processes determine technology for social purposes.” She claims that every technological development throughout history was born of a social need, be this need economical, political or military. According to Green (2001), technology is always developed with a particular purpose or objective in mind. As the development of technology is necessarily facilitated by financial funding, a social determinist perspective recognizes that technology is always developed to benefit those who are capable of funding its development. Thus, social determinists perceive that technological development is not only determined by the society in which it occurs, but that it is inevitably shaped by the power structures that exist in that society. Background Social determinism branches off the overarching concept of determinism, which is the notion that pre-existing causes determine all events, circumstances, or behaviors. Determinism proposes that all behavior has either an external or internal cause. Theories and concepts Listed below are some theories and concepts that relate to the perspective of social determinism. As psychology is a constantly developing field, this is not a definitive list but includes significant studies and ideas. Behaviorism Social determinism aligns with the concept of behaviorism, which is the study of observable human behavior. Behaviorists believe that an individual's behavior can be explained by the response to the environment around them. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning provide an example of socially deterministic factors on behavior. These processes of conditioning provide evidence to suggest that behavior is learned and associated with consequences from the environment. Conditioning has been argued to be deterministic, as there is a lack of free will in the response of learning. Social determinism aligns with the theory of behaviorism and conditioning, due to the social influences and environmental factors that determine a person's behavior. Obedience The concept of compliance and following orders relates to social determinism, as it follows the idea that individuals follow orders based on environmental and social variables. This relates to the concept of social influence determining behavior, as demonstrated from the Milgram Experiment conducted in 1963. This study looked at environmental stimuli and social pressure on the responses of participants, namely whether they would inflict harm on another person. The results from this study showed that participants were more or less likely to follow orders based on the perceived authority and prestige of the experimenter. Milgram's study was replicated in the 21st century, with similar findings developed, suggesting the conclusions withstand the test of time. These studies into destructive obedience are prime example of how individuals are predetermined by their social environment, causing them to behave in certain ways which they may not have under different circumstances. Sociocultural theory of cognitive development The sociocultural theory emphasises how social contexts and interactions can determine children's behavior. Lev Vygotsky developed this theory prior to his death in 1934; his manuscripts and essays were translated and published posthumously, allowing the theory to be developed. Vygotsky explores how inputs from an individual's society, culture and interactions contribute to development, demonstrating the socially deterministic aspects in advancing mental abilities. His essays are compiled in his book, Mind in Society, which focuses on the effect of cultural and parental interaction on child development. Examples of the theory in practice can be seen cross-culturally, looking at the life-cycle of human development, with changes in development dependent on their context. Children of war, poverty and famine are likely to have lower cognitive abilities and mental illnesses like PTSD and anxiety. This can be owed to the trauma from their environments and distress from exposure to stressful social contexts. This reinforces the concept that their mental health, behavioural responses and abilities are determined by the societal interactions and environment. Social learning theory The social learning theory provides a model which accounts for the range of learning experiences that occur during child development and interaction. This theory was proposed by Albert Bandura in 1977. The theory is behavioral and cognitive in nature, suggesting that learning is a cognitive process that occurs based on the social context, with reinforcement and modelling playing a key role. Bandura provided evidence to suggest that a child's development and behavior is determined by the social interactions they have in their lives. Bandura illustrated this concept through observational learning, demonstrated in his 1961 Bobo doll experiment. This experiment looked at imitation, namely looking at whether children copied the behaviour of an adult. In this contex, it was aggressive physical and verbal behaviour. Through the experiment and further research, Bandura outlined the contribution of modelling and social behavior in determining children's behavior, providing evidence for the concept of social determinism. Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural studies demonstrate how cultural variation can significantly impact an individual's inherent beliefs and behavior. Considering the results of cross-cultural psychological studies, the social context has a significant impact on a person's behavior and responses. This is notable when considering socialization and attitudes towards mental health and crises. This section looks at a limited number of human behavioral responses and interactions, and how the context plays a key part in the individuality of response. Helping behaviour Levine et al.’s 2001 study was conducted in 23 large, global cities. The study looked at the likelihood of individuals from different cultures on helping in non-emergency situations. The results indicated that altruistic behaviour varied depending on the society that an individual was a part of. This variation was owed to the factors such as the normality of amiable social behavior (simpatia), economic productivity, socialization and cultural traditions. Levine's study supports the concept of social determinism, as it suggests that helping behavior is primarily influenced by socialization and cultural determinants. Well-being Across different cultures, the population have varied opinions on the 'ideal' level of subjective well-being. Evidence has shown that it is important to consider individual perspectives when rating happiness and well-being. Attempts to identify a universal indicator for subjective well-being has been unsuccessful, due to the significant variation in cultural contexts. Social interactions and context play heavily into individual desires to express certain emotions; for example, studies have shown that East Asians tend to have lower levels of well-being, and emotions that are considered 'positive' and desired differ. For example, European Americans enjoy feeling high-energy emotions, like excitement, whilst individuals from Hong Kong prefer calmer states. Similarly, the nature of a society being individualist or collectivist can play a part in ideals of well-being. Studies have suggested that individuals within collectivist societies have lower life satisfaction due to stringent cultural norms and amplified societal pressure. Well-being is a good example of social determination. It demonstrates that an individual's perspectives on what constitutes as being satisfied and well is dependent on socialization and cultural context. Conflict resolution Cultural and social practices play a critical role in the way individuals handle conflict. It appears that societal aspects, like collectivism, can explain differences in approaches to dealing with conflicts. A quasi-experimental study found that Mexicans use negotiating techniques far more than their US counterparts when dealing with conflict, a finding owed to the collectivist nature of society and social cues. Ideology The creation of an ideology within the society of the individual can cause an individual's actions and reactions to stimuli to become predetermined to adhere to the social rules imposed on them. Ideologies can be created using social institutions such as schooling, which "have become the terrain upon which contending forces express their social and political interest," or the mass media, which has "significant power in shaping the social agenda and framing of public opinion to support that agenda." Social determinism can favor a political party's agenda by setting social rules so that the individual considers the party's agenda to be morally correct, an example being the 2010 G20 summit riots in Toronto. An individual's view on the subject was influenced by the media and their reactions are predetermined by that social form of control. "We have been taught to think that censorship is the main mechanism of how the media uses information as a form of social control, but in fact what is said, and how it is selectively presented, is a far more powerful form of information control." Arguments against social determinism Biology The arguments that are against social determinism largely fall under biological determinism, which aligns closely with the 'nature' side of the nature vs nurture debate. Social pre-wiring hypothesis Scientific studies have shown that social behavior is partly inherited and can influence infants and also even influence foetuses. "Wired to be social" means that infants are not taught that they are social beings, but they are born with inherited social skills. Social pre-wiring refers to the ontogeny of social interaction, which is informally referred to as, "wired to be social." This concept deals with the study of fetal social behavior and social interactions in a multi-fetal environment. Specifically, the theory questions whether there is a propensity to socially oriented action already present before birth. Research in the theory concludes that newborns are born into the world with a unique genetic wiring to be social. Circumstantial evidence supporting the social pre-wiring hypothesis can be revealed when examining newborns' behavior. Newborns, not even hours after birth, have been found to display a preparedness for social interaction. This preparedness is expressed in ways such as their imitation of facial gestures. This observed behavior cannot be contributed to any current form of socialization. Rather, newborns most likely inherit to some extent social behavior and identity through genetics. Principal evidence of this theory is uncovered by examining twin pregnancies. The main argument is, if there are social behaviors that are inherited and developed before birth, then one should expect twin foetuses to engage in some form of social interaction before they are born. Thus, ten foetuses were analyzed over a period of time using ultrasound techniques. Using kinematic analysis, the results of the experiment were that the twin foetuses would interact with each other for longer periods and more often as the pregnancies went on. Researchers were able to conclude that the performance of movements between the co-twins were not accidental but specifically aimed. The social pre-wiring hypothesis was proved correct, "The central advance of this study is the demonstration that 'social actions' are already performed in the second trimester of gestation. Starting from the 14th week of gestation twin foetuses plan and execute movements specifically aimed at the co-twin. These findings force us to predate the emergence of social behavior: when the context enables it, as in the case of twin foetuses, other-directed actions are not only possible but predominant over self-directed actions." This suggests that there are inherent, biological factors which are responsible for factors like social behaviour, which disputes the argument of social determinism. Traumatic brain injuries Findings from head-injury studies suggest that some aspects of behavior can change after a traumatic brain injury. Significant brain damage is associated with poorer decision making, reduced regulation ability and changes in personality. The 1848 case of Phineas Gage is the first recorded case study into the localisation of brain function, providing evidence to show that personality and behaviour is determined by brain structure. After a large rod was driven through his head, destroying most of his left frontal lobe, his personality shifted to become significantly more hostile and aggressive. Accounts from his doctor, family and friends claimed after the accident his personality and behaviors changed so radically that he was "no longer Gage". Researchers have argued this provides evidence for the nature side of the debate on behaviour, as evidence has shown that it was the physical trauma that caused the shift in Gage's social interactions and perspectives. This is reinforced by research into brain tumors and contemporary studies into brain injuries. The location of a tumor can have a significant impact on personality and cognitive abilities, suggesting that behavior and socialization is not solely owed to social aspects. Neuroscientific evidence into brain localisation and function suggests that once the integrity of the brain is disturbed, there are far-reaching consequences with changes in personality, emotions and behaviour usually experienced. See also References Sources Determinism Social theories	0.78268	0.977243	0.764869
Nursing process	The nursing process is a modified scientific method which is a fundamental part of nursing practices in many countries around the world. Nursing practise was first described as a four-stage nursing process by Ida Jean Orlando in 1958. It should not be confused with nursing theories or health informatics. The diagnosis phase was added later. The nursing process uses clinical judgement to strike a balance of epistemology between personal interpretation and research evidence in which critical thinking may play a part to categorize the clients issue and course of action. Nursing offers diverse patterns of knowing. Nursing knowledge has embraced pluralism since the 1970s. Some authors refer to a mind map or abductive reasoning as a potential alternative strategy for organizing care. Intuition plays a part for experienced nurses. Phases The nursing process is goal-oriented method of caring that provides a framework to nursing care. It involves seven major steps: A Assess (what data is collected?) D Diagnose (what is the problem?) O Outcome Identification - (Was originally a part of the Planning phase, but has recently been added as a new step in the complete process). P Plan (how to manage the problem) I Implement (putting plan into action) R Rationale (Scientific reason of the implementations) E Evaluate (did the plan work?) According to some theorists, this seven-steps description of the nursing process is outdated and misrepresents nursing as linear and atomic. Assessing phase The nurse completes a holistic nursing assessment of the needs of the individual/family/community, regardless of the reason for the encounter. The nurse collects subjective data and objective data using a nursing framework, such as Marjory Gordon's functional health patterns. Models for data collection Nursing assessments provide the starting point for determining nursing diagnoses. It is vital that a recognized nursing assessment framework is used in practice to identify the patient's* problems, risks and outcomes for enhancing health. The use of an evidence-based nursing framework such as Gordon's Functional Health Pattern Assessment should guide assessments that support nurses in determination of NANDA-I nursing diagnoses. For accurate determination of nursing diagnoses, a useful, evidence-based assessment framework is best practice. Methods Client Interview Physical Examination Obtaining a health history (including dietary data) Family history/report Diagnosing phase Nursing diagnoses represent the nurse's clinical judgment about actual or potential health problems/life process occurring with the individual, family, group or community. The accuracy of the nursing diagnosis is validated when a nurse is able to clearly identify and link to the defining characteristics, related factors and/or risk factors found within the patients assessment. Multiple nursing diagnoses may be made for one client. Planning phase In agreement with the client, the nurse addresses each of the problems identified in the diagnosing phase. When there are multiple nursing diagnoses to be addressed, the nurse prioritizes which diagnoses will receive the most attention first according to their severity and potential for causing more serious harm. The most common terminology for standardized nursing diagnosis is that of the evidence-based terminology developed and refined by NANDA International, the oldest and one of the most researched of all standardized nursing languages. For each problem a measurable goal/outcome is set. For each goal/outcome, the nurse selects nursing interventions that will help achieve the goal/outcome, which are aimed at the related factors (etiologies) not merely at symptoms (defining characteristics). A common method of formulating the expected outcomes is to use the evidence-based Nursing Outcomes Classification to allow for the use of standardized language which improves consistency of terminology, definition and outcome measures. The interventions used in the Nursing Interventions Classification again allow for the use of standardized language which improves consistency of terminology, definition and ability to identify nursing activities, which can also be linked to nursing workload and staffing indices. The result of this phase is a nursing care plan. Implementing phase The nurse implements the nursing care plan, performing the determined interventions that were selected to help meet the goals/outcomes that were established. Delegated tasks and the monitoring of them is included here as well. Activities pre-assessment of the client-done before just carrying out implementation to determine if it is relevant determine need for assistance implementation of nursing orders delegating and supervising-determines who to carry out what action Evaluating phase The nurse evaluates the progress toward the goals/outcomes identified in the previous phases. If progress towards the goal is slow, or if regression has occurred, the nurse must change the plan of care accordingly. Conversely, if the goal has been achieved then the care can cease. New problems may be identified at this stage, and thus the process will start all over again. Characteristics The nursing process is a cyclical and ongoing process that can end at any stage if the problem is solved. The nursing process exists for every problem that the individual/family/community has. The nursing process not only focuses on ways to improve physical needs, but also on social and emotional needs as well. The entire process is recorded or documented in order to inform all members of the health care team. Variations and documentation The PIE method is a system for documenting actions, especially in the field of nursing. The name comes from the acronym PIE, meaning Problem, Intervention, Evaluation. See also Clinical Care Classification System Decision cycle Nursing Nursing theory Nursing diagnosis NANDA OODA loop References Nursing Critical thinking Scientific method	0.775753	0.985949	0.764853
Environmental resource management	Environmental resource management or environmental management is the management of the interaction and impact of human societies on the environment. It is not, as the phrase might suggest, the management of the environment itself. Environmental resources management aims to ensure that ecosystem services are protected and maintained for future human generations, and also maintain ecosystem integrity through considering ethical, economic, and scientific (ecological) variables. Environmental resource management tries to identify factors between meeting needs and protecting resources. It is thus linked to environmental protection, resource management, sustainability, integrated landscape management, natural resource management, fisheries management, forest management, wildlife management, environmental management systems, and others. Significance Environmental resource management is an issue of increasing concern, as reflected in its prevalence in several texts influencing global sociopolitical frameworks such as the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future, which highlighted the integrated nature of the environment and international development, and the Worldwatch Institute's annual State of the World reports. The environment determines the nature of people, animals, plants, and places around the Earth, affecting behaviour, religion, culture and economic practices. Scope Environmental resource management can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. It involves the management of all components of the biophysical environment, both living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic), and the relationships among all living species and their habitats. The environment also involves the relationships of the human environment, such as the social, cultural, and economic environment, with the biophysical environment. The essential aspects of environmental resource management are ethical, economical, social, and technological. These underlie principles and help make decisions. The concept of environmental determinism, probabilism, and possibilism are significant in the concept of environmental resource management. Environmental resource management covers many areas in science, including geography, biology, social sciences, political sciences, public policy, ecology, physics, chemistry, sociology, psychology, and physiology. Environmental resource management as a practice and discourse (across these areas) is also the object of study in the social sciences. Aspects Ethical Environmental resource management strategies are intrinsically driven by conceptions of human-nature relationships. Ethical aspects involve the cultural and social issues relating to the environment, and dealing with changes to it. "All human activities take place in the context of certain types of relationships between society and the bio-physical world (the rest of nature)," and so, there is a great significance in understanding the ethical values of different groups around the world. Broadly speaking, two schools of thought exist in environmental ethics: Anthropocentrism and Ecocentrism, each influencing a broad spectrum of environmental resource management styles along a continuum. These styles perceive "...different evidence, imperatives, and problems, and prescribe different solutions, strategies, technologies, roles for economic sectors, culture, governments, and ethics, etc." Anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism, "an inclination to evaluate reality exclusively in terms of human values," is an ethic reflected in the major interpretations of Western religions and the dominant economic paradigms of the industrialised world. Anthropocentrism looks at nature as existing solely for the benefit of humans, and as a commodity to use for the good of humanity and to improve human quality of life. Anthropocentric environmental resource management is therefore not the conservation of the environment solely for the environment's sake, but rather the conservation of the environment, and ecosystem structure, for humans' sake. Ecocentrism Ecocentrists believe in the intrinsic value of nature while maintaining that human beings must use and even exploit nature to survive and live. It is this fine ethical line that ecocentrists navigate between fair use and abuse. At an extreme of the ethical scale, ecocentrism includes philosophies such as ecofeminism and deep ecology, which evolved as a reaction to dominant anthropocentric paradigms. "In its current form, it is an attempt to synthesize many old and some new philosophical attitudes about the relationship between nature and human activity, with particular emphasis on ethical, social, and spiritual aspects that have been downplayed in the dominant economic worldview." Economics Main article: Economics The economy functions within and is dependent upon goods and services provided by natural ecosystems. The role of the environment is recognized in both classical economics and neoclassical economics theories, yet the environment was a lower priority in economic policies from 1950 to 1980 due to emphasis from policy makers on economic growth. With the prevalence of environmental problems, many economists embraced the notion that, "If environmental sustainability must coexist for economic sustainability, then the overall system must [permit] identification of an equilibrium between the environment and the economy." As such, economic policy makers began to incorporate the functions of the natural environment – or natural capital – particularly as a sink for wastes and for the provision of raw materials and amenities. Debate continues among economists as to how to account for natural capital, specifically whether resources can be replaced through knowledge and technology, or whether the environment is a closed system that cannot be replenished and is finite. Economic models influence environmental resource management, in that management policies reflect beliefs about natural capital scarcity. For someone who believes natural capital is infinite and easily substituted, environmental management is irrelevant to the economy. For example, economic paradigms based on neoclassical models of closed economic systems are primarily concerned with resource scarcity and thus prescribe legalizing the environment as an economic externality for an environmental resource management strategy. This approach has often been termed 'Command-and-control'. Colby has identified trends in the development of economic paradigms, among them, a shift towards more ecological economics since the 1990s. Ecology There are many definitions of the field of science commonly called ecology. A typical one is "the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms." "The pairing of significant uncertainty about the behaviour and response of ecological systems with urgent calls for near-term action constitutes a difficult reality, and a common lament" for many environmental resource managers. Scientific analysis of the environment deals with several dimensions of ecological uncertainty. These include: structural uncertainty resulting from the misidentification, or lack of information pertaining to the relationships between ecological variables; parameter uncertainty referring to "uncertainty associated with parameter values that are not known precisely but can be assessed and reported in terms of the likelihood…of experiencing a defined range of outcomes"; and stochastic uncertainty stemming from chance or unrelated factors. Adaptive management is considered a useful framework for dealing with situations of high levels of uncertainty though it is not without its detractors. A common scientific concept and impetus behind environmental resource management is carrying capacity. Simply put, carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of organisms a particular resource can sustain. The concept of carrying capacity, whilst understood by many cultures over history, has its roots in Malthusian theory. An example is visible in the EU Water Framework Directive. However, "it is argued that Western scientific knowledge ... is often insufficient to deal with the full complexity of the interplay of variables in environmental resource management. These concerns have been recently addressed by a shift in environmental resource management approaches to incorporate different knowledge systems including traditional knowledge, reflected in approaches such as adaptive co-management community-based natural resource management and transitions management among others. Sustainability Sustainability in environmental resource management involves managing economic, social, and ecological systems both within and outside an organizational entity so it can sustain itself and the system it exists in. In context, sustainability implies that rather than competing for endless growth on a finite planet, development improves quality of life without necessarily consuming more resources. Sustainably managing environmental resources requires organizational change that instills sustainability values that portrays these values outwardly from all levels and reinforces them to surrounding stakeholders. The result should be a symbiotic relationship between the sustaining organization, community, and environment. Many drivers compel environmental resource management to take sustainability issues into account. Today's economic paradigms do not protect the natural environment, yet they deepen human dependency on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Ecologically, massive environmental degradation and climate change threaten the stability of ecological systems that humanity depends on. Socially, an increasing gap between rich and poor and the global North–South divide denies many access to basic human needs, rights, and education, leading to further environmental destruction. The planet's unstable condition is caused by many anthropogenic sources. As an exceptionally powerful contributing factor to social and environmental change, the modern organisation has the potential to apply environmental resource management with sustainability principles to achieve highly effective outcomes. To achieve sustainable development with environmental resource management an organisation should work within sustainability principles, including social and environmental accountability, long-term planning; a strong, shared vision; a holistic focus; devolved and consensus decision making; broad stakeholder engagement and justice; transparency measures; trust; and flexibility. Current paradigm shifts To adjust to today's environment of quick social and ecological changes, some organizations have begun to experiment with new tools and concepts. Those that are more traditional and stick to hierarchical decision making have difficulty dealing with the demand for lateral decision making that supports effective participation. Whether it be a matter of ethics or just strategic advantage organizations are internalizing sustainability principles. Some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations are shifting to sustainable environmental resource management: Ford, Toyota, BMW, Honda, Shell, Du Port, Sta toil, Swiss Re, Hewlett-Packard, and Unilever, among others. An extensive study by the Boston Consulting Group reaching 1,560 business leaders from diverse regions, job positions, expertise in sustainability, industries, and sizes of organizations, revealed the many benefits of sustainable practice as well as its viability. Although the sustainability of environmental resource management has improved, corporate sustainability, for one, has yet to reach the majority of global companies operating in the markets. The three major barriers to preventing organizations from shifting towards sustainable practice with environmental resource management are not understanding what sustainability is; having difficulty modeling an economically viable case for the switch; and having a flawed execution plan, or a lack thereof. Therefore, the most important part of shifting an organization to adopt sustainability in environmental resource management would be to create a shared vision and understanding of what sustainability is for that particular organization and to clarify the business case. Stakeholders Public sector The public sector comprises the general government sector plus all public corporations including the central bank. In environmental resource management the public sector is responsible for administering natural resource management and implementing environmental protection legislation. The traditional role of the public sector in environmental resource management is to provide professional judgement through skilled technicians on behalf of the public. With the increase of intractable environmental problems, the public sector has been led to examine alternative paradigms for managing environmental resources. This has resulted in the public sector working collaboratively with other sectors (including other governments, private and civil) to encourage sustainable natural resource management behaviours. Private sector The private sector comprises private corporations and non-profit institutions serving households. The private sector's traditional role in environmental resource management is that of the recovery of natural resources. Such private sector recovery groups include mining (minerals and petroleum), forestry and fishery organisations. Environmental resource management undertaken by the private sectors varies dependent upon the resource type, that being renewable or non-renewable and private and common resources (also see Tragedy of the Commons). Environmental managers from the private sector also need skills to manage collaboration within a dynamic social and political environment. Civil society Civil society comprises associations in which societies voluntarily organise themselves and which represent a wide range of interests and ties. These can include community-based organisations, indigenous peoples' organisations and non-government organisations (NGOs). Functioning through strong public pressure, civil society can exercise their legal rights against the implementation of resource management plans, particularly land management plans. The aim of civil society in environmental resource management is to be included in the decision-making process by means of public participation. Public participation can be an effective strategy to invoke a sense of social responsibility of natural resources. Tools As with all management functions, effective management tools, standards, and systems are required. An environmental management standard or system or protocol attempts to reduce environmental impact as measured by some objective criteria. The ISO 14001 standard is the most widely used standard for environmental risk management and is closely aligned to the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). As a common auditing standard, the ISO 19011 standard explains how to combine this with quality management. Other environmental management systems (EMS) tend to be based on the ISO 14001 standard and many extend it in various ways: The Green Dragon Environmental Management Standard is a five-level EMS designed for smaller organisations for whom ISO 14001 may be too onerous and for larger organisations who wish to implement ISO 14001 in a more manageable step-by-step approach, BS 8555 is a phased standard that can help smaller companies move to ISO 14001 in six manageable steps, The Natural Step focuses on basic sustainability criteria and helps focus engineering on reducing use of materials or energy use that is unsustainable in the long term, Natural Capitalism advises using accounting reform and a general biomimicry and industrial ecology approach to do the same thing, US Environmental Protection Agency has many further terms and standards that it defines as appropriate to large-scale EMS, The UN and World Bank has encouraged adopting a "natural capital" measurement and management framework. Other strategies exist that rely on making simple distinctions rather than building top-down management "systems" using performance audits and full cost accounting. For instance, Ecological Intelligent Design divides products into consumables, service products or durables and unsaleables – toxic products that no one should buy, or in many cases, do not realize they are buying. By eliminating the unsaleables from the comprehensive outcome of any purchase, better environmental resource management is achieved without systems. Another example that diverges from top-down management is the implementation of community based co-management systems of governance. An example of this is community based subsistence fishing areas, such as is implemented in Ha'ena, Hawaii. Community based systems of governance allow for the communities who most directly interact with the resource and who are most deeply impacted by the overexploitation of said resource to make the decisions regarding its management, thus empowering local communities and more effectively managing resources. Recent successful cases have put forward the notion of integrated management. It shares a wider approach and stresses out the importance of interdisciplinary assessment. It is an interesting notion that might not be adaptable to all cases. Case Study: Kissidougou, Guinea (Fairhead, Leach) Kissidougou, Guinea’s dry season brings about fires in the open grass fires which defoliate the few trees in the savanna. There are villages within this savanna surrounded by “islands” of forests, allowing for forts, hiding, rituals, protection from wind and fire, and shade for crops. According to scholars and researchers in the region during the late-19th and 20th centuries, there was a steady decline in tree cover. This led to colonial Guinea’s implementation of policies, including the switch of upland to swamp farming; bush-fire control; protection of certain species and land; and tree planting in villages. These policies were carried out in the form of permits, fines, and military repression. But, Kissidougou villagers claim their ancestors’ established these islands. Many maps and letters evidence France’s occupation of Guinea, as well as Kissidougou’s past landscape. During the 1780s to 1860s “the whole country [was] prairie.” James Fairhead and Melissa Leach, both environmental anthropologists at the University of Sussex, claim the state’s environmental analyses “casts into question the relationships between society, demography, and environment.” With this, they reformed the state’s narratives: Local land use can be both vegetation enriching and degrading; combined effect on resource management is greater than the sum of their parts; there is evidence of increased population correlating to an increase in forest cover. Fairhead and Leach support the enabling of policy and socioeconomic conditions in which local resource management conglomerates can act effectively. In Kissidougou, there is evidence that local powers and community efforts shaped the island forests that shape the savanna’s landscape. See also Citizen science, cleanup projects that people can take part in. Cleaner production Environmental impact assessment Environmental management scheme Environmental manager Integrated landscape management ISO 14000 Natural resource management Planetary management Political ecology Resource justice Stakeholder analysis Sustainable management References Further reading External links Economic Costs & Benefits of Environmental Management NOAA Economics business.gov – provides businesses with environmental management tips, as well as tips for green business owners (United States) Nonprofit research on managing the environment Resource economics Natural resource management Systems ecology Human-Environment interaction	0.774329	0.987691	0.764797
Theory of multiple intelligences	The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) proposes the differentiation of human intelligence into specific distinguishable multiple intelligences, rather than defining it as a single general ability. Since 1983, the theory has been popular among educators around the world. In the influential book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) and its sequels, Howard Gardner identifies at least eight distinct intelligences that humans use to survive, thrive and build civilization. The theory describes intelligence as the "brain's toolkit" for creating symbolic thought that is mobilized within one’s specific culture. While the concept of a unitary or general intelligence (I.Q.) has been controversial since its introduction in the early 1900s, no other multi-intelligence theory has endured to challenge its dominance to the same degree as Gardner’s MI theory. Introduced as a revolutionary psychological construct, it came to be severely criticized by psychologists for its lack of empirical evidence, its dependence on subjective judgement and its overall unscientific nature. Separation criteria Beginning in the late 1970s, using a pragmatic definition, Howard Gardner surveyed several disciplines and cultures around the world to determine skills and abilities essential to human development and culture building. He subjected candidate abilities to evaluation using eight criteria that must be substantively met to warrant their identification as an intelligence. Furthermore, the intelligences need to be relatively autonomous from each other, and composed of subsets of skills that are highly correlated and coherently organized. In 1983, the field of cognitive neuroscience was embryonic but Gardner was one of the early psychological theorists to describe direct links between brain systems and intelligence. Likewise the field of educational neuroscience was yet to be conceived. Since Frames of Mind was published (1983) the terms cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience have become standard in the field with extensive libraries of scholarly and scientific papers and textbooks. Thus it is essential to examine neuroscience evidence as it pertains to MI validity. Gardner defined intelligence as "a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture." This definition is unique for several reasons that account for MI theory's broad appeal to educators as well as its rejection by mainstream psychologists who are rooted in the traditional conception of intelligence as an abstract, logical capacity. A fundamental element for each intelligence is a framework of clearly defined levels of skill, complexity and accomplishment. One model that fits with the MI framework is Bloom’s Taxonomy where each intelligence can be delineated along different levels, ranging from basic knowledge up to their highest levels of analysis / synthesis. MI is also unique because it gives full appreciation for the impact and interactions - via symbol systems - between the individual’s cognitions and their particular culture. As Gardner states, Unlike traditional practices beginning in the 19th century, MI theory is not built on the statistical analyses of psychometric test data searching for factors that account for academic achievement. Instead, Gardner employs a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural methodology to evaluate which human capacities fit into a comprehensive model of intelligence. Eight criteria accounting for advances in neuroscience and the influence of cultural factors are used to qualify a capacity as an intelligence. These criteria are drawn from a more extensive database than what was acceptable and available to researchers in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Evidence is gathered from a variety of disciplines including psychology, neurology, biology, sociology, and anthropology as well as the arts and humanities. If a candidate faculty meets this set of criteria reasonably well then it can qualify as an intelligence. If it does not, then it is set aside or reconceptualized. Criteria for each type of intelligence The eight criteria can be grouped into four general categories: biology (neuroscience and evolution) analysis (core operations and symbol systems) psychology (skill development, individual differences) psychometrics (psychological experiments and test evidence) The criteria briefly described are: potential for brain isolation by brain damage place in evolutionary history presence of core operations susceptibility to encoding (symbolic expression) a distinct developmental progression the existence of savants, prodigies and other exceptional people support from experimental psychology support from psychometric findings This scientific method resembles the process used by astronomers to determine which celestial bodies to classify as a planet versus dwarf planet, star, comet, etc. Forms of intelligences In Frames of Mind and its sequels, Howard Gardner describes eight intelligences that can be expressed in everyday life in a variety of ways referred to as domains, skills, competencies, or talents. Each intelligence is comprised of complex sets of skills and abilities that are strongly correlated within each intelligence and can be shown to share specific cerebral systems. Like describing a multi-layer cake, the complexity depends upon how you slice the cake. One model integrates the eight intelligences with Sternberg's Triarchic theory, so each intelligence is actively expressed in three ways: (1) creative, (2) academic / analytical and (3) practical thinking. In this analogy each of the eight cake layers are divided into three segments with different expressions sharing a central core. The following brief descriptions highlight core cognitive components as described by Gardner and Shearer. Exemplar professions and adult roles requiring specific intelligences are described along with their core skills and potential deficits. Several references to exemplar neuroscientific studies are also provided for each of the eight intelligences. Furthermore, some have suggested that the 'intelligences' refer to talents, personality, or ability rather than a distinct form of intelligence. The two intelligences that are most associated with the traditional I.Q. or general intelligence are the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Some intelligence models and tests also include visual-spatial intelligence as a third element. Musical This area of intelligence includes sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, pitch, and tones of music. People with musical intelligence normally may be able to sing, play musical instruments, or compose music. They have high sensitivity to pitch, meter, melody and timbre. Musical intelligence includes cognitive elements that contribute to a person’s success and quality of life. There is a strong relationship between music and emotions as evidenced in both popular and classical music spheres. Neuroscience investigators continue to investigate the interaction between music and cognitive performances. Music is deeply rooted in human evolutionary history (Paleolithic bone flute) and culture (every country on Earth has a national anthem') and our personal lives (all important life events are associated with particular types of music (e.g., birthday, wedding songs, funeral dirges, etc.). Deficits in musical processing and abilities include congenital amusia, tone deafness, musical hallucinations, musical anhedonia, acquired music agnosia, and arrhythmia (beat deafness). Professions requiring essential musical skills include vocalist, instrumentalist, lyricist, dancer, sound engineer and composer. Musical intelligence is combined with kinesthetic to produce instrumentalists, dancers and, combined with a linguistic intelligence, for music critics and lyricists. Music combined with interpersonal intelligence is required for success as a Music Therapist or teacher. Visual-spatial This area deals with spatial awareness / judgment and the ability to visualize with the mind's eye. It is comprised of two main dimensions: A) mental visualization and B) perception of the physical world (spatial arrangements and objects). It includes both practical problem-solving as well as artistic creations. Spatial ability is one of the three factors beneath g (general intelligence) in the hierarchical model of intelligence. Many I.Q. tests include a measure of spatial problem-solving skills, e.g., block design and mental rotation of objects. Visual-spatial intelligence can be expressed in both practical (e.g., drafting and building) or artistic (e.g., fine art, crafts, floral arrangements) ways. Or they can be combined in fields such as architecture, industrial design, landscape design, and fashion design. Visual-spatial processing is often combined with the kinesthetic intelligence and referred to as eye-hand or visual-motor integration for tasks such as hitting a baseball (see Babe Ruth example for Kinesthetic), sewing, golf or skiing. Professions that emphasize skill with visual-spatial processing include carpentry, engineering, designers, pilots, firefighters, surgeons, commercial and fine arts and crafts. Spatial intelligence combined with linguistic is required for success as an art critic or textbook graphic designer. Spatial artistic skills combined with naturalist sensitivity produce a pet groomer or clothing designer, costumer. Linguistic The core linguistic ability is sensitivity to words and their meanings. People with high verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with expressive language and verbal comprehension. They are typically good at reading, writing, telling stories, rhetoric and memorizing words along with dates. Verbal ability is one of the most g-loaded abilities. Linguistic (academic aspect) intelligence is measured with the Verbal IQ in WAIS-IV. Deficits in linguistic abilities include expressive and receptive aphasia, agraphia, specific language impairment, written language disorder and word recognition deficit (dyslexia). Linguistic ability can be expressed according to Triarchic theory in three main ways: Analytical-Academic (reading, writing, definitions); Practical (verbal or written directions, explanations, narration); and Creative (story telling, poetry, lyrics, imaginative word play, science fiction). Professions that require linguistic skills include teaching, sales, management, counselors, leaders, childcare, journalists, academics and politicians (debating and creating support for particular sets of values). Linguistic intelligence combines with all other intelligences to facilitate communication either via the spoken or written word. It is frequently highly correlated with the interpersonal intelligence to facilitate social interactions for education, business and human relations. Successful sports coaches combine three intelligences: kinesthetic, interpersonal and linguistic. Corporate managers require skills in the interpersonal, linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Logical-mathematical This area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning, calculations, strategic and critical thinking. This intelligence includes the capacity to understand underlying principles of some kind of causal system. Logical reasoning is closely linked to fluid intelligence as well as to general intelligence (g factor). This capacity is most often associated with convergent problem-solving but it also includes divergent thinking associated with “problem-finding”. This intelligence is most closely associated with the cognitive development theory described by Jean Piaget (1983). The four main types of logical-mathematical intelligence include logical reasoning, calculations, practical thinking (common sense) and discovery. Deficits in logical-mathematical thinking include acalculia, dyscalculia, mild cognitive impairment, dementia and intellectual disability. Some critics believe that the logical and mathematics domains should be separate entities. However, Gardner argues that they both spring from the same source—abstractions taken from real world elements – e.g., logic from words, and calculations from the manipulation from objects. This is not dissimilar from the relationship between musical intelligence and vocal or instrumental skills where they are very different expressions springing from a shared musical source. Professions most closely associated with this intelligence include accounting, bookkeeping, banking, finance, engineering and the sciences. Logic-mathematical skills combine with all the other intelligences to facilitate complex problem solving and creation such as environmental engineering and scientists (naturalist); symphonies (music); public sculptures (visual-spatial) and choreography/ movement analysis (kinesthetic). Bodily-kinesthetic The core elements of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are control of one's bodily movements and fine motor control to handle objects skillfully. Gardner elaborates to say that this also includes a sense of timing, a clear sense of the goal of a physical action, along with the ability to train responses. Kinesthetic ability can be displayed in goal-directed activities (athletics, handcrafts, etc.) as well as in more expressive movements (drama, dance, mime and gestures). Expressive movements can be for either concepts or feelings. For example, saluting, shaking hands or facial expressions can convey both ideas and emotions. Two major kinesthetic categories are gross and fine motor skills. Deficits in kinesthetic ability are described as proprioception disorders affecting body awareness, coordination, balance, dexterity and motor control. Gardner believes that careers that suit those with high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence include: athletes, dancers, musicians, actors, craftspeople, builders, technicians, and firefighters. Although these careers can be duplicated through virtual simulation, they will not produce the actual physical learning that is needed in this intelligence. Often people with high physical intelligence combined with visual motion acuity will have excellent hand-eye coordination and be very agile; they are precise and accurate in movement (surgeons) and can express themselves using their body (actors and dancers). Gardner referred to the idea of natural skill and innate kinesthetic intelligence within his discussion of the autobiographical story of Babe Ruth – a legendary baseball player who, at 15, felt that he had been 'born' on the pitcher's mound. Seeing the pitched ball and coordinating one’s swing to meet it over the plate requires highly developed visual-motor integration. Each sport requires its own distinctive combination of specific skills associated with the kinesthetic and visual-spatial intelligences. Physical ability Physical intelligence, also known as bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, is any intelligence derived through physical and practiced learning such as sports, dance, or craftsmanship. It may refer to the ability to use one's hands to create, to express oneself with one's body, a reliance on tactile mechanisms and movement, and accuracy in controlling body movement. An individual with high physical intelligence is someone who is adept at using their physical body to solve problems and express ideas and emotions. The ability to control the physical body and the mind-body connection is part of a much broader range of human potential as set out in Howard Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences. Characteristics Exhibiting well developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence will be reflected in a person's movements and how they use their physical body. Often people with high physical intelligence will have excellent hand-eye coordination and be very agile; they are precise and accurate in movement and can express themselves using their body. Gardner referred to the idea of natural skill and innate physical intelligence within his discussion of the autobiographical story of Babe Ruth – a legendary baseball player who, at 15, felt that he has been 'born' on the pitcher's mound. Individuals with a high body-kinesthetic, or physical intelligence, are likely to be successful in physical careers, including athletes, dancers, musicians, police officers, and soldiers. Interpersonal In MI theory, individuals who have high interpersonal intelligence are characterized by their sensitivity to others' moods, feelings, temperaments, motivations, and their ability to cooperate or to lead a group. According to Thomas Armstrong in How Are Kids Smart: Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, "Interpersonal intelligence is often misunderstood with being extroverted or liking other people”. Those with high interpersonal intelligence communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and may be either leaders or followers. They often enjoy discussion and debate." They have insightful understanding of other peoples’ point of view. Daniel Goleman based his concept of emotional intelligence in part on the feeling aspects of the intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences. Interpersonal skill can be displayed in either one-on-one and group interactions. Deficits in interpersonal understanding are described as ego centrism, narcissism, socio-pathology, Asperger’s Syndrome and autism. Gardner believes that careers that suit those with high interpersonal intelligence include leaders, politicians, managers, teachers, clergy, counselors, social workers and sales persons. Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson are cited as historical leaders with exceptional interpersonal intelligence. Interpersonal combined with intrapersonal management are required for successful leaders, psychologists, life coaches and conflict negotiators. And obviously, team sports require specific combinations of the interpersonal and kinesthetic intelligences while individual sports emphasize the kinesthetic and intrapersonal intelligences (i.e., Tiger Woods and gymnasts). In theory, individuals who have high interpersonal intelligence are characterized by their sensitivity to others' moods, feelings, temperaments, motivations, and their ability to cooperate to work as part of a group. According to Gardner in How Are Kids Smart: Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, "Inter- and Intra- personal intelligence is often misunderstood with being extroverted or liking other people". "Those with high interpersonal intelligence communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and may be either leaders or followers. They often enjoy discussion and debate." Gardner has equated this with emotional intelligence of Goleman.. Intrapersonal This refers to having a deep and accurate understanding of the self; what one's strengths and weaknesses are, what makes one unique, being able to predict and manage one's own reactions, emotions and behaviors. Activities associated with this intelligence include introspection and self-reflection. Intrapersonal skills can be categorized in at least four areas: metacognition, awareness of thoughts, management of feelings and emotions, behavior, self-management, decision-making and judgment. Deficits in intrapersonal understanding are described as anosognosia, depersonalization, dissociation and self-dysregulation (ADHD). Leaders and people in high stress occupations need well developed intrapersonal skills, e.g., pilots, police and firefighters, entrepreneurs, middle managers, first responders and health care providers. Gandhi, Jesus, Martin Luther King are all noted for their strong self-awareness. Deficits in intrapersonal understanding may be correlated with ADHD, substance abuse and emotional disturbances (mid-life crisis, etc.). Intrapersonal intelligence may be correlated with concepts such as self-confidence, introspection and self-efficacy but it should not be confused with personality styles/preferences such as narcissism, self-esteem, introversion or shyness. High level performance in many demanding professions and roles requires exceptional intrapersonal intelligence: Olympic athletes, professional golfers, stage performers, CEOs, crisis managers. Naturalistic Not part of Gardner's original seven, naturalistic intelligence was proposed by him in 1995. "If I were to rewrite Frames of Mind today, I would probably add an eighth intelligence – the intelligence of the naturalist. It seems to me that the individual who is readily able to recognize flora and fauna, to make other consequential distinctions in the natural world, and to use this ability productively (in hunting, in farming, in biological science) is exercising an important intelligence and one that is not adequately encompassed in the current list." This area has to do with nurturing and relating information to one's natural surroundings. Examples include classifying natural forms such as animal and plant species and rocks and mountain types. Essential cognitive skills include pattern recognition, taxonomy and empathy for living beings. Nature deficit disorder describes a recent hypothesis that mental health is negatively impacted by a lack of attention to and understanding of nature, e.g., nature deficit disorder. This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef. This sort of ecological receptiveness is deeply rooted in a "sensitive, ethical, and holistic understanding" of the world and its complexities – including the role of humanity within the greater ecosphere. This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers and it continues to be central in such roles as botanist, chef, animal care, veterinarians, ecological scientists and botanists. Proposed additional intelligences From the beginning Howard Gardner has stated that there may be more intelligences beyond the original six identified in 1983. That is why the Naturalist was added to the list in 1999. Several other human capacities were rejected because they do not meet enough of the criteria including personality characteristics such as humor, sexuality and extroversion. Existential thinking Gardner declined in his 1999 book to include spiritual intelligence, but suggested that an "existential" intelligence may be a useful construct that further research might clarify. The hypothesis of an existential intelligence has been further explored by educational researchers. At present there is insufficient evidence to support its inclusion on the list of validated intelligences and instead suggest that it is better labeled as "existential thinking". Of course, this is a valued form of human thought but there are two specific problems with its identification as a unique intelligence. First, there is insufficient evidence indicating it is processed by a coherent neural system. Second, there is no practical method of determined levels of skill and ability for existential thought and action (cite forthcoming). Pedagogical and digital In January 2016, Gardner mentioned in an interview with Big Think that he was considering adding the teaching–pedagogical intelligence "which allows us to be able to teach successfully to other people". In the same interview, he explicitly refused some other suggested intelligences like humour, cooking and sexual intelligence. Professor Nan B. Adams argues that based on Gardner's definition of multiple intelligences, digital intelligence – a meta-intelligence composed of many other identified intelligences and stemmed from human interactions with digital computers – now exists. Use in education Within his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner stated that our "educational system is heavily biased towards linguistic modes of intersection and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical quantities modes as well". His work went on to shape educational pedagogy and influence relevant policy and legislation across the world; with particular reference to how teachers must assess students' progress to establish the most effective teaching methods for the individual learner. Gardner's research into the field of learning regarding bodily kinesthetic intelligence has resulted in the use of activities that require physical movement and exertion, with students exhibiting a high level of physical intelligence reporting to benefit from 'learning through movement' in the classroom environment. Although the distinction between intelligences has been set out in great detail, Gardner opposes the idea of labelling learners to a specific intelligence. Gardner maintains that his theory should "empower learners", not restrict them to one modality of learning. According to Gardner, an intelligence is "a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture". According to a 2006 study, each of the domains proposed by Gardner involves a blend of the general g factor, cognitive abilities other than g, and, in some cases, non-cognitive abilities or personality characteristics. Gardner defines an intelligence as "bio-psychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture". According to Gardner, there are more ways to do this than just through logical and linguistic intelligence. Gardner believes that the purpose of schooling "should be to develop intelligences and to help people reach vocational and avocational goals that are appropriate to their particular spectrum of intelligences. People who are helped to do so, [he] believe[s], feel more engaged and competent and therefore more inclined to serve society in a constructive way." Gardner contends that IQ tests focus mostly on logical and linguistic intelligence. Upon doing well on these tests, the chances of attending a prestigious college or university increase, which in turn creates contributing members of society. While many students function well in this environment, there are those who do not. Gardner's theory argues that students will be better served by a broader vision of education, wherein teachers use different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach all students, not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence. It challenges educators to find "ways that will work for this student learning this topic". James Traub's article in The New Republic notes that Gardner's system has not been accepted by most academics in intelligence or teaching. Gardner states that "while Multiple Intelligences theory is consistent with much empirical evidence, it has not been subjected to strong experimental tests ... Within the area of education, the applications of the theory are currently being examined in many projects. Our hunches will have to be revised many times in light of actual classroom experience." Jerome Bruner agreed with Gardner that the intelligences were "useful fictions", and went on to state that "his approach is so far beyond the data-crunching of mental testers that it deserves to be cheered." George Miller, a prominent cognitive psychologist, wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Gardner's argument consisted of "hunch and opinion" and Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein in The Bell Curve (1994) called Gardner's theory "uniquely devoid of psychometric or other quantitative evidence". While the theory is unique it builds upon and extends previous theories about human cognition, faculties of mind and multiple forms of intelligence. At the same time, this uniqueness has engendered much criticism from other theorists while its broad implications have made it of special interest to classroom teachers in a way that few other psychological theories have been able to do. This is exemplified by the popular confusion between learning styles and the multiple intelligences. Learning styles and personality characteristics The relationship between the theory and various learning style models is complicated but Gardner has regularly explained the crucial differences between them. This is especially important because the notion of learning styles is problematic, and their educational use is suspect. A big problem is that there are more than 80 different learning styles models so it is difficult to know which model is being referred to when making a comparison or planning instruction. A key difference is that learning styles typically refer to sensory modalities, preferences, personality characteristics, attitudes, and interests while the multiple intelligences are cognitive abilities with defined levels of skill. It is easy to see why they are confused given the popularity of VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic) and Introversion, Extroversion models. Their names sound alike and they share sensory systems (vision, hearing, physicality) but the eight intelligences are much more than the senses or personal preferences. While learning style theories are fundamentally different from the eight intelligences, there is a model proposed by Richard Strong and others that integrates a person’s preference with the eight intelligences to produce a descriptive tapestry of a person’s intellectual dispositions. The four styles are Mastery, Understanding, Interpersonal, and Self-Expressive. For the visual-spatial intelligence expressed artistically, a person may have a distinct pattern of preferences for realistic imagery (Mastery), conceptual art (Understanding), portraiture (Interpersonal) or abstract expression (Self-Expressive). This model has not been tested empirically. Talents and aptitudes Intelligences not typically associated with academic achievement have been traditionally delegated to the status of talents or aptitudes—e.g., musical, visual-spatial, kinesthetic and naturalist. Gardner takes issue with this hierarchy because it lowers the importance of these “non-academic” intelligences and devalues their contribution to human thought, individual development and culture. Gardner is fine with calling them all talents (or aptitudes) (including logical-mathematical and linguistic) so long as they are seen to be of equal value. In spite of its lack of general acceptance in the psychological community, Gardner's theory has been adopted by many schools, where it is often conflated with learning styles, and hundreds of books have been written about its applications in education. Some of the applications of Gardner's theory have been described as "simplistic" and Gardner himself has said he is "uneasy" with the way his theory has been used in schools. Gardner has denied that multiple intelligences are learning styles and agrees that the idea of learning styles is incoherent and lacking in empirical evidence. Gardner summarizes his approach with three recommendations for educators: individualize the teaching style (to suit the most effective method for each student), pluralize the teaching (teach important materials in multiple ways), and avoid the term "styles" as being confusing. Criticism Gardner argues that there is a wide range of cognitive abilities, but that there are only very weak correlations among them. For example, the theory postulates that a child who learns to multiply easily is not necessarily more intelligent than a child who has more difficulty on this task. The child who takes more time to master multiplication may best learn to multiply through a different approach, may excel in a field outside mathematics, or may be looking at and understanding the multiplication process at a fundamentally deeper level. Intelligence tests and psychometrics have generally found high correlations between different aspects of intelligence, rather than the low correlations which Gardner's theory predicts, supporting the prevailing theory of general intelligence rather than multiple intelligences (MI). The theory has been criticized by mainstream psychology for its lack of empirical evidence, and its dependence on subjective judgement, and it has been deemed unscientific. Definition of intelligence A major criticism of the theory is that it is ad hoc: that Gardner is not expanding the definition of the word "intelligence", but rather denies the existence of intelligence as traditionally understood, and instead uses the word "intelligence" where other people have traditionally used words like "ability" and "aptitude". This practice has been criticized by Robert J. Sternberg, Michael Eysenck, and Sandra Scarr. White (2006) points out that Gardner's selection and application of criteria for his "intelligences" is subjective and arbitrary, and that a different researcher would likely have come up with different criteria. Defenders of MI theory argue that the traditional definition of intelligence is too narrow, and thus a broader definition more accurately reflects the differing ways in which humans think and learn. Some criticisms arise from the fact that Gardner has not provided a test of his multiple intelligences. He originally defined it as the ability to solve problems that have value in at least one culture, or as something that a student is interested in. He then added a disclaimer that he has no fixed definition, and his classification is more of an artistic judgment than fact: Generally, linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities are called intelligence, but artistic, musical, athletic, etc. abilities are not. Gardner argues this causes the former to be needlessly aggrandized. Certain critics are wary of this widening of the definition, saying that it ignores "the connotation of intelligence ... [which] has always connoted the kind of thinking skills that makes one successful in school." Gardner writes "I balk at the unwarranted assumption that certain human abilities can be arbitrarily singled out as intelligence while others cannot." Critics hold that given this statement, any interest or ability can be redefined as "intelligence". Thus, studying intelligence becomes difficult, because it diffuses into the broader concept of ability or talent. Gardner's addition of the naturalistic intelligence and conceptions of the existential and moral intelligence are seen as the fruits of this diffusion. Defenders of the MI theory would argue that this is simply a recognition of the broad scope of inherent mental abilities and that such an exhaustive scope by nature defies a one-dimensional classification such as an IQ value. The theory and definitions have been critiqued by Perry D. Klein as being so unclear as to be tautologous and thus unfalsifiable. Having a high musical ability means being good at music while at the same time being good at music is explained by having high musical ability. Henri Wallon argues that "We can not distinguish intelligence from its operations". Yves Richez distinguishes 10 Natural Operating Modes (Modes Opératoires Naturels – MoON). Richez's studies are premised on a gap between Chinese thought and Western thought. In China, the notion of "being" (self) and the notion of "intelligence" do not exist. These are claimed to be Graeco-Roman inventions derived from Plato. Instead of intelligence, Chinese refers to "operating modes", which is why Yves Richez does not speak of "intelligence" but of "natural operating modes" (MoON). Validity Critics argue that MI cannot be taken seriously as a scientific theory of intelligence for a number of reasons that have kept it marginalized from mainstream psychology despite worldwide influence among educators. It is understandable that psychologists in the normal science tradition question the validity of an idea that challenges one of its core concepts – IQ – without providing a wealth of psychometric evidence. While there are a variety of specific criticisms, the most common are given below: It is not scientific as in a body of knowledge acquired by performing replicated experiments in the laboratory. There is conceptual confusion for determining exactly what intelligence is and what it isn’t, e.g., MI conflates personality, talent and learning styles with intelligence. MI does not value reasoning and academic skills. There are no empirical, experimental studies using psychometrics to establish validity. The proposed intelligences are not proven to be sufficiently independent to warrant separate identification. There is no evidence for educational efficacy and its use may undermine school effectiveness. Neo-Piagetian criticism Andreas Demetriou suggests that theories which overemphasize the autonomy of the domains are as simplistic as the theories that overemphasize the role of general intelligence and ignore the domains. He agrees with Gardner that there are indeed domains of intelligence that are relevantly autonomous of each other. Some of the domains, such as verbal, spatial, mathematical, and social intelligence are identified by most lines of research in psychology. In Demetriou's theory, one of the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, Gardner is criticized for underestimating the effects exerted on the various domains of intelligences by the various subprocesses that define overall processing efficiency, such as speed of processing, executive functions, working memory, and meta-cognitive processes underlying self-awareness and self-regulation. All of these processes are integral components of general intelligence that regulate the functioning and development of different domains of intelligence. The domains are to a large extent expressions of the condition of the general processes, and may vary because of their constitutional differences but also differences in individual preferences and inclinations. Their functioning both channels and influences the operation of the general processes. Thus, one cannot satisfactorily specify the intelligence of an individual or design effective intervention programs unless both the general processes and the domains of interest are evaluated. Human adaptation to multiple environments The premise of the multiple intelligences hypothesis, that human intelligence is a collection of specialist abilities, have been criticized for not being able to explain human adaptation to most if not all environments in the world. In this context, humans are contrasted to social insects that indeed have a distributed "intelligence" of specialists, and such insects may spread to climates resembling that of their origin but the same species never adapt to a wide range of climates from tropical to temperate by building different types of nests and learning what is edible and what is poisonous. While some such as the leafcutter ant grow fungi on leaves, they do not cultivate different species in different environments with different farming techniques as human agriculture does. It is therefore argued that human adaptability stems from a general ability to falsify hypotheses and make more generally accurate predictions and adapt behavior thereafter, and not a set of specialized abilities which would only work under specific environmental conditions. IQ tests Gardner argues that IQ tests only measure linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities. He argues the importance of assessing in an "intelligence-fair" manner. While traditional paper-and-pen examinations favor linguistic and logical skills, there is a need for intelligence-fair measures that value the distinct modalities of thinking and learning that uniquely define each intelligence. Psychologist Alan S. Kaufman points out that IQ tests have measured spatial abilities for 70 years. Modern IQ tests are greatly influenced by the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory which incorporates a general intelligence but also many more narrow abilities. While IQ tests do give an overall IQ score, they now also give scores for many more narrow abilities. Educational Efficacy Another criticism of MI theory is that there is no evidence for educational efficacy and that the use of MI may undermine school effectiveness. In other words, even if MI can describe an accurate map of the mind-brain, does this map help people (teachers, counselors, psychologists, parents, students) to achieve educational goals? Criticisms of the educational applications of MI theory break into three general types: questions about efficacy, theoretical disagreements and fear of consequences for large scale application. According Ravitch’s review of school reform, not all progressive school initiatives were failures because, "Surely, the elementary schools were more joyful places, yet there was no good reason to pose a dichotomy between children’s well-being and the thoughtful study of school subjects". The problem that remains is how to build practical bridges in the daily classroom between the forces of traditional academics and recognizing individual differences? Can the theory of multiple intelligences help? Near the end of Ravitch’s examination of American schools’ struggle to achieve the dream of providing high quality education for all students regardless of status, she notes, "Howard Gardner became a national leader of an effort to reclaim the strain of progressivism that championed students’ joy in learning without denying the importance of academic disciplines and to cleanse progressivism of its earlier association with IQ testing, curricular differentiation, anti-intellectualism, and life adjustment education". Lack of empirical evidence Many of Gardner's "intelligences" correlate with the g factor, supporting the idea of a single dominant type of intelligence. Each of the domains proposed by Gardner involved a blend of g, of cognitive abilities other than g, and, in some cases, of non-cognitive abilities or of personality characteristics. The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation has tested hundreds of thousands of people to determine their "aptitudes" ("intelligences"), such as manual dexterity, musical ability, spatial visualization, and memory for numbers. There is correlation of these aptitudes with the g factor, but not all are strongly correlated; correlation between the g factor and "inductive speed" ("quickness in seeing relationships among separate facts, ideas, or observations") is only 0.5, considered a moderate correlation. Linda Gottfredson (2006) has argued that thousands of studies support the importance of intelligence quotient (IQ) in predicting school and job performance, and numerous other life outcomes. In contrast, empirical support for non-g intelligences is either lacking or very poor. She argued that despite this, the ideas of multiple non-g intelligences are very attractive to many due to the suggestion that everyone can be smart in some way. A critical review of MI theory argues that there is little empirical evidence to support it: The same review presents evidence to demonstrate that cognitive neuroscience research does not support the theory of multiple intelligences: Responses Gardner has frequently responded that MI theory is in fact based on "at least 500 empirical studies" cited in Frames of Mind. He has also stated,"I’ve never felt that MI theory was one that could be subjected to an "up and down" kind of test, or even series of tests. Rather, it is and has always been fundamentally a work of synthesis; and its overall fate will be determined by the comprehensiveness of the synthesis, on the one hand, and its utility to both scholars and practitioners, on the other" See also Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links Multiple Intelligences Oasis, Howard Gardner's official website for MI Theory Multiple Intelligences, Future Minds and Educating The App Generation: A discussion with Dr Howard Gardner, Bridging the Gaps: A Portal for Curious Minds Curricula Education reform Education theory Intelligence by type Life skills Psychological theories	0.765829	0.998599	0.764756
Philosophical methodology	Philosophical methodology encompasses the methods used to philosophize and the study of these methods. Methods of philosophy are procedures for conducting research, creating new theories, and selecting between competing theories. In addition to the description of methods, philosophical methodology also compares and evaluates them. Philosophers have employed a great variety of methods. Methodological skepticism tries to find principles that cannot be doubted. The geometrical method deduces theorems from self-evident axioms. The phenomenological method describes first-person experience. Verificationists study the conditions of empirical verification of sentences to determine their meaning. Conceptual analysis decomposes concepts into fundamental constituents. Common-sense philosophers use widely held beliefs as their starting point of inquiry, whereas ordinary language philosophers extract philosophical insights from ordinary language. Intuition-based methods, like thought experiments, rely on non-inferential impressions. The method of reflective equilibrium seeks coherence among beliefs, while the pragmatist method assesses theories by their practical consequences. The transcendental method studies the conditions without which an entity could not exist. Experimental philosophers use empirical methods. The choice of method can significantly impact how theories are constructed and the arguments used to support them. As a result, methodological disagreements can lead to philosophical disagreements. Definition The term "philosophical methodology" refers either to the methods used to philosophize or to the branch of metaphilosophy studying these methods. A method is a way of doing things, such as a set of actions or decisions, in order to achieve a certain goal, when used under the right conditions. In the context of inquiry, a method is a way of conducting one's research and theorizing, like inductive or axiomatic methods in logic or experimental methods in the sciences. Philosophical methodology studies the methods of philosophy. It is not primarily concerned with whether a philosophical position, such as metaphysical dualism or utilitarianism, is true or false. Instead, it asks how one can determine which position should be adopted. In the widest sense, any principle for choosing between competing theories may be considered as part of the methodology of philosophy. In this sense, the philosophical methodology is "the general study of criteria for theory selection". For example, Occam’s Razor is a methodological principle of theory selection favoring simple over complex theories. A closely related aspect of philosophical methodology concerns the question of which conventions one needs to adopt necessarily to succeed at theory making. But in a more narrow sense, only guidelines that help philosophers learn about facts studied by philosophy qualify as philosophical methods. This is the more common sense, which applies to most of the methods listed in this article. In this sense, philosophical methodology is closely related to epistemology in that it consists in epistemological methods that enable philosophers to arrive at knowledge. Because of this, the problem of the methods of philosophy is central to how philosophical claims are to be justified. An important difference in philosophical methodology concerns the distinction between descriptive and normative questions. Descriptive questions ask what methods philosophers actually use or used in the past, while normative questions ask what methods they should use. The normative aspect of philosophical methodology expresses the idea that there is a difference between good and bad philosophy. In this sense, philosophical methods either articulate the standards of evaluation themselves or the practices that ensure that these standards are met. Philosophical methods can be understood as tools that help the theorist do good philosophy and arrive at knowledge. The normative question of philosophical methodology is quite controversial since different schools of philosophy often have very different views on what constitutes good philosophy and how to achieve it. Methods A great variety of philosophical methods has been proposed. Some of these methods were developed as a reaction to other methods, for example, to counter skepticism by providing a secure path to knowledge. In other cases, one method may be understood as a development or a specific application of another method. Some philosophers or philosophical movements give primacy to one specific method, while others use a variety of methods depending on the problem they are trying to solve. It has been argued that many of the philosophical methods are also commonly used implicitly in more crude forms by regular people and are only given a more careful, critical, and systematic exposition in philosophical methodology. Methodological skepticism Methodological skepticism, also referred to as Cartesian doubt, uses systematic doubt as a method of philosophy. It is motivated by the search for an absolutely certain foundation of knowledge. The method for finding these foundations is doubt: only that which is indubitable can serve this role. While this approach has been influential, it has also received various criticisms. One problem is that it has proven very difficult to find such absolutely certain claims if the doubt is applied in its most radical form. Another is that while absolute certainty may be desirable, it is by no means necessary for knowledge. In this sense, it excludes too much and seems to be unwarranted and arbitrary, since it is not clear why very certain theorems justified by strong arguments should be abandoned just because they are not absolutely certain. This can be seen in relation to the insights discovered by the empirical sciences, which have proven very useful even though they are not indubitable. Geometrical method The geometrical method came to particular prominence through rationalists like Baruch Spinoza. It starts from a small set of self-evident axioms together with relevant definitions and tries to deduce a great variety of theorems from this basis, thereby mirroring the methods found in geometry. Historically, it can be understood as a response to methodological skepticism: it consists in trying to find a foundation of certain knowledge and then expanding this foundation through deductive inferences. The theorems arrived at this way may be challenged in two ways. On the one hand, they may be derived from axioms that are not as self-evident as their defenders proclaim and thereby fail to inherit the status of absolute certainty. For example, many philosophers have rejected the claim of self-evidence concerning one of René Descartes's first principles stating that "he can know that whatever he perceives clearly and distinctly is true only if he first knows that God exists and is not a deceiver". Another example is the causal axiom of Spinoza's system that "the knowledge of an effect depends on and involves knowledge of its cause", which has been criticized in various ways. In this sense, philosophical systems built using the geometrical method are open to criticisms that reject their basic axioms. A different form of objection holds that the inference from the axioms to the theorems may be faulty, for example, because it does not follow a rule of inference or because it includes implicitly assumed premises that are not themselves self-evident. Phenomenological method Phenomenology is the science of appearances - broadly speaking, the science of phenomenon, given that almost all phenomena are perceived. The phenomenological method aims to study the appearances themselves and the relations found between them. This is achieved through the so-called phenomenological reduction, also known as epoché or bracketing: the researcher suspends their judgments about the natural external world in order to focus exclusively on the experience of how things appear to be, independent of whether these appearances are true or false. One idea behind this approach is that our presuppositions of what things are like can get in the way of studying how they appear to be and thereby mislead the researcher into thinking they know the answer instead of looking for themselves. The phenomenological method can also be seen as a reaction to methodological skepticism since its defenders traditionally claimed that it could lead to absolute certainty and thereby help philosophy achieve the status of a rigorous science. But phenomenology has been heavily criticized because of this overly optimistic outlook concerning the certainty of its insights. A different objection to the method of phenomenological reduction holds that it involves an artificial stance that gives too much emphasis on the theoretical attitude at the expense of feeling and practical concerns. Another phenomenological method is called "eidetic variation". It is used to study the essences of things. This is done by imagining an object of the kind under investigation. The features of this object are then varied in order to see whether the resulting object still belongs to the investigated kind. If the object can survive the change of a certain feature then this feature is inessential to this kind. Otherwise, it belongs to the kind's essence. For example, when imagining a triangle, one can vary its features, like the length of its sides or its color. These features are inessential since the changed object is still a triangle, but it ceases to be a triangle if a fourth side is added. Verificationism The method of verificationism consists in understanding sentences by analyzing their characteristic conditions of verification, i.e. by determining which empirical observations would prove them to be true. A central motivation behind this method has been to distinguish meaningful from meaningless sentences. This is sometimes expressed through the claim that "[the] meaning of a statement is the method of its verification". Meaningful sentences, like the ones found in the natural sciences, have clear conditions of empirical verification. But since most metaphysical sentences cannot be verified by empirical observations, they are deemed to be non-sensical by verificationists. Verificationism has been criticized on various grounds. On the one hand, it has proved very difficult to give a precise formulation that includes all scientific claims, including the ones about unobservables. This is connected to the problem of underdetermination in the philosophy of science: the problem that the observational evidence is often insufficient to determine which theory is true. This would lead to the implausible conclusion that even for the empirical sciences, many of their claims would be meaningless. But on a deeper level, the basic claim underlying verificationism seems itself to be meaningless by its own standards: it is not clear what empirical observations could verify the claim that the meaning of a sentence is the method of its verification. In this sense, verificationism would be contradictory by directly refuting itself. These and other problems have led some theorists, especially from the sciences, to adopt falsificationism instead. It is a less radical approach that holds that serious theories or hypotheses should at least be falsifiable, i.e. there should be some empirical observations that could prove them wrong. Conceptual analysis The goal of conceptual analysis is to decompose or analyze a given concept into its fundamental constituents. It consists in considering a philosophically interesting concept, like knowledge, and determining the necessary and sufficient conditions for whether the application of this concept is true. The resulting claim about the relation between the concept and its constituents is normally seen as knowable a priori since it is true only in virtue of the involved concepts and thereby constitutes an analytic truth. Usually, philosophers use their own intuitions to determine whether a concept is applicable to a specific situation to test their analyses. But other approaches have also been utilized by using not the intuitions of philosophers but of regular people, an approach often defended by experimental philosophers. G. E. Moore proposed that the correctness of a conceptual analysis can be tested using the open question method. According to this view, asking whether the decomposition fits the concept should result in a closed or pointless question. If it results in an open or intelligible question, then the analysis does not exactly correspond to what we have in mind when we use the term. This can be used, for example, to reject the utilitarian claim that "goodness" is "whatever maximizes happiness". The underlying argument is that the question "Is what is good what maximizes happiness?" is an open question, unlike the question "Is what is good what is good?", which is a closed question. One problem with this approach is that it results in a very strict conception of what constitutes a correct conceptual analysis, leading to the conclusion that many concepts, like "goodness", are simple or indefinable. Willard Van Orman Quine criticized conceptual analysis as part of his criticism of the analytic-synthetic distinction. This objection is based on the idea that all claims, including how concepts are to be decomposed, are ultimately based on empirical evidence. Another problem with conceptual analysis is that it is often very difficult to find an analysis of a concept that really covers all its cases. For this reason, Rudolf Carnap has suggested a modified version that aims to cover only the most paradigmatic cases while excluding problematic or controversial cases. While this approach has become more popular in recent years, it has also been criticized based on the argument that it tends to change the subject rather than resolve the original problem. In this sense, it is closely related to the method of conceptual engineering, which consists in redefining concepts in fruitful ways or developing new interesting concepts. This method has been applied, for example, to the concepts of gender and race. Common sense The method of common sense is based on the fact that we already have a great variety of beliefs that seem very certain to us, even if we do not believe them based on explicit arguments. Common sense philosophers use these beliefs as their starting point of philosophizing. This often takes the form of criticism directed against theories whose premises or conclusions are very far removed from how the average person thinks about the issue in question. G. E. Moore, for example, rejects J. M. E. McTaggart's sophisticated argumentation for the unreality of time based on his common-sense impression that time exists. He holds that his simple common-sense impression is much more certain than that McTaggart's arguments are sound, even though Moore was unable to pinpoint where McTaggart's arguments went wrong. According to his method, common sense constitutes an evidence base. This base may be used to eliminate philosophical theories that stray too far away from it, that are abstruse from its perspective. This can happen because either the theory itself or consequences that can be drawn from it violate common sense. For common sense philosophers, it is not the task of philosophy to question common sense. Instead, they should analyze it to formulate theories in accordance with it. One important argument against this method is that common sense has often been wrong in the past, as is exemplified by various scientific discoveries. This suggests that common sense is in such cases just an antiquated theory that is eventually eliminated by the progress of science. For example, Albert Einstein's theory of relativity constitutes a radical departure from the common-sense conception of space and time, and quantum physics poses equally serious problems to how we tend to think about how elementary particles behave. This puts into question that common sense is a reliable source of knowledge. Another problem is that for many issues, there is no one universally accepted common-sense opinion. In such cases, common sense only amounts to the majority opinion, which should not be blindly accepted by researchers. This problem can be approached by articulating a weaker version of the common-sense method. One such version is defended by Roderick Chisholm, who allows that theories violating common sense may still be true. He contends that, in such cases, the theory in question is prima facie suspect and the burden of proof is always on its side. But such a shift in the burden of proof does not constitute a blind belief in common sense since it leaves open the possibility that, for various issues, there is decisive evidence against the common-sense opinion. Ordinary language philosophy The method of ordinary language philosophy consists in tackling philosophical questions based on how the related terms are used in ordinary language. In this sense, it is related to the method of common sense but focuses more on linguistic aspects. Some types of ordinary language philosophy only take a negative form in that they try to show how philosophical problems are not real problems at all. Instead, it is aimed to show that false assumptions, to which humans are susceptible due to the confusing structure of natural language, are responsible for this false impression. Other types take more positive approaches by defending and justifying philosophical claims, for example, based on what sounds insightful or odd to the average English speaker. One problem for ordinary language philosophy is that regular speakers may have many different reasons for using a certain expression. Sometimes they intend to express what they believe, but other times they may be motivated by politeness or other conversational norms independent of the truth conditions of the expressed sentences. This significantly complicates ordinary language philosophy, since philosophers have to take the specific context of the expression into account, which may considerably alter its meaning. This criticism is partially mitigated by J. L. Austin's approach to ordinary language philosophy. According to him, ordinary language already has encoded many important distinctions and is our point of departure in theorizing. But "ordinary language is not the last word: in principle, it can everywhere be supplemented and improved upon and superseded". However, it also falls prey to another criticism: that it is often not clear how to distinguish ordinary from non-ordinary language. This makes it difficult in all but the paradigmatic cases to decide whether a philosophical claim is or is not supported by ordinary language. Intuition and thought experiments Methods based on intuition, like ethical intuitionism, use intuitions to evaluate whether a philosophical claim is true or false. In this context, intuitions are seen as a non-inferential source of knowledge: they consist in the impression of correctness one has when considering a certain claim. They are intellectual seemings that make it appear to the thinker that the considered proposition is true or false without the need to consider arguments for or against the proposition. This is sometimes expressed by saying that the proposition in question is self-evident. Examples of such propositions include "torturing a sentient being for fun is wrong" or "it is irrational to believe both something and its opposite". But not all defenders of intuitionism restrict intuitions to self-evident propositions. Instead, often weaker non-inferential impressions are also included as intuitions, such as a mother's intuition that her child is innocent of a certain crime. Intuitions can be used in various ways as a philosophical method. On the one hand, philosophers may consult their intuitions in relation to very general principles, which may then be used to deduce further theorems. Another technique, which is often applied in ethics, consists in considering concrete scenarios instead of general principles. This often takes the form of thought experiments, in which certain situations are imagined with the goal of determining the possible consequences of the imagined scenario. These consequences are assessed using intuition and counterfactual thinking. For this reason, thought experiments are sometimes referred to as intuition pumps: they activate the intuitions concerning the specific situation, which may then be generalized to arrive at universal principles. In some cases, the imagined scenario is physically possible but it would not be feasible to make an actual experiment due to the costs, negative consequences, or technological limitations. But other thought experiments even work with scenarios that defy what is physically possible. It is controversial to what extent thought experiments merit to be characterized as real experiments and whether the insights they provide are reliable. One problem with intuitions in general and thought experiments in particular consists in assessing their epistemological status, i.e. whether, how much, and in which circumstances they provide justification in comparison to other sources of knowledge. Some of its defenders claim that intuition is a reliable source of knowledge just like perception, with the difference being that it happens without the sensory organs. Others compare it not to perception but to the cognitive ability to evaluate counterfactual conditionals, which may be understood as the capacity to answer what-if questions. But the reliability of intuitions has been contested by its opponents. For example, wishful thinking may be the reason why it intuitively seems to a person that a proposition is true without providing any epistemological support for this proposition. Another objection, often raised in the empirical and naturalist tradition, is that intuitions do not constitute a reliable source of knowledge since the practitioner restricts themselves to an inquiry from their armchair instead of looking at the world to make empirical observations. Reflective equilibrium Reflective equilibrium is a state in which a thinker has the impression that they have considered all the relevant evidence for and against a theory and have made up their mind on this issue. It is a state of coherent balance among one's beliefs. This does not imply that all the evidence has really been considered, but it is tied to the impression that engaging in further inquiry is unlikely to make one change one's mind, i.e. that one has reached a stable equilibrium. In this sense, it is the endpoint of the deliberative process on the issue in question. The philosophical method of reflective equilibrium aims at reaching this type of state by mentally going back and forth between all relevant beliefs and intuitions. In this process, the thinker may have to let go of some beliefs or deemphasize certain intuitions that do not fit into the overall picture in order to progress. In this wide sense, reflective equilibrium is connected to a form of coherentism about epistemological justification and is thereby opposed to foundationalist attempts at finding a small set of fixed and unrevisable beliefs from which to build one's philosophical theory. One problem with this wide conception of the reflective equilibrium is that it seems trivial: it is a truism that the rational thing to do is to consider all the evidence before making up one's mind and to strive towards building a coherent perspective. But as a method to guide philosophizing, this is usually too vague to provide specific guidance. When understood in a more narrow sense, the method aims at finding an equilibrium between particular intuitions and general principles. On this view, the thinker starts with intuitions about particular cases and formulates general principles that roughly reflect these intuitions. The next step is to deal with the conflicts between the two by adjusting both the intuitions and the principles to reconcile them until an equilibrium is reached. One problem with this narrow interpretation is that it depends very much on the intuitions one started with. This means that different philosophers may start with very different intuitions and may therefore be unable to find a shared equilibrium. For example, the narrow method of reflective equilibrium may lead some moral philosophers towards utilitarianism and others towards Kantianism. Pragmatic method The pragmatic method assesses the truth or falsity of theories by looking at the consequences of accepting them. In this sense, "[t]he test of truth is utility: it's true if it works". Pragmatists approach intractable philosophical disputes in a down-to-earth fashion by asking about the concrete consequences associated, for example, with whether an abstract metaphysical theory is true or false. This is also intended to clarify the underlying issues by spelling out what would follow from them. Another goal of this approach is to expose pseudo-problems, which involve a merely verbal disagreement without any genuine difference on the level of the consequences between the competing standpoints. Succinct summaries of the pragmatic method base it on the pragmatic maxim, of which various versions exist. An important version is due to Charles Sanders Peirce: "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object." Another formulation is due to William James: "To develop perfect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only consider what effects of a conceivable practical kind the object may involve – what sensations we are to expect from it and what reactions we must prepare". Various criticisms to the pragmatic method have been raised. For example, it is commonly rejected that the terms "true" and "useful" mean the same thing. A closely related problem is that believing in a certain theory may be useful to one person and useless to another, which would mean the same theory is both true and false. Transcendental method The transcendental method is used to study phenomena by reflecting on the conditions of possibility of these phenomena. This method usually starts out with an obvious fact, often about our mental life, such as what we know or experience. It then goes on to argue that for this fact to obtain, other facts also have to obtain: they are its conditions of possibility. This type of argument is called "transcendental argument": it argues that these additional assumptions also have to be true because otherwise, the initial fact would not be the case. For example, it has been used to argue for the existence of an external world based on the premise that the experience of the temporal order of our mental states would not be possible otherwise. Another example argues in favor of a description of nature in terms of concepts such as motion, force, and causal interaction based on the claim that an objective account of nature would not be possible otherwise. Transcendental arguments have faced various challenges. On the one hand, the claim that the belief in a certain assumption is necessary for the experience of a certain entity is often not obvious. So in the example above, critics can argue against the transcendental argument by denying the claim that an external world is necessary for the experience of the temporal order of our mental states. But even if this point is granted, it does not guarantee that the assumption itself is true. So even if the belief in a given proposition is a psychological necessity for a certain experience, it does not automatically follow that this belief itself is true. Instead, it could be the case that humans are just wired in such a way that they have to believe in certain false assumptions. Experimental philosophy Experimental philosophy is the most recent development of the methods discussed in this article: it began only in the early years of the 21st century. Experimental philosophers try to answer philosophical questions by gathering empirical data. It is an interdisciplinary approach that applies the methods of psychology and the cognitive sciences to topics studied by philosophy. This usually takes the form of surveys probing the intuitions of ordinary people and then drawing conclusions from the findings. For example, one such inquiry came to the conclusion that justified true belief may be sufficient for knowledge despite various Gettier cases claiming to show otherwise. The method of experimental philosophy can be used both in a negative or a positive program. As a negative program, it aims to challenge traditional philosophical movements and positions. This can be done, for example, by showing how the intuitions used to defend certain claims vary a lot depending on factors such as culture, gender, or ethnicity. This variation casts doubt on the reliability of the intuitions and thereby also on theories supported by them. As a positive program, it uses empirical data to support its own philosophical claims. It differs from other philosophical methods in that it usually studies the intuitions of ordinary people and uses them, and not the experts' intuitions, as philosophical evidence. One problem for both the positive and the negative approaches is that the data obtained from surveys do not constitute hard empirical evidence since they do not directly express the intuitions of the participants. The participants may react to subtle pragmatic cues in giving their answers, which brings with it the need for further interpretation in order to get from the given answers to the intuitions responsible for these answers. Another problem concerns the question of how reliable the intuitions of ordinary people on the often very technical issues are. The core of this objection is that, for many topics, the opinions of ordinary people are not very reliable since they have little familiarity with the issues themselves and the underlying problems they may pose. For this reason, it has been argued that they cannot replace the expert intuitions found in trained philosophers. Some critics have even argued that experimental philosophy does not really form part of philosophy. This objection does not reject that the method of experimental philosophy has value, it just rejects that this method belongs to philosophical methodology. Others Various other philosophical methods have been proposed. The Socratic method or Socratic debate is a form of cooperative philosophizing in which one philosopher usually first states a claim, which is then scrutinized by their interlocutor by asking them questions about various related claims, often with the implicit goal of putting the initial claim into doubt. It continues to be a popular method for teaching philosophy. Plato and Aristotle emphasize the role of wonder in the practice of philosophy. On this view, "philosophy begins in wonder" and "[i]t was their wonder, astonishment, that first led men to philosophize and still leads them". This position is also adopted in the more recent philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann. Various other types of methods were discussed in ancient Greek philosophy, like analysis, synthesis, dialectics, demonstration, definition, and reduction to absurdity. The medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas identifies composition and division as ways of forming propositions while he sees invention and judgment as forms of reasoning from the known to the unknown. Various methods for the selection between competing theories have been proposed. They often focus on the theoretical virtues of the involved theories. One such method is based on the idea that, everything else being equal, the simpler theory is to be preferred. Another gives preference to the theory that provides the best explanation. According to the method of epistemic conservatism, we should, all other things being equal, prefer the theory which, among its competitors, is the most conservative, i.e. the one closest to the beliefs we currently hold. One problem with these methods of theory selection is that it is usually not clear how the different virtues are to be weighted, often resulting in cases where they are unable to resolve disputes between competing theories that excel at different virtues. Methodological naturalism holds that all philosophical claims are synthetic claims that ultimately depend for their justification or rejection on empirical observational evidence. In this sense, philosophy is continuous with the natural sciences in that they both give priority to the scientific method for investigating all areas of reality. According to truthmaker theorists, every true proposition is true because another entity, its truthmaker, exists. This principle can be used as a methodology to critically evaluate philosophical theories. In particular, this concerns theories that accept certain truths but are unable to provide their truthmaker. Such theorists are derided as ontological cheaters. For example, this can be applied to philosophical presentism, the view that nothing outside the present exists. Philosophical presentists usually accept the very common belief that dinosaurs existed but have trouble in providing a truthmaker for this belief since they deny existence to past entities. In philosophy, the term "genealogical method" refers to a form of criticism that tries to expose commonly held beliefs by uncovering their historical origin and function. For example, it may be used to reject specific moral claims or the status of truth by giving a concrete historical reconstruction of how their development was contingent on power relations in society. This is usually accompanied by the assertion that these beliefs were accepted and became established, because of non-rational considerations, such as because they served the interests of a predominant class. Disagreements and influence The disagreements within philosophy do not only concern which first-order philosophical claims are true, they also concern the second-order issue of which philosophical methods to use. One way to evaluate philosophical methods is to assess how well they do at solving philosophical problems. The question of the nature of philosophy has important implications for which methods of inquiry are appropriate to philosophizing. Seeing philosophy as an empirical science brings its methods much closer to the methods found in the natural sciences. Seeing it as the attempt to clarify concepts and increase understanding, on the other hand, usually leads to a methodology much more focused on apriori reasoning. In this sense, philosophical methodology is closely tied up with the question of how philosophy is to be defined. Different conceptions of philosophy often associated it with different goals, leading to certain methods being more or less suited to reach the corresponding goal. The interest in philosophical methodology has risen a lot in contemporary philosophy. But some philosophers reject its importance by emphasizing that "preoccupation with questions about methods tends to distract us from prosecuting the methods themselves". However, such objections are often dismissed by pointing out that philosophy is at its core a reflective and critical enterprise, which is perhaps best exemplified by its preoccupation with its own methods. This is also backed up by the arguments to the effect that one's philosophical method has important implications for how one does philosophy and which philosophical claims one accepts or rejects. Since philosophy also studies the methodology of other disciplines, such as the methods of science, it has been argued that the study of its own methodology is an essential part of philosophy. In several instances in the history of philosophy, the discovery of a new philosophical method, such as Cartesian doubt or the phenomenological method, has had important implications both on how philosophers conducted their theorizing and what claims they set out to defend. In some cases, such discoveries led the involved philosophers to overly optimistic outlooks, seeing them as historic breakthroughs that would dissolve all previous disagreements in philosophy. Relation to other fields Science The methods of philosophy differ in various respects from the methods found in the natural sciences. One important difference is that philosophy does not use experimental data obtained through measuring equipment like telescopes or cloud chambers to justify its claims. For example, even philosophical naturalists emphasizing the close relation between philosophy and the sciences mostly practice a form of armchair theorizing instead of gathering empirical data. Experimental philosophers are an important exception: they use methods found in social psychology and other empirical sciences to test their claims. One reason for the methodological difference between philosophy and science is that philosophical claims are usually more speculative and cannot be verified or falsified by looking through a telescope. This problem is not solved by citing works published by other philosophers, since it only defers the question of how their insights are justified. An additional complication concerning testimony is that different philosophers often defend mutually incompatible claims, which poses the challenge of how to select between them. Another difference between scientific and philosophical methodology is that there is wide agreement among scientists concerning their methods, testing procedures, and results. This is often linked to the fact that science has seen much more progress than philosophy. Epistemology An important goal of philosophical methods is to assist philosophers in attaining knowledge. This is often understood in terms of evidence. In this sense, philosophical methodology is concerned with the questions of what constitutes philosophical evidence, how much support it offers, and how to acquire it. In contrast to the empirical sciences, it is often claimed that empirical evidence is not used in justifying philosophical theories, that philosophy is less about the empirical world and more about how we think about the empirical world. In this sense, philosophy is often identified with conceptual analysis, which is concerned with explaining concepts and showing their interrelations. Philosophical naturalists often reject this line of thought and hold that empirical evidence can confirm or disconfirm philosophical theories, at least indirectly. Philosophical evidence, which may be obtained, for example, through intuitions or thought experiments, is central for justifying basic principles and axioms. These principles can then be used as premises to support further conclusions. Some approaches to philosophical methodology emphasize that these arguments have to be deductively valid, i.e. that the truth of their premises ensures the truth of their conclusion. In other cases, philosophers may commit themselves to working hypotheses or norms of investigation even though they lack sufficient evidence. Such assumptions can be quite fruitful in simplifying the possibilities the philosopher needs to consider and by guiding them to ask interesting questions. But the lack of evidence makes this type of enterprise vulnerable to criticism. See also Scholarly method Scientific method Historical method Dialectic References External links Metaphilosophy	0.772736	0.989667	0.764751
Dyad (sociology)	In sociology, a dyad is a group of two people, the smallest possible social group. As an adjective, "dyadic" describes their interaction. The pair of individuals in a dyad can be linked via romantic interest, family relation, interests, work, partners in crime, and so on. The relation can be based on equality, but may be based on an asymmetrical or hierarchical relationship (master–servant). The strength of the relationship is evaluated on the basis of time the individuals spend together, as well as on the emotional intensity of their relationship. The term dyad is . A dyad can be unstable because both persons must cooperate to make it work. If one of the two fails to complete their duties, the group would fall apart. Because of the significance of marriages in society, their stability is very important. For this reason marital dyads are often enforced through legal, economic, and religious laws. Dyadic friendships refer to the most immediate and concrete level of peer interaction, which is expanded to include new forms of relationships in adolescence – most notably, romantic and sexual relationships. Already Ferdinand Tönnies treated it as a special pattern of gemeinschaft, 1887, as community of spirit. The term can also be used to describe two groups or two countries. Meaning Dyad means two things of similar kind or nature or group and dyadic communication means the inter-relationship between the two. In practice, this relationship refers to dialogic relations or face-to-face verbal communication between two people involving their mutual ideas, thought, behavior, ideals, liking, disliking, and the queries and answers concerning life and living in nature. A sudden communication between two strangers in the street and not continued afterwards or not having lasting aftereffect on each other can not be termed as dyadic communication. Examples of dyadic communication occur between Jesus and Peter, the Buddha and Ananda, or between Socrates and Plato, where dialog is not only outward, superficial, or mechanical, but instead brings the two people into a sphere where each person influences the other. A lasting communication of ideas between two people for long duration of time or of any intensive duration of deeper impact may be called dyadic communication. See also Antipositivism Duocentric social network Ideal type Normal type Pas de deux Reflexivity (social theory) Social action Social relation Structure and agency Triad (sociology) References + Sociological terminology	0.768844	0.994666	0.764743
Downshifting (lifestyle)	In social behavior, downshifting is a trend where individuals adopt simpler lives from what critics call the "rat race". The long-term effect of downshifting can include an escape from what has been described as economic materialism, as well as reduce the "stress and psychological expense that may accompany economic materialism". This new social trend emphasizes finding an improved balance between leisure and work, while also focusing life goals on personal fulfillment, as well as building personal relationships instead of the all-consuming pursuit of economic success. Downshifting, as a concept, shares characteristics with simple living. However, it is distinguished as an alternative form by its focus on moderate change and concentration on an individual comfort level and a gradual approach to living. In the 1990s, this new form of simple living began appearing in the mainstream media, and has continually grown in popularity among populations living in industrial societies, especially the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as Russia. Values and motives "Down-shifters" refers to people who adopt long-term voluntary simplicity in their lives. A few of the main practices of down-shifters include accepting less money for fewer hours worked, while placing an emphasis on consuming less in order to reduce their ecological footprint. One of the main results of these practices is being able to enjoy more leisure time in the company of others, especially loved ones. The primary motivations for downshifting are gaining leisure time, escaping from work-and-spend cycle, and removing the clutter of unnecessary possessions. The personal goals of downshifting are simple: To reach a holistic self-understanding and satisfying meaning in life. Because of its personalized nature and emphasis on many minor changes, rather than complete lifestyle overhaul, downshifting attracts participants from across the socioeconomic spectrum. An intrinsic consequence of downshifting is increased time for non-work-related activities, which, combined with the diverse demographics of downshifters, cultivates higher levels of civic engagement and social interaction. The scope of participation is limitless, because all members of society—adults, children, businesses, institutions, organizations, and governments—are able to downshift even if many demographic strata do not start "high" enough to "down"-shift. In practice, down-shifting involves a variety of behavioral and lifestyle changes. The majority of these down-shifts are voluntary choices. Natural life course events, such as the loss of a job, or birth of a child can prompt involuntary down-shifting. There is also a temporal dimension, because a down-shift could be either temporary or permanent. Methods Work and income The most common form of down-shifting is work (or income) down-shifting. Down-shifting is fundamentally based on dissatisfaction with the conditions and consequences of the workplace environment. The philosophy of work-to-live replaces the social ideology of live-to-work. Reorienting economic priorities shifts the work–life balance away from the workplace. Economically, work downshifts are defined in terms of reductions in either actual or potential income, work hours, and spending levels. Following a path of earnings that is lower than the established market path is a downshift in potential earnings in favor of gaining other non-material benefits. On an individual level, work downshifting is a voluntary reduction in annual income. Downshifters desire meaning in life outside of work and, therefore, will opt to decrease the amount of time spent at work or work hours. Reducing the number of hours of work, consequently, lowers the amount earned. Simply not working overtime or taking a half-day a week for leisure time, are work downshifts. Career downshifts are another way of downshifting economically and entail lowering previous aspirations of wealth, a promotion or higher social status. Quitting a job to work locally in the community, from home or to start a business are examples of career downshifts. Although more radical, these changes do not mean stopping work altogether. Many reasons are cited by workers for this choice and usually center on a personal cost–benefit analysis of current working situations and desired extracurricular activities. High stress, pressure from employers to increase productivity, and long commutes can be factors that contribute to the costs of being employed. If the down-shifter wants more non-material benefits like leisure time, a healthy family life, or personal freedom then switching jobs could be a desirable option. Work down-shifting may also be a key to considerable health benefits as well as a healthy retirement. People are retiring later in life than previous generations. As can be seen by looking at The Health and Retirement Study, done by the Health and Retirement Study Survey Research Center, women can show the long term health benefits of down-shifting their work lives by working part time hours over a long period of years. Men however prove to be more unhealthy if they work part time from middle age till retirement. Men who down-shift their work life to part time hours at the age of 60 to 65 however benefit from continuing to work a part-time job through a semi retirement even over the age of 70. This is an example of how flexible working policies can be a key to being healthy while in retirement. Spending habits Another aspect of down-shifting is being a conscious consumer or actively practicing alternative forms of consumption. Proponents of down-shifting point to consumerism as a primary source of stress and dissatisfaction because it creates a society of individualistic consumers who measure both social status and general happiness by an unattainable quantity of material possessions. Instead of buying goods for personal satisfaction, consumption down-shifting, purchasing only the necessities, is a way to focus on quality of life rather than quantity. This realignment of spending priorities promotes the functional utility of goods over their ability to convey status which is evident in downshifters being generally less brand-conscious. These consumption habits also facilitate the option of working and earning less because annual spending is proportionally lower. Reducing spending is less demanding than more extreme downshifts in other areas, like employment, as it requires only minor lifestyle changes. Policies that enable downshifting Unions, business, and governments could implement more flexible working hours, part-time work, and other non-traditional work arrangements that enable people to work less, while still maintaining employment. Small business legislation, reduced filing requirements and reduced tax rates encourage small-scale individual entrepreneurship and therefore help individuals quit their jobs altogether and work for themselves on their own terms. Environmental consequences The catch-phrase of International Downshifting Week is "Slow Down and Green Up". Whether intentional or unintentional, generally, the choices and practices of down-shifters nurture environmental health because they reject the fast-paced lifestyle fueled by fossil fuels and adopt more sustainable lifestyles. The latent function of consumption down-shifting is to reduce, to some degree, the carbon footprint of the individual down-shifter. An example is to shift from a corporate suburban rat race lifestyle to a small eco friendly farming lifestyle. Down-shifting geographically Downshifting geographically is a relocation to a smaller, rural, or more slow-paced community. This is often a response to the hectic pace of life and stresses in urban areas. It is a significant change but does not bring total removal from mainstream culture. Sociopolitical implications Although downshifting is primarily motivated by personal desire and not by a conscious political stance, it does define societal overconsumption as the source of much personal discontent. By redefining life satisfaction in non-material terms, downshifters assume an alternative lifestyle but continue to coexist in a society and political system preoccupied with the economy. In general, downshifters are politically apathetic because mainstream politicians mobilize voters by proposing governmental solutions to periods of financial hardship and economic recessions. This economic rhetoric is meaningless to downshifters who have forgone worrying about money. In the United States, the UK, and Australia, a significant minority, approximately 20 to 25 percent, of these countries' citizens identify themselves in some respect as downshifters. Downshifting is not an isolated or unusual choice. Politics still centers around consumerism and unrestricted growth, but downshifting values, such as family priorities and workplace regulation, appear in political debates and campaigns. Like downshifters, the Cultural Creatives is another social movement whose ideology and practices diverge from mainstream consumerism and according to Paul Ray, are followed by at least a quarter of U.S. citizens. In his book In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honoré relates followers of downshifting and simple living to the global slow movement. The significant number and diversity of downshifters are a challenge to economic approaches to improving society. The rise in popularity of downshifting and similar, post-materialist ideologies represents unorganized social movements without political aspirations or motivating grievances. This is a result of their grassroots nature and relatively inconspicuous, non-confrontational subcultures. See also Anti-consumerism Conspicuous consumption Degrowth Demotion Downsizing Eco-communalism Ecological economics Ecovillage Ethical consumerism FIRE movement Frugality Homesteading Intentional community Intentional living Minimalism / Simple living Permaculture Slow living Sustainable living Transition towns Workaholic References Further reading Blanchard, Elisa A. (1994). Beyond Consumer Culture: A Study of Revaluation and Voluntary Action. Unpublished thesis, Tufts University. Bull, Andy. (1998). Downshifting: The Ultimate Handbook. London: Thorsons Etziomi, Amitai. (1998). Voluntary simplicity: Characterization, select psychological implications, and societal consequences. Journal of Economic Psychology 19:619–43. Hamilton, Clive (November 2003). Downshifting in Britain: A sea-change in the pursuit of happiness. The Australia Institute Discussion Paper No. 58. 42p. Hamilton, C., Mail, E. (January 2003). Downshifting in Australia: A sea-change in the pursuit of happiness. The Australia Institute Discussion Paper No. 50. 12p. ISSN 1322-5421 Juniu, Susana (2000). Downshifting: Regaining the Essence of Leisure, Journal of Leisure Research, 1st Quarter, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p69, 5p. Levy, Neil (2005). Downshifting and Meaning in Life, Ratio, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 176–89. J. B. MacKinnon (2021). The Day the World Stops Shopping: How ending consumerism gives us a better life and a greener world, Penguin Random House. Mazza, P. (1997). Keeping it simple. Reflections 36 (March): 10–12. Nelson, Michelle R., Paek, Hye-Jin, Rademacher, Mark A. (2007). Downshifting Consumer = Upshifting Citizen?: An Examination of a Local Freecycle Community. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 141–56. Saltzman, Amy. (1991). Downshifting: Reinventing Success on a Slower Track. New York: Harper Collins. Schor, Juliet B (1998). Voluntary Downshifting in the 1990s. In E. Houston, J. Stanford, & L. Taylor (Eds.), Power, Employment, and Accumulation: Social Structures in Economic Theory and Practice (pp. 66–79). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2003. Text from University of Chapel Hill Library Collections. External links The Homemade Life, a web forum aimed at promoting simple living Official website for the Slow Movement How To Be Rich Today – downloadable guide to Downshifting (UK) Personal finance Simple living Subcultures Waste minimisation Work–life balance fr:Simplicité volontaire	0.770937	0.991883	0.764679
Skill	A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. Some examples of general skills are time management, teamwork and leadership, and self-motivation. In contrast, domain-specific skills would be used only for a certain job, e.g. operating a sand blaster. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used. A skill may be called an art when it represents a body of knowledge or branch of learning, as in the art of medicine or the art of war. Although the arts are also skills, there are many skills that form an art but have no connection to the fine arts. People need a broad range of skills to contribute to the modern economy. A joint ASTD and U.S. Department of Labor study showed that through technology, the workplace is changing, and identified 16 basic skills that employees must have to be able to change with it. Three broad categories of skills are suggested and these are technical, human, and conceptual. The first two can be substituted with hard and soft skills, respectively. Hard skills Hard skills, also called technical skills, are any skills relating to a specific task or situation. It involves both understanding and proficiency in such specific activity that involves methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. These skills are easily quantifiable unlike soft skills, which are related to one's personality. These are also skills that can be or have been tested and may entail some professional, technical, or academic qualification. Holistic competency Holistic competencies is an umbrella term for different types of generic skills (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving skills, positive values, and attitudes (e.g., resilience, appreciation for others) which are essential for life-long learning and whole-person development. Labor skills Skilled workers have long had historical import (see division of labour) as electricians, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, brewers, coopers, printers and other occupations that are economically productive. Skilled workers were often politically active through their craft guilds. Life skills An ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills). People skills According to the Portland Business Journal, people skills are described as: understanding ourselves and moderating our responses talking effectively and empathizing accurately building relationships of trust, respect and productive interactions. A British definition is "the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly way, especially in business." The term is already listed in major US dictionaries. The term people skills is used to include both psychological skills and social skills but is less inclusive than life skills. Social skills Social skills are any skills facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning such skills is called socialization. Soft skills Soft skills are a combination of interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits, attitudes, career attributes and emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) among others. Development Development of a very high level of skill is often desirable for economic, social, or personal reasons. In his 2008 book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell proposed the "10,000 hour rule", that world-class skill could be developed by practicing for 10,000 hours. This principle was disputed by other commentators, pointing out feedback is necessary for improvement, and that practice is no guarantee of success. In his 2019 book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein argues that a period of sampling different activities (whether musical instruments, sports, or professions) can be helpful before choosing a specialization. Epstein argues that many tasks require a variety of skills which tend to be possessed by more well-rounded people, and finding a task which is a better fit to one's personality and interests can overcome the advantage otherwise provided by having more practice earlier in life and attempting peak performance as a younger person. Someone who has demonstrated a high level of knowledge or skill in multiple disciplines is known as a polymath, or in musical performance, a multi-instrumentalist. A long-standing question is to what extent skills can be learned versus the degree that innate talent is required for high-caliber performance. Epstein finds evidence for both sides with respect to high-performance sport in his 2013 book The Sports Gene. For thinking tasks, the heritability of IQ has been extensively studied to try to answer this question, though does not necessarily map directly onto skill level for any given thinking task. See also Communication skills Competence (human resources) Deskilling DISCO - European Dictionary of Skills and Competences Dreyfus model of skill acquisition Forecast skill Game of skill Online skill-based game Object skill Procedural knowledge Transferable skills analysis References External links American Society for Training & Development (archived 29 October 1996) Australian National Training Authority (archived 11 June 2009) NCVER's Review of generic skills for the new economy (PDF) SKILLS EU Research Integrated Project Learning Knowledge	0.766734	0.997268	0.764639
Applied ontology	Applied ontology is the application of Ontology for practical purposes. This can involve employing ontological methods or resources to specific domains, such as management, relationships, biomedicine, information science or geography. Alternatively, applied ontology can aim more generally at developing improved methodologies for recording and organizing knowledge. Much work in applied ontology is carried out within the framework of the Semantic Web. Ontologies can structure data and add useful semantic content to it, such as definitions of classes and relations between entities, including subclass relations. The semantic web makes use of languages designed to allow for ontological content, including the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). Applying ontology to relationships The challenge of applying ontology is ontology's emphasis on a world view orthogonal to epistemology. The emphasis is on being rather than on doing (as implied by "applied") or on knowing. This is explored by philosophers and pragmatists like Fernando Flores and Martin Heidegger. One way in which that emphasis plays out is in the concept of "speech acts": acts of promising, ordering, apologizing, requesting, inviting or sharing. The study of these acts from an ontological perspective is one of the driving forces behind relationship-oriented applied ontology. This can involve concepts championed by ordinary language philosophers like Ludwig Wittgenstein. Applying ontology can also involve looking at the relationship between a person's world and that person's actions. The context or clearing is highly influenced by the being of the subject or the field of being itself. This view is highly influenced by the philosophy of phenomenology, the works of Heidegger, and others. Ontological perspectives Social scientists adopt a number of approaches to ontology. Some of these are: Realism - the idea that facts are "out there" just waiting to be discovered; Empiricism - the idea that we can observe the world and evaluate those observations in relation to facts; Positivism - which focuses on the observations themselves, attending more to claims about facts than to facts themselves; Grounded theory - which seeks to derive theories from facts; Engaged theory - which moves across different levels of interpretation, linking different empirical questions to ontological understandings; Postmodernism - which regards facts as fluid and elusive, and recommends focusing only on observational claims. Data ontology Ontologies can be used for structuring data in a machine-readable manner. In this context, an ontology is a controlled vocabulary of classes that can be placed in hierarchical relations with each other. These classes can represent entities in the real world which data is about. Data can then be linked to the formal structure of these ontologies to aid dataset interoperability, along with retrieval and discovery of information. The classes in an ontology can be limited to a relatively narrow domain (such as an ontology of occupations), or expansively cover all of reality with highly general classes (such as in Basic Formal Ontology). Applied ontology is a quickly growing field. It has found major applications in areas such as biological research, artificial intelligence, banking, healthcare, and defense. See also Foundation ontology Applied philosophy John Searle Bertrand Russell Barry Smith, ontologist with a focus on biomedicine Nicola Guarino, researcher in the formal ontology of information systems References External links Applied philosophy Applied ontology	0.787867	0.97051	0.764632
Indoctrination	Indoctrination is the process of inculcating (teaching by repeated instruction) a person or people into an ideology uncritically. Broadly speaking, indoctrination can refer to a general process of socialization. In common discourse, the term often has a pejorative valence to refer to forms of brainwashing or for disagreeable forms of socialization. However, it can refer to both positive and negative forms of cultural transmission, and is evidently an integral element of educatory practice. The precise boundary between education and indoctrination is contested. The concept originally referred to education, but after World War I, the term took on a pejorative meaning akin to brainwashing or propaganda (popular among Flat Earth cultists). Some distinguish indoctrination from education on the basis that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned. As such the term may be used pejoratively or as a buzz word, often in the context of political opinions, theology, religious dogma or anti-religious convictions. Common vectors of indoctrination include the state, educational institutions, the arts, culture, and the media. Understood as a process of socialization into “ideal-type” citizens, indoctrination takes place in both democratic and authoritarian systems of government. Political context In the political context, indoctrination is often analyzed as a tool of class warfare, where institutions of the state are identified as "conspiring" to maintain the status quo. Specifically the public educational system, the police, and mental health establishment are a commonly cited modus operandi of public pacification. In the extreme, an entire state can be implicated. George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four famously singled out explicit, state-mandated propaganda initiatives of totalitarian regimes. Opinions differ on whether other forms of government are less doctrinaire, or merely achieve the same ends through less obvious methods. Religious indoctrination Religious indoctrination, the original sense of indoctrination, refers to a process of imparting doctrine in an authoritative way, as in catechism. Most religious groups among the revealed religions instruct new members in the principles of the religion; this is now not usually referred to as indoctrination by the religions themselves, in part because of the negative connotations the word has acquired. Mystery religions require a period of indoctrination before granting access to esoteric knowledge. (cf. Information security) As a pejorative term, indoctrination implies forcibly or coercively causing people to act and think on the basis of a certain ideology. Some secular critics believe that all religions indoctrinate their adherents, as children, and the accusation is made in the case of religious extremism. Sects such as Scientology use personality tests and peer pressures to indoctrinate new members. Some religions have commitment ceremonies for children 13 years and younger, such as Bar Mitzvah, Confirmation, and Shichi-Go-San. In Buddhism, temple boys are encouraged to follow the faith while young. Some critics of religion, such as Richard Dawkins, maintain that the children of religious parents are often unfairly indoctrinated. Ideological indoctrination Indoctrination can occur in non-religious or anti-religious contexts. For example, during the 20th Century, the former People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the former Soviet Union instituted programs of government-sponsored atheistic indoctrination in order to promote state atheism, specifically Marxist–Leninist atheism, within their citizenry. Sabrina P. Ramet, a professor of political science, documented that "from kindergarten onward children [were] indoctrinated with an aggressive form of atheism" and "to denounce parents who follow religious practices at home." However, after the death of Albania's leader, Enver Hoxha in 1985, his successor, Ramiz Alia, adopted a relatively tolerant stance toward religious practice, referring to it as "a personal and family matter." Émigré clergymen were permitted to reenter the country in 1988 and officiate at religious services. Mother Teresa, an ethnic Albanian, visited Tirana in 1989, where she was received by the foreign minister and by Hoxha's widow. In December 1990, the ban on religious observance was officially lifted, in time to allow thousands of Christians to attend Christmas services (see Freedom of religion in Albania). Similarly, in the former Soviet Union, "science education [in] Soviet schools [was] used as a vehicle for atheistic indoctrination", with teachers being instructed to prepare their course "so as to conduct anti-religious educations at all times," in order to comport with state-sanctioned Marxist–Leninist values. However, in 1997, several years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian government passed a law recognizing religion as being important to Russian history with Orthodox Christianity (Russian: Православие Pravoslaviye), Russia's traditional and largest religion, declared a part of Russia's "historical heritage." Military The initial psychological preparation of soldiers during training is referred to (non-pejoratively) as indoctrination. Information security In the field of information security, indoctrination is the initial briefing and instructions given before a person is granted access to secret information. See also Acculturation Behavior modification Brainwashing Ideology Pensée unique Radicalization Recruitment Groupthink References External links Habermas and the Problem of Indoctrination Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education Propaganda techniques Control (social and political) Human activities	0.768802	0.994552	0.764614
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory	Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural psychology, developed by Geert Hofstede. It shows the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis. Hofstede developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to examine the results of a worldwide survey of employee values by IBM between 1967 and 1973. It has been refined since. The original theory proposed four dimensions along which cultural values could be analyzed: individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance (strength of social hierarchy) and masculinity-femininity (task-orientation versus person-orientation). The Hofstede Cultural Dimensions factor analysis is based on extensive cultural preferences research conducted by Gert Jan Hofstede and his research teams. Hofstede based his research on national cultural preferences rather than individual cultural preferences. Hofstede included six key aspects of national culture country comparison scales, including: the power distance index (PDI), individualism vs. collectivism (IDV), motivation towards achievement and success (MAS, formerly masculinity versus femininity), uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long term orientation versus short term normative orientation (LTO), and indulgence versus restraint (IVR). The PDI describes the degree to which authority is accepted and followed. The IDV measures the extent to which people look out for each other as a team or look out for themselves as an individual. MAS represents specific values that a society values. The UAI describes to what extent nations avoid the unknown. LTO expresses how societies either prioritize traditions or seek for the modern in their dealings with the present and the future. The IVR index is a comparison between a country's willingness to wait for long-term benefits by holding off on instant gratification, or preferences to no restraints on enjoying life at the present. Independent research in Hong Kong led Hofstede to add a fifth dimension, long-term orientation, to cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm. In 2010, Hofstede added a sixth dimension, indulgence versus self-restraint. Hofstede's work established a major research tradition in cross-cultural psychology and has also been drawn upon by researchers and consultants in many fields relating to international business and communication. The theory has been widely used in several fields as a paradigm for research, particularly in cross-cultural psychology, international management, and cross-cultural communication. It continues to be a major resource in cross-cultural fields. History In 1965 Hofstede founded the personnel research department of IBM Europe (which he managed until 1971). Between 1967 and 1973, he executed a large survey study regarding national values differences across the worldwide subsidiaries of this multinational corporation: he compared the answers of 117,000 IBM matched employees samples on the same attitude survey in different countries. He first focused his research on the 40 largest countries, and then extended it to 50 countries and 3 regions, "at that time probably the largest matched-sample cross-national database available anywhere." The theory was one of the first quantifiable theories that could be used to explain observed differences between cultures. This initial analysis identified systematic differences in national cultures on four primary dimensions: power distance (PDI), individualism (IDV), uncertainty avoidance (UAI) and masculinity (MAS), which are described below. As Hofstede explains on his academic website, these dimensions regard "four anthropological problem areas that different national societies handle differently: ways of coping with inequality, ways of coping with uncertainty, the relationship of the individual with her or his primary group, and the emotional implications of having been born as a girl or as a boy". Geert Hofstede created the cultural dimensions theory in 1980. In 1984 he published Culture's Consequences, a book which combines the statistical analysis from the survey research with his personal experiences. In order to confirm the early results from the IBM study and to extend them to a variety of populations, six subsequent cross-national studies were successfully conducted between 1990 and 2002. Covering between 14 and 28 countries each, the samples included commercial airline pilots, students, civil service managers, 'up-market' consumers and 'elites'. The combined research established value scores on the four dimensions for a total of 76 countries and regions. In 1991 Michael Harris Bond and colleagues conducted a study among students in 23 countries, using a survey instrument developed with Chinese employees and managers. The results from this study led Hofstede to add a new fifth dimension to his model: long-term orientation (LTO), initially called Confucian dynamism. In 2010, the scores for this dimension were extended to 93 countries thanks to the research of Michael Minkov, who used data from the recent World Values Survey. Further research has refined some of the original dimensions, and introduced the difference between country-level and individual-level data in analysis. Finally, Minkov's World Values Survey data analysis of 93 representative samples of national populations also led Geert Hofstede to identify a sixth last dimension: indulgence versus restraint. Dimensions of national cultures Power distance index (PDI): The power distance index is defined as "the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally". A higher degree of the Index indicates that hierarchy is clearly established and executed in society, without doubt or reason. A lower degree of the Index signifies that people question authority and attempt to distribute power. Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): This index explores the "degree to which people in a society are integrated into groups". Individualistic societies have loose ties that often only relate an individual to his/her immediate family. They emphasize the "I" versus the "we". Its counterpart, collectivism, describes a society in which tightly integrated relationships tie extended families and others into in-groups. These in-groups are laced with undoubted loyalty and support each other when a conflict arises with another in-group. Uncertainty avoidance (UAI): The uncertainty avoidance index is defined as "a society's tolerance for ambiguity", in which people embrace or avert an event of something unexpected, unknown, or away from the status quo. Societies that score a high degree in this index opt for stiff codes of behavior, guidelines, laws, and generally rely on absolute truth, or the belief that one lone truth dictates everything and that people know what it is. A lower degree in this index shows more acceptance of differing thoughts or ideas. Society tends to impose fewer regulations, ambiguity is more accustomed to, and the environment is more free-flowing. Motivation towards Achievement and Success (formerly Masculinity vs. femininity). MAS: In this dimension, masculinity is defined as "a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material rewards for success." Its counterpart represents "a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life." Women in the respective societies tend to display different values. In feminine societies, they share modest and caring views equally with men. In more masculine societies, women are somewhat assertive and competitive, but notably less than men. In other words, they still recognize a gap between male and female values. This dimension is frequently viewed as taboo in highly masculine societies. The name of this dimension was changed by Hofstede Insights around late 2023 or early 2024 as "not timely anymore" as it "caused discomfort among some of our customers and website visitors for treating gender as a binary concept". Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation (LTO): This dimension associates the connection of the past with the current and future actions/challenges. A lower degree of this index (short-term) indicates that traditions are honored and kept, while steadfastness is valued. Societies with a high degree in this index (long-term) view adaptation and circumstantial, pragmatic problem-solving as a necessity. A poor country that is short-term oriented usually has little to no economic development, while long-term oriented countries continue to develop to a level of prosperity. Indulgence vs. restraint (IND): This dimension refers to the degree of freedom that societal norms give to citizens in fulfilling their human desires. Indulgence is defined as "a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun". Its counterpart is defined as "a society that controls gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms". Differences between cultures on the values dimensions Putting together national scores (from 1 for the lowest to 100 for the highest), Hofstede's six-dimensions model allows international comparison between cultures, also called comparative research: Power distance index shows very high scores for Latin American and Asian countries, African areas and the Arab world. On the other hand, Germanic countries, including Anglophone countries, have a lower power distance (only 11 for Austria and 18 for Denmark). For example, the United States has a 40 on the cultural scale of Hofstede's analysis. Compared to Guatemala where the power distance is very high (95) and Austria where it is very low (11), the United States is in the middle. Germany scores a high UAI (65) and Belgium even more (94) compared to Sweden (29) or Denmark (23) despite their geographic proximity. However, few countries have very low UAI. Motivation towards Achievement & Success is extremely low in Nordic countries: Norway scores 8 and Sweden only 5. In contrast, MAS is very high in Japan (95), and in European countries like Hungary, Austria and Switzerland influenced by German culture. In the Anglo world, MAS scores are relatively high with 66 for the United Kingdom for example. Latin American countries present contrasting scores: for example Venezuela has a 73-point score whereas Chile's is only 28. High long-term orientation scores are typically found in East Asia, with South Korea having the highest possible score of 100, Taiwan 93 and Japan 88. They are moderate in Eastern and Western Europe, and low in the Anglo countries, Africa and in Latin America. However, there is less data about this dimension. Individualism (IDV) is high in the US (91), Australia (90), and Great Britain (89). Contrarily Hong Kong and Serbia (25), Malaysia (26), and Portugal (27) are considered to be collectivists. There is even less data about the sixth dimension. Indulgence scores are highest in Latin America, parts of Africa, the Anglo world and Nordic Europe; restraint is mostly found in East Asia and Eastern Europe. Correlations of values with other country differences Researchers have grouped some countries together by comparing countries' value scores with other country difference such as geographical proximity, shared language, related historical background, similar religious beliefs and practices, common philosophical influences, and identical political systems; in other words, everything which is implied by the definition of a nation's culture. For example, low power distance is associated with consultative political practices and income equity, whereas high power distance is correlated with unequal income distribution, as well as bribery and corruption in domestic politics. Individualism is positively correlated with social mobility, national wealth, or the quality of government. As a country becomes richer, its culture becomes more individualistic. Another example of correlation was drawn by the Sigma Two Group in 2003, who presented a correlation between countries' cultural dimensions and their predominant religion. "Predominant" is here defined as over 50% of the country's population identifying as a member of that religion, based on the World Factbook 2002. On average, predominantly Catholic countries show very high uncertainty avoidance, relatively high power distance, moderate masculinity and relatively low individualism, whereas predominantly atheist countries (not to be confused with Atheism) have low uncertainty avoidance, very high power distance, moderate masculinity, and very low individualism. Coelho (2011) found inverse correlations between rates of specific kinds of innovation in manufacturing companies and the percentage of large companies per country as well as the employment of a specific kind of manufacturing strategy. The quantification of cultural dimensions enables people to make cross-regional comparisons and form an image of the differences between not just countries but entire regions. For example, the cultural model of the Mediterranean countries is dominated by high levels of acceptance of inequalities, with uncertainty aversion influencing their choices. With regard to individualism, Mediterranean countries tend to be characterized by moderate levels of individualistic behavior. The same applies to masculinity. Future orientation places Mediterranean countries in a middle ranking, and they show a preference for indulgence values. Power distance index is positively correlated with the ratio of companies with process innovation only over the companies with any of the three types of innovation considered in the country (determinant of correlation: 28%). Hence in countries with higher power distance, innovative manufacturing companies are somewhat more bound to resort to process innovations. Power distance index occurs more often in technological societies with a representative government and a good basic education system, whereas high PDI is associated with economic inequality. Applications of the model Importance of cultural-difference awareness Instead of the convergence phenomena experts expected with information technology proliferation (the "global village culture"), cultural differences are still significant today and diversity has tended to increase. So, in order to be able to have respectful cross-cultural relations, we have to be aware of these cultural differences. With this model, Geert Hofstede shed light on these differences. The tool can be used to give a general overview and an approximate understanding of other cultures, what to expect from them and how to behave towards groups from other countries. Practical applications of theory Geert Hofstede is perhaps the best known sociologist of culture and anthropologist in the context of applications for understanding international business. Many articles and research papers refer to his publications, with over 26,000 citations to his 2001 book Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations (which is an updated version of his first publication). The five dimensions model is widely used in many domains of human social life, and particularly in the field of business. Practical applications were developed almost immediately. International communication In business it is commonly agreed that communication is one of the primary concerns. So, for professionals who work internationally; people who interact daily with other people from different countries within their company or with other companies abroad; Hofstede's model gives insights into other cultures. In fact, cross-cultural communication requires being aware of cultural differences because what may be considered perfectly acceptable and natural in one country, can be confusing or even offensive in another. All the levels in communication are affected by cultural dimensions: verbals (words and language itself), non-verbals (body language, gestures) and etiquette do's and don'ts (clothing, gift-giving, dining, customs and protocol). This is also valid for written communication, as explained in William Wardrobe's essay Beyond Hofstede: Cultural applications for communication with Latin American Businesses. International negotiation In international negotiations, communication style, expectation, issue ranking and goals will change according to the negotiators' countries of origin. If applied properly, an understanding of cultural dimensions should increase success in negotiations and reduce frustration and conflicts. For example, in a negotiation between Chinese and Canadians, the Canadian negotiators may want to reach an agreement and sign a contract, whereas the Chinese negotiators may want to spend more time for non-business activities, small-talk and hospitality with preferences for protocol and form in order to first establish the relationship. "When negotiating in Western countries, the objective is to work toward a target of mutual understanding and agreement and 'shake-hands' when that agreement is reached – a cultural signal of the end of negotiations and the start of 'working together'. In Middle Eastern countries much negotiation takes place leading into the 'agreement', signified by shaking hands. However, the deal is not complete in the Middle Eastern culture. In fact, it is a cultural sign that 'serious' negotiations are just beginning." International management These considerations are also true in international management and cross-cultural leadership. Decisions taken have to be based on the country's customs and values. When working in international companies, managers may provide training to their employees to make them sensitive to cultural differences, develop nuanced business practices, with protocols across countries. Hofstede's dimensions offer guidelines for defining culturally acceptable approaches to corporate organizations. Applying Hofstede's dimensions of culture, one can tailor management strategies in international settings by recognizing the spectrum of individualism and collectivism. For example, in collectivist societies, leaders who promote team unity and collective effort are likely to see better performance. In contrast, management that values and encourages individual initiative and responsibility aligns well with individualistic cultures, leading to greater effectiveness in those settings. As a part of the public domain, Geert Hofstede's work is used by numerous consultancies worldwide. International marketing The six-dimension model is very useful in international marketing because it defines national values not only in business context but in general. Marieke de Mooij has studied the application of Hofstede's findings in the field of global branding, advertising strategy and consumer behavior. As companies try to adapt their products and services to local habits and preferences they have to understand the specificity of their market. For example, if you want to market cars in a country where the uncertainty avoidance is high, you should emphasize their safety, whereas in other countries you may base your advertisement on the social image they give you. Cell phone marketing is another interesting example of the application of Hofstede's model for cultural differences: if you want to advertise cell phones in China, you may show a collective experience whereas in the United States you may show how an individual uses it to save time and money. The variety of application of Hofstede's abstract theory is so wide that it has even been translated in the field of web designing in which you have to adapt to national preferences according to cultures' values. Incorporating Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) into international marketing, particularly in the travel and tourism sector, helps in crafting culturally congruent strategies. For regions exhibiting high UAI, tourism promotions could focus on structured travel experiences like guided tours and fixed itineraries to appeal to the local preference for predictability. Conversely, in low UAI cultures, advertisements may showcase more spontaneous and flexible travel options, catering to their comfort with ambiguity. This application of Hofstede's research ensures that marketing messages align with cultural norms, potentially increasing their effectiveness. International transportation The application of Hofstede's cultural dimensions extends to the field of international transportation, influencing how transportation systems cater to urban travel behaviors. The Individualism/Collectivism scale is particularly insightful in this context. In societies that lean towards individualism, there is a tendency to design urban planning frameworks that favor the use of personal vehicles, often resulting in the development of expansive road networks. On the other hand, collectivist societies tend to prioritize the establishment of public transportation networks that facilitate group travel. By incorporating an understanding of these cultural tendencies, urban planners and policymakers can create transportation infrastructures that are not only efficient but also culturally attuned. This approach is instrumental for cities aiming to enhance traffic flow and mitigate congestion, ensuring that the transportation systems reflect the societal values and preferences. Limitations of Hofstede's model Even though Hofstede's model is generally accepted as the most comprehensive framework of national cultures' values by those studying business culture, its validity and its limitations have been extensively criticized. The most cited critique is McSweeney. Hofstede replied to that critique and McSweeney responded. Also Ailon deconstructed Hofstede's book Culture's Consequences by mirroring it against its own assumptions and logic. Ailon finds inconsistencies at the level of both theory and methodology and cautions against an uncritical reading of Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Hofstede replied to that critique and Ailon responded. Questionable choice of national level Aside from Hofstede's six cultural dimensions, there are other factors on which culture can be analyzed. There are other levels for assessing culture besides the level of the nation-state. These levels are overlooked often because of the nature of the construction of these levels. There is sampling discrepancy that disqualifies the survey from being authoritative on organizations, or societies, or nations as the interviews involved sales and engineering personnel with few, if any, women and undoubtedly fewer social minorities participating (Moussetes, 2007). Even if country indices were used to control for wealth, latitude, population size, density and growth; privileged males working as engineers or sales personnel in one of the elite organizations of the world, pioneering one of the first multinational projects in history, cannot be claimed to represent their nations. Individual level: cultural dimensions versus individual personalities Hofstede acknowledges that the cultural dimensions he identified, as culture and values, are social constructions, which are the ideas in the world developed by people, and can differ between the different groups and change as time goes by(Burr & Dick, 2017). They are tools meant to be used in practical applications. Generalizations about one country’s culture are helpful, but they have to be regarded just as guidelines, and they do not necessarily apply to everyone. They are group-level dimensions which describe national averages which apply to the population in its entirety. For example, a Japanese person can be very comfortable in changing situations whereas on average, Japanese people have high uncertainty avoidance. There are still exceptions to the rule. Hofstede's theory can be contrasted with its equivalence at individual level: the trait theory about human personality. Variations on the typologies of collectivism and individualism have been proposed (Triandis, 1995; Gouveia and Ros, 2000). Self-expression and individualism usually increase with economic growth (Inglehart, 1997) independent of any culture, and can help small populations faced with outside competition for resources. (Some examples do exist of collectivist cultures that experienced rapid economic growth yet held on to their collectivist culture, such as the citizens of United Arab Emirates "United Arab Emirates Hofstede Insights". Retrieved 8 June 2020. and other GCC nations). Entitled individuals in positions of power embrace autonomy even if they live in a "collective" culture. Therefore, they might not really inform us at all about any particular organizational dynamic, nor do they inform about the organizational and individual variations within similar socio-economic circumstances. Individual aggregate needs careful separation from nation aggregate (Smith et al., 2008). Whereas individuals are the basic subject of psychological analysis (Smith, 2004), the socialization of individuals and their interaction with society is a matter to be studied at the level of families, peers, neighborhoods, schools, cities, and nations each with its own statistical imprint of culture (Smith, 2004). S. Schwartz controlled his theory “Schwartz theory of basic values,” which indicates that ten personal values are influenced by individual’s inner motivation(Schwartz, 2022), with GNP and a social index, leading to his proposal of differentiated individual and nation indices of itemized values (Schwartz, 1992; 1994) for cross-cultural comparison. The assumed "isomorphism of constructs" has been central to deciding how to use and understand culture in the managerial sciences (Van de Vijver et al. 2008; Fischer, 2009). As no individual can create his/her discourse and sense-making process in isolation to the rest of society, individuals are poor candidates for cultural sense-making. Postmodern criticism rejects the possibility of any self-determining individual because the unitary, personal self is an illusion of contemporary society evidenced by the necessary reproductions and simulations in language and behavior that individuals engage in to sustain membership in any society (Baudrillard, 1983; Alvesson & Deetz, 2006). Organizational level Within and across countries, individuals are also parts of organizations such as companies. Hofstede acknowledges that "the […] dimensions of national cultures are not relevant for comparing organizations within the same country". In contrast with national cultures embedded in values, organizational cultures are embedded in practices. From 1985 to 1987, Hofstede's institute IRIC (Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation) has conducted a separate research project in order to study organizational culture. Including 20 organizational units in two countries (Denmark and the Netherlands), six different dimensions of practices, or communities of practice have been identified: Process-Oriented vs. Results-Oriented Employee-Oriented vs. Job-Oriented Parochial vs. Professional Open System vs. Closed System Loose Control vs. Tight Control Pragmatic vs. Normative Managing international organizations involves understanding both national and organizational cultures. Communities of practice across borders are significant for multinationals in order to hold the company together. Occupational level Within the occupational level, there is a certain degree of values and convictions that people hold with respect to the national and organizational cultures they are part of. The culture of management as an occupation has components from national and organizational cultures. This is an important distinction from the organizational level. Gender level When describing culture, gender differences are largely not taken into consideration. However, there are certain factors that are useful to analyze in the discussion of cross-cultural communication. According to Hofstede's model, men's culture differs greatly from women's culture within each society. Although men and women can often perform the same duties from a technical standpoint, there are often situations to which each gender has a different response. In situations where one gender responds in an alternative manner to their prescribed roles, the other sex may not even accept their deviant gender role. The level of reactions experienced by people exposed to foreign cultures can be compared similarly to the reactions of gender behaviors of the opposite sex. The degree of gender differentiation in a country depends primarily on the culture within that nation and its history. Hofstede's masculine-feminine dichotomy divides organizations into those exhibiting either compassion, solidarity, collectivism and universalism, or competition, autonomy, merit, results and responsibility. The bipolar model follows typical distinctions made between liberal or socialist political philosophy for Hofstede. Although liberal economies value assertiveness, autonomy, materialism, aggression, money, competition and rationalism, welfare socialism seeks protection and provision for the weak, greater involvement with the environment, an emphasis on nature and well-being, and a strong respect for quality of life and collective responsibilities. According to Gilligan, this dimension is eurocentric and sexist. During the period of Hofstede's study, 'masculine' societies (USA, Japan, Germany) happened to be the most successful economically, while the successful 'feminine' societies (Scandinavia, Costa Rica, France, Thailand) had smaller populations, less economic scale, and/or strong collective or welfare philosophies. See also Cross-cultural communication Cultural relativism GLOBE study on Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness Intercultural communication Group cohesiveness National character studies Trompenaars's model of national culture differences Uncertainty reduction theory References Further reading , Read it Alvesson, M. & Deetz, S. (2006). Critical Theory and Postmodernism Approaches to Organizational Studies. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, T. Lawrence, W. Nord (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Organization Studies (2nd ed). London: Sage, 255–283. Coelho, D. A. (2011). A study on the relation between manufacturing strategy, company size, country culture and product and process innovation in Europe. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 7(2), 152–165. Fischer, R. (2009). Where is Culture in Cross-Cultural Research?: An Outline of a Multilevel Research Process for Measuring Culture as a Shared Meaning System. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 9: 25–48. Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Inglehart, Ronald (1997). Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Inglehart, Ronald & Miguel Basanez, Jaime Diez-Medrano, Loek Halman and Ruud Luijkx (2004) (eds.) Human Beliefs and Values: A Cross-Cultural Sourcebook based on the 1999–2002 values surveys. Mexico, Siglo Beintiuno editors. Moussetes, A. (2007). The absence of women's voices in Hofstede's Cultural Consequences: A postcolonial reading. Women in Management Review, 22, 443–445. Schwartz, S.H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M.Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, New York: Academic Press, 25, 1–65. Schwartz S.H. (1994). Beyond Individualism and Collectivism: New Cultural Dimensions of Values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S., Choi, C. & Yoon, G. (Eds.), Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method and application. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 85–119. Schwartz, S.H. (2007). Value Orientations: Measurement, Antecedents and Consequences across Nations. In J. Jowell, C. Roberts, R. Fitzgerald, G. Eva (Eds.), Measuring Attitudes Cross-Nationally: Lessons from the European Social Survey. London: Sage. Smith, P.B. (2004). Nations, Cultures and Individuals : New Perspectives on Old Dilemmas. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 6–12. Smith, P. (2008). Indigenous Aspects of Management. In P. Smith, Peterson, M., Thomas, D. (Eds.), The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management Research. Sage, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 319–332. Smith, P., Peterson, M., Thomas, D. (Eds.). (2008). The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management Research. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. Triandis, H.C. (1995). Individualism and Collectivism. Boulder CO: Westview Press. Van de Vijver, F.J.R., van Hemert, D.A., Poortinga, Y.H. (Eds.). (2008). Individuals and Cultures in Multilevel Analysis. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. External links Geert Hofstede's academic website The Hofstede Centre Cross-cultural psychology Organizational culture	0.765528	0.998801	0.764611
Human communication	Human communication, or anthroposemiotics, is a field of study dedicated to understanding how humans communicate. Humans' ability to communicate with one another would not be possible without an understanding of what we are referencing or thinking about. Because humans are unable to fully understand one another's perspective, there needs to be a creation of commonality through a shared mindset or viewpoint. The field of communication is very diverse, as there are multiple layers of what communication is and how we use its different features as human beings. Humans have communicatory abilities other animals do not. For example, humans are able to communicate about time and place as though they are solid objects. Humans communicate to request help, inform others, and share attitudes for bonding. Communication is a joint activity largely dependent on the ability to maintain common attention. We share relevant background knowledge and joint experience in order to communicate content and coherence in exchanges. The evolution of human communication took place over a long period of time. Humans evolved from simple hand gestures to the use of spoken language. Most face-to-face communication requires visually reading and following along with the other person, offering gestures in reply, and maintaining eye contact throughout the interaction. Category The current study of human communication can be branched off into two major categories; rhetorical and relational. The focus of rhetorical communication is primarily on the study of influence; the art of rhetorical communication is based on the idea of persuasion. The relational approach examines communication from a transactional perspective; two or more people interact to reach an agreed perspective. In its early stages, rhetoric was developed to help ordinary people prove their claims in court; this shows how persuasion is key in this form of communication. Aristotle stated that effective rhetoric is based on argumentation. As explained in the text, rhetoric involves a dominant party and a submissive party or a party that succumbs to that of the most dominant party. While the rhetorical approach stems from Western societies, the relational approach stems from Eastern societies. Eastern societies hold higher standards for cooperation, which makes sense as to why they would sway more toward a relational approach for that matter. "Maintaining valued relationships is generally seen as more important than exerting influence and control over others". "The study of human communication today is more diversified than ever before in its history". Classification of human communication can be found in the workplace, especially for group work. Co-workers need to argue with each other to gain the best solutions for their projects, while they also need to nurture their relationships to maintain their collaboration. For example, in their group work, they may use the communication tactic of "saving face". Spoken language involves speech, mostly human quality to acquire. For example, chimpanzees are humans' closest relatives, but they are unable to produce speech. Chimpanzees are the closest living species to humans. Chimpanzees are closer to humans, in genetic and evolutionary terms, than they are to gorillas or other apes. The fact that a chimpanzee will not acquire speech, even when raised in a human home with all the environmental input of a normal human child, is one of the central puzzles we face when contemplating the biology of our species. In repeated experiments, starting in the 1910s, chimpanzees raised in close contact with humans have universally failed to speak, or even to try to speak, despite their rapid progress in many other intellectual and motor domains. Each normal human is born with a capacity to rapidly and unerringly acquire their mother tongue, with little explicit teaching or coaching. In contrast, no nonhuman primate has spontaneously produced even a word of the local language. Definition Human communication can be defined as any Shared Symbolic Interaction. Shared, because each communication process also requires a system of signification (the Code) as its necessary condition, and if the encoding is not known to all those who are involved in the communication process, there is no understanding and therefore fails the same notification. Symbolic, because there is a need for a signifier or sign, which allows the transmission of the message. Interaction, since it involves two or more people, resulting in a further increase of knowledge on the part of all those who interact. Types Human communication can be subdivided into a variety of types: Intrapersonal communication (communication with oneself): This very basic form of information, is the standard and foundation, of all things communication. This communication with ourselves showcases the process in which we think on our previous and ongoing actions, as well as what we choose to understand from other types of communications and events. Our intrapersonal communication, may be shown and expressed to others by our reactions to certain outcomes, through simple acts of gestures and expressions. Interpersonal communication (communication between two or more people) - Communication relies heavily on understanding the processes and situations that you are in, in order to communicate effectively. It is more than simple behaviors and strategies, on how and what it means to communicate with another person. Interpersonal communication reflects the personality and characteristics, of a person, seen through the type of dialect, form, and content, a person chooses to communicate with. As simple as this is, interpersonal communication can only be correctly done if both persons involved in the communication, understand what it is to be human beings, and share similar qualities of what it means to be humans. It involves acts of trust and openness, as well as a sense of respect and care towards what the other person is talking about. Nonverbal communication: The messages we send to each other, in ways that cover the act of word-by-mouth. These actions may be done through the use of our facial features and expressions, arms and hands, the tone of our voice, or even our very appearance can display a certain type of message. Speech: Allowing words to make for an understanding as to what people are feeling and expressing. It allows a person to get a direct thought out to another by using their voice to create words that then turn into a sentence, which in turn then turns into a conversation to get a message across. "What is spoken or expressed, as in conversation; uttered or written words: seditious speech. A talk or public address, or a written copy of this: The senator gave a speech. The language or dialect of a nation or region: American speech. One's manner or style of speaking: the mayor's mumbling speech. The study of oral communication, speech sounds, and vocal physiology". Conversation: Allows however many people to say words back and forth to each other that will equal into a meaningful rhythm called conversation. It defines ideas between people, teams, or groups. To have a conversation requires at least two people, making it possible to share the values and interests of each person. Conversation makes it possible to get messages across to other people, whether that be an important message or just a simple message. "Strong conversation skills will virtually guarantee that you will be better understood by most people" Visual communication: The type of communication where it involves using your eyes that allow you to read signs, charts, graphs, and pictures that have words or phrases and or pictures showing and describing what needs to be portrayed to get information across. Using visual communication allows for people to live daily lives without constantly needing to speak. A simple example is driving in a car and seeing a red sign that says "stop" on it; as a driver, you are using visual communication to read the sign understand what is being said and stop your car to not get into an accident. "If carried out properly, visual communication has various benefits. In the information era and fast-paced society in which time is limited, visual communication help to communicate ideas faster and better. Generally speaking, it offers these benefits: instant conveyance, ease of understanding, cross-cultural communication and generation of enjoyment". Writing: What I am forming together right now is called writing where it revolves around putting words together to create a sentence that flows into a sentence of meaning. Words are letters that are put together to transform a word that allows the person to understand and follow along with what is being portrayed. Writing requires us to use our hands and paper to form words and letters to create the flow of a message or conversation. Writing can also be done in the form of typing which is what you are seeing here, forming words together on a computer. "Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation, and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form". Mail: This is in the form of postage which is in a letter or package. When someone uses the post office service requiring them to send a letter that they wrote with pencil and paper or they are using the postage service to send an object to someone out of state. Makes for an easier process to send a loved one messages or objects that do not live next to you or within a 20 min drive distance. "Material (such as letters and packages) sent or carried in a postal system". For an example a loved one is in the military and is out of state, to let them know what is going on in your life and to also ask how they are doing you send them a letter via the postal service to get that message to them at their location. Workers at the postal service get the letters and packages across states and countries. Mass media: "The means of communication reaching a large number of people such as the population of a nation through certain channels like film, radio, books, music, or television in that the consumer participation stays passive with comparison to interactive network platforms". The television allows for getting messages to a lot of people in different locations in a matter of minutes making it for the fastest communication skill. Telecommunication: A style of communication that allows humans to understand conversation, speech, and or visual communication through technology. Whether you are listening to the radio, using your eyes to watch television, or reading words in an email that is Telecommunication. This type of communication allows for a faster and more efficient process for a message to get across to another one from anywhere you are. Location is not a problem for this type of communication. "The transmission media in telecommunication have evolved through numerous stages of technology, from beacons and other visual signals (such as smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs), to electrical cable and electromagnetic radiation, including light. Such transmission paths are often divided into communication channels, which afford the advantages of multiplexing multiple concurrent communication sessions. Telecommunication is often used in its plural form". Organizational communication (communication within organizations): Defined by structure and planning, making words, phrases, and images flow into direction and meaning. "The construct of organizational communication structure is defined by its 5 main dimensions: relationships, entities, contexts, configuration, and temporal stability". Making it easier to work into groups of different culture and thoughts. Mass communication: This type of communication involves the process of communicating with known and unknown audiences, through the use of technology or other mediums. There is hardly ever an opportunity for the audience to respond directly to those who sent the message, there is a divide/separation between the sender and receiver. There are typically four players in the process of mass communication, these players are those who send the message, the message itself, the medium in which the message is sent, and those who receive the message. These four components come together to be the communication we see and are a part of the most, as the media helps in distributing these messages to the world every day. Group dynamics (communication within groups): Allows ideas to be created within a group of people, allowing many minds to think together to form and create meaning. "The interactions that influence the attitudes and behavior of people when they are grouped with others through either choice or accidental circumstances". Cross-cultural communication (communication across cultures): This allows different people from different locations, gender, and culture, in a group to feed off of each other's ideas to form something much bigger and better. "Culture is a way of thinking and living whereby one picks up a set of attitudes, values, norms, and beliefs that are taught and reinforced by other members in the group". Face-to-Face Communication Face-to-face interaction is social communication carried out with other present individuals without any mediating technology. It is defined as the mutual influence of individuals’ direct physical presence with their body language and verbal language. It is one of the basic elements of a social system, forming a significant part of socialization and experience throughout an individual's lifetime. It is also central to the development of groups and organizations composed of those individuals. Face-to-face interaction not only allows people to communicate more directly, but has been shown to improve mental health and can reduce various mental illnesses, most commonly, depression and anxiety. Studies on Face-to-Face Communication Most research and studies on face-to-face interaction is done via direct observation; the goal is to explain the regularities in the actions observed in these interactions. The study of face-to-face interaction examines its organization, rules, and strategy. It has been of interest to scholars since at least the early 20th century. One of the earliest social science scholars to analyze this type of interaction was sociologist Georg Simmel. He defined a society as a number of individuals intertwined by various interactions. In his 1908 book, he observed that sensory organs play an important role in interaction, discussing examples of human behavior such as eye contact. His insights were soon developed by others, including Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead. Their theories became known as symbolic interactionism; and have since opened the door to a variety and wide range of other theories. Symbolic interactionists are more concerned with subjective meaning rather than objective structure. They focus on how individuals interpret subjective meaning, which leads them to understand how that individual views the world as well as how the repetition of meaningful interactions among individuals is the groundwork to define the formation of society. By the mid-20th century, there was already a sizable scholarly literature on various aspects of face-to-face interaction. Works on this topic have been published by scholars such as Erving Goffman and Eliot Chapple. Mediated Communication Historically, mediated communication was much rarer than face-to-face. Even though humans have possessed the technology to communicate in space and time (e.g. writing) for millennia, the majority of the world's population lacked the necessary skills, such as literacy, to use them. This began to change with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg that led to the spread of printed texts and rising literacy in Europe from the 15th century. Since then, face-to-face interaction has begun to steadily lose ground to mediated communication. Compared with Mediated Communication Face-to-face communication has been however described as less preferable to mediated communication in some situations, particularly where time and geographical distance are an issue. For example, in maintaining a long-distance friendship, face-to-face communication was only the fourth most common way of maintaining ties, after telephone, email, and instant messaging. Despite the advent of many new information and communication technologies, face-to-face interaction is still widespread and popular and has a better performance in many different areas. Nardi and Whittaker (2002) pointed that face-to-face communication is still the golden standard among the mediated technologies based on many theorists, particularly in the context of the media richness theory where face-to-face communication is described as the most efficient and informational one. This is explained because face-to-face communication engages more human senses than mediated communication. Face-to-face interaction is also a useful way for people when they want to win over others based on verbal communication, or when they try to settle disagreements. Besides, it does help a lot for teachers as one effective teaching method. It is also easier to keep a stronger and more active political connection with others by face-to-face interaction. In the end, there are both pros and cons to each form of communication. Several studies compared the two groups in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each. One group was communicating only through face-to-face communication, while the other was communicating only through computer-mediated communication. These studies found that computer-mediated groups perform better than face-to-face groups on idea generation tasks, while face-to-face groups excel in social emotional exchange. This is because face-to-face groups have more tension release and agreement statements, while computer-mediated groups have a tendency of giving more suggestions, opinions, and formal expressions. There is a greater equality of participation in computer-mediated groups, but there's also a higher rate of uninhibited behaviour because computer-mediated groups induce a greater loss of self-awareness. There is generally a reduced sense of social pressure in computer-mediated groups, but there is a stronger perception and sense of understanding in face-to-face groups. Face-to-Face Interactions Versus Social Media Talking to someone face to face gives a person non-verbal cues, such as smiling, physical movement, and body positions that help people communicate. However, since social media lacks face-to-face communication, some individuals have adapted to blind communication when speaking online, seen through texting, commenting, and sending/receiving messages. By nature, humans are social. Social interaction is essential to survival. With recent advances in technology, such as the Internet, instant messaging, and smartphones, forms many channels and ways to interact with others. However, the human brain has evolved to adapt and keep up with this flood of mass communication. While face-to-face communication is predicted to improve quality of life, Internet and social media communication did not. The Internet opens a new realm of possibilities in connecting with people around the globe with inherent factors in online communication that limit its ability to promote the same level of social satisfaction as traditional face-to-face communication. There are significant differences between online and face-to-face communication, leading to online communication being less emotionally satisfying and fulfilling than face-to-face communication. Social interaction on the internet and through social media platforms makes the interaction considerably difficult to distinguish nonverbal cues. Transitive memory development is also brought by face-to-face communication, which is more effective than online communication. While technology has been able to bring communities and people closer together, humans have a responsibility to cultivate those connections and nurture them through old-fashioned face-to-face communication. As a human species, continuing to connect with others without hiding behind electronic screens is crucial. Cross Multicultures Although there are increasingly virtual communications in large transnational companies with the development of Internet, face-to-face interaction is still a crucial tool in communication between employees and staff workers. Face-to-face interaction is beneficial to understand underlying truths that are presented through emotion and body language, especially when there are language and cultural differences present amongst individuals. Cooperation in a multicultural team requires knowledge sharing. Ambiguous knowledge which arises frequently in a multicultural team is inevitable because of the different language habits. Face-to-face communication is better than other virtual communications for the ambiguous information. The reason is that face-to-face communication can provide non-verbal messages including gestures, eye contact, touch, and body movement. However, the virtual communications, such as email, only have verbal information which will make team members more misunderstanding of the knowledge due to their different comprehension of the same words. On the other hand, the understanding of professional standards shows no difference between face-to-face interaction and virtual communications. Van der Zwaard and Bannink (2014) examined the effect of video call compared with face-to-face communication on the negotiation of meaning between native speakers and non-native speakers of English. Face-to-face interaction provides individuals who use English as the second language both intentional and unintentional actions which could enhance the comprehension of the chat in English. Individuals are more honest in understanding when they are in face-to-face interaction than in video call due to the potential loss of face issues for the non-native language speakers during the video call. As a result, face-to-face interaction has a more positive influence on the negotiation of meaning than virtual communications such as the video call. Important figures See also General semantics History of communication Mass communication Mass media Outline of communication Pragmatics Intercultural communication Cross-cultural communication Proactive communications References Further reading Richard Budd & Brent Ruben, Human Communication Handbook. Budd & Ruben, Approaches to Human Communication. How Human Communication Fails (Tampere University of Technology) .	0.773407	0.988612	0.764599
Gamification of learning	The gamification of learning is an educational approach that seeks to motivate students by using video game design and game elements in learning environments. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement by capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning. Gamification, broadly defined, is the process of defining the elements which comprise games, make those games fun, and motivate players to continue playing, then using those same elements in a non-game context to influence behavior. In other words, gamification is the introduction of game elements into a traditionally non-game situation. There are two forms of gamification: structural, which means no changes to subject matter, and the altered content method that adds subject matter. Games applied in learning can be considered serious games, or games where the learning experience is centered around serious stories. A serious story needs to be both "impressive in quality" and "part of a thoughtful process" to achieve learning goals. In educational contexts, examples of desired student behavior as a result of gamification include attending class, focusing on meaningful learning tasks, and taking initiative. Gamification of learning does not involve students in designing and creating their own games or in playing commercially produced video games, making it distinguishable from game-based learning, or using educational games to learn a concept. Within game-based learning initiatives, students might use Gamestar Mechanic or GameMaker to create their own video game or explore and create 3D worlds in Minecraft. In these examples, the learning agenda is encompassed within the game itself. Some authors contrast gamification of learning with game-based learning. They claim that gamification occurs only when learning happens in a non-game context, such as a school classroom. Under this classification, when a series of game elements is arranged into a "game layer," or a system which operates in coordination with learning in regular classrooms, then gamification of learning occurs. Other examples of gamified content include games that are created to induce learning. Game elements that can facilitate learning Some elements of games that may be used to motivate learners and facilitate learning include: Progress mechanics (points/badges/leaderboards, or PBL's) Narrative and characters Player control Immediate feedback Opportunities for collaborative problem solving Scaffolded learning with increasing challenges Opportunities for mastery, and leveling up Social connection A more complete taxonomy of game elements used in educational contexts divide 21 game elements into five dimensions When a classroom incorporates the use of some of these elements, that environment can be considered "gamified". There is no distinction as to how many elements need to be included to officially constitute gamification, but a guiding principle is that gamification takes into consideration the complex system of reasons a person chooses to act, and not just one single factor. Progress mechanics, which need not make use of advanced technology, are often thought of as constituting a gamified system However, used in isolation, these points and opportunities to earn achievements are not necessarily effective motivators for learning. Engaging video games which can keep players playing for hours on end do not maintain players' interest by simply offering the ability to earn points and beat levels. Rather, the story that carries players along, the chances for players to connect and collaborate with others, the immediate feedback, the increasing challenges, and the powerful choices given to players about how to proceed throughout the game, are immensely significant factors in sustained engagement. Business initiatives designed to use gamification to retain and recruit customers, but do not incorporate a creative and balanced approach to combining game elements, may be destined to fail. Similarly, in learning contexts, the unique needs of each set of learners, along with the specific learning objectives relevant to that context must inform the combination of game elements to shape a compelling gamification system that has the potential to motivate learners. A system of game elements which operates in the classroom is explicit, and consciously experienced by the students in the classroom. There is no hidden agenda by which teachers attempt to coerce or trick students into doing something. Students still make autonomous choices to participate in learning activities. The progress mechanics used in the gamified system can be thought of as lighting the way for learners as they progress, and the other game mechanics and elements of game design are set up as an immersive system to support and maximize students' learning. Benefits Gamification initiatives in learning contexts acknowledge that large numbers of school-aged children play video games, which shapes their identity as people and as learners. While the world of gaming used to be skewed heavily toward male players, recent statistics show that slightly more than half of videogame players are male: in the United States, 59% male, 41% female, and 52% male, 48% female in Canada. Within games and other digital media, students experience opportunities for autonomy, competence and relatedness, and these affordances are what they have come to expect from such environments. Providing these same opportunities in the classroom environment is a way to acknowledge students' reality, and to acknowledge that this reality affects who they are as learners. Incorporating elements from games into classroom scenarios is a way to provide students with opportunities to act autonomously, to display competence, and to learn in relationship to others. Game elements are a familiar language that children speak, and an additional channel through which teachers can communicate with their students. Game designer Jane McGonigal characterizes video game players as urgent optimists who are part of a social fabric, engaged in blissful productivity, and on the lookout for epic meaning. If teachers can successfully organize their classrooms and curriculum activities to incorporate the elements of games which facilitate such confidence, purpose and integrated sense of mission, students may become engrossed in learning and collaborating such that they do not want to stop. The dynamic combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators is a powerful force which, if educational contexts can adapt from video games, may increase student motivation, and student learning. Some of the potential benefits of successful gamification initiatives in the classroom include: giving students ownership of their learning opportunities for identity work through taking on alternate selves freedom to fail and try again without negative repercussions chances to increase fun and joy in the classroom opportunities for differentiated instruction making learning visible providing a manageable set of subtasks and tasks inspiring students to discover intrinsic motivators for learning Referring to how video games provide increasingly difficult challenges to players, game designer Amy Jo Kim has suggested that every educational scenario could be set up to operate this way. This game mechanic which involves tracking players' learning in the game, and responding by raising the difficulty level of tasks at just the right moment, keeps players from becoming unnecessarily frustrated with tasks that are too difficult, as well as keeps players from becoming bored with tasks that are too easy. This pacing fosters continued engagement and interest which can mean that learners are focused on educational tasks, and may get into a state of flow, or deeply absorbed in learning. In gamified e-learning platforms, massive amount of data are generated as a result of user interaction and action within the system. These actions and interactions can be properly sampled, recorded, and analyzed. Meaningful insights on performance behaviors and learning objectives can be useful to teachers, learners, and application developers to improve the learning. These insights can be in form of a quick feedback to learners on the learning objectives while the learner still operates within the rules of play. Data generated from games can also be used to uncover patterns and rules to improve the gamified e-learning experience. In a large systematic review of the literature regarding the application of gamification in Higher Education benefits where identified such as positive effects in student engagement, attitude, performance, and enjoyment although these are mediated by the context and design. Application Three key ways in which a classroom, course, or unit can be gamified are through changing the language, adapting the grading process, and modifying the structure of the learning environment. With regard to language, instead of referring to academic requirements with the typical associated terms, game-like names may be used instead. For example, making a course presentation might be referred to as "embarking on a quest", writing an exam might be "defeating monsters", and creating a prototype might be classed as "completing a mission". In terms of grading, the grading scheme for a course might be adapted to make use of Experience points (XP) as opposed to letter grades. Each student can begin at level one with zero points; as they progress through the course, completing missions and demonstrating learning, they earn XP. A chart can be developed to illustrate how many XP is required to earn a letter grade. For example, earning 1500 XP might translate to a C, while 2000 would earn a B, and 2500, an A. Some teachers use XP, as well as health points (HP) and knowledge points (KP) to motivate students in the classroom, but do not connect these points with the letter grades students get on a report card. Instead these points are connected with earning virtual rewards such as badges or trophies. The structure of a course or unit may be adapted in various ways to incorporate elements of gamification; these adaptations can affect the role of the student, the role of the teacher, and role of the learning environment. The role of a student in a gamified environment might be to adopt an avatar and a game name with which they navigate through their learning tasks. Students may be organized into teams or guilds, and be invited to embark on learning quests with their fellow guild members. They may be encouraged to help other guild members, as well as those in other guilds, if they have mastered a learning task ahead of others. Students tend to express themselves as one of the following game-player types; player (motivated by extrinsic rewards), socialiser (motivated by relatedness), free spirit (motivated by autonomy), achiever (motivated by mastery) and philanthropist (motivated by purpose). The role of the teacher is to design a gamified application, embedding game dynamics and mechanics that appeal to the target group (i.e. students) and provide the type of rewards that are attractive to the motivation of the majority. Therefore, it is important teachers know their students so they are able to best design a gamified program that not only interests the students but also one in which matches the specific learning goals that hit on elements of knowledge from the curriculum. The teacher also needs to responsibly track student achievements with a web-based platform, such as Open Badges, the WordPress plug-in GameOn or an online spreadsheet. The teacher may also publish a leaderboard online which illustrates the students who have earned the most XP, or reached the highest level of play. The teacher may define the parameters of the classroom "game", giving the ultimate learning goal a name, defining the learning tasks which make up the unit or the course, and specifying the rewards for completing those tasks. The other important role of the teacher is to provide encouragement and guidance for students as they navigate the gamified environment. The role of a gamified learning environment may be structured to provide an overarching narrative which functions as a context for all the learning activities. For example, a narrative might involve an impending zombie attack which can be fended off or a murder mystery which can be solved, ultimately, through the process of learning. Learning is the focus of each gamified system. Sometimes the narrative is related to the content being learned, for example, in the case of a disease outbreak which can be stopped through learning biology. In some cases the narrative is unrelated, as in a case of music students who learn to play pieces as the means to collectively climb up to the top of a mountain, experiencing various challenges and setbacks along the way. Other ways in which gaming elements are part of the role of the learning environment include theme music played at opportune times, a continuous feedback loop which, if not instantaneous, is as quick as possible, a variety of individual and collaborative challenges, and the provision of choice as to which learning activities are undertaken, how they will be undertaken, or in which order they will be undertaken. History Without adding extra gaming elements to the classroom, schooling already contains some elements which are analogous to games. Since the 1700s, school has presented opportunities for students to earn marks for handing in assignments and completing exams, which are a form of reward points. Since the early 1900s, with the advent of psychoanalytic theory, reward management programs were developed and can still be seen in schools. For example, many teachers set up reward programs in their classrooms which allow students to earn free time, school supplies or treats for finishing homework or following classroom rules. Teaching machines with gamification features were developed by cyberneticist Gordon Pask from 1956 onwards, after he was granted a patent for an "Apparatus for assisting an operator in performing a skill". Based on this patent, Pask and Robin McKinnon-Wood built SAKI – the Self-Adaptive Keyboard Instructor – for teaching students how to use the Hollerith key punch, a data entry device using punched cards. The punched card was common until the 1970s and there was huge demand for skilled operators. SAKI treats the student as a "black box", building a probabilistic model of their performance as it goes. The machine stores the response times for different exercises, repeating exercises for which the operator has the slowest average response time, and increasing the difficulty of exercises where the operator has performed successfully. SAKI could train an expert key-punch operator in four to six weeks, a reduction of between 30 and 50 percent over other methods. "Ideally, for an operator to perform a skill efficiently, the data presented to him should always be of sufficient complexity to maintain his interest and maintain a competitive situation, but not so complex as to discourage the operator". SAKI led to the development of teaching software such as the Mavis Beacon typing tutor, fondly remembered by students of touch-typing everywhere. While some have criticized the term "gamification" then, as simply a new name for a practice that has been used in education for many years, gamification does not refer to a one-dimensional system where a reward is offered for performing a certain behaviour. The gamification of learning is an approach which recently has evolved, in coordination with technological developments, to include much larger scales for gameplay, new tools, and new ways to connect people. The term gamification, coined in 2002, is not a one-dimensional reward system. Rather, it takes into consideration the variety of complex factors which make a person decide to do something; it is a multifaceted approach which takes into consideration psychology, design, strategy, and technology. One reason for the popularization of the term "gamification" is that current advancements in technology, in particular, mobile technology have allowed for the explosion of a variety of gamification initiatives in many contexts. Some of these contexts include the Starbucks and Shoppers Drug Mart loyalty programs, location-based check-in applications such as Foursquare, and mobile and web applications and tools that reward and broadcast healthy eating, drinking, and exercise habits, such as Fitocracy, BACtrack and Fitbit. These examples involve the use of game elements such as points, badges and leaderboards to motivate behavioural changes and track those changes in online platforms. The gamification of learning is related to these popular initiatives, but specifically focuses on the use of game elements to facilitate student engagement and motivation to learn. It is difficult to pinpoint when gamification, in the strict sense of the term, came to be used in educational contexts, although examples shared online by classroom teachers begin appearing in 2010. Effectiveness The research of Domínguez and colleagues about gamifying learning experiences suggests that common beliefs about the benefits obtained when using games in education can be challenged. Students who completed the gamified experience got better scores in practical assignments and in overall score, but their findings also suggest that these students performed poorly on written assignments and participated less on class activities, although their initial motivation was higher. The researchers concluded that gamification in e-learning platforms seems to have the potential to increase student motivation, but that it is not trivial to achieve that effect, as a big effort is required in the design and implementation of the experience for it to be fully motivating for participants. On the one hand, qualitative analysis of the study suggests that gamification can have a great emotional and social impact on students, as reward systems and competitive social mechanisms seem to be motivating for them. But quantitative analysis suggests that the cognitive impact of gamification on students is not very significant. Students who followed traditional exercises performed similarly in overall score than those who followed gamified exercises. Disadvantages of gamified learning were reported by 57 students who did not want to participate in the gamified experience. The most frequent reason argued by students was 'time availability'. The second most important reason were technical problems. Other reasons were that there were too many students and that they had to visit so many web pages and applications at the university that they did not want to use a new one. Another field where serious games are used to improve learning is health care. Petit dit Dariel, Raby, Ravaut and Rothan-Tondeur investigated the developing of serious games potential in nursing education. They suggest that few nursing students have long-term exposure to home-care and community situations. New pedagogical tools are needed to adequately and consistently prepare nurses for the skills they will need to care for patients outside acute care settings. Advances in information and communications technologies offer an opportunity to explore innovative pedagogical solutions that could help students develop these skills in a safe environment. Laboratory simulations with high fidelity mannequins, for example, have become an integral element in many health care curricula. A recent systematic review found evidence suggesting that the use of simulation mannequins significantly improved three outcomes integral to clinical reasoning: knowledge acquisition, critical thinking and the ability to identify deteriorating patients. In the study of Mouaheb, Fahli, Moussetad and Eljamali an American version of a serious game was investigated: Virtual University. Results showed that learning using this serious game has educational values that are based on learning concepts advocated by constructivist psycho-cognitive theories. It guarantees intrinsic motivation, generates cognitive conflicts and provides situated learning. The use of Virtual University allowed the researchers to identify the following key points: from its playfulness combined with video game technologies, the tool was able to motivate learners intrinsically; the simulation game also recreates learning situations extremely close to that of reality, especially considering the complexity, dynamism and all of the interrelations and interactions that exist within the university system. This is a major educational advantage by encouraging 1) an intense interaction that generates real cognitive or socio-cognitive conflicts, providing a solid construction of knowledge; 2) an autonomy in the learning process following a strong metacognitive activity; 3) an eventual transfer of acquired skills. In another study involving an American-based school, gamification was integrated into all its subjects. Both students and teachers indicated they derived maximum satisfaction from a gamified form of learning. However, results from standardized tests showed a slightly improved performance, and in some cases, below-average performance in comparison to other schools. Enough evidence-based research needs to be carried out to objectively measure the effectiveness of gamification of learning across varying factors. Legal restrictions Multiple legal restrictions may apply to the gamification of learning because of the difference in laws in different countries and states. However, there are common laws prevalent in most jurisdictions. Administrators and instructors must ensure the privacy rights of learners are protected. The use of Personally Identifiable Information(PII) of learners and other user-generated data should be clearly stated in a privacy policy made available to all learners. Gamified e-learning systems can make use of existing game elements such as avatars and badges. Educators should be aware of the copyright protection guiding the use of such elements and ensure they are not in violation. Permission should be obtained from the creators of existing game items under copyright protection. In some cases, educators can create their game elements for use in such gamified e-learning systems. LeapFrog hacking controversy LeapFrog, a corporation which manufactures e-learning toys, smart toys and games for children, was the subject of a hacking scandal involving its product LeapPad Ultimate, a rugged gaming and e-learning tablet featuring educational games for young users. The tablet had security errors that allowed third-parties to message users, scrape personal information from users and get into the WiFi networks of users, most of whom were minors. This led to concerns regarding pedophiles using the tablets as a way to groom potential victims. Criticism Gamification of learning has been criticized for its use of extrinsic motivators, which some teachers believe must be avoided since they have the potential to decrease intrinsic motivation for learning (see overjustification). This idea is based on research which emerged first in the early 1970s and has been recently made popular by Daniel Pink. Some teachers may criticize gamification for taking a less than serious approach to education. This may be a result of the historical distinction between work and play which perpetuates the notion that the classroom cannot be a place for games, or a place for fun. Gameplay in some views may be seen as being easy, irrelevant to learning, and applicable only to very young children. Teachers who criticize the gamification of learning might feel that it is not worth their time to implement gaming initiatives, either because they themselves are stretched thin with the number of responsibilities that they already have, or because they fear that the curriculum might not be covered if any time is spent dedicated to anything other than engagement with that curriculum. Gamification of learning has been also criticized as ineffective for certain learners and for certain situations.. Videogame theorist Ian Bogost has criticized gamification for its tendency to take a simplistic, manipulative approach which does not reflect the real quality of complex, motivational games. Educational scenarios which purport to be gamification, but only make use of progress mechanics such as points, badges and leaderboards are particularly susceptible to such criticism. Gamification in education has also raised concerns over inequity in the classroom. A lack of access to technology, students who do not like gaming, and students in large schools where the teachers do not know each student on an individual level may affect any educational benefit to come from gamification, and gamification may not be appropriate for every subject in school. For example, sensitive or controversial subject matter such as racial history or human rights may not be an appropriate space for gamification. There are growing concerns about ethical constraints surrounding implementation of gamification using ICT tools and e-learning systems. Gaming elements, like points and badges, can encourage collaboration and social competition but can also encourage aggression amongst learners. More so, the policies guiding the privacy and security of data produced in gamified e-learning systems needs to be transparent to all stakeholders including students and administrators. Teachers and students need to be aware and accept to participate in any gamified form of learning introduced in the curriculum. Any possible risks that may arise should be made available to all participants prior to their participation. Also, Educators should have an understanding of the target audience of the learners to maintain fairness. Educators need to ensure gaming elements and rules integrated in gamification design do not impair learners' participation because of their social, cultural or physical conditions. See also Educational game Game studies Gamification Incentive-centered design References Gamification Educational technology Educational video games	0.774446	0.987097	0.764454
Self-affirmation	Self-affirmation theory is a psychological theory that focuses on how individuals adapt to information or experiences that are threatening to their self-concept. Claude Steele originally popularized self-affirmation theory in the late 1980s, and it remains a well-studied theory in social psychological research. Self-affirmation theory contends that if individuals reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, they are less likely to experience distress and react defensively when confronted with information that contradicts or threatens their sense of self. Experimental investigations of self-affirmation theory suggest that self-affirmation can help individuals cope with threat or stress and that it might be beneficial for improving academic performance, health, and reducing defensiveness. Overview There are four main principles of self-affirmation theory. People try to protect their self-integrity Self-affirmation theory proposes that individuals are driven to protect their self-integrity. According to self-affirmation theory, self-integrity is one's concept of oneself as a good, moral person, who acts in ways that are in accord with cultural and social norms. Steele purported that the self is made up of different domains: roles, values, and belief systems. Roles include responsibilities a person has, such as being a parent, friend, student, or professional. Values are aspirations people live in accordance to, including things like living healthfully and treating others with respect. Belief systems include the ideologies to which a person ascribes, such as religious or political beliefs. Self-integrity can take many forms. For example, self-integrity can take the form of being independent, intelligent, a helpful member of a society, part of a family, and/or part of a group. Threats against a person's self-integrity are events or messages that imply an individual is not good or adequate in a personally relevant domain. Self-affirmation theory suggests that when individuals face threat to one of these domains, they are motivated to maintain a positive global image of themselves. Drives to protect the sense of self are often defensive Self-affirmation theory purports that when individuals are faced with information that threatens their self-integrity, the response to this information is often defensive in nature. Defensive reactions attempt to minimize the threat in order to preserve the sense of self. Examples of defensive reactions include denial, avoiding the threat, and changing one's appraisal of the event in order to make it less threatening. Self-integrity is flexible Instead of having one self-concept (e.g., I am a good parent), self-affirmation theory posits that individuals flexibly define who they are using various roles (e.g., I am a good parent, child, and worker). Having a flexible sense of self allows individuals to offset weaknesses in one domain, by highlighting the strengths in another domain. That is, if someone perceives threat to one domain, he or she can accommodate this threat by upholding a value in another domain. Self-affirmations can come from many sources. Having a flexible self-concept allows people to adapt in the face of threat. Actions that promote one's values can reduce perceived threat It is theorized that engaging in activities that promote the values, beliefs, and roles that are central to an individual's identity can promote self-integrity. Promoting one's values can affirm the individual and reduce the perceived threat. Engaging in such actions when facing threat serves to remind individuals of the broad, principal values by which they define themselves and their lives. This change in perspective shifts attention away from the threat in one domain of the self toward a larger context of who they are. It is thought that when people operate from this broader perspective, they react less defensively to the threat, which allows them to act more effectively. Self-Affirmations can occur by both reflecting on a personally relevant value, belief, or role, as well as engaging in an activity that might evoke a personally relevant value, such as spending time with family if that is personally relevant. Taken together, the four principles suggest that when confronted with information that threatens self-concept, the person experiences distress and is subsequently motivated to self-defense. It is actually affirmation that allows people to see otherwise-threatening information as more self-relevant and valuable. However, the defensive reaction can impede more adaptive ways to solve the problem (like engaging in problem-solving or changing unhealthy behaviors). It is thought that affirming an important value unrelated to the threat helps individuals to shift their perspective to their broader life context. Having a broad viewpoint diminishes the perceived threat, allowing individuals to act less defensively and more effectively. Paradigms used to study self-affirmation theory In laboratory experiments, psychologists induce self-affirmation in participants in order to investigate the influence of self-affirmation on individuals' well-being. There are two chief methods used to self-affirm participants in experimental studies. Values essay One of the most common ways to induce self-affirmation is to have participants write about a personally relevant value. In order to do this, participants rank a list of values from most important to least important to them. The list typically includes the following value domains: aesthetic, social, political, religious, economic, and theoretical values. Participants then write about the value they ranked as most important and how it is meaningful to them for 5 minutes. Values list The Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Values Scale is another measure that is administered to participants to induce self-affirmation in the laboratory. Participants choose one of two answers after reading a statement about a value. An example item from the religion scale would be "The more important study for mankind is (a) mathematics (b) theology". This allows researchers to see where an individual's personal interests and values lie. It is thought that answering questions about a value domain that they find important will make that value more salient to them, resulting in self-affirmation. There are six different value domains on the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Values scale: religion, theoretical, aesthetic, political, social, and economic. Empirical support Extant empirical research demonstrates that self-affirmations can be beneficial in reducing individuals' stress response as well as their defensiveness toward threats. Buffering against stress In one study investigating the effects of self-affirmation on stress response, undergraduate participants completed the Trier social stress test, a standardized laboratory paradigm used to induce stress in participants. In the Trier Social Stress task, participants are asked to give a short speech in front of a panel of judges who do not give any comments or positive feedback to the participant. Following the speech, participants must complete a mental arithmetic task, in which they count backwards from 2,083 in increments of 13 while being told by the judges to go faster. Prior to completing the Trier Social Stress Task, half of the participants completed a variation of values list self-affirmation task. Participants who completed the values list had significantly lower stress response than individuals in the control condition, as indicated by a lower cortisol response in affirmed participants compared to participants who did not complete the self-affirmation condition. In a different experiment, undergraduate students completed difficult problem solving puzzles in the presence of an evaluator. Participants also reported how much chronic stress they endured over the past month. Prior to completing the problem-solving puzzles half of the participants completed a values essay self-affirmation task. For the individuals who did not complete the self-affirmation task, low-stress participants performed significantly better than high-stress participants. For individuals in the self-affirmation condition, high-stress individuals performed equally as well as low-stress individuals. Findings suggest that self-affirmation buffered against the negative effects of stress on problem-solving performance. For another experiment, undergraduates were recruited to participate in a research study two weeks prior to completing a mid-term exam. All participants collected urine samples for 24 hours two weeks prior to their midterm (baseline) as well as for the 24 hours prior to their midterm examination so their catecholamine levels could be measured. Catecholamine levels are thought to be high when individuals are experiencing higher stress. Half of participants completed two values essays in the two weeks leading up to their midterm examination. Participants who did not complete the self-affirmation condition demonstrated increased catecholamine response from baseline to their midterm exam. However, participants who completed the two values essays did not show an increase in catecholamine levels from baseline to their midterm. Preliminary research results suggest that self-affirmation can protect against the negative consequences of stress. More research is needed to understand how self-affirmations decrease stress responses. Reducing defensiveness Results from studies provide support for the idea that when individuals complete an activity that affirms their self-integrity they are less defensive and more accepting of information that is potentially threatening. However, more research is needed to better understand why people are more open-minded after they have completed an affirmation task. Applications Education Studies have examined the effects of self-affirmation on the academic performance of historically marginalized groups such as African American and Latino American students, who face a multitude of daily threats in the school environment. Seventh grade students took part in a two-year study. Half of the students completed a values essay about their most important value approximately seven to eight times over the course of two academic years, while the other half wrote a values essay about why their least important value might be of value to someone else. The study tracked the students' grades for three years. Ethnic minority students in the self-affirmation condition received higher grade point averages than the ethnic minority students who wrote about why their least important value might be important to someone else. There was no effect of self-affirmation in white students. Findings suggest that for students who face daily, repeated stressors at school, self-affirmation buffers against worsening school performance. Similarly, values affirmation decreased the achievement gap for college students from low socioeconomic status and for women in introductory physics courses. These findings suggest that self-affirmation can have a buffering effect on academic achievement for groups who face the most threat. Health Women concerned with their weight were recruited for a study. Concern with weight has similar effects of stress in that it can cause psychological distress, poor eating, and weight gain. Half of the women completed a values essay. Self-affirmed participants had lost more weight, had lower body mass index, and smaller waist circumference than non-affirmed women. Patients with end stage renal disease participated in a study assessing the effects of self-affirmation on adherence to phosphate binders that facilitate control of phosphate levels. Poor phosphate control in this population can be dangerous and life-threatening. There was a significant improvement in serum phosphate levels for the affirmed patients compared to the group of non-affirmed patients, suggesting better adherence to phosphate binders. Factors that influence the effectiveness of self-affirmations Culture Individualist and collectivist cultures place different levels of importance on belonging to in-groups, and it is thought that this may vary the effects of self-affirmation. One study investigated the effects of self-affirmation on reducing cognitive dissonance. This study found that self-affirmed participants from individualist cultures saw reductions in cognitive dissonance, whereas self-affirmed participants from collectivist cultures did not experience a reduction in cognitive dissonance. Another study examined the effect on individuals from individualist and collectivist backgrounds of writing a values essay about a value that was important to the participant compared to a value that was important to the participant's family. The authors found reduced cognitive dissonance for participants from collectivist cultures who wrote about values important to them and their families, and found reduced cognitive dissonance for participants from individualist cultures who wrote about a value important to just them. Importance of the threatened domain Benefits from self-affirmation are thought to primarily occur when the perceived threat is in an area of importance to the individual. For example, in the experiment detailed above in which coffee drinkers read an article about caffeine consumption and increased risk of breast cancer, self-affirmation only reduced defensiveness in individuals who were heavy coffee drinkers and not in occasional coffee drinkers. Because an article on the risks associated with caffeine consumption might not pose the same threat to occasional coffee drinkers as to heavy coffee drinkers, self-affirmation likely does not provide the same benefit for occasional coffee drinkers. Thus, the importance of the threatened domain to one's self-integrity is thought to influence the effectiveness of self-affirmations. Factors underlying the effects of self-affirmation theory Research has not yet identified the underlying mechanisms of how self-affirmation buffers against stress and reduces defensiveness. However, it is believed that there is not just one factor responsible for the effects of self-affirmation, but rather many. To date, increasing positive emotions and self-esteem have been investigated as mechanisms of self-affirmation, but the findings are mixed. Some studies have found that positive mood brings about similar reductions in defensiveness as self-affirmations. In contrast, several studies fail to detect any effect of self-affirmation on mood, suggesting self-affirmation does not operate via increases in positive mood. Similarly, results on the effects of self-affirmation on self-esteem are also mixed. Some studies have observed increases in self-esteem following self-affirmation, whereas other have found no effect on self-esteem. More research is needed to better understand how self-affirmation can provide benefit to individuals. References Psychological theories Ego psychology	0.775762	0.985401	0.764437
Social reproduction	Social reproduction describes the reproduction of social structures and systems, mainly on the basis of particular preconditions in demographics, education and inheritance of material property or legal titles (as earlier with aristocracy). Reproduction is understood as the maintenance and continuation of existing social relations. Originally formulated by Karl Marx in Das Kapital, this concept is a variety of Marx's notion of economic reproduction. According to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, there are four types of capital that contribute to social reproduction in society: economic capital, cultural capital, social capital and symbolic capital. Social reproduction in this sense is distinct from the term as it is used in Marxist feminism to discuss reproductive labor. In that application, it is used to explain the role of women in wider social and class structures, and their (often unrecognized) contribution to the capitalist economy via their (traditional) role within the household as both child-bearers and family caretakers, and by extension women's role as providers of free labor that is necessary to produce and maintain current and future workers. Four types of capital All four of Pierre Bourdieu's forms of capital play a role in social reproduction, as capital is passed from generation to generation and keeps people in the same social class as their parents before them. This keeps reproducing inequality through the system of social stratification. The four types of capital are: Economic capital: the income and wealth of a person, which may well come along with one's inheritance of cultural capital. Cultural capital: the shared outlook, beliefs, knowledge, and skills that are passed between generations, which may in turn influence human capital. Human capital: the education and job training a person receives, and which contributes to the likelihood that one will acquire social capital. Social capital: the social network to which one belongs, which can largely influence one's ability to find opportunities, especially employment. In education Social reproduction, when co-opted with cultural reproduction, allows for sociology of education to assume its role. Education is an attempt at leveling the playing field by allowing those in poorer classes a chance to move up. However, it fails in many critical ways; for example, education is costly: better schools mean better equipment, better books, and better teachers, all of which remain beyond the pay grade of the poverty line. Thus, higher education becomes exclusive to higher classes, leaving people of lower classes with much less to work with, as well as fewer opportunities. The education system in many high-income countries polarizes individuals from a young age. It creates elites who care little for those in the classes beneath them and believe that they should earn extraordinarily more than everyone else, all the while defining people by their jobs, concluding that those with low-paid jobs for that reason live in relative poverty. The system strives to maintain the status quo so children can be greatly denigrated. As the rich take in an increasing amount of the country's wealth, there is less and less for the general populace, resulting in poorer education. Education in the United States Statistics show that the majority of dropouts are below the poverty line. Due to a lack of capital, they do not complete their education, seeing it as less convenient to complete schooling rather than find work, and support themselves or their families. Usually, these dropouts consist of the minority groups, such as Hispanics and African Americans. Many drop out due to lack of funds to continue their education, some are single parents, or have had a deceased parent, which makes it difficult to study and work at the same time. These issues are rarely seen in higher classes, making it less likely for them to drop out and reject opportunities. In health and illness The sociology of health and illness studies how social life affects morbidity and mortality rate, and vice versa. Social reproduction is involved in this field when it comes to how inequalities affect the health of people in particular classes. The greater the economic inequality, the more of a toll it takes on the health of the populace, from life expectancy to infant mortality, and in cases like the U.S., increasing rates of obesity. Studies conducted on the population of high income countries make this apparent. It is not just simply poverty, though they do go hand in hand, but it also leads to a gap in social cohesion, which leads the general populace to be more stressed, fearful, and insecure. In the majority of high-income countries, the top 1% live, on average, 10 years longer than the average 99%, statistically making those born into the poorer classes naturally have a shorter life span. This can be attributed to the top 1% having access to better healthcare. The bottom 99% may be disinclined to visit doctors and take cough medicine for more serious illnesses, and are disadvantaged especially in cases of incurable illnesses like AIDS where constant medicating with expensive, non-subsidized drugs is the only way to sustain a normal life. Those born into a lower class are at a higher risk of suffering from illness. In the past, the poor suffered from hunger and starvation. However, in high-income countries like the U.S., the opposite is true. Food-insecure families are the most prone to high rates of obesity, especially in children. This can be attributed to the generally higher cost of healthful foods, a lack of education regarding healthy eating habits, and faster preparation times, causing fast foods, or other unhealthy alternatives to be consumed often for their ease of acquisition and generally low price. This leads to long-term epidemiological problems in which children who become obese maintain their obesity into their adult lives, suffering from associated ailments such as heart disease, high blood pressure, increased risk for several types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke, infertility, arthritis, breathing difficulties and/or depression. Social class system in the United States Social reproduction is the passing on of social inequality across generations. The upper class has many advantages; having money provides the ability to have even more resources to get ahead. The opposite is true for lower classes, where with less money, there are fewer resources. As Marx states, "[c]lass-struggle between capital and labor is forced into the background." "Capitalism isn't working. Another world is possible" is an argument that is made by many protesters around the world, who gather in rallies more and more often every year. These protests are more prevalent in higher-income countries where most of the 1% live like the U.S. and the U.K. with a growing social cohesion among protesters because the vast majority of people in rich countries are suffering due to increasing inequalities. Many of the poor have begun to depend on the state rather than their own wages. All the while, their descendants will be raised in a fixed system that favors the elites, so they are bound to the same class they were born in. Social reproduction revolves around the understanding that rich breed rich, and the poor breed poor: those born into a particular class are more often than not bound to live their lives in that class. The following statistics are of the U.S. population. Lower class The lower class is a class afflicted by a cycle of poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. This is seen as they suffer from the inability to pay bills some of which then find themselves living on the street, experiencing food insecurity as many families will find themselves going hungry least once a year, or lack of medical care where many cannot pay for medication or treatment for potentially fatal illnesses. All the while, this class is usually labelled by the media as being lazy, system abusers, or criminals. Those born into this class have lower class mobility due to restrictions on resources, such as money and access to better education. This class is a point of reference in social reproduction, comprising 15% to 20% of the U.S. population. The majority of those in the lower classes are minorities. Working class The working class has a minimal education. They are usually physical laborers with little to no qualifications. They can also be seen working service industries, but are underpaid and no chance for promotions in their standings. Potential skilled workers who may at times work better-paying but dangerous jobs. Those born into this system usually have a torch of labor passed on to them, and they follow the same profession their family did. They comprise 30% to 40% of the U.S. population, and the majority are minorities. Middle class The middle class consists of two divided classes. The lower half bears resemblance to those of lower classes, i.e., usually less educated with lower incomes, but they can be found in managerial positions, in education, as well as small business owners. The upper half consists of professionals and educated business owners. Those born into this class have the most diversity, either deciding to take up the torch or surpass their parents. The majority goes on to complete their educations, and maintain a career. They comprise 40% to 50% of the U.S. population. The majority is a blend. Upper class The upper class is known to hold 25% of the wealth in the U.S.. This class shares something in common with the middle class. A division into two. The lower half who consist of new money, investments, and successful business owners. The majority who were originally Middle Class or rarely lower. The upper half consists of families who have been rich for generations. A point of reference in social reproduction brought along the ages. Those born into this class receive inheritances from those who die and so forth. Their descendants are sent off to the finest of schools leaving them with the most opportunities of all. They comprise 1% to 3% of the U.S. population. The lower half can be a blend, whereas the upper half consists of mostly white families. References Sociological terminology	0.774821	0.98658	0.764423
Anna Karenina principle	The Anna Karenina principle states that a deficiency in any one of a number of factors dooms an endeavor to failure. Consequently, a successful endeavor (subject to this principle) is one for which every possible deficiency has been avoided. The name of the principle derives from Leo Tolstoy's 1877 novel Anna Karenina, which begins: In other words: happy families share a common set of attributes which lead to happiness, while any of a variety of attributes can cause an unhappy family. This concept has been generalized to apply to several fields of study. In statistics, the term Anna Karenina principle is used to describe significance tests: there are any number of ways in which a dataset may violate the null hypothesis and only one in which all the assumptions are satisfied. Examples Failed domestication The Anna Karenina principle was popularized by Jared Diamond in his 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel. Diamond uses this principle to illustrate why so few wild animals have been successfully domesticated throughout history, as a deficiency in any one of a great number of factors can render a species undomesticable. Therefore, all successfully domesticated species are not so because of a particular positive trait, but because of a lack of any number of possible negative traits. In chapter 9, six groups of reasons for failed domestication of animals are defined: Diet – To be a candidate for domestication, a species must be easy to feed. Finicky eaters make poor candidates. Non-finicky omnivores make the best candidates. Growth rate – The animal must grow fast enough to be economically feasible. Elephant farmers, for example, would have to wait perhaps twelve years for their herd to reach adult size. Captive breeding – The species must breed well in captivity. Species having mating rituals prohibiting breeding in a farm-like environment make poor candidates for domestication. These rituals could include the need for privacy or long, protracted mating chases. Disposition – Some species are too ill-tempered to be good candidates for domestication. Farmers must not be at risk of life or injury every time they enter the animal pen. The zebra is of special note in the book, as it was recognized by local cultures and Europeans alike as extremely valuable and useful to domesticate, but it proved impossible to tame. Horses in Africa proved to be susceptible to disease and attack by a wide variety of animals, while the very characteristics that made the zebra hardy and survivable in the harsh environment of Africa also made it fiercely independent. Tendency to panic – Species are genetically predisposed to react to danger in different ways. A species that immediately takes flight is a poor candidate for domestication. A species that freezes, or mingles with the herd for cover in the face of danger, is a good candidate. Deer in North America have proven almost impossible to domesticate and have difficulty breeding in captivity. In contrast, horses thrived from when they were re-introduced to North America in the sixteenth century. Social structure – Species of lone, independent animals make poor candidates. A species that has a strong, well-defined social hierarchy is more likely to be domesticated. A species that can imprint on a human as the head of the hierarchy is best. Different social groups must also be tolerant of one another. Ecological risk assessment Ecologist Dwayne Moore describes applications of the Anna Karenina principle in ecology: Aristotle's version Much earlier, Aristotle states the same principle in the Nicomachean Ethics (Book 2): Order in chaos of maladaptation Many experiments and observations of groups of humans, animals, trees, grassy plants, stockmarket prices, and changes in the banking sector proved the modified Anna Karenina principle. This effect is proved for many systems: from the adaptation of healthy people to a change in climate conditions to the analysis of fatal outcomes in oncological and cardiological clinics. The same effect is found in the stock market. The applicability of these two statistical indicators of stress, simultaneous increase of variance and correlations, for diagnosis of social stress in large groups was examined in the prolonged stress period preceding the 2014 Ukrainian economic and political crisis. There was a simultaneous increase in the total correlation between the 19 major public fears in the Ukrainian society (by about 64%) and also in their statistical dispersion (by 29%) during the pre-crisis years. General mathematical backgrounds Vladimir Arnold in his book Catastrophe Theory describes "The Principle of Fragility of Good Things" which in a sense supplements the Principle of Anna Karenina: good systems must meet simultaneously a number of requirements; therefore, they are more fragile: See also O-ring theory of economic development References Principles Statistical hypothesis testing Leo Tolstoy	0.768013	0.995195	0.764323
Technology and society	Technology, society and life or technology and culture refers to the inter-dependency, co-dependence, co-influence, and co-production of technology and society upon one another. Evidence for this synergy has been found since humanity first started using simple tools. The inter-relationship has continued as modern technologies such as the printing press and computers have helped shape society. The first scientific approach to this relationship occurred with the development of tektology, the "science of organization", in early twentieth century Imperial Russia. In modern academia, the interdisciplinary study of the mutual impacts of science, technology, and society, is called science and technology studies. The simplest form of technology is the development and use of basic tools. The prehistoric discovery of how to control fire and the later Neolithic Revolution increased the available sources of food, and the invention of the wheel helped humans to travel in and control their environment. Developments in historic times have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale, such as the printing press, telephone, and Internet. Technology has developed advanced economies, such as the modern global economy, and has led to the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce by-products known as pollution, and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earth's environment. Innovations influence the values of society and raise new questions in the ethics of technology. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics. Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar reactionary movements criticize the pervasiveness of technology, arguing that it harms the environment and alienates people. However, proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Pre-historical The importance of stone tools, circa 2.5 million years ago, is considered fundamental in the human development in the hunting hypothesis. Primatologist, Richard Wrangham, theorizes that the control of fire by early humans and the associated development of cooking was the spark that radically changed human evolution. Texts such as Guns, Germs, and Steel suggest that early advances in plant agriculture and husbandry fundamentally shifted the way that collective groups of individuals, and eventually societies, developed. Modern examples and effects Technology has taken a large role in society and day-to-day life. When societies know more about the development in a technology, they become able to take advantage of it. When an innovation achieves a certain point after it has been presented and promoted, this technology becomes part of the society. The use of technology in education provides students with technology literacy, information literacy, capacity for life-long learning, and other skills necessary for the 21st century workplace. Digital technology has entered each process and activity made by the social system. In fact, it constructed another worldwide communication system in addition to its origin. A 1982 study by The New York Times described a technology assessment study by the Institute for the Future, "peering into the future of an electronic world." The study focused on the emerging videotex industry, formed by the marriage of two older technologies, communications, and computing. It estimated that 40 percent of American households will have two-way videotex service by the end of the century. By comparison, it took television 16 years to penetrate 90 percent of households from the time commercial service was begun. Since the creation of computers achieved an entire better approach to transmit and store data. Digital technology became commonly used for downloading music and watching movies at home either by DVDs or purchasing it online. Digital music records are not quite the same as traditional recording media. Obviously, because digital ones are reproducible, portable and free. Around the globe many schools have implemented educational technology in primary schools, universities and colleges. According to the statistics, in the early beginnings of 1990s the use of Internet in schools was, on average, 2–3%. Continuously, by the end of 1990s the evolution of technology increases rapidly and reaches to 60%, and by the year of 2008 nearly 100% of schools use Internet on educational form. According to ISTE researchers, technological improvements can lead to numerous achievements in classrooms. E-learning system, collaboration of students on project based learning, and technological skills for future results in motivation of students. Although these previous examples only show a few of the positive aspects of technology in society, there are negative side effects as well. Within this virtual realm, social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have altered the way Generation Y culture is understanding the world and thus how they view themselves. In recent years, there has been more research on the development of social media depression in users of sites like these. "Facebook Depression" is when users are so affected by their friends' posts and lives that their own jealousy depletes their sense of self-worth. They compare themselves to the posts made by their peers and feel unworthy or monotonous because they feel like their lives are not nearly as exciting as the lives of others. Technology has a serious effect on youth's health. The overuse of technology is said to be associated with sleep deprivation which is linked to obesity and poor academic performance in the lives of adolescents. Economics and technological development In ancient history, economics began when spontaneous exchange of goods and services was replaced over time by deliberate trade structures. Makers of arrowheads, for example, might have realized they could do better by concentrating on making arrowheads and barter for other needs. Regardless of goods and services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more elaborate economies. Technology is seen as primary source in economic development. Technology advancement and economic growth are related to each other. The level of technology is important to determine the economic growth. It is the technological process which keeps the economy moving. In the modern world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and history give rise to robust economies; and in a well-functioning, robust economy, economic excess naturally flows into greater use of technology. Moreover, because technology is such an inseparable part of human society, especially in its economic aspects, funding sources for (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable. However, while in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than the time, efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such investment may involve the collective labor and skills of many millions. Most recently, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of firms employing advanced digital technology in their operations expanded dramatically. It was found that firms that adopted technology were better prepared to deal with the pandemic's disruptions. Adaptation strategies in the form of remote working, 3D printing, and the use of big data analytics and AI to plan activities to adapt to the pandemic were able to ensure positive job growth. Funding Consequently, the sources of funding for large technological efforts have dramatically narrowed, since few have ready access to the collective labor of a whole society, or even a large part. It is conventional to divide up funding sources into governmental (involving whole, or nearly whole, social enterprises) and private (involving more limited, but generally more sharply focused) business or individual enterprises. Government funding for new technology The government is a major contributor to the development of new technology in many ways. In the United States alone, many government agencies specifically invest billions of dollars in new technology. In 1980, the UK government invested just over six million pounds in a four-year program, later extended to six years, called the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP), which was intended to give every school in Britain at least one computer, software, training materials, and extensive teacher training. Similar programs have been instituted by governments around the world. Technology has frequently been driven by the military, with many modern applications developed for the military before they were adapted for civilian use. However, this has always been a two-way flow, with industry often developing and adopting a technology only later adopted by the military. Entire government agencies are specifically dedicated to research, such as America's National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom's scientific research institutes, America's Small Business Innovative Research effort. Many other government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development. Private funding Research and development is one of the smallest areas of investments made by corporations toward new and innovative technology. Many foundations and other nonprofit organizations contribute to the development of technology. In the OECD, about two-thirds of research and development in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 98 percent and 10 percent, respectively, by universities and government. But in poorer countries such as Portugal and Mexico the industry contribution is significantly less. The U.S. government spends more than other countries on military research and development, although the proportion has fallen from about 30 percent in the 1980s to less than 10 percent. The 2009 founding of Kickstarter allows individuals to receive funding via crowdsourcing for many technology related products including both new physical creations as well as documentaries, films, and web-series that focus on technology management. This circumvents the corporate or government oversight most inventors and artists struggle against but leaves the accountability of the project completely with the individual receiving the funds. Other economic considerations Appropriate technology, sometimes called "intermediate" technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those that developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash. Persuasion technology: In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology. Technocapitalism Technological diffusion Technology acceptance model Technology life cycle Technology transfer Relation to science The relationship between science and technology can be complex. Science may drive technological development, by generating demand for new instruments to address a scientific question, or by illustrating technical possibilities previously unconsidered. An environment of encouraged science will also produce scientists and engineers, and technical schools, which encourages innovation and entrepreneurship that are capable of taking advantage of the existing science. In fact, it is recognized that "innovators, like scientists, do require access to technical information and ideas" and "must know enough to recognize useful knowledge when they see it." Science spillover also contributes to greater technological diffusion. Having a strong policy contributing to basic science allows a country to have access to a strong a knowledge base that will allow them to be "ready to exploit unforeseen developments in technology," when needed in times of crisis. For most of human history, technological improvements were arrived at by chance, trial and error, or spontaneous inspiration. Stokes referred to these innovators as improvers of technology'…who knew no science and would not have been helped by it if they had." This idea is supported by Diamond who further indicated that these individuals are "more likely to achieve a breakthrough if [they do] not hold the currently dominant theory in too high regard." Research and development directed towards immediate technical application is a relatively recent occurrence, arising with the Industrial Revolution and becoming commonplace in the 20th century. In addition, there are examples of economies that do not emphasize science research that have been shown to be technological leaders despite this. For example, the United States relied on the scientific output of Europe in the early 20th century, though it was regarded as a leader in innovation. Another example is the technological advancement of Japan in the latter part of the same century, which emphasized more applied science (directly applicable to technology). Though the link between science and technology has need for more clarity, what is known is that a society without sufficient building blocks to encourage this link are critical. A nation without emphasis on science is likely to eventually stagnate technologically and risk losing competitive advantage. The most critical areas for focus by policymakers are discouraging too many protections on job security, leading to less mobility of the workforce, encouraging the reliable availability of sufficient low-cost capital for investment in R&D, by favorable economic and tax policies, and supporting higher education in the sciences to produce scientists and engineers. Sociological factors and effects Values The implementation of technology influences the values of a society by changing expectations and realities. The implementation of technology is also influenced by values. There are (at least) three major, interrelated values that inform, and are informed by, technological innovations: Mechanistic world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of parts (like a machine), that can be individually analyzed and understood. This is a form of reductionism that is rare nowadays. However, the "neo-mechanistic world view" holds that nothing in the universe cannot be understood by the human intellect. Also, while all things are greater than the sum of their parts (e.g., even if we consider nothing more than the information involved in their combination), in principle, even this excess must eventually be understood by human intelligence. That is, no divine or vital principle or essence is involved. Efficiency: A value, originally applied only to machines, but now applied to all aspects of society, so that each element is expected to attain a higher and higher percentage of its maximal possible performance, output, or ability. Social progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the Industrial Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology, almost all societies believed in a cyclical theory of social movement and, indeed, of all history and the universe. This was, obviously, based on the cyclicity of the seasons, and an agricultural economy's and society's strong ties to that cyclicity. Since much of the world is closer to their agricultural roots, they are still much more amenable to cyclicity than progress in history. This may be seen, for example, in Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar's modern social cycles theory. For a more westernized version of social cyclicity, see Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (Paperback) by Neil Howe and William Strauss; Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 30, 1992); , and subsequent books by these authors. Institutions and groups Technology often enables organizational and bureaucratic group structures that otherwise and heretofore were simply not possible. Examples of this might include: The rise of very large organizations: e.g., governments, the military, health and social welfare institutions, supranational corporations. The commercialization of leisure: sports events, products, etc. (McGinn) The almost instantaneous dispersal of information (especially news) and entertainment around the world. International Technology enables greater knowledge of international issues, values, and cultures. Due mostly to mass transportation and mass media, the world seems to be a much smaller place, due to the following: Globalization of ideas Embeddedness of values Population growth and control Environment Technology can provide understanding of and appreciation for the world around us, enable sustainability and improve environmental conditions but also degrade the environment and facilitate unsustainability. Some polities may conclude that certain technologies' environmental detriments and other risks to outweigh their benefits, especially if or once substitutive technologies have been or can be invented, leading to directed technological phase-outs such as the fossil fuel phase-out and the nuclear fission power phase-out. Most modern technological processes produce unwanted byproducts in addition to the desired products, which are known as waste and pollution. While material waste is often re-used in industrial processes, many processes lead to a release into the environment with negative environmental side effects, such as pollution and lack of sustainability. Development and technologies' implications Some technologies are designed specifically with the environment in mind, but most are designed first for financial or economic effects such as the free market's profit motive. The effects of a specific technology is often not only dependent on how it is used – e.g. its usage context – but also predetermined by the technology's design or characteristics, as in the theory of "the medium is the message" which relates to media-technologies in specific. In many cases, such predetermined or built-in implications may vary depending on factors of contextual contemporary conditions such as human biology, international relations and socioeconomics. However, many technologies may be harmful to the environment only when used in specific contexts or for specific purposes that not necessarily result from the nature of the technology. Values Historically, from the perspective of economic agent-centered responsibility, an increased, as of 2021 commonly theoretic and informal, value of healthy environments and more efficient productive processes may be the result of an increase in the wealth of society. Once people are able to provide for their basic needs, they can – and are often facilitated to – not only afford more environmentally destructive products and services, but could often also be able to put an – e.g. individual morality-motivated – effort into valuing less tangible goods such as clean air and water if product-, alternatives-, consequences- and services-information are adequate. From the perspective of systems science and cybernetics, economies (systems) have economic actors and sectors make decisions based upon a range of system-internal factors with structures – or sometimes forms of leveraging existing structures – that lead to other outcomes being the result of other architectures – or systems-level configurations of the existing designs – which are considered to be possible in the sense that such could be modeled, tested, priorly assessed, developed and studied. Negative effects on the environment The effects of technology on the environment are both obvious and subtle. The more obvious effects include the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources (such as petroleum, coal, ores), and the added pollution of air, water, and land. The more subtle effects may include long-term effects (e.g. global warming, deforestation, natural habitat destruction, coastal wetland loss.) Pollution and energy requirements Each wave of technology creates a set of waste previously unknown by humans: toxic waste, radioactive waste, electronic waste, plastic waste, space waste. Electronic waste creates direct environmental impacts through the production and maintaining the infrastructure necessary for using technology and indirect impacts by breaking barriers for global interaction through the use of information and communications technology. Certain usages of information technology and infrastructure maintenance consume energy that contributes global warming. This includes software-designs such as international cryptocurrencies and most hardware powered by nonrenewable sources. One of the main problems is the lack of societal decision-making processes – such as the contemporary economy and politics – that lead to sufficient implementation of existing as well as potential efficient ways to remove, recycle and prevent these pollutants on a large scale expediently. Digital technologies, however, are important in achieving the green transition and specifically, the SDGs and European Green Deal's environmental targets. Emerging digital technologies, if correctly applied, have the potential to play a critical role in addressing environmental issues. A few examples are: smart city mobility, precision agriculture, sustainable supply chains, environmental monitoring, and catastrophe prediction. Construction and shaping Choice Society also controls technology through the choices it makes. These choices not only include consumer demands; they also include: the channels of distribution, how do products go from raw materials to consumption to disposal; the cultural beliefs regarding style, freedom of choice, consumerism, materialism, etc.; the economic values we place on the environment, individual wealth, government control, capitalism, etc. According to Williams and Edge, the construction and shaping of technology includes the concept of choice (and not necessarily conscious choice). Choice is inherent in both the design of individual artifacts and systems, and in the making of those artifacts and systems. The idea here is that a single technology may not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined logic or a single determinant, technology could be a garden of forking paths, with different paths potentially leading to different technological outcomes. This is a position that has been developed in detail by Judy Wajcman. Therefore, choices could have differing implications for society and for particular social groups. Autonomous technology In one line of thought, technology develops autonomously, in other words, technology seems to feed on itself, moving forward with a force irresistible by humans. To these individuals, technology is "inherently dynamic and self-augmenting." Jacques Ellul is one proponent of the irresistibleness of technology to humans. He espouses the idea that humanity cannot resist the temptation of expanding our knowledge and our technological abilities. However, he does not believe that this seeming autonomy of technology is inherent. But the perceived autonomy is because humans do not adequately consider the responsibility that is inherent in technological processes. Langdon Winner critiques the idea that technological evolution is essentially beyond the control of individuals or society in his book Autonomous Technology. He argues instead that the apparent autonomy of technology is a result of "technological somnambulism," the tendency of people to uncritically and unreflectively embrace and utilize new technologies without regard for their broader social and political effects. In 1980, Mike Cooley published a critique of the automation and computerisation of engineering work under the title "Architect or Bee? The human/technology relationship". The title alludes to a comparison made by Karl Marx, on the issue of the creative achievements of human imaginative power. According to Cooley ""Scientific and technological developments have invariably proved to be double-edged. They produced the beauty of Venice and the hideousness of Chernobyl; the caring therapies of Rontgen's X-rays and the destruction of Hiroshima," Government Individuals rely on governmental assistance to control the side effects and negative consequences of technology. Supposed independence of government. An assumption commonly made about the government is that their governance role is neutral or independent. However, some argue that governing is a political process, so government will be influenced by political winds of influence. In addition, because government provides much of the funding for technological research and development, it has a vested interest in certain outcomes. Other point out that the world's biggest ecological disasters, such as the Aral Sea, Chernobyl, and Lake Karachay have been caused by government projects, which are not accountable to consumers. Liability. One means for controlling technology is to place responsibility for the harm with the agent causing the harm. Government can allow more or less legal liability to fall to the organizations or individuals responsible for damages. Legislation. A source of controversy is the role of industry versus that of government in maintaining a clean environment. While it is generally agreed that industry needs to be held responsible when pollution harms other people, there is disagreement over whether this should be prevented by legislation or civil courts, and whether ecological systems as such should be protected from harm by governments. Recently, the social shaping of technology has had new influence in the fields of e-science and e-social science in the United Kingdom, which has made centers focusing on the social shaping of science and technology a central part of their funding programs. See also References Sources {{cite book \| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pyY5EusnjBcC&pg=PA88 \|title=Digital technology and mediation: A challenge to activity theory. Learning and expanding with activity theory'''\| last= Rückriem \|first= F \|year=2009 \|publisher=Cambridge University Press \|isbn=9780521760751}} Further reading Bereano, P. (1977). Technology as a Social and Political Phenomenon. Wiley & Sons, . Dickson, D. (1977). Politics of Alternative Technology. Universe Publisher, . Easton, T. (2011). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Science, Technology, and Society. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, . (Google Books preview) Huesemann, Michael H., and Joyce A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, , 464 pp. Andrey Korotayev, Artemy Malkov, and Daria Khaltourina. Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Compact Macromodels of the World System Growth ] MacKenzie, D., and J. Wajcman. (1999). The Social Shaping of Technology. McGraw Hill Education, . Mesthene, E.G. (1970). Technological Change: Its Impact on Man and Society. Harvard University Press, . Mumford, L. (2010). Technics and Civilization. University of Chicago Press, . Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage, . Sclove, R.E. (1995). Democracy and Technology. The Guilford Press, . Dan Senor and Saul Singer, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, Hachette Book Group, New York, (2009) Shaw, Jeffrey M. (2014). Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technology and the Human Condition. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. . Sicilia, David B.; Wittner, David G. Strands of Modernization: The Circulation of Technology and Business Practices in East Asia, 1850–1920 (University of Toronto Press, 2021) online review Cited at Technology Chronology (accessed September 11, 2005). Volti, Rudi (2017). society and technological change''. New York: Worth. p. 3. . External links Science, Technology, and Society: An International Journal Scientists for Global Responsibility Technology and Society Books and Journal Articles Technology and Society Book Reviews The Loka Institute The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society Union of Concerned Scientists Interdisciplinary historical research Social information processing Sociological theories Technological change Technology Technology systems	0.770528	0.991934	0.764313
Self-cultivation	Self-cultivation or personal cultivation is the development of one's mind or capacities through one's own efforts. Self-cultivation is the cultivation, integration, and coordination of mind and body. Although self-cultivation may be practiced and implemented as a form of cognitive therapy in psychotherapy, it goes beyond healing and self-help to also encompass self-development, self-improvement and self realisation. It is associated with attempts to go beyond and understand normal states of being, enhancing and polishing one's capacities and developing or uncovering innate human potential. Self-cultivation also alludes to philosophical models in Mohism, Confucianism, Taoism and other Chinese philosophies, as well as in Epicureanism, and is an essential component of well-established East-Asian ethical values. Although this term applies to cultural traditions in Confucianism and Taoism, the goals and aspirations of self-cultivation in these traditions differ greatly. Theoretical background Purposes and applications Self-cultivation is an essential component of the context of . It enhances individuality and personal growth and of human agency. Self-cultivation is a process that cultivates one's mind and body in an attempt to transcend ordinary habitual states of being, enhancing a person's coordination and integration of congruent thoughts, beliefs and actions. It aims to polish or enlighten their capacities and inborn potentials. Self-cultivation: cultural and philosophical psychotherapies Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism have adopted elements of doctrine from one another to form new branches and sects. Some of these have disseminated to East Asian regions including Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Confucianism and the relational self Confucius believed that one's life is the continuation of one's parents' life. Therefore, followers of Confucianism teach their children in such way that the younger generation is educated to cultivate themselves to live with a satisfactory level of self-discipline. Even though individuals see a clear-cut boundary between themselves and others, each person in a dyadic relationship is seen embedded in a particular social network. By respecting the parents—the elder and the superior—a child is raised to be morally upright according to the expectations of others. This can be a social burden that causes stressful interpersonal relationships, and can cause disturbance and conflicts. Taoism and the authentic self Taoism tends to focus on linking the body and mind to the Nature. Taoism advocates the authentic self that is free from legal, social, or political restrictions. It seeks to cultivate an individual's self by healing and emancipating them from the ethical bounds of the human society. Taoism interprets the fortune or misfortune in one's life in terms of one's destiny, which is determined by the person's birth date and time. By avoiding the interference of personal desires and by relating everything to the system of the opposing elements of yin and yang, the cosmology of Taoism aims to keep individuals and everything in the harmonious balance. The explanation of self-cultivation in Taoism also corresponds to the equilibrium of the Five Transformative Phases ( Wu Xing): metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Buddhism and the non-self After the introduction of Buddhism to China, "spiritual self-cultivation" became one of the terms used to translate the Buddhist concept of . The ultimate life goal in Buddhism is nirvana. People are encouraged to practice self-cultivation by detaching themselves from their desires and egos, and by attaining a mindful awareness of the non-self. Chán and Zen Buddhist scholars emphasise that the key in self-cultivation is a "beginner's mind" which can allow the uncovering of the "luminous mind" and the realisation of innate Buddha-nature through the experience of sudden enlightenment. In Japan, the Buddhist practice is equated with the notion of or personal cultivation. Influences of self-cultivation on Chinese philosophy Confucian self-cultivation as a psychological process Self-cultivation in the Confucian tradition refers to keeping the balance between inner and outer selves, and between self and others. Self-cultivation in Chinese is an abbreviation of "", which literally translates to "rectifying one’s mind and nurturing one’s character (in particular through art, music and philosophy)". Confucianism embodies metaphysics of self. It develops a complex model of self-cultivation. The cohering key concept is 'intellectual intuition', which is explained as a direct insight and cognition of present knowledge of reality, with no inference of bias toward discernment or logical reasoning. Confucianism has a large emphasis as its foundation the incorporation, application and implementation of filial piety. Self-cultivation aims to achieve a harmonious society that is dependent on personal noble cultivation. The process entails the pursuit of moral perfection through knowledge and application. In the Analects of Confucius there are two types of persons. One is the "profound person" (, ), and the other is "petty person" (, ). These two types are opposed to one another in terms of developed potential. Confucius takes something of a blank slate perspective: "all human beings are alike at birth" (Analects 17.2), but eventually "the profound person understands what is moral. The petty person understands what is profitable" (4.16). The is the person who always manifests the quality of ("humaneness", "co-humanity" in an interdependent, hierarchical universe, "") in themselves and they display the quality of ("rightness", "righteousness") in their actions (4.5). Confucius highlights his fundamentally elitist, hierarchical model of relations by describing how the relates to their fellows: According to D. C. Lau, is an attribute of actions, and is an attribute of agents. There are conceptual links between , ("ritual propriety"), ("virtue"), and the . According to what is , the exerts the moral force, which is , and thus demonstrates . The following passages from the Analects point out the pathway towards self-cultivation that Confucius taught, with the ultimate goal of becoming the : In the first passage, "self-reflection" is explained as "Do not do to others what you do not desire for yourself" (15.24). Confucius considers it extremely important for one to realise the necessity of concern and empathy for others, which can be achieved by reflecting upon oneself. The deeply relational self can then respond to inner reflection with outer virtue. The second passage indicates the life-long timescale of the process of self-cultivation. It can begin during one's early teenage years, then extend well into more-mature age. The process includes the transformation of the individual, in which they realise that they should be able to distinguish and choose from what is right and what is desired. Self-cultivation, Confucius expects, is an essential philosophical process for one to become by maximising . Confucius does not suffer from the Cartesian "mind-body problem". In Confucianism, there is no division between inner and outer self, thus the cumulative effect brought by Confucian self-cultivation is not just limited to one's self or person, but extends rather to the social and even cosmic. Cultural and Ethical Values involved Self-cultivation is one of the key principles of Confucianism, and may be considered the core of Chinese philosophy. The latter can be seen as the disciplined reflections on the insights of self-cultivation. While Étienne Balazs asserted that all Chinese philosophy is social philosophy and that the idea of the group takes precedence over conceptions of the individual self as the social dimension of the human condition features so prominently in the Chinese world of thought, Wing-Tsit Chan suggests a more comprehensive characterisation of Chinese philosophy as humanism: not the humanism that denies or slights a Supreme Power, but one that professes the unity of man and Heaven. Similar to the Western sense of guilt, the Chinese sense of shame In Chinese ethics, . Cultivation of self in East Asian philosophy of education In East Asian cultures, . To help students and the younger generation understand the meaning of being a person, philosophers (mostly scholars) tried to explain their definitions of self with various theoretical approaches. The legacy of Chinese philosopher Confucius, among others (for example, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Mencius), has provided a rich domain of Chinese philosophical heritage in East Asia. Firstly, the goal of education, and one's most noble goal in life, is to properly develop oneself in order to become a "profound person" (, ). Young people were taught that it was shameful to become a "petty person" (, ), as that was the exact opposite to "sage" (, ). However, as both Confucian and Daoist philosophers adopted the term , there has been divergence that led to differences in educational concepts and practices. Besides Confucianism and Daoism, the Hundred Schools of Thought in Ancient China also included Buddhist and other varieties of philosophy, each of which offered different thoughts on the ideal conception of self. In the modern era, some East Asian cultures have abandoned some of the archaic conceptions, or have replaced traditional humanistic education with a more common modern approach of self-cultivation that adapts the influences of globalisation. Nevertheless, the East Asian descendants and followers of Confucius still consider an ideal human being essential for their life-time education, with their cultural heritage deeply influenced by radical Confucian values. Modern practices The "self"-concept in Western culture The "self" concept in western psychology originated from views of a number of empiricists and rationalists. Hegel (1770–1831) established a view of self-consciousness in which, by observation, our subject-object consciousness stimulates our rationale and reasoning, which then guides human behaviour. Freud (1856–1939) developed a three-part model of the psyche comprising the Id, the Ego, and the superego. Freud's self-concept influenced Erikson (1902–1994), who emphasized self-identity crisis and self-development. Following Erikson, J. Marcia described the continuum of identity development and the nature of our self-identity. The concept of self-consciousness derives from self-esteem, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. Morita therapy Through case-based research, Japanese psychologist Morita Masatake (1874–1938) introduced Morita therapy. It is based on Masatake's theory of consciousness and his four-stage therapeutic method, and is described as an ecological therapy method that focuses on . Morita therapy resembles rational-emotive therapy by American psychologist Albert Ellis, and existential and cognitive behavioral therapy. Naikan therapy ("", , self-reflection) is a Japanese psychotherapeutic method introduced and developed decades ago by Japanese businessman and Buddhist monk (Jōdo Shinshū) Yoshimoto Ishin (1916–1988). Initially, therapy was more often used in correctional settings, however it has been adapted to situational and psychoneurotic disorders. Similar to Morita therapy, requires subordination to a carefully structured period of "retreat" that is compassionately supervised by the practitioner. Contrary to Morita, is shorter (seven days) and utilizes long, regulated periods of daily meditation in which introspection is directed toward the resolution of contemporary conflicts and problems. "In contrast to Western psychoanalytic psychotherapy, both and Morita tend to keep transference issues simplified and positive, while resistance is dealt with procedurally rather than interpretively." The theory of constructive living Based largely on the adaptions of two Japanese structured methods of self-reflection, Naikan therapy and Morita therapy, constructive living is a Western approach to mental health education. Purpose-centered and response-oriented, constructive living (sometimes abbreviated as CL) focuses on the mindfulness and purposes of one's life. It is considered as a process of action to approach the reality thoughtfully. It also emphasizes the ability to understand one's self by recognizing the past, in which it reflects upon the present. Constructive Living highlights the importance of acceptance, of the world we live in, as well as the emotions and feelings individuals have in unique situations. D. Reynolds, Author of Constructive Living and Director of the Constructive Living Center in Oregon, U.S.A, argues that before taking the actions which may potentially bring positive changes, people are often hold back by the belief of "dealing with negative emotions first". According to Reynolds, the most crucial component of the process of effectuating affirmations is not getting the mind right. However, one's mind and emotions are effectively adjusted during the process of self-reflection, which indicates that there shall be a behavioural change taken place beforehand. Epicurean meleta At the closing of his Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus instructs his disciple to practice (meleta) "both by yourself and with others of like mind". The first field of practice shares semantic roots with and is related to the Hellenistic philosophical concept of "epimeleia heauton" (self-care), which involves methods of self-cultivation. In addition to the study of philosophy, this may include other techniques for living (techne biou) or technologies of the soul, like the visualizing technique known as "placing before the eyes", a cognitive therapy technique known as "relabeling", moral portraiture, and other didactic and ethical methods. We find examples of these techniques in Philodemus of Gadara, the poet Lucretius, and other Epicurean guides. Nietzsche's ethics of self-cultivation "If you incorporate this thought within you, amongst your other thoughts" he maintains "It will transform you. If for everything you wish to do you begin by asking yourself: 'Am I certain I want to do this an infinite number of times?' this will become for you the greatest weight." (KSA 9:11 [143]) Nietzsche worked on the project of reviving Self-cultivation, an ancient ethics. "I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my own activity"(HL 2:1) "It follows therefore that he must conceive eternal recurrence among other things as a practice that stimulates self-cultivation. In fact in one of his characteristically grandiose moments he identified it as 'the great cultivating thought' in the sense that it might weed out those too weak to bear the thought of living again (WP 1053). In a more tempered fashion, however, he framed the thought of recurrence as part of an ethics of self-cultivation and self-transformation." See also Self Neo-Confucianism Eastern philosophy References Bibliography Confucian Self-Cultivation and Daoist Personhood, H.Wang Gramsci, A. (1992). Prison notebooks, Vol. 2. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. [Google Scholar] Heidegger, M. (1969). Identity and difference (J. Stambaugh, Trans. with an introduction.). New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers. [Google Scholar] Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology and other essays ( W. Lovitt, Trans. with an introduction.). New York: Harper Torchbooks. [Google Scholar] Heidegger, M. (1978). Letter on humanism. In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Basic writings (2nd ed., pp. 213–265). London: Routledge. [Google Scholar] Huang, C. -C. (2010). Humanism in East Asian Confucian Contexts. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.[Crossref], [Google Scholar] Legge, J. (Trans.). (1861). Confucian analects. The Chinese classics, volume 1. (D. Sturgeon, Ed.). Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 21 March 2017, from http://ctext.org/analects [Google Scholar] Wittgenstein, L. (1997). Philosophical investigations (2nd ed.). (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). Malden, MA: Blackwell. [Google Scholar] Wittgenstein, L. (2001). Tractatus Logico-philosophicus (D. F. Pears & B. F. McGuinness, Trans.). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar] Yu, K. P. (2013). The hows and whys of the classics of filial piety孝經的道與理 (Xiaojing de dao yu li). Hong Kong: InfoLink. [Google Scholar] External links Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry: Confucius Interfaith Online: Confucianism Confucian Documents at the Internet Sacred Texts Archive. Oriental Philosophy, "Topic:Confucianism" Institutional China Confucian Philosophy China Confucian Religion China Confucian Temples China Kongzi Network Chinese philosophy Concepts in ethics Confucian ethics Taoist philosophy Taoist practices Buddhist practices Buddhist philosophy Psychotherapy Self-care Personal development Philosophy of life Concepts in Chinese philosophy	0.770652	0.991723	0.764274
Adult education	Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. It can mean any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling, encompassing basic literacy to personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner, and to ensure the fulfillment of an individual. In particular, adult education reflects a specific philosophy about learning and teaching based on the assumption that adults can and want to learn, that they are able and willing to take responsibility for the learning, and that the learning itself should respond to their needs. Driven by what one needs or wants to learn, the available opportunities, and the manner in which one learns, adult learning is affected by demographics, globalization and technology. The learning happens in many ways and in many contexts just as all adults' lives differ. Adult learning can be in any of the three contexts: Formal – Structured learning that typically takes place in an education or training institution, usually with a set curriculum and carries credentials; Non-formal – Learning that is organized by educational institutions but non credential. Non-formal learning opportunities may be provided in the workplace and through the activities of civil society organizations and groups; Informal education – Learning that goes on all the time, resulting from daily life activities related to work, family, community or leisure (e.g. community baking class). The World Bank's 2019 World Development Report on The Changing Nature of Work argues that adult learning is an important channel to help readjust workers' skills to fit in the future of work and suggests ways to improve its effectiveness. Characteristics In a study, Greenberg compared the orthographic and phonological skills of functionally illiterate adults and children. The study found that although functionally illiterate adults performed similarly in reading tasks, children were more successful in vocabulary and spelling tests. This means that functional illiterate adults are at a similar level of education as children, yet they differ in strengths of different skills. The difficulty in many countries is that education systems cater to children, the problem with this being that the adult brain works and learns in a very different manner to a child's developing brain. Teaching a 6-year-old how to write is a very different process to teaching a 30-year-old with similar writing skills. Several things must be taken into consideration when teaching adults as opposed to children. Although functionally illiterate adults have similar literacy functionality to developing children, they differ greatly in how they retain information. Adult learners have much more independence in performing tasks, a longer attention span, and more discipline. Adult learners are also educating themselves out of choice, as opposed to children who are forced to attend school. Finally, adults are likely to have increased anxiety in a classroom, because with ageing they "are more likely to experience this fear of failure, which can heighten [their] anxiety, especially if [their] experience of education in the past was not always positive." These all contribute to a difference in the way adults need to be taught. There are ways that adults are able to gain confidence in a classroom. Taming anxiety in a classroom comes down to two things: comfort and support. Comfort can be found by fulfilling Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs highlights the importance of getting enough rest, eating healthy, and having a stable life. These criteria are the same for children, yet finding stability for adults can be more difficult. In many cases, adult learners have a job or have to support themselves, which adds increased pressure in addition to education. Support is also necessary in the success of adult learning. This means having a work or classroom environment that makes one feel comfortable. Feeling comfortable means feeling as though one has emotional support in the classroom, and having a space where asking for guidance is encouraged rather than shamed. Educating adults differs from educating children in several ways given that adults have accumulated knowledge and work experience which can add to the learning experience. Most adult education is voluntary, therefore, the participants are generally self-motivated, unless required to participate by an employer. The practice of adult education is referred to as andragogy to distinguish it from the traditional school-based education for children – pedagogy. Unlike children, adults are seen as more self-directed rather than relying on others for help. Adults are mature and therefore have knowledge and have gained life experiences which provide them a foundation of learning. An adult's readiness to learn is linked to their need to have the information. Their orientation to learn is problem-centered rather than subject-centered. Their motivation to learn is internal. Adults frequently apply their knowledge in a practical fashion to learn effectively. They must have a reasonable expectation that the knowledge they gain will help them further their goals. For example, during the 1990s, many adults, including mostly office workers, enrolled in computer training courses. These courses would teach basic use of the operating system or specific application software. Because the abstractions governing the user's interactions with a PC were so new, many people who had been working white-collar jobs for ten years or more eventually took such training courses, either at their own whim (to gain computer skills and thus earn higher pay) or at the behest of their managers. The purpose of adult education in the form of college or university is distinct. In these institutions, the aim is typically related to personal growth and development as well as occupation and career preparedness. Adult education that focuses specifically on the workplace is often referred to as human resource development. Another goal might be to not only sustain the democratic society, but to even challenge and improve its social structure. A common problem in adult education in the US is the lack of professional development opportunities for adult educators. Most adult educators come from other professions and are not well trained to deal with adult learning issues. Most of the positions available in this field are only part-time without any benefits or stability since they are usually funded by government grants that might last for only a couple of years. However, in some countries, which contain the advanced systems of adult education, professional development is available through post-secondary institutions and provide professional development through their ministry of education or school boards and through nongovernmental organizations. In addition, there are programs about adult education for existing and aspiring practitioners offered, at various academic levels, by universities, colleges, and professional organizations. Adult educators have long maintained commitments to racial justice and other forms of social justice struggle. which included extensive work at Freedom Schools during the Civil Rights Movement. Contemporary commitments to racial justice in adult education include initiatives in the workplace. and beyond Objectives The primary purpose of adult education is to provide a second chance for those who are poor in society or who have lost access to education for other reasons in order to achieve social justice and equal access to education. Therefore, adult education is often a social policy of the government. Continuing education can help adults maintain certifications, fulfill job requirements and stay up to date on new developments in their field. Also, the purpose of adult education can be vocational, social, recreational or for self-development. One of its goals may be to help adult learners satisfy their personal needs and achieve their professional goals. With the development of economy and the progress of society, the requirement of human quality has been raised. In the 1960s, the proposition of "lifelong education" was put forward, which led to the change of contemporary educational concepts. Therefore, its ultimate goal might be to achieve human fulfillment. The goal might also be to achieve an institution's needs. For example, this might include improving its operational effectiveness and productivity. A larger scale goal of adult education may be the growth of society by enabling its citizens to keep up with societal change and maintain good social order. One fast-growing sector of adult education is English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), also referred to as English as a second language (ESL) or English language learners (ELL). These courses are key in assisting immigrants with not only the acquisition of the English language, but the acclimation process to the culture of the United States as well as other English speaking countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Theories Eduard C. Lindeman's theories Eduard C. Lindeman was the first expert who gave a systematic account of adult education. In his theory of education, education is regarded as a lifelong process. He pointed out that due to the constant development and change of social life and the surrounding environment, knowledge, and information are in a cycle of constant transmission, supplement and update, which requires people to keep learning to adapt to the changes in the outside world. At the same time, he believes that adult learners should not only learn for the needs of work and survival, but also have the opportunity to enrich themselves. He insists that adult education is an inspiring life-changing tool. Adult education should not only help people improve their skills and abilities in work, but also guide people to find happiness outside work. Otherwise, Lindeman also proposed that the most valuable resource for adult learners is the learner's experience. He believes that the purpose of adult education is to give meaning to all kinds of experience. Experience can enhance learners' autonomous learning and cognitive ability. In addition, Lindeman believes that adult education is an important means of improving society. The basic function of adult education is to promote the physical and mental development of adult learners. He argues that adult education is a powerful tool for social activists. Through adult education, the personal code of conduct and cultural knowledge of adult learners should be improved to gradually improve the social atmosphere and order. Andragogy The principles of andragogy flow directly from an understanding of the characteristics of adults as learners and can be recognized when we understand the characteristics of adults, and see the way those characteristics influence how adults learn best. Teachers who follow the principles of andragogy when choosing materials for training and when designing program delivery, find that their learners progress more quickly, and are more successful in reaching their goals. Malcolm Knowles introduces andragogy as the central theory of adult learning in the 1970s, defining andragogy as “the art and science of helping adults learn. Knowles's andragogy theory helps adults use their experiences to create new learning from previous understandings. Knowles believes that preparation for learning is related to the relevance of learning to adult life, and that they bring an ever-expanding experience that can serve as a learning resource. Andragogy proposes the following six main assumptions about adults as learners: As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being; An adult has rich experiences that accumulated through family responsibilities, work-related activities, and prior education; The readiness of an adult to learn is closely connected to the developmental tasks of his or her social role; As a person matures, he or she refers to immediacy application of knowledge rather than the future application of knowledge which used to have occurred in his or her childhood; An adult is motivated to involve in any form of learning based on his or her internal drives rather than external ones; Adults need to know why they need to learn something. Further, Knowles suggests that these characteristics should be taken into consideration when designing programs for adults as well as facilitating their learning process. Also, Knowles proposes a model of self-directed learning. In Knowles's view, self-directed learning is a process. Individuals will actively diagnose their learning needs, propose learning goals, select and implement appropriate learning strategies, and evaluate learning results. This learning model makes them think that they are the masters of learning, thus encouraging the confidence of adult learners to learn actively. Challenges and motivating factors Functional illiteracy is the inability to use reading, writing, and calculation abilities to contribute to the development of one's own personal growth and societal growth. This has become more and more common in adults, and although functional illiterates can still contribute to society, it limits their social and economic status. In contrast to being illiterate, where a person is unable to read and write, functional illiteracy is when a person who has these skills is unable to use them in everyday life. For example, a functional illiterate person may be able to read and write a basic sentence, but tasks such as filling out a job application, reading a doctor prescription or filling out basic everyday calculations becomes difficult. Studies have shown that these limitations affect language and cognitive skills. Adults have many responsibilities that they must balance against the demands of learning. Because of these responsibilities, adults have barriers and challenges against participating in learning and continuing their education. The barriers can be classified into three groups including institutional, situational, and dispositional. Some situational barriers include the lack of time balancing career and family demands, the higher cost of education, and transportation. Dispositional barriers include lack of confidence, embarrassment, and a fear of failure. Institutional barriers include challenges that the college provides in relation to admission, admission requirements, and financial aid requirements from the education facility. Other institutional barriers include the lack of evening and weekend hours from administrative offices such as financial aid, bursar, or academic advising. The lack of evening and weekend hours impedes these students from receiving the necessary information for their retention and academic success. Distance and/or online learning can also address some problems with adult education that cause these barriers. Meanwhile, research illustrates that understanding the motivations and barriers of adult learners can increase their enrollment and retention. Additional research shows that adult learners are more motivated in the classroom when they can clearly identify the application of their education to their professional or personal experiences. When instructors recognize their students' characteristics, they can develop lessons that address both the strengths and the needs of each student. Adults that are motivated, have confidence, and positive self-esteem are more likely to develop into lifelong learners. In fast-developing countries, the qualifications of adults fall far behind those of young people, and may no longer match the requirements of a developed economy. This implies strong potential demand for the education and training of adults. This demand needs to be met through flexible modes of study which are suitable for adults, avenues of access that recognize informal prior learning, and the supports necessary for adults with limited formal education to succeed in further study. Characteristics of non-participating adults in education Previous research findings suggest that as adults get older, they are less likely to participate in AE (adult education). The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), nationally representative samples of adults aged 16–65 in 23 OECD countries, has found that older age groups had lower participation rates than younger age groups. Particularly, adults aged 16 to 25 were on average about three times more likely to participate than older adults aged 56 to 65. Eurobarometer survey, national representative samples of adult aged 15 to 65 of European Union countries, also revealed that adults in the three youngest age groups examined (ages 15–24, ages 25–39, and ages 40–54) were more likely to participate in AE than age group of 55+. Moreover, the Eurobarometer survey shows that participation rate declined from younger to older adults. Participation rate of European countries was 59% for adults aged 15–24. The rate began to decline 38% for adults aged 25–39 and it also fell down to 31% for adults aged 40–54. Participation rate was 17% for adults above 55. Reason of why older adults' participation declined relates mainly to lack of promotion and support. When people get old, their chances to take promotion for any AE programs are reduced. In many OECD and European countries, employers often support their workers to attend in AE programs since they consider that workers with higher-educated and skilled are crucial indicators of development for companies. Therefore, older adults cannot get promotions from their employers because of the gradual loss of seniority, learning ability and performance. Since older adults are rarely offered a promotion from their employers, and the cost would be an obstacle for participation, they are unable to take the courses even if they wanted to take part in programmes. Moreover, lack of motivation and unavailability of learning opportunities could be additional reasons of older adults' low-participation). Findings of previous research are quite mixed when participation in AE comes to gender. According to the IALS, there is no a statistically significant difference between men and women in AE. However, the average participation rate of men was a bit higher than women. It was 38.7% for men and 37.9% for women. The Eurobarometer survey shows a similar result to the IALS data. Specifically the average participation of males was 35%; while, it was 30% for females. Women's low participation is mainly resulted from family burdens and lack of financial support. However, an opposite tendency can be observed in the US. A study based on National Household Education Survey [NCES] in 2001 revealed that although gender difference did not exist much, females were more likely to participate in AE than males in the US. The participation rate was 49% for women and 43% for men. Educational attainment is determined as the most important factor in predicting participation in AE. It is known that those with higher levels of educational attainment participate more in AE programs. The IALS showed that there was a clear relationship between previous educational attainment and participation in AE. The data found those with low educational background were less likely to participate in OECD countries. Specifically, the participation rate was 57.6% for adults who completed college or university education; while, it was 15.5% for adults who did not complete high school. The Eurobarometer survey also showed that 87% of low-educated people belonged to the non-participant group. Reason of low or non-participation of the less-educated can be explained from perspectives of individual and employers. Individual point illustrated that low self-confidence regarding the learning, which mainly derived from previous bad educational experiences, could be a major obstacle for the less-educated. Apart from low self-confidence, those less-educated might not perceive their need of participation or might actually not have a need to participate. Yet, employers' view was apparent that they tended to support high-educated because they were more trainable than the low-educated. Therefore, the participation of the less-educated was low since they could not get promotions from their employers. Finally, adults who come from a better socio-economic background tend to participate more in AE programs. The OECD data showed that higher the parent' educational level could produce the higher participation rate. Summarizing above findings, people, those are young and men, with high levels of education, high-status of jobs are more likely to take part in any form of education and training. On the contrary, typical non-participants tend to be women, older, less educated, and coming from poor socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, less-skilled, unemployed, immigrants, language minorities, and rural residents are less likely to participate in AE programmes. Deterring factors for participation in education Deterrents are characteristics that explain why adults respond in negative manners to participate in education and learning. Deterrents faced by adults are multifaceted, including both external and internal factors. However, cost and time have been remained as the most frequently reported deterrents. Large sampled (nationwide and international) surveys on barriers to participation such as a study of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the US, IALS and Eurobarometer indicated that time and cost were the main deterrents for adults. Moreover, some empirical studies discovered time and cost as the most cited deterrents through studying various groups of adults. Cost includes tuition fee of a programme as well as extra expenditures for learning such as clothes, food, transportation and other school necessities (textbooks and stationaries). It is well known that adults less educated, low-skilled and unemployed are less likely to participate in education/learning. For the unemployed, it is obvious that cost can hinder their participation in education. And those lacking education and skills must be paid low salaries. In this way, cost could be the most influential deterrent. Even employed adults seem not wanting to invest money for a course, but they could attend if their employers supported them financially. For the time barrier, most adults involved in the above-mentioned studies reported that they could not participate in educational activities due to lack of time. Adults tended to say that they were busy with their daily routines. Apart from cost and time deterrents, family and job commitments are other most commonly cited deterrents. The large sampled surveys and empirical studies as mentioned earlier revealed that adults tended to report family and job responsibilities as deterrents and rated right after the cost and time deterrents. However, Milana suggested that busy workload and family responsibilities can be associated with the time barrier, otherwise time barrier itself is a vague concept. Adults feel they do not have time to learn because they are busy at work and home. Thus, the time barrier should be considered in line with family and job commitments. After above-mentioned deterrents, another mostly reported deterrent is irrelevant and inadequate supplies of trainings/activities. In other words, AE programs and courses do not always suit the needs of adult learners. It, therefore, is also important for educational planners to recognize that AE opportunities available may not always suit the learner's need. Deterrents related to an individual's internal issues tend to be reported in lowest rate. For example, the IALS showed that the least deterrent was lack of self-confidence. Also, the Eurobarometer survey indicated that adults’ perception of being too old to learn was the least significant deterrent. Moreover, perceived deterrents are differentiated into social groups. Johnstone and Rivera found that older adults faced more dispositional barriers such as low self-confidence and too late for being learners. Also, younger adults and women were more experienced with situational barriers such as cost and child care arrangements. Among the less educated, one's low-confidence regarding the learning ability could be the main deterrent. Benefits Adult education can have many benefits ranging from better health and personal well-being to greater social inclusion. It can also support the function of democratic systems and provide greater opportunities for finding new or better employment. Adult education has been shown to have a positive impact on the economy. Adult education provides opportunities for personal growth, goal fulfillment & socialization. Chris McAllister's research of semi-structured interviews with older adult learners shows a motivation to communicate with people and to get out of the house to keep mentally active. Researchers have documented the social aspects of older adult education. Friendship was described as an important aspect of adult learning. The classroom is seen as a part of their social network. In recent studies, the friendships that are made between adults seem to have an increasing effect on their social structure as a whole. The development of social networks and support was found to be a key motivation of adult learners. As editor of a book entitled Adult Education and Health, Leona English claims that including health education as part of adult education makes for a healthier community. When surveying adult education programs in Japan, Nojima found that classes focusing on hobbies and very specific recreational activities were by far the most popular. The author noted that more time, money and resources needed to be in place so participants would be able to take advantage of these types of activities. Withnall explored the influences on later life learning in various parts in the U.K. Results were similar in that later in life education afforded these older adults opportunities to socialize. Some experts claim that adult education has a long-term impact on the economy and that there is a correlation between innovation and learning at the workplace. Recently, adult education has gained recognition and importance in broader educational policies which emphasise inclusive and equitable education for all. However, there has been a shift towards a narrow focus on vocational skills, undermining the transformative potential of adult education. Looking to the future, adult learning needs to extend beyond labor market needs, connecting career change and reskilling to broader educational reforms. Lifelong learning should be reconceptualized as transformative and responsive to societal changes. It is crucial to address the participation and inclusion of vulnerable groups, appreciate informal learning, embrace digital means of participation, and promote scientific literacy while combating misinformation. Adult education plays a vital role in enhancing competencies, fostering responsibility, understanding changing paradigms, and shaping a just and sustainable world, emphasizing intergenerational solidarity. Monitoring Global Reports on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE) Global Reports on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE) are a series of reports that monitor progress on Adult Learning and Education (ALE), promote action, identify trends in the field of ALE, and explore solutions to challenges. GRALE play a key role in meeting UNESCO's commitment to monitor and report on countries' implementation of the Belém Framework for Action. This Framework was adopted by 144 UNESCO Member States at the Sixth International Conference on Adult Learning and Education (CONFINTEA VI), which was held in Belém, Brazil, in 2009. In the Belém Framework for Action, countries agreed to improve ALE across five areas of action: policy; governance; financing; participation, inclusion and equity; and quality. Adult and youth literacy rate According to the most recent estimates, the global youth literacy rate is 91%, meaning 102 million youth lack basic literacy skills. In low-income countries, one in three young people still cannot read. The adult literacy rate is 86%, which means 750 million adults lack basic literacy skills. There are 92 literate women for every 100 literate men globally, and in low-income countries, as few as 77 literate women for every 100 literate men. The literacy rate is expected to continue to grow steadily in countries in all income groups. At the global level, the youth literacy rate is expected to reach 94% by 2030 and the adult literacy rate 90%. In low-income countries, less than 70% of adults and slightly more than 80% of youth aged 15 to 24 years are projected to have basic literacy skills by 2030. See also By geographic region Adult education in the United Kingdom Other information Educators Anna J. Cooper Historical Chautauqua Organizations , New York, U.S. UPCEA (University Professional and Continuing Education Association) – adult and online education non-profit association Citations Sources Further reading Brookfield, Stephen. "A critical definition of adult education." Adult Education Quarterly 36.1 (1985): 44-49. Elias, John L., and Sharran B. Merriam. Philosophical foundations of adult education (2005). online Finger, Matthias, and José Manuel Asún. Adult education at the crossroads: Learning our way out (Zed Books, 2001), online. Foley, Griff, ed. Understanding adult education and training (Routledge, 2020) online. Houle, Cyril O. The Literature of Adult Education. A Bibliographic Essay (Jossey-Bass, 1992) details. Jarvis, Peter. Adult education and the state: Towards a politics of adult education (Routledge, 2005) . Jarvis, Peter. Adult education and lifelong learning: Theory and practice (Routledge, 2004) online Lindeman, Eduard. The meaning of adult education (1926) online. Lindeman, Eduard C. "The sociology of adult education." The Journal of Educational Sociology 19.1 (1945): 4-13. online Merriam, Sharan B., and Ralph G. Brockett. The profession and practice of adult education: An introduction (John Wiley & Sons, 2011) online. Robert, Peers F. Adult education: a comparative study (Routledge, 2013). Tight, Malcolm. Key concepts in adult education and training (Routledge, 2012). External links The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (USA) UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL U.S.) European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) – European association of university departments, scholars and researchers on adult education BBC Adult Learners resources The Profession and Practice of Adult Education: An Introduction Educational stages	0.768245	0.994706	0.764178

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