Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Report - Research Paper Example This makes it amazingly difficult for such organizations to structure their tasks toward satisfying completely the needs of their clients (Noel 67). It was discovered that most organizations and organizations overlook the significance of data identifying with customer conduct. The greater part of the organizations have neglected to place into thought the hugeness of information in regards to the buyers; reactions and standards of conduct in the market. Pretty much 66% of firms utilize the data they need to decide (Linehan 100). From the above measurements, it is observable that organizations disregard the job buyer conduct plays in their market execution. It is proposed that all organizations should center and put resources into uncovering data about their consumers’ practices. The information gathered ought to be deciphered and used in defining vital choices that target improving deals execution (Hanley and Morgan

Money, Banking, and Financial Markets Assignment - 1

Cash, Banking, and Financial Markets - Assignment Example 3). Around the globe key files are on the ascent, fuelled by the decrease in the benchmark financing costs by the Central Bank of China (The Globe and Mail Par. 4). The Eurozone has likewise reported it is procuring resources in a transition to reinforce the economy of that locale (The Globe and Mail Par. 4). The Canadian dollar is developing against different monetary forms, and there is a desire that there will be an expansion in Interest Rates by the Bank of Canada to consider the new degrees of swelling. Moves made by the Government have arranged Canada as a relentlessly engaging spot to open and build up a business. A strong and forceful business condition, accordingly, enables the economy to create (The Globe and Mail Par. 4), makes new occupations and raises our desire for regular day to day existence. The Government has passed on the job diminishes totaling more than $60 billion to occupation making associations from 2008â€09 through 2013â€14 (Bankofcanada.ca Par. 23). To fabricate business speculation and improve profit, the administration general corporate compensation appraisal rate was decreased to 15 for each penny in 2012 from 22.12 for each penny in 2007 (Bankofcanada.ca Par. 23), remembering the removal of the corporate surtax for 2008 for all associations. In acknowledgment of the particularly perilous effect that capital costs have on business speculation, the administration capital cost was executed in 2006. The Government similarly gave a between time cash relat ed propelling power to encourage the territories to discard their general capital costs (Bankofcanada.ca Par. 24). The last commongeneral capital obligation was abstained from in 2012. To engage the improvement of little associations by relinquishing them with obligation finances that can be held and reinvested in the business, the little business appraisal rate was diminished to 11 for each penny in 2008, and the proportion of compensation qualified for

ARFID Is More Than Just Picky Eating

ARFID Is More Than Just Picky Eating More in Eating Disorders Diagnosis Symptoms Treatment Awareness and Prevention In This Article Table of Contents Expand ARFID and Picky Eating New Eating Disorder in DSM-5 Who Gets ARFID? Types   Assessment   Treatment   Are you or is someone you know a picky eater? Some extremely picky eaters may have an eating disorder, known as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). In most cases, picky eating does not interfere with weight status, growth, or daily functioning. However, people who experience consequences such as these as a result of extremely picky eating may need treatment.?? Picky eaters are people who avoid many foods because they dislike their taste, smell, texture, or appearance. Picky eating is common in childhood, with anywhere between 13 percent  and 22 percent of children between three and eleven years of age considered picky eaters at any given time. While most young children outgrow their pickiness, between 18 percent and 40 percent continue to be picky into adolescence.?? Distinguishing ARFID From “Normal Picky Eating” In developing children, the range of types, textures, and amount of food eaten generally progresses until age six or seven. At around this age, many school-age children become more “picky” and start to favor carbohydrates, which fuel growth. Usually by puberty, both appetite and eating flexibility increase, accompanied by a return to a wider range of intake and greater balance within and across meals. Many parents report concern around their childs eating at a young age, but are told by others it is “normal” and not to worry about it. When to Be Concerned About Your Child Being a Picky Eater Parents of children with ARFID often notice challenges in their child’s range of intake as early as 1  year of age. These children may show a strong preference for a narrow range of foods and may refuse to eat anything outside this range.?? Parents often report that their children with ARFID had trouble transitioning to mixed foods from single baby foods. They also often report they had a specific sensitivity to textures such as “mushy” or “crunchy.” It can be hard for parents and health professionals to distinguish “normal pickiness” in a child from a diagnosis of ARFID. Eating behaviors and flexibility may exist on a continuum between those who are adventurous in trying new foods and those who prefer a routine diet. Most children are still able to meet their nutritional needs despite some pickiness. In chapter 12 of Family Therapy for Adolescent Eating and Weight Disorders: New Applications, Dr. Kathleen Kara  Fitzpatrick and her colleagues write, “While many children do express food preferences and many will have strong aversions to certain foods, ARFID is distinguished by the global and pervasive nature of food refusal.?? ARFID is described by some as “food neophobia,” where difficulty with novelty leads to a limited diet. A New Feeding and Eating Disorder in DSM-5 ARFID is a new diagnosis that was introduced with the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th Edition (DSM-5) in 2013.?? Prior to this new category, individuals with ARFID would have been diagnosed as eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS)  or fall under the diagnosis of feeding disorder of infancy or childhood. As a result, ARFID is not as well-known as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Even so, it can have serious consequences. Monitoring Your Childs Weight and Growth Charts Individuals with ARFID do not eat enough to meet their energy and nutritional needs. However, unlike individuals with anorexia nervosa, people with ARFID do not worry about their weight or shape or becoming fat and do not restrict their diet for this reason. ARFID also does not typically emerge after a history of more normal eating as do anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Individuals with ARFID usually have had restrictive eating all along. To meet the criteria for ARFID, the food restriction cannot be explained by lack of food, a culturally sanctioned practice (such as a religious reason for dietary restriction), or another medical problem that if treated would solve the eating problem. Furthermore, it must lead to one of the following:?? Significant weight loss (or failure to make expected weight gain in children)Significant nutritional deficiencyDependence on tube feeding or oral nutritional supplementsDifficulty engaging in daily life due to shame, anxiety or inconvenience Who Gets ARFID? We do not have good data about prevalence rates of ARFID. It is relatively more common in children and young adolescents, and less common in older adolescents and adults. Nonetheless, it does occur throughout the lifespan and affects all genders. Onset is most often during childhood. Most adults with ARFID seem to have had similar symptoms since childhood. If ARFID onset is in adolescence or adulthood, it most often involves a negative food-related experience such as choking or vomiting. One large study published in 2014 found that 14 percent  of all new eating disorder patients who presented to seven adolescent-medicine eating disorder programs met criteria for ARFID. According to this study, the population of children and adolescents with ARFID is often younger, has a longer duration of illness prior to diagnosis, and includes a greater number of males than the population of patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Patients with ARFID on average have a lower body weight and therefore are at a similar risk for medical complications as patients with anorexia nervosa.?? Patients with ARFID are more likely than patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa to have a medical condition or symptom. Fitzpatrick and colleagues note that ARFID patients are more frequently referred from gastroenterology than patients with other eating disorders are. They are also likely to have an anxiety disorder, but less likely than those with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa to have depression.?? Children presenting with ARFID often report a high number of worries, similar to those found in children with obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. They also commonly express more concerns around physical symptoms related to eating, such as an upset stomach. Types   DSM-5 gives some examples of different types of avoidance or restriction that may be present in ARFID. These include restriction related to an apparent lack of interest in eating or food; sensory-based avoidance of food (e.g., the individual rejects certain foods based on smell, color, or texture); and avoidance related to feared consequences of eating such as choking or vomiting, often based on past negative experience.?? Fisher and colleagues suggested six different types of ARFID presentation with the following prevalence rates among their sample:?? Picky eating since childhood (28.7 percent)Having generalized anxiety disorder (21.4 percent)Having gastrointestinal symptoms (19.4 percent)Fears of eating due to fears of choking or vomiting (13.1 percent)Having food allergies (4.1 percent)Restrictive eating for “other reasons” (13.2 percent) Assessment   Because ARFID is a less well-known disorder, health professionals may not recognize it and patients may experience delays in getting diagnosed and treated. A diagnosis of ARFID requires a thorough assessment that should include a detailed history of feeding, development,  growth charts, family history, past attempted interventions, and complete psychiatric history and assessment. Other medical reasons for the nutritional deficits need to be ruled out. Dr. Rachel Bryant-Waugh has outlined a diagnostic checklist for ARFID to facilitate gathering the appropriate information:?? What is current food intake (range)?What is current food intake (amount)?How long has the avoidance of certain foods or the restriction in intake been occurring?What is current weight and height and has there been a drop in weight and growth percentiles?Are there signs and symptoms of nutritional deficiency or malnutrition?Is intake supplemented in any way to ensure adequate intake?Is there any distress or interference with day to day functioning related to the current eating pattern? Treatment   For patients and families, ARFID can be extremely challenging. Families often get anxious when children are having difficulty eating and may get stuck in power struggles over food. For older adolescents and adults, ARFID can impact relationships as eating with peers can become fraught. Left untreated, ARFID will rarely resolve itself. The goals of treatment are to increase the patient’s flexibility when presented with non-preferred foods and to help them to increase their variety and range of intake of foods to satisfy their nutritional needs. Many patients with ARFID tend to eat the same food repeatedly until they tire of it and then refuse to eat it again. Thus, patients are encouraged to rotate presentations of preferred foods as well as gradually introduce new foods. At present, there are no evidence-based treatment guidelines for ARFID. Depending on the severity of the malnourishment, some patients with ARFID may need higher levels of care, such as residential treatment or medical hospitalization, sometimes with supplemental or tube feeding. A study published in 2017 found that many patients with ARFID responded well to care in a partially hospitalized program, similar to patients with other eating disorders.?? After the patient has been medically stabilized, treatment for ARFID often includes teaching anxiety management skills accompanied by the gradual introduction of new foods through “food chaining”: starting with foods that are very similar to foods that they already eat and progressing slowly towards more dissimilar foods.?? The average person typically requires several presentations before foods are no longer experienced as novel. For people with ARFID, it is often fifty times before a food is no longer experienced as unfamiliar. For example, one adult patient with ARFID ate no raw vegetables and no fruit. His goals were to increase his ability to eat fruit and vegetables. He did eat carrots when they were in soup. Thus, treatment began by his boiling carrots in chicken broth and cutting them into extremely small pieces and eating those. Next, he started to eat bigger pieces of carrots boiled in broth and eventually carrots just boiled in water. Then, he began to work on peels of fresh carrots. He also started to work on fruit. He began with strawberry jelly on toast, which was something he was comfortable eating. He next introduced strawberry jelly with seeds to get him used to some texture. After that, he introduced macerated fresh strawberries (mixed with sugar to soften them). Eventually, he began to eat very small pieces of fresh strawberries. After that, other fruits and vegetables were gradually added in a similar fashion. For children and adolescents with ARFID, evidence shows that family-based treatment can be helpful. If you (or someone you know) is showing signs of ARFID, it is advisable to seek help from a professional who is well-versed in eating disorders.

Analysis Of The Poem My August Guest By Robert Frost...

Paper #1: Formalist Analysis The term â€Å"formalism† refers to a critical approach that analyzes, interprets, or evaluates the features of a text. These features include not only grammar and syntax but also literary devices such as meter, and metaphor. The formalist approach does not pay attention to a text s historical, biographical, or geographical context. A formal analysis, is the formal analyzation of a text. This paper will delve into the formal analysis of two distinct poems, written by different authors. The emphasis will be on the physical elements, or structure of the poetry, less on the meaning. In the first poem â€Å"My November Guest† by Robert Frost, we will discuss the formal analysis, which includes the style, metre, rhyme, figurative language, etc. In the second poem â€Å"You Called Me Corazon† we will discuss the formal analysis as well. In Robert Frost’s â€Å"My November Guest†, the first thing you will notice about the poem is that it consists of four stanzas, (a stanza is the proper name for a verse) with each stanza containing five lines, (the poem contains four lines per stanza, also known as a quatrain). A poem with five line stanzas is referred to as a quintet. Inside the lines of the poem, there is evidence of iambic tetrameter. Meaning, there are four iambic feet (refers to groups of unstressed, and stressed syllables constituting a metrical unit), per line in this poem. Tetrameter, is a verse of four measures. In iambic tetrameter, an unstressed syllable isShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesDiversity Management Strategies 56 Attracting, Selecting, Developing, and Retaining Diverse Employees 56 †¢ Diversity in Groups 58 †¢ Effective Diversity Programs 58 Summary and Implications for Managers 60 S A L Self-Assessment Library What’s My Attitude Toward Older People? 40 Myth or Science? â€Å"Dual-Career Couples Divorce Less† 47 An Ethical Choice Religious Tattoos 51 glOBalization! Images of Diversity from Around the Globe 54 Point/Counterpoint Men Have More Mathematical Ability Than WomenRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pages. Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of work

Shopping For American Culture Essay - 906 Words

When James J. Farrell, professor of history, American studies, and American conversations at St. Olaf College wrote his article â€Å"Shopping for American Culture,† there were more malls than high schools within the United States. Malls were also generating more than 46.6 billion dollars in sales tax, which is â€Å"almost half of all state tax revenue.†1 Farrell recognizes these statements in the introduction of his article. In fact, he uses these statistics and determines that because of the population going to malls, shopping centers accurately reflect American culture. James Farrell suggests that to truly understand Americans and their culture, one must go to the places in which Americans congregate (malls). He supports the idea that†¦show more content†¦polls, survey questions, etc.). He cannot make that assumption because there are people who do not enjoy going to the mall. Another fault in Farrell’s reasoning is that one cannot buy an identity. W hile clothes and material objects can certainly create an identity of a sort, in today’s world of credit cards, expensive clothes do not necessarily indicate the wealth of a person. In the course of his article, Farrell promotes that the mall is the only source of American cultural information. â€Å"In short, malls help teach us the common sense of our culture. If we look closely at malls, we will soon be looking inside our own heads† (Farrell 251). First of all, not everybody goes to the mall to create or stimulate culture. Malls are also an enclosed environment and George Lewis in his article â€Å"Community Through exclusion and Illusion,† addresses the idea that since malls are enclosed, there is a false sense of community. â€Å" Malls can, and do, lure and assemble collectivities and crowds of shoppers, but these groups seldom share the common ties and engage in the sort of social interactions necessary to forge a sense of ‘weness’—of community—from the raw social material of a crowd.†2 Perhaps Lewis would say that Farrell has fallen into this trap of â€Å"community† that was created for the shoppers. While malls seemingly create a community, the populations at the malls are too diverse to create one uniform culture. Therefore it cannot beShow MoreRelatedTeen Shopping Habits1462 Words   |  6 PagesWith â€Å"mall rat† officially part of the Canadian vernacular, it’s not surprising that shopping malls top the list of where both female and male Teens hang out and shop. 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(Berfield, 2013) For a largeRead More Todays Consumer Culture: Bought Self-worth and Artificial Happiness1137 Words   |  5 PagesZeppelin Shopping malls didnt just happen. They are not the result of wise planners deciding that suburban people, having no social life and stimulation, needed a place to go (Bombeck, 1985). The mall was originally conceived of as a community center where people would converge for shopping, cultural activity, and social interaction (Gruen Smith, 2005). It is safe to say that the mall has achieved and surpassed those early expectations. Unfortunately, in todays consumer culture, the mall isRead MoreMovie Review : Pretty Woman Directed By Garry Marshall1451 Words   |  6 PagesRoberts) meets an out of town millionaire Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), and they find true love despite their differences in true fantasy fairy tale fashion and live happily ever after. 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The Rise of Social Media Free Essays

â€Å"Man is a social animal†, goes the popular adage. Interaction with fellow beings is a vital part of being human. Community makes us feel complete through exchange of ideas and knowledge. We will write a custom essay sample on The Rise of Social Media or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is therefore not surprising that we constantly try to find better and faster means of communication and information sharing. Our relentless efforts in these areas have led to a phenomenon whose far reaching impacts make it nothing short of a global revolution. That phenomenon is the rise of Social Media. If the internet gave birth to a revolution in the way we stored and sought information, then social media has brought about a revolution in the way we exchange and use information. â€Å"Social Media† is a term that is relatively young of age. It’s definition on â€Å"Wikipedia†, which ironically is also one of its most glorious examples, reads – â€Å"media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques†. Examples of social media include weblogs, social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space, information sharing platforms such as Wikipedia or Twitter, and media sharing platforms such as YouTube. Before the explosion of social media, dissemination of information on a large scale was majorly restricted to â€Å"mass media† such as internet websites, newspapers, television and radio. Broadcasting information using these channels required at least some level of technical or professional expertise. Over the past few years however, development of web technologies that simplify mass collaboration has revolutionised the way content is produced and shared. Now anyone with a computer (or a mobile phone) and internet access has the ability to almost effortlessly share information across the globe and make their views heard, right from their homes, without the need to have significant resources or technical skills at their disposal. The rise of social media has had a tremendous influence on the way I and billions around the world think, communicate, learn and behave as we take on different roles during a normal day. Some of those roles being â€Å"the social animal† , â€Å"the global citizen†, â€Å"the consumer†, â€Å"the student†, â€Å"the activist†, â€Å"the professional† and â€Å"the common man†. Me the social animal Looking back though, a lot of the social media platforms didn’t exactly start off doing what they do today. Sites such as Facebook or MySpace started off with a simple objective of allowing people to keep in touch with near and dear ones. My first experience with such a medium was through a networking site called â€Å"Hi5†, as a means to keep in touch with friends. Twitter started off as a simple web equivalent of text messaging. In those nascent stages these platforms allowed people to socialise and to be entertained, hence serving the social animal in all of us. However, radical changes in these mediums over the last few years have forever changed my perception of their usage and potential. Me, the global citizen Perhaps the most significant change these platforms have enabled is to level the playing field. No longer do I need to be a media celebrity or a seasoned journalist to make my views heard. Mediums such as blogs and twitter give everyone a chance to stand up and be counted. What this has done is to make the world of information sharing truly democratic. The impact of this development has made those in high up places acknowledge the power these mediums hold. When US president Barack Obama was inaugurated into presidency in January 2009, CNN and the Whitehouse collaborated on Facebook to stream the broadcast to a worldwide audience. I remember getting the Goosebumps while watching the stream that generated 600,000 messages. All those messages flashing endlessly on my screen brought about the feeling that I was a part of a global debate. The Obama administration extensively used twitter to reach out to people all around the world. What this has done is to change my perception of how election campaigns or political debates can be carried out. Over time I feel more and more leaders worldwide will need to embrace such mediums if they really wish to have a global outreach. Me the activist Social media has also changed the way we can promote social causes. A great example of this is of â€Å"Earthour. org† in 2009, when Facebook and YouTube were extensively used to co-ordinate a worldwide movement that encouraged people to turn off their electrical appliances for one hour to promote awareness about climate change. This remarkable concept managed to mobilize people from more than 4000 cities all around the world. The event which enabled people in any part of the world to come together and be a part of a global cause has radically changed my view of how global movements can be initiated. All one has to do is to choose a cause and they will have multiple mediums at their disposal to spread the message. Me the consumer In the commercial space, Social media marketing has grown leaps and bounds. Dell attributed $6. 5 million worth of sales to twitter in 2009. What has made corporations adopt such mediums so readily is the opportunity to reach directly to me, their consumer. What’s significant is that now instead of being a spectator; I can also provide my feedback, suggestions or grievances about a product directly to the people that make it, instantly. Not only does this empower me as a consumer, it also provides corporations a very effective medium of targeting the right demographic and audience, optimising their production and efficiency in the process. Me the student Since its very inception, Social Media has held tremendous potential in knowledge sharing. As the world gets smaller and smaller, more and more students look to study in universities across the globe. This makes it critical that the institution reaches out to me, the student; to provide the right information at the right time. Going beyond the normal website, phone and email, more and more institutions are establishing an online presence on sites such as Facebook that allow them to reach out to a highly active and driven audience. Taking Oxford itself as an example, Said Business School’s Facebook page allows potential students to directly interact with representatives from the institution and also see what other students have already discussed. Not only does this simplify communication, it also reduces overheads of redundant emails or phone calls. Social media also provides a global platform for talented individuals to share their skills and knowledge. A great example of this is YouTube. I had always had a keen interest in learning to play the guitar. However, a hectic work schedule and high costs of a private teacher meant that private schedule bound lessons were not a viable option. Instead, I started using the numerous video lessons available on YouTube put up by talented musicians with a view to sharing passions. This is nothing short of a learning revolution as it gives anyone the chance to take lessons on anything from cooking to advanced maths free of cost, at a time and place that suits them the best, with option to play and pause as much as they like. Me the Professional Professionally, social media has had a tremendous impact on the way I work. A few years back when Wikipedia came up, I and a few colleagues were hugely impressed with how it took collaboration to a whole new level. Inspired by the concept, we started experimenting with our own internal Wiki-based organisation wide information sharing platform that would promote collaboration between employees across different teams. Upon its completion, it provided an easy to use medium for our associates to share, discuss and collaborate on topics ranging from technical concepts to HR processes to ideas for the next cultural event. Social media avenues such as blogs are also changing the way that managements communicate with their employees. In a lot of organisations including mine, more and more managers have started maintaining blogs where they share their views on a variety of professional and non-professional topics. I feel it’s a fantastic way of really reaching out to your employees. It is more effective and personal than the general â€Å"CEO’s message† emails that otherwise get churned out. By getting instant feedback on their blogs from enthusiastic employees, leaders can quickly feel the pulse of the organisation and use that knowledge to make better decisions. Me the common man If there is one aspect of social media that has influenced me the most in recent times, then it has to be its effectiveness in ensuring a lightning fast flow of information in times of national calamities, unfortunate incidents such as terror attacks or political unrest. Recently, platforms such as twitter have been critical in ensuring an immediate spread of information across the globe. When the unfortunate terror attacks took place in Mumbai in November 2008, frantic phone calls from anxious friends and family members to the city from had started saturating the cell phone networks, unable to reach my friends, I was reassured of their safety through their twitter updates. At the time, even news agencies were following twitter updates from citizens to get a view of the ground level reality. Over time, we have seen such micro-blogging mediums play an ever increasing role as reliable mediums of breaking news. This development has revolutionised my perception of journalism. In essence, it allows the common man to become a reporter and provide his own perception of the latest breaking news to entire world. Two sides to a coin My Strong beliefs on the significance of social media however do not imply that I do not acknowledge the shortcomings of the social media revolution. There are two sides to a coin. Some of the factors that make social media great also lead to some of its shortcomings. The widespread and free availability of social media often lead to an overload of content. Such high volumes mean that finding relevant and useful content often becomes a challenge. I believe that there need to be more efficient filtering mechanisms developed to enable faster sourcing of content that’s relevant. The anonymity that the internet provides to everyone makes social media platforms vulnerable to misuse. Examples of dubious elements harming naive web users are widespread. There is a need to promote a more educated use of such mediums and to establish more stringent controls to help counter such misdoings. Social media has often also been criticised for the work/life balance that it tends to disrupt or the productivity concerns it raises when people use social networking sites at work. Spending too much time online cuts one off from real life and defeats the very objective of collaboration. I feel this is more down to the individual, and as is true of everything in life, a balance needs to be maintained. Tip of the Iceberg To conclude, I feel what I’ve seen so far is only beginning and social media is only going to keep bringing about radical changes to what I perceive to be the definitive ways of information sharing and communication. Social media has proven itself to be a very powerful tool of empowering the individual to become a part of a global community. My beliefs in the potential of social media have only strengthened over time and I feel that the constant developments in this field will ensure that the way we communicate, educate, collaborate and trade will never be the same again. How to cite The Rise of Social Media, Papers

What is the Relationship between Taste and Ideology

It nowadays became a commonplace assumption that, since the notion of taste/aesthetics implies subjectivity, than the incorporation of subjectivist aesthetics into the conceptual framework of a particular ideology, undermines the extent of this ideology’s discursive appropriateness.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on What is the Relationship between Taste and Ideology? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this paper, however, I will aim to show that, contrary to the earlier mentioned assumption, it is entirely appropriate to discuss the ideological extrapolations of one’s aesthetic preferences as such that are being reflective of his or her taste as biologically predetermined ‘thing in itself’, which in turn implies such taste’s objectivist nature. There can be little doubt as to the fact that the subtleties of people’s sense of aesthetics often appear highly circumstantial. T hroughout sixties and seventies, the realization of this fact was prompting neo-Marxian philosophers to speculate that the essence of one’s aesthetic taste reflects the particulars of his or her social upbringing. In its turn, this was providing them with a discursively legitimate reason to refer to the convention that there is a ‘low/primitive’ taste, on the one hand, and ‘high/refined’ taste, on the other, as an indication of this convention’s embedment in Kantian metaphysical philosophy, which presupposes the objectivist/essentialist nature of ‘higher realities’. Hence, the nature of neo-Marxian criticism of a discursively division between people’s ‘low’ and ‘high’ tastes: â€Å"Aristocracies are essentialist. Regarding existence as an emanation of essence, they set no intrinsic value on the deeds and misdeeds enrolled in the records and registries of aesthetic conventions† (Bourdieu 24). Nevertheless, the neo-Marxian assumption that the subtleties of currently dominant aesthetics-related discourse are being suggestive of this discourse’s functionalist essence (concerned with preserving status quo in social sphere), cannot be referred to as such that represents an undeniable truth-value. This is because there are, in fact, a number of good reasons to think of the nature of one’s aesthetic inclinations as being correlative with the measure of his or her intellectual advancement. And, as it was proven during the course of recent decade, people’s varying ability to operate with the abstract categories, which reflect the rate of their Intellectual Quotidian (IQ), is being rather biologically than environmentally predetermined (Lynn Vanhanen 64).Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In other words, it is absolutely appropriate to discuss the extent o f one taste’s aesthetic refinement in terms of intrinsic objectivity, because the manner in which people go about assessing the significance of surrounding reality’s manifestations and consequentially forming their aesthetic judgments, in regards to these manifestations, reflect the working of people’s psyche. In their turn, the workings of people’s psyche provide us with the insight onto the extent of these people’s cognitive adequateness/inadequateness. The validity of this statement can be illustrated in regards to the empirical data, obtained by Levy Bruhl while he was conducting his anthropological studies, concerned with defining the nature of primitive people’s cognition. According to Bruhl, while being presented with cognitive tasks, the members of primitive/tribal societies (specifically, African tribesmen) indulge in ‘pre-logical’ reasoning. For example, these people used to experience a particularly hard time, after h aving been asked to exclude semantically unrelated word out of the wordily sequence axe – hammer – handsaw – log. The fact that the words axe, hammer and handsaw could be categorized as ‘instruments’, on the one hand, and that the word log could be categorized as ‘material’, on the another, never even occurred to them. In their eyes, there could be no difference between the notion of ‘material’ and the notion of ‘instrument’, as both of these notions imply ‘usefulness’: â€Å"Identity appears in (native) collective representations†¦ as a moving assemblage or totality of mystic actions and reactions, within which individual does not subjectualize but objectualize itself† (Bruhl 120). The empirical observations of how people go about forming their aesthetic views leave very few doubts as to the fact that the nature of these views exposes the specifics of people’s positioning toward s the surrounding reality. The more a particular person tends to position itself as a ‘subject’, while interacting with the environment, the more there are objective reasons to consider his or her aesthetic tastes refined, and vice versa. We can also say that there is a positive correlation between the extent of a particular aesthetic convention’s refinement and the extent of its complexity. This is exactly the reason why classical music is being generally deemed more ‘tasteful’; as compared to what it is being the case with pop-music, for example. This simply could not be otherwise, because – whereas, pop-compositions feature 5-10 chord-sequences at best, classical compositions usually feature hundreds of different chord-sequences – not to mention the extensive variations to tonality and timbre.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on What is the Relationship between Taste and Ideology? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Now that we have established the dialectical links between the extent of people’s intellectual advancement and the nature of their aesthetic preferences, it makes it easier to discuss the specifics of how taste affects ideology. According to Althusser: â€Å"Ideologies function first and foremost to create subjects who experience their relationship to the world in certain, politically salient ways† (161). Such Althusser’s suggestion correlates with that of Cheal: â€Å"Ideologies mediate between so ­cial experiences and behavior, or the inhibition of behavior. Through an ideology, particular experiences acquire a general significance by being related to each other or to important values† (112). We can only subscribe to both suggestions, in this respect. After all, ideologies do in fact serve the purpose of helping its affiliates to assess the significance of surrounding reality’s emanations, which c ontributes to the effectiveness of the process of ideologically minded people tackling life’s challenges. Nevertheless, it is essential to understand that the concept of ideology, in contemporary sense of this word, is relatively new. In this respect, we can only agree with neo-Marxian thesis that the concept of ideology cannot be discussed outside of what represented the particulars of how the newly emerged social class of bourgeoisie was striving to attain socio-political legitimacy. After all, before the French Revolution of 1792, the representatives of bourgeoisie were considered nothing but ‘lowly merchants’. Before this Revolution, there were no nations, in the traditional sense of this word – the political authority used to be exerted solely by the representatives of Church’s clergy and by the representatives of Europe’s old aristocracy. Therefore, it does not come as a particular surprise why the initially emerged ideologies were esse ntially the ideologies of ‘national liberation’ – bourgeoisie needed to legitimize ‘nation’ as a sovereign political unit. By being prompted to consider themselves a ‘part of the nation’, the representatives of lower social classes, such as proletariat and peasantry, were expected pay little attention to the fact that their low social status was a direct consequence of them having been subjected to the different forms of socio-economic exploitation. According to Gramsci, the initial purpose of ideological indoctrination was ensuring the cohesiveness of how the affiliates of underprivileged social classes reflected upon the social environment and their place in it (33). The best way to achieve it was prompting socially disadvantaged people to think of bourgeois values as their own. Nevertheless, what neo-Marxian sociologists do not seem to understand, is that the process of designing a particular mass-ideology is not being quite as reflec tive of designers’ values, as much as it is being reflective of the innermost psychological anxieties of those to whom this ideology is expected to appeal.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The validity of this suggestion can be easily illustrated in regards to what represented the aesthetics of Nazi ideology, on the one hand, and the aesthetics of Communist ideology, on the other. Despite the fact that these ideologies were based upon mutually contradictory theoretical premises, the closer inquiry into the essence of both ideologies’ aesthetic appeal, reveals the apparent similarity between how Nazis and Communists strived to popularize their socio-political agendas with masses. For example, just as it used to be the case with Nazi visual art, Communist visual art featured the images of blond/healthy/muscular men and women indulging in a variety of different physical activities. Just as it used to be the case Nazi marching music, Communist marching music emanated a clearly defined spirit of optimistic purposefulness (Heskett 143). In fact, after having altered the semantic content of many Nazi marches, such as the Horst Vessel march, Russian Communists adopted them as their own (Soviet Aviator’s March). The reason for this is simple – due to the specifics of their genetic makeup, both: Germans and Russians are being equally predisposed towards professing the essentially ‘Faustian’ existential values. These values are based upon the assumption that: â€Å"Individual’s will-power must never cease combating obstacles, that the catastrophes of existence come as an inevitable culmination of past choices and experiences, and that the conflict is the essence of existence† (Greenwood 53). Therefore, there is nothing particularly odd about the fact that even though Nazism and Communism praised the spirit of collectivism, the aesthetic emanations of both ideologies praised the spirit of individualistic industriousness – these ideologies were nothing but qualitatively different manifestations of workings of the same ‘Faustian’ psycho-type. As it was noted by Serebriany: â€Å"Soviet Marxi st epistemological pride was for the most drawn from the West, together with the entire ‘package’ of Marxism or even the ‘modern European episteme’ as a whole† (97). Apparently, there was nothing accidental about the fact that in 1940, Stalin seriously considered joining the Anti-Comintern Pact (Axis), headed by Nazi Germany. In its turn, this also explains why in early sixties, the Communist countries of Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China became nothing short of sworn enemies. Whereas, the majority of Russians were never able to truly affiliate themselves with Communist ideological conventions; this proved to be no challenge, whatsoever, for the majority of Chinese. This was the reason why, up until the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, Chinese Communists never ceased accusing Soviet Communists of ‘revisionism’. Apparently, the ‘pure’ Communist ideology did, in fact, correlate with the particulars of how Chin ese people, endowed with ‘Apollonian’ (Asian/collectivist) mentality, reflect upon the surrounding reality (Greenwood 54). Given the fact that the existential mode of the majority of Asians is being concerned with these people’s unconscious strive to ‘blend’ with the nature (to ‘objectualize’ themselves within natural environment), there is nothing utterly surprising about the fact that, after having been planted into the Asian soil, Communism did take rather long roots. After all, even today, China officially remains a Communist country. The same can be said about North Korea, which along with China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia, can be best defined as the only ‘true’ Communist states that ever existed on the face of the Earth. Therefore, even though neo-Marxian philosophers do make a good point, while suggesting that just about every political ideology is meant to serve the interests of the representatives of social elites , it is quite impossible to agree with their view on ideology as simply one among many mechanisms of people’s socio-economic oppression. After all, the representatives of a particular society’s elite never cease remaining strongly interconnected with this society’s ordinary members. This is why, even though that in many cases, the aesthetic conventions that socially prominent individuals strive to incorporate into the very matrix of spatially predominant socio-political ideology, do appear intellectually oppressive (too sophisticate/refined), they nevertheless correlate with the overall biological quality of the general population. I believe that the provided earlier line of argumentation, in defense of a suggestion that one’s aesthetic taste can indeed be discussed as being rather biologically than environmentally predetermined (which points out to the objectiveness of a particular ideology’s aesthetic manifestations), is being entirely consistent with paper’s initial thesis. What it means is that it is fully appropriate to assess the measure of a particular ideology’s discursive value in regards to whether this ideology corresponds to the notion of a ‘good taste’ or not. After all, as it shown earlier, the notion of ‘good taste’ is a fully objective category. Bibliography Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. New York: NYU Press, 1971. Print. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard:  Harvard University Press, 1984. Print. Bruhl, Levy. The Soul of the Primitive (translated by Lilian Clare). London: George Allen Unwin Ltd.,1928. Print. Cheal, David. â€Å"Hegemony, Ideology and Contradictory Consciousness.† The  Sociological Quarterly 20.1 (1979): pp. 109-117. Print. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci  (translated by Quintin Hoarc and Geoffrey Smith). London: Lawrence and W ishart, 1971. Print. Greenwood, Susan. Anthropology of Magic. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2009. Print. Heskett, John. â€Å"Art and Design in Nazi Germany.† History Workshop 6 (1978): pp. 139-153. Print. Lynn, Richard Vanhanen, Tatu. IQ and the Wealth of Nations. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. Print. Serebriany, Sergei. â€Å"On the ‘Soviet Paradigm’ (Remarks of an Indologist).†Ã‚  Studies in East European Thought 57.2 (2005): pp. 93-13. Print. This essay on What is the Relationship between Taste and Ideology? was written and submitted by user Kayden Roth to help you with your own studies. 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