Definition of Groupthink. Retrieved from Essay Example for Free

Definition of Groupthink. Retrieved from Essay I have always had a different idea of what groupthink really means, to me I thought of it as a bad idea from someone amongst a group of people that had not been voiced seemingly because the person having this thought lacks confidence or backing. More like trying to proof to your business partners that an idea of using an outdated tactic to target a young crowd is not the best idea In its own definition Wikipedia(2013) describes groupthink as a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision- making outcome, whereas it can also be viewed as the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility. All different versions of what it is but also giving a detailed well round idea and description. Good examples of groupthink situations as studied by Janis in the book â€Å"fiascoes† are such as the United States government failure to anticipate the Pearl Harbor attacks, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the escalation of Vietnam War, and the ill-fated hostage rescue in Iran (Janis,1972) Some recent past examples of groupthink would be in the hastened decision making of the Bush administration and Congress to pursue an invasion of Iraq based on a policy of â€Å"preemptive use of military force against terrorists and rogue nations.† It is definitely an undeniable fact that groupthink has been a large part of decision making in the United States government for a long time. As we speak, arguably the best current example of groupthink that the American government is facing is the Obama Care. This is so because some might see it as a majority of democrat leaders refusing to see or identify with different ideas that are outside theirs, thus leading to what psychologist consider as a mental deficiency commonly known as groupthink. â€Å"Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups† (Janis, 1972). I found it rather interesting reading the article by the net advisor to bring out reasons as to why the Obama care was created under the influence of groupthink. The net advisor article reads â€Å"the patient protection and affordable care act or â€Å"Obama Care† was passed by majority of the then Democratic House. The house leadership under Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to allow the US senate of any party to even consider debating, let alone voting on Obama care. The house by passed the entire U.S. senate by using a controversial self-executing rule or â€Å"deem and pass† procedure then quickly sent it to president Obama to sign†(Net advisor). This brings out the question, what if the Democratic Party had not made such an irrational decision to pass the Obama Care, would it have made any difference in the case of the government shutdown. Since the main reason that led to most of the republican members to oppose raising the debt ceiling that would have prevented the government from shutting down was primarily a disagreement in the Obama care. This is arguable in both sides since the republican party might also have made a groupthink decision to prevent the Obama care under any circumstances, leading to a government shutdown that has dented the government debt even more, ironically an issue that they (republican party) are trying to avoid with the Obama care. The united states is established in two well defined parties and many are the times that the conflicting views from each party, makes it harder to make any decisions or view the others opinion. Hopefully in the future the decisions from our leaders can be viewed in a more universal dimension, thus the administrators of our president can challenge each other to eliminate groupthink. References Janis, I (1972, Victims of groupthink (1st edition ed) retrieved from http:// leadership theory 3450.blogspot.com Obama care is an example of Groupthink gone wrong. Retrieved from http://netadvisor.org/2013/09/26. Definition of Groupthink. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

Death Essay -- Psychology, Anxiety

Death is an inescapable event in human life. Human beings, to a certain extent, are afraid of the unpredictable and inevitable death issues and deadly threats. Reason behind the anxiety is due to the difficulty to find a definitive answer of a question on life and death (Becker, 1973). We aware their ultimate fate of nonexistence and deaths often occurs uncontrollably. In order to explain the death anxiety, terror management theory (TMT) was developed to help to answer the human’s psychological reaction on the existential terror of mortality issue (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; Pyszczynski, Greenberg & Solomon, 1999). According to TMT, self-esteem is a defensive motivation in tackling the everyday life threats. It is a subjective concept that individual is being a valuable part in the world. Human animals obtain self-esteem mainly from their individual belief on cultural worldview – symbolic perception on the society shared by groups of people (Greenberg & Solomon, 1999). Individuals believed that their own set of cultural worldview is the only true value in the society. They feel that they are the valuable units engaging in the culture worldview and hence the perceptual construction maintains self-esteem of one self as well as providing defensive function to the death anxiety. Since self-esteem is derived from a strong perception on conceptual belief, it is able to serve as a psychological buffer that protects people against the awareness and negative feelings towards death (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1995). It is strong enough to shield people’s anxiety from death reminder s (i.e. mortality salience). When there is mortality salience, people enhance their self-esteem as a defensive reaction against the death... ...l to restore the emotion stability (Taubman et al., 2002). Secure attachment behaviour of relationship partners served as distress-regulation function to deal with anxieties encounter in the environment. It is asserted that the role of self-esteem in TMT and the role of secure attachment on proximity maintenance share the function of minimizing anxiety. The mechanism of distress regulation on securely attached behavior is able to generalize the fear of death (Mikulincer, Florian, & Tolmacz, 1990). Similar to the notion suggested by TMT, individuals required higher self-esteem to defend against death anxiety. Also, people with higher self-esteem elicit less death anxiety than the one with lower self-esteem since the positive self-evaluation provides an emotional buffer to minimize the anxiety. Secure attachment behaviour is also the buffer to negative emotions.

How to Find an Earth Fault on Board Ships? Essay

Earth fault is considered very critical on board a ship. Some ships which operate at 440 V do not have any trip devices attached for a single earth fault. However when the operating voltage exceeds 3000V, it is mandatory to have a protection system which isolates when a machinery suffers an earth fault. How to find out an Earth Fault? The seriousness of the action to be taken on an Earth Fault depends on the part of the electrical system it affects. Conventional ships which operate on 3 Phase, 440V, have earth fault indicators installed on all three phases. Any earth fault on a 440V system is considered to be a serious trouble and immediate action is required to identify the faulty circuit. Any earth fault on 220V or any low voltage lighting circuit can be considered as important but need not require immediate attention. However, attention should be paid at the next earliest opportunity. Finding Earth Fault on 440V circuit Whenever there is an earth fault alarm, immediately inform to electrical officer (if he is on board). First action is to check the trueness of the alarm. Usually there will be a test button which when pressed, resets the alarm and rechecks the condition of the earth fault. If the ship is having IAS (Integrated Automation System), check on the computer in the list of events after which the alarm has activated. If IAS facility is not available, there is only one option of isolating each and every machinery in the 440 V circuit and check whether the earth fault indication returns back to normal. Isolation of all machinery, which operates on 440V, is not always possible. Certain critical equipment like steering gear and lubricating oil pumps cannot be isolated for when the ship is underway. However changeover can be done from running machinery to the standby one and thus the earth fault can be found. Finding Earth Fault on 220V Circuit Finding an Earth Fault on a 220V circuit is comparatively difficult than a 440V circuit. The main reason being the lighting circuits found all round the vessel. However, any earth fault alarm with respect to a 220V circuit is usually treated as important but not an emergency. When a 220V earth fault alarm sounds, as said earlier, the trueness of the alarm is checked by pressing the test button and then investigation can be started on each and every 220V circuit. Example: Earth Fault alarm sounds on a 220V panel 1. Check the trueness of the alarm. 2. Isolate the complete Group start panel for a lighting division one by one. 3. Check the Earth Fault indicator for status (still faulty or normal). 4. If faulty, then put on the breaker which is put off earlier and isolate other group start panel for lighting circuit. 5. Once the group start panel is identified, then individual lighting switches are turned off one by one and checked for the alarm condition. 6. When any switch when turned off and thus the condition becomes normal, then this lighting circuit is marked and then inspection is done on the particular light for abnormalities. Ingress of moisture is most common reason for an earth fault. Alternate Idea: Instead of turning off breakers one by one for the lighting circuit, I followed a method where I turned off all lighting circuit of a particular doubted area. This method helps usually when there are two or more earth faults in 220V lighting circuit. By turning off all the breakers of a particular area, then switching on the breaker one by one will eliminate multiple earth faults. When I turned off lighting switches one by one, it was difficult for me to identify multiple earth faults. Once the particular faulty circuit is spotted, then we have to further break them into individual dividable pieces and check them for earth faults. For this as usual, we use megger against earth. By removing fuse of the two phase lines, each line can be tested and the fault pinned down

Introduction to Studying French Verbs

Most French students are impressed with French verbs. So let’s talk about them, and the terms used to explain how we should  conjugate French verbs. What is the  Verb? A verb indicates an action. It can be physical (to walk, to run, to go), mental (to think, to laugh)  or a condition or a state (to be, to have). A verb is conjugated to agree with (to match) its subject: He does, she has, they were, as opposed to the incorrect he do, she have, they be. What is Person in Grammar? In grammar, person refers to the different pronouns used to conjugate a verb: I, you, he, she, it, we, they. Read more on French  subject pronouns to understand  this concept better. What is Agreement? In French, some words are said to â€Å"agree† with each other. Its the same in English; you add an â€Å"s† to the end of the verb for he / she/ it, as in: She singS. In French, it gets a little more complicated. In French, you have to change some words or parts of words (like the endings of verbs) to match other words related them.  Ã‚   What or Who is the  Subject?   The subject is the person or thing that does the action of the verb.   There is an easy way to find the subject of a sentence. First, find the verb. Then ask: â€Å"who verb† or â€Å"what verb.† The answer to that question will be your subject. A subject is a noun (Camille, flower, room) or a pronoun (I, you, they). A noun can be a person, thing, place or idea. Examples:  I paint.Who paints?Answer: I paint. â€Å"I† is the subject. Camille is teaching French.Who is teaching?Answer:  Camille is teaching.â€Å"Camille† is the subject.   What is happening to Camille?What’s happening?Answer:  What is happening.â€Å"What† is the subject (This one was trickier, wasn’t it?)   What is a Conjugation? Conjugation is the way a subject changes a verb so they agree (match). In English, the conjugation of verbs is quite simple. The verbs don’t change much: I, you, we, they speak; he, she, it  speakS. An exception: the verb to be (I am, you are, he is). It is not this way in French, where the verb form changes with almost every different person. Some verbs are called â€Å"regular† because they follow a predictable conjugation pattern, such as adding an â€Å"s† to the 3rd person singular, as in English). Some are called â€Å"irregular† because their conjugation pattern is not predictable, like the verb â€Å"to be† in English. The way French verbs are written and their pronunciation  are also very different, this is why I highly recommend you train with audio drills when learning French verbs. What is the Infinitive? The infinitive is the form of the verb before it is conjugated. It’s the verb name, for example, â€Å"to speak.† In English, the infinitive is usually preceded by â€Å"to† as in â€Å"to study,† but its not always this way, for example: â€Å"can.†) In French, there is no â€Å"to† before the verb. The infinitive form is one word, and the last two or three letters of the infinitive will identify the type of conjugation pattern it follows, if the verb is regular. These letters are  usually -er, -ir or -re.   What is a Tense? A tense indicates when the action of the verb is taking place: now, in the past, in the future. A simple tense consists of only one verb form (â€Å"I speak†).A compound tense consists of one or more verbs, including an auxiliary verb a main verb (â€Å"I am speaking,† â€Å"I have been thinking†). What is Mood? The mood indicates how the verb relates to the subject: Is the action a statement of fact (indicative mood) or something else like a command (imperative mood) or a wish (subjunctive mood). This will affect the conjugation of the verb. and, likewise, the conjugation will communicate the mood.    Whats the Best Way to Learn French Verb Conjugations? Learning French verbs is a long process, and you shouldnt learn everything at once. Start by learning useful conjugations in the present indicative of the most common irregular and regular French verbs. Make sure you get the pronunciation right. French is full of liaisons, elisions and glidings, and it is not pronounced as it is written.   If you are serious about learning French, start with a good French audio method. Read about how to select the right tools to self-study  French. Your next step: Learning about French Subject Pronouns.