Altruism among humans Essay Example for Free

Altruism among humans Essay This paper presents an examination of the phenomenon of altruism among humans. Altruism is defined as a behaviour that may be to ones advantage but is also to the advantage of others. The questions of why we behave this way or what motivates us to behave in this manner and the relevance to society today are the focus of this paper. Various research and theories has explained why altruistic behaviour is undertaken intentionally in the human world. Introduction We often read or hear about acts of generosity and courage, such as, fund raisers or concerts to  help homeless people, the fostering of a child and sponsoring his or her education, or of volunteers risking their lives to help victims in incidents like September 11 terrorist attack in the United States. We could have donated some money to orphanages or cared for a wounded dog. Such humane acts are defined by Psychologists as altruism (Moghaddam, 1998). Altruistic acts could be unselfish or done for personal gain or egoistic reasons. Indeed in a psychological paradigm, psychologists believe that true altruistic behaviour does not exist (Moghaddam, 1998). But how do we account for the behaviour of Mother Theresa or Mahatma Gandhi and many other unselfish acts of human endeavours? In order to explore this we have to understand the person variable and situational variable motivating the altruistic act (Simons, Kalichman Santrock, 1994). As we are aware behaviour is determined by personal and situational variables. A persons ability to empathise with the needy or to feel responsible for anothers welfare has great impact on altruistic behaviour. Situations influence the strength of the altruistic motivation. Reciprocity and exchange are important aspects of altruism (Simons, Kalichman Santrock, 1994). Humans give and receive from others everywhere. Reciprocity is the basic principle of every religion in the world for example, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam (Brosnahan, 2003). To act altruistically, requires consciousness and caring, and similarly, pet owners can often cite altruistic behaviour or at least conscious acts of kindness on the part of cats and dogs (Simons, Kalichman Santrock, 1994). Another good example would be the nursing,  profession founded on the notion of helping people, sometimes even at a cost to nurses themselves. There are many ways people show altruism. To explain why we do altruistic acts like volunteering, donating or raising funds, we need to distinguish between four different forms of altruism which are observed in humans that shown towards kin, a partner, a friend, and individual who does not fit into these categories (http://www. theunityofknowledge. org/the_evolution_of_altruism/introduction. htm, 2003) Of the several types of altruism a main focus has been on heroic altruism (Moghaddam, 1998). It is a short term intervention requiring physical action and tends to fit more the masculine gender. On the other hand Nurturant altruism requires more patience, listening and a caring attitude with long term involvement. This more closely fits the image of the traditional feminine gender (Moghaddam, 1998). The Bystander effect greatly influences helping behaviour, because of common ignorance of bystanders and assumptions about other bystanders actions. Each persons scope of responsibilities can decrease in the presence of others ( Moghaddam, 1998). In  order for Bystander to help he or she has to posses social skills to interpret the situation and take appropriate actions (Moghaddam, 1998). Initially from a theoretical perspective if a person knows how to overcome obstacles to he or she giving help, subsequently other people start questioning whether the helping behaviour was true altruism (Moghaddam, 1998). A later there was a theory of Daniel Batson empathy-altruism, believes that people help out of a genuine desire(Moghaddam, 1998). Other theories propose that altruistic behaviour is egoistic and put the hypothesis that helping behaviour is a way to  repair a helpers image (Moghaddam, 1998). Methodology An interview was conducted with a woman who volunteers her services with meals on wheels and has done nearly sixteen years. She is a retired school teacher living alone. I assumed that her altruistic behaviour had a self fulfilling motive. Therefore I chose her and I wanted to clarify or confirm my assumption. In order to facilitate my focus interviewee was given ten questions asking about her volunteering profile, and her motivating factors. This interview created awareness of other influencing factors motivating her altruistic behaviour.

Compare and contrast the music of the Medieval, Rennaissance, and Baroq

Music throughout the ages has changed dramatically. Starting in the Medieval period, from 400-1475, music was in the form of what is called the Gregorian chant. Instruments were very rarely used at this time. Since songs during this period were either troubadour or trouvere these chants had no real harmony. One example of this type of medieval composition is â€Å"Viderunt Omnes† by Leoninus. Like most Gregorian chants the texture of this piece is monophonic and polyphonic. â€Å"Viderunt Omnes† is a typical Gregorian chant in that it uses diatonic, not chromatic notes of the scale. Musical compositions during the Medieval period was made mostly by members of the church for the church. It was and is a very slow and steady movement that was meant to create a feeling of peace for worship purposes. As time passed and music continued to evolve what is known as the Renaissance period emerged from 1475-1600. Music during this period was still written with worship as its intentions. Where the Medieval period had no harmony the Renaissance period introduced the use of a constant chord to form the building block of the different pieces. A good example of this period of music is â€Å"Ave Maria† by Josquin written in 1485. The many different voices the repeat the same words create a process called imitation. This particular chant is capella, meaning that it is performed by voices alone and has no musical accompaniment and with all the voices entering at different times but in harmony counterpoint i...

Airline Industry

The absorbtion of a company is often a difficult task. Critical issues to consider, include organizational culture, technology, socio-culture, brand equity, and profitability of the firm. Organizational culture is the most important issue to consider when acquiring another company. While some cultures differ from others, that doesn’t necessarily make them weak cultures. Key questions to ask are; how well will the companies cultures mix with each other? If changes to either culture occur, what implications does this have on productivity and efficiency?Technology is and has been a key part of business and will continue to be. Technology increases productivity, efficiency, and in many times lowers the cost of making products. When looking to acquire another company one must compare the technology of that company to its industry. How much will a company have to invest in a company to get the technology updated and personnel trained on those machines? How much would the company gai n by implementing this new technology? Socio-cultural factors are a mindset of customers and they play a major role in whether or not a customer purchases a product and how much of it they will purchase.Grapefruit, for example, was a very popular item during the craze of the Hollywood Diet. Carbohydrates were in low demand when the Adkins Diet was trendy, and now it’s no transaturated fats that are becoming the next style of diet. Fast food companies had to change their menus to fit some of these trends due to their popularity! The lesson to take away from this is that a company needs to look into current as well as future trends that occur before making the decision to make an investment into an absorption.Brand equity is an essential part of acquiring a company. For example, a customer enters a pharmacy and sees both Tylenol and the generic brand of acetaminophen at the same price; the customer will most likely pick the Tylenol because it has proven itself to be a strong br and. The same can be said with companies in other industries. A company must research the customer’s perception of the products and service that the potentially acquired company offers in order to insure that they are making a good investment.Since the nature of business is to make profit, a shrewd to examination into the current profitability of the company being acquired as well as speculate future profitability is required. It’s also essential for a company to forecast the impacts that this merger will cause for their own company and determine if the results are desirable before the merger takes place. Part II. Barriers to entry—moderate: Sometimes a company will be able to enter the market but only for a short time; however this still causes competition and causes a reduction in fares.Part of what keeps barriers high are that airlines that are already in business there have planes already purchased as well as partnerships with other companies established. Th is leads to a potential entrant having diseconomies of scale. The two major things that deter customers from choosing a competitor are cost and past experience. These don’t contribute much to switching costs so when a new competitor enters the industry margins decrease even more. Since startup costs are so huge in the commercial airline industry, the threat of potential entrants is rather low.Rivalry among existing firms—high: Since JetBlue has entered the global market there are several more airlines worldwide that JetBlue has to compete with, as well as domestic and startup airlines to compete with. They must keep their prices/margins low not only to deter customers from other competitors but also to compete with close substitutes. There isn’t a firm that controls a large portion of the market so in turn companies receive low return due to competitive pricing structures. Finally there is very little differentiation in the airline industry.Services that JetBlue offers like free WiFi and XM radio are small things that help them differentiate their service for customers to buy. Threat of close substitutes—high: There are several substitutes to air travel, these being things like a car or a train. When going overseas there really isn’t a good substitute unless you are going on a cruise which in my opinion is an entirely different plan for travel. Sometimes if a group of people want to travel to the same place they will carpool for a cheaper rate, but this is getting less popular than it once was.In summary the shorter the distance, the more likely an airline is going to lose to close substitutes like a car or train. Bargaining power of suppliers—high: This is due to the fact that the suppliers are in an oligopoly. There isn’t much competition in the supplier market so those companies can keep their margins rather high. If a company decides to purchase a different brand of airliner then they would need to face trai ning and maintenance costs associated with buying that new brand. Now there are things like beer and peanuts, uniforms and the like.The airline industry has potentially high bargaining power against these suppliers but those items don’t affect the profit margin like equipment does. Bargaining power of buyers—low/moderate: The price of an airline ticket is set and doesn’t really change except over time through competition. Buyers get to use technology like the internet to compare prices of different competitors which lowers prices; however that only affects prices over time. Since there are many airlines to choose from as well as low switching costs buyers enjoy a moderate amount of bargaining power.However, with few exceptions like companies that use economies of scale to negotiate rates for you there is very little a buyer can do to bargain with an airline immediately. Overall competition in airline industry is very intense. There are several competitors in the airline industry, and since the industry is low growth competitors try to differentiate their service to get people to switch to them. In poor economic times people look for lower cost alternatives and airfare is no different—people will look for lower cost means of transportation. Airliners also face an overall moderate bargaining power which limits their profit margins. Airline industry This is considerably larger than some 620 countries, estimated similarly to the same size as Switzerland. (ATAG, 2012). It is orecast that by 2026, the industry will contribute $1 trillion to world GDP (ATAG, 2012). Despite the fact there is over 2000 airlines, each airline generally relies upon either one of the two-airline manufactures. These are Boeing or Airbus, both that are extremely wealthy companies. Boeing & Airbus are extremely competitive against each other and often have court disputes against each other.The most recent dispute was dated in May 2011, where both companies claimed victory after the World Trade Organisation overturned the ruling in which saw Airbus receive billions of Euros in illegal subsidies. BBC News, 2011). The US complained to the WTO as they thought the $18 billion subsidiary was deemed to 'cause serious prejudice' to US interests (BBC News, 2011). Growth Rate The Airline Industry woes are expected to continue, with humble profits produced mainly by l imiting capacity.Both Boeing & Airbus already have a backlog of orders due to carriers deferring their orders due to the poor growth in clientele and falling flight prices. (The Economist, 2012). Other factors that are damaging the threat of growth in the Airline industry are the threat of terrorism & increase in fuel prices. Are these factors putting people off? In 2009, there was an immediate decline in air travel by 30% (ehow) after the attack on the twin towers. The drastic decline maybe explained by the fact many feared there could be another terrorist attack in the nearby future.Rising fuel prices in 2012 are set to have an enormous impact on the industry and set to shrink profit margins awfully tight. The industrys global trade body nas warned that annual profits nave been cut by $500m (Financial Times). Due to the Increase in fuel prices, many airlines have decided to provide the A380 aircraft, hich carries roughly 500 people depending on the configuration. This has helped a chieve economies of scale for many companies. Market Share The Airline Industry is incredibly competitive and diverse globally so it is difficult to summarise market share of companies.However, because of this reason returns are usually lower than expected. This can result in difficultly at times of economic recession. The supply in airline industry is very limited and dominated by Boeing & Airbus, which means there is very little aggressive competition. It is very unlikely to ee a supplier vertically integrated. This means it is highly unlikely that Boeing or Airbus would start offering flight services. The bargaining power of airline companies is surprisingly very low.

Lambert Simnel as a Greater Threat to the Security of...

Lambert Simnel as a Greater Threat to the Security of Henry VII than Perkin Warbec After Bosworth, Henrys most immediate and perhaps greatest problem was ensuring that he kept the crown. from Henry VII by R. Turvey and C. Steinsberg. This was very true, as throughout Henrys reign he faced many threats because as King he wasnt established and therefore vulnerable to challenge. Also there were still Yorkists in power who wanted to claim the throne back from the usurper King and there was also strong foreign support for any potential threat towards Henry. A threat that Henry did face throughout most of his reign was the threat from Pretenders, and none came as more as threat than of Lambert†¦show more content†¦However, Warbeck was actually from Tournai in Flanders who was a personable, quite handsome and charming young man. Simnels and Warbecks claims to the throne were great threats to Henrys security, because of Henrys weak claim to the throne; therefore, it was possible for anyone to usurp his throne like he had done. Henry claim to the throne was weak as his claim only came from a female line, as he was a descendant of Henry Vs wife and the Beaufort family. But his victory at the Battle of Bosworth, enabled him as many would say to become a usurper King and Henry said he was given the throne as he has divine sanction. Both Simnel and Warbeck on their own didnt pose a great threat to Henrys security, but they did with the support they individually gained. Compared to Warbeck, Simnel internally posed a greater threat to Henrys security due to the internal support that Simnel had. Unlike Warbeck, Simnel had the support of a great noble power supporting him, and that was John de La Pole, Earl of Lincoln, who was heir to Richard III. As the heir to Richard III, John de la Pole was a major potential threat to Henry VIII. But the greater threat that John de la Pole posed and the impact of his support was that it enabled Simnel to link his internal support and foreign support (therefore, linking internal and external threat), because of John de la Pole being the nephew of