Case Study Is About How Can One Abusive Customers Cause Emotions to Run High. Essays

Case Study Is About How Can One Abusive Customers Cause Emotions to Run High. Essays Case Study Is About How Can One Abusive Customers Cause Emotions to Run High. Paper Case Study Is About How Can One Abusive Customers Cause Emotions to Run High. Paper This case study is about how can one abusive customers cause emotions to run high. As the times improve with technology, we now have automated telephone system for customer service centre. But with this system, it creates a labyrinth for customers. Longer waiting time and thus its more difficult to speak to an actual human being. How mad can a customer get? Customer could rant and rave over some small issues and there’s an even vulgarity involved. There might be customers who can be racist towards the officer. Employees have no choice but to swallow down the hatred. Ad many companies require customer-service employees to display positive emotions at all times to maintain satisfied customers. But they cant expect it to just stop there. It could cause emotional instability to the employees. They are bringing home the negative feedback and emotion, might lead to a dispute within the family due to all the stress. Employees who are frustrated by the inability to do anything about abusive customers and the mood being caused can have psychology effect on them. Inasmuch as there are no ways of releasing the stress for them. Although some companies train their representatives on how to defuse a customers anger and to avoid being abuse personally but the effort isnt enough. If the training helps, employees who work on the phone would not have frequent absent or are more prone to illness and are more likely to make stress-related disability claims than other employees. Thus, emotions can run high and the effects can be damaging. The customer comes first has been heard by many. But companies should give attorney to employees on to deciding when it is appropriate to put customers second. This could help on reducing the stress level the employees have. 3. Questions and Answer 1. From an emotional labor perspective, how does dealing with an abusive customer lead to stress and burnout? Dealing with an abusive customer leads to stress and burnout, directly in proportion to the amount of time and level of hostility taken in the phone call. Even with using coping strategies such, it is difficult to not take such calls personally. In the long term, such negative emotion would have been accumulated until one cannot take it and explode suddenly. Emotional labor is a form of emotional regulation wherein workers are expected to display certain emotions as part of their job, and to promote organizational goals. The intended effects of these emotional displays are on other, targeted people, who can be clients, customers, subordinates or co-workers. It is an employee’s expression of organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work. Employees can display fake emotion by acting. Such acting can take two forms: 1) Surface acting which involves hiding one’s inner feelings and refrain emotional expressions. ) Deep acting wherein they modify one’s true inner feelings to match the emotion expressions the organisation requires. This can be very mentally torturing and cause them to be stressful. Having to bottle up certain emotions in the name of customer service can cause a person to blow up later. Even with â€Å"thick skin,† stress will affect immunity and psychological well-being. This is not healthy for that person or for others around them. Stress is a complex issue and no two individuals will be affected in the same way by either work requirements or the work environment. In practice, it can be helpful to think of stress in terms of a simple ‘bucket’ model: The bucket model suggests that stress and fatigue result when a person’s reservoir of personal resilience is drained faster than it is replenished. The bucket model shows, there’s no point in ‘filling the bucket’ if stressors keep draining it quickly. Control of stressors is frequently needed in order to prevent stress building up. 2. If you were a recruiter for a customer-service call center, what personality types would you prefer to hire and why? In other words, what individual differences are likely to affect whether an employee can handle customer abuse on a day-to-day basis? It takes a very strong person to take day to day abuse by customers. Employers need to size up just how much abuse their employees need to take from a customer. A motto which people normally heard the customer is always right does not apply in every case. Finding the right personality for that job is not easy as there are many considerations to be taken of. I would avoid type A and competitive personalities as they tend to be more impatient, moving rapidly, spurring emotions and anger. The personality of the person that could fit such a position is someone calming; laid back; has a good sense of humor; and feels that if they have an extremely difficult situation that the Manager or Supervisor is there to deal with an unruly customer. Dealing with abusive customers takes team work in the company. Management has to decide what customers are worth having them come back for their services and not tolerate irate customers that nothing but trouble each and every time they walk through the door. 3. Emotional intelligence is one’s ability to detect and manage emotional cues and information. How might emotional intelligence play a role in responding to abusive customers? What facets of emotional intelligence might employees who are able to handle abusive customers possess? The higher the emotional intelligence, the more ability is readily available to compartmentalize job function and personal emotions. Emotional intelligence (EI) describes the ability, capacity, skill or, in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived grand ability to identify, assess, manage and control the emotions of ones self, of others, and of groups Emotional intelligence is composed of 5 dimensions: . Self-awareness – the ability to aware of one’s emotions ii. Self-management – the ability to manage your own emotions and impulse iii. Self-motivation – the ability to persist in the face of setbacks and failures iv. Empathy – the ability to sense how others are feeling v. Social skills – the ability to handle the emotions of others Those people, who ca n detect emotions in others, control their own emotions, and handle social interactions well have a powerful leg up in the business world. People who have high level of EI perform well in their job. The ability to deal patiently with their problems and complaints, and to remain courteous even when our customers are difficult or angry, is very important. One has to be a patient, professional, and polite â€Å"people person†- even when dealing with unhappy customers and able to work with emotionally and mentally challenged people. 4. Article 2 5. Summary 6. Question Answer 2. What mistakes do you think each party made? Mr. Korman made the mistake of assuming Ms. Abdala would agree with the salary cut and went ahead and ordered stationary and business cards for her, when he hadn’t even talked to her about the reduced salary. She had accepted the job based on certain conditions; salary being one of those. Since Mr. Korman breeched their agreement by cutting her salary after an agreement had been reached, she has a right to rethink acceptance of a job offer. However, she should have done it in a more professional manner; in person to his face and explain that she accepted the job based on certain agreed upon conditions, salary being one of them and that it was poor form on his part to cut her salary and assume that she would be accepting of that. Her method of informing Mr. Korman of her change of mind was unprofessional and discourteous, given the time and effort already invested by Mr. Korman. The situation should be done by a formal letter rather than an email. The tone of her email was also rude. She should simply have declined the position, not implied that it was underpaid. Forwarding it to a colleague was a breach of etiquette on Mr. Kormans part, but I would stop short of calling it unethical, since Ms. Abdala chose to use email to convey her message. However, he did not have her consent to forward her emails sent to him to other people, especially those from outside of his office. I unequivocally think it was wrong to forward this email to anyone. It turned an annoying wart of an interchange into a triage situation. One has to be very careful what you put in writing! Bla, bla, bla? Choosing phrases like this can damage ones reputation beyond repair. Ill also say his first response to her email was both professional and restrained. Neither of these people was particularly ethical or intelligent. 3. Do you think this exchange will damage Abdala’s career? Korman’s firm? Yes, this exchange will damage both Abdala’s career as well as Korman’s firm. They have I think both of them handled this poorly; Korman for not putting the offer in writing then changing the terms of that offer, and Abdala for responding so immaturely. I can’t believe that both these people are in the legal profession, considering that not only is their spelling atrocious, but their conduct is totally unprofessional in any field. I believe nobody would ever deal with an employer or employee in this way! . Amazingly, Abdala is not concerned in the least with how the outing of her attitude, poor communications style, and either lack of spelling acumen or mixing of metaphors will impact her employability as an attorney. Nor is she concerned that this has now been forwarded to several thousand people, at last count, and posted around the world. In fact, she is quoted as saying â€Å"I’m not upset at all. I’m enjoying the notoriety. † Both parties appear to be very unprofessional, extremely dim and informal. I believe that Ms. Abdala should have found a better way of backing out of her agreement. I believe her comments and actions were immature from start to finish. I also believe Mr. Korman should not have forwarded the emails; there is no question he knew the damage they could inflict on Ms. Abdalas [questionable] reputation. Therefore, we can only surmise he indeed did hope to damage that reputation. 4. What does this exchange tell you about the limitations of e-mails? There is always a limitation of e-mails. Thats when the exchange, by Korman and Abdala, began whipping through cyberspace, landing in e-mail in-boxes around the city and country, and, eventually, across the Atlantic. In short order, it has become yet another cautionary tale that you should definitely not put in an e-mail anything you wouldnt want the rest of the world to read. Things to consider before venting in email: Would I say this to this person’s face? Am I putting the receiver in awkward position? How would I feel if I got this email message? Usually, by the time you consider the above questions you will be calm enough to write your message with a different approach. Catching someone by surprise in a flaming message is a quick way to alienate your reader mainly because they will react wit h anger or embarrassment. When it appears that a dialogue has turned into a conflict, it is best to suggest an end to the swapping of email and for you to talk or meet in person. If you receive a flaming email try to respond in a short and simple response. If that does not appease the flamer than make contact with him or her outside the virtual realm. 7. Referencing Shellenbarger, S. (2004, February 5). Domino Effect: The Unintended Results of Telling Off Customer-Service Staff. Wall Street Journal. p. D1. Robbins, S. P. (2010). Person International Edition: Essentials of Organisational Behaviour (10th Edition). Karr, k. (2009, June 23). Retrieved from mood. ws/ (2003). Healthy Work: Managing Stress in the Workplace Act. New Zealand. Retrieved from osh. govt. nz/order/catalogue/stress/managestress. pdf Kurtzig, A. (2003). Retrieved from justanswer. com/business/ Anne. (2006, February 23). The Story Of Annes Life. Retrieved from theinternetpatrol. com/when-emails-haunt-you-the-saga-of-william-korman-and-diana-abdala/ (2006, February 27). Retrieved from http://nogovernmentcheese. blogspot. com/2006_02_01_archive. html Goodwin, C. (2011). Retrieved from http://midlifecareerstrategy. com/blog/archives/22

Case study management

Answer 1 Roopali Deshmukh understood the specific objectives of her job and how these objectives and how these objectives fit in with the overall objectives set by the board of directors. Subsequently, she implemented the MBO process as a measure to improve the productivity of her sales team. Effective planning and consistent monitoring on her part as well as the team resulted in the successful implementation of the process. The phases of the MBO process which led to the successful accomplishment of the goals, are hereby discussed: The top management instructed the targets, which set the overall organizational goals and communicated them to the people down the hierarchy. As the marketing manager of the company, having daunting targets to achieve, Roopali initiated the MBO program, inviting participation from her sales team to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. The management did not interfere much with the means of achieving the objectives gave adequate autonomy to its employees in the lower hierarchy to implement progress achieve their plans. She examined the current state of affairs, the levels of efficiency of her team, identifying the opportunities and threats that might have a subsequent impact, thus identifying the key result areas to be attained. She motivated the team to decide on their individual roles and responsibilities to achieve the same, and thus the company’s targets. The objectives for each member of the team were mutually set agreed upon, in context with the company targets decided by management. The next phase involved setting specific time frames with respect to achieving the set objectives, post which plans were laid down on the consistently monitoring the performance over the set goals/objectives. Deshmukh effectively and consistently monitored the individual performance of each of her team member in line with the pre-determined plans, while providing positive feedbacks to the team members for their contributions to the company targets. Such a regular monitoring and periodic review helped not only provide feedback, which is essential for completion of work in time, but also motivated the team and each of the member accountable for his/her objectives. It was ensured on consistent basis, that if there were any deviations from the  pre-determined plans/objectives decided by the team, corrective actions were taken to fix them and overcome the deficiencies. The long term organisational targets as laid down by the top management were accomplished subsequently by the team as a consequence of the MBO program, which basically being a form of participative management additionally helps and encourages the employees as it gave them a sense of belongingness in the company, for the management recognizes their effort and participation in the accomplishment of the organisational goals. Answer 2 Management by Objectives (MBO), a term popularized by the famous management guru and author, Peter Drucker in his book â€Å"Practices of Management† (Drucker, 1954) is a democratic and participative style of management, in the sense that it â€Å"requires the managers/employees to set specific objectives to be achieved in the future and encourages them to continually ask what more can be done, is offered as a partial answer to this question of organizational vitality and creativity† (Thomson, n.d.). In simple terms, MBO is a process or system designed for supervisory managers in which a manager and his or her subordinate come together and jointly set specific objectives to be accomplished within a set time frame and for which the subordinate is then held directly responsible (Thomson, n.d.). MBO involves setting up short-term goals for employees in line with the long-term objectives of the organization. MBO is thus an effective tool for planning, control and developmen t in the organisation. The MBO Process The essential steps or elements in the process of management by objectives are hereby discussed: Management Objectives/Targets Reviewed The first phase in the MBO process involves â€Å"reviewing† the targets/goals laid down by the top management, which are then passed down from one subordinate level to another. The MBO approach injects an element of dialogue into the process of passing plans and objectives from one  organizational level to another. The MBO program is initiated by the top management, which sets the overall organizational goals and communicated them to the people down the hierarchy. Setting Employee / Subordinate Objectives The subordinates then collectively develop a group of specific goals, measures of achievement, and time frames in which the subordinate commits himself or herself to the accomplishment of those goals. The subordinate is then held responsible for the accomplishment of the goals (Jossey-Bass/Pleiffer, 1998). Develop plan of action After fixing the objective, the subordinate and superior make an action plan, which will be used by the subordinates to achieve the objective. It requires assignment of specific responsibilities to different departments, division, and individuals. It also requires allocation of necessary resources needed to perform the assigned responsibilities. It also involves setting specific time frames to achieve the set objectives without delays (Daffodil University, 2009). Periodic Review and Monitoring the progress The subordinates/ team members then evaluate/measure their own performances in line with the predetermined targets/ objectives, so as to fix the deviations and take corrective actions for the same. Performance Appraisal The last step in the process involves performance appraisal of the subordinates/employees evaluated based on the objectives/targets. The employees are rewarded and provided feedback based on their performance, which helps motivate them as the management recognizes their effort and appraises them foe their participation and involvement. Advantages of the Management by Objectives Process: Develops result-oriented philosophy: MBO is a result-oriented philosophy. Managers develop specific individual and group goals, develop appropriate action plans, properly allocate resources and establish control standards. It provides opportunities and motivation to staff to develop and make  positive contribution in achieving the goals of an Organisation (Marketing World, 2012). Better communication and Coordination: Recurrent reviews and communications between managers and subordinates helps to maintain congruous relations within the enterprise and also solve many problems faced during the period. Motivation: Involving employees in the whole process of goal setting and increasing employee empowerment increase employee job satisfaction and commitment. This subsequently helps in increasing the employee morale, which has a significant impact on the organisation’ functioning. Effective control: Performance evaluation and monitoring is an integral element of the process of MBO, which is significant for achieving the organisational objectives. Actual performance can be measured against the standards laid down for measurement of performance and deviations are corrected in time. A clear set of verifiable goals provides an outstanding guarantee for exercising better and effective control in the hierarchy (Marketing World, 2012). Expedites personal leadership: MBO enables individual manager to cultivate personal leadership and skills significant for efficient management of activities of a business unit.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example region who tend to reside in the uptown Maryland and the Republican lawyers of the same area, who resides in the suburban parts of Virginia. If a lawyer of Maryland is asked to shift their dwelling to Virginia, they would just give an amazed look as if something strange and impossible has been proposed to them. The same thing would take place when an Interior decorator of West Hollywood is asked to move to Orange County. Similarly a barista belonging to owners from Athens named â€Å"In Georgia† would not find them fit for serving coffee to the American citizens. The same complaint can be seen everywhere. In the modern era of information and technology, the late author James Chapin noted a remarkable similarity between the different places and the inhabitants and in this context he said â€Å"every place becomes more like itself†. In the earlier days people used to consider those places suitable for living which includes lots of factory or other means of earnings, while now the same people look for places to reside which consists of people belonging to their culture. The author finds that the general people love segmenting themselves. According to him, the people are, â€Å"finding places where we are comfortable and where we feel we can flourish†. In this context the contrast nature of the United States has been put under limelight which often exhibits distinction between the institutions and blocks but as a whole they introduce themselves as a diverse nation. Mr. Brook states that diversity is often understood as racial unity. Many social reformers tried to incorporate this idea in their approaches towards a society without racial discrimination and it proved to be successful in the initial years. However the census data of 2000 reveals that racially integrated neighborhoods were found to rise during the 90s but due to some unknown reason the African families who were staying earlier with their

The Global Strategy of IKEA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Global Strategy of IKEA - Essay Example IKEA has become one of the most successful furniture retailer’s in the world. IKEA low-cost-approach to doing business and innovative marketing and brand identity has allowed IKEA to mold and convert their brand image and company to become a lifestyle oriented company. IKEA was one of the pioneers towards globalization by offering furniture that was sold unassembled to its clientele therefore it could be shipped more securely and economically and consequently sold at the lowest possible costs to their customers. The company carefully adapted their corporate structure, business model, and culture to maintain and build their brand image, while carefully adapting their product offerings and marketing to match the preferences, customs, and needs of their local clientele. IKEA has become much more than a furniture merchant, it embraces customers with lifestyle that embraces good taste and recognizes value. The company has thrived in the global market where others competitors have n ot succeeded in penetrating. The key strategy to IKEA’s global success has been in keeping in line with their original philosophy of success which has been to provide unique, functional, simplistic but beautiful furniture designs and products at a low cost. This unrelenting pursuit of efficiency and frugality has permeated throughout the corporate culture and structure (Quickmba, 2011).

Stakeholder mapping Stakeholder analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Stakeholder mapping Stakeholder analysis - Essay Example The stakeholders can very well be found beyond the formal structure of the company. Therefore in order to find out all the stakeholders, the company is also required to have a look at informal and indirect relationships as well. The company management has to make a balancing assessment and evaluate all such external forces in order to take them along with company’s objectives. Two major elements for stakeholder management are Stakeholder mapping and Stakeholder analysis. By managing the interest of stakeholders an organisation can enhance the wealth in such a manner that economic benefits can be generated by positive relationships between the organisation and its stakeholders (Preston and Donaldson, 1999). This necessitates that the service values as perceived by stakeholders are determined in an objective manner. This includes determination of elements like information and knowledge sharing about the functioning of the company, joint ventures, acquisitions and mergers, comple mentary resources and capabilities. In fact, at times, the operational direction of the company is set by the manner in which the stakeholders perceive the company, its missions and objectives. Key stakeholders like shareholders, employees, financers etc. often make use of influencing strategies to guide the organisation or to set the priorities for the company (Frooman, 1999). Therefore while taking crucial corporate decisions, it is necessary to know about the expectations of different stakeholders and to determine the extent to which they could and would exert their influence. Mitchell et al (1997) contend that an influential model of how stakeholders influence organisations is based on attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. Johnson & Scholes (1999) define stakeholder as, â€Å"Stakeholders are groups or individuals who have a stake in, or expectation of, the organization’s performance.† Besides the owners

Replication of the Stroop Effect

Replication of the Stroop Effect Abdus Azad Abstract This experiment is a replication of the Stroop effect, in which you are supposed to identify colors, where colors are in different texts. Also the name of the word when in different colors. There was one experimenter and the participants were 20 (15 females, 5 males) Hunter College Psychology 250 students. The age ranged from 19-32 with a mean age of 23.5. The Experimenter tested the participant’s in two effects and three conditions. In one effect they were to identify the word, in three conditions congruent (matching the color), incongruent (different color), and control (neutral black text). In another effect the students were tasked with identifying the color in three conditions, congruent (same color matched), incongruent (different text), and control (neutral black text). We hypothesized there will be an increase in the mean time when participants are tested in the incongruent conditions due to interference. Using a one-way repeated measures ANOVA the result of this study found that there is a significant difference in incongruent condition when participants were tasked to name the color F (1.554, 23.32) = 7.434, p= 0.0055. Using a second one-way ANOVA for naming words, the results showed no significance F (1.845, 27.68) = 0.1289, p= 0.8642. A Replication of The Stroop Effect When we focus our attention to do one task, this is called selective attention. This means to exclude any other stimuli which may cause distraction. While on the other hand divided attention is when we have the ability to divide our attention to a few tasks, sometimes while doing these tasks, it may become an automatic process which makes dividing your attention between these two tasks much easier. Automatic processing, is when you cannot control your thought process, it can be thought as implicit thinking, in other words thinking that may occur unconsciously. Automatic processing may not always be helpful, you may have conflict with automatic and controlled processing. The Stroop Effect tested how these processes worked. James McKeen Cattell (1886) had originally conducted research and found that objects and colors when compared to their corresponding words, took longer to speak aloud. He knew there was an interference with automatic and controlled processing. Even though he had already made this connection, Ridley Stroop (1935) is more recognized for work with color and words. Stroop in his experiment had used six colors and did three different experiments. The experiment’s consisted of participants reading lists of colors, on one list color was written in black, and on the other list was color written in different colored inks. They were supposed to identify the color of the words and also timed. The other experiments that he did was similar involving shapes. The way Cattell and Stroop’s research differs is that Cattell ha d concluded there was an interference between automatic and controlled processing, while Stroop’s research was more about developing an understanding as to why this interference is occurring. In Stroop’s article â€Å"Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions† he had concluded that your mind can automatically decide the semantic meaning of a word, hence when the color matched the word the time it took to figure out the color was much quicker vs when the colors did not match the word. Further replications of the Stroop test were performed, J.D. Dunbar and C.M. McLeod’s (1990) replication like Stroop also consisted of a congruent condition (words with the same color as the text) and incongruent conditions (colors don’t match the word text). They also added a control condition, the words were in a neutral color. Flowers, Warner, and Polansky (1979) did a variation of Dunbar and MacLeod’s Stroop test. They used rows numbers, the number was the same in each row and they asked the participants to determine how many numbers were in the rows. The findings by both Danbar, McLeod (1990) and Flowers, Warner, Polansky (1979) showed there was a noticeable gap in time and errors made in the incongruent condition compared to the control and congruent conditions. With their replications, we can conclude that participants in the incongruent group take more time identifying the color and made more errors Haely (1994) spoke of further research on automatic processing. An experiment was conducted on how we process words that we use frequently, words like â€Å"of†, â€Å"the†, etc. It showed that participants found it harder to focus on the individual letters of the words. She gave the participants some English text to read and asked them to circle every letter â€Å"t† that they saw. The findings showed that participants frequently missed letters that were in more common words, words like â€Å"the†, â€Å"then†, etc. When it came to less used words they were able to more easily identify it. These findings showed how we automatically process words. Words that are commonly used daily, when reading them, we see a whole entity, instead of the individual components. This way our brain automatically reads words further supports Stroop’s findings. In our experiment we will attempt to do a modified replication of Stroop’s experiment to see how our results correspond to his. We will have two groups one will be to Name The Color, and the other to Name The Word. Our null hypothesis is that there will be no significance mean difference in time recorded for participants in congruent and incongruent groups from the control group. The alternative hypothesis for our experiment is that the time recorded for participants in the incongruent groups will be significantly more. From the many studies done on Stroop Interference, mostly all suggesting that the incongruent group will take more time to identify the color or word due to Stroop Interference, this is where our alternative hypothesis has come from. Method Participants The participants of this study were all Hunter College students. There were 5 males and 15 females, ages from 19-32 (M=23.50, SD=3.80). 10 of the participants spoke English as a second language. The hours of sleep the participants had varied from 4 -7 hours (M=5.36, SD=1.02). Only one participant had reported vision problems. Ethnicity and socioeconomic status were not taken into consideration. All of the students who participated were from the Psychology 250, class that meets on Mondays Thursdays from 8:00 am to 11:20 AM. The participants will all be compensated in the form of a letter grade from the professor. Materials The testing was taken on a consisting of three conditions. Control (color of word written in black text), congruent (word was written in same color), and incongruent (color of word was different from text), the time it took to answer was recorded by the computer. The results were displayed on the screen and were written on paper with a pen or pencil. The students transferred their results into a shared excel data table which was uploaded on Blackboard. The participants completed the test in a computer lab using computers. Procedure There was informed consent and the students were briefed on the experiment with no deception. The students were all presented with the same instructions. We conducted a within subjects design, to select the order of the participants a counterbalancing method was used to avoid possible sequence effects. Each participant was assigned a number from 1-6. Depending on your assigned number you would start with a different condition. 8 participants started with the Control, 6 participants started with the congruent, and the remaining 6 started with the incongruent condition. 3 participants were chosen at a time and went took the experiment on different computers in three different rooms. Once in the room the participant closed the door, and started with the assigned condition. There was two effects, in one the participant was required to Name The Word, and the other the participant was supposed to Name The Color. Each effect had three conditions. The control condition was black colored text displaying a color. The congruent condition had both had a text corresponding to the color. The incongruent condition had a text of a color displayed in a different color. Words would display and the user was required to click the answer as quickly as possible, after one condition was completed they moved on to the next. After a participant was complete another participant shortly followed to the empty computer following the sequence previously mentioned. We chose to exclude any extreme values from our data any person with values  ± 2.0 SD from the mean Results When the participants were required to Name The Word, in the control condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1494.89, SD= 314.19), in the incongruent condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1545.93, SD=283.30, and in the congruent condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1483.74, SD= 264.03) see Figure 1. In the second effect when the participants were required to Name The Color, in the control condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1661.22, SD=248.22), in the incongruent condition the mean score and standard deviation-n was (M=17.63.41, SD=416.93), and in the congruent condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1400.78, SD=454.59) see Figure 2 . A one way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted twice once to test Name The Color and another to test Name The Word. It was found there was significance difference in mean time for Name The Color group F (1.554, 23.32) = 7.434, p= 0.0055, the post hoc analysis shows inco ngruent had a significant mean time slower at (p p= 0.8642. Our hypothesis was partially correct, our results show that when naming color there is a significant delay in the incongruent condition. While when naming the word there is no significance. Discussion The aim of this study was to do a modified replication of the Stroop effect. We hypothesized that participants would have an increase in interference with more complex tasks. In other words, the mean reaction time will be significantly higher between the incongruent conditions. The results proved our hypothesis partially correct, which was that participants would have an increase in mean time in the incongruent condition. In other words, the mean reaction time will be significantly higher in Naming The Color and Naming The Word incongruent conditions. Our result found significance when participants saw words with different colors and they were required to name the color. There was no significance when they were required to name the word. The findings were somewhat inconsistent with our hypothesis because other previous studies also showed that when the word conflicts with the ink color, people are slower to respond and they are faster if the word agrees with the ink color, (Cohen, Dunbar, McClelland, 1990). So, previous studies agree with our results. Our findings were consistent with the first and second experiment, which was done by Stroop (1935). Our results agree with Stroop’s study because in both studies tested participants in different conditions and the conditions were counterbalanced to avoid order affects. Stroop had found a delay in his second experiment when the color was supposed to be named with different words, and no significant delay in the first experiment. Our replication yielded similar results. In both studies, participants had a task of naming words of colors which were written in a different color (incongruent) and then also naming neutral words (control). Since previous research had already explained that when a word complements its ink color, it leads to the processing of naming the word and the color together and if the color and the word are different it takes a longer time of reaction or response, (Cohen, Dunbar, McClelland, 1990), we can conclude that both studies would have similar findings. Our result was also consistent with the second study done by Algom, Eidels, and Townsend et al. (2009) which found that when a participant is given the task of naming color words that are printed in color, they report the ink color faster if that color word is the name of the color rather than the name of a different color. By doing this study we were able to see that when faced with two tasks at the same time our brain responds to the immediate visible one. So, when we see the word blue written in the color green, we automatically are triggered to name the word, which is blue because that is processed in our brain first. However, if we are told to say the name of the color that the word is written in, like blue written in green, it takes a longer time because now the brain has to overcome the first step in automatically just recognizing the word, we have to voluntarily pay attention to the word and it’s incongruent color to name just the color of the word, which takes a longer time, as explained by Cattell (1886), Posner and Snyder (1975), Shiffrin and Schneider (1977) in their studies. Some limitations of this study was that the sample size was too small (N=20) so it was not representative of the larger population. There is a biased sample, the age group of the participants is fairly narrow. So the results obtained would not be acceptable to generalize the whole population. With a larger sample, the results may have varied. Also, the experiment was done too early in the morning when people are usually tired, sleepy, moody or hungry. So, their moods can have a great effect in how much time they take when testing in the three different conditions. And since, condition 3 took more attention and concentration, certain moods or hunger could have affected their concentration. Future studies should examine look at Stroop test in regards to color and shape.in color-object naming instead of just color-word naming to see if our brain works the same way for both tasks. The sample size should be much larger and there should be more variability. Also, gender should be divided equally because in our study, there were 9 females and only 3 males. Also, future studies should do the Stroop task with other different age groups and compare how one age group’s mean reaction time is different from that of a younger or older age group. References Cattell, J. M. (1886). The time it takes to see and name objects. Mind,  11, 63-65.85). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Cohen, J., Dunbar, K., and McClelland, J. (1990). On the Control of Automatic  Processes: A Parallel Distributed Processing Account of the Stroop Effect. Psychological Review, 97 (3) 332-361. Retrieved from www.psych.stanford.edu/~jlm/papers/CohenDunbarMcC90.pdf. Eidels, A., Townsend, J., Algom, D. (2009). Comparing perception of stroop stimuli infocused versus divided attention paradigms: Evidence for dramatic processing differences Cognition, doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.008. Flowers, J.H., Warner, J.L., Polansky, M.L. (1979). Response and encoding factors in ignoring irrelevant information.Memory Cognition, 7,86-94 Healy, A. (1994). Letter detection: A window to unitization and other cognitive processes in reading text. Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 3, 333-334 Shiffrin, R. M., Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human  information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending,  and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127-190. Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 643-662. Figure1. -. The control condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1494.89, SD= 314.19), in the incongruent condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1545.93, SD=283.30, and in the congruent condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1483.74, SD= 264.03). The bars represent SD from the mean Figure 2.- The control condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1661.22, SD=248.22), in the incongruent condition the mean score and standard deviation-n was (M=17.63.41, SD=416.93), and in the congruent condition the mean score and standard deviation was (M=1400.78, SD=454.59). The â€Å"**† represents a p

Meaningless Lives in 7 Stories :: essays research papers

?If you remain imprisoned in self denial then days, weeks, months, and years, will continue to be wasted.? In the play, 7 stories, Morris Panych exhibits this denial through each character differently. Man, is the only character who understands how meaningless life really is. All of the characters have lives devoid of real meaning or purpose, although they each have developed an absurd point or notion or focus to validate their own existence. In this play, the characters of Charlotte and Rodney, are avoiding the meaninglessness of their lives by having affairs, drinking, and pretending to kill each other to enhance excitement into their life. Charlotte and Rodney are blind to the meaninglessness of their life because they avoid it by having an affair. They are the first characters introduced to Man in the play, and they go to this place to escape from their own corrupt marriages. ?A lovely picture of your lovely wife,? (pg.6) proves the tone of the situation, and the sarcasm in how much Rodney doesn?t care about his wife and family at home. ?I started having another affair. You can?t believe how complicated that is. Cheating on the man you?re cheating with,? (pg.42) as Charlotte expressed how bored she was wither own life, and that this was the only way that she could avoid her own meaningless life. Another way these characters avoid living their life is by drinking continuously, in a way to make the time pass by faster and forget. ?Haven?t you had enough? She loses count after 10 cocktails,? (pg.11) proving to the audience her own self denial, and how she wastes every day. Unfortunately, there are many, who in society today, do the same thing to get out of a situation they?re trying to hide or a difficult time they?re going through. This relates back to their affair which they?re obviously hiding and trying to get through this time in their life. Thirdly, Charlotte and Rodney pretend to kill each other to try to enhance and excite their boring lives. They use this technique as many people do in every day life to not show their true self, because they think that they will be more interesting this way. ?It gives him a tremendous amount of power to hear me gasping for air,? (pg.40) which shows how Rodney gets excitement into his life by this role-playing. ?The world according to Rodney. Life would be so ?