Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making Essay Example

Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making Essay Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making Perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of world around us. It involves deciding which information notice, how to categorize this information and how to interpret it within the framework of existing knowledge. Another definition of perception is â€Å"A process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment†. We can summarize the perception with this sentence â€Å"We don’t see the things as they are, we see things as we are†. Why is perception important in the study of Organizational Behaviour? Simply because people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. Virtually all management activities rely on perception. In appraising performance, managers use their perceptions of an employee’s behaviour as a basis for evaluation. Factors that influence perception are categorized to three groups; 1)Factors in the perceiver: Attitudes, Motives, Interests, Experience, Expectations 2)Factors in the situation: Time, Work Setting, Social Setting 3)Factors in the target: Novelty, Motion, Sounds, Size, Background, Proximity, Similarity Shortcuts used in judging others; )Selective Perception: a characteristic that make someone stand out in our mind will increase the probability that it will be perceived 2)Halo Effect: drawing a general impression based on a single characteristic 3)Contrast Effects: our reaction is influenced by others we have recently encountered 4)Projection: the tendency to attribute our own characteristics to other people 5)Stereotyping: judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which they belong Attribution in Organizations We will write a custom essay sample on Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Social Perception, and Attribution, and Individual Decision Making specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Attribution simply refers to how a person explains the cause of another’s or his or her own behaviour. Attribution thus is the most relevant application of perception concepts of organizational behaviour-the issue of person perception. The attributions or inferred causes we provide for behaviour have important implications in organizations. In explaining the causes of employee performance, good or bad, we are asked to explain the behaviour that was the basis for the performance. Attribution Theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behaviour, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused: Internally; believed to be under the personal control of the individual Externally; resulting from outside causes. Determinants of Attribution Distinctiveness; whether an individual displays different behaviors in different situations. Consensus; if everyone who faces a similar situation responds in the same way. Consistency; does the person respond the same way over time. Individual Decision Making Individuals in organizations make decisions. That is, they make choices from among two or more alternatives. Decision-making is almost universally defined as choosing between alternatives. Decision-making is a critical activity in the lives of managers. The decisions a manager faces can range from very simple, routine matters for which the manager has an established decision rule(programmed decisions) to new and complex decisions that require creative solutions(non-programmed decisions). Decision-Making Process Managers have to make decisions whether they are simple or extremely complex. Making a good decision is a difficult exercise. It is the product of deliberation, evaluation and thought. To make good decisions, managers should invariably follow a sequential set of steps. 1)recognize the problem and need for a decision 2)identify the objective of the decision 3)gather and evaluate data and diagnose the situation 4)list and evaluate alternatives 5)select the best course of action 6)implement the decision 7)gather feedback 8)follow up

I woke up one day essays

I woke up one day essays When I woke up I had my family next to me. My memories were faded but I started recollecting all that had happened up to the accident. Soon after my gaining consciousness the doctors told me that I had not sustained any major injuries during the accident and that I was very lucky. They also told me that due to a blow to my head some part of my brain had stopped functioning and at the time of the accident there was no medical treatment that could wake me up from my comatose condition. But recently a new treatment was introduced and with my familys approval this treatment was tried on me and it was successful. They told me that the treatment involved using nanotechnology to release nanobots into the brain that repaired damage to my brain at the nanometer level. A nanobot is a nanotechnological robot, that is, a robot whose operating components are molecular and whose size is comparable to biological cells. All of this didnt make any sense to me at that time but after further explanatio n and questioning I found out that Nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices, and systems through control of matter on the nanometer (1 to 100+ nm) length scale and the exploitation of properties and phenomena developed at that scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter (10-9 m). This is roughly ten times the size of an individual atom. A cube 2.5 NM on a side would contain about a thousand atoms. I had heard of this technology before I went into comma, and I was very surprised to find out that this technology had grown so fast. I also found out that nanotechnology was being used to cure certain cancers. Nanobots are released into the body that search and destroy cancerous cells and only those cells. A typical blood borne medical nanobot would be around three micrometres in size, because that is the maximum size possible due to capillary passage requirement. Carbon would be the element used to build these nanobots due t...

Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 6

Law - Essay Example In this paper, laws are discussed as far as their determinations of the levels of freedom people enjoy are concerned (Locke 15). In America, there is a law governing each activity. From handling children to the amount of sugar in a Coke bottle, everything in America follows given guidelines. Operating without these guidelines often lands people in trouble ending in jail terms and fines. While the breaking of laws occurs in every country, the United States is often ridiculed for having laws on subjects that could be easily resolved using other methods. Being the most elaborate constitutions on earth, the United States constitution has a profound effect on the way people handle other people and live life in general (Locke 24). First, having some rules in place limits people’s freedom of movement. For example, moving from one state to the next requires that one informs their original state’s Department of Motor Vehicles and then updates their driver license to that effect. Failure to do these often results in one’s license being suspended. It is actually illogical that a nation with a single currency, president, and national flag should have different laws on the same issue. Secondly, having too many laws limits people’s imagination since it scares them into believing whatever they are up to could land them behind bars. In this sense, many people fear entering businesses such as the trading of commodities since one just does not know to differentiate between legal and the illegal. In essence, being without laws has its advantages and disadvantages. While not clouding people’s judgment, it gives people freedom to carry out evil deeds unchecked. As Hobbes once said, the existence of such a â€Å"dissolute condition of master less men, without subjection to Laws, and a coercive Power to their hands from rapine, and revenge† would be a breeding grounds for all vices bent on curtailing civilization and comfort. Laws shall thus remain

Should Whaling be Banned Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Should Whaling be Banned - Term Paper Example It is believed that these are areas had little capacity to support agriculture and therefore, people had to look for an alternative source of livelihood and whaling turned out to be the most sufficient. During this time, whales were in plenty and though it is still thought to have been cruel, this activity did not pose any significant threat to the whale population as it was only conducted at the subsistence level. Furthermore, there were no sophisticated equipments to facilitate large scale whaling. Instead, fishermen used crude methods and equipment such as canoes, which exposed them to dangers associated with this activity such as drowning as a result of the canoes capsizing while struggling to catch the whales or even suffering attacks from the mammoth oceanic creatures. The whalers used the canoes to surround the target whale in order to force it to change its course and swim to the shore, where it would end up on the beach and helpless thus making it easy to catch (James et al 36). Between the years 1700 and 1900, it is believed that this activity had consumed a significantly high number i.e. more than 50000 whales of the bowhead species leading to their near extinction, not withstanding the fact that this was only in the eastern coast of Greenland. However, the endangerment of these species begun in the early 1900s, when technological advancements facilitated the building of large ships and cannons, whose success rate enhanced large scale whaling and in turn, the growth of industries specializing in whale processing (Healy 38) . According to statistics, in the period between 1910 and 1969, more than 2 million whales of different species were killed and worse still, current studies indicate that the population of blue whales in the whole world is approximately 3500, which is significantly low considering the fact that in the year 1931 alone, approximately 29000 blue whales were caught and slaughtered (Freeman 148). In fact, the remaining population of blu e whales is considered to be less or equals to 1% of their original population. This shows that there is a major and real threat to whales, which must be sorted out before other species are affected in the same manner. Other statistics show that between 1986 and 2001, more than 27000 whales were killed despite the fact that there was a moratorium which was introduced in 1986 to protect the whales from commercial whaling companies. However, it may be notable that this moratorium did not restrict whaling for scientific purposes and this has been used by countries, such as Japan, as an excuse to continue participating in commercial whaling in the pretext of conducting scientific research (Gillespie 67). The magnitude of this threat to the whales may be subject to contradiction meaning that it could even be higher than the figures and data available. This is due to the fact that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) sometimes relies on figures, which have been disputed on some occa sions by independent researchers. For example, the IWC once produced figures, which showed that the original number of Humpback whales was approximately 100000. On the contrary, data produced through DNA sampling in 2003 showed that the original number of Humpback whales was approximately 1.5 million i.e. before commercial whaling was introduced (Gillespie 73). With less than 20000 humpback whales remaining, the level of damage caused may be overestimated or underestimated depending on the data one decides to rely on. Similarly, the original estimates of Minke whales in the Antarctic has never been established since the IWC disowned its estimate of 760000 whales after resurveying and coming up with a new conclusion that they

Policy and Prejudice in Canada

Policy and Prejudice in Canada While today Canada would be viewed as one of the countries with the most kind and inclusive community, it too had its dark times. It is hard to believe that there was a time where Canada had policies based on discrimination and bias towards certain ethnicities when today our culture is so heavily reliant on the diversity if our population. While Canada has made many changes to its policies throughout the years to better accommodate those who live here, it is important to remember the impact and significance of these past policies, as they were the cause of suffering for many people within Canadian history. One of the most prejudiced policies within Canadian history would be the Chinese Exclusion Act. Due to the influx of Chinese immigrants coming into Canada within the years of 1881 to 1884, prejudiced politicians believed that this increase in immigration was detrimental to Canada. They believed that Chinese people were stealing the jobs of Canadians as they were willing to work for less than the host population (Part 3: Why Were The Chine, n.d.). This policy led to early Chinese works not being allowed to bring their families to Canada. This meant that workers would spend a long portion of their lives separated from their family and loved ones. This led to the Chinese Canadian community to be seen as a bachelor community. During this time, many Chinese wives were left in China to raise their children alone while their husbands struggled to survive in Canada. This lead to many Chinese families facing starvation and economic hardships (CCNC : Chinese Head T, n.d). In addition to this, there were multiple instances of racism that perpetuated by this law. Chinese citizens were deni ed their right to vote, to practice medicine or law, to seek employment on public works or to own land. All of these restrictions led to the Chinese community remaining at a low social and economic position (Chan, n.d). The policy has since been removed as of 1947, however, the final elements of this act where not completely eliminated until 1967 (Susan Munroe Can.., 2017). This occurred after the end of WW2, when Canada signed the United Nations Charter of Human Rights. Due to the fact that the Chinese Immigration Act was inconsistent with the charter which made the Canadian Parliament decide to repeal the act. (The Unive). The legacy left by this act is the five million dollar fund that was allocated to projects that addressed Chinese immigration restrictions in 2008. This lead to 33 artistic projects being created to bring to light the injustice that occurred during this time period. However, despite Chinese citizens now having the right to vote and being treated with equal immigration policies as other countries, there are still issues to this day regarding the large amount of money the Canadian government had taken from the Chinese community. Organizations such as the Chinese Canadian National Council and the National Congress of Chinese Canadians pressured the government to acknowledge the discrimination that took place and to provide financial redress to the head-tax payers. The need for redress led to multiple protests and events rallied by Chinese Canadians. After a submission filed by these organizations, the UN special rapporteur that focuses on issues like this, suggested that Canada redress the head tax (Chan, n.d). During the years, while multiple apologies have gone out to those who suffered from this Exclusion Act, there were fewer than 50 head tax payers out of 785 people that received payments from the federal government in 2009. The sons and daughters of the family members that were excluded from the 2006 continue to the redress campaign today. (Chan, n.d). In my personal opinion, I do not believe there has been something that is good enough to consider this issue of a thing of the past. I believe that the discrimination is still prevalent due to the government not providing an apology and compensation for all head tax payers and their descendants. Works Cited Part 3: Why Were The Chinese Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Laws Enacted? (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://immigrationwatchcanada.org/2006/03/22/part-3-why-were-the- chinese-head-tax-and-chinese-exclusion-laws-enacted/ CCNC : Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.ccnc.ca/redress/history.html Chan, A. (n.d.). Chinese Head Tax in Canada. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-head-tax-in-canada/#h3_jump_2 Susan Munroe Canada News Expert. (2017, February 05). What was Canadas Chinese Exclusion Act and Head Tax? Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://canadaonline.about.com/od/historyofimmigration/a/chineseheadtax.htm The University of British Columbia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.library.ubc.ca/chineseinbc/exclusion.html

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein Essay

In Chapter 5, Frankenstein brings the monster to life. Shelly uses a typical gothic method of mimicking Frankenstein’s disgust for the creature with weather, â€Å"the dreary night of November. † Frankenstein is appalled at his creation despite that the monster’s â€Å"limbs were in proportion† and he â€Å"had selected his features as beautiful†. Frankenstein then describes the creature in such a way that the reader learns that although Frankenstein attempted to create beauty but is faced with the disgusting looks of the creature. â€Å"†¦ his hair was of lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his†¦ shrivelled complexion and straight black lips. † Shelly uses an ironic contrast of life and death in describing the monster, using elements like â€Å"yellow skin† which is relevant to a new – born baby with jaundice and â€Å"straight black lips†, which is relevant to a dead body. She also uses descriptions like â€Å"shrivelled complexion† which is relevant to both a baby and a corpse. The creature also reacts to life as a new – born baby does. â€Å"It breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. This contrast is effective in showing the reader the irony in the fact that new life is given to parts of the dead. Shelly effectively describes the creature with enough detail to allow the reader to interpret the creature’s appearance individually and also empathise with Frankenstein. Frankenstein has been disillusioned whilst creating the monster, but when it becomes alive, he is faced with its ugliness and abandons him. This is not an example of unconditional love and links in with Elizabeth’s arrival into the Frankenstein family. â€Å"Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be more hideous as that wretch. † The memory of the shock of the monster’s looks is very powerful to Frankenstein and Shelly portrays this by using words like â€Å"Oh! † when Frankenstein is telling Walton his story. Frankenstein has a dream after creating his monster in which, as he kisses Elizabeth, she turns into the corpse of his dead mother. â€Å"I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death. I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother†. This dream shows that Frankenstein has subconscious fears of harm coming to his family, which does actually happen later on in the novel. The dream is an effective example of foreshadowing, another typical gothic technique effectively used by Shelly. The reader could also interpret that the dream foreshadows Frankenstein’s fears of creating the monster a â€Å"wife†. It presents the idea that although Frankenstein first thinks that building a companion for the monster will keep his family safe, the consequences could be much worse if he does as it is possible that the creatures will breed. The monster is not reunited with its creator until several months later, where he tells Frankenstein of the hardships of life he has endured as an abandoned and disfigured child. â€Å"Father† and â€Å"son† meet in the mountains; this location could be interpreted as an effort by Shelley to use the mountains symbolically, showing Frankenstein’s guilt for abandoning his â€Å"child† or as the towering glaciers threatening Frankenstein; telling him that nature is not to be toyed with by man. The creature learns that humans should have families by reading a book that he finds whilst living near the French family he grows to love. He meets a blind man from the family who treats him with kindness, but when the rest of the family see him, they drive him from their cottage with stones. This teaches the monster that people hate him for his ugliness and therefore develops a hatred for his creator for making him so ugly. Upon meeting Frankenstein, the creature makes a direct relationship between the bad parenting and upbringing he endures with his own desire to harm others when he claims â€Å"misery made me a fiend. † Shelley uses this line as a blatant point that bad parenting will result in evil.

Response to Don Marquis’ “Why Abortion Is Immoral”

Don Marquis' â€Å"Why Abortion is Immoral† In his essay â€Å"Why Abortion is Immoral,† Don Marquis argues against the morality of abortion on the premise that the value of a fetus' future is so great that it is immoral to take that potential future away from it. Essentially, he contends, abortion is tantamount to murder: killing an individual is prima facie wrong because the loss of the goods of one's future is the worst loss a human can suffer. He calls this potential future a â€Å"future-like-ours,† which is the basis for his contentions.In the next few pages I will delineate the general progression of his argument, and later, will evaluate the plausibility of said argument. Though Marquis makes both logical and compelling claims, there are several concerns and weaknesses that arise from his argument that must be considered. Marquis establishes his argument with the exploration of why killing humans is wrong, in any case. The clear answer, he says, is that k illing is wrong because of its â€Å"effect on the victim† (Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine, 558).Taking one's life deprives the victim of â€Å"all the experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one's future,† and this is the greatest loss that any human can suffer (558). This theory of wrongness can account for why it is also wrong to kill infants and young children, whereas other theories that make narrower claims (e. g. â€Å"It is prima facie wrong to kill only rational agents) do not stand in such cases. There are obvious implications concerning the ethics of abortion with this theory in place.Marquis contends that â€Å"The future of a standard fetus includes a set of experiences, projects, activities, and such which are identical with the futures of adult human beings†¦ † (559). It follows then, that because it is wrong to kill humans, it is also wrong to kill potential humans, and so abortion is prima facie seriously wrong. Fetuses have a viable, valuable future, which Marquis calls a â€Å"future-like-ours. † So, he adds, whether one has â€Å"immediate past experiences or not† does not matter when it comes to killing, because it is the value of the potential future that must be taken into onsideration (561). Marquis goes on to refute other theories of wrongness of killing. One such example is that valuing one's future implies a valuer, but fetuses obviously cannot value their futures, and so their futures are not valuable to them. However, Marquis counters this notion by providing us with an example: one may think during a time of despair that his â€Å"future is of no worth whatsoever,† but he is wrong to think so because â€Å"others rightly see value†¦ in it† (561).So, just because a fetus cannot appreciate its own future, we are aware of the value of its potential future, so abortion is still wrong. Other claims put forth that to be an actu al victim, one requires mentation. However, we still recognize that it is wrong to kill those that are unconscious or in a coma (who have prospects of emerging out of their states), so it follows that mentation is not a necessary condition to be a victim. Marquis' refutations provide for his very strong and compelling argument against abortion.I will grant Marquis that his progression of logic is rational; if a fetus were allowed to fully develop, it would indeed become a sentient being with the capacity of enjoying a prosperous future. However, some ambiguities arise as a result of his claims and it is difficult to say how Marquis would respond. The first concern I would like to address regards the case of a fetus with a debilitating disease. With today's technology, it is quite easy to detect any abnormalities in a fetus very early on in the pregnancy.Say, for example, a couple finds out that their fetus has some sort of affliction that will make him terminally ill. They want to a bort the fetus because they cannot stand the notion of bringing a child into the world that, although sentient and rational, will have a markedly reduced life span and suffer greatly throughout whatever life he has. How would Marquis respond in this case? He might argue that though the child will suffer, he still has a potential future in which he formulate goals, and have experiences and projects.However, we must note that during his argument, Marquis says â€Å"If the patient's future is intolerable†¦ we want our account to allow killing the patient† and that â€Å"it is the value of the patient's future which is doing the work in rendering the morality of killing the patient intelligible† (561). Obviously, a quandary arises. Does the fetus in our example have a future that is less valuable than that of a normal one? Can we justify aborting this fetus, because although he will be rational and most likely capable of having experiences, the scope of his suffering will be exceedingly great?Are we in any sort of position to prescribe the value of someone else's future without knowing exactly how it will play out? So while it is plausible that Marquis would still argue from an anti-abortionist stance due to its potential future, this decision will very probably not sit well with the parents who have to watch their child suffer throughout his shortened life. This is one ambiguity that exists in Marquis' argument that has no easy answer, and is worth noting. We must recognize that cannot say with such conviction that we know what a future-like-ours entails.It seems presumptuous to assert that a future-like-ours is always a positive thing; how can we account for the fetus in the previous example, or an inner-city child essentially having to raise himself because his parents are absent? What about the child who is stuck in a situation with abusive parents, with no one to turn to for help? Though I grant Marquis the soundness of his general argument , and the premise that all fetuses have a potential future, we cannot infer from this claim that this future will necessarily be a positive one.It becomes a murky and essentially taboo dilemma to even ask if the lives of these children are worth living, and if they would have been better off being aborted in the womb. Marquis may still claim that every fetus has a right to life no matter what, but because he does not consider these cases in his argument, it is worth noting that the answers might not be so straightforward and that more complicated cases do exist. The main concern I would like to note regarding Marquis' argument is that he does not once consider the rights of the mother and the value of her future.Although Marquis treats the fetus as an independent being, we must at least recognize that the fetus' life depends on its mother's: it receives all of its nutrition from her and it develops in her womb. So, how would Marquis respond to a situation in which the mother will su rely (or even has the remote chance) of dying in childbirth, even if the fetus will not? Here, we have two potential futures contesting each other, because this is a one or the other situation – either the fetus must die or the mother will in delivering it.Similar to the example mentioned previously of the sick fetus, it is not easy to simply prescribe one of their futures with more value than the other one. An anti-abortionist could possibly make the argument that the fetus' life should be saved because it has a longer future to attain, since the mother has already lived a significant portion of her life. However, one could contend that because the mother is already a sentient, rational being and already has goals and projects set in place for her life, her right to life should take precedence over the fetus, who still has no capacity to value its future.To take away the future of the mother would be more cruel than to take it away from the unaware fetus. Furthermore, what a bout a situation in which the mother is a teenager, and adoption is out of the question? Say, for example, she has to drop out of school and get a low-paying job, and struggles greatly for a significant amount of time trying to provide for herself and her baby. What has happened to her future-like-ours? Both the mother and the child are in dire situations, and it is obvious that the mother would have been in a better current situation had the fetus been aborted, as uncomfortable as that contention may make us.The case of the child, however, is much more complex because again, it is difficult to weigh his suffering with his capacity for potentiating a future. I would not like to argue one way or another, but would simply like to note that it is unclear how Marquis would respond to these predicaments and should have noted such in the essay. As I conclude enumerating the ambiguities that arise from Marquis' contentions, I would like to consider the hypothetical case in which Marquis di d allow for an abortion, in, for example, the case of the fetus that has some sort of debilitating disease.He might contend that the inevitable suffering in the fetus' â€Å"future-like-ours† outweighs the positive value of his potential future, so an abortion in this case would be permissible. However, what does this do for the integrity of the future-like-ours argument? If we can begin to make exceptions like this, where can we draw the line of what constitutes a â€Å"good† or â€Å"bad† future-like-ours? If Marquis begins to allow for such xceptions, it seems to diminish the value of his theory as a whole, because it connotes that the futures of some fetuses are less valuable than others even if they are both capable of having potential experiences, dreams, projects, etc. On a broader and related scope, if an anti-abortionist who argues on the sanctity-of-life theory makes an exception for the abortion of a fetus who was the product of a rape or is in a situ ation where the mother cannot provide for it, it invalidates their entire premise. Both fetuses are innocent and have equal rights to their future.So, if Marquis did make an exception, it would compromise the integrity of his argument. Marquis makes very compelling and interesting claims in his essay, and takes a novel approach in the controversy over abortion. He uses a strong premise that is not too broad or too narrow in scope, as some anti-abortionists and pro-life activists end up doing in their reasoning. However, as mentioned above, ambiguities do arise from his argument, the most significant of which being the consideration of the mother's right to a future.With this considered, it becomes clear that a â€Å"future-like-ours† may not be as clear-cut of an idea as Marquis would like us to think. The essay would have been stronger and more lucid if Marquis considered â€Å"futures-like-ours† that are not exactly futures like ours. By virtue of the sheer breadth a nd variety of experiences that humans experience as a species, it is much more difficult to define a future-like-ours than Marquis delineates in his essay.