How To Understand Cross-Cultural Analysis

Cross-cultural analysis could be a very perplexing field to understand with many different viewpoints, aims and concepts. The origins of cross-cultural analysis in the 19th century world of colonialism was strongly grounded in the concept of cultural evolution, which claimed that all societies progress through an identical series of distinct evolutionary stages.

The origin of the word culture comes from the Latin verb colere = "tend, guard, cultivate, till". This concept is a human construct rather than a product of nature. The use of the English word in the sense of "cultivation through education" is first recorded in 1510. The use of the word to mean "the intellectual side of civilization" is from 1805; that of "collective customs and achievements of a people" is from 1867. The term Culture shock was first used in 1940.

How do we define culture?

How To Understand Cross-Cultural Analysis

There are literally hundreds of different definitions as writers have attempted to provide the all-encompassing definition.

Culture consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies and symbols. It has played a crucial role in human evolution, allowing human beings to adapt the environment to their own purposes rather than depend solely on natural selection to achieve adaptive success. Every human society has its own particular culture, or sociocultural system. (Adapted from source: Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Generally culture can be seen as consisting of three elements:

Values - Values are ideas that tell what in life is considered important. Norms - Norms consists of expectations of how people should behave in different situations. Artefacts - Things or material culture - reflects the culture's values and norms but are tangible and manufactured by man.

Origins and evolution of Cross-cultural analysis
The first cross-cultural analyzes done in the West, were by anthropologists like Edward Burnett Tylor and Lewis H Morgan in the 19th century. Anthropology and Social Anthropology have come a long way since the belief in a gradual climb from stages of lower savagery to civilization, epitomized by Victorian England. Nowadays the concept of "culture" is in part a reaction against such earlier Western concepts and anthropologists argue that culture is "human nature," and that all people have a capacity to classify experiences, encode classifications symbolically and communicate such abstractions to others.

Typically anthropologists and social scientists tend to study people and human behavior among exotic tribes and cultures living in far off places rather than do field work among white-collared literate adults in modern cities. Advances in communication and technology and socio-political changes started transforming the modern workplace yet there were no guidelines based on research to help people interact with other people from other cultures. To address this gap arose the discipline of cross-cultural analysis or cross-cultural communication. The main theories of cross-cultural communication draw from the fields of anthropology, sociology, communication and psychology and are based on value differences among cultures. Edward T. Hall, Geert Hofstede, Fons Trompenaars, Shalom Schwartz and Clifford Geertz are some of the major contributors in this field.

How the social sciences study and analyze culture

Cultural anthropologists focus on symbolic culture whereas archaeologists focus on material and tangible culture. Sociobiologists study instinctive behavior in trying to explain the similarities, rather than the differences between cultures. They believe that human behavior cannot be satisfactorily explained entirely by 'cultural', 'environmental' or 'ethnic' factors. Some sociobiologists try to understand the many aspects of culture in the light of the concept of the meme, first introduced by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins suggests the existence of units of culture - memes - roughly analogous to genes in evolutionary biology. Although this view has gained some popular currency, other anthropologists generally reject it.

Different types of cross-cultural comparison methods

Nowadays there are many types of Cross-cultural comparisons. One method is comparison of case studies. Controlled comparison among variants of a common derivation is another form of comparison. Typically anthropologists and other social scientists favor the third type called Cross-cultural studies, which uses field data from many societies to examine the scope of human behaviour and to test hypotheses about human behavior and culture.

Controlled comparison examines similar characteristics of a few societies while cross-cultural studies uses a sufficiently large sample that statistical analysis can be made to show relationships or lack of relationships between certain traits in question. The anthropological method of holocultural analysis or worldwide cross-cultural analysis is designed to test or develop a proposition through the statistical analysis of data on a sample of ten or more non literate societies from three or more geographical regions of the world. In this approach, cultural traits are taken out of the context of the whole culture and are compared with cultural traits in widely diverse cultures to determine patterns of regularities and differences within the broad base of the study.

Aims of cross-cultural analysis

Cross-cultural communication or inter cultural communication looks at how people from different cultural backgrounds try to communicate. It also tries to produce some guidelines, which help people from different cultures to better communicate with each other.

Culture has an interpretative function for the members of a group, which share that particular culture. Although all members of a group or society might share their culture, expressions of culture-resultant behaviour are modified by the individuals' personality, upbringing and life-experience to a considerable degree. Cross-cultural analysis aims at harnessing this utilitarian function of culture as a tool for increasing human adaptation and improving communication.

Cross-cultural management is seen as a discipline of international management focusing on cultural encounters, which aims to discover tools to handle cultural differences seen as sources of conflict or miscommunication.

How laypersons see culture

It is a daunting challenge to convey the findings of research and field work and discuss cross-cultural issues in diverse contexts such as corporate culture, workplace culture and inter cultural competency as laypeople tend to use the word 'culture' to refer to something refined, artistic and exclusive to a certain group of "artists" who function in a separate sphere than ordinary people in the workplace. Some typical allusions to culture:

Culture is the section in the newspaper where they review theatre, dance performances or write book reviews etc.

Culture is what parents teach their kids and grandparents teach their grandchildren.

"You don't have any culture," is what people say to you when you put your feet on the table at lunchtime or spit in front of guests.

"They just have a different culture," people say about those whose behaviour they don't understand but have to tolerate.

Different models of cross-cultural analysis

There are many models of cross-cultural analysis currently valid. The 'Iceberg' and the 'Onion' models are widely known. The popular 'Iceberg model' of culture developed by Selfridge and Sokolik, 1975 and W.L. French and C.H. Bell in 1979, identifies a visible area consisting of behaviour or clothing or symbols and artifacts of some form and a level of values or an invisible level.

Trying to define as complex a phenomenon as culture with just two layers proved quite a challenge and the 'Onion' model arose. Geert Hofstede (1991) proposed a set of four layers, each of which includes the lower level or is a result of the lower level. According to this view, 'culture' is like an onion that can be peeled, layer-by layer to reveal the content. Hofstede sees culture as "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another."

Cross-cultural analysis often plots 'dimensions' such as orientation to time, space, communication, competitiveness, power etc., as complimentary pairs of attributes and different cultures are positioned in a continuum between these.

Hofstede dimensions to distinguish between cultures

The five dimensions Hofstede uses to distinguish between national cultures are:

Power distance, which measures the extent to which members of society accept how power is distributed unequally in that society. Individualism tells how people look after themselves and their immediate family only in contrast with Collectivism, where people belong to in-groups (families, clans or organizations) who look after them in exchange for loyalty. The dominant values of Masculinity, focussing on achievement and material success are contrasted with those of Femininity, which focus on caring for others and quality of life. Uncertainty avoidance measures the extent to which people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid these situations. Confucian dynamism. This Long-term versus Short-term Orientation measured the fostering of virtues related to the past, i.e., respect for tradition, importance of keeping face and thrift.

Trompenaars dimensions to distinguish between cultures
Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) adopt a similar onion-like model of culture. However, their model expands the core level of the very basic two-layered model, rather than the outer level. In their view, culture is made up of basic assumptions at the core level. These 'basic assumptions' are somewhat similar to 'values' in the Hofstede model.

Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner use seven dimensions for their model of culture:

Universalism vs Particularism (what is more important - rules or relationships?) Individualism vs Communitarianism (do we function in a group or as an individual?) Neutral vs Emotional (do we display our emotions or keep them in check?) Specific vs Diffuse (how far do we get involved?) Achievement vs Ascription (do we have to prove ourselves to gain status or is it given to us just because we are a part of a structure?) Attitude to Time Past- / present- / future-orientatedness
Sequential time vs Synchronic time(do we do things one at a time or several things at once?)

Criticism of current models
One of the weaknesses of cross-cultural analysis has been the inability to transcend the tendency to equalize culture with the concept of the nation state. A nation state is a political unit consisting of an autonomous state inhabited predominantly by a people sharing a common culture, history, and language or languages. In real life, cultures do not have strict physical boundaries and borders like nation states. Its expression and even core beliefs can assume many permutations and combinations as we move across distances.

There is some criticism in the field that this approach is out of phase with global business today, with transnational companies facing the challenges of the management of global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams, interacting and collaborating across boundaries using new communication technologies.

Some writers like Nigel Holden (2001) suggest an alternative approach, which acknowledges the growing complexity of inter- and intra-organizational connections and identities, and offers theoretical concepts to think about organizations and multiple cultures in a globalizing business context.

In spite of all the shortcomings and criticisms faced by the Hofstede model, it is very much favoured by trainers and researchers. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, it is a wonderful and easy to use tool to quantify cultural differences so that they can be discussed. Discussing and debating differences is after all the main method of training and learning. Secondly, Hofstede's research at IBM was conducted in the workplace, so Hofstede tools brings cross-cultural analysis closer to the business side of the workplace, away from anthropology, which is a matter for universities.

Bibliography and suggested reading:

Dawkins, Richard (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press French, W.L. and C.H. Bell (1979). Organization development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Hofstede, Geert "Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind", 1997 Holden, Nigel 2001, Cross-Cultural Management: A Knowledge Management Perspective, Financial Times Management

How To Understand Cross-Cultural Analysis
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Quotation adapted from The Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com

Rana Sinha is a cross-cultural trainer and author. He was born in India, studied and lived in many places and traveled in over 80 countries, acquiring cross-cultural knowledge and building an extensive network of professionals. He has spent many years developing and delivering Cross-cultural Training, Professional Communications skills, Personal Development and Management solutions to all types of organizations and businesses in many countries. He now lives in Helsinki, Finland and runs http://www.dot-connect.com, which specializes in human resource development as well as communication and management skills training with cross-cultural emphasis. Read his cross-cultural blog http://originalwavelength.blogspot.com

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A Look into Sociology

Sociology is an intricate study of humankind on many forms. Whether it be focused on the individual, the family, or a city, sociology takes an in depth look at humanity itself and analyzes it from many different angles. These are just a few examples of how sociology can analyze the subject. This article will examine six significant factors and give a better look on sociology itself.

First there are general basics. Sociology has its roots in the Enlightenment. With the want for more information, more understanding of the world, man started to focus on the very thing he created himself: society. Humankind began to analyze everything and anything that they could. It wasn't surprising when they started to really analyze themselves. This, in a way, is what sociology is. Sociology is the study of human behavior, from its origins to its evolutions. It is the analysis of the development of mankind.

With the increase in human development, there became a higher variety of human-life. It changed form as it moved across the world, from rural to urban, from one religion to another, from one race to another. This is why sociology is important to the world. It breaks down all the information and reorganizes it most effectively.

A Look into Sociology

Sociology is a science like many others, though it is quite different in the same way. Closest to it might be psychology, though different on many levels. What makes sociology an unique science is its focus on humanity. Though seemingly easy at first, after a good look one can recognize the complex behavior of mankind that has evolved over thousands of years from having a society. This makes sociology important both to the present and the future, for it takes what has happened in the past and present and uses the information effectively in understanding groups, individuals, and society itself.

Like a science, there are many different ways one can study and record this information. Surveys are one of the major ones. There are also observational studies and experiments. Sociological experiments can be like other scientific ones, with variables for scientific research, but lots of the times the answers aren't so simple. It takes a good eye and mind to analyze the data, making sociology a more delicate process in the long run.

The second item to focus on is culture. Culture is the grouping of specific mindsets that have developed over time in certain parts of the world, allowing any scientist or onlooker to realize general differences between groups and make general recognitions this way. Thus said, it is an important factor to take into account when dealing with sociological information. There are so many different cultures in the world that they act like variables in giant analytic experiments for the sociologist.

Culture can be broken down into many different aspects or parts. One important one to note is language. Language both creates barriers and brings worlds together. Different languages cause speed bumps in scientific or any form of study throughout the world. It is but one way people can be so different from each other. But the very act of language, or the development of it both psychologically and historically have a strong impact on sociology. It brings insight further into the culture of the people being studying and allows the sociologist more key and individual information. Almost like religion and politics, language has a unique way of developing that reflects both on the culture and history of those that use it, finding its roots being mixed and interwoven like many of the people who make use of it.

A third important item to focus on is the social structure. The social structure is the creation of different levels in society throughout the world to better define and understand how society itself works. It is not man made in that people can decide how many layers there are to society or the different reactions between different levels. It is an evolution of society itself, changing from culture to culture or place to place.

Social structure can be broken down into looking at society as having different statuses and different roles. Individuals are not all equal as much as humankind would like to think it sometime. Through hard work, misfortune, or pure luck people find themselves on different levels of society compared to the person standing next to them or even the person they were a month, week, or day ago. Status can be looked at as the person's worth through society's eyes. People tend to use this as the way to judge others quickly. Though not necessarily negative in that there are different statuses, it has for the most part been associated with a negative, almost snooty view when used to analyze others. Role is much deeper, though, and can defy status in many different ways. While status can be looked at as almost just a term or some physical measurement of humans in society, the role is a much deeper, more personal experience. This is to say that it is not so clear what everyone's role is on first glance. Through careful study and critiquing, one could evaluate another or a whole group and come to a logical assumption or even answer to what their role is, but for the most part it is more of a show and tell kind of deal. It is not evident always, nor is the level of evidence equal from one to another. Simply, it is the bond that an individual has with society, telling their purpose on how they hold the society together.

A good part of culture, sociology, and society are groups. Not everything is on the individual level. The size of the group affects the effectiveness of productivity. Too small of a group might lead to too many unanswered questions, while too large could grow so complex that many overlooked factors have been uncounted for. The perfect size, this balance between small and large, between answerable and countable, is not clear. It is dependent on the answers and topic that is being questioned at the time. One might need a large group to make references about a whole city, province or even country. On the other hand, a smaller group might give better information about a specific area or classing or even status in a certain place or time.

These groups could be societies themselves. Societies are merely just humans grouped by distinguishable differences in culture, mind, history, relationship, and teachings. It appears to be a complicated system of organization, but it is no different in culture, religion, or role/status in its way of defining and dedicating answers to truth. It can be used to find common grounds and further separate viewpoints and information from larger groupings. Societies are very important groups of people, both to the real world and to sociology.

The fourth important item is socialization. Socialization is the way of converting or forming into the very definitions of society. This is a great way to show how humans differentiate from other animals. The complexity of our societies and groups is what defines us as humans, accounted with our rationality of course. Our interaction with each other is at a much more vital and intricate level. We go beyond the instinctive world and step into rationality. This is what makes our forms of communication, our languages, our social behaviors the way they are. This is what makes us so easily adaptable in the world. We are so heavily reliant on some form of socialization, that to think of world without it would mean thinking of a world without humans. Without it there would be no structure, no balance, nor order to our ways. We would be almost like primitive homo sapiens and other ancient races of man, only worse because we would be going from socialization and not towards it.

The fifth major factor in sociology is race and ethnicity. Like culture and religion, race can play an important role to a society and its social structure. A certain race can bring benefits to itself in one place while another can be discriminated against with equality. Even still, one race can experience both extremes throughout the world and even in the same proximity. Races, ethnicities and groups can be broken down into majority and minority. This is like most social classing. Majority refers to the more populace or the ones that have the most power in that given area. Minority is just in the opposite, referring to the weaker of the two either size/numbers or politics/power.

It is important to note the difference between race and ethnicity here. Race refers to the grouping of people through biological similarities and histories while ethnicity is created from both racial and cultural ties, making it not necessarily inherit in that it's physically in a person's blood, but inherit in that it is so tightly woven to the history of the person and his/her people that it has been a kind of grouping. Though there are some that will deny races exist at all, scientists have generally agreed on there being only three races. Humans in general assume or at least say there are many more, confusing both races and ethnicity with each other and other groups. By the common human's understanding of the word race, it is so misunderstood that it has no biological reference whatsoever. But on scientific terms, race would require an evolutionary viewpoint to accept it as been true.

The sixth item and factor is gender. Gender plays an important part in sociology like any of the humane sciences. There is a definite difference between man and woman. This is the case both physically and mentally (though in some instances the two are interrelated by definition in psychology). Sex is the more scientific look upon the situation, while gender is the social. While both imply the two different forms of sexual creatures, male and female, the word sex tends to just refer to this while gender also implies the identity created by this distinction in both society and cultures.

There are numerous other factors to sociology, but these are six of the most important and first focused on when researching across the world. In truth, the structure of society, of mankind and all things it has created, is a complex and delicate one. Each piece is carefully placed, woven, tied and held there by another. So tight they are that if one falls it is hard to tell how many will follow suit. Just as much as we can not say what event will move us in the next direction, we can not know what event will slow us down, stop us, or even be our downfall. Sociology can only understand the here and now.

A Look into Sociology
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Differences Between Formal and Informal Social Control

Social control can be considered as an important aspect of an individual's socialization process. There are some universal norms or rules which should be followed by members of all societies. Any deviation from these norms may result in a minimum level of punishment for ensuring the social order. It refers to the processes of regulation of an individual or group behavior in a society, which encourages conformity and obedience. It may include social or political mechanisms. Its two forms are formal and informal controls.

Formal Social Control:
Formal social control is implemented by authorized agents including police officers, employers, military officers, and others. It is carried out as a last option at some places when the desired behavior is not possible through informal social control. The situations and severity where formal control is practiced varies with countries.

This is practiced through law as statutes, rules, and regulations against deviant social behavior. For example, certain laws like prohibition of murder can be directed at all members of a society. Fishing and hunting regulations are made for certain groups. Corporate laws are laid for governing the behavior of social institutions. Formal control is conducted by government and organizations through law enforcement mechanisms. It can also be conducted through some formal sanctions including fines and imprisonment. Processes of formal control in democratic societies are determined and designed through legislation by elected representatives.

Differences Between Formal and Informal Social Control

Courts or judges, military officers, police officers, school systems or teachers, and government agencies or bureaucrats, enforce formal control.

Informal Social Control:
It is exercised by a society without stating any rules or laws. It is expressed through norms and customs. Social control is performed by informal agents on their own in an unofficial capacity. Traditional societies mostly embed informal social control culture to establish social order.

Shame, sarcasm, criticism, ridicule and disapproval are some of the informal sanctions. Social discrimination and exclusion are included in informal control at extreme deviant cases. Self-identity, self-worth and self-esteem are affected in informal control through loss of group approval or membership. The severity and nature of informal control mechanisms differ from varied individuals, groups, and societies.

Informal is effective in small group settings including friends, family, neighborhood, work group and others. However, in some large and complex societies, informal social control and disapproval is ignored easily. At such situations, it is necessary to follow the formal one.

Some of the differences of formal and informal social control are:

•Formal social control includes written, formalized and codified statements in laws, rules, and regulations. Whereas informal control does not contain any written rules.

•Formal control agencies are authorized ones created by government and informal control agencies are created by social networks and organizations but not by government.

•Formal control is much effective and stronger than informal social control. Any situations which cannot be handled by informal control are subjected to formal one.

•Formal control is effective for even large groups of population but informal control is effective only for a small group of people.

Social control, formal or informal, thus helps in regulation of society. The study of social control includes disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, law and political science.

Differences Between Formal and Informal Social Control
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Top Strategies on How You Can Beat and Destroy Your Enemies without Using a Weapon

Life, life is really full of mystery and questions, on how we can improve our life to the fullest heights of improvement. In these world, if we did not continue on polishing ourselves, we will be put us behind in the careers of life, and we will find out lately, that we are no longer belong to the first class group of individuals.

Especially nowadays, we are in the globalization age, and the demand of time is too great, and the only people who can qualify in these challenges are those individuals who are keep watching and keep improving their being.

Why we should to continuous improving ourselves? And what was the purpose of it?

Top Strategies on How You Can Beat and Destroy Your Enemies without Using a Weapon

We need to improve ourselves because in this world, we have a lot of competitors, as well as people who are trying to put us down in the arena of life. They exert all their efforts and use a honey words in order to put their victims in their trap. These people that I think we should give more attention and tactful in dealing with because these groups of individuals are hazardous, dangerous as well as poisonous. They are like a virus that trying to fry their victims live that even the medical surgeon cannot help them heal their diseased and has experience difficulty to cure the poisons and scars of their victims.

The crimes of their tongues are words of unkindness, of anger, of malice, of envy, of bitterness, of harsh criticism, gossip, lying and scandal. According to William George Jordan, theft and murder are awful crimes, in any single years the aggregate sorrow, pain and suffering, they cause in a nation is microscopic when compared with the sorrows that come from the crimes of the tongue. At the hands of their thief's or murderers few of us suffer even indirectly. But from the careless tongue of friend, the cruel tongue of envy, who is free?

He continued and commented "no human being can live a life so true, so fair, so pure as to be beyond the reach of malice, or immune from the poisonous emanations of envy. The insidious attacks against one's reputation, the loathsome innuendoes, slurs, half-lies by which jealous mediocrity seeks to ruin its superiors, are like those insect parasites that kill the heart and life of a mighty oak."

He lamented, "so cowardly is the method, so stealthy the shooting of the poisoned thorns, so insignificant the separate acts in their seeming, that one is not on guard against them. It is easier to dodge an elephant than a microbe."

So how can we protect ourselves against them before they will knock us down?

Below are the strategies and tips. Read them carefully and apply it to yourself, dear readers. Use it as your shields and weapons against them. I'd written it here, so that you will not be the next victims of these hazardous, poisonous toxic individuals. I'll pray to God that may this article, may give you a great help as well as source of guidance to your daily living as well as progress in life and lead it to bring you nearer to Him.

1. Nurture your character. For your character will be your only and best weapon to close the mouth against the evil-tongues of your enemies. For your character will cover and protect your reputation.

2. Be an open-minded person. Give enough time and space to lend your ears and analyze their point of view. If you'd think there is no sense in their words, ask them with this question: Do you think that I need a critic right now?

3. Control as well as manage your tongue and temper. Keep on silence and watch on them. Remember there is a great power in silence. It will make your opponent to feel distressing, embarrassing, unpleasant, uncomfortable, and ill at ease.

4. Close your eyes and ears. Close your eyes and ears against the negative, toxic someone that shall open his mouth secretly against you. If you receive not his words, they fly back and wound him. If you receive them, they fly forward, and wound you!

5. Never to criticize them. Criticizing it only marks, shows as well as acknowledges that you are an inferior person. Always bear in mind that a wound from a tongue is worst than a wound from the swords. For latter affects only the body; the former affects the spirit. Always remember to be patient in dealing with people for you are not dealing with a people of logic but you are dealing with a people of emotions.

6. Show to them your kindness. I've learned these secrets that the noble way to destroy an enemy is not to kill him but with kindness you may change him that he shall cease to be so, and then he is slain.

7. Be humble always. I've learned these new knowledge and wisdom that we cannot control the evil tongue of others but a good life enables us to disregard them.

8. Expect always that there is a Deserter. In my 26 years stayed in this planet earth, I've learned that no one is safe from gossip and slander. The best way is to pay no attention to it, but live in a humble as well as in innocence and let the world speak. But for those who are fun of planting a fire...do what you like but pay for it! For God said, Vengeance is mine!

9. List down all your weaknesses and eliminate it daily. Every human being has their own strength and weaknesses. So starting today, examine as well as evaluate your being. List down all your weaknesses and promise to yourself that you should try with all thy might to eliminate step by step all thy weaknesses. By doing it so, you will become the master of yourself!

10. Keep on praying and Trust in God. For with men everything is impossible but with God nothing is impossible. And always recall these words, again and again to yourself: When you are at your weakest, God is in His greatest. So, don't worry, be happy. You can if Think You can!

For those who are fun of planting a fire, think of these carefully:

Thousands of men breathe move and live pass off the stage of life and are heard no more. Why? They did not give a particle of good in the world. None were blessed by them. None could point to them as the instrument of their redemption. Their light went out in darkness and they were not remembered more than insects of yesterday. Will you live and die? Live for something!

Before I will conclude my article, I would like to leave a special message for you, dear readers.

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.

If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.

If you plant patience, you will reap improvements.

If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

But:

If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.

If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.

If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.

If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.

If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.

If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.

If you plant greed, you will reap loss.

If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.

If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.

If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.

So be careful what you plant now, it will determine what you will reap tomorrow.

Wish you many blessings to come and God Bless!

All rights reserved Worldwide. Copyright December 2006 by Moises Padin Reconalla

NOTE: You're free to republish this article on your website, in your newsletter, in your e-book or in other publications provided that the article is reproduced in its entirety, including the author information.

Top Strategies on How You Can Beat and Destroy Your Enemies without Using a Weapon
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Moises P. Reconalla is the School Guidance Counselor, College Instructor and Working Students Supervisor at North Davao Colleges, Panabo City, Philippines. Mr. Reconalla has taught several courses at the college including: Guidance and Counseling, General Psychology, Philippine History: Roots and Development, General Anthropology and Sociology and Dr. Jose Rizal: Life, Works & Writings.

You can send your comments about this article through his email wisdomisgreat@gmail.com or visit his blog at http://www.mosesreconalla.blogspot.com

The author requesting you please take time to read his free inspirational and motivational articles which can help as well as motivate your mind to Think and Grow Rich! Kindly don't forget to leave your comments. Your comments are a valuable source that could encourage and motivate the author to write more articles for you!

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Sampling Methods

There are advantages and disadvantages of using different sampling methods in social research. This article describes them.

1. The advantage of the household survey method is that it provides a sample of an entire population of a country or region. Such a survey might be good to use if one wants to know what people throughout the area are thinking, such as obtaining opinions on an issue to help a politician take a position on a bill for a new park or park improvements. This type of survey might also be good for the government to use in learning about people's preferences about a recreational facility for the area, such as whether they would prefer a zoo or nature park and who would be interested in going.

A disadvantage of the household survey is that it is very time-consuming and laborious to try to obtain a sampling of everyone in the whole population. Also, while most organizations doing national surveys seek to use multi-stage and clustered sampling to make the process of gathering the sample more manageable, there can be problems in doing this. For example, if the researchers try to reduce costs by interviewing a certain number of people on the street and choosing every nth house, they could make the number of clusters too small to include a complete variety of people in the area. Then, too, the researchers might find that people in certain types of households might not want to participate in the survey, most notably those from lower-class homes, which would skew the sample to have a greater percentage of middle and income people represented than their percentage in the population.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Sampling Methods

2. The advantage of sampling for a site, user, or visitor survey is that one can obtain feedback from a population that is actually using a facility or visiting a site. Another advantage is that one can control for randomness by having a trained interviewer select the nth person passing the interviewer or the nth person the interviewer passes after concluding an interview with the previous selected person. This approach can also be adapted for a quota sample, where the interviewer is asked to get the nth person for a number of categories, and as each category is filled, the interviewer stops looking for someone for that category.

A disadvantage of this approach is that an interviewer may fail to follow procedures about selecting interviews and might select someone who seems convenient or avoid other types of interviewees who are more difficult to find or interview. Another disadvantage is that the types of individuals who come at different times of the day may vary, such as having more families with kids coming during the day and teenagers coming at night to an amusement park. As a result, the sampling could become unrepresentative unless it is weighted or a quota sampling approach is used to balance out the different types of people. Another disadvantage could be the problem of non-response, if people entering or leaving the site don't want to be bothered - those on the way in because they are eager to enjoy the site and those on the way out because they are eager to get home. Still another disadvantage if a questionnaire is used is that many respondents may not complete the questionnaire and those who do may be unrepresentative of the whole group, particularly if there is a high return rate. Also, personnel at the site may not carefully hand out the questionnaires, and it may be difficult to supervise this personnel, since their priority is on helping visitors and guests, rather than helping with a survey.

3. The advantage of sampling for a street survey is that it can be good to find out about who is using a particular street, shopping, or tourist area, much like a site, user, or visitor survey. Such a street survey can be combined with a quota sampling approach to obtain information on different types of users or visitors who come to the site at different times, if the background of the population in the area is known.

However, the disadvantage of a street survey, much like a site, user, or visitor survey, is that people on the street may be busy and might not want to take the time to participate in an interview or may not be interested in filling out a questionnaire. As a result, the sample will become biased as a result of differences between those who answer questionnaires or fill out a questionnaire and those who don't. Another disadvantage in some areas is the possible danger of stopping and interviewing people on the street. For instance, in an inner city area, people may be suspicious of outsiders, thinking they might be government workers or undercover cops, so they don't want to answer questions, and there could be a danger to interviewers or those distributing questions, since they might be threatened or attacked. Another disadvantage is that a quota method can't be used if one doesn't already know the background of the people in the area to draw up quotas. Another disadvantage is if people don't want to take the time to respond to a survey on the street, very few will respond to a take-home and return the survey, so it will have a low response rate. An attempt to do a quota survey by e-mail has the disadvantage in that not only may there be a low-response rate, but certain types of people are less likely to use email, such as the lower-income individuals. However, weighting is often used with such surveys to get a sample that corresponds more closely to the percentage of the larger population.

4. The advantage of sampling for a mail survey using the regular mails is it can be a large completely random survey, since the mail generally goes to everyone in the population. However, a disadvantage is that it can be expensive to send out a mail survey to a large group, especially since postal rates have been rising. Another disadvantage is that there is normally a high non-response rate to mailed questionnaires, and those who respond may be different from those who do respond. While the cost factor can be reduced substantially with an email survey, the disadvantage of doing an e-mail survey is that those with e-mails or those who are most likely to respond to emails may be different from the population that doesn't respond as well as to the small population that doesn't have emails, usually because of having a lower income.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Sampling Methods
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GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., J.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar/workshop leader, specializing in recreation and leisure, business and work relationships and in professional and personal development. She has published over 50 books on diverse subjects. Her latest books include: THE VERY NEXT NEW THING, PLAYING THE LYING GAME, WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!; ENJOY! 101 LITTLE WAYS TO ADD MORE FUN TO YOUR WORK EVERYDAY; and A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR WORKING WITH HUMANS...MANAGING EMPLOYEES FROM HELL...and WORKING WITH BAD BOSSES. She is founder and director of Changemakers Publishing and Writing and Changemakers Productions, and has been a featured expert guest on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including Oprah and Good Morning America. She is the host of a weekly syndicated talk radio talk, CHANGEMAKERS, featuring interviews and commentary on various topics. Her Websites are at http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com and http://www.ginigrahamscott.com. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California in Berkeley, a J.D. from the University of San Francisco Law School, and M.A.s in Anthropology; Mass Communications and Organizational/Consumer/Audience Behavior, and Popular Culture and Lifestyles from California State University, East Bay. She is getting an MS in Recreation and Tourism.

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Under Population and Over Population

Under populations
Under population is the type of population that is less than the available resources of a country. It then means that the size of the population is so small that when combined with the available resources of a country and given the level of existing technology, it will secure minimum returns per head. In summary, under population is a situation where the population is too small relative to the available resources. The standard of living of the area can be increased if the population is increased.

Causes
1. Abundant resources: There will be abundance of resources in areas where there are resources endowment.
2. availability of employment: Due to the small size of the population and abundance of resources, employment opportunities will readily be available.
3. Low pressure on social amenities: Owing to low population, there is also low pressure on social amenities in the area.
4. Low congestion: Also, due to low population, there will be low or no congestion in housing, traffic etc.
5. Adequate planning: Owing to low population, these areas are properly planned for decent living.
6. Low crime rate is greatly reduced.

In as much as there are advantages, there are also disadvantages to, such are: the available labor force is grossly inadequate to mange the abundant resources available in the state; low level of production as a result of low level of manpower available production is generally very low. Workers generally earn low as a result of low level of production income and this leads to low savings and investments. Low standard of living due to inadequate labor force that would have promoted output, the standard of living will eventually fall; pipe borne water electricity etc, are grossly under utilized; disincentive to the government because it does not always feel like investing in places of under-population. As a result of low level of income per capital and fewer number of people, the size of the market is usually very small due to low demand. Finally, as a result of low output of goods and services, there is always a ow level of export for these goods and services.

Under Population and Over Population

Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a situation where a country has more people than its physical and human resources can support with adequate living standards. In other words, over population refers to a situation where the population exceeds the available resources of a country. As a result of overpopulation, people will compete for the available resources and there will be a general fall in standard of living of the people. Over population can be controlled by family planning, discouragement of early marriage, increase in food supply, encouragement of monogamy, limiting the size of towns, provision of gainful employment for women, stiffening of immigration laws, sex and mass education from childhood ages of children and encouragement of emigration from thickly or densely populated areas to lowly populated areas.

Under Population and Over Population
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The Teaching of Sociology

I believe that there is a good case for the teaching of every social science. In particular I support the call for the teaching of sociology to all students in Grade 12 and above. At least one year of study will provide students with the knowledge and skills that will contribute toward their social and academic development. However, it can be offered as an elective to all others who wished to pursue it at a higher level of study. In some countries sociology is taught to students who are 16 and over on a voluntarily basis. I think it is much too important to be treated in this manner.

The Nature of Sociology

Sociology has been defined as many things. In its embryonic stages its founder Comte (1798-1857) thought it to be a natural science no different from biology, chemistry or physics. He believed that it was possible to predict human behavior and so control it in much the same way natural scientists controlled matter. Later on Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), another French sociologist, pioneered the use of statistical analysis in the study of suicide, a social phenomenon. Durkheim argued that in this way it was possible to determine the causal and correlation (al) relationships that exist between and among social variables. These he called 'social facts.' Suicide and marriage are examples of social facts because they have an existence outside the individual and their rates can be quantified so that their impact on human behavior can be ascertained via the use of inductive approaches.

The Teaching of Sociology

Sometime later in Germany Max Weber (1964-1920) launched a scathing counter attack against the use of statistics in the study of human behavior. He claimed that the true goal of sociology is verstehen-interpretive understanding of the procedures people use to understand others during their interactions with them. In this way he provided the impetus for the development of the hermeneutic approach in sociology which proposed that the discipline was rather a social science aimed at understanding how behavior was understood using direct and indirect observation of social phenomena. Many others such as George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer and Alfred Schutz have followed Weber's lead and have promulgated the belief that interpretive approaches and perspectives such as Symbolic Interactionism and Phenomenology.

During the 1950s a group of French philosophers (postmodernists) embarked upon a severe critique of meta- cognition or the thinking of generalizability. This has been the general or overarching principle of both the natural and social science dogmas. The main similarity between them is the proclivity to generalize about the nature and direction of human behavior. This has influenced the writings of others such as Lyotard and de Baudrillard whose works have been applied to the study of sociology. They have argued that in contemporary times (especially since WWII) perspectives such as Marxism have become irrelevant to our understanding of social life. For them life has become centered round signs and symbols. Material goods only become important in so far as they convey specific meanings- signs and symbols. Language is ever more important since it is oft times used to perpetuate a duality. For example the sexual power duality is reproduced in society through language. Because of the verbal portrayal of differences in power between men and women, women are perceived as evil and bad and men as good and rational and this acts as a form of legitimization of sexual politics.

As a direct consequent of these three major debates about the nature of sociology it is extremely difficult to define sociology with any degree of certainty. We know more about what it is not rather than what it in actuality is. Despite this though there is an informal consensus of sorts among its adherents purporting that sociology is a social science in much the same way that psychology, anthropology, economics and political science are.

I have even noted that not much is taking place in changing the face of sociology. It has become stagnated not merely because of the centrality of classical themes such as the role of the bourgeoisie in modern capitalism and the social factors contributing to structured inequality.

Additionally not much has taken place by way of creative innovations in methodological, theoretical and practical shifts or focuses. Despite this drawback though the discipline retains much relevance to social life and should be taught formally in all schools at least from Grade 12.

Some Benefits of Teaching Sociology

These are based on my experience in teaching sociology at advanced level (Grade 13 and higher) for over 10 years in the island of Trinidad.

It facilitates the all round development of the learner (providing ample opportunity for cognitive, affective and psychomotor development). Students learn analytical skills which help them appreciate the nature of social structure and individual interaction both between and within societies (most importantly theirs)

An example of this is de-constructing or analyzing issues or problems

By practicing essay writing they (students) learn to organize and structure ideas logically (sequentially and chronologically if necessary). This is significant for building synthesis and critical thinking skills. Skills of note-taking and note-making are enhanced. However, those of the latter should be emphasized since they allow for the development of student autonomy. Students are allowed the opportunity to plan (for writing) and engage in abstract problem solving skills and competencies. Twentieth-first century skills such as cooperation, team-work and project management can be and are developed and enhanced. It provides opportunity for the enhancement of communicative competence since students participate in debates and discussion about research studies, theories and perspectives. Students are impelled to become more culturally relative and less ethnocentric since they come to appreciate that culture cannot and should not be judged in relation to another. It meets the needs of a particular society or subgroup. It teaches them about the nature and causes and consequences of different forms of inequality such as sex and gender, race/ethnicity, social class and age. Additionally, they learn to become empathetic about marginalized groups and individuals. Students develop citizenship values and attitudes, and decision-making. This helps them to function effectively as members of democratic societies. It allows for the appreciation of diversity in the presentation of 'social reality' so that they come to perceive the differences between universal and culturally specific features of social life. It provides opportunity to view knowledge in a holistic way since sociology is so multi-disciplinary as is social work for instance.

Some Suggestions for the Effective Teaching of Sociology

Use students' experience to help them connect the theories to real world or life experiences. Use a combination of teacher-centered and student-centered approaches. Teacher-centered methods such as lecturing and note-giving are better to use for introducing topics, concepts and issues before deep understanding is developed via the use of child-centered methods such as projects, group work and field work. Use a variety of resources in the same lesson. Pictures, diagrams and audio material are excellent. Use cooperative learning strategies such as jig-saw to deepen student understanding and develop team work and shared responsibility. Provide opportunity for problem-based learning in which students will solve real world issues through the collection of empirical data and analysis of findings from research. Use the lecture method wisely. Do not talk for more than 15 minutes at any one time. Allow lectures to be interrupted by student activity since they like getting involved and having a say. Employ a variety of assessment techniques in your practice such as portfolios, graphic organizers, poetry and song and role-plays. Provide plenty of opportunity for the analysis of statistical data and report findings via graphs, tables, pictures etc. Plan and provide for student participation in activities where students will simulate qualitative data collection techniques such as in-depth interviewing and systematic participant observation. Provide greater opportunity for student dialogue and always provide constructive feedback. Examine the best ways of helping students grow mentally, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Invite guest speaker experts to shed light on diverse issues related to the content and everyday life. Make a written plan of the activities for each lesson and change them only if necessary. Use test and exam results to diagnose performance and provide accurate measurement of student performance. Test only what was taught in terms of content and skills. Practice chunking the content by breaking up large amounts into smaller manageable units in accordance to students' age and maturity levels. Ensure students participate in rubric and mark scheme design. This will assist them to understand the standards and benchmarks for academic excellence. Cater for a variety of learning styles in your lessons. Knowledge of the differentiated classroom is an asset to good teaching. Be firm but flexible. Always move from the known to the unknown. Emphasise should be placed on effective concept teaching.

I proffer the suggestion that students should be exposed to an introductory course in the sociology since it will assist them in developing a variety of skills, talents and competences which are critical for life in a modern society.

This article sought to provide some useful guidance for teachers of sociology at any level of academia. It began with summation of the three major polemics in the nature of sociology namely positivist, interpretivist and postmodern. Following this it provided a rationale for its inclusion in the high school or college curriculum and ended by examining some guidelines or useful tips for teaching sociology

The Teaching of Sociology
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Bennie Berkeley has attained PhD in sociology with high commendation from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. At present he lectures in sociology courses namely Introduction to Sociology and Caribbean Social Structure. Additionally, he conducts methodology seminars for graduate students about to embark upon their research projects in social work and sociology. He supervises a number of students from a cross section of the social sciences including sociology (criminology), social work and mediation studies.

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