Thursday, April 2, 2020
Causal Analysis Essays (1957 words) - Mood Disorders, Psychiatry
Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder Introduction Bipolar disorder, formally known as manic depression, is a mental disorder that seems to be talked around on a regular basis. The fact of the matter is, though, that it is an illness that affects many people worldwide. The purpose of this analysis is to provide an overview of a relatively common disorder that isn't necessarily common knowledge due to its extreme states of behaviors. Bipolar disorder causes both episodes of mania and of depression and, therefore, it make s life harder for those living with the condition. History Bipolar disorder, or rather the research gathered on it, started much earlier than the common person would assume . The h istory of manic depression is found in its first record s dated back to ancient Greece. Greeks believed manic behavior, or mental derangement, to be attributed to humor and melancholy being imbalanced (Martin, 2007, p. 16). Purging was a solution used to combat said imbalance; mania was organic, and so purging was an organic solution. Plato, in the Phaedrus, found mania to be some kind of inspiration from God or other strong emotional connections. Therefore, these were considered emotional disorders (Martin, 2007, p. 17). In the 1800s, it was acknowledged that emotions are their own force of the mind , as well as willpower and intellect . Emotional i nsanity was a proposed ide a that failed because there was no way to figure out which emotion meant what to each person (Martin, 2007, p. 17). Charles Darwin believed that emotions were something that humans attained over years of evolution. However, his research was stopped before it even began to develop because he thought that emotions were so deep that no individual would be able to account for their experiences (Martin, 2007, p. 17). Unfortunately, it took years for research to be completed on this. Bipolar disorder was originally referred to as manic depression and has made its way to the public eye through celebrities embracing their tendencies . Jim Ca r rey and Robin Williams are two people that those who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder look up to for their manic roles on the television. Both men act ed in roles that depict states of manic behavior, and because they are successful it is almost inspirational (Martin, 2007 , p. 1 ). In another form of art, Vincent van Gogh and Georgia O'Keeffe express ed their manic emotions on canvas with paint . These manic behaviors evoke fascination to people because of the productivity to come out of their manic behavior (Martin, 2007 , p. 1 ) . One pharmaceutical company wanted to use van Gogh's painting on the front of a brochure for a drug to treat bipolar disorder, however, it sparked the conversation of controversy. Since van Gogh took his own life at the youn g age of thirty-seven, there was the concern that people could assume that without the drug they would, in fact, die (Martin, 2007 , p. 154 ). Luckily the pamphlet used other designs so as to not display the said assumption . F urther ing the timeline on this research , a new realm of prescription drugs w as being produced to combat this mood disorder. S erotonin (5-HT) , a neurotransmitter that inhibits a happier mood because of its ability to act as an antidepressant (Young, 2000, p. 44). Because of that, it played a huge role in developing medicine for manic depression (Martin, 2007, p. 25). Subsequently, manic depression , under the official name of bipolar disorder to the DSM-III , in 1980 greatly advanced the battle against the sickness. Since the year of 1999 , the label "bipolar disorder" has been used three times more than that of "manic depression" (Martin, 2007, p. 27). The term bipolar itself can be broken down into two parts: bi- meaning two, and polar- meaning opposite tendencies. With the two meanings put together, it is a label given to those who experience two very opposite moods (Martin, 2007, p. 28). Biological Factors Now with some background information on the illness itself, it is time to further explain just what it does to someone suffering from it. Although there are
Sunday, March 8, 2020
So I can make it clear why Seabiscuit is about perseverance I wrote a short review of the film Essay Example
So I can make it clear why Seabiscuit is about perseverance I wrote a short review of the film Essay Example So I can make it clear why Seabiscuit is about perseverance I wrote a short review of the film Essay So I can make it clear why Seabiscuit is about perseverance I wrote a short review of the film Essay This analytical folio is based on the health issue developing life skills, more to the point, perseverance. I chose the movie Seabiscuit to analyse as it is a movie based on perseverance, and this is portrayed by all the characters. I believe perseverance is an important part of everyday life, for everybody, in every task. If we didnt persevere, many tasks would remain uncompleted. The movie, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand, is a true story, and was released in 2003. There were four producers for this particular movie, Kathleen Kennedy; Frank Marshall; Gary Ross and; Jane Sindell. Gary Ross was also the director. So I can make it clear why Seabiscuit is about perseverance I wrote a short review of the film. Seabiscuit is set in the early 90s during the Depression. In my opinion the central theme of this film is that there have been people from past times who have been brave and courageous enough to accept that their social standings are as underdogs, and have fought to overcome all odds to achieve their goals. The story of Seabiscuit is the tale of four unlikely heroes, Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), is a wealthy salesman, who suffers both personal and financial losses during the depression. In the shape of his sons tragic death, his divorce and his business going under, he regains hope through a horse and his jockey. Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), is a disciplined, ageing trainer, Johnny Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), is a quick tempered jockey with various disabilities against him. These include being blind in his right eye, searching for where he belongs as he was given up by his parents as a young child, and later in the movie, coping a shattered leg. The last but not least of these four is Seabiscuit, an undersized horse, who has been mistreated all his life, and also suffers a leg injury during the film. It is the depression and no one escapes the harshness of the times. It is during these bleak days that horse racing quickly gathers momentum, and it is under these circumstances that the four main characters stories entwine. Howard seeks a new business venture in horse racing and hires Pollard as his Jockey and Smith as his trainer. Smith happens along Seabiscuit, a broken horse and narrowly saves him from a bullet, then insists that Howard lets him train the ill tempered horse for racing. Seabiscuit soon becomes the underdog who could, and wins many races. But despite his popularity, Seabiscuit is seen as a cheap novelty by the elite of the East Coast Horse Racing, headed by Samuel Riddle, owner of the triple crown winner War Admiral. Howard gains public favour in order to force Riddle to put his money where his mouth is, and this rapidly grows into a media frenzy. Seabiscuit, the representative of the underdog hopes and dreams and War Admiral, the beneficiary of champion breeding and training, finally race in 1938 at a race course named Pimlico. Before this time, Pollard shatters his leg, and is unable to ride in this race; in fact he is told that he will never ride again. After the race, at Pimlico, Seabiscuit also injures his leg, and Howard is informed that he will never race again. Despite the odds stacked against them, Seabiscuit and Pollard refused to give up. Both Seabiscuit and Pollard slowly rehabilitate each other, and race together again, despite the protests that Howard and Smith voice. The last race in this movie is spectacular, and shows the greatest perseverance that could have been achieved by these characters. Just when it looked like Seabiscuit was beaten in the home stretch, he ducked in between the horses in front and came away with a victory. This film shows how these men and beast overcome incredible odds to achieve their goals. I think that if everybody showed the perseverance that the characters portray, life would be much simpler. They never let anything get them down, and I dare to say that more people than what you would have at any World Series or football grand final today would have attended, and possibly nobody left the track feeling disappointed, but instead full of hope. In our daily lives, we encounter many times when we persevere, even if we dont realise this. When things go wrong, we generally try to find a way to remedy the situation, this is perseverance. Going to work, school or an activity that we attend regularly, even if we dont enjoy it, this is commitment, which shows perseverance. Believing in your dreams, just as the characters in Seabiscuit did is perseverance. Perseverance is a commitment, a dedication to yourself and following through with your actions. Perseverance enables an individual to endeavour in spite of adversity. Perseverance is setting goals and sticking with them, making adjustments if needed, until completed. Just like in the movie, when Seabiscuit and Pollard were told they couldnt go on, they adjusted their goals and finished what they had set out to accomplish. Also the fact that Pollard and Seabiscuit were supporting each other is part of persevering as well. Without support or encouragement, I dont think persevering would be easy. Believing in ones self and your goals, achieving what you set out to do, having courage to achieve what you want to achieve and having encouragement along the way, all play a role in perseverance. The characters in this movie persevered through all kinds of problems by keeping focused on their goals. Everyday, whether it is getting out of bed for work, school or something else, completing tasks that you need to do / want to do, or even just cooking a meal. Having goals and completing the goals, as small as they may seem, is persevering. This movie shows characters persevering through all sorts of hard issues, but not all things we persevere at are hard. Every day, I get out of bed and have breakfast with my son, and then I will sit down with my son to watch a program with him. I then do some homework, maybe start some clothes washing or baking and then it is lunch time. Just in a few hours I have persevered four maybe five times without even knowing. Perseverance doesnt always need to be acknowledged, but if you look close enough at your own life you will probably see a fair amount of persevering. If you look in the mirror, the person you see staring back at you is probably a person who has persevered at some stage. On reflection of the issue of perseverance which is shown in this movie, I have gained the knowledge that in even the simplest task, anybody can persevere. I had never realised that just believing in ones self and your goals is perseverance. I took for granted the tasks which I completed everyday as just mundane tasks, but did not realise that by completing these tasks was persevering. I believe that this movie is based wholly on the health issue of perseverance, as all the characters portrayed persevered through the hard times. I would recommend this move to absolutely anybody as it made me realise, as I am sure others will find, that persevering is a part of everyday life. I believe that this movie was about the relationships people have with each other, and the situations we find ourselves in because of these relationships. I will take with me the knowledge that I am persevering everyday, whether or not I realise it, and that puts a smile on my face.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Microeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 2
Microeconomics - Essay Example If a consumer does not have a utility for the good that he or she values at least the same as P1, then the consumer will choose not to purchase that good; i.e., that good is never rationed to that particular consumer or buyer. Rationing by price automatically guarantee that a good will only be purchased by a buyers who value it the most (Prusty, 72-74). If a good was to increase in its price, then buyers or consumers would re-evaluate their utility of the good and so abolish those uses with values which are not at least equivalent to the new, higher price of a good. The second role of price; allocating or sometimes known as signaling, relates to the producers and also resource owners. A higher price of say good X is, in most cases, a signal that the market needs extra output of X and so producers are offered an incentive so as to hire more resources to make X (Samuelson & William, 89-91). Similarly, a lower price for the good X will gesture them to dedicate fewer resources in the production of X. Consequently, in their search for earnings, producers will always respond to changing prices by either decreasing or increasing production as necessary. The demand for any product or service refers to the quantity that buyers or consumers will be willing and ready to buy at any given price. The supply of goods refers to the quantity which suppliers will be ready and willing to transport to the market at any given prices. An increase in demand for a particular service or product tends to exercise an upward pressure on price. That is, whenever the price of a good increases the corresponding quantity that consumer are willing to buy has also increased. Therefore, a decrease in demand means that the price of that good was lowered at some point in time. However, if producers act in response by supplying extra to the market this might then
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Software Development Methodology Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Software Development Methodology - Coursework Example These three approaches would be separately be implemented on the project in question and then a conclusion would be drawn from the comparison of all of these approaches which would lead to the methodology that is the most befitting to the project in question.The project is the development of an electronic library for a client by the company Top Quality Tech Solutions, which is modifiable. The library needs to have a database of electronic documents which the client can change, copy and return to the library. This is the model which is already in use by Top Quality Tech Solutions and has proved to be a successful model for the development of the two projects, thus it would be a natural progression if the model is again used for the current project. The model, if used in the development of the software library, would have positive results because this is the simplest kind of software development methodology out there; it runs on basic common sense and uses orthodox ways to develop the software which would be beneficial in developing the electronic library as it does not involve very complex programming or development. When this model is applied to the electronic library project, the requirements of the client would be seen, the design of the library and the additional options which the client wants in it are chalked out, a software for the library is developed and then verified and then periodic checks are done to see that the project is working as desired. This is the kind of development methodology which makes a prototype or an example project in the beginning so that an idea can be achieved as to how the model would look like when completed (Miles & Pilone, 2008). When applied to the electronic library project, this model could be beneficial because it would be able to show the customer what his project would look like in the long run. To start off, a prototype of the electronic library would be developed on which the rest of the project would be based. Since there are many small requirements of the clients like the viewing of the data from a central repository, consolidation of the data, the checking and checking out of the documents etc, all these requirements can be tested and the best solution out forward. Ã
Monday, January 27, 2020
The Origin Of Man Is The Subject Religion Essay
The Origin Of Man Is The Subject Religion Essay What is man?à asked David in his Psalms thousands of years ago.à It is striking that the relevance of this question has not decreased in the twentieth and twenty first centuries.à Whether a man is only an animal or, maybe, he is just a complex combination of chemical compounds, or, maybe, he is much more than all this, some great creation? The desire to know the history of mans origin is quite natural, as people have not always existed on the Earth.à That is why, the problem of Creation and understanding of human nature is central problem of people of all ages.à This question can be considered from different perspectives: from the standpoint of theology, religion, anthropology, philosophy and history. Views and ideas on the origins of humanity The origin ofà manà is the subject ofà speculationà since ancient times andà led to the emergenceà ofà variousà myths in different people,à who believed thatà the first humansà were created by gods from stones,à animals, etc.à The ancientà Greek thinkersà had different views on the origin of man:à someà believed that manà is eternal, second believed that he was born from marineà sediments.à Withà the spread ofà Christianity peopleà accepted the idea thatà man wasà createdà andà inspiredà by God. Many people believedà that a manà isà the most highly developedà animal,à the top ofà the evolution of the animalà world, heà is mortal,à andà hisà lifeà has noà higherà meaning.à Others believeà thatà manà is notà the top,à butà onlyà a veryà selfishà animalà who tendsà toà pleasure and enjoyment. So, humans belong to the natural world, until the physical and chemical processes in their body depend on nature.à If we consider the philosophical approach, then we need first to say that in humans there is an element that is above the natural world.à There are different views on this, as, for example, Greek philosophers said this element was mind, and Aristotle proposed a definition of man as a rational animal.à (Stevenson 2004) Butà mostà importantà isà the factà ofà humanà consciousness thatà elevatesà himà above the natural world.à à Human consciousness is ascensionà of naturalism in the understanding of man, since he is not only a natural being, but also a spiritual being. (Wilson 2004) In the XVIII century, many thinkers (such as Lord Monboddo, Herder, Rousseau, Kant, etc.) suggested the evolution of man from the great apes in savages, and later in modern humans.à In a more clear way this idea was developed by Lamarck in the beginning of the XIX century in his Zoological Philosophy.à Later t theoryà of development and evolutionà in variousà formsà has beenà to explainà various scientists. Those who support this theory believe that man was not created by anyone, but occurred in the development of lower organisms.à For example, the French scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck said that some species of monkeys, under unfavorable conditions of existence, were to descend from the trees and acquired the habit of walking on two feet. Bipedalism led to strong changes of the body, and quadrumanous monkey turned into bipedal, who gradually settled around the Earth. Gradually in new species began to developed the consciousness (Bowler, 2003). The theory of evolution has become one of the most prevalent theories of human origins.à à This theory was developed by Ch. Darwin, who introduced the history of development of the organic world of the Earth carried by the interaction of three main factors: variability, heredity and natural selection.à Evolutionary theory suggests that man evolved from apes, being changed under the influence of external factors and natural selection. The evolutionary theory of anthropogenesis is supported with a large number of facts paleontological, archaeological, biological, genetic, cultural, psychological, and others.à However, many of these proofs may be interpreted ambiguously, allowing opponents of evolutionary theory to challenge it. Biblicalà Creation ofà the world The Bible tells that a man was created in Gods will and in accordance with His plan (Gen.1: 26).à In the all-powerful Word of God was hidden a great creative force to create the world, and then a men.à When God created a man he said: Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, inà The Image Of Godà created He him; male and female created He them. (Genesis 1:26-27 KJV) A man was created in a special act, and, unlike the animals, in the image of God, that means a man is intelligent, free, creative and moral personality. Like God, man is gifted with the following qualities: Creativity (Genesis 2:20); The mind and the ability to cognition (Genesis 2 :19-20, Col.1: 9; Rim.12: 2;); Willy (Luk.23: 25; 2Petr.1: 21); The ability to choose and evaluate (Genesis 2: 17; 13:11); The ability to love (Genesis 2: 24). ( McFarland 2009) A manà is the imageà andà likeness ofà God, isà a spiritual being,à risingà overà the naturalà andà socialà world,à andà ableà to transform it andà dominateà overà it. In Genesis 2 we canà learn more about howà man andà woman were createdà : And The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul And The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him And The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which The Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:7,18,21-23) That is,à the biblicalà interpretation ofà creation of manà is the mostà commonà that is primarilyà due toà the importantà role ofà religionà inà peoples lives. Biblicalà Creationà is veryà important forà people, as ità defines theà essence ofà man:à Manà is notà justà a body, andà heà was createdà inà the imageà ofà God and for eternalà communion withà God.à This meansà thatà people areà moralà andà spiritualà creatures withà the abilityà to trust,à to chooseà to love, etc.à Creationà is the basisà forà ourà worshipà to God andà Hisà worship:à Let them praise theà name of theà Lord,à for he commanded, and they were createdà (Psalmà 148:5).à Thus,à worshipà is a gratitudeà to the Creator. ( McFarland 2009) At the presentà time,à we canà hearà that the questionà of creation of humanity is asked ratherà strictly: either theà idea of Creation orà the theory of evolution.à However,à such aà statementà seemsà incorrect, sinceà many modernà scholarsà noteà that theà ideaà of Creationà of humanity by God,à the Creator, does not denyà the scientific theories. The religious world does not contradict the scientific, that can be proved by the fact that many prominent world scientists were deeply religious people: for example, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Mikhail Lomonosov, Pavlov, Albert Einstein.à That is, the science also does not deny the idea of the Creation of humanity by God. Conclusion Each of the ideas, assumptions and theories about the origin of humanity has a right to exist and has its supporters.à Yet, the biblical Creation of the world and man is the most important for people, regardless of their scientific views.à The idea of mans creation by God is the basis of religion and faith of millions of people, the basis of their ideology and view on all the existence of humanity.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
The First Red Scare :: American History
Many historians have examined the post-war Red Scare in 1919-1920, but few have explored the continued influence of the anti-red hysteria throughout the 1920s. This second Red Scare was generally more specific in its victimization, targeting mainly the women's peace movement. This opposition to pacifists grew from a post-war conservatism led by right-wing groups. The documents in this study address the question: What groups attacked the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and how did League members respond to the attacks? After World War I many Americans supported a policy of military preparedness, which they hoped would protect the country from any future attack. The National Defense Act of 1920, which originally specified a peacetime army of 280,000 men and a National Guard of 454,000 men, reflected this sentiment.[1] The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) opposed this act. They believed that government policy and spending should be directed towards international arbitration and the promotion of world peace. Their internationalist perspective became the grounds on which nationalist groups denounced the peace movement as an un-American conspiracy of communists, radicals, and socialists. Secretary of War John W. Weeks was the first public figure to initiate the campaign of slander against the women's peace organizations when he began speaking tours around the United States to counteract the WILPF opposition to the National Defense Act. He encouraged other military men to follow his example and many did, including the director of the Chemical Warfare Service, Brigadier General Amos H. Fries. (For more on the Chemical Warfare service and peace activism see another project on this website, Why Did the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Campaign against Chemical Warfare, 1915-1930?) In response, WILPF began a policy of sending letters to their accusers, refuting each slanderous claim one by one. Document 2 in this project refutes Fries's claim that WILPF members took an oath against any involvement in war. The Woman Patriot took up the "slacker oath" issue in its pages. Other conservative writers like Fred R. Marvin and R. M. Whitney wrote articles for the magazine that falsely claimed connections between the peace movement and the communist movement, ranking individual members on a color code of radicalism.[2] However, these attacks were not viewed as significantly damaging until the famous Spider-web chart appeared in Henry Fordââ¬â¢s newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, in 1924.
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Issues of Group in Iium
[pic] English for Academic Writting LE 4000 Dr. Faridah Abdul Malik Section 50 A Study on IIUM Students on the Issues of Group Workings Saiful Bahri ABSTRACT Under organizational behavior comes group behavior, how individual behave when working in group. This paper examines the posible errors that can be found in tasks done in group. The result showed that some of the errors are done on purpose due to laziness of IIUM students. Although, these students are aware of what causes the problems and what they should avoid to have a free-problem group work but they still manage to do them, either intentionally or unintentionally. Therefore, in reminding them, some ground rules and peer assessment should be adapted in each group. Keywords: free-rider, teamwork, miscommunication, and time management. INTRODUCTION Organizational behavior is the study of individuals and the behaviors they have within an organization and in a workplace setting. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology, communication and management (Organizational Behavior Introduction, Catherwood Library). Group behavior is a part of the organizational behavior in which it falls under the interdiciplinary field of sociolagy, how individual work in small r large groups. Group behaviour differs fromà mass actionsà which refers to people behaving similarly on a more global scale while group behaviour refers usually to people in one place and having a coordinated behaviors. The members in a group should each be interdependence (depends on other memberââ¬â¢s output as well), have social interaction (there should eithe r be verbal or non-verbal communication), have a perception of a group ( agreeing that they are a part of a group) and mush have common in purpose (to achieve the same goal). Working in groups have their advantages, one of them being, having a collective set of ideas. Having many people working on the same work allows the work to get not only your input but also from others in the group. This increases the quality, reliability and validity of the work. Although, problems may arise as well, as individuals have their own behaviors and may not be compatible with other people, and that then will effect the quality of your group workââ¬â¢s output. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the possible errors that can be found in tasks done in groups. In details, the objectives that i want to reach is: 1. to understand how miscommunications can happen in a group among the IIUM students, . to determine whether IIUM students work together when given a group assignment, 3. to understand how time becomes a big constraint when working in groups among the IIUM students. Some terms that may be found in this paper are free-riders, teamwork, miscommunication, and time management. â⬠¢ Free-rider A person that is in a group but not doing any work but still get rewards and benefits from the work done. â⬠¢ Teamwork The collective work that members in a group put in to accomplish the assignment (task/job) that is given to their group. Each one of them gives contribution and work together in harmony in doint the work. Miscommunication When the members are not interacting among each other in doing the work, each are working separately, not knowing the growth of their work and not refereing to one another when one has reached a dead end with their work. â⬠¢ Time management The way that a person manages or allocate their time in doing specific things in terms of whether they are on-time or not. LITERATURE REVIEW Working in groups are complicated because one has to adapt to all behaviors of the group members and if one cannot adapt, problems will start to rise. Some students are used to working alone all the time, therefore they will have difficulties in working in group. They will have to listen to otherââ¬â¢s ideas, accept them, know how to interact and so much more. Like what Whatley (2009) said, without experience in group working, it will be hard for students to overcome the problems of working in group in which it will show in the quality output of your groupââ¬â¢s work. Although, these students may not have the experience, their group members whom might have some (experience), may teach them or can lead the group knowing what and how to do it. This is the best part of working in groups, the students get to learn from one another. Leaning on one another in the group allows issues to be solved that arises from group work, the students should together come up with some basic rules that each should agree on and follow. If problems are left unsolved or undealt with, it may either grow bigger causing more and more problem but if lucky it would just go away. In either way, the members will be affected as they will feel some tension going around and might not perform as well as they could have. It is possible to go through the motion of a team project exercise and still not learn fundamental lessons about the essence of working in teams, ranging from communication skill to the ability to motivate others (Wolfe, Student Attitudes toward Team Projects). In the study of Dunne and Rawlins (2000), Hansen (2006) and Prichard, Stratford, & Bizo (2006) taken by Whatley (2009), it is known that a team project in higher level of education can provide a safe environment for learning about group working, with the help of guidance as a base for them to work on. Ford & Morice (2003), suggests that a micro management strategy should be opted in group assignments that would teach the students about how to act in when in group so that they can prepare themselves for when they enter the workforce. From Chang (1999), in the study, it was found that most students participated well and put effort in the group because they will be assessed by their fellow group members. Therefore, in the ground rules, assessment should be included, too, as Chang (1999) study showed how it motivates the student to perform. Running on ground rules, communication should be highlighted and stressed on itââ¬â¢s importance when working in group. In cases of free-riders or not distributing equal work among the group members, they should voice out and let other members know how you feel about it and how unfair it is for that to happen. They need to communicate amongst themselves and take part in doing the work. Whether the communications are done in all direction, horizontally or vertically, what is important is that it should be clearly communicated and spoken in language and terms that is able to be understood. Not only should communication be put in the ground rule but also the importance of time management. Therefore, as Whatley (2009) said, to ensure trust in the group, they (the group members) should agree on some ground rules and follow them. From Whatley (2009) again, she had mentioned that in gaining consensus among all the group members, a group must have some face-to-face meeting as well as having selecting some ground rules in order to have a clear and ambiguous communication in the group. ââ¬Å"Conflict involves negotiation, whether it resulted in a Win-Lose or a Win-Win outcome. Naturally a Win-Win outcome is preferred. â⬠(Chang, 1999) Free-rider is a serious problem in group work. Students who do not contribute effort and input will effect the other members emotionally, though, most times they do not show. It is very unfortunate that the student still have the decency of wanting their name to be included on submited work. It is all too possible to for students to let others do the heavy lifting of a team project, and yet reap the benefits of the eventual outcome (Wolfe, Student Attitudes toward Team Projects). It is possible for high levels of individual accomplishment to go unrewarded, or even punished, as a result of the factors beyong their control (Wolfe, Student Attitudes toward Team Projects). Yes, tonnes and tonnes of problems may arise from group work, but it offers some beneficial rewards also. For example, one get to share itââ¬â¢s ideas among the othe groupmates and in turn gets some ideas or feedbacks back from their groupmates. Futhermore, doing work in group eases the workload one has to do if is working alone. In groups, tasks are divided among all members and each are given own responsibilies in the group. From Ford & Morice (2003) findings, they found that even though students frequently encounter problems working in group but they would still prefer to work in group rather than individually. This shows that, eventhough they had problems but having the knowledge and ideas being shared in groups are more important that it can scratch out the negative side of group work to them. After conducting a statistical analysis on the test scores, it was found that students who participated in collaborative learning had performed significantly better on the critical- thinking test than students who studied individually (Gokhale, 1995). RESEARCH METHODOLGY This section discusses the methodology of the research. The main purpose of the research is to investigate to investigate the possible errors that can be found in tasks done in groups. To evaluate and assess the student of IIUM, 20 students were selected randomly. Data for the research were collected through questionnaire. This research uses only the quantitative research methodology. The instrument used to collect the data was questionnaire. A set of questionnaire containing 18 questions are divided into 4 sections was newly developed. Different question types, such as, ranking, yes-no, and open-ended were used in the questionnaire. The different sections of the questionnaire were: i) Background , ii) Communication , iii) Team work iv) Time management. The respondents of the study were the undergraduate students of IIUM from different kulliyyahs. On 3rd December 2011, a total of 20 questionnaires were distributed to IIUM students at different kulliyyahs and all questionnaire was returned. Of these number, 11 were male and the rest, 9, were female. No approval was needed in handing out the questionnaires in IIUM. During the actual study, questionnaire were distributed at various locations on campus, such as Economics Cafeââ¬â¢, KENMS, mahallah, HS kulliyyah and etc. Data were entered into the computer and analyzed using excel. Results were presented through frequency counts and other descriptive statistics. FINDINGS From the data collected, 11 of the respondents were male and nine of them were female, in which there were five of them who were 20 years old, two were 21 years old, seven respondents were 22 years old, two respondents were 23 years old and four of them were 24 years old. Most of the respondents are Malaysian, totaling to seven of them and the rest were Singaporean (four), Kyrgyz (three), Vietnamese (three), Indonesian (two) and Siamese (one). Most of the respondents were from Kulliyyah of Economics (six), one were from Kulliyyah of IRK, one from Architecture, one from Law, another one from Education, four being from HS, two were engineering students and the remaining four were from Kulliyyah of ICT. In which four of the respondents were first year students, another four were in their second year, seven being a third year student and five were in the fourth year of studying in IIUM. Figure 1: Studentââ¬â¢s thought on group works [pic] Figure 1 shows the percentage of rankings on what students of IIUM think about group works, whether they like it or they prefer to work individually. As seen in the figure above, only 10% did not like working in groups whereas 25% said it was less preferred. 25% ranked them to be neutral on the issue, while another 25% and 15% of the respondents saying it is preferable and most preferable to work in groups, consequtively. Figure 2: Studentââ¬â¢s preferred communication method [pic] Table 1: Communication method ranking |5 |4 |3 |2 |1 | |Call |0 |0 |3 |8 |9 | |Text |0 |0 |2 |5 |13 | |Email/Chatroom |13 |4 |2 |1 |0 | |Meet |7 |7 |6 |0 |0 | | | | | | | | Although, from Figure 2 and Table 1, the respondents showed otherwise. In Figure 2, comparison between the ââ¬ËMost preferedââ¬â¢ and ââ¬ËNot preferedââ¬â¢ ranks on the communication method is shown just to have clearer view of those who prefered to work in group and those who do not. The data in the table shows the whole data gathered on about how they really communicate with their groupmates. Figure 3 below shows the percentage on the studentsââ¬â¢ opinion to why miscommunication happens among their group members, in which most of them said because of misunderstanding, that is misinterpreting what one another is saying. 0% of them said because of language barrier (having hard time to commute in mutual language), 20% said it is because there are lack of meetings and the remaining 15% ticked ââ¬ËOthersââ¬â¢. Those who ticked ââ¬ËOthersââ¬â¢ said that because they are not able to accept otherââ¬â¢s ideas and views. Figure 3 [pic] Figure 4: Experience with free-riders [pic] Figure 4 is for the section on teamwork. In which this figure shows the number of respondents having experience to grouping with a free-rider. As shown, 11 of them said they have and the rest never had. Apart from that, 35% of the respondents said yes that al l their members assigned the tasks equally, 10% does not and the highest percentage (55%) said only in some of their groups gives equal work and their other group does not. Refering to the questionnaire, Question 13 is similar to question 12, this is to make sure that there is reliability in the respondentsââ¬â¢ answers, and there is. Basically, for those who answered that ââ¬Ëonly some of their group give out equal tasksââ¬â¢ (55% being 11 in number) said they were given extra tasks. These datas charts can be refered to in the appendix as Figure 7 and 8. Figure 5: Reason for finishing work late [pic] For the time management section, 15 of the respondents said yes it does take a long time for them to finish only their part. Interpreting that into percentage, 75% said yes (can be refered to Figure 9 in the appendix). Figure 5 above are data from those 75% that answered yes to taking a long period to finish own part, those who answered yes only answer this question. Therefore, seven of them said they are busy with other assignments, five says because the assignment is complicated therefore they need longer time and another three said they are just lazy to do their part earlier. Figure 6: Reasons for late to meetings [pic] In Figure 6, not all 20 respondents are being analyzed on, only thos who answered yes in showing up on-time to group meetings are being analyzed, that is 60%, the other 40% does not come on-time. For a better picture, this data is graphed into Figure 10 in the appendix. Moving on, most of these respondents said they come late because they are busy with other things, four of them said they do not like to be on-time, another four said things always comes up during those times and five of them do nont normally check the time therefore it is either their luck that they came on-time or not. Apart from asking about the respondents coming on-time, from the collected data none of the respondentsââ¬â¢ other groupmates comes early to all meetings, but 7 said their group came early to most meetings, ten said their members came early to some of the meetings and the remaining three said none of them ever came early. DISCUSSION Under the communication part, it can be seen that with 20% respondents saying lack of meetings leads to miscommunication and not almost but all respondents agreed that the best communication method would be meetings. With that, looking at what they answered for the rest of communication partââ¬â¢s question, knowingly that face-to-face meetings are crucial, most of them only communicate through emails and chatrooms leaving with only seven respondents who actually is walking the talk (doing the meetings). This is supported by Whatley (2009), she had mentioned that in gaining consensus among all the group members, a group must have some face-to-face meeting as well as having selecting some ground rules in order to have a clear and ambiguous communication in the group. Miscommunication happens when they meet less, have language barrier, misunderstand one another, and being unable to accept what others have to say. These seven respondents sees the importance of ââ¬Ëteamworkââ¬â¢ in accomplishing group works, therefore, they have them. From the analysis, the IIUM students have the awareness on the importance of having quality communication but somehow they are lazy in actually doing the things that would increase their communicationââ¬â¢s quality. By having this meet-ups, all miscommunication can be overcome, even with language barrier, (if and only if the group members do not keep quiet about how they feel and what problems they ecounter with the group or task being assigned) when they have meet-ups and talk out their problems, and making sure each and every members understands the task they are being assigned. One of this paperââ¬â¢s research objective is to determine whether the IIUM students work together in their group, the obvious data that is graphed into Figure 8, shows that 55% of the respondents had been given extra tasks. From the datas gathered it can be seen that there are still those who free-rides on group assignment. Up to 11 respondents have had free-riders as their group member and all of the respondents said their group members would care if there was a free-rider in the group. Free-riders do not do any work, therefore when a free-rider exist in a group, tasks are not being allocated equally among all members as some of them have to do the task that was assigned to the free-rider. Proving this by the 55% of respondents saying yes that in some groups only that tasks were being distributed equally, other way of looking at it is that some does not distribute equally and another 10% said none of their group ever equally distribute them. Obviously, all members would not know that there is a free-rider until reaching to the compilation date, in which the free-rider do not have any work to send and would be giving excuses for it instead of doing it, and those members who care so much for the assignment would be doing the free-riderââ¬â¢s part of the work. Here are some statements to prove this. It is all too possible for students to let others do the heavy lifting of a team project, and yet reap the benefits of the eventual outcome (Wolfe, Student Attitudes toward Team Projects). It is possible for high levels of individual accomplishment to go unrewarded, or even punished, as a result of the factors beyond their control (Student Attitudes toward Team Projects). Looking at the time management aspect of the IIUM students, they are very undisciplined in finishing and submiting their part to other member, with a 75% of the respondents says they are usually late. Making their reasons to be because they are busy with other things, the assignment is complicated, and some even said they are just too lazy to get it done early. These students with this mentality (lazy to get assignment done early) are bad to be having in a group because they like to do things at the very last minute and with constraint in time, quality of work production would definitly not reach the standard. Although, in terms of being on-time at meetings, these respondents showed otherwise. Majority of them are on-time meaning that they do have time management under control. In some aspects the IIUM students are good with time management and in some they are bad. As proven by Chang (1999), in her study, she found that most students participated well and put effort in the group because they will be assessed by their fellow group members. In the peer assessment form, how each member manages their time in coming to meetings or submiting work on-time, should be included as this will motivate the students to manage their time better. CONCLUSION This study investigates the posible errors that are found in group work. It includes a bit on the importance of teamwork, how to overcome the issues and why the issues rise in the first place. The objectives of this study is to understand how miscommunications can happen in a group among the IIUM students, to determine whether IIUM students work together when given a group assignment, to understand how time becomes a big constraint when working in groups among the IIUM students. In overall, the findings shown that the IIUM students know the importance of group work, how to eliminate problems and so on so forth but they still do not do the things that will cut out problems. Like in time management, the respondents know that that should be one of the things to be disciplined on but still they do not submit or come on-time due to valid reasons or simply because they are lazy. All the communication, team work and time management are crucial issues that are linked to each other in a certain way. The IIUM students have to overcome the miscommunication problems because when working real jobs later, it is crucial to have a smooth flow of communication amongst all members, because work cannot be completed with quality without communication. Therefore, these students have to start training themselves from now so that it would not affect them later in working life. Without communication, there would be no team work. Without teamwork, tasks are harder to be accomplised bacause the reason they are being given to work in groups because it would create a better work outcome having variety of ideas coming from each members and that it would quicken up the complition time of the assignment because tasks are divided. Therefore, serious actions should be taken on free-riders because they create dissatisfaction among all the other members in which will lead to stress and tension among the members. Some ideas on how to iradicate some of the group work problems as were shown in Chang (1999), in which peer assessments were done on each group members, in which they have to be honest and truthful about each comment. As for the limitations that were encountered in finishing this research, in which there were not many, searching for articles and journals to do reviews on was a bit of a fuss. To find the ones that are compatible and having some point being similar to this research was difficult, although successfully, some was found. APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE The data to be collected will be used for academic purposes under the subject LE 4000, strictly. Background 1. Gender:( ) Male( ) Female 2. Age:â⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦. 3. Nationality:â⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦.. 4. Kulliyyah:( ) Economics ( ) IRK( ) HS( ) Architecture ( ) Engineering( ) ICT( ) Law( ) Education 5. Level of study:1/2/3/4 Communication For Q6 & Q7, rank them with these; 5 = most prefered, 4 = prefered, 3 = neutral, 2 = less prefered, 1 = not prefered 6. With you working in groups are:â⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ¦. 7. Your communication method:( ) Call( ) Text( ) Email/Chatroom( ) Meet 8. Which do you think is the best communication method? (Among the methods given in Q8) â⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦ 9. In your opinion, why miscommunication happen? ( ) Lack of meeting( ) Language barrier( ) misunderstanding( ) Others Specify others: â⬠¦Ã¢â¬ ¦Ã¢â¬ ¦.. Team work 10. Have you had any free-rider as a groupmate? ( ) Yes( ) No 11. Does your other groupmates care that there is a free-rider/s in the group? ( ) Yes( ) No 12. Do you and your groups equally distribute the work? ( ) Yes( ) No( ) In some groups, yes 13. Have you ever been given extra task to do in the group? ) Yes( ) No Time management 14. Does it take a long time to finish your part of your group assignment? ( ) Yes( ) No 15. If you answered ââ¬ËYesââ¬â¢ to Q15, why so: ( ) Busy with other assignment( ) Complicated assignment ( ) Too lazy to get it done early 16. Are you always on-time for your group me etings? ( ) Yes( ) No 17. If you answered ââ¬ËNoââ¬â¢, why so: ( ) Donââ¬â¢t keep track of time( ) Busy with other things ( )Things always come up( ) Donââ¬â¢t like to come early 18. How many of your groupmates usually come on-time to group meetings? ( ) All( ) Most( ) Some( ) None Thank you for your time. Figure 7: Equal work distribution pic] Figure 8: Extra task given [pic] Figure 9: Needs long time to complete task [pic] Figure 10: On-time to meetings [pic] REFERENCES Whatley, J. (2009). Ground Rules in Team Projects: Findings from a Prototype System to Support Student. Journal of Information Technology Education, 8, 161-176. Ford, M. & Morice, J. (2003). How Fair are Group Assignments? A Survey of Students and Faculty and a Modest Proposal. Journal of Information Technology Education, 2, 367-378. Gokhale, A. A. (1995). Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7(1). Chang, V. (1999). How can conflict within a group be manage d? In K. Martin, N. Stanley and N. Davison (Eds),à Teaching in the Disciplines/ Learning in Context, 59-66. Proceedings of the 8th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, The University of Western Australia, February 1999. Wolfe A. M. (n. d. ). Student Attitudes toward Team Projects. Organizational Behavior. http://www. ilr. cornell. edu/library/research/subjectguides/organizationalbehavior. html Group Behavior. Wikipedia. 10 November 2011. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Group_behaviour Nishan Wimalachandra. Organizational Behavior. www. nishanw. org Jex, S. M. ,& Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioners Approach. Wiley; 2 Edition.
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