ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction “Can the insights of behavioural economics help fight climate change?” (Gunther 2009, p. 1). The above statement describes the question most economists have asked themselves as they try to formulate sound policy recommendations regarding energy and climate change. The behavioural economic approach is considered unique to other conventional energy and climate change policies because policymakers usually focus on technology as the premise for formulating useful energy and climate change policies. The focus on technology has birthed many recommendations that propose the need to adopt more environmentally friendly technology such as solar power and wind power. Since the use of environmentally friendly technology has been the focus for economic and environmental debates, the role of human behaviour in influencing energy and climate change policy has been rarely addressed. Amir (2005) observes that human behaviour can be a very useful tool for influencing energy and climate change policies “in particular the irrational, emotional, self-defeating, short-term, inconsiderate and plain old silly human behaviour that most of us engage in every day” (Amir 2005, p. 1). Many tenets of human behaviour have interested behavioural economists as they explore different strategies for formulating effective energy policies. For example, the use of incandescent light bulbs instead of CFL light bulbs has been an interesting observation made by such researchers as they explore different human habits that have an impact on energy and climate policy (Reiss and White 2008). Another interesting observation has been the popular focus on commodity prices as opposed to product lifecycle and the purchase of extraordinarily big houses (that consume a lot of energy) as opposed to moderately sized houses which are energy efficient (Gowdy 1998). A recent study by Pollitt (2011) reports that home energy choices and personal lifestyle choices account for close to 40% of the total energy consumption in America alone. Consequently, this study has prompted economists to estimate that within the next decade, focusing on positive behavioural change can lead to a 20% to 30% reduction in energy costs (Pollitt 2011). Due to the unique human behaviours present in today’s society, it is difficult to ignore the impact behavioural economics have on energy and climate policy. Energy and climate policies can, therefore, be improved by focusing on the contributions of positive behavioural economics on energy policies. This paper focuses on exploring the current situation concerning behavioural economics and climate policy. Subsequently, this paper seeks to investigate the potential (or actual) use of appropriate techniques from behavioural economics and the impact such a methodology may have on initiating positive behavioural change (viz-a-viz energy and climate policy). Finally, to be fair to proponents and critics of behavioural economics (as a process of influencing climate and energy policies), this paper will also review the arguments for and against the use of behavioural economics. These analyses will be done sequentially. However, to improve the understanding of the r
Family Resource Management Twenty Years of Work and Family at International Business Machines Corporation Summary In this article, Hill, Jackson, and Martinengo (2006) focus on changes in IBM’s work and life experiences within a period of twenty years. The authors provide readers with information on how IBM has strived to develop workplace policies that currently make it the leading corporate work and life entity in the world. The article is significant to the topic of family resource management. The reason is that different organizations today develop various programs to attract, motivate, and retain highly qualified employees (Hill et al., 2006). Review and critique Using Andrea Henderson’s case, Hill et al. (2006) show the need for IBM to develop flexible corporate work and family programs, which are beneficial to both the employees and the organization. Henderson graduated as one of the top students in the engineering class at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976 (Hill et al., 2006). She achieved high levels of success in her employment by IBM. However, after giving birth to her first child, she was unable to balance her career with parenthood. As a result, she was forced to resign. After Andrea’s case, Hill et al. (2006) provide a flow of how the employee programs transitioned by the use of critical survey studies. All programs developed since 1985 are clearly explained to show IBM’s efforts in developing a work environment that enables employees to succeed in the office and at home. Conclusion The article provides a comprehensive analysis of change in programs within a period of twenty years. Hill et al. (2006) highlight the importance and benefits of flexible work and family programs. They do this by giving a story of IBM’s working couple, Karen Ferns and Ed. In spite of the two having a newborn baby, they managed to maintain their performance at work and still take care of the child due to the current work programs. Family Ties: Constructing Family Time in Low-Income Families Summary In this article, Tubbs, Roy, and Burton (2005) focus on the importance of family time. Tubbs et al. (2005) stress the need to build and strength kin relationships. In spite of the importance of these ties, not all household members manage to create time for each other (Tubbs et al., 2005). The subject
Missing Women is a short story by June Spence, published in 1996. The story is written in a report style, with detailed accounts of the investigation of the disappearance of three women. The narrator tells the story from the community’s point of view, using second person plural pronouns instead of identifying as an individual observer. The story is full of suspense, and the reader expects it to have a happy ending, with all three women coming home and bringing peace to the community. However, that dream is never reached: the last sentence, suggesting that the women have been dead and buried in the woods for weeks, dashes all expectations of the happy ending. However, Missing Women is the type of story where the narrative is more important than the ending. In this essay I want to argue that the author uses an unusual storytelling technique, employing both facts and speculations, as well as the gradual change of tone and atmosphere, to create a feeling of suspense. From the first few lines of the story, it looks very similar to a police report. Dry middle-length sentences have little to no imagery, yet are full of important details, such as the description of the van and the beginning of the investigation process. The author’s point of view is that of a police investigator or a concerned community member. The narrative begins after the disappearance, and the narration does not have any valuable information about the crime or women’s location. In the second paragraph, the author uses rhetorical questions that echo the reader’s concerns: “What happened? […] No alarm in broken glass?” By mirroring the reader’s thoughts, the author creates a parallel between the narrator and the reader, thus establishing that the narrator is just as oblivious to the situation as the audience is. In addition to the present-tense storytelling, this technique helps the author to raise the suspense further: there is no feeling that the story has already reached a conclusion; the audience is walked through the events as if they unravel in front of their eyes, making them part of the story and creating more tension. As the story progresses, the author begins to create a mixture of facts and rumors; a mixture that is inevitable in any real-life investigation. For instance, the narrator outlines the interrogation of Vicky’s ex-boyfriend, explaining that his alibi for the night was a security video from work. However, in the next paragraph, the facts give space to speculation: “Was Vicky pregnant? […] Running off might have been easier to contemplate as a group”. The continuing alteration between facts and speculati
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist who founded an analytical psychology approach. Made a great contribution to the development of psychology and its scientific base, and developed so-called depth psychology and countercultural method. For Jung, psychology has seemed to address the insistence that previous researchers and scientists based only on the study of mentally ill persons. Jung developed a study of personality based on the full measure of human beings. Despite great changes and innovations, some of his theories have limitations caused by a detailed focus on trivial and tangential phenomena. Carl Jung was born on July 1875 in Kesswil. His family was a religious one headed by the father of Carl Jung, a pastor in the local church. When Carl Jung was 12 years old, he thought that he was two different people, himself and an old man living in the 18th century. After a head injury, Carl Jung began to suffer from fainting spells, but some of them were self-induced so that Jung could stay away from school. These symptoms disappeared when Carl Jung overheard his father remarking that he might be an epileptic. Still, biographers underline that these transformations and changes in his personality made a great impact on his views and perception of mental factors and psyche (Schultz and Schultz 2007). Until late adolescence, Carl Jung was frequently depressed. As a young man, Carl Jung became interested in philosophy and later developed an interest in psychology and psychiatry. In 1902, after receiving his medical degree, Carl Jung worked under Eugen Bleuler at the Burghölzli Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland. During this period, Jung made his first attempts to describe the human mind and psyche. S. Freud referred to Jung’s early work on word association as “the first bridge between experimental psychology and psychoanalysis” (Clark 1992, p. 98). Jung also advanced the idea that dementia praecox could be a psychosomatic disorder of the brain and therefore within the scope of psychoanalysis (Casement 2001). When Jung met Freud in 1907, their collaboration lasted for thirteen uninterrupted hours. Jung did much to publicize the psychoanalytic movement in Switz
South west pricing strategy was a unique strategy different from the normal conventional industrial strategies. Initially, it sought to retain the lowest air tickets for certain routes that it operated. Therefore, the airline created some policies which included; flights with no first class, non assigned seats, flying one type of air craft, limited in-flight entertainment and offering no retirement benefit plans for its employees. Considerably, the formulation of these policies led to the success of this company making it to dominate over the first three decades. The strategy required little cost to maintain its cost centers as compared to other airlines. Generally, each class of customers desire different qualities and values. For business class travelers, price is not a limitation to them. However, their major concerns are; the ease at which can tickets can be changed, first class comfort, assigned seating arrangement, convenient and frequent flights to their destinations, convenience in arrival time and availability private airline lounges. On the contrary, leisure travelers look for low cost airlines with no additional fees. Compared to their competitors, south west airline has shown better improvements in catering for its customers needs. The airline prefers flying a bus route rather hub to spoke pattern. Additionally, It has evaluated it’s under performing routes so as to develop profitable city routes with its destinations to non crowded airports. Notably, this has helped the airline to save on time for its customers. Moreover, the airline has created customer loyalty with leisure travelers as compared to other airlines which only consider business class models. Its destinations are always on schedule with more frequent, non stop flights. Lastly, the company has pledged to always maintain the best customer care in the most efficient and effective way. One of the vital internal factors affecting the airline pricing decisions would be lab our costs. South west case clearly shows this aspect through their earlier policies. According to the company, profit sharing for employees would reduce lab our cost. Other factors include, marketing policies, objectives and supply. For instance, initially, the main objective was to retain low prices and create high profit margin. Today the company has revised its policies so as to curb the increased competition by creating new routes and offering business class travels which have very enticing policies though higher in price. To eliminate high ticket prices from sales agents they only allow for online booking. On the other hand, Supply depends on capacity the airline can deliver to a specific destination. South west airline aims at delivering full capacity during flights by incorporating the leisure travelers who are not on a schedule. Additionally, they are offered discounted fares so as to fill in the empty seats. External factors include; rates and taxes, government regulations, completion, demand and fuel costs. Notably, fuel prices make up the largest component than all the other variables that affect price. Majori
Philosophy teaches methods of life and explains the sense of our existence. It combines such branches as logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethic rules. The main principle of this science is “to start with something very simple, but to end with so paradoxical that no one will believe it”. The history of Western philosophy is subdivided into three major periods:   * Ancient philosophy;   * Medieval philosophy;   * Modern philosophy. Ancient philosophy is focused on such notions as Reason and Inquiry. Socrates is considered to be the Father of Western ancient philosophy and his method of inquiry developed the main idea of the earlier philosophers. He was the first to study major moral concepts: justice, wisdom, courage. Socrates firmly believed that every person should strive for better actions and his deductions were the background of the whole discipline. Such representatives of the ancient period as Plato and Aristotle have the reputation of one of the most authoritative and wise philosophers of that time; they believed that knowledge gained through senses is confused and false. All of these prominent thinkers of the ancient period left their knowledge for would-be philosophers as a background and soil for new ideas. Medieval philosophy covers the Middle Ages of history and it is the time when ancient philosophy was discovered again. This period is characterized by theological problems, the existence of God, problems of knowledge, and individuation. The thinkers of this period did not consider themselves to be philosophers and recognized only God; they would have never put their investigation above God. The most influential philosophers of the Medieval period are considered to be Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Boethius, and some others. Augustine was one of the Church Fathers and he contributed to the development of theological philosophy a lot by studying the truth, God, and meaning of history. Together with Augustine, a great contribution to the development of philosophy made Boethius translated plenty of works of ancient thinkers such as Aristotle and Plato; due to him, this period is sometimes called the Boethian period. Modern philosophy includes early modern philosophy and later one. This period unites the works of outstanding thinkers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant (early modern period), and Fichte, Schelling, W. James, and many others. This period covers the time up to 1960. Immanuel Kant is considered to be one of the most prominent thinkers of his time; he provided philosophy with different theories of freedom and God ideas, studied metaphysics, and developed categories of understanding. Since 1960 one can study contemporary philosophy which covers our present time. It is closel
Introduction Various aspects have come to characterize the contemporary workplace. Application of scientific management methods and pursuit of training of employees has become the norm in the work place today. There is, therefore, no wonder that such aspects as organizational behavior and organizational learning have taken center stage. Increased competition and consumer education and activism means businesses have to invest in research and development as well as training of employees so that they can better handle customers. From Joe’s case, it is apparent that he relies greatly on the sales team to drive up the company’s sales volumes, and by extension, success. According to Posdakoff and Mackenzie (1994, p. 351), sales manager mainly use sales performance to determine the usefulness of a sales person in an organization. However, many of them are increasingly considering behavior of their staff as a part of an effective functioning of a business unit. Posdakoff and Mackenzie further assert that these behaviors are discretionary on the part of the salesperson and that they greatly promote effective functioning of the unit with minimal effect on the salesperson’s level of productivity (1994, p. 351). This discussion will focus on the Joe Salatino, President of Great Northern American case study, with the emphasis given to the importance of employees understanding people form perceptions and attributions about each other. Additionally, there will be an evaluation of the learning theory the author feels would be most appropriate for Joe to apply in his situation. Furthermore, the discussion will explore the suggested ways on how Joe can apply the theory discussed above to improve employee performance. Also, there will be a discussion on how Joe can leverage understanding of self efficacy to ensure only most successful people join the organization. Importance of Perception Besides the work place perception plays an important role in human beings’ everyday life. According to social scientists, perception is a way of conceiving something and also a process of acquiring interpreting information by human mind. Additionally, perception can also be a way in which people behave in specific situations. Joe Salatino’s position gives him immense power to organizational trends. It is important for Joe to realize that sales profession is a “people” oriented front and “people skills” are necessary for its success. The president needs to acknowledge the importance of perception in sales before instilling the same drive in his employees. According to Greve, H. R. (2003, p. 55), people’s behavior is mainly determined by what they perceive as being real or not. He further says that distinctiveness, consensus and consistency form the main determinants of perception. According to Ormrod (1999, p. 89), little can go on in an organization without perception. Additionally, any employee in any organization needs perception that is accepted by a
Introduction Several scholars define economic development variously depending on their academic and professional orientation. But most agree that the phenomenon can be described as any change (quantitative or qualitative, positive or negative) in the economy of a country. The changes are usually as a result of deliberate and strategic plans made by policy makers and other stakeholders in an effort to promote the living and health standards in a given country (Ladimir 2011, p.57). Analysts are of the view that there is a huge difference between economic development and economic growth. Economic development involves the use of policies to bring changes to the country’s economy and to make sure that the country’s economy is aligned with the international development criteria. This is aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the country’s economy. Economic growth on the other hand is concerned with the change in GDP of the given country. In this case, the country’s economic productivity should be thriving in order to achieve a high GDP growth which is a reflection of high economic development (Charlest 2002, p. 94). To this end, it can be inferred that economic growth directs economic development. This paper is written against this backdrop. To this end, the author is going to discuss the relationship between economic development and economic growth Economic Development and Economic Growth Economic Development Overview Economic development is characterised by the initiatives put in place to spearhead improvement of the economy. This usually involves fostering a stable political environment which in turn improves the social welfare of people living in the area. All these depend on the kind of policies that are put in place to instigate economic growth (Ranis &Ramirez 2009). Achieving Economic Development One way to achieve economic development in many countries is through the application of sociological research. This is to ensure that investors in the country conduct themselves in the proper manner. In this context, development of the business enterprises, enhancement of the market value as well as international trade are being encouraged to achieve a high rate of economic development (Sullivan & Sheffrin 2003). Economic development involves the improvement of several aspects of the society. These include improving the level of literacy, eradication of poverty as well as the maintenance of high living standards. If the change in these aspects of the society is maintained in the positive direction, then it can be said the country is undergoing positive development. Therefore, economic growth is an important aspect of economic development as already indicated in this paper. Though the two are approached differe
Introduction I tested myself by adopting different learning styles from years ago. What I understood is that the learning style of each person differs from each other and also it varies according to the situation. Richard E. Snow and Marshall J. Farr mentioned in a book named ‘Conative and affective process analyses’ that “learning styles are usually conceptualized and investigated as variables more closely tied to learning tasks than to underlying personality structures.” (Snow & Farr, 1987, p.60). I came across different such situations mentioned by the author. Understanding each and everything is more important for learning. The importance of learning comes into my mind when I was at school. But during that time, I was unfamiliar with different types of strategies to adopt for learning. Teacher always told me to adopt different methods while learning but during that stage I didn’t care about it. But when I was at matriculation level I came to realize the importance of learning styles to get success in life. “ An experiential learning cycle is a means of representing sequences in experiential learning. ” ( Experiential learning cycles , 2009). In the earlier stage, I tested myself with the learning styles formulated by Kolb and I found that my learning style is diverging as per Kolb’s LSI scoring chart in the (figure- 1). I found that my highest score was in the concrete experience, which reflects shows that I understand more through practical experience than reading. From this I understood that I have to concentrate more on that particular area. I also realized my strength and that is I am very much interested in meeting other people and I am highly imaginative. I have also found that I have a tendency to feel because I am an emotional person. It means that I make decisions based on my own principles. It was also found that I take more time for taking a decision. The learning style is based on the experience and situation of the person. This is very clearl