Attitudes Towards Gambling Behaviour Psychology Essay

Attitudes Towards Gambling Behaviour Psychology Essay Gambling has always tended to capture ambiguous views and opinions in society. This project discusses definitions of gambling, causes, models and treatments for those with gambling problems. The primary data is collected from an online questionnaire which was designed based on previous research, drawing particularly from the 2007 British gambling prevalence survey which was conducted in order to gain understanding about the social impact of gambling and the costs and benefits. Only 80 actual responses were recorded successfully. The participants age ranged from 17 52 making the mean age 24. The majority of participants were female with 37.5% being male and 62.5% being female. Due to the ethnic demographic of the area being predominantly White British, 81.2% of responses were from White backgrounds. A 14-item attitude scale was used for the main body of the questionnaire, including 7 positive statements and 7 negative statements. Each statement was given a score from 1 to 5, 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree. In order to gather the correct data for analysis, the scores of the positive statements was swapped in reverse in order to indicate the more approving attitudes for each item. The 14 items are individually scored and added together to create one score. This score is known as the attitude score. As there were 14 items and each rating which was neither agree nor disagree was scored at 3, the mid-point attitude score is 42, anything below this suggests an overall negative response and anything above therefore suggests an overall positive response. Results show a strong correlation pointing towards a positive attitude towards gambling when the mid-point attitude score is 42, most scores show scores above 42 therefore showing a positive* response. There is only one item that received an overall negative response. Introduction The topic to be addressed in this research is about gambling, the different types and forms and how the public perceive gambling behaviour. The research will discuss various views and opinions of social and problem gambling and draw upon different theories as to why people gamble. Other research studies will be evaluated also. Orford (2009) conducted a survey based study using a 14 item attitude scaled which measures the general attitudes towards gambling. This scale was originally created to be used in a British gambling survey in 2007. This particular survey used a typical sample of 8880 partakers who were over 16 years old. It found that in most cases, attitudes towards gambling were negative, the only exception to these attitudes were from those who gambled the most. What is interesting about the results of this survey is that more people saw gambling to be a foolish and dangerous and to be harmful to families and communities, however, the majority of participants were against the prohibition of gambling. This survey has been the basis for the questionnaire in this study and therefore I will use the results of Orford survey to guide me towards the hypothesis for my own questionnaire. The main hypothesis is those who gamble regularly will have positive attitudes towards gambling. Another key hypothesis is those who have ever had a gambling problem will feel empathy and sympathy towards other problem gamblers. Gambling has always tended to capture ambiguous views and opinions in society while drawing in both massive public involvement and an increasing amount of criticism on moral, social and economic grounds (Cornish, 1978). There are many different types and forms of gambling. The main or most popular forms are gaming machines betting bingo casino lotteries and pools. Gaming machines allow the player to participate in a computerised game of chance in exchange for money and in some way the other forms of gambling are not dissimilar, due to either the exchange of money for a game of chance, like in betting and lotteries. Betting, pools and some casino games take some form of logic and or strategy, and therefore is less based on chance or luck, however, they are similar to gaming in regards to the exchange of money for chance (Gamble Aware, 2013). Game play therefore is a good way of describing what gambling is, for example, Herman (1976) articulates how gambling can be understood best through the example of game playing. He uses this instance because game playing is normal and inconspicuously integrated within the rest of gambling culture and society where it mostly occurs. Herman found that a common them e among previous research is that gambling is being studied as an activity that is singled out from the rest of the social society and that gambling as an activity is different to other routine activities. On the contrary, it can be argued that gambling relates to and links with other factors of society; that it is a product of this society and not separate. Therefore game play was a convenient topic for discussion in this instance. Gamblers anonymous (2012) see gambling as any form of wagering or bet placing, either for other people or themselves, whether it is for money or just for fun, where the result cannot be determined or relies on skill or chance. This definition includes any form of gambling no matter how small or insignificant because to a compulsive gambler, anything can be a trigger to resume their addiction. This definition opens up a new perspective on the term gambling. Routine activities that many of us participate in in everyday life may impact a compulsive gamblers life dramatically; this suggests that more should be done to sensitively create public awareness not just for ourselves but of those around us when gambling. A more in-depth definition and explanation of gambling is proposed by Perkins (1950), whom offered the idea that gambling could be segmented into 4 factors, the first being the swapping of money which takes place without any comparable value; the second is the possession of money regulated only by luck or chance; thirdly, the profit of the winners, made possible only by the loss of other people; and finally, the risk involved which is excessive. Using the belief that different forms of gambling all have clear fundamental features in common, people often, rationally, want to know about the connection between involvement in gambling irrespective of type and the descriptions of gamblers, such as age, sex, social class and income. The easiest measures are those whereby samples can be divided into gamblers and non-gamblers on the foundation of whether they take part in any number of gambling activities (Cornish, 1978). When talking about frequency of gambling, Downes et al (1976) found that there were considerable differences when it came to gender. Men seemed to gamble much more often than women and in particular younger men seemed to be more prone to gambling addiction, especially men from upper class and also, the poor. Downes also explains that younger men are more likely to participate in gambling activity. When it comes to explaining and discussing forms of problem gambling it is likely that biological, psychological and sociological processes are involved (Lesieur Rosenthal, Pathological gambling: A review of the literature, 1991). Each theory or model of problem gambling is more likely to only highlight one of these processes. There are numerous ways to define problem and compulsive gamblers. Clinically, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), and categorizes problem and compulsive gambling as an impulse control disorder and uses ten conditions to conduct a diagnosis of this disorder. The ten conditions range from repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling through to illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theft or embezzlement to finance gambling (University of Chicago, 1999). These ten conditions represent three dimensions within problem gambling: loss of control, damage or disruption, and dependence. Research has advocated that people who become easily attached or addicted to activities generally mistrust others around them, this could have stemmed from incidents of social or personal trauma, and therefore, they stay away from seeking help and instead turn to a specific addictive behaviour as a way of distracting them from this trauma, it is a temporary way of relieving distress. From this viewpoint, addiction may have developed as a process of relieving distress; whereas those who have negative views about ideas of histories of trauma are more prone to seek their relief from other places, such as gambling. It was hypothesized by Hoefler Kooyman (1996) that social and personal trauma can be related to problem gambling, and that this association would be arbitrated by perceptions of a lack of social support. One well known model of problem gambling is the social learning model, originating from skinners first (1953) social learning theory. This model assesses gambling as an operant behaviour, meaning a behaviour that can be modified by different consequences and outcomes. Logically, one would assume that in the instance of gambling, money or a prize would be the positive reinforcement factor to initiate addiction; however, more recent research increasing shows the significance of physiological arousal and its properties of reinforcement (Petri Govern, 2003) which can be related to the social learning model. Intriguingly, skinners (1953) study revealed a contradictory argument that a persons behaviour to gamble is a reflection of their prior history reinforcement issues. Skinner posited the hypothesis that beginning with success or beginners luck as some would call it, leads to an increase in the probability that that person would continue to demonstrate gambling behaviours, even when th e reinforcement ratio of winning had declined. Unfortunately, at the time, skinner was only able to test and demonstrate this theory on pigeons and rats. Later research on skinners theory allowed Custer (1984) to test the theory of humans, results showed that the same pattern towards addiction reflected from skinners results on animals, Custers results highlighted the high significance of an early big win towards the progression of a pathological gambling disorder. Although these results demonstrate what this pattern for gambling addiction is, the explanation of why the pattern occurs, still remains, specifically, the question should be why it exists even when reinforcement has gone or is decreased massively, for example, when the gambler hasnt had a win for a long time but still continues to gamble. One explanation of this is what is known as the partial reinforcement extinction effect, this is when an absence of reinforcement creates more persistence of gambling behaviour because the gambler knows that if they continues, eventually they will experience a win, therefore the continuation to gamble even after a long losing streak is eventually reinforced and consequently strengthened by the most recent win (Griffiths, 1995). Another explanation is one that contemplates again the role and idea of arousal. According to Brown (1987) this explanation considers arousal as a key factor of problem gambling, while also relating to physiological views fr om the social learning model. According to browns research, each person has their own unique psychophysiological needs for arousal, for example, one individual may learn to regulate their arousal needs through gambling, therefore in this instance, the loss while gambling would be the main reinforcement of gambling behaviour. Browns (1987) research is not limited to the theory of arousal; he also offered the idea that there are as many as six processes which participate in the development of problem gambling. These six processes are listed according to (Upfold, 2013): Affective states, like anxiety or depression; Cognitive distortions about gambling; Behavioural reinforcement schedules; Social and institutional determinants, like the opportunity to gamble; Subcultural conditions, such as the prevailing attitude toward gambling, and the prevailing values of the individuals social context and reference groups, And; Internal fantasy relationships with personifications such as lady luck, and the gamblers parents. To give a brief explanation, a person first has to be presented to gambling to enable the trigger to be able to express gambling behaviour; this is usually due to social determinants or cultural conditions. To then continue and perhaps escalate the gambling behaviour, arousal and reinforcement is needed. At a point in a gamblers life where all affective and cognitive factors are present, sometimes along with internal fantasy relationships, gambling is the most important task and a priority to that individual (Brown R. , 1987). This explanation that brown offers is broad and in depth, it offers a more complex understanding of problem gambling than the simple model of social learning (Upfold, 2013). For the benefit of evaluation and comparison, the psychodynamic model offers some interesting theories centred on gambling behaviours. This model suggests that problem gambling exists in the psyche; it is proposed by Epstein (1994) that gambling is an unconscious attempt to resolve conflicts within the psyche. Conflicts that exist in the psyche are uncontrollable and it is suggested that gambling is a behaviour performed in order to try to relieve psychological pain and stress. Within this area of exploration, there are a few main psychodynamic oriented theories which can help explain behaviour such as gambling. In these theories there tends to be three key factors, as listed by Griffiths (1995) these are: Gambling is an unconscious substitute for pre-genital libidinal/aggressive outlets. Gambling involves an unconscious desire to lose a wish to be punished in reaction to guilt. Gambling is a medium for continued enactment (but not resolution) of psychological conflict Rosenthal (1994) proposes that most problem gamblers have narcissistic tendencies, along with regular feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy which then leads to their psyche constructing a fictional world where gambling can be perceived as a solution to their pain. This fictional world enables the gambler to learn feelings of power, independence and overall, feel in control and important while they gamble. Rosenthal (1994) also comments that the narcissistic tendencies are vulnerable to fluctuating feelings of depression and arousal. It is noted that by participating in gambling behaviour, these feelings are regulated. An alternative topic of interest in the psychodynamic theory is that of loss, this term includes any form of actual separation from the death of a loved companion to an emotional loss such as self-esteem (Upfold, 2013). To sum up the theory of loss, it is that a universal loss is a significant issue for a problem gambler, resulting in intolerance for losses in the future. Furthermore, the psychodynamic theory suggests that gambling is triggered by an emotional loss but additionally can be a way of avoiding further risks that could cause the emotional pain to increase. The theory suggests that, if a child loses its mother when their psychic development is not yet fully matured, they will then use gambling as a substitute to the love of their mother. An obvious theme throughout the explanation of psychodynamic theories is that it is largely based upon opinions and does not hold a strong factual or scientific content, this is probably due to the concepts of the unconscious and the psych e being untestable as they are not physical objects or places, they are entirely theoretical, most of Rosenthals so called evidence was based upon a few grouped or many individual case studies, therefore cannot be relied upon for accurate scientific research (Cox, Yu, Afifi, Ladouceur, 2005). Granting that the psychodynamic approach isnt reliable in actual research, it is however a good path to look down when thinking about contributions to society, for example, counsellors working with problem gamblers may be led further to understand that there may be unseen, internal processes coinciding with the actual gambling behaviour itself, also, and many gamblers are thought to benefit from counselling which explores their feelings of emotional loss, intimacy and their fantasy ideas about gambling and luck. Many psychodynamic theorists advocate that some gamblers may reunite with these feelings from their unconscious when they stop gambling, thus creating an uncomfortable urge to gamble again (Upfold, 2013). Before moving on to results and statistics about the publics perception of gambling, first it should be discussed as to why the publics perception is important to us and society. First of all, the stances of the public community possibly will influence the capability of local and national governments to apply new, or review existing legislation associated with the control of gambling and gambling activities (Mond, Davidson, McAllister, 2011). In many countries, controlling gambling activities legislation are already under review, for example, in Australia, high stake poker machines will require you to commit to a spending limit in order to play, this disables the player from betting any more money on that particular game that day (Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform, 2011). Secondly, the more accurately public perception is studied, the higher the likelihood of new therapies and treatments becoming available for those with gambling problems and addictions. Additi onally, negative perceptions regarding people with gambling problems may composite negative emotional states such as vulnerability and thus make more people hesitancy to seek help (Mond, Davidson, McAllister, 2011). Treatments In numerous countries around the world, there is growing fascination in early intervention tactics to support people who are suffering from severe gambling-related problems. Key to these thoughts and considerations is whether we are able, as professionals, to recognize problem gambling behaviour and or risky behaviour in risky gambling situations before people officially seek help or treatment (Delfabbro, King, Griffiths, 2012). Literature shows that interventions and treatments for problem gambling and be rather similar to the methods involved in treating other disorders such as drug addiction. Much like drug addiction, a major challenge in treating gambling problems is being able to prevent a relapse. An example to support this is that not many people that discontinue using drugs due to treatment remain sober in the long-term future. Within drug addiction, slips are single episodes of drug use that subsequently lead to a major relapse (Marlatt Gordon, 1985). There are so many factors that can affect the risk of any individual trying to recover from any kind of addiction, from relapsing, these factors can be environmental however, and the majority are personal to each individual. In order to succeed in recovering from an addiction, the development of new skills is essential. These skills should encourage positive behaviour and be integrated into everyday life so that in the event of a relapse; these skills will become easier to perform (Brown, Schubert, Saykally, Evenson, 1986). Many of these skills will be something to substitute trigger activities from their drug addiction, many take up forms of exercise and others turn to spiritual or religious activities in order to sustain their abstinence. At this point it is unknown whether or not the same behaviour patterns will help in problem gamblers to help them quit. It may be important to understand the characteristics of those who want to gain treatment for their gambling. Reasons for this are so that it can help develop the correct effective treatment for those who actually want to stop gambling. It has already been noted that the majority of clinical research on the topic of problem gambling has been either case studies or small sample studies. Data collected from this type of research is not able to be generalised to the wider population. Due to this disadvantage, creating accurate demographic profiles of treatment seekers is problematic; however there has been research that gives a small insight into the most likely candidates. Research from Blackman (1986), Ciarrocchi Richardson (1989) and Volberg (1995)have found that in general, it tends to be white middle-aged men that most commonly seek treatment for their gambling addiction; however, more recently, research is finding an increase in women wanting treatment or advice on gambling probl ems (Moore Volberg, 1998). Many treatment seekers are in their 30s and 40s and have an average or higher educational background. There are many methods to treat problem gambling, the methods derive from many approaches such as psychoanalytical/psychodynamic and behavioural approaches. This discussion of treatment approaches will both reiterate and contradict previous evaluation of the same approaches that have attempted to explain the causes of gambling problems. Psychodynamic professionals look for an understanding of gambling by reflecting upon the motivation influences that come from our unconscious processes; they refer to it as the science of the mind and consider how these processes may be able to oppose cognition and emotion and turn them into a behaviour (Lesieur Blume, 1987). Although psychodynamic therapies and treatments have not proven to gain effective results, they are the most regularly used forms of treatment for problem gambling behaviour at this time. The psychodynamic perspective proposes that problem gambling is an expression or a symptom of an underlying issue within the psyche. The best way of helping gamblers at the moment is by attempting to make them understand their underlying issue and confront it (Rosenthal Rugle, 1994). While many other academics have recorded the significance of psychodynamic treatments relating to addiction, there are no controlled studies or research that investigates the efficiency of this approach in terms of treating a gambling problem. Moving onto a behavioural approach, treatments within this approach are more active, especially looking towards classical and operant conditioning theories as a solution or treatment. One known treatment that is currently used is aversion therapy. This involves a negative stimulus being applied to the patient while they are thinking about or participating in gambling behaviour, the negative stimulus us quite often small electric shock. Obviously, this method has many ethical drawbacks and is used only in severe cases and if the patient is mentally stable to agree to it (Epstein, 1994). A second example of a behaviourist treatment is a simple procedure called imaginable desensitization. It uses two stages in the process. First of all the patient is taught how to relax, once they are in a relaxed state, the behaviourist professional will ask them to imagine some situations related to gambling that they find stimulating. From this, the patient will learn to relax then they find themselves in situations where they are able to gamble, the relaxation will be a substitute to giving in to their addiction (Brown R. , 1987). This approach links closely to some psychodynamic theories, but initially is seen as a cognitive treatment. Methods It was decided that an online questionnaire would be used to conduct this research because they are quick and easy to create and collect data from. Choosing to conduct this questionnaire online proved to be the right choice also as it did not take up lots of time for either the researcher or for the participants. Online questionnaires are effective for a number of reasons, the main one being that they are inexpensive and easy to gain fast responses from a large sample size (Deutskens, Ruyter, Wetzels, Oosterveld, 2004). I designed my questionnaire based on previous research, drawing particularly from the 2007 British gambling prevalence survey which was conducted in order to gain understanding about the social impact of gambling and the costs and benefits (Orford, 2009). General lifestyle and demographic questions are at the beginning of the questionnaire in order to gain data of who is participating in the research. The main body of the questionnaire is the 14-item attitude scale o riginally produced by Orford (2009) who believed that it was vital that his survey about attitudes towards gambling should contain a dependable and legitimate scale that can reliably measure general attitudes towards gambling. This scale uses a straight forward format containing a sequence of statements which express either a specific negative or positive attitude, the participant would rate how much they disagreed or agreed with each statement using a lickert scale. My questionnaire used all 14 items in its attitude scale, 7 positive statements and 7 negative statements. Each statement was given a score from 1 to 5, 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree. In order to gather the correct data for analysis, the scores of the positive statements was swapped in reverse in order to indicate the more approving attitudes for each item. The 14 items are individually scored and added together to create one score. This score is known as the attitude score. As there were 14 items and each rating which was neither agree nor disagree was scored at 3, the mid-point attitude score is 42, anything below this suggests an overall negative response and anything above therefore suggests an overall positive response. The aim was to have a sample size of 100, only 80 actual responses were recorded successfully. The participants age ranged from 17 52 making the mean age 24. The majority of participants were female with 37.5% being male and 62.5% being female. Due to the ethnic demographic of the area being predominantly White British, 81.2% of responses were from White backgrounds. The sample was collected online via email, Facebook and twitter accounts along with a description of the study and its purposes. None of the participants are excluded as all relevant questions were answered in every response. To eliminate social desirability, whereby the participant might purposely give the answers the researcher is looking for, the questionnaire aims were distorted slightly by asking general exercise, drinking and diet questions along with gambling questions. The second part of the questionnaire will be the main part used for analysis; this section will state that it is a control group questionnaire about gambling. The title of the questionnaire was explained to be assessing how the public perceive social behaviours, although the questionnaire aim was to measure how the public perceive only gambling behaviours. Ethical situations were taken into consideration in this instance and it was decided that slightly deceiving participants was needed in order to enable the study to gain more realistic results and validity. The next part of the questionnaire measured if each participant had a gambling problem, ever had a gambling problem or if theyre parents or guardians ever had a gambling problem, the results from this section are to be taken into consideration when analysing the final question. The final question is a vignette about a young males gambling problem and some trouble that gambling had got him into; participants were given a list of attitudes and feelings such as Anger sympathy empathy and were asked if they blamed the characters parents or himself. This section is relevant because those with positive attitudes towards gambling may relate to the character and therefore give a positive or sympathetic attitude towards the situation. A recent study about profiling problem gamblers shows that there is near enough a 50/50 weighting of female problem gamblers to female social gamblers. Also, there are a considerably higher amount of males at risk to problem gambling than when compared to women. When analysing demographic results, findings show that there was a significantly lower amount of problem gamblers in the 65 years and over age category. The second most at risk age group was found, in this case to be 35 49 year olds, leaving the most at risk category to be the 18 24 year olds (Department Of Justice, 2013). Demographic Analysis and Results The following results present demographic data collected from the primary survey conducted. The data contains the total number of responses returned for all questions and the representative percentage of responses for each modality available. If there were any non-responses to any questions, this will not be included in the charts and tables. If the value of representative responses is 0, this will not show in the charts, however will be shown in the tables. This chart shows the representative percentage age of all participants. Age ranges Frequencies % representative From 17 to 20 29 36.2% From 21 to 29 40 50.0% From 30 to 37 3 3.8% 38 and over 8 10.0% Total 80 100.0% This chart shows the representative percentage gender of all participants. Gender modality Frequencies % Representative Male 30 37.5% Female 50 62.5% Total 80 100.0% Etiological reports of problem gambling have commonly concentrated on men from Gamblers Anonymous (GA) men from the Veterans Administration hospital system (Lesieur Blume, 1987) Therefore, women are diagnostically underrepresented also. Numerous initial studies that did include women used small samples or case studies from Gamblers Anonymous (Lesieur Blume, 1991). These results show a much higher percentage of female respondents than men. Thus, it enables this type of research to be analysed for gender specific data if needed. This chart shows the representative percentage ethnicity of all participants. The table below shows all the modalities available for selection within the survey. Ethnicity modality Frequencies % Representative White 65 81.2% Mixed white and black Caribbean 7 8.8% Mixed white and black African 1 1.2% Mixed white and Asian 0 0.0% Any other mixed background 2 2.5% Asian indian 3 3.8% Asian Pakistani 0 0.0% Asian Bangladeshi 0 0.0% Any other Asian background 0 0.0% Black Caribbean 1 1.2% Black African 0 0.0% Any other black background 1 1.2% Chinese 0 0.0% Any other ethnic group 0 0.0% Total 80 100.0% Results frequency score and attitude score table The results shown in the table below indicates the response count to each modality and also to each option within that modality. The frequencies are shown to indicate how many responses were given, however any non-responses are not shown in the table. In place of a percentage score, an attitude score is present. An explanation of the attitude scores is presented below the table. Strongly agree agree neither agree nor disagree

Micro: Learning and Lesson Plan Essay

1.0 Introduction On 6 November 2012, corresponding to the last Tuesday, I have been conducting microteaching trials on the topic of learning â€Å"Needs and Wants† under chapter one, the Commerce Syllabus Form 4, on 30 prospective teachers who act as students in Form 4. My final microteaching was held on 3rd January 2013 with the same topic and objectives. This microteaching was carried out for 15 minutes under the supervision of my lecturers, Mr. Suthagar a / l Narasuman. Microteaching trial is compulsory for all prospective teachers who took this course. In determining the rotation and chapter that should be taught in microteaching sessions was determined by voting under the supervision of our chief, Nor Hafriza. We just called her as Fiza. She was the head that is very responsible and dedicated in solving our problems related to this course. After the voting, I found that I’m very fortunate to have had a first turn and first subtopic in syllabus Perdagangan Form 4 for trial and final session. After a few weeks, Fiza has received approval from our lecturer, Mr. Suthagar to choose our own sub-topics that will be taught during microteaching. This is very nice but I decided to keep the title was elected during the voting session. 2.0 Initial Feelings / Reaction I would be lying if I said that the microteaching was easy. To be honest, I was extremely nervous when it was assigned, not because of the work that would be required to get it done, but because of the actual teaching the class. I was more afraid to teach my own friends than the actual high school class that I have and will be assigned to. The reasoning behind this is that it is always said that standing up in front of one’s peers is quite possibly the hardest thing to do. They are the people that are around you the most and know you I bit more personally than say, a class. Yes, a class does get to know you as well, but it is not on the same level as in this microteaching. There is some sort of connection a class has because we all know exactly what to expect from one another and we judge, we cannot help it, it just happens. We may not necessarily be trying to judge, but it is in our nature and it should be when it comes to something like microteaching because we are all trying to learn a little something from one another. For trial, I have prepared a lesson plan that teacher-centred, where as I give a clear explanation of human needs and desires as well as the differences between them. After that, the students are asked to answer an exercise provided. After a few minutes, I choose students at random to give the right answer orally. I was the first students to run this trial and after hearing the comments from Mr. Suthagar, it clearly shows that my lack was regarding involvement of students in the process of teaching and learning. When beginning this trial microteaching journey, the first hurdle that I had to jump over was the dreaded lesson plans. Before this class, I had an experience to write a lesson plan during me as a backup teacher. However, during that time I’m just write the lesson plan based on my understanding and without the trustworthy knowledge. When talking about the lesson, I had practiced it in front of my roommates and some friends and I knew it just was not going to be the same as in the class. One of the biggest things that I had to worry about besides the discipline issue was my time management. I did not want to get into a situation where I would have so much time left over and then have nothing to talk about. So, my lesson did end up going as planned and I actually had more stuff that I could have said if the buzzer had not gone off. Other friends who are implemented their trial on the first day which is together with me also facing a lack and problem more or less the same. However, there is also a classmate who is able to provide activities that engage students and it is a very good example and can be an example for me in the future. Friends who implement micro teaching trial in the next weeks started to change and show the improvement to teach using students centred approach. However there is still a lack of attentive in a few friends and they are still continuing their micro teaching trial based on teacher-centred approach. 3.0 Process of Designing and Delivering Lesson Based on my experience, the process in designing to delivering my lesson is not too complicated. For me, the most important things were the lesson plan and activities that I will conduct during the microteaching. I realize that there is a strategy to planning a lesson. There were certain aspects of the lesson plan, such as the goals and objectives that helped me focus on my lesson, as well as making sure that each activity I had planned was relevant and effective. Writing a lesson plan gave me a chance to think through each aspect and make sure that there were no holes. Even though I felt prepared going into the classroom, there is only so much planning and preparation that is possible. There will always be things that will come up, such as random student responses or questions that I will not have prepared for. Learning how to deal with situations such as those will come with time and experience. Generally, there is many benefit of having a lesson plan. It allows you to manage your time, effort and resources efficiently. It also provides the teacher many ways to keep the teaching process not monotonous and redundant. We need to keep in mind that the attention of our students and pupils is just equivalent to half of their age and a lesson is the best way to keep the interests of students and pupils interests all throughout. Since it is like a script in movies, lesson plans makes teaching mundane and easy and it makes you organized whilst teaching. We can able to determine when to insert icebreakers and interesting facts and lessons to keep our student and pupils glued to their lessons. Other than that, the variations in the activities are easily whipped out which will benefit our students. Bear in mind that we are dealing with a class that has multiple intelligent and different activities will cater to all types of students and pupils. Lesson plans will easily help you to achieve your goals and objectives, and same can be said on the part of your students or pupils. It also gives us a reality check of our everyday performance and we can improve the habit and attitude of our students and our teachi ng skills. Lesson plans is vital in teaching, it gives us the guide we need to pull through. Bear in mind that teaching is a difficult since we are dealing with children or teenagers with raw skills, knowledge, and wisdom. It clearly shows that with lesson plans we will be able to impart the things they need to do the best of our abilities. When we are new to teaching, a detailed lesson plan is essential because it gives us confidence. By thinking of all the steps, all the procedures, all the materials needed, all the types of interactions that might take place along with predicting the time each activity will last, we get the feeling of being ready for the lesson. By thoroughly planning a lesson, we reduce the chances of being caught off-guard, something that can be very frustrating to any teacher, but that can be especially difficult to those new to the job. No matter how long we’ve been teaching, it’s always important to ask ourselves questions like these as we plan, reflect an d work to plan a lesson. What will my students have learned after this lesson is over? What will they be able to do by the end of it that they weren’t able to do before? How will this lesson help them progress in their learning? Most important, how will I help them to get there? When planning lessons, besides considering what I will talk about, how I will talk about it and what materials I will use as I talk about it, I try to predict possible difficulties and questions the students might have so I can be ready to address those. This helps me fit the lesson within the bigger picture of the term and the content I am supposed to cover. I reflect on the balance between types of activities and types of learners. That will makes me calmer before teaching. More than planned, I am prepared. In completing the lesson plan, I’m choosing to use a backward mapping design. Backward design is a method of designing educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing instructional methods and forms of asse ssment. Backward design of curriculum typically involves three stages which are identify the results desired, determine acceptable levels of evidence that support that the desired results have occurred and design activities that will make desired results happen. Backward design challenges â€Å"traditional† methods of curriculum planning. In traditional curriculum planning, a list of content that will be taught is created and/or selected. In backward design, I’m as a future educator starts with goals, creates or plans out assessments and finally makes lesson. My goals subtopic of needs and wants were express meaning of needs and wants, distinguish between needs and wants and sketch the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Supporters of backward design liken the process to using a â€Å"road map†. In this case, the destination is chosen first and then the road map is used to plan the trip to the desired destination. In contrast, in traditional curriculum planning there is no formal destination identified before the journey begins. The idea in backward design is to teach toward the â€Å"end point† or learning goals, which typically ensures that content taught remains focused and organized. This, in turn, aims at promoting better understanding of the content or processes to be learned for students. I’m able to focus on addressing what the students need to learn, what data can be collected to show that the students have learned the desired outcomes and how to ensure the students will learn. 4.0 Personal Reflection In my opinion, the skills I used during my session were regarding voice projection, communication and classroom management. I’m asked a few friends about my voice projection and I get a positive answer that my voice is very clear. I know that teacher’s voice needs to be effective in a variety of circumstances. As a teacher, I need to be audible. Students at the back of the class must be able to hear my voice as well as those at the front. I need a voice which projects well and appropriately in all these circumstances and which is also pleasant to listen to. I think that teachers do not have to shout to be heard or to make students understood. Good voice projection is more important than volume. Speaking too softly or unpleasantly loudly is both irritating and unhelpful for students. Expressive voices, used in an imaginative way, draw students in and make them want to pay attention and listen. If such a voice has quality and liveliness, they will be motivated to attend, participate and learn. Regarding communication skills, I’m sure that I’m good in that during my microteaching session because I’m able to explain the content of lesson using methods that my students can understand. Communication can help me better interact with students. A teacher’s ability to communicate on all levels will help students who progress at different paces. Actually, I think that I’m cannot fully utilize my teaching skills because the time provided only 15 minutes. However, I’m already trying my best to complete my microteaching. As an attention grabber or induction set, I’m using my bridal cloth and a medicine to show interconnection between needs and wants. During the microteaching session, I have seen that i can attract my students’ attention to the lesson. I’m prepared two activities to be completed in 15 minutes includes my intro and summaries. The activities were presentation that I’m already gives a week before and a game that I called as ‘spontan’. During the time provided, I’m able to complete all activities as planned and give a written exercise regarding the topic lesson. In completing this session, I’m choosing cooperative learning. Cooperative learning, which will be the primary focus of the class, is a specific kind of collaborative learning. In cooperative learning, students work together in small groups on a structured activity. They are individually accountable for their work, and the work of the group as a whole is also assessed. Cooperative groups work face-to-face and learn to work as a team. In small groups, students can share strengths and also develop their weaker skills. They develop their interpersonal skills. They learn to deal with conflict. When cooperative groups are guided by clear objectives, students engage in numerous activities that improve their understanding of subjects explored. In order to create an environment in which cooperative learning can take place, three things are necessary. First, students need to feel safe, but also challenged. Second, groups need to be small enough that everyone can contribute. Third, the task students’ work together on must be clearly defined. The cooperative and collaborative learning techniques presented here should help make this possible for teachers. The most important things that influence my teaching design and delivery were about instructional strategies and the induction set in order to attract students’ attention. I’m realizing that in this century, I need to focus more on students. So, I must prepare a lesson plan or activities that used students centred instructional strategies. Student-centred teaching methods shift the focus of activity from the teacher to the learners. Student-centred methods have repeatedly been shown to be superior to the traditional teacher-centred approach to instruction, a conclusion that applies whether the assessed outcome is short-term mastery, long-term retention, or depth of understanding of course material, acquisition of critical thinking or creative problem-solving skills, formation of posit ive attitudes toward the subject being taught or level of confidence in knowledge or skills. Induction set also importance in teaching. I know that set induction is the important part those teachers always do at the beginning of teaching and learning process. The objective of set induction is to encourage the students to attract and make them concentrate their attention towards teacher’s presentation. The most effective ways to present set induction by using teaching aids, related situation with the lesson, motivation, questioning technique, revision of related topic and much more. Then, we can relate with the topic that we will teach them at that day. In determine good set induction we must know it is suitable with their ability and also experience. Also the activity ought to relate closely to the lesson content that follows. 5.0 Conclusion From this microteaching experience, I have learned more than I could imagine. It gave me the practice I needed in constructing lesson plans and finally getting up in front of the class and teaching not just reading off a project. I am more aware of watching out for discipline issues because they are constantly in the back of my mind and I am constantly looking out for them. I feel that I am much more confident going my practicum now that I have completed the microteaching and it has allowed me to start thinking about what to expect in the class. I have come to find out that when in a classroom, anything is possible, so I have to be ready. References Burden, P. R., & Byrd, D. M. (2013). Methods for Effective Teaching (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall. Cruickshank, D.R.; Bainer, D.L. and Metcalf, K.K. (1999). The Act of Teaching, 2nd Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill College

Indian Financial System

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT ON INDIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM & SOURCES OF LONG TERM AND SHORT TERM FINANCES SUBMITTED BY, PREMJITH. A P10144 PGDM 2010-12 INDIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM The financial system in india refers to the system of borrowing and lending of funds or the demand for and the supply of funds of all individuals, institutions, companies and of the government.Commonly the Indian financial system is classified into: * Industrial finance: funds required for the conduct of industry and trade * Agricultural finance: funds needed and supplied for the conduct of agriculture and allied activity * Development finance: funds needed for development; actually it includes both industrial finance and agricultural finance * Government finance: relates to the demand for a nd supply of funds to meet government expenditure The mobilization of savings and the effective distribution of the savings among all those who demand the funds for investment purposes. The banking system, the insurance companies, mutual funds, investment funds and other institutions which promote savings among the public, collect their savings and transfer them to the actual investors * The investor in the country composed of individuals investors, industrial investors, industrial and trading companies and the government, these enters in the financial system as borrowers. FUNCTIONS OF INDIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM The Indian financial system performs a crucial role in economic development of india through saving investment process also known as capital formation. Sometimes it is also calls financial market.The purpose of financial market is to mobile savings efficiently and allocates the same efficiency among the ultimate users of funds, ie: investors * Increase in savings, that is resources that are would have been normally used for consumption purposes should be released for other purposes. * Mobilization of savings – domestic savings collected by banking and financial institutions and placed at disposal of actual investors; and * Investment proper, which is the production of capital goods. COMPOSITION OF THE INDIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM The Indian money market is the market in which short term funds are borrowed and lent.The capital market in india on the other hand, is the market for medium- term and long term funds. Reserve bank of india Organized sector Sub Market Unorganized sector Public sector banks Private sector banks NBFC IDFC, GIC, LIC Call money T- Bills Certificate for Deposit Commercial Papers SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM FUNDS SHARES Shares comes in the Long term funds. A share is a unit of capital of the company. It has a definite face value. It represents ownership rights of their holders. Buyers of shares are called shareholder and they are legal owners of the firm whose shares they hold.Each shareholder invest their money in the shares of a company in exception of a return on their investment capital. The return of shareholder consists of dividend and capital g ain. Share holder make capital gain or (loss) by selling their share. Each share carries a distinct number. Shares are transferable units. Shareholders are of two type ORDINARY and PREFERENCE shareholders. Preference share: These shares have preference over the ordinary shares in terms of payment of dividend and repayment of capital if company is wound up. They may be issued with or without a maturity period.REDEEMABLE PREFERENCE SHARE are shares with maturity and IRREDEEMABLE PREFERENCE SHARES without any maturity. The holder of preference shares get dividend at a fixed rate. With regards to dividend, preference shares may be issued with or without cumulative features. In the case of CUMULATIVE PREFERENCE SHARES unpaid dividends accumulate and are payable in the future. Dividends in arrears do not accumulate in the case of NON CUMULATIVE PREFERENCE SHARES. Features of Preference share Claim on income and assets: preference share is a senior security as compared to ordinary share.It has a prior claim on the company’s income in the sense that the company must first pay preference share dividend before paying the ordinary dividend. Fixed dividend: The dividend rate are fixed in the case of preferences share, and preference dividend are not tax deductable. Cumulative dividend: that all past unpaid dividend be paid before the ordinary dividends are paid. Ordinary Shares: represents the ownership position in a company. The holders of ordinary shares called shareholders are the legal owners of the company. Ordinary shares are the sources of permanent capital since they do not have a maturity date.However, the ordinay shareholders are entitled to receive dividends. The amount or rate of dividends are not fixed. An ordinary share is called variable income security. Being the owner the company, shareholders bear the risk of ownership; they are entitled to dividends after the income claims of others have been satisfied. Similarly, when the company is wound up, th ey can exercise their claim on assets after the claims of other suppliers of capital have been met. Features of Ordinary shares: Claims on income: Ordinary shareholders have a residual ownership claim.They have a claim to the residual income, which is earnings available for ordinary shareholder after paying expenses, interest charges, taxes and preference dividend. Claim on asset: Ordinary shareholder have residual claim on company asset in case of liquidation. Voting rights: Ordinary shareholder are required to vote on a number of important matters. The most significant proposals include: election of directors and change in memorandum of association. RIGHTS ISSUE When company distributes all earnings to shareholders, then, it can reacquire new capital from the same sources by issuing new shares called rights shares.BONDS A bond is a long term debt instrument or security. Bonds issued by the government do not have any risk of defaults. The private sector companies also issue bonds, which are called debentures. A company can issue secured and unsecured debenture. In case of bonds and debentures, the rate of interest is generally fixed and known to investors. Features of Bonds * Face value is the par value. A bond is generally issued at a par value of Rs:100 or Rs:1000, and interest in paid on face value. * Interest rate is fixed and known to bondholders.Interest paid on a bond is tax deductable. Interest rate is called coupon rate. * Maturity bond is generally issued for a specified period of time. It is repaid on maturity. * Redemption value The value that a bondholder will get on maturity is called redemption or maturity value. A bond may be redeemed at par or at premium or at discount. * Market value A bond may be traded in a stock exchange. The price at which it is currently sold or bought is called the market value of the bond. Market value may be different from par value or redemption value.Bonds may be classified into three (1) Bond with maturity (2) Pur e discount bonds (3) Perpetual bonds Bond with maturity The companies issue bonds that specify the interest rate and the maturity period. Pure discount bonds These bonds do not carry an explicit rate of interest. It provides for the payment lump sum amount at a future date in exchange for the current price of bond. Perpetual bonds These bonds are also consols, has an indefinite life and therefore, it has no maturity value. Types of Debentures * Convertible debenture (CD) * Non convertible debenture (NCD) * Fully convertible debenture (FCD) * Partly convertible debenture (PCD)WARRANTS A warrant entitles the purchaser to buy a fixed number of ordinary shares at a particular price during a specified time period. Warrants are generally issued along with debentures as sweeteners. Warrants are used in conjunction with ordinary or preference shares. Characteristics of Warrants Exercise price of a warrant is the price at which its holder can purchase the issuing firms ordinary shares. Exerc ise ratio states the number of ordinary shares that can be purchased at the exercise per warrants. Expiration date is the date when the option to buy ordinary shares in exchange of warrants expires.Detachability the warrant can either be a detachable or non detachable. Detachable warrants Warrant can be sold separately from debentures to which it is originally attached Non detachable warrants cannot be sold separately from the debenture to which it was originally attached. Some of the other methods used for raising long term capitals, * CUMULATIVE CONVERTIBLE PREFERNCE SHARE * DERIVATIVE SECURITIES * BORROWING FROM FINANCIAL INSTITUTION (BANKS) SHORT TERM FUNDS It is the market for near money, or it is the market for lending and borrowing of short funds.It is the market for lending and borrowing short term surplus investible funds of banks and other financial institution are demanded by borrowers comprising individual companies and the government. The composition of Indian money mar ket consist of Call money market One important submarket of the Indian money market is the Call money market, which is the market for very short term funds. This market is also known as money at call and short notice. This market has two segments (a) the call market or overnight market and (b) short notice market. The rate at which unds are borrowed and lent in this market is called the call money market. Call money rates are market determined by demand and supply of short term funds. The public sector banks account for about 80% for the demand and foreign banks and Indian private sector banks account for the balance of 20% of borrowings. NBFC’s like IDBI, GIC, LIC are call money market lenders. Bill market in India The bill market ir the discount market is the most important part of the money market where short bills normally up to 90days are bought and sold. The bill market is further subdivided into commercial bill market and treasury bill market.The 91 day treasury bills are the most common ways the government of india raises funds for the short period. Government has also introduced the 182 day T-Bills and 364 day T-bills, In 1997 government introduced 14 day T-Bill. Dated government securities The government of india has also decided to sell dated securities on an auction basis. The purpose of this government decision is: * To develop dated securities as a monetary instrument with flexible yields * To provide financial instrument to suit investors expectation, and * To meet Government needs directly from the market.Repo and reverse repos Repos are now a regular feature of RBI’s market operations, If the banking system experience liquidity shortage, then RBI comes to assist banking system by repurchasing government securities. When the government securities are repurchased from the market, payment is made by RBI to commercial banks and this adds to their liquidity and enables them to expand their credit to industry and trade. Reverse repo is to sell dated securities through auction at fixed cut off rate of interest.The objective is to provide short term avenue to banks to park their surplus funds. Certificate of Deposits (CD) The CD’s are another important money market instrument. They were issued by banks in multiples of Rs:25 lakhs to expand the investor base of CD’s, the min: value was reduced and is presently Rs: 1 lakhs. The maturity is between 3 months and one year. CD ‘s are freely transferable after 45 days after the date of issue. CD’s became immediately popular with banks for raising resources at competitive rates of interest.Commercial papers (CP) The commercial papers are issued by companies with networth of Rs 10 crores, later reduced to Rs: 5 crores. The CP is issued multiples of Rs. 25 lakhs subject to minimum issue of Rs 1 crore. The maturity of Cp is between 3 to 6 months. The purpose of introducing CP is to enable high level corporate borrowers to diversify their source of s hort term borrowings on the one hand and provide an additional instrument to the banks and financial instrument in the money market.Reference: Financial Management by I M Pandey

Marketing Segmentation - 1000 Words

Marketing segmentation Market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into dissimilar, distinctive groups of people who have similar needs to be satisfied, alike wants and behavior, or might want some products and services. Markets can be divided depending on a number of wide –ranging criteria. They are: geographic (region, county, climate etc.), demographic (age, gender, family size, religion) psychographic (personality, life style, attitude etc.) behavioral (benefit sought, brand loyalty, decision making until etc.) According to Philip Kotler, â€Å"Market Segmentation is the subdividing of market into homogeneous sub-set of customers, where any subset may conceivably be selected as market target to be reached with distinct†¦show more content†¦The handheld device was introduced to the American consumer on January, 2007 and made available on June 29 the same year through ATT cellular provider. Initially it was only available on signing 1 or 2 year contract. The same approach i s decided to make everywhere where Apple has decided to make the iPhone available. Apple has taken marketing challenge strategy attacking the market leaders Blackberry, Palm and Nokia. It has launched an attack right after the announcement of the iPhone in Steve Jobs’ keynote speech in 2007’s MacWorld. On the other hand, Apple has always a customer-centered orientation spotting the growing market for smartphones. It’s segmentation market: 1) Geographic. Officially, Apple iPhone is sold only in most profitable markets, which generates the highest value of revenue. They are: United States, most part of Western Europe, Asia-Pacific. Here, in Kazakhstan approximately every third smartphone is an iPhone, still officially we will not see it soon due to low population level. 2) Demographic. For example, factory unlocked (free-sim) iPhone costs a person from approximately $600 what is quite expensive, however, Apple gives a chance to own modern smartphone even for â€Å"low income customers† selling them with contract, which implies that you pay around $100 for the phone itself, and pay a fixed price for calls around $30 on a monthly basis for two years. With the appearance of new iPhone, the old one is still in the Apple store, furthermore,Show MoreRelatedSegmentation And Marketing : Segmentation Essay2969 Words   |  12 PagesQuestion 1 Segmentation means to divide the marketplace into parts or segments which are definable, accessible, actionable and profitable and have a growth potential. In other word it is a technique used to enable a business to better target its products to the right customers by identifying the specific needs and wants of customer groups and then using those insights into providing products and services which meet customer needs. 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