Beowulf an analysis Essays - Beowulf, English-language Films, Geats

The epic of Beowulf was one of pride and pain. It was one of passionately fighting and purposefully defending. Foreshadowing could be decoded by inspecting one?s lineage. In fact, the lineage of Hrothgar, Beowulf and even Grendel not only affected the character?s role within the epic, but also created a sense of obligation and outline of events as a whole foretold by the lives? of ancestors. When Beowulf first went to assist Hrothgar with the monster, Grendel, Hrothgar reminisced on a fight in which Beowulf?s father killed Heathlolaf. Hrothgar sent treasure to Heathlolaf?s people and Beowulf?s father pledged his allegiance. There was an obligation among the two families due to the past. Not only was Beowulf there to avenge the death of those that Grendel had murdered, but also to settle a debt he felt his father owed. The exchange between Beowulf?s father and Helfdane (Hrothgar?s father) also created an expectation of Beowulf. He was now of a lineage of well-trained champions. It was the duty of Beowulf to fight. His father was a warrior. His honor as a warrior depended upon it. He would be the one to defeat Grendel as his father before had defeated Heathlolaf. The family of Grendel as a whole was descendants of Caine who was said to have committed the first murder killing his brother Abel. With this lineage, those of the wicked race destroyed by the great flood included. This not only presented Grendel, as well as his mother, as characters on the side of evil within the story, but also any adversaries as right-fighters. Like Caine, Grendel and his mother both wandered. Here, it was evident that the misfortunes of the ancestors affected the descendants. Due to the choices of Caine, Grendel had not a normal life or maybe many choices at all. Also like Caine, within the rules of the epic, Grendel would fall at the hands of the hero. Later in the story, Grendel?s mother attacked Heorot not only in rage, but in vengeance and obligation for her son?s death. She killed one of her enemies, Aeschere, to avenge Grendel. Beowulf understood this order of obligation. ?Wise sir, don not grieve. It is always better/ to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning? (1384-1385). There was no time to feel or sadness at all. The job handed by his ancestors Beowulf was to avenge and protect and he did. The family of Grendel as a whole was descendants of Caine who was said to have committed the first murder killing his brother Abel. It was told that Caine was forced away from all man to wander alone. Grendel and his mother both wandered. Here, it was evident that the misfortunes of the ancestors affected the descendants. Due to the choices of Caine, Grendel had not a normal life or maybe many choices at all. Hrothgar, a descendant of many great leaders, was prospering for many years. If not for the prideful act of creating a monument unto him, perhaps the kingdom would have continued to prosper. Under the order of rules of a heroic epic, pride brought his downfall, after all. When preparing for battle with Grendel?s mother, Beowulf began to show his great sense of nobility and strength. These were traits strong within his lineage. He displayed these through his weaponry: ?[His helmet] was of beaten gold, / princely headgear hooped and hasped/ by a weapon-smith who had worked wonders? (1450-1452). The armor itself was a two-time telling of lineage. It told of where it had been because it was often passed from family member to family member. In that it told of history. It also told of where the character may go. It was indeed strong and well-made weaponry. One could assume only the noblest of warriors would have such belongings in their lineage. The slaying of the dragon was left the responsibility of Beowulf as an old king only due to obligation of avenge as he followed the throne of

The Effects of Divorce on Children Essay

The Effects of Divorce on Children Essay The Effects of Divorce on Children Essay Example The Effects of Divorce on Children Essay Example The effects of divorce can differ depending on many factors, among which the most important are the behavior of parents and the age and gender of children. It is   essential for children to maintain a contact with both of the parents afterwards. The absence or existence of such a contact usually depends on the relations, on their experience and education in the sphere of children’s psychology. Married and Divorced Parents Therefore, the assumption of the research paper is that those children, whose parents pay attention to children’s interests more than to those of their own, and stay cooperative regardless their separation, feel less negative impact from the divorce than those, who get a possibility to communicate with only one parent. The school children aged 13 to 18, who could communicate with both of their parents were compared to those, who were sensitized against the non-custodial parent, were interviewed for the following research. The following spheres of life were analyzed: sociability, intimate relations, educational achievements at school, parent-children relations. According to the statistics more and more families suffer from divorces each year. Regardless the further behavior of the parents and their relations, for children this is loss of the family that they knew. Numerous research findings prove that divorce negatively affects children on both psychological and physiological levels. However, the scholars research the impact of divorce on psychological adjustment of children in majority of cases. Consequently, the psychologists have investigated the influence of divorce on relations with parents, quality of intimate relationships in future, achievements in various spheres, alcohol and drugs abuse etc. and have proved that the impact of divorce can become a long-term psychological trauma for children (e.g. Ahrons, 2007; Amato, 2001; Allison, 1989; Kruk, 2010; Moon, 2011; Mustonen, 2011; Velez et al., 2011). Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the situation from different points of view considering the attitude of the parents and reaction o f juveniles   to it. These effects are closely interconnected; that is why both can help to find the way to avoid the possible negative consequences of divorce or at least minimize them. Paying attention to the change of the children’s reaction depending on their age, it is necessary to emphasize the work of Demo (1988). For his research the children, who participated in the investigation, were divided into groups according to their age: infants, toddlers, 3-5 years old, 6-9 years old, 10-12 years old, 13-18 years old. Consequently, it was proved that the reaction of children on divorce can be different: they can feel sad, guilty, angry, anxious or even physically sick. Their gender and age are the factors, which contribute a lot to their reaction. For instance, the adolescents from 13 to 18 years create a group, where the reaction is usually filled with the feelings of anger, sadness, and anxiety (Demo, 1988). Since the period of adolescence is associated with growing up, formation of morality and experimentation, it is important that the parents are those, who show an example of the adult behavior. The rules and limits set by the family in this period are ve ry important for the teenagers’ behavior and development. Consequently, lack of a parent can for different reasons make these rules unclear or changeable and cause moral or psychological health violations. Children regard the divorce as a great change, which means the loss of a parent. Consequently, it is important for a child to keep contact with both parents. Gindes in his article proves the idea of both parents’ importance on the example of relocation of parents (Gindes, 1998). Divorce lowers children’s sense of security and stability; two closest people become not equally accessible to a child anymore.   Gindes (1998) states that after the divorce â€Å"the foundation of the child’s world is splintered†. Therefore, in his article he proves that for the proper further child’s development, it is necessary to have a strong positive relationship with both parents, who are not hostile, but amicable towards each other. The best possible after-divorce scenario includes regular communication with a non-residential parent and cooperation of mother and father. Gindes (1998) shows that relocation is important in the mobile society and to what the divorced parents should pay attention in case it is needed. Another example presenting the importance of spending time with a non-custodial parent is provided in the article of Eymann et al (2009). The findings of this research acknowledge that the life of children from intact and divorce families differs and is influenced significantly by the child’s sex, time spent with non-residential parent, who is more often a father and the parents’ education. Since the participants of the research were mothers and children from divorced families, it showed that the time spent with fathers was significantly lower. At the same time the quality of family relations, social emotional functioning and behavior, self-esteem, mental health and behavior were significantly lower. Consequently, the above mentioned findings prove again that psychosocial quality of children’s life at school-age is significantly influenced by parent’s education and attitude towards their child’s interests. The next   research based on the interview of 118 married and 114 divorced parents provided by Moon (2011) is also worth attention for in the given research paper and supports Eymann’s hypotheses. Moon (2011) proves that the behavior and experience of parents are of great importance by handling the divorce effects for children. Having analyzed the attitude of parents towards the influence of divorce on psychology of their children, Moon came to the conclusion that married parents believe that their divorce would have more negative effects on children than divorced parents do. Consequently, they pay more attention to their children’s interests and problems than to those of their own. In order to lessen the negative effects of divorce, it is important to find out the reasons evoking them. Hence, Amato in his article (2001) presented an updated research of the impact of divorce on children in the 1990s. His hypothesis was that the effects of divorce had lessened in the 1990s, and some factors, which are responsible for that change, are as follows: sophistication of the studies in the sphere divorce; as it got easier to divorce, less troubled families were being included in the divorced population; more extensive interventions. Explaining the adjustment problems in adolescence between children of divorced and two-parent families Simons et al. (1999) emphasized such factors as parental conflict, family income, psychological adjustment of the custodial parent, practice of a custodial parent, as well as the non-custodial parent involvement. His research was based on the series of questionnaires defining parental factors, among which the following were marked: income, parenting practices, parents depression and conflict, and childrens adjustment problems. As a result, the findings showed a close connection between the children’s adjustment problems and the divorce of their parents. In the case of the boys conduct problems, the research showed a significant relationship with parenting practices, which were likely to be impaired because of the divorce. In the case of girls conduct problems, a parental conflict had a significant impact. Paying attention to children’s depression, it is necessary to ma rk out that according to Simon et al. (1999) the boys were not affected by the mediating variables. At the same time the girls’ depressive states were   influenced by the mothers. Therefore, it is obvious that the divorce and the parental conflict have a significant negative impact on children’s behavior in the period of adolescence. The impact on girls differs from that one on boys in long-term perspective. Mustonen et al (2011) in the article described how the parental divorce influenced the quality of intimate relationships and psychosocial resources in the future. The research was based on questionnaires of children from the divorced families at the age of 16 and later of 32 years. Consequently, the scholars concluded that men and women from the divorced families more often separated at the age of 32 than those from the intact families. However, the parental divorce affected daughters more than sons. Women, who suffered from the parental divorce in childhood, had poorer relations with their parents in adolescence. Moreover, they were characterized by lower self-esteem and social support satisfaction.   The gender divergence can be caused by the fact that after the divorce, in most cases, the mothers are the residential parents. Consequently, the daughters absorb their negative attitude towards marriage. Ano ther possible reason is the difference in psychosocial resources. It such case, it is possible to state that men are less impressionable by the negative impact of parental divorce than women. The next research, which proves the inappropriateness of bringing children into parental conflicts, was held by Ben-Amy (2012). The research was based on the survey of 118 individuals, whose well-being was analyzed according to 5 domains: self-sufficiency, alcohol abuse, depression, attachment, and self-esteem. Consequently, it was found out that the attempts of one parent to turn a child against another one caused lower self-sufficiency, lower self-esteem, a lack or low level of secure attachments, and more frequent lifetime depressions. The domain that, according to the provided research, was not influenced by parental post-divorce disputes was alcohol abuse. As a result, the psychological amicable atmosphere between two parents is obviously contributing much to the health of children. Taking into consideration another point of view, not only children’s gender difference, but also the parents’ one is important in divorce studies. Therefore, it is important to regard not only the relations of parents between each other, but the attitude of fathers and mothers towards children. The mothers become the residential parents more often than the fathers. They usually   participate more in the children’s upbringing than fathers. Hence, the warm and positive relations with mothers have a positive impact on the   development. The research described in the article of Velez et al (2011) shows that child-mother relationship are connected with the processes and improves coping efficacy and active coping. Nevertheless, the relations with fathers are not less important. The assumption that fathers stay indifferent to the loss of relations with children or to the usual to them atmosphere is erroneous. For instance, Kruk in his article (2010) provided the exp erimental evidences that fathers’ psychological reaction to   a possible loss of child-father relations is quite strong.   As in most cases mothers become custodial parents after the divorce, fathers can feel lonely and depressed. The suicide rate after divorce among fathers is much higher than among mothers. The article also emphasized the psychological perspectives of father-child bonds, which determined their participation in child care (Kruk, 2010). The responsibilities are divided between both parents, and during the last decade the fathers have become more involved into it. Consequently, father’s influence to child’s sex-role, intellectual, moral development, achievements motivation, social competence is very essential. The relations of the parents after the divorce, such as parents’ remarrying and cohabiting also have an impact on the further life of the children, not only right after the divorce, but also in the long-term perspective. Ahrons (2007) in his research of such influence interviewed the children twenty years after the divorce and has reported the evidences that children, whose parents were cooperative, had better relations with parents and other family members. This is an important fact for the future success in life and less negative emotions during the lifespan. Indeed, the researches mentioned above provide numerous evidences that a family plays a great role in children’s psychological development on all levels. The divorce is a negative event, which destroys the friendly atmosphere between the parents and, therefore, influences the further child’s behavior. In order to prevent the negative consequences, which can result in deterioration on the level of   academic achievements, conduct, psychological adjustment, self-concept, and social relations, it is necessary to provide a child with necessary for them mother-child and father-child relations, which are obviously equally important. Therefore, even if divorce took place in the family the image of the parents, who stay happy, support friendly relations and discuss their children‘s problems, should become helpful to avoid the negative consequences of divorce. In the current research children from the divorced families were interviewed, and the influence of parents’ relation on their behavior in the society, intimate relations, educational achievements, self-evaluation were researched. The participants were divided according to their parents’ post-divorce relations and gender. They were interviewed with the help of closed-ended questions, which indicated how the absence of communication with one of the parents influenced different spheres of their lives. Therefore, taking into consideration the previous researches of the divorce negative effects on children, it is necessary to investigate how they can be minimized. The findings show which sphere of children’s life is influenced more; and why parents should stay cooperative and amicable towards each other after the divorce. Participants In order to test the hypothesis that the post-divorce communication of parents has an impact on children’s psychological state, the age group of adolescents aged 13-18 was interviewed.   The children from the divorced families (10 persons, whose parents were cooperative and amicable, 10 persons, whose parents were struggling against each other, age range: 13-18) were found with the help of social networks and asked to participate in the research. The interview was anonymous, confidential, ethical, private, and the response rate was 100%. For testing of the second hypothesis that the gender of children is influential for the results, each stratum of 10 persons consisted of 5 male and 5 female representatives. Research design To gain the evidences of the influence of the parental conflicts or communication after the divorce on their children, and uncover the spheres of the strongest influence on children, a qualitative research based on the analysis of twenty interviews was held. Materials and Procedure To collect data for the research, all the participants were provided with the same questionnaire lists of eight closed-ended questions, which investigated children’s mental state on the level of behavior in the society, educational achievements, intimate relations, child-parents relations. The list for the observatory groups included a total of eight questions, each of which had two possible answers defining high or low levels of the events or feelings accordingly. The sampling method chosen for the research was a probability stratified sampling method, which reduces sampling error. As it was mentioned above, the questions were closed-ended, aimed to compare the levels of intimate relations, child-parental relations, educational achievements, and confliction society position of the children of divorce, who were treated in different ways. The answers were sent through the e-mail and afterwards grouped according to 2 strata and analyzed according to 4 spheres of influence. After wards, as the previous researches of the scholars proved that there exists the difference between male and female reaction on the divorce (e.g. Allison, 1989; Simons, 1999; Velez, 2011; Kruk, 2010), it was necessary to compare the answers of the gender subgroups of both strata. The results of the research were depicted in the diagrams presented in attachment (see Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3). Measures According to the data analysis, the average age of all the participants was 14, 5 years. This age group is referred to as adolescents, and, in general, is characterized by high emotionality and the main norms and aims establishment, which is important to take into account for the further discussion. The calculations showed that regarding the behavior of the first stratum of the society, 90% of the participants were bent to conflicts and rarely took part in the social school life while the index for children from the second group was only 20%. The education achievements were average for both strata and got 8 and 7 points out of 10 possible accordingly. Regarding the intimate relations it was calculated that the children of those parents, who struggle after the divorce feel lonely 40% more often than of those, who cooperate with each other and have a lower index of friends’ number, which was calculated as 2 for the first group and 5 for the second one. 100% of the interviewed ch ildren from the first stratum stated that they lacked the communication with a non-residential parent. Only 10% of the second group participants answered positively to this question. Comparing the data considering gender differences it is important to mention that 100% of girls from the first stratum appeared to be bent to conflicts and did not take part in social events, and only 80% of boys answered the questions in the same way. The points for education achievements for boys and girls were not very different and were calculated as 8. The index of loneliness was higher among girls, 100% of answered that felt lonely often. 80% was the index of the boys, who answered the same questions. The number of friends among both genders did not differ. 100% of both male and female participants lacked communication with their non-custodial parents (see Figure 2). Regarding the difference between male and female participants from the second stratum, the indicators of three spheres were different: education achievements, intimate relations, lack of parental attention (see Figure 3). Results The findings of the research show how the behavior of the parents influences the children’s life after divorce. It is obvious that sensitizing the children against a non-residential parent and inter parental conflicts after the divorce have a negative influence on the child’s development. Comparing two strata, the difference between which lies in the parental behavior, it is necessary to emphasize that the sphere of relations between a child and is influenced the most. 100% of the participants, who did not have the possibility to communicate with a non-custodial parent, felt the lack of attention and communication with them. Among those, whose parents were amicable and cooperative, only 10 % of the participants answered the question positively. All of them were female representatives. This can be explained by girls’ higher level of emotionality and sensitivity. The next sphere dealt with difficulties in intimate relations. The participants of the first stratum we re obviously less communicative and had fewer friends. Again the index for the female representatives was higher than the male one. The educational achievements of the children were not influenced by the parents’ behavior. Proneness to conflicts among children from the first group was much higher. It means that children from the divorced families lose the ability to avoid and soothe the conflicts and do not tend to participate in the social life. Comparing to the second stratum, the representatives of the first one were less communicative and bent to loneliness and conflicts. Finally, the communication between children and their parents, usually non-custodial ones, is the sphere, which is influenced the most. It is more difficult for them to adjust in the children’s group and they are more introvert. Discussion The results of the research present the evidences of the negative effects of divorce on children. Though the divorce itself appears to be a psychological trauma for the parents as well, its effects can be minimized with the help of influence on their post-divorce behavior. That is why it is necessary to make the parents aware of the peculiarities of the child psychology and importance of communication with both of the parents. As the adolescent age group needs to be investigated, the research was based on the answers of children, whose average age was 14,5. The parental conflicts and behavior in general obviously have an impact on the mentioned spheres of children’s lives. The parent-child relations are influenced the most and the educational achievements of children are influenced the least. Nevertheless, the indexes can be not accurate. It is important to mention that judging the influence of parental behavior on such spheres as adjustment in the society, educational achievements, intimate relations, lack of parental attention for the adolescents’ group should take into account the peculiarities of their age. The number of the participants was not high. Consequently, it is difficult to calculate the accurate percentage. Moreover, it is necessary to question the parents of the participants to get more precise results. To sum it up, regardless the inaccuracy of some indexes, the research contributes to the studies of the divorce effects on children and gives evidences that parents should put the children’s interests prior to those of their own. Moreover, educating parents about the effect of divorce on their children should influence their decisions and post-divorce behavior positively.

Is No Child Left Behind Working Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Is No Child Left Behind Working - Essay Example Within this context, the Federal government aims to provide economic aid to the state/ local educational agencies to uplift the academic standards of the present educational system in schools. Besides, the success of NCLB was fully vested upon the beneficiaries of the foretold educational policy. The basic factor of NCLB is to help the children with disabilities to acquire an important position within the educational system of the states in USA. As pointed out earlier, the aim of the federal government was systematic but the foretold educational innovation proves to be less successful because the federal government acted the role of a funding agency, not as an authority with full fledged power to alter the implementation and assessment of NCLB. Positives and negatives One can easily identify that the implementation of NCLB is with a number of positive and negative effects within the educational scenario. Gary L. Anderson opines that â€Å"On the positive side, some principals were a ble to use the leverage NCLB gave them to selectively implement some good programs† (27).

What is Economics Issues Affecting The Economy As A Whole Essay

What is Economics Issues Affecting The Economy As A Whole - Essay Example The second part of economics deals with the problems rising in the global arena. Humans have unlimited wants but there are limited resources to produce it and when we say resources this is basically referred as the four factors of productions that are used in producing wants. Human race is like an ever hungry beast whose wants are unlimited but there are limited resources to produce it. This issue is referred as scarcity because these resources like oil, mineral, gases take millions of years to form and human beings consume it with a century. (McConnell, 2011) We all know that every human possess some basic needs and beyond these needs there are wants that is only demanded to gain pleasure or to derive satisfaction. Humans have no end to their wants but due to limited income we are forced to make choices as we cannot have whatever we want so we have to select the things we can afford and make sure that the thing we have selected gives us most benefit. When a choice is made one thing is given up in order to obtain what we have selected. The next best alternative that we gave up in order to obtain what we have selected is called opportunity cost. For example between a bike and an I-Phone 5 an individual chooses a bike in this case the I-Phone 5 is the opportunity cost. The concepts in economics can be factual or value based. Objective and fact based information is referred as Positive Economics while value based and subjective information is related to the Normative Economics. Positive economics could be tested and proved or disapproved while the Normative Economics are opinion based. (McConnell, 2011) Macroeconomics and Microeconomics Before we go into further analysis it is very important to dis cuss about the two major branches of economics and that is differentiating between Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. These two branches have many basic common ideas and methods in common, the difference lies in the level to which they are studied and the way they are perceived. Microeconomics focuses on individual consumers, workers and firms each of which is too small to have an impact on the national economy. Macroeconomics avoids this distinction among many different kinds of goods, firms and markets that exist in the economy and instead focus on aggregate. For example, in their analysis macroeconomists do not care whether consumers are buying VCRs or DVD players, beef or chicken, Pepsi or Coke. It focuses on summing up individual variables to obtain economic wide totals called aggregation. (McConnell, 2011) Issues affecting the economy as a whole Studying about the structure of the economy is a part of Macroeconomics that studies the performance of the national economy and help s in designing policies that government use to influence the economy. (McConnell, 2011) There are certain issues that affect the economy and the main ones are: Business Cycle Growth in an economy is never smooth, it

Florida Emergency Response Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Florida Emergency Response Plan - Essay Example However, the question is now to judge whether what is on paper is as good when it is tested by nature. Based on the experience of Hurricane Andrew, the federal government and its local counterparts have implemented the need to formulize specific plans and operating procedures to cope with these calamities but the Andrew experience has now been overshadowed by another Hurricane. Katrina hit the Bahamas, South Florida, Cuba, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Panhandle, and most of eastern North America on August of 2005 costing the US almost 82 billion in damages and the lives of 1836 people ("Hurricane Katrina", 2006). This happened after the requirement of each state to have its own emergency response systems and the institution by the federal governing bodies solely focused on did after preparation and mitigation. The devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina most recently has further emphasized the need to have these disaster plans carefully examined, updated and monitored . The Florida Fire Chiefs' Association has created the FFCA Statewide Emergency Plan (SERP) is an effort to coordinate and mitigate response during emergencies. It is not limited to situations brought on by hurricanes that frequent the state but also provides standard operating procedures for various types of emergencies either brought by natural or contrived circumstances. It is based on a collective of experience from emergency services and the methods that have been established during the ordinary course of their service. The FFCA SERP covers local, county, state and federal level of intervention that delegates primary accountability with the lowest level of government and assistance can be requested following the same hierarchy the apex being Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM)Assessment of damages or calamity costs is evaluated by the Rapid Impact Assessment Teams(RIAT) which will also be the basis of declarations of state of emergency by the Governor which will in turn initiate the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) that will serve as the coordinating body of county-based emergency operations centers. In the event that local and state resources prove to be inadequate, the Governor may seek the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At the same time, existing government agencies may be asked to extend their functions as may be required by the situation. The other key elements that have been established through FFCA-SERP are deployment time frames, pre-identified strike teams, and pre-staged resources. Another key element to the plan is the considerable focus on the pre and post event concerns. As preparation for any event it is a requirement that a proper assessment of anticipated needs, both supplies and services, is done and that each level shall consider these as current requirements. However, even if emergency response primary follows a hierarchy, counties are encouraged to support and coordinate with each other closely at all times. Consequently, the manner of dealing with reimbursements, service rates of personnel, equipment rates and other expenses, has already been established. Disasters and Realities It has been claimed that Hurricane Andrew laid bare the

Issues Involved In Attracting Visitors To Museums Tourism Essay

Issues Involved In Attracting Visitors To Museums Tourism Essay In addition to its collection, preservation and educational role museums must also attract the largest possible audience to survive. Discuss this statement with reference to Heritage Tourism and a major London museum. Heritage tourism is a sector inside the tourism industry that has strong historical importance. It covers an area or object that can symbolize a culture, nature or just a specific environment that is important to remember and preserve throughout history. Widely mentioned in the 1990s the importance of heritage tourism grew becoming one of the most important sectors in the tourism industry, Palmer (1999) Heritage tourism is a very broad and multifaceted. It attempts to preserve the past for the benefit and interest of future generations. It can be represented through many forms such as literature, culture and traditions, architecture, landscapes and a variety of other objects. Heritage tourism is quite a new concept in tourism and it is complex because it differs from person to person depending on their beliefs, culture, traditions and/or nationality. It is easy to understand that heritage tourism is related to museums. Museums have a strong link with heritage tourism. Museums are meant to preserve all kinds of things that are relevant to history and make them available throughout the years. The main purpose of a museum is to sell history through an exhibition, preservation and storage of symbolic objects. Museums attempt to explain the importance of these objects and make it a enjoyable experience to its visitors. Most of the facts and events that we know about our history are because of the role that museums have in preserving history as well as explaining it Marstine (2006). Museums can be owned by the public and private sector and this can influence they way they operate and interact with the public and what they exhibit. Museums focus on many specific areas of history and, as they are business and they are managed in order to make profit, many exhibitions are prioritized according to the visitors interests, Garrod, (2008.) Museums focus primarily on visitors who are interested and are receptive to changes on their views and opinions about the world Langer (1993) Visitors of museums should understand the topic that the museum is trying to cover by questioning and reasoning. There can be two types of museum visitors defined by Langer (1993) and Moscardo (1996): the mindful and the mindless. A mindful visitor accepts information through various interpretations and is able to contextualize them. Being a mindful visitor means that one is able to accept that there is no single correct way to interpret a single historical situation. A mindless visitor finds other interpretations besides the one he or she possesses irrelevant as these visitors are not receptive as the mindful ones. They are not receptive to other interpretations or viewpoints because they are unable to question the information they already possess. Usually they are subject to believe and follow a single definition and/or stereotype. They are usually not interest, do not really know about the exhibition and do not care much about it. A good museum has to be entertaining for both types of visitors. A museum has to consider different morals, cultures, ideologies, traditions and political views from its visitors in order to offer them a good experience and make their visit interesting and worth their time and money spent. The Natural History Museum The Natural History Museum is located in London, England on Exhibition Road, in South Kensington, together with the science museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and has charitable purposes. It has been called The Natural History Museum since 1992 due to the Museums and Galleries Act. The museum has five specific collections related to botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. These five collections have around 70 million objects in total. The Natural History Museum is famous worldwide for its dinosaur exhibition that includes a large diplodocus dinosaur skeleton. The Natural History Museum is referred to in many research projects, focusing on areas such taxonomy, identification and preservation. Some of the items are as important scientifically as they are historically since Charles Darwin has worked with them directly. The museum has a large library that holds many scientific research books, articles, hand written documents and art collections. However this library is only accessible by appointment. Geological Museum The Natural History Museum joined the Geological Museum in 1986 from the British Geological Survey. The museum is internationally known for its James Gardiner exhibitions of the active volcano and earthquake devices. The museum has also hosted the first electronically generated exhibition called Treasures of the Earth. The galleries in the museum were redeveloped in 1996 and renamed The Earth Galleries. The galleries in the Waterhouse building were also renamed as The Life Galleries The Geological Museum shows examples from the 19th century of display techniques used in the Waterhouse building. Neal Potter designed the central atrium, where visitors are transported to this area through an escalator made out of plates that symbolize earth. The walls were made out of recycled materials with representations of the major stars and planets. The background has six imagines that demonstrate how older generations viewed earth. Darwin Centre Named after Charles Darwin, the Darwin Centre holds a collection of preserved animals, a work place for scientific researchers and recent educational visitor experiences. It was built in two phases and it is one of the most important ventures in the Natural History Museum. Phase one hosted the zoological items, mainly preserved in alcohol. Phase two holds the botanical exhibits. Phased two opened in 2009 and it is in a shape of a giant cocoon. The Darwin Centre became famous for Archie an eight meter long giant squid that hangs in the middle of the centre. The Attenborough Studio Named after Sir David Attenborough, a prestigious broadcaster and presenter, the Attenborough Studio holds the most important footages on natural History. In collaboration with the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC) the Attenborough Studio has as its main goal to share science education and preservation efforts through multimedia material, becoming a vital part of Darwin Centre. The West side of the building also keeps a wildlife garden, where various types of plants are on display and a possibly new type of insect species similar to the ant was discovered in 2007. The Museum also holds four different galleries that are differentiated by colour and contain different things, they are as follows: Red Zone: Earth Lab, Earths Treasury,Lasting Impressions, Restless Surface, Earth Today and Tomorrow, From the Beginning, The Power Within, Visions of Earth. Green zone: Birds, Creepy Crawlies, Ecology, Fossil Marine Reptiles, Giant Sequoia and Central Hall, Minerals, The Vault, Our Place in Evolution, Plant Power, Primates, Investigate. Blue zone: Dinosaurs, Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles, Human Biology, Marine Invertebrates, Mammals (Blue Whale), Nature Live. Orange zone: Wildlife Garden, Darwin Centre. The Natural History Museum has become incredibly popular with its visitors over the years, because of its range of diverse things to see. It is not only popular for educational school trips but all kinds of people can come and find something they will be interested in. Politics The issue of politics in Museums can show in a clear way the attitude a certain nation may feel toward an issue in history, or how people have different ideas about what happened. For example, visiting a museum that has exhibits and galleries regarding past conflicts, these museums will portray their countries military objectives and assets as positive, this aides in the nations patriotism and makes nationals of the country proud when they visit. The recreation for some galleries and exhibits in the Natural History Museum rely mainly on the accuracy of the way that certain things are shown, as not many exhibits depict conflict in the past but are more focused on science, astrology and the earth as well as its living plants and animals. Dallen and Boyd (2003) say that One persons landmark may be an object of hostility to another Individuals may disagree the way that certain things are explained in the Museum, however the museum has had input from many reliable scientists and professor s over the years whose opinion on some exhibits and galleries cannot be argued. It is important to listen and understand the views that all individuals have regarding how things were in the past. For example issues that revolve around how the Earth came to be formed, some organizations disagree with the well known theory of the Big-Bang. Although not all organizations agree with each other, these are the kind of politics that are relevant to The Natural History Museum. Authenticity Authenticity is very important for museum visitors. According to Halewood and Hannom (2001) museums are appreciated by their visitors due to some of their characteristics, such as: Originality; Workmanship; Cultural and historical accuracy; Aesthetics Functions and use. In order to grant authenticity and organization academic expertise is essential for the success of any museum Shenhav-Keller (1993). The study of authenticity is a critical success factor for museum visitor management. The feeling of being in front of something that has been preserved since its creation is what most museums expect to offer to their visitors Marstine (2006). Visitors expect to see the objects on the museum as they were originally, this provides authenticity and should be prioritized in order to get full satisfaction from the museum visitors. Sometimes authenticity cannot be achieved because objects might not be in their original state and museums should try to restore them or create similar pieces to the originals (replicas). The Natural History Museum contains a number of authentic objects both old and new in its galleries and exhibits. For example the River Thames Whale that managed to get stuck in the River Thames in 2006, this whales bones have been arranged together and are now temporarily on display. The Darwin Centre also holds tens of millions of specimens that were once alive, most famously is the giant squid named Archie that hangs in the middle of the centre. The Museum also contains many authentic ancient fossils that have been found over the years, they are on display in the Green Zone area, as well as a completely authentic wildlife garden in the Orange Zone. A lot of the things to be seen in the Natural History Museum have also been manufactured or been made from originals so they are not entirely authentic. However the fact that they are replicated gives the visitor an idea of what an authentic original would have been like. Visitor Management The Natural History Museum received over 832,000 visitors during the year of 1958, and in 2009 visitor arrivals reached four million. Of course the museum was not so advanced in 1958 and has expanded dramatically since then, but the opening of such areas of the museum as the Darwin Centre and the Geological Museum have increased the amount of visitors over the years. The museum did not allow free entry until 2001, during the year 2000 visitor arrivals were only 1.7million but rose 42% during the month October, 2009, thanks to the help of the new and exciting Darwin Centre, this was the Museums busiest ever month. The following months even more visitors came to visit the National History Museum, this unusually high attendance of visitors was known within the museum as the Darwin effect. Hall McArthur (1996) stated that visitor management is the Management of visitors in a manner which maximises the quality of the visitor experience whilst assisting the achievement of an areas overall objectives The Natural History Museum has a dedicated Visitor Services team that makes sure that the needs of all visitors are adequately met during their visit. It is possible to call the customer services team before you arrive at the museum to find out when a good time to visit might be. For example elderly or disabled individuals may wish to visit the Museum when it is not so busy. The fact that the staff at the Museum can provide information on a good time for the individual calling to visit maximises their experience. The Museum also contains a cafe and other areas where visitors can refresh themselves with a drink or something to eat, as well as numerous bathroom facilities should they need to use them. Most exhibits and galleries are interactive and allow the visitor to get involved with what they are learning making it a more enjoyable experience. Should the visitor speak another language other than English there are also translations in other languages for many of the Museums descript ions and galleries. It is essential for Museum directors to take into account not only the comfort of the visitors who are being welcomed to the museum, but of course the valuable artefacts that are inside the museum as well as the condition of the museum itself. It is important that these museum directors manage their museum so that it remains in a good condition, and does not get damaged by an overflow of too many visitors at a particular time. Enough money must also be spent on restoring any damage that may have occurred due to too many visitors or lack of respect from individuals towards the museum site and its content. For this reason museums must limit the amount of visitors that are inside at any one time, or a daily limit in order to preserve the building for future use. Garrod and Fyall (2000) say that Conceivably, the higher weighting that is generally accorded to conservation might be the result of the particularly strong notion of futurity that is often associated with heritage assets. It is easy for this Museum in particular to become a victim of over-use as the admission is free, so managers must look carefully into the methods they use to control the flow of visitors coming in and out. The Visitor Services team at the National History Museum has many stewards both inside and outside that make sure everyone who is waiting in line is comfortable and aware of the time they must wait. The Museum directors make sure that they let the same proportion of people in the Museum that are also leaving the Museum. Conclusion We can see from this report the issues that are involved when attempting to attract the most visitors possible to a Museum. These issues revolve around Politics, Visitor Management and Authenticity of the contents of the Museum. We have seen that it is very important to control visitor management, not only for the comfort and safety of the visitors but also in order to uphold the quality of the Museum, its galleries and exhibitions. If a Museum becomes too crowded it is not a pleasant experience at all and will deter the visitor from returning. Authenticity is another issue that some visitors find of great importance if they feel that what they are seeing is not genuine, or has not been replicated to look genuine they will feel cheated and not return to the Museum again. Finally the politics involved are something that attracts visitors depending on the nature of the Museum as there are not much politics involved with The Natural History Museum. The Natural History Museum has had a good plan to accommodate visitors when they arrive at the Museum, they have had a very long time over the years to perfect their visitor management plans. The general management of this Museum has made it one of the most popular in the United Kingdom, attracting four million visitors in 2009 and has been very successful in attracting maximum amount of visitors whilst preserving and sustaining the contents of the Museum and the building itself.

Toward Effective Emotional Intelligence Simulation Essay -- Psychology

The ability to understand the emotions of others is critical for successful interactions among humans (Dias & Paiva, 2009; Kazemifard, Ghasem-Aghaee, & Ãâ€"ren, 2010). The psychological theory of emotional intelligence (EI) proposes four categories of relevant abilities (Mayer & Salovey, 1997): (1) identifying emotions, (2) understanding emotions, (3) using emotions in thought processes, and (4) managing emotions. This research focuses on emotion understanding, the cognitive activity of making inferences using emotional knowledge about why an agent is in an emotional state (e.g., unfair treatment makes an individual angry) and which actions are associated with the emotional state (e.g., an angry individual attacks others). Such emotion understanding in humans develops through their experiences with other agents. How might such learning in humans inform a model to enable artificial emotional agents to develop emotion understanding? Our approach to answering this question proposes a model of emotion understanding that combines psychological theories of episodic and semantic memory with ...