Sunday, March 22, 2020
Human Resource Planning of the New Lounge with Asian Cuisine
Business concept The new lounge with Asian cuisine will focus on offering nutritious food and beverages to residents of Seattle, Washington. The establishment will specialize in a combination of upscale foods. The foodstuffs will comprise of rice, chilies, soy, salads, and certain recipes focusing on Asian cuisine.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Human Resource Planning of the New Lounge with Asian Cuisine specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Based on its distinctive menu, the lounge will concentrate on a differentiation strategy, which will offer exclusive foods around Seattle, Washington. The keys to success for this lounge will be an ideal location and special Asian cuisine. A group of Asian investors in the region will own the business. The stakeholders will offer $50,000 capital investment. The additional $20,000 will be raised through a short-term loan from local banks.à Breaking into this market is expected to be a challenge. We expect to face competition from small and medium mobile food stalls spread across Seattle. The other competitors are restaurants and food kiosks that offer catering services. To gain a competitive advantage over our competitors, we will differentiate our products and services (Champniss, 2011). One major way of fulfilling the above is through value addition. As such, we plan to locate our business in Downtown Seattle. Here, the cost of renting space is significantly low. The cost saved in renting the premises will enable us to sell our services and products at lower prices compared to the prices charged by our competitors. By offering cheaper and quality services, we will eventually gain a competitive advantage in the market segment. Similarly, we will focus on improving the foodsââ¬â¢ package to enhance their aesthetic appeal. All foods will be packed and served in impressive food packages designed to surpass our customersââ¬â¢ expectations. Thr ough the above initiatives, they will be able to add value to its products and services and gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. The lounge will target clients who work or study in regions around the Seattle. According to the market insight, thousands of persons reside around Seattle and its environs. The number of these clients is expected to increase in the future (Dess Lumpkin, 2014).Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The main reason for positioning itself in this segment is that the business has the opportunity of incorporating new features to the existing service charter. They include online ordering of food services to cater to the changing demands and needs of the targeted customers. The vibrant tourism, efficient transport, increased government expenditure, and improved trade in the region imply that the business will be favorable and convenient to m any individuals (Cone, 2011). An increase in government expenditure means that there is more money in circulation, and more people can afford to enjoy the food services at our lounge.à The lounge will also adopt an all-inclusive marketing and advertising promotions. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are currently the most utilized platforms, and we will exploit them positively to reach more customers in the city of Washington and its environs. The above will not only control losses but also give an accurate record of sales and projections. The advent of computer scanners at retail checkout counters means that the supply of our business will be accompanied with the proper technology. The above will ensure strategic product positioning in the dynamic Washington market. With technological advancements, we will always be ready to adopt innovations in our services to ensure that they remain relevant in the business field. Through social media, we will encourage more potential c lients to access our services. The social media will also enable us to interact with potential clients to understand their expectations (Farris, 2010). Every year, the business must adopt new entertainment technologies to be ahead of its rivals. Similarly, we plan to form alliances with restaurant chains and kiosks, as well as with event organizers and corporate offices to capture market share. By doing so, we will be able to increase our source of income. HR management plan Organization chart, management team, and employee positions The organizational structure of the hotel displays a divisional corporate order. The divisional order is predominant service sections of the lounge. The sections include housekeeping segment, food and beverage segment, concierge segment, and front desk management. For instance, the big segments of the enterprise are separated into semi-autonomous bodies. The smaller segments are apportioned to a specific field of service. Every semi-autonomous segment h as a group head. As such, the group head is selected as the management officer of that specific segment. At the top of the hierarchy is the hotel manager. The present-day economic conditions in the hotel industry are characterized by increased competition.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Human Resource Planning of the New Lounge with Asian Cuisine specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this regard, the lounge will adopt the above organizational structure to save on the cost of operation. The organizational structure has many advantages. Through this structure, every section functions effectively for the reason that they are centered on certain precise task. By doing so, the bank has been able to enhance the output of every section. Below is a figure showing the organizational chart of the lounge. The hotel manager manages the overall undertakings like hiring and making financial arrangements. The assistant manager acts on behalf of the general manager in his or her absence. The junior manager reports to the overall manager. Since the lounge operates on 24 hours basis, an evening shift administrator will be required to night operations. A supervisor directs every functional group. The supervisor reports to the general manager. Fig 1: Organizational chart of the lounge Compensation and benefits Present financial situations in the hotel sector are characterized by increased operating costs (Collins Ewing, 2012). Recruitment and hiring of new employees contribute to the rise in operating costs. Therefore, the lounge will adopt a competitive reward scheme to reduce the employee turnover. Expecting to be among the top Asian cuisines in Seattle, the loungeââ¬â¢s reward systems are expected to be competitive. As such, the hotelââ¬â¢s reward scheme is expected to indicate the individuals to be awarded and the reason behind the rewards. The practice will enhance individual performance and general firm outcomes. The reward scheme balances with the organizationââ¬â¢s culture. Policies and processes for attracting, motivating, and retaining employees Attracting, inspiring, and retaining skilled workforce is significant and often challenging for todayââ¬â¢s businesses. Appropriate staffing measures will aid the hotel intensify the satisfaction of its workers, reduce recruiting costs, and increase the hotelââ¬â¢s productivity.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The hotel should offer a positive working environment for its staff. Through this, the lounge will be able to attract and retain qualified workers. A positive work environment enables the employees to undertake their roles without challenges. Thus, the productivity of the lounge will increase. Similarly, the business should identify, compensate, and support the right behavior to attract and retain a competent workforce. Through this, the workerââ¬â¢s morale will be boosted. By involving and engaging the employees, the hotel will be able to motivate its workforce. As such, individuals are more dedicated and involved if they are allowed to add their thoughts and proposals towards the improvement of the business. Equally, the hotel should adopt fun in the workplace to motivate the employees. The initiative will enable the employees develop a positive staff culture, boost their morale and motivation, and enhance employer and employee relationship. Likewise, the approach will improve teamwork, boost employee satisfaction, help attract and retain the best people, and improve customer satisfaction. The initiative will also enhance creativity and problem solving, resolve conflict and difficult issues, and augment productivity and performance. Making ethical decisions For effective operation and ethical decisions, the lounge will adhere to required code of ethics. To prevent conflicts between the hotel and the law, the lounge will formulate and implement an appropriate ethical culture (Ferrell Fraedrich, 2014). The code of ethics will articulate the accepted standards. To achieve this, the lounge will be required to strengthen ethical culture and promote an ethical workforce within the executive branch. Similarly, the code of ethics will be used to institutionalize ethics within the firm. The code of ethics will illustrate a broad value system of an organization, describe the organizationââ¬â¢s principles, and detail guidelines for decision making that are in ac cordance with these principles. Thereafter, the general manager should ensure that the code of ethics is implemented and adhered to at all time. Adhering to the code of ethics is very important to the lounge because it will reduce unethical practices. Unethical practices affect the morale of employees. Ethical wrongdoings have the potential to harm the loungeââ¬â¢s associations with customers, clients, shareholders, and suppliers. Managing diversity The new lounge just like other global hotel ought to uphold diversity. Through this, all employees and the management team should change the way they think, perform, and innovate. By embracing diversity management, the lounge will reap the benefits associated with diversityââ¬â¢s and reduce the potential hurdles like preconceptions that can weaken the operation of a diverse workforce (Volberda, 2012). Diversity in the hotel will be exhibited through the workersââ¬â¢ dissimilarities and similarities. The above implies that managi ng diversity will involve not only the management of race, ethnic, or gender, issue but also other complicated issues that bring out the differences of the employees. Some programs will be implemented to improve diversity in the workplace. Therefore, a management team will ensure that they offer strong leadership, evaluate the situation, offer diversity-teaching programs, transform culture, and evaluate the existing diversity administration programs.à Similarly, the lounge should also train its workforce about the importance of diversity. During the training, employees and the managers will be taught to recognize diversity mixtures in their departments. In doing so, the managers will be able to identify themselves with these features in their departments. Equally, managers should be taught how to scrutinize the mixtures and their associated pressures. Similarly, the training will inform managers on how to choose a suitable response. Through this training, they will be able to eval uate all the available alternatives. Likewise, hotel managers will come up with policies that encourage relationship among the employees. Through building relationship among the employees, the managers will enable the employees to understand and appreciate each otherââ¬â¢s social, religious, or racial background (Wood, 2013). The above can be achieved by offering the employees with regular seminars, workshops, and other social events. Through this, they will get to know one another better enhancing mutual respect. Equally, human resource managers should foster mutual adaptation in the workplace to end issues related to religious mixtures. Through this initiative, every employee will be required to adjust his or her religious doctrines for the benefit of developing an appropriate work environment suitable for all religious groups. Evaluating performance To enhance the performance of the employees, the loungeââ¬â¢s executives will implement performance measurement strategies. Th e lounge will adopt quality and time performance measures. Quality performance measure will assess the value of the services rendered by the employees (Kreitner Cassidy, 2012). Equally, time performance will assess the period taken by the employees to render their services. To enhance the efficiency of the performance measures, the hotel will undertake the above assessment regularly.à Changes in performance measures and requirements related to enhancing the competency-base of workers to meet global requirements will also be monitored. Therefore, the hotel will implement a culture of accountability. Similarly, they will focus on results. When goals and visions are brought into line with organizational accountabilities, the administration can hold employees answerable for their tasks. Equally, performance measures will encourage workers to accomplish the loungeââ¬â¢s goals, missions, and objectives. Planning succession Appropriate succession planning measure will be put in place to recognize and develop internal staff with the possibility to fill vacancy positions in the hotel. The process is the most efficient and appropriate way of filling organizationââ¬â¢s vacancies. Through this approach, the hotel will reduce its recruitment costs and orientation training expenses and time. The approach will offer employees with abilities to advance their career through regular training. As a result, employees will progressively develop and advance their careers. Through career advancement, workersââ¬â¢ morale will be enhanced enabling them to dispense their knowledge and capabilities effectively. Equally, by improving on the workforceââ¬â¢s morale the hotel will increase its productivity leading to an increase in returns. Ensuring a safe and non-discriminatory work environment In any organization, upholding safe and non-discriminatory work environment is considered a major management problem. The hotel will adopt appropriate organizational culture to addres s the issue. As such, organization culture determines how organizational members interact with each other. Appropriate organizational culture will minimize conflicts (Siegel, 2015). Usually, conflicts arise from personal differences or responsibility differences. Exceptional features of workplace setup also influence the conflicts. The features comprise of the stretched hours employees people spend in their workplace, the hierarchical arrangement of the business corporations, and financial or emotional the difficulties. The loungeââ¬â¢s executive will also ensure that the work environment is safe. Workplace accidents are a major concern to hotelsââ¬â¢ managers and their workers. More often, accidents result from wet flows, spills, and sharp cutleries. In the lounge, managers and safety managers will supervise safety responsibilities. They will be required to ensure that the safety requirements of the employees and the clients are fulfilled. They will also ensure that appropria te systems are put in place to enable employees verify safety hazards. Similarly, the officials will ensure that all safety measures are upheld. References Champniss, G. (2011). Brand valued: how socially valued brands hold the key to a sustainable future and business success. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley. Collins, H., Ewing, K. D. (2012). Labour law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cone, S. (2011). Steal these ideas: Marketing secrets that will make you a star. New York, NY: John Wiley Sons. Dess, G., Lumpkin, G. (2014). Strategic management: Creating competitive advantages (7thed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Farris, P. (2010). Marketing metrics: The definitive guide to measuring marketing performance (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press. Ferrell, O., Fraedrich, J. (2014). Business ethics: ethical decision making and cases. San Francisco: Cengage learning. Kreitner, R., Cassidy, C. (2012). Management (12th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Siegel, D. (2015). S pecial Issue of Strategic Organization. Strategic Organization Journal, 13(2), 163-165. Volberda, H. (2012). Strategic Flexibility Creating Dynamic Competitive Advantages. Oxford Handbooks Online, 14(3), 23-34. Wood, M. (2013). The marketing plan: A handbook. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. This research paper on Human Resource Planning of the New Lounge with Asian Cuisine was written and submitted by user Jasper Q. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.
Friday, March 6, 2020
Using a Timer in MS Office VBA Macros
Using a Timer in MS Office VBA Macros For those of us who have our minds deeply into VB.NET, the journey back to VB6 can be a confusing trip. Using a Timer in VB6 is like that. At the same time, adding timed processes to your code is not obvious to new users of VBA Macros. Timers For Newbies Coding a Word VBA macro to automatically time a test that was written in Word is a typical reason for using a timer. Another common reason is to see just how much time is being taken by different parts of your code so you can work on optimizing the slow sections. Sometimes, you might want to see if anything is happening in the application when the computer seems to be just sitting there idle, which can be a security problem. Timers can do that. Start a Timer You start a timer by coding an OnTime statement. This statement is implemented in Word and Excel, but it has different syntax depending on which one youre using.à The syntax for Word is: expression.OnTime(When, Name, Tolerance) The syntax for Excel looks like this: expression.OnTime(EarliestTime, Procedure, LatestTime, Schedule) Both have the first and second parameter in common. The second parameter is the name of another macro that runs when the time in the first parameter is reached. In effect, coding this statement is like creating an event subroutine in VB6 or VB.NET terms. The event is reaching the time in the first parameter. The event subroutine is the second parameter. This isà different from the way it is coded in VB6 or VB.NET. For one thing, the macro named in the second parameter can be in any code that is accessible. In a Word document, Microsoft recommends putting it in the Normal document template. If you put it in another module, Microsoft recommends using the full path: Project.Module.Macro. The expression is usually the Application object. The Word and Excel documentation states that the third parameter can cancel the execution of the event macro in case a dialog or some other process prevents it from running within a certain time. In Excel, you can schedule a new time in case that happens. Code the Time Event Macro This code in Word is for the administrator who wants to display a notification that the testing time has expired and print the result of the test. Public Sub TestOnTime()Debug.Print The alarm will go off in 10 seconds!Debug.Print (Before OnTime: Now)alertTime Now TimeValue(00:00:10)Application.OnTime alertTime, EventMacroDebug.Print (After OnTime: Now)End SubSub EventMacro()Debug.Print (Executing Event Macro: Now)End Sub This results in the following content in the immediate window: The alarm will go off in 10 seconds!Before OnTime: 12/25/2000 7:41:23 PMAfter OnTime: 12/25/2000 7:41:23 PMExecuting Event Macro: 2/27/2010 7:41:33 PM Option for Other Office Apps Other Office applications dont implement OnTime. For those, you have several choices. First, you can use the Timer function, which simply returns the number of seconds since midnight on your PC, and does your own math, or you can use Windows API calls. Using Windows API calls has the advantage of being more precise than Timer. Heres a routine suggested by Microsoft that does the trick: Private Declare Function getFrequency Lib kernel32 _Alias QueryPerformanceFrequency (cyFrequency As Currency) As LongPrivate Declare Function getTickCount Lib kernel32 _Alias QueryPerformanceCounter (cyTickCount As Currency) As LongSub TestTimeAPICalls()Dim dTime As DoubledTime MicroTimerDim StartTime As SingleStartTime TimerFor i 1 To 10000000Dim j As Doublej Sqr(i)NextDebug.Print (MicroTimer Time taken was: MicroTimer - dTime)End SubFunction MicroTimer() As Double Returns seconds.Dim cyTicks1 As CurrencyStatic cyFrequency As CurrencyMicroTimer 0 Get frequency.If cyFrequency 0 Then getFrequency cyFrequency Get ticks.getTickCount cyTicks1 SecondsIf cyFrequency Then MicroTimer cyTicks1 / cyFrequencyEnd Function
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Term paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3
Term Paper Example Unfortunately, the inevitability of the assignment and seriousness of my instructor compelled me to set aside some evenings to study your book. I never knew that it would have such a lasting impact in my life. A couple of pages down from the cover page were enough reason to capture my attention in totality. It was beyond my wild imagination that a deaf person like you could be superbly gifted to come up with such a piece. As demeaning as this previous statement may sound, I must say that I personally do not read much from it as you have taught me to appreciate your coined concept of ââ¬Å"deafhood.â⬠And since your book sought to convince radical sectors, I being included, that deaf communities are far from being objects of pity and benevolence, I choose to regard the deaf culture just as any culture as I even dig deeper into your book. As a child I have always tried to figure out what life as a Deaf person is all about. Walking down the streets you meet countless people with varied facial expression. Some of them have smiling faces; others frowned, while others show no emotion. Also, you encounter people with different disabilities such as blind, lame, among many others. However, there is this special group you may never know their disability not unless somebody whispers to your ears or you see them constantly making some ââ¬Å"funnyâ⬠gestures. I am talking about the deaf people. Indeed the plight of the deaf is unimaginable. It is hard for them to communicate with majority groups as the majority group does not understand their language and neither do they understand the language of the majority group. Noteworthy, though, the majority groups have the ability to understand the language of the deaf, but the dead do not have the ability to understand the language of the majority. It is at such instances that I always pause and ask myself why our policy makers have failed to recognize sign
Monday, February 3, 2020
Trust and Equity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Trust and Equity - Essay Example Even if the parties mentioned the word trust when transfer the properties to another, the court still needs to look into the true intentions of the parties. For the trust to be valid, the full intentions of the parties should be clearly stated in the trust agreement (see Re Adams and the Kensington Vestry (1884)2. The absence of a clear showing of the true intentions of the parties will negate the validity of the trust. In the case at bar, Sedwick merely told his wife that he is transferring the money to her account in case something goes wrong. The words in case something goes wrong is so vague and there is really no clear showing what Sedwick really wants his wife to with the money. According to the case of Knight v Knight (1840)3, for a valid trust to ensue, mandatory words has to be given directing the trustee as to what to do with the properties entrusted to it. In the case at bar, since there was no clear showing as to what is the true intention of the parties involved, the bequest of the money can arguably be construed as a form of gift (see Milroy v Lord (1862)4. Given these circumstances, the wife can assert her right over the property. On the other hand, Sedwick may still be able to recover the property by claiming that the bequest was incomplete (Jones v Locke (1865)5. According to the court in the case of Milroy v Lord (1862)6, it is necessary for the original owner of the property to perform all acts within his or her powers to divest him/herself of his/her rights over the property or money for the gift to be deemed as complete. The facts of the case show that the creation of the trust is valid. The three requisites of the validity of a trust according to the Knight v Knight (1840)7 are fulfilled. Note that the intention of the parties is clear (Midland Bank v Wyatte (1995)8, the subject matter of the trust is well established (Palmer v Simmonds (1854)9; Boyce v Boyce (1849)10 and the objects of the trust can be clearly determined (Morice v
Sunday, January 26, 2020
The Press Between Freedom And Privacy Media Essay
The Press Between Freedom And Privacy Media Essay The freedom of press has been chronologically developed from the subjection to the rulers and governments to the supervision on them. What does this freedom add to the press? Many authors believed that this freedom increases the important role of the press in democratic societies. Press protects human rights against unjust rulers and builds background information for the people about the events that happen through the world. Other authors view the freedom of press as a destruction of people privacy life. In the previous decades, press was under the control of rulers and government. In Richard Andersons article Freedom of the Press ( June 23, 2008), Anderson reveals that critical speech or papers about governments were subject to punishment by the English law whether the critic was true or not since governments believe that any critic would affect the honesty and integrity of politics. When the democracy shined in the world, the press breathed a quiet sigh of relief as its freedom became possible. The democratic society is based on the variety of ideas and concepts related to social and political life. As citizens, people need to share and receive ideas among each other and they need to express it in different forms such as printing it. This is the main reason that made freedom of press or speech under the protection of human rights (Valeria, 2010), but what does the term freedom of press mean? According to European Unions Chart of Fundamental Right, the freedom of press is directly r elated to media liberty in gathering different information whereas according to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the freedom of press is defined as broadcasting information in print form (as cited in Valeria, 2010). The freedom of the press is not only considered as an individual right but also as an institutional one. It is characterized by the right to publish and print information (Anderson, 2008). With this freedom, thousands of magazines and newspapers were established over the world covering different domains such as: political, social, sport, fashion, etc. The freedom of press constitutes one of the important components in the democratic society on which it represents a supervisor on the government, protects human rights, and builds knowledge for people about the outside world events. One of the important roles the press occupied is the inspection of the governments. In Baldings article Press Freedom: Every Citizens Right (February, 2007), Balding acknowledged that newspaper among other media types conserves its work as a supervisor on the government and on any violence action in the society. European Court of Human Rights stated that press let people know and judge ruler attitudes where it represents a watchdog on the political officers (Valeria, 2010). According to Stewart (1975, as cited in Anderson 2008), maintaining the political systems honesty and detecting any corruption in society are among the important roles of the press. When the politicians feel that they are inspected from public, they tend to complete their duties honestly. Any suspicious work or corrupted act by politician will be spotted by the press and broadcast to the public to take the right decision for such act. Hence press allows people sharing the government its role in managing the affair of the society and thus satisfies the principle of democracy: The people are the source of authority. Anderson (2010) states that the press has an important role in checking whether the criminal justice system is working properly or not. This can be achieved when the press attends the court to record the trial and broadcast it to the people to know the reliability of the judgment, thus consequently obliging the justice system to be fair. An example about this press role is what happened in 2001when Estada the president of Philippines was ousted by people after the press broadcasted his corruption where most of public was displeased from his policies such as the removal of sovereign guarantees on government contracts. This role can be extended to a stage where journalist can ask about authority and honesty of politics (Valeria, 2010) and as a result of this role, the press is known as the Fourth Estate. Another role the press played after attaining its freedom is the protection of human rights. Valeria (2010) demonstrates that an important role of press is the protection of humans rights such as protection against racial discrimination. Press always tries to protect rights of people since protecting them will protect the press itself. An important right the press works hardly to protect it is the freedom of expression since this right is the basic of its existence and according to Valeria (2010), freedom of expression consists of three main interdependent parts which are: the freedom of opinion, the freedom of information, and the freedom of press. Press also sheds the light on the violation of human rights that some governments do. In 2005, U.S made a war on Iraq under the cover of protecting Iraqs people right but the press showed the criminal act of U.S military against Iraq people. As a result, many journalists were killed under the cover of belonging to terrorist parties. Anoth er example that reveals the importance of press is the broadcasting of the discrimination that black peoples suffered in the American society which ended finally by equality between black and white people and present president of U.S.A is a black person. All this events prove the great role of press in protecting human rights. The final role the press got it after the announcement of its freedom is the informing of people about the outside world events. According to Douglas (n.d, as cited in Anderson 2008), press give the public the right to know the information that are important to us. The idea that the press was built on when it is constructed is the broadcasting of information and events that happened among the world. The press builds an intercommunication bridge between people of different countries because it shows them the events that happens inside or countries or in the neighbor ones. With the help of the press, people know the major and international problems that the world faces. For example after the industrial revolution, a lot of factories and pollutant machines have been invented leading to an increase in the emission of CO2. This excessive emission leads to the presence of the global warming phenomena. Without the presence of media and press, people would not know about this serious problem that threatens the nature. Moreover, press shed the light on this problem and imposes some awareness messages about this problem in addition to some solution that are proposed by experts. In 2004, when Tsunami happened in Indonesia, press had an important role in broadcasting this human disaster to the world viewing the big destruction that Indonesia and Indonesians have due to this event. In this case, press not only played a role in broadcasting international event but promoting humanitarian feelings of people toward each other. With the development of media and means of communications, world has became as a global village where all peoples can know the events that walks around them. This thing decreases the isolation among people and improves their background information in the world they are living in. On the other side, to insure that the press can inform people about events happening in the world, the journalists sources should be protected. In Valerias article Freedom of the Press A Component of Freedom of Expression (2010), European Court claims that protection of the sources of journalist is necessary so the informers can supply the journalists with the sufficient information they need to cover the events but this protection should not be unlimited. On the other hand, many authors reveal that freedom of press violated the privacy of people. In Zhendong Suns article Balancing Freedom of the press and the Right to Privacy: Lessons for China (February, 2006), Sun claims that press broke the right of privacy of individuals with the help of technology. Journalists gather information about people secretly without any knowledge of them and they gather and print private information of people under fake names. The laws that were written to protect the press freedom and the use of technology by journalists such as recording machines and cameras made the illegal interceptions of peoples private life by journalists easier. Some newspapers disseminates wrong facts about politicians or famous persons without any consideration to the effects of such act just to attract more readers and to have high income (Sun, 2006). It is right that press concern is to report matters that attract people, but this does not give them the right to search in peo ples private life to fulfill their goals. The program Where Are They Now?, gives specific details about the position of a person who were in the past a popular one ignoring the persons agreement about such an act (Sun,2006). Names and pictures of people have been used by press for commercial purposes and for advertisements (Sun, 2006). Furthermore, journalists today are lying on the interviewers to get their needs. In 1971, two journalists claimed that they need a medical advice from a sorcerer but they record his diagnosis and used the video as a evidence in the court to prohibit sorcery (Sun, 2006). It is true that the press freedom with the help of technology made journalists violate people privacy in some cases but it is unfair to consider that freedom of press cancelled the right of privacy of people. First of all, the court considered that a person that accepts to converse with others should be responsible about his conversation since they have the right to repeat what he said (Sun, 2006). In other words there is no illegality behind the actions of the two journalists mentioned before. Also, press has the right to search for the true to satisfy justice even if this requires the seeking of persons private life. For example, journalists are allowed to attend lawsuits in the courts although it is considered private to insure that the judgment is fair and that the judge is honest. In many cases, journalists search in people life to check their living situation and if they have problems so they can inform the government to solve it. One of the known programs that shed the light on people life problems is the Al-nashr program in Lebanon. This program goes deeply into the people private life and presents their problems to the public to help those who need help. Because of this program, more than 30 personal problems were solved by governments or by charities. Without this program, Lebanese government and citizens would never know about these Private problems and they will not be solved. This contradicts authors opinions that press cancelled people privacy. As a conclusion, the freedom of press is considered as an essential part in the democratic society. Schmidt (2007) demonstrates that the freedom of press constitutes one of the important components in democratic societies. It develops the society and the government, provides people with information, and improves the governments efficiency. Also, press protects human rights from being violated by governments such as freedom of expression and right of equality among peoples. In spite of these important roles that are occupied by press, some authors criticize the freedom of press as being breaks peoples privacy. Nowadays, the wide variety of media made the people have the full control on the way and on the time of receiving information and whether they like to interact or not (Balding, 2007). For the press to be as useful as possible it should be restricted to its duties, both legal and ethical and it should respect peoples equally important right (Sun, 2006).
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Family Power Debate
Affirmative for egalitarian sharing of the family power base. The family has consensus over who has the ultimate say on the day to day decisions. Present day family has very complex type of structure which affects the powerbase determination. A family consisting of a mother (female), father (male), and a child or two will have a very different power base than a family consisting of two same gender parents or a family that has a single parent. Age of the parents and the children also contributes toward power base; when the children are very young, the parents have the power and when the children grow they have their own control.Different cultures have varied family structure based on what they have learned from their parents and grandparents. Socioeconomic status and educational level also contributes to the powerbase in a family. Even though all these factors contribute toward the powerbase, it makes a difference, especially in regard to health care management and family wellness. An adult family member remains to be the traditional base of power in several families which the whole family must accept to make the authority effective.For example, according to Hoffman as cited by Friedman et al (2003), in a traditional nuclear family the husband still maintains more decision-making power over his wife and that ââ¬Å"parents almost always have more power than children â⬠(p. 299). The following statement challenges that this idea is not the healthiest balance in todayââ¬â¢s diverse family environment.Affirmative StatementI propose that an egalitarian sharing of power in todayââ¬â¢s environment will create healthier family functioning. ââ¬Å"No change in the American Family is mentioned more often than the gradual shift from one-sided male authority to the sharing of family power by the husband and wife. Declining sex role traditionalism, like many social changes, correlates with increasing complexity and conflict in family decision makingâ⬠(Fried man, 2003). It is often hard in todayââ¬â¢s time to get two individuals to agree to the same values. With the economy the way it is currently it takes two incomes to keep a family a float.With two incomes needed this often times leads to the husband and wife sharing the power; in other words and egalitarian system ofà power sharing. This sharing of power results from the husband and wife working different hours to provide care for the children at all times. Another reason this sharing of power occurs is that the females in todayââ¬â¢s society want to feel equal in their relationships, fueling the need for recognition and equal sharing of power in a family structure. An advantage to this view is that structure must be carefully assessed and recognized prior to distinguishing powerbase.Family function ââ¬âthe intimate, interactive and interdependent sharing of values, decisions, and commitment over timeâ⬠(Kaakinen, Gedaly-Duff, Coehlo, Harmon-Hanson, 2010, p. 22) det ermines structure and therefore establishes powerbase. In the healthy family, with an equal powerbase is not only perception but a reflection of these values and consideration of leadership and justice. In a family whose perceptions are based on bullying, domineering leadership or abuse, powerbase is reflected by actions committed in fear of punishment and retribution.The opposite is true when the structure of the power is based on equal sharing of decisions and actions as a result of this family interaction structure. This view considers the positive or negative family interactions (structure) to affect the behavior of family members and that powerbase derives recognition from these interactions. What may be considered as perception of the power-holder(s) in family is actually the result of the positive or negative family behavior in response to structure. In a study done by Schoppe, Mangelsdorf, & Frosch, (2001), powerbase is determined by family structure.SolutionPowerbase can co nnote failed impressions as well. Outward assessment of inward mutual support processes are the family system as it exists and as it functions. Changes in what is occurring are changes in support processes as well as actual changes in how individuals exist and experience. Powerbase within the family in a healthy or non-healthy environment is determined by family structure, if the powerbase is shared equally by the adults a better example will be demonstrated and mimicked by the children ( Kaakinen, 2012).
Friday, January 10, 2020
Are Serial Killers Born or Created
We have been looking at the Nature vs Nurture debate in psychology and how it can be applied to Serial Killers. In class we also looked at the ways nature and nurture effected how Colin Jackson and found that it was a combination of the two arguments. I believe that it may be similarly a combination of both sides of the argument that lead a person to becoming a serial killer. The nature argument towards peopleââ¬â¢s behaviour is that traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression and sexual orientation are encoded in a persons DNA.This would suggest that Identical twins would have the exact same levels of intelligence, personality and aggression. It also suggests that identical twins would both have the same sexual orientation but as we saw in a psychology lesson there were two identical twins where one showed very masculine traits for a male such as playing with toy guns and cars and the other showed very feminine traits like playing with barbies even though they were ident ical twins which suggests that not everything can be only down to your genetic makeup.The nurture argument is that even though they do believe genetic tendencies exist they do not actually matter in terms of a persons personality etc. This is because they believe that behavioural aspects originate from environmental aspects such as a persons upbringing. Studies done on this have been supportive as they have found cases where identical twins were separated at birth and grew up in different environments and developed very different personalities, intelligence and aggression. At the same time this also goes against the nature theory because it means that they havenââ¬â¢t been affected by only genetics.The opposite end of this argument would suggest that Fraternal Twins would act in exactly the same way and have exactly the same attributes as they will have both been raised in exactly the same environment under the same conditions. In this piece I aim to discuss whether a serial kill er becomes a serial killer due to Nature or Nurture or due to a combination of the two. 1. Power & Control This type of serial killer experiences complete sexual gratification from the domination and humiliation of the victim. This killer is a true sociopath and lives by his own personal set of rules and guidelines.Many of the famous serial killers we have seen in history would fall under his type of serial killer. 2. Visionary This type of serial killer is compelled by voices or visions they experience and are considered psychotic. These voices and visions compel them to kill certain kinds of people. 3. Mission This type of serial killer feels a ââ¬Å"needâ⬠or duty to kill certain types of people or ââ¬Å"classâ⬠of people such as religious or racial groups or prostitutes. This type of serial killer is not considered psychotic. 4. HedonisticThis type of serial killer makes a strong connection between personal violence and sexual gratification. This type of killer can a lso be described as a ââ¬Å"lustâ⬠or ââ¬Å"thrillâ⬠killer. This killer receives pleasure from the act and has eroticized the experience. They generally take the time to torture or mutilate their victims. I found this whilst I was doing some research about the serial killers that I have chosen and have tried to use reports of serial killers from a range of these 4 classifications of serial killers in order to make a wider and better rounded summation.I used Crime Library to do my research as I believe it is a reliable source of information on the serial killers and found four case studies that I can use; Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein and Charles Whitman. Firstly I read Ted Bundyââ¬â¢s page and found that in the early years he was brought up by his grandparents who he was told were his actual parents and his natural mother was his older sister so that it would protect her from being judged as having a child before she was married.For the first 3 years of Bundy's life he lived with his grandparents who raised him as their son, this means that he will have formed an attachment to them both and seem them as his mother and father figure throughout the critical period of his life in terms of Bowlbys theory of Maternal Deprivation. This would then have been disrupted when he was told that it was all a lie and that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. This may have caused Ted Bundy to change his cognition about how lying is acceptable within society as he has been lied to throughout his whole life.This may have led to him being unable to form secure attachments with anybody again and it was later reported that he became a petty thief which may have been a direct consequence of him being lied to about his parents. It was reported that soon after this he began to develop psychopathic tendencies and changed from being a shy person to someone that was very driven and dominant. This is a suggestion that Ted felt he had been bet rayed by his family and those around him leading him to have a warped perception of loving which may have influenced the way that he acted.I did some research and found a website that actually had reports of old x-rayââ¬â¢s and other tests on his brain which found there were no abnormalities which suggests that everything causing him to become a serial killer came from the nurture side. Bundy's favoured method was to first lure victims to his car by pretending he had a broken arm and needed someone to take his books to his car then gain control usually by bludgeoning with a crowbar he kept in his infamous Volkswagen Bug. The murders he committed at the sorority house in Florida he used a piece of wood he had found right outside the house.After being hit over the head the victims were strangled as they were raped by Bundy. Teddy also had the peculiar fetish of necrophilia, returning sometimes weeks after dumping a body to have sex with it over and over again. (ââ¬ËCrime Library ââ¬â¢) This may have had a direct link with what Bundyââ¬â¢s childhood and the way that he was nurtured when growing up. For example when his parents lied to him for large periods of his life it may have led him into believing that it was acceptable for you to lie to people in order to benefit him which is exactly what he was doing when leading women back to his car before beating them.The fact that Bundy also returned to have sex with his victims bodies after weeks after dumping the body means that he was in control of his actions and reinforces the fact the there was no nature argument towards him being that way. However I am unsure what in his upbringing would have led him to act in this way as there were never any reports of any sexual abuse towards him that would have led him to maybe finding it to be acceptable.I believe that in Ted Bundyââ¬â¢s case he would have been a Power and Control type of serial killer because it is almost a direct description of the way that h e acted, he could have also been some aspects of a mission type serial killers as he only killed young women generally in university which may have a direct connection with an event that happened in his life. In the crime library report it said about how the ââ¬Å"love of his lifeâ⬠had broken up with him and he did not know what to do with himself for the rest of his time at university and could not concentrate on anything.This happened whilst he was in university which may have led him to believe that it was down to him in order to kill university girls as he felt they were evil. So Ted Bundy is a serial killer that I believe was created from the Nurture side of things because it was not reported that he had anything wrong with his nature to cause him to act the way in which he did although I couldnââ¬â¢t find any records of brain scans or information about it to suggest that he had actually been properly tested for it.The next serial killer that I researched on was Charl es Whitman, who is not as infamous as Ted Bundy even though he killed a far higher number of people. Charles Whitman was brought up in a wealthy family with his dad being a self employed man that was at the top of his profession so there was no form of poverty in his life. There are a few things from his childhood and teenage years that may have affected the way that he grew up, one being that his father would regularly hit his wife.This may have led to Charles beating his wife as well which he reportedly did, he may have learnt to do this via social learning theory. This would have meant that because he had seen it done from a man that he saw as respectable and holding power that it was acceptable for him to do it as well. When Charles was aged 18 he came home drunk one night and his father punished him by beating him and throwing him into the swimming pool where he almost drowned. This would have a major impact on his life as he had almost been killed by his father.After that he j oined the Marine Corps and it was taught to Charlie from an early age that it was necessary for him to be the best that he could be at whatever he did because he was desperate to prove himself as a man after his father had belittled him for many years. Charlie joined university and was finally free from the regimented life that he had led due to his strict upbringing from his father and the strict training in the Marines which is when he began to get into trouble and found himself getting lots of debts and his grades going down.Charlie was considered to be a genius at a young age so this upset him greatly and when he returned to the Marines he found the military life to be oppressive and lonely. He began to hate the marines and this led to him being Court martialled for his gambling and unauthorized possession of guns. Charlie was embarrassed by his self failure during the marines and at school and was determined to redeem himself.He became obsessed with self improvement and many sc hemes were found where he had written down ways for him to improve himself and the way that he was acting. Someone described him as ââ¬Å"Like a computer. He would install his own values like a machine, then program the things he had to do, and out would come the resultsâ⬠. This image that he desperately tried to uphold crumbled on occasion where he had bouts of temper and frustration which further damaged the self respect that he had for himself.He continued to receive money and expensive gifts from his father. Charlie hated freeloaders, yet that was how he saw himself. He hated failure, yet he had failed to accomplish anything he had set out to do since he left home at 18. He saw being overweight as a sign of weakness, yet he was unable to keep himself as trim as he had been in the Marines. Outwardly, Charlie was diligent and conscientious, a devoted husband and a hard worker; inwardly, he seethed with self-hatred.à (ââ¬ËCrime Libraryââ¬â¢)I believe that this came fr om a mixture of both Nature and Nurture in that his father had taught him that failure was unacceptable but it was also found that Charlie had a tumour on his brain that was the size of a peanut that was never dealt with and only found after his death that changed his cognition to make him hate himself and see himself as a failure because in reality he had not actually failed he just didnââ¬â¢t achieve grades or ranks in the marines that he felt he should have meaning that it was mainly himself believing he had not achieved enough whereas those around him actually thought he was doing well enough for himself. ââ¬Å"I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter,â⬠he wrote.ââ¬Å"Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. â⬠He went on to say he'd increasingly been a victim of ââ¬Å"many unusual and irrational thoughtsâ⬠and that his attempt to get help with his problems (the visit to Dr. Heatly) h ad failed. He expressed a wish that his body be autopsied after his death to see if there was a physical cause for his mental anguish. As he continued, he outlined his plan for the coming 24 hours. ââ¬Å"It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight after I pick her up from work at the telephone company,â⬠he revealed. ââ¬Å"The prominent reason in my mind is that I truly do not consider this world worth living in, and am prepared to die,à and I do not want to leave her to suffer alone in it. ââ¬Å"He continued, ââ¬Å"similar reasons provoked me to take my mother's life also. ââ¬Å"(ââ¬ËCrime Libraryââ¬â¢) This quote from Crime Library is very interesting as it suggests that Charlie himself had known that there was something wrong with the way that he was thinking and felt that there was something wrong with his brain making him think the way that he was. I believe that Charlie wanting to kill his wife and mother because he did not consid er the world worth living in suggests that he is a Mission type serial killer as he wanted to kill people to remove them from a world that he didnââ¬â¢t see as being good enough for the people he killed.Later in the report it says that Charlie climbed to the top of a Texas bell tower with 4 guns where he barricaded himself and began taking shots at people below killing 17 people in total and wounding a further 35 before he was killed by police that made their way up to him and killed him with multiple shotgun shots to the head. In his suicide notes Charles had left a final request to have an autopsy done on his brain where the pecan sized tumour was found. It was found that Charles had a build up of Necrosis surrounding the area of the tumour and the neuro-scientists studying his brain believed that it may have gone from being dormant to suddenly active which may have caused him to have done what he did as his natural ways of thinking were going wrong.The nature argument is prese nt with this Serial Killer but it isnââ¬â¢t solely Nature as it is near impossible to completely rule out any form of Nurture in a childââ¬â¢s upbringing but I originally felt that a combination of the two is what caused people to become serial killers in the first place so this goes very well with that opinion as I believe the combination of both his father telling him that he was a failure led him to being angered easily by those around him and may be what caused him to have the thoughts about killing people but I also believe that the tumour and his brain chemistry that changed when the Necrosis surrounding the tumour became active.It is well documented that he had thoughts about killing people long before he actually did it and it was found that the psychiatrist that was trying to help him through it ignored his sayings about killing people as nonsense even though if he was taught ways to change his cognition on this matter then it may have a actually allowed him to have a higher level of control over the brain tumour allowing him to use techniques taught to him to stop killing those people. The psychiatrist that ignored these facts was given no punishment even though I believe it was down to him to report this to somebody as it endangered the lives of innocent people regardless of ethical issues that may become present for breaking confidentiality. The next serial killer that I found on Crime Library was Ed Gein.This man is one of the better known serial killers with lots of films being done about his life and his killings. Ed Gein was another serial killer that I looked at because I felt that he also had a mixture of both the Nature and Nurture sides of things affecting him and causing him to become what he was; A very notorious serial killer with many films based around his life. Edââ¬â¢s family appeared to be completely normal when being viewed from the outside as he had a mother, father and also an elder brother. The problems with his life fr om the nurture side all stemmed and revolved largely around his mother who was fanatically religious with very strict morals and taught her sons that women had ââ¬Å"Immorality and loosenessâ⬠.This constant teaching about how evil the outside world was is one thing that could have caused Ed to be the way he was as his victims were mostly women including the bones that he dug up from graves. Ed saw his mother as the ââ¬Å"epitome of goodness and followed her every orderâ⬠so much so that when she died ââ¬Å"Ed lost his only friend and his one true love ââ¬â and was absolutely alone in the worldâ⬠from Freuds work on the psychosexual stages of development I believe that Ed Gein was stuck in the Oedipus complex which caused him to be in love with his mother. I think due to the way he was brought up by his mother he was never given an opportunity to escape this complex as he was so sheltered from the outside world that it was never possible for him to form real att achments with anybody else.Even when Ed went to a school it was difficult for him to hold relationships with other people of his age because he would be beaten by his mother if she ever found out so he lived in constant fear of displeasing his mother. Eds father was the complete opposite to his mother in that he was a weak man who his mother despised and was an alcoholic therefore as the two boys were growing up it was evident that they would develop a poor perception of how a male should act which I believe may have been the cause for his victims being predominantly female and why he created a suit out of womens skin because his perception had taught him that women were strong and the ââ¬Å"epitome of goodnessâ⬠whilst men were feeble and couldnââ¬â¢t support their family.Something particularly interesting about the Ed Gein case is that he had a brother that was older than him and although from the videos we have watched in class we know that the nature of a child does not predetermine them having the same personalities it is also evident from this case that siblings do not share similar personalities due to their nurture as well. It was never documented throughout his brotherââ¬â¢s life of him ever doing anything similar to that of his brother although it is not entirely possible to disprove it using this case because Edââ¬â¢s brother was mysteriously killed during a forest fire, Ed was originally suspected because he led them directly to the body which had cuts and bruises on it that were irregular for a fire death but dismissed it as Ed looked too small to kill his brother. I believe that it was Ed that killed his brother and the reasoning behind it would have been that it would allow him to have his mother to himself because his father had passed away previous to that.The reason that Ed Gein may be a combination of both Nature and Nurture is because it was thought that he was mentally retarded which from previous videos and research I have found that this decreases a personââ¬â¢s capacity for learning and a person with a standard brain can expect their brains size to grow at a rate of 1 year per year whereas a person with mental retardation can expect their brain to grow at a far slower rate so they will be unable to learn at the same rate which may have caused Ed to become frustrated and be incapable of using the same thought process as others and it was suggested that he could plead not guilty via insanity suggesting that there was indeed something wrong with his brain that came from the nature side of things.The last serial killer that I looked at was John Wayne Gacy who was born into a family where he was the second child of three with a sister that is 2 years older than him and also a sister that is 2 years younger than him. They grew up in a middle class neighbourhood where Gacy busied himself with school and part time jobs. Gacy was not unpopular in school which is something we tend to expect of most serial killers but he was fairly well liked by staff and pupils. At the age of 11 Gacy was hit in the head by a swing which caused a clot in his brain, and between the ages of 11 and 16 Gacy suffered a series of blackouts.At the age of 17 Gacy was diagnosed with a heart ailment hospitalizing him several times throughout his life. As Gacy aged he began having trouble with his father who was an abusive alcoholic that abused his wife and verbally abused his children. Gacy was desperate to gain his fatherââ¬â¢s devotion and attention but was unable to do so before his father died which is something that Gacy regretted for his entire life. I believe the part about having the blood clot in the brain would be considered a nature side to things but it was actually not important in him becoming a serial killer because he had medication and it was removed long before he killed anybody.Later in life Gacyââ¬â¢s health took another turn for the worse where he suffered major weight issues leading to more problems with his heart and also a spinal injury that would plague him for the rest of his life. Although this is the case I do not believe that it actually impacted on Gacy becoming what he did because it is usually has to be something that affects the brain and this had no effect on the way he thought and was only impacting his physical attributes. In the community that he lived he was a well-respected man who worked long shifts and volunteered for his community. This is the point when things began to turn worse for Gacy as rumours were spread about his area that his sexual preference was Men which was frowned upon at the time and he was always in the company of young boys.In 1968 the first charges were being presented to Gacy with the first being about tricking a young boy into being tied up and raping him. The fact that Gacyââ¬â¢s victims were all young men may have been something to do with the way that he was brought up aiming to impress his father as much as possib le. Since he would have been of a similar age at the time that he was working towards impressing his father then he may have held a strong feeling that other young men did not deserve the opportunity that was taken away from him at that age to impress their fathers so that he was not alone. In total Gacy killed 33 people and buried them under his house.It was found that most of these were young men that Gacy had lured into working for him and then violently sexually abusing them and also engaging in Necrophilia after killing them where he would keep the body in his bed for days after killing them. In my research on John Wayne Gacy I couldnââ¬â¢t find a definitive reason for him doing this but I believe it may have a link with the way that Gacyââ¬â¢s father treated his mother because he would regularly physically abuse her so it may have been installed into Gacyââ¬â¢s values that this was an acceptable thing because it would have been similar to that of his fatherââ¬â¢s a ctions that he probably wanted to replicate to the full in order to make his father proud of him. This warped perception of what his father did may have been caused by the Blood clots in his brain when he was around that age because he may have not fully understood what was happening.In summary of Gacyââ¬â¢s actions I believe that the majority of his actions came from his nurture side where his father had abused members of his family so because Gacy looked up to his father and wanted to make him proud he thought that the way to do it would be to replicate the way his father acted. In conclusion of the way serial killers are created I still firmly believe that it is caused by a combination of both Nature and Nurture. I believe that Nature gives you a capacity for learning, for sports, for other things such as the ability to become a serial killer. Whereas nurture is about releasing that potential that you have by how they have been brought up.An example of this is from the video t hat we watched of Colin Jackson where he was discovering about how his genetic makeup and his nurture effected the way that he developed into an Olympic hurdler so if Colin Jackson was simply given the capacity to become an Olympic hurdler from birth and left it idly then he would not have been able to win the races that he did. It requires some input from the Nurture side in the form of training for athletes. So this can be directly applied to the way serial killers are created because I believe there is something in their genetics that gives them a potential to become a serial killer such as a short temper or an inability to think clearly and then this can either be left as simply a potential that is never unleashed in the form of them becoming serial killers.So that means that there has to be something in the nurture side of things that has made them act the way that they have such as some of the theories that we have learnt about in psychology like Social Learning Theory, Matern al Deprivation etc. which means that a person may have learnt from their parents in the cases of John Wayne Gacy for example that beating women was an acceptable thing to do because that is what his father did when he was a child. The capacity for learning to become something could actually be something very common if Iââ¬â¢m correct in my explanation meaning that people around you could actually have the potential to become a serial killer because of the way their bio-chemistry is making them have a short temper or hear voices in their head for example.But I believe that becauseà people are generally subjected to a higher standard of parenting nowadays that serial killers are becoming rarer in western civilizations where it has become necessary to be a good parent otherwise social services will intervene meaning that someone with the potential to become a serial killer does not get that potential unlocked as they have been brought up in a home that will allow them to properly deal with their problems and learn how to react when confronted with them. Another thing that I believe has helped to reduce the number of recent serial killers is the fact that psychological treatment is more advanced these days meaning that even if a personââ¬â¢s cognition does tell them to kill people, or they hear voices within their heads telling them to kill a person then they can be treated to find ways around this. Are Serial Killers Born or Created We have been looking at the Nature vs Nurture debate in psychology and how it can be applied to Serial Killers. In class we also looked at the ways nature and nurture effected how Colin Jackson and found that it was a combination of the two arguments. I believe that it may be similarly a combination of both sides of the argument that lead a person to becoming a serial killer. The nature argument towards peopleââ¬â¢s behaviour is that traits such as intelligence, personality, aggression and sexual orientation are encoded in a persons DNA.This would suggest that Identical twins would have the exact same levels of intelligence, personality and aggression. It also suggests that identical twins would both have the same sexual orientation but as we saw in a psychology lesson there were two identical twins where one showed very masculine traits for a male such as playing with toy guns and cars and the other showed very feminine traits like playing with barbies even though they were ident ical twins which suggests that not everything can be only down to your genetic makeup.The nurture argument is that even though they do believe genetic tendencies exist they do not actually matter in terms of a persons personality etc. This is because they believe that behavioural aspects originate from environmental aspects such as a persons upbringing. Studies done on this have been supportive as they have found cases where identical twins were separated at birth and grew up in different environments and developed very different personalities, intelligence and aggression. At the same time this also goes against the nature theory because it means that they havenââ¬â¢t been affected by only genetics.The opposite end of this argument would suggest that Fraternal Twins would act in exactly the same way and have exactly the same attributes as they will have both been raised in exactly the same environment under the same conditions. In this piece I aim to discuss whether a serial kill er becomes a serial killer due to Nature or Nurture or due to a combination of the two. 1. Power & Control This type of serial killer experiences complete sexual gratification from the domination and humiliation of the victim. This killer is a true sociopath and lives by his own personal set of rules and guidelines.Many of the famous serial killers we have seen in history would fall under his type of serial killer. 2. Visionary This type of serial killer is compelled by voices or visions they experience and are considered psychotic. These voices and visions compel them to kill certain kinds of people. 3. Mission This type of serial killer feels a ââ¬Å"needâ⬠or duty to kill certain types of people or ââ¬Å"classâ⬠of people such as religious or racial groups or prostitutes. This type of serial killer is not considered psychotic. 4. HedonisticThis type of serial killer makes a strong connection between personal violence and sexual gratification. This type of killer can a lso be described as a ââ¬Å"lustâ⬠or ââ¬Å"thrillâ⬠killer. This killer receives pleasure from the act and has eroticized the experience. They generally take the time to torture or mutilate their victims. I found this whilst I was doing some research about the serial killers that I have chosen and have tried to use reports of serial killers from a range of these 4 classifications of serial killers in order to make a wider and better rounded summation.I used Crime Library to do my research as I believe it is a reliable source of information on the serial killers and found four case studies that I can use; Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein and Charles Whitman. Firstly I read Ted Bundyââ¬â¢s page and found that in the early years he was brought up by his grandparents who he was told were his actual parents and his natural mother was his older sister so that it would protect her from being judged as having a child before she was married.For the first 3 years of Bundy's life he lived with his grandparents who raised him as their son, this means that he will have formed an attachment to them both and seem them as his mother and father figure throughout the critical period of his life in terms of Bowlbys theory of Maternal Deprivation. This would then have been disrupted when he was told that it was all a lie and that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother. This may have caused Ted Bundy to change his cognition about how lying is acceptable within society as he has been lied to throughout his whole life.This may have led to him being unable to form secure attachments with anybody again and it was later reported that he became a petty thief which may have been a direct consequence of him being lied to about his parents. It was reported that soon after this he began to develop psychopathic tendencies and changed from being a shy person to someone that was very driven and dominant. This is a suggestion that Ted felt he had been bet rayed by his family and those around him leading him to have a warped perception of loving which may have influenced the way that he acted.I did some research and found a website that actually had reports of old x-rayââ¬â¢s and other tests on his brain which found there were no abnormalities which suggests that everything causing him to become a serial killer came from the nurture side. Bundy's favoured method was to first lure victims to his car by pretending he had a broken arm and needed someone to take his books to his car then gain control usually by bludgeoning with a crowbar he kept in his infamous Volkswagen Bug. The murders he committed at the sorority house in Florida he used a piece of wood he had found right outside the house.After being hit over the head the victims were strangled as they were raped by Bundy. Teddy also had the peculiar fetish of necrophilia, returning sometimes weeks after dumping a body to have sex with it over and over again. (ââ¬ËCrime Library ââ¬â¢) This may have had a direct link with what Bundyââ¬â¢s childhood and the way that he was nurtured when growing up. For example when his parents lied to him for large periods of his life it may have led him into believing that it was acceptable for you to lie to people in order to benefit him which is exactly what he was doing when leading women back to his car before beating them.The fact that Bundy also returned to have sex with his victims bodies after weeks after dumping the body means that he was in control of his actions and reinforces the fact the there was no nature argument towards him being that way. However I am unsure what in his upbringing would have led him to act in this way as there were never any reports of any sexual abuse towards him that would have led him to maybe finding it to be acceptable.I believe that in Ted Bundyââ¬â¢s case he would have been a Power and Control type of serial killer because it is almost a direct description of the way that h e acted, he could have also been some aspects of a mission type serial killers as he only killed young women generally in university which may have a direct connection with an event that happened in his life. In the crime library report it said about how the ââ¬Å"love of his lifeâ⬠had broken up with him and he did not know what to do with himself for the rest of his time at university and could not concentrate on anything.This happened whilst he was in university which may have led him to believe that it was down to him in order to kill university girls as he felt they were evil. So Ted Bundy is a serial killer that I believe was created from the Nurture side of things because it was not reported that he had anything wrong with his nature to cause him to act the way in which he did although I couldnââ¬â¢t find any records of brain scans or information about it to suggest that he had actually been properly tested for it.The next serial killer that I researched on was Charl es Whitman, who is not as infamous as Ted Bundy even though he killed a far higher number of people. Charles Whitman was brought up in a wealthy family with his dad being a self employed man that was at the top of his profession so there was no form of poverty in his life. There are a few things from his childhood and teenage years that may have affected the way that he grew up, one being that his father would regularly hit his wife.This may have led to Charles beating his wife as well which he reportedly did, he may have learnt to do this via social learning theory. This would have meant that because he had seen it done from a man that he saw as respectable and holding power that it was acceptable for him to do it as well. When Charles was aged 18 he came home drunk one night and his father punished him by beating him and throwing him into the swimming pool where he almost drowned. This would have a major impact on his life as he had almost been killed by his father.After that he j oined the Marine Corps and it was taught to Charlie from an early age that it was necessary for him to be the best that he could be at whatever he did because he was desperate to prove himself as a man after his father had belittled him for many years. Charlie joined university and was finally free from the regimented life that he had led due to his strict upbringing from his father and the strict training in the Marines which is when he began to get into trouble and found himself getting lots of debts and his grades going down.Charlie was considered to be a genius at a young age so this upset him greatly and when he returned to the Marines he found the military life to be oppressive and lonely. He began to hate the marines and this led to him being Court martialled for his gambling and unauthorized possession of guns. Charlie was embarrassed by his self failure during the marines and at school and was determined to redeem himself.He became obsessed with self improvement and many sc hemes were found where he had written down ways for him to improve himself and the way that he was acting. Someone described him as ââ¬Å"Like a computer. He would install his own values like a machine, then program the things he had to do, and out would come the resultsâ⬠. This image that he desperately tried to uphold crumbled on occasion where he had bouts of temper and frustration which further damaged the self respect that he had for himself.He continued to receive money and expensive gifts from his father. Charlie hated freeloaders, yet that was how he saw himself. He hated failure, yet he had failed to accomplish anything he had set out to do since he left home at 18. He saw being overweight as a sign of weakness, yet he was unable to keep himself as trim as he had been in the Marines. Outwardly, Charlie was diligent and conscientious, a devoted husband and a hard worker; inwardly, he seethed with self-hatred.(ââ¬ËCrime Libraryââ¬â¢) I believe that this came from a mixture of both Nature and Nurture in that his father had taught him that failure was unacceptable but it was also found that Charlie had a tumour on his brain that was the size of a peanut that was never dealt with and only found after his death that changed his cognition to make him hate himself and see himself as a failure because in reality he had not actually failed he just didnââ¬â¢t achieve grades or ranks in the marines that he felt he should have meaning that it was mainly himself believing he had not achieved enough whereas those around him actually thought he was doing well enough for himself. ââ¬Å"I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter,â⬠he wrote.ââ¬Å"Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. â⬠He went on to say he'd increasingly been a victim of ââ¬Å"many unusual and irrational thoughtsâ⬠and that his attempt to get help with his problems (the visit to Dr. Heatly) had failed. He expressed a wish that his body be autopsied after his death to see if there was a physical cause for his mental anguish. As he continued, he outlined his plan for the coming 24 hours. ââ¬Å"It was after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Kathy, tonight after I pick her up from work at the telephone company,â⬠he revealed. ââ¬Å"The prominent reason in my mind is that I truly do not consider this world worth living in, and am prepared to die,and I do not want to leave her to suffer alone in it. â⬠He continued, ââ¬Å"similar reasons provoked me to take my mother's life also. ââ¬Å"(ââ¬ËCrime Libraryââ¬â¢) This quote from Crime Library is very interesting as it suggests that Charlie himself had known that there was something wrong with the way that he was thinking and felt that there was something wrong with his brain making him think the way that he was. I believe that Charlie wanting to kill his wife and mother because he did not consider the world worth living in suggests that he is a Mission type serial killer as he wanted to kill people to remove them from a world that he didnââ¬â¢t see as being good enough for the people he killed.Later in the report it says that Charlie climbed to the top of a Texas bell tower with 4 guns where he barricaded himself and began taking shots at people below killing 17 people in total and wounding a further 35 before he was killed by police that made their way up to him and killed him with multiple shotgun shots to the head. In his suicide notes Charles had left a final request to have an autopsy done on his brain where the pecan sized tumour was found. It was found that Charles had a build up of Necrosis surrounding the area of the tumour and the neuro-scientists studying his brain believed that it may have gone from being dormant to suddenly active which may have caused him to have done what he did as his natural ways of thinking were going wrong.The nature argument is present wit h this Serial Killer but it isnââ¬â¢t solely Nature as it is near impossible to completely rule out any form of Nurture in a childââ¬â¢s upbringing but I originally felt that a combination of the two is what caused people to become serial killers in the first place so this goes very well with that opinion as I believe the combination of both his father telling him that he was a failure led him to being angered easily by those around him and may be what caused him to have the thoughts about killing people but I also believe that the tumour and his brain chemistry that changed when the Necrosis surrounding the tumour became active.It is well documented that he had thoughts about killing people long before he actually did it and it was found that the psychiatrist that was trying to help him through it ignored his sayings about killing people as nonsense even though if he was taught ways to change his cognition on this matter then it may have a actually allowed him to have a highe r level of control over the brain tumour allowing him to use techniques taught to him to stop killing those people. The psychiatrist that ignored these facts was given no punishment even though I believe it was down to him to report this to somebody as it endangered the lives of innocent people regardless of ethical issues that may become present for breaking confidentiality. The next serial killer that I found on Crime Library was Ed Gein.This man is one of the better known serial killers with lots of films being done about his life and his killings. Ed Gein was another serial killer that I looked at because I felt that he also had a mixture of both the Nature and Nurture sides of things affecting him and causing him to become what he was; A very notorious serial killer with many films based around his life. Edââ¬â¢s family appeared to be completely normal when being viewed from the outside as he had a mother, father and also an elder brother. The problems with his life from the nurture side all stemmed and revolved largely around his mother who was fanatically religious with very strict morals and taught her sons that women had ââ¬Å"Immorality and loosenessâ⬠.This constant teaching about how evil the outside world was is one thing that could have caused Ed to be the way he was as his victims were mostly women including the bones that he dug up from graves. Ed saw his mother as the ââ¬Å"epitome of goodness and followed her every orderâ⬠so much so that when she died ââ¬Å"Ed lost his only friend and his one true love ââ¬â and was absolutely alone in the worldâ⬠from Freuds work on the psychosexual stages of development I believe that Ed Gein was stuck in the Oedipus complex which caused him to be in love with his mother. I think due to the way he was brought up by his mother he was never given an opportunity to escape this complex as he was so sheltered from the outside world that it was never possible for him to form real attachmen ts with anybody else.Even when Ed went to a school it was difficult for him to hold relationships with other people of his age because he would be beaten by his mother if she ever found out so he lived in constant fear of displeasing his mother. Eds father was the complete opposite to his mother in that he was a weak man who his mother despised and was an alcoholic therefore as the two boys were growing up it was evident that they would develop a poor perception of how a male should act which I believe may have been the cause for his victims being predominantly female and why he created a suit out of womens skin because his perception had taught him that women were strong and the ââ¬Å"epitome of goodnessâ⬠whilst men were feeble and couldnââ¬â¢t support their family.Something particularly interesting about the Ed Gein case is that he had a brother that was older than him and although from the videos we have watched in class we know that the nature of a child does not prede termine them having the same personalities it is also evident from this case that siblings do not share similar personalities due to their nurture as well. It was never documented throughout his brotherââ¬â¢s life of him ever doing anything similar to that of his brother although it is not entirely possible to disprove it using this case because Edââ¬â¢s brother was mysteriously killed during a forest fire, Ed was originally suspected because he led them directly to the body which had cuts and bruises on it that were irregular for a fire death but dismissed it as Ed looked too small to kill his brother. I believe that it was Ed that killed his brother and the reasoning behind it would have been that it would allow him to have his mother to himself because his father had passed away previous to that.The reason that Ed Gein may be a combination of both Nature and Nurture is because it was thought that he was mentally retarded which from previous videos and research I have found that this decreases a personââ¬â¢s capacity for learning and a person with a standard brain can expect their brains size to grow at a rate of 1 year per year whereas a person with mental retardation can expect their brain to grow at a far slower rate so they will be unable to learn at the same rate which may have caused Ed to become frustrated and be incapable of using the same thought process as others and it was suggested that he could plead not guilty via insanity suggesting that there was indeed something wrong with his brain that came from the nature side of things. The last serial killer that I looked at was John Wayne Gacy who was born into a family where he was the second child of three with a sister that is 2 years older than him and also a sister that is 2 years younger than him. They grew up in a middle class neighbourhood where Gacy busied himself with school and part time jobs. Gacy was not unpopular in school which is something we tend to expect of most serial kille rs but he was fairly well liked by staff and pupils. At the age of 11 Gacy was hit in the head by a swing which caused a clot in his brain, and between the ages of 11 and 16 Gacy suffered a series of blackouts.At the age of 17 Gacy was diagnosed with a heart ailment hospitalizing him several times throughout his life. As Gacy aged he began having trouble with his father who was an abusive alcoholic that abused his wife and verbally abused his children. Gacy was desperate to gain his fatherââ¬â¢s devotion and attention but was unable to do so before his father died which is something that Gacy regretted for his entire life. I believe the part about having the blood clot in the brain would be considered a nature side to things but it was actually not important in him becoming a serial killer because he had medication and it was removed long before he killed anybody.Later in life Gacyââ¬â¢s health took another turn for the worse where he suffered major weight issues leading to mo re problems with his heart and also a spinal injury that would plague him for the rest of his life. Although this is the case I do not believe that it actually impacted on Gacy becoming what he did because it is usually has to be something that affects the brain and this had no effect on the way he thought and was only impacting his physical attributes. In the community that he lived he was a well-respected man who worked long shifts and volunteered for his community. This is the point when things began to turn worse for Gacy as rumours were spread about his area that his sexual preference was Men which was frowned upon at the time and he was always in the company of young boys.In 1968 the first charges were being presented to Gacy with the first being about tricking a young boy into being tied up and raping him. The fact that Gacyââ¬â¢s victims were all young men may have been something to do with the way that he was brought up aiming to impress his father as much as possible. S ince he would have been of a similar age at the time that he was working towards impressing his father then he may have held a strong feeling that other young men did not deserve the opportunity that was taken away from him at that age to impress their fathers so that he was not alone. In total Gacy killed 33 people and buried them under his house.It was found that most of these were young men that Gacy had lured into working for him and then violently sexually abusing them and also engaging in Necrophilia after killing them where he would keep the body in his bed for days after killing them. In my research on John Wayne Gacy I couldnââ¬â¢t find a definitive reason for him doing this but I believe it may have a link with the way that Gacyââ¬â¢s father treated his mother because he would regularly physically abuse her so it may have been installed into Gacyââ¬â¢s values that this was an acceptable thing because it would have been similar to that of his fatherââ¬â¢s action s that he probably wanted to replicate to the full in order to make his father proud of him. This warped perception of what his father did may have been caused by the Blood clots in his brain when he was around that age because he may have not fully understood what was happening.In summary of Gacyââ¬â¢s actions I believe that the majority of his actions came from his nurture side where his father had abused members of his family so because Gacy looked up to his father and wanted to make him proud he thought that the way to do it would be to replicate the way his father acted. In conclusion of the way serial killers are created I still firmly believe that it is caused by a combination of both Nature and Nurture. I believe that Nature gives you a capacity for learning, for sports, for other things such as the ability to become a serial killer. Whereas nurture is about releasing that potential that you have by how they have been brought up.An example of this is from the video that w e watched of Colin Jackson where he was discovering about how his genetic makeup and his nurture effected the way that he developed into an Olympic hurdler so if Colin Jackson was simply given the capacity to become an Olympic hurdler from birth and left it idly then he would not have been able to win the races that he did. It requires some input from the Nurture side in the form of training for athletes. So this can be directly applied to the way serial killers are created because I believe there is something in their genetics that gives them a potential to become a serial killer such as a short temper or an inability to think clearly and then this can either be left as simply a potential that is never unleashed in the form of them becoming serial killers.So that means that there has to be something in the nurture side of things that has made them act the way that they have such as some of the theories that we have learnt about in psychology like Social Learning Theory, Maternal De privation etc. which means that a person may have learnt from their parents in the cases of John Wayne Gacy for example that beating women was an acceptable thing to do because that is what his father did when he was a child. The capacity for learning to become something could actually be something very common if Iââ¬â¢m correct in my explanation meaning that people around you could actually have the potential to become a serial killer because of the way their bio-chemistry is making them have a short temper or hear voices in their head for example. But I believe that becausepeople are generally subjected to a higher standard of parenting nowadays that serial killers are becoming rarer in western civilizations where it has become necessary to be a good parent otherwise social services will intervene meaning that someone with the potential to become a serial killer does not get that potential unlocked as they have been brought up in a home that will allow them to properly deal wit h their problems and learn how to react when confronted with them. Another thing that I believe has helped to reduce the number of recent serial killers is the fact that psychological treatment is more advanced these days meaning that even if a personââ¬â¢s cognition does tell them to kill people, or they hear voices within their heads telling them to kill a person then they can be treated to find ways around this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)