Developmental Psychology: Research Methods

Developmental Psychology: Research Methods BOTTE Christopher Louis Cellio Outline and evaluate the research methods employed by developmental psychologists. Developmental psychology is defined by Muir Slater(2003) as the discipline that attempts to describe and explain the changes that occur over time in thoughts, behavior, reasoning and functioning of an individual due to biological, individual and environmental influences. Any developmental psychologist, in its way to try to describe and explain the changes in an individual over time, need to find out what research design combined with research method will be best to gather information to be able to effectively carry its research. In the following paragraphs I will start by explaining the different research methods that are currently used by developmental psychologist. Lastly I will take some question asked by some psychologist from past studies that have been made and try to evaluate the research methods used in it. Research methods can be broken into two parts: qualitative research method and quantitative research method. The distinction between those two types of research methodologies is that qualitative methods are essentially used for exploratory researches, using unstructured or semi-structured techniques such as naturalistic observation and clinical interviews. Exploratory research, defined by Wikipedia is, â€Å"research conducted for a problem that has not been clearly defined.† The quantitative methods are used to quantify the gathered information by generating numeral data so that the data can be statistically used for description and interpretation of information from a large population. Structured observation, structured interviews and tests are some examples of quantitative research methods. As said in the preceding paragraphs, there are different types of research methods. Let us now outline and evaluate the different research methods by using past psychological studies so that we can see those research methods in a real context. Descriptive Methods It is in the human nature to observe others and to draw conclusion about their behaviour. We have to admit that we often judge people by their body language. In fact, scientist like psychologist also draw conclusion from people behaviours by observing them. There is a lot to learn just by observing people. The difference between a simple individual’s observation of an event and the observation of a psychologist is that, the scientific observation is done under precisely defined conditions, it is done systematically and objectively. In addition, the event they are observing is carefully recorded. As it is very difficult to study all behaviours and large population at a time, a representative sample of behaviour should be chosen accordingly to the study they are carrying. The sample should be as good as possible for the external validity of the study. External validity means the extent to which the findings from the observations can be generalized. Other than a good representative sample, psychologist have to choose a good time sampling as it enable psychologist to be exposed to the behaviour of interest at different period of the day. For instance, while observing a group of workers to assess their stress level (in work place), they should be observed for the whole day in order to generalize their findings. They cannot be observed only in the morning, where they are still fresh. Instead, they should be observed at different periods of the day or of the week, where under pressure of work, they express different behaviours. Another important factor to make a good observation is situation sampling. Situation sampling is choosing another sample, in another place and under different conditions and circumstances. Situation sampling enhances the external validity of the research findings. There are two distinct types of observation. One is naturalistic or direct observation. It can be both qualitative and quantitative research method. In this type of observation, the researcher is on field, observes and records (written) its subjects in their natural setting. The strength of this method is that, when observing on field the researcher can see the everyday behavior that the subjects expresses. The subject’s behaviours are not biased by the fact that they are being observed by the researcher because they do not know that they are being observed. The drawback is that the researcher is not in control of the situation, therefore he may fail to see the behaviour he is interested in. Also naturalistic observation is often time consuming. Example of naturalistic observation are work of (Farver Branstetter, 1994) in which they observed preschooler prosocial response to their peers’ distress. Another example is the study of (Matsumoto Willingham, 2006) where the observed athletes in their natural setting of an olympic judo competition. The second type of observation also can be both quantitative and qualitative research method. It is the structured observation. This kind of observation is done in laboratory setting, where the researcher reproduce as much as possible real life setting in order to facilitate the occurrence of the behaviour of interest. The laboratory is also set in a way in which every participants can equally display this desired behaviour. The advantages of this research method is that the experimenter can control the laboratory experiment to get the desirable behaviour from the subjects. The drawback is that, very often the subjects will show an admirable and unnatural behavior to impress the researcher because they know that they are being studied. Garner (2003) set a laboratory observation to study the emotional reactions, to harm that two-year-old children thought they had caused. Self-Reports There are three common types of self-report procedures that developmental researcher uses to ask research participants to give information on their perception, thought, abilities, feeling, attitudes and past experiences. These types of self-report methods can be relatively unstructured interviews such as clinical interviews to highly structured interviews and questionnaires. Clinical interview is a type of self-report method. The researcher, which is also the interviewer and the research participant engage in a conversation for a given period of time where the participant give his point of view of the subject in discussion. The advantages of this method is that the researcher can see the way the participant expresses its thought in its everyday life and also a lot of information can be gathered in a session. The disadvantages is that the participant can distort the way the use to think just to please the interviewer. Also when participants are asked questions about past events in their life, they do not remember things. In addition, as the clinical interview is based on conversation, one of the major problem that occurs is the fact that very often the participants has difficulty to put their thoughts into word. An example of clinical interview is the interview of Piaget to a 5-year-old child about dreams. (Piaget, 192611930, pp. 97-98) Structured interview can be both qualitative and quantitative research method in which each and every participants are ask the same set of question. It allows psychologist to gain time during the session as the questions are already prepared in advance. In this methods the psychologist has to prepare an interview schedule and has to stick to this schedule even if the participant is deviating from the focus of the interview. The questions set in the structured interview can be either open-ended or close-ended. The advantage is that this method is not time consuming as the questions are already pre-set but its drawback is that the answers that will result from the participants may still be affected by miscommunication of thought. Structured interview does not provide information in detail as clinical interview does. Questionnaires is a research method where a series of questions are asked for the purpose of obtaining information from respondent. It is considered as a written interview. Again, in this type of self-report interview the questions is set the same way for each participants/respondent. The outcome of this type of research may be very useful in statistical comparison. Questionnaire can be used for large populations at low cost and sometime this method can be quick if the questions asked are close ended. The limitations of this method is that it show little details about the respondents. Also, respondents may not be true in the expression of the feelings and thoughts even though questionnaires are confidential. Clinical or Case Study Method Case study method can provide a full range information on a subject. It is often used to study specific and interesting rare phenomena such as the case of Henry Gustav Molaison (Wikipedia 2015) who was an American memory disorder patient. This method analyses every event in the life the subject so as to give cues about how and why a subject is behaving like it is. Do women have better memories than men? Research suggest that women are better than men when there is a verbal material to remember. For example a list of words. Galea and Kimura (1993) did a laboratory experiment to test the hypothesis that woman have better memory than men. They tried to make an experiment to find if women were also better than men for remembering visual material. They showed the participants, women and men a series of simple and familiar images such as car, table and pen to remember. After that they had to recognise the remembered images in a second series of images. After the experiment, the results were in the advantage of the women. Indeed women remembered more images than men. But is this result true? It is not simple as that to interpret the results directly as they did. It is possible that the women encoded the simple images into simple words so that they were more likely to remember after. This experiment is not valid if the women stored the images as words. The experiment does not show that wome n are better than men in memorising simple images. Therefore we conclude that experiment should be done using specific methods. Do children think an object that is out of sight is out of mind? Jean Piaget is the pioneer of cognitive development in children. He started by observing children’s behaviours and study their responses to his questions. He therefore, develop his theoretical framework to show that every children pass through a series of cognitive stages. In each different stages, a new cognitive ability were acquired. One important milestone in his theory is the object permanence. Object permanence means knowing that when an object is out of sight does not mean out of existence. In the first stage of his theory, the sensorimotor stage starts from birth to the age of two. This stage is said to be the object concept. When doing the search A not B error test, children age around five months cease to search for an interesting object when the experimenter hid it. Piaget concluded that for the children the object has ceased to exist. For older children aged around nine months, they did search for the hidden object but made errors which he called place error, or AB error. The experiment procedure was like that, there were two cloth in front of the children. Let us name it cloth A and cloth B. The interesting object was shown to the child, then place under cloth A. The child successfully retrieved it. Just after the child has retrieved the object, the experimenter places the object under under cloth A and the child was able to retrieve the object again. Now the experimenter places the object under cloth B and this time the child ceases to search for the object. Piaget says that the 5 months old children cease to search because they lack cognitive abilities and they believe that when object disappears, it is just vanished and non-existent anymore. For the nine months old children, Piaget would argue that they have a better understanding of the world but the subjective, egocentrism perspective of the child dominates. How far can we rely on these observation made by Piaget? What are possible alternative explanation of such behaviour? Do children of five months really think that object cease to exist when they are out of their sight? A possible alternative explanation could be that five months children could not retrieve the object under the cloth because they lack motor skills to do it. They simply cannot hold themselves, they cannot bend forward and lift the cloth. If the reason that they do not search for the object when hidden is due to the lack of motor skills, then their cognition abilities has nothing to do with this experiment. Bower and Wishart (1982) did a laboratory experiment to test that 1 to 4 months children did not have object permanence. They tested if the heart rate of the children would rise when they saw an object disappear and then come back again. They hypotheses that if children age from 1 to 4 month did not have object permanence they would not react to the object when its reappears and their heart rate would not change. The result was that when the hidden object reappeared their heart rate did not rose. Therefore Bowen and Wishart concluded that the child had an expectation that the objec t was still there and did not disappeared. However, the moment when the object disappeared their heart rate rose showing their concern about the disappearance of the object. They have an understanding that the object is hidden by an obstacle (the cloth) but it is still there and eventually continues to exist. We have seen from the examples that one methods cannot fully explain some behaviours. Sometimes researcher should use different methods to get out the best from research. Criticism and critical evaluation of their methods and results help in getting reliable and valid research pieces. To conclude, the different methods works for specific event and time. The developmental psychologist should be careful when choosing their research method and designs. The psychologist in their way to describe and explain behaviour should ask themselves a good research question to correctly theorise their ideas and also they should take care of all variables that can interfere with their results. After the handling of those enumerated conditions, then their research results can be accepted and generalized. Reference list: Bower, T., Wishart, J. (1972). The effects of motor skill on object permanence.Cognition,1(2-3), 165-172. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(72)90017-0 Farver, J. M., Branstetter, W. H. (1994). Preschooler prosocial response to their peers distress.Developmental Psychology, 30,334-341. Galea, L., Kimura, D. (1993). Sex differences in route-learning.Personality And Individual Differences,14(1), 53-65. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(93)90174-2 Garner, P. (2003). Child and family correlates of toddlers emotional and behavioral responses to a mishap.Infant Mental Health Journal,24(6), 580-596. doi:10.1002/imhj.10076 Matsumoto, D., Willingham, B. (2006). The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat: Spontaneous expressions of medal winners of the 2004 Athens Olympic games.Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology,91(3), 568-581. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.3.568 Slater, A., Bremner, J. (2003).Introduction to developmental psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. Wikipedia,. (2015).Henry Molaison. Retrieved 8 February 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison 1

Bachs Art of the Fugue :: Art of the Fugue Essays

The silence hangs heavily in the air, creating a single moment where one can feel the weight of the absence of sound. But a lone D cuts through the stillness, a flicker of light amidst black oblivion. It is followed by eleven other notes, a simple melody, but one that will be the very core of one of the greatest musical masterpieces to ever be conceived. This twelve-note melody becomes entwined and enveloped in an intricate accretion of variations, counterpoints, and modified themes, all based on the original twelve-note motif. The entire collection of variations comprises what is considered to be Bach’s most ambitious undertaking, the Art of the Fugue, meant to serve as an intensive study of the fugue as an entity. Already a complex and multifaceted piece, Art of the Fugue gains a whole new level of depth and significance when placed inside its historical context, amidst the story of its creation and the demise of its creator. During the two hundred and fift y years of its existence, Art of the Fugue has acquired quite the reputation, as it has become enshrouded in a web of mystery and mystique. However, when we strip away these layers, the piece retains its magnitude, as the sheer mastery of the piece is enough to merit substantial renown and reverence. In the early 1740’s, Bach began work on what many consider to be his most monumental project ever, Art of the Fugue. Bach intended this piece to be an extensive study of â€Å"the art of fugal counterpoint,† exploring the possibilities and various outcomes that can be produced by manipulating a single theme (â€Å"The Art of the Fugue†). Bach was not commissioned to compose this piece, nor was the idea inspired or suggested to him by anyone else; in creating Art of the Fugue, Bach was â€Å"alone in his genius† (Herz, 4-5). The result of Bach’s endeavors was a collection of eighteen fugues, all in the same key, and all based on the same principle theme. This principle theme was modified and transformed into an astonishing number of over twenty different major variations and one hundred minor variations (â€Å"The Art of the Fugue†).

Coral reefs

The Blue Plan et on coral reefs. Coral reefs are specialist species because they can only develop in shallow war m tropical water. Corals develop in shallow water because they depend on algae for oxygen an d algae requires direct sunlight. Because Coral reefs are specialist species, spacing is very II emitted and can be very competitive. Coral reefs biological community carries both introspecting c intention ND interspecies competition.Coral reefs are born from a single larvae and from a so Ft base they begin to harden. After a coral Is fully formed, they can expand 1 5 centimeters a year and a single coral species can expand for miles. Once a coral reef Is established It attracts multiple e species which depend on the coral reef to survive. Some species live within the coral reef, so me use the coral reefs as a home, some use the coral reefs as protection, and others either feed off the reefs algae. Without coral reefs many of these species would not exist, which Is why coral r fees playa very Important role.To start off before I watched the film, I was not aware that coral reefs were animals. I was always under the Impression that they were Just plants. They way they fed at nigh HTH for plantation Is also very Interesting. They way corals compete for space Is crazy. When a coral species gets too close to another species the aggressor on the right will eat Its rival al Eve. I was also very amazed at how much they provide for the environment and what they do to her species. In conclusion, I was fascinated with the film on coral reefs and enjoyed It. Coral reefs The Blue Plan et on coral reefs. Coral reefs are specialist species because they can only develop in shallow war m tropical water. Corals develop in shallow water because they depend on algae for oxygen an d algae requires direct sunlight. Because Coral reefs are specialist species, spacing is very II emitted and can be very competitive. Coral reefs biological community carries both introspecting c intention ND interspecies competition.Coral reefs are born from a single larvae and from a so Ft base they begin to harden. After a coral Is fully formed, they can expand 1 5 centimeters a year and a single coral species can expand for miles. Once a coral reef Is established It attracts multiple e species which depend on the coral reef to survive. Some species live within the coral reef, so me use the coral reefs as a home, some use the coral reefs as protection, and others either feed off the reefs algae. Without coral reefs many of these species would not exist, which Is why coral r fees playa very Important role.To start off before I watched the film, I was not aware that coral reefs were animals. I was always under the Impression that they were Just plants. They way they fed at nigh HTH for plantation Is also very Interesting. They way corals compete for space Is crazy. When a coral species gets too close to another species the aggressor on the right will eat Its rival al Eve. I was also very amazed at how much they provide for the environment and what they do to her species. In conclusion, I was fascinated with the film on coral reefs and enjoyed It.

Free Essays on Weblogs And Emergent Democracy

Introduction Ten years ago, if someone told you that in 10 years there would be just shy of a billion Internet users, more than 100 billion Web pages, and trillions of dollars of commerce based on a globally connected network, you might have thought the person insane. It was difficult to imagine then, as it is difficult to imagine now. Internet is developing at an escape speed, millions of thousands of virtual communities such as online games, weblogs, social networks, mailing lists, Instant messaging, regular IRC channels, etc, established .Among them, weblog boosts in recent years. Replacing the high-cost, venture-funded Web site with one that is intensely personal and built around the connectivity between people and ideas, weblogs play more and more important role in today’s society. It's no accident that weblogs are increasingly turning up as the top hits on search engines, since they trade in the same currency as the best search engineshuman intelligence, as reflected in who's already paying attention to what. As Joi said developers and proponents of the Internet have hoped to evolve the network as a platform for intelligent solutions which can help correct the imbalances and inequalities of the world. however, the Internet of today is a noisy environment with a great deal of power consolidation instead of the level, balanced democratic Internet. In 1993 Howard Rheingold wrote[2], We temporarily have access to a tool that could bring conviviality and understanding into our lives and might help revitalize the public sphere. The same tool, improperly controlled and wielded, could become an instrument of tyranny. The vision of a citizen-designed, citizen-controlled worldwide communications network is a version of technological utopianism that could be called the vision of "the electronic agora." In the original democracy, Athens, the agora was the marketplace, and moreit was where citizens met to talk, gossi... Free Essays on Weblogs And Emergent Democracy Free Essays on Weblogs And Emergent Democracy Introduction Ten years ago, if someone told you that in 10 years there would be just shy of a billion Internet users, more than 100 billion Web pages, and trillions of dollars of commerce based on a globally connected network, you might have thought the person insane. It was difficult to imagine then, as it is difficult to imagine now. Internet is developing at an escape speed, millions of thousands of virtual communities such as online games, weblogs, social networks, mailing lists, Instant messaging, regular IRC channels, etc, established .Among them, weblog boosts in recent years. Replacing the high-cost, venture-funded Web site with one that is intensely personal and built around the connectivity between people and ideas, weblogs play more and more important role in today’s society. It's no accident that weblogs are increasingly turning up as the top hits on search engines, since they trade in the same currency as the best search engineshuman intelligence, as reflected in who's already paying attention to what. As Joi said developers and proponents of the Internet have hoped to evolve the network as a platform for intelligent solutions which can help correct the imbalances and inequalities of the world. however, the Internet of today is a noisy environment with a great deal of power consolidation instead of the level, balanced democratic Internet. In 1993 Howard Rheingold wrote[2], We temporarily have access to a tool that could bring conviviality and understanding into our lives and might help revitalize the public sphere. The same tool, improperly controlled and wielded, could become an instrument of tyranny. The vision of a citizen-designed, citizen-controlled worldwide communications network is a version of technological utopianism that could be called the vision of "the electronic agora." In the original democracy, Athens, the agora was the marketplace, and moreit was where citizens met to talk, gossi...

How Globalization Has Affected Americans

How Globalization Has Affected Americans Globalization can be defined as increased unification of economic order at the international level through reduction of the several of blockades to international trade such as exportation cost, import rations and levy. Globalization is mainly intended at to raising goods, services and material wealth through division of labour in the world.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on How Globalization Has Affected Americans specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The attainment of this important component of trade is accelerated by specialization, good international relations and competition. Globalization generally describes the procedure by which local society’s customs and economies amalgamate through trade, communication and transportation. Globalization can be determined by a mishmash of political, technological, economic, biological and socio-cultural factors. It entails multinational exchange of ideas, trendy cultures and languages through assimilation. Factors that led to globalization include increased mass movement and migration, technologies in transportation, increased economic movement, combinations of industries and international concords.A world or state that has undergone the process can be alleged to have been globalized. Globalization has greatly impacted the world today, its effect can be felt everywhere in politics, economics, finance, language, ecology, culture, religion, technology, industry and information. Contemporary Globalization Contemporary analysts correlate globalization with deterritorialization. This is whereby social activities continue to grow irrespective of geographical position of the participants. To draw this conclusion, these analysts used computers and other telecommunication technologies and examined global events. These kinds of events occur almost everywhere and anywhere in the world. They therefore defined contemporary globalization as increased possible action s among people living in different longitudinal and latitudinal location. The distance does not affect social activities that take place in the location.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Deterritorialization exists or manifests itself in businesses that people do in different continents with the help of electronic commerce. For example, television enables people in different parts of the world to observe how terrible wars waged far away from their homes impact the world. Moreover increased technology inventions enable people to hold seminars by use of video conferencing apparatus whereby those involved are located in different geographical positions. The internet also enables people to instantaneously communicate with each other despite the long distance that separates the two. By examining the current interconnectedness of social growth which has surpassed the poli tical and geographical limits recent theorists have able been to put globalization into a clear perspective. According to their views, globalization majorly concerns the way in which distant forces and events impact regional and local endeavours (Vallas, Finlay Wharton, 188). An encyclopaedia is an example of detteritorialized social space given that it permits exchange of ideas. The book can be used by other students in different geographical areas to access the same knowledge and ideas in a particular topic. Therefore, contemporary globalization can be defined as processes which have an impact on life in local institution as a result of environmental events and decisions. This means that any social activity can influence more or less events in different geographical location. The impact and the degree of activities taking place may also vary; environmental events can either have a huge impact or less impact on different events in particular areas. This means that the degree of in terconnectedness across different frontiers can be easily predicted and regulated (Vallas, Finlay, Wharton, 190). Contemporary globalization involves social acceleration. Interconnectedness and deterritorialization is directly tied to social acceleration. For social activities in different areas to develop and reach other frontiers, the ideas must move swiftly.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on How Globalization Has Affected Americans specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This will also be aided by the flow of information, capital and goods and migration of people. Without swift flow, it will be difficult to view how people are influenced by different distant affairs. High-speed technology has greatly contributed in increasing the velocity of different human events and affairs. This means that globalization is mainly a matter of extent. Most analysts conceive globalization as a long term process. This is because it is com posed of present history and present world. Globalization has led to innovations in information technology, communication and transportation. Many problems experienced in globalization are directly associated with the surfacing of technologies that are of high-speed. They lessen the magnitude of distance and boost social interconnectedness and deterritorialization. Lastly, contemporary globalization can be conceived also as a multi-pronged process. This is because social interconnectedness, social acceleration and deterritorialization can be visualized through diverse economical, cultural and political grounds of social actions. How Globalization has affected Americans Many Americans feel that globalization has both positive and negative impacts on them. Even majority of Americans view globalization as a result of positive economy, they are less positive when it comes to American jobs, business environment and living standards in general. Americans began feeling the pain of globaliz ation as early as 1980. Many people lost their jobs when most companies decided to outsource to other foreign countries. This is why most American families and communities do not embrace global market. They see it as a threat to their lives. Many American workers were greatly hit when American steel industry went global. All the steel mills in small towns were shut done which destroyed both the American economy and the living standards of those living in the regions (Vallas, Finlay, Wharton, 198). This shows that there is no benefit felt by the Americans when many companies decide to go global. Most Americans believe that outsourcing is a way in which corporations take advantage of under developed countries and the people living in the regions in order to gain profit. Most of these under developed countries greatly depend on American market. However the American economy is now under a great risk of collapse due to globalization. This is because America has lost its manufacturers to the global world and in case of economic crisis; the country will have nothing to rely on.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Without manufacturers, America is not capable of producing goods hence American workers lose their jobs due shutdown of these manufacturing companies. Moreover globalization has a negative impact on United State’s wages for workers. This is due to job losses in the country which lead to trade deficits in most goods and services. Globalization leads to shifting of jobs which induce negative effects on trade and on average wages of the American workers. This is because importation of goods reduces jobs and it requires less education to do export. This cannot be compared to exports which increase job opportunities for the Americans and also requires high education for one to be employed. Moreover globalization leads to foreign investment which negatively affects the average wages of workers in America and American families at large. Foreign investment deteriorates the supremacy of United States workers which lowers the price of the wages they are being paid as they are considere d worthless. High level of education and highly skilled labour are required to carry out foreign investment. More workforces are directed towards foreign affiliates leaving United States with fewer jobs making more people jobless. Globalization also impacts government policies which in-turn affects United States families and communities. The government of America was forced to adopt economic policies that are contractionary to protect its global capital market. (Vallas, Finlay Wharton, 200). The government cannot inflict corporate taxes because it wants to preserve competition and inflate investments in commerce. The government is forced to decrease the amount spent on social welfare due to limitations of taxation and spending leading to poor welfare benefits to many families. Global market pressure can also force the government to control United State’s products and labour bazaar leading to job cuts and consequently poor living standards. However, globalization can have som e positive impacts in America to some extent. McKinsey which is a global institute believes that globalization has positive impacts on the lives of Americans. Globalization renders United States industries to high competition in the global world which promote productivity. Many countries believe that United States products are of high quality. They therefore purchase those products through online trading especially those who cannot reach the shops in America due to long distance. This increases sales for American companies and hence more employment opportunities for many Americans. Moreover many American families and communities gain by getting high quality goods and services. In conclusion, globalization has positively and negatively affected Americans. Many American workers have lost their jobs and have experienced a reduction in wages. However many jobs have also been created in the process in other sectors of the economy. The government has come up with policies aimed at protect ing the Americans from the effects of globalization at the same time promoting it. Vallas, Steven, Finlay, William, Wharton Amy. Sociology of work: Structures and Inequalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Discussion Topics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 9

Discussion Topics - Essay Example If not, there will be a total disaster. For instance, last summer, I volunteered in a health organization. Things there were not smooth because of the lack of communication between the manager and supervisor. The power games in the sector, according to Metoyer (2009), are based on resource and technical skill. The political roles displayed by Metoyer (2009) are sub-divided into three parts; firstly, decisional, which relies heavily on information; secondly, interpersonal, which ensures that information is well conveyed and; lastly, informational, which is the back-bone of all these roles and managerial tasks. All these need to be harmonized in the best way possible to have an effective team and ensure no conflicts occur (Johnson, 2008). In case of a conflict, it needs to be effectively resolved to avoid future reoccurrences. Conflicts are solved depending on the nature of the problem (Metoyer, 2009). The manager plays an important role to harmonize the two parties in conflict. A good manager resolves conflicts when perceived in the early stages to avoid the situation to escalate further (Johnson, 2008). The manager should resolve the conflict, appoint a unit to address employee issues and develop a system of encouragement by offering rewards to individuals who do an outstanding job. This, in turn, will initiate team building, as well as create healthy competition among the

Transitioning From Closed to Open Systems Research Paper

Transitioning From Closed to Open Systems - Research Paper Example Apparently, the nursing sector has an open and closed system of solving problems. In the open system a nursing facility is at freewill to look for external help from other facilities and organizations. However, closed system perspectives state that a facility will only seek solutions from the internal environment. The latter limits the number of solutions to the existing problems. In recent times, many health facilities have experienced a shortage in the number of nurses that should attend to patients. Nurses are considered vital in ensuring all the patients are recuperating at a desirable rate. This is owing to the basic services that are offered by the nurses which include exercises, administering drugs, feeding and cleaning of patients. Without adequacy in such services patients will not recover in good time. Therefore, shortage of nurses in the nursing sector is a blow as the patients rarely get the services they need (Smith, 2010). One prevalent issue is the lack of sufficient number of nurses, especially in the ICU. Most patients who are taken to the ICU require intensive care that involves various delicate services. Acceptable standards state that there should be at least one nurse taking care of two patients in the ICU. Nevertheless, in most health facilities this is a rare ratio. Most of the nurses have to offer their services to at least three patie nts, which obviously overworks the nurses leading to poor service delivery. In bizarre incidents a single nurse is forced to serve four patients in the ICU. This highly degrades the quality of services offered across the nursing profession. As such, it jeopardizes the health and safety of the patients in the ICU as well as the reputation of particular health institutions. Shortage of nurses is a prevalent problem that risks the lives of patients. There are various ways of solving the problem though. However, it would be a hard task to use a closed