Costco Wholesale Corporation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Costco Wholesale Corporation - Case Study Example Though less readily measurable, it is apparently accompanied by a shrinking of activities for the few remaining general merchandising wholesalers and a loss of sales for small stores carrying women's and children's apparel, particularly in low and medium-quality lines. Costco is a closed-door store which allows only "members" access to the store through membership eligibility as defined by rather broad classifications of government employees, teachers, union members, or employees of government contractors (see Appendix 4). The chain carries a wide range of soft goods and apparel, but also gives major attention to furniture, appliances, food, and automotive supplies. Several of the closed door operations have recently opened their doors to the general public. "Examples of Costco's incredible annual sales volumes included 96,000 carats of diamonds (2006), 1.5 million televisions, $300 million worth of digital cameras, 28 million rotisserie chickens (over 500,000 weekly), 40 percent of the Tuscan olive oil bought in the United States, $16 million worth of pumpkin pies during the fall holiday season, $3 billion worth of gasoline, 21 million prescriptions, and 52 million $1.50 hot dog/soda pop combinations" (Thompson p. 2008, p. C5). Low operating margins achieved through volume sales and limited service expenditures for clerks, delivery, credit, and so on have allowed prices which average about 15% below those of the department stores and specialty shops with which discount stores compete in the sale of soft goods. Full-size food supermarkets are being established within many of the new large discount stores. Because of consumers' long experience in comparing food values between stores and because of the frequency of food store visits by the average family, these food departments are attractive to the soft-goods stores as traffic builders, and are frequently operated with planned narrow margins (or even planned losses) to maximize their drawing power (Costco Home P age 2008). Chief Elements of the Costco's strategy The uniqueness of Costco strategy is that it proposes advantages and benefits to its members only, except gasoline and beverage products. The closed-door stores depend primarily on word of mouth and on mail promotion to their members to publicize the attractive values offered. Costco does not make extensive use of advertising media to give publicity to the low prices and special values which they offer. Major retail innovations involve an "invention" of new means of performing the retailing function. They are dependent on concomitant developments in products, in physical handling technology, and in organization at the wholesale supply level; but, most important of all, they are dependent on changes in the income, location, and style of life of consumers (Drejer 2002). In contrast to other retailers, Costco proposes wide product rage: "Whereas typical supermarkets stocked about 40,000 items and a Wal-Mart Supercenter or a SuperTarget might have as many as 150,000 items for shoppers to choose from, Costco's merchandising strategy was to

Bubble Tea in Singapore Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bubble Tea in Singapore - Research Paper Example Bubble tea commenced its ascension to global recognition, thinning out from Taiwan to supplementary East Asian nations. It then wandered to Chinatowns all through the American States, and diverse college urban alongside the West Coast of America. There is existence of bubble teashops and cafes in the westernized countries and the United Kingdom. There are numerous variations of the drink, based on the kinds of tea employed and ingredients inclusion. Market research This research is aimed at guaranteeing generation of customers’ desire for Cha Time brand and not the firm’s assumptions of their wants. This research is yet to be undertaken in an attempt to supplement the sale of bubble tea in public places. Even though, this product is sold at restaurants and cafes, it has a wide household market (Lewis & Clark, 2008). Our main objective is to market the Cha Time brand at Ang Mo Kio Outlet Avenue 6. This research will enable reduction of risks for its trial in the novel ho usehold market in Singapore. Bubble Tea is a speedily increasing market in the Middle East, although it is relatively old Singapore, it is not widely spread in household delivery (Richardson, Rubinstein & Joseph, 2009). Market Analysis Summary Tea is the second principal product market besides oil, and expansion is anticipated to keep on at a sturdy velocity for the projected future. The field beverage business is rising at an evenly sturdy tempo, with sales increase in some classes likely to develop at speeds of 40% per annum. This development offers exceptional openings for new firms to come into this market in Singapore (Commins & Sampanvejsobha, 2008). Bubble tea delivery service of the Cha Time brand at Ang Mo Kio Outlet Avenue 6 is targeted at households and delivery is to every person’s doorstep. The aim of this research is to establish the growth of bubble tea industry in employing household delivery. We also seek to find out trends of the different flavors of to bran d in relation to its sales growth (Oakwell, 2007). Target Market Segment Strategy This product’s market is by now sizeable and the business continues to advance. People are now being introduced to the different flavors of the brand. It is not surprising to see people ordering PMT on a daily basis since they now fancy the tasty and sweet flavors. The household segment is the primary target as the potential in sales is unlimited in this market segment. This segment mostly needs quality delivery, prime and meritorious service, efficient and fast delivery system, automated bookings for deliveries and a comprehensive support in sales. The firm could benefit from a delivery system since people would want to receive service stress free to their places of residence (O’Dougherty, 2007). The automated system of booking will expand the target market into increased stress free bookings that will further elevate the sales to a substantial level. As the business expands, there will be eventual evaluation of the requirements of potential buyers and customers to their houses and places to deliver. Since delivery is targeted at interpersonal level then consumer behavior is prime in the delivery of bubble tea (Vanhuele & Wright, 2008). Hence, we define consumer behavior as: The analysis of personalities and groups and the ideologies they employ to choose, secure, employ, and throw away goods, services,

Self Efficacy In Writing Performance Psychology Essay

Self Efficacy In Writing Performance Psychology Essay Writing, is a complex process and competent writing is frequently accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired. Al-Mekhlafi, 2011 Due to its complex process, writing is regarded as a challenging task not only for native speakers of a language but also for second language learners. As it is the case for any other acquired skill, writing skill also evolves continuously until the product, a piece of writing, meets the expectations of both the writer and reader. However, when it comes to learning how to apply certain conventions of writing in a formal learning environment, the role and responsibility of the learner becomes even more important. As cited in Sheila Matoti and Almon Shumba (2011), writing problems identified by previous studies are grammar, spelling, punctuation, expression, and the ability to explain, structure and interpret facts as well as vocabulary and referencing. Although it can be claimed that the problems listed above can be fixed, to a certain extent, through formal instruction and learners effort, it is a fact that having some sort of knowledge about ones capabilities and skills can indeed play an important role in motivating human behaviours. (Bandura,1986) According to Banduras Social Cognitive Theory, individuals possess a system of self-beliefs that enables them to exercise control over their thoughts, feelings, and actions. (as cited in Garcia Fidalgo,2008, Rahimpour Jahan, 2010, Al-Mekhlafi, 2011, Shah et al. 2011, Galligan ,2011, Alexander Schmidt, 2012). Broaddus (2012) explained that social cognitive theory forms the roots of both writing self-efficacy and motivation both of which change from course to course, depending on students interest, efficacy for performing tasks in the course, and other social and environmental factors. In other words, learners may create their own path of learning through engaging themselves in tasks. Therefore, students set their goals for learning a specific subject. Self-efficacy is a construct proposed by Bandura (1977) and has been tested in a variety of fields, focusing on a variety of topics. Broaddus (2012) and Bong (1999) define self-efficacy as peoples convictions about their own capability for successfully executing a course of action that leads to a desired outcome. Schmidt and Alexander (2012) argued that self efficacy is not only a current but also future disposition requiring learners or participants in a research to evaluate their beliefs in their future abilities. Therefore, self-efficacy requires self-evaluation, about what one can do and what can be improved. As well as self-evaluation, there are two more factors affecting self-efficacy: modeling (coaching) such as coding the information for retention, being capable of producing the presented patterns, and maintaining a certain level of motivation; goal setting, such as acquiring skills and knowledge or making good grades. (Schunk, 2003). When considered specifically for the writing ability, writing self-efficacy translates into a strong sense of confidence for the task of writing.( Pajares Valiante,1997). In other words, once learners have sufficient self-belief in their ability to write in their second language, their interest in writing may increase, they may display constant efforts, and great eagerness and resiliency when they are working on a writing task. In his study conducted in 2012, Broaddus concluded that journalism course students who hold high self-efficacy for grammar have put more effort into their time management and environmental resources while studying and it was found that these high efficacy attitude towards grammar resulted in better grammar skills. This was interpreted as these students determine where the challenge or obstacle related to the task lies and they develop strategies so as to succeed in their writing assignments. Garcia and Fidalgo stated in their 2008 study that in difficult tasks such as writing which includes many recursively employed cognitive processes, self-efficacy plays a the key role. While acquiring writing skills, students need to use their cognitive, behavioral and motivational engagement and learning. Recently, an enormous amount of research has been done on the writing composition proceses that student writers undertake(Erkan Saban, 2011). Although writing instruction has gone through numerous changes, according to an action research carried out by Yavuz and Genà § ( 1998), students tend to display negative attitudes towards writing. Yavuz and Genà § (1998) concluded their research findings as, for students writing is an obligation in order to pass final exam. Erkan and Saban (2004) suggest that this attitude can be interpreted as students apprehension and lack of self-efficacy in writing. The reason for students apprehension and lack of self efficacy may be due to limited time allocated for writing practice in classes. As cited in Leki and Carson (1994), according to the results of structured interviews of a study, university students who completed language courses in intensive English program at five different university reported that they only spent 10 % of their time on writing assignments across the curriculum. However, it should be noted that in order to succeed in their academic studies, second language learners, especially the students at universities are required to gain a certain ability to write well since writing is integral to academic success.Although the time spared for writing practice may not always be possible, the use of a variety of writing assignments, with clear, concise evalution criteria, could help student writers in the development of their self-efficacy while dealing with a writing task. (Broaddus, 2012) When examined specifically, Turkish students practising the conventions of writing in English, even students who are proficient at other language skills share the same problems with writing: they are afraid to make writing errors; they lack self-efficacy in writing.(Erkan Saban, 2011)In her study, Erkan concluded , similar to previous research findings, it was confirmed that the degree of students negative attitude, writing apprehension, does affect Turkish Tertiary level students writing performance. In other words, the higher the apprehension, the weaker the writing skills / performance. This aspect of Erkans study, one that specifically looks at relationships between writing apprehension and writing performance, is an expansion in the research area since the number of studies conducted to investigate second language learners wiriting apprehension is very few. However, as cited in Garcia and Fidalgo (2008), Bandura maintained that misjudgement in ones beliefs about potential performance may be detrimental, which is proved by some research that it can be prevalent in writing classes. Although there is a great number of research examining the relationship between self-efficacy,to the best knowledge of the researchers Rahimpour and Jahan, there is no research on relationship between general self-efficacy and writing (Rahimpour and Jahan, 2010). Rahimpour and Jahan claimed that all the previous research mainly focused on the investigation of self-efficacy among groups with a very limited range of proficiency. Therefore, Rahimpour and Jahan determined their research area as the impact of self-efficacy and proficiency on EFL learners written task performance regarding load, fluency, complexity, and accuracy. The participants chosen were low-proficiency and high-proficiency learners of English aged between 18-25. In addition to completing three separate tasks, the participants were asked to fill out the General Perceived Self-Efficacy questionnaire, through which the participants level of confidence was aimed to rate. The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between self-efficacy and personal tasks in terms of concept load in high proficieny participants; however, there was not a significant relationship when it came to fluency, complexity, and accuracy only for low but also high proficieny participants performance. Another area of research on self-efficacy is related to help seeking which is recognized as a component of self-efficacy. Help seeking is comprised of two types of behaviour: adaptive and nonadaptive behaviours. (as cited in Williams Takaku, 2011) Various studies yielded significant correlations between self-efficacy and help seeking. Williams and Takaku cited that while high self-efficacy students tend to express high help seeking behaviour, low self-efficacy students, despite being under similar circumstances, less willing to seek help. It is commonly accepted by researchers in the field that just as help seeking, self-efficacy belief has been found to be a predictor of academic success. In addition to their teachers, most students may seek help at writing centers remedial courses in the institutions they attend. Writing centers have been proved to be helpful when it comes to improving students writing performance. Williams and Takaku (2011) hypothesized that writing self-efficacy would influence writing performance. The participants of the study were both native and nonnative university students who attended a one semester intensive writing course for all content areas. In contrast to the researchers anticipation, the analysis showed that the frequent visitors to writing center in order to receive professional assistance from the writng center staff, managed to get higher grades than the ones who did not. What makes the results of the study more noteworthy is the fact that these results apply for both ESL learners and native-English- speakers. When the results are generalized, it can be argued that when appropriate assistance is provided, every student practising the conventions of writing can improve himself or herself. A study carried out ,by Shah,Wan Mahmoud, Din,Yusof, Pardi in 2011 with Malaysian secondary school learners in order to determine the students self-efficacy in writing. The results indicated that there is ,indeed, a large, significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and writing performance. That is, it was,again, confirmed that learners with high self-efficacy tend to pursue opportunities to write, put more effort into writing, and be more persistent in seeking writing competence. Another research conducted by Early and De Costa-Smith, in 2011, confirmed Banduras social cognitive theory. To put it differently, self-efficacy beliefs can be developed by mastery experience, social models and lived experiences, and social persuasion. The impact of multiple opportunities to practice any genre, along with peer and teacher feedback and interaction during the intervention may play a key role on the increase in students self-efficacy beliefs related to the genre. All in all, while strong efficacy leads to success, overly high or low efficacy can undermine the proper development of cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral skills. (Broaddus, 2012) On the other hand, Igo (2002) asserted that the students overestimated their self-efficacy because of several reasons, namely, high school teachers failure to provide appropiate and correctional feedback, the teachers negligence of promoting the importance of producing good work, and teachers overappraisal of mere student participation in the writing process. Conversely, when individuals see that another person, in our context a classmate, performing a desired task, self efficacy believes are positively affected. To pplace this into the context of university English preparatory school classrooms, when a student witnesses that a friend of his or her succeeds in writing a well-organized essay, he or she may be more willing to try writing an essay on his own. As Broaddus (2012) cited observers self-efficacy beliefs would be reduced if they see their peers repeatedly fail to accomplish a required task. Whether high or low, self-efficacy in writing has a crucial role in students writing performance. Broaddus (2012) cites from Bandura (1997) and draws our attention to environmental context and says that it often affects efficacy. In a formal language learning environment where there is only limited time can be allocated to writing, it is an undeniable fact that determining students with low self-efficacy and assisting these students while they are developing their writing skills is highly important. Instructors should not only provide the standard techniques of writing and provide corrective feedback on vocabulary and grammar but also provide one-to-one assistance whenever their students seek help. The amount of assistance provided by teachers should also have limits. As cited in Broaddus (2012), Bandura (1997) says Successes achieved with external assistance carry little efficacy value because they are likely to be credited to external aids rather than to personal capabilities METHOD Participants Participants were 20 Turkish learners of English at a preparatory school of an English medium university, Turkey. The participants initially took a standard language proficiency test prepared by the preparatory school testing office. The proficiency test consisted of 80 four-option multiple choice questions before the semester started. The multiple choice items aimed to test the students level of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension abilities, The passing grade for the proficiency test was determined as 60.The students who got lower than 60 took the placement test consisting of 80 questions. The students were also required to write an essay on a topic provided by the testing office after completing the multiple choice section. According to the placement test scores, the students were placed in three different levels-A, B, and C levels. The intermediate level students were placed in A level classes. In other words, the participants can understand and speak English with some confidence and they have the grammar and the vocabulary to talk and read about a wide number of subjects. Moreover, they can assess and consciously improve their own pronunciation. They have studied all the main tenses and can confidently make sentences, question forms and clauses in all of them. However, intermediate students are only in the beginning phase of improving their use of phrasal verbs and modal verbs. On the other hand, intermediate level is equivalent to IELTS score 4.5 5.5, TOEFL IBT score 55, TOEIC score 450 650, Cambridge PET. Out of 20 participants, there were only 3 students who were private high school graduates. In Turkey, private high schools English curriculum is more intense when compared to state schools English curriculum. Both males and females were involved in the study. They ranged in age from 18 to 20. Instrument The questionnaire administered in the study was developed for the purpose of assessing international students in Marquette University, U.S.A. Marquette University is a private university in Milwaukee, U.S.A. The development of the questionnaire was one of the four assessment areas that Marquette university aimed to assess the four advanced ESL academic bridge courses, one of which focused on international students efficacy in their writing performance. The original questionnaire is a 36-item self-assessment scale to grade the strength of participants belief, or self-efficacy, in their writing performance. However, the questionnaire used to investigate the relationship between students self-report on their writing efficacy and their writing performance is a 20-item questionnaire. The reason why the original questionnaire was not used in the current study was the fact that some of the items did not serve the purpose of the study. The adopted writing efficacy questionnaire features 20 i tems with positive polarity (I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦).The instrument of 20 item questionnaire was used to assess students self- efficacy beliefs related to the skills needed in different essay organizations and other factors that determine students writing performance as successful or unsuccessful. Some of the investigated factors through the questionnaire are brainstorming, outlining, as well as their self- efficacy in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. Level of efficacy in writing ability was measured on a five point- likert scale included the responses (usually not true of me, somewhat true of me, usually true of me, always or almost always true of me). The questionnaire will be used as the independent variable when the relationship between self-efficacy and writing scores is investigated. Procedure Questionnaire is distributed to participants at the beginning of the semester as a self-completing questioonnaire. Since they were not received any writing instructions before the semester, it is assumed that this questionnaire served to measure their self-efficacy without any intervention of teacher. During the semester, they learned basics of essay writing such as paragraph organization, thesis statement and some grammar backup. Quiz scores which will be used as the dependent variable in my essay are based on the Second Quiz, took after XXXXXXX which constitutes 20% percent of the midterm grade. Findings Self-Efficacy of Participants Table 1. Mean Standard Deviation Coefficient of Variation item3 topic sentence 3,75 0,64 0,17 item11 clear thesis statement 3,75 0,79 0,21 item20 using my independent thinking 3,70 0,66 0,18 item14 effectively brainstorm 3,65 0,81 0,22 item9 support /develop main point 3,60 0,60 0,17 item1 summary 3,50 0,61 0,17 item8 spell, capital, punctuation 3,45 0,83 0,24 item13 a good conclusion 3,45 0,76 0,22 item17 wording, gram., pun,spelling 3,40 0,88 0,26 item15 outline to logically organize 3,40 0,75 0,22 item10 a good introduction 3,40 0,82 0,24 item7 various sent.structures 3,35 0,59 0,18 item6 vocab/ word forms 3,25 0,55 0,17 item4 paragraph organization 3,15 0,67 0,21 item18 effectively write under time constraints 3,13 0,56 0,18 item16 revise to improve dev. org. 3,05 0,69 0,23 item19 write quickly in English 2,95 1,03 0,35 item2 paragraph 2,95 0,51 0,17 item12 different types of organization 2,85 0,93 0,33 item5 academic style tone 2,58 0,67 0,26 Above table shows descriptive statistics of items used in the questionnaire. Since the questionnaire is composed of Likert scale questions, 1 stands for the lowest score and 5 is the highest possible score. According to this table, participants self-efficacy is relatively high in items like topic sentence, clear thesis statement, using my independent thinking, effectively brainstorm and support/develop main point where average scores are above 3,50 over 5. Their weakest points are stated as academic styletone, different types of organization, paragraph and write quickly in English, where averages are below 3 over 5. Generally speaking, participants seem to be confident in idea development and they feel themselves relatively weaker in the structural aspects such as academic style and tone. Coefficient of variations, calculated by dividing standard deviation to mean for each items show how responses are dispersed in each item. Highest dispersion is observed on item19, write quickly in English and on item12, which measures self-perception about the ability to use different types of organization, both coefficient of variations are above 0,34. Lowest scores are observed on these items topic sentence, support/develop main point, summary, vocab/word forms and paragraph, all of them are 0,17. Descriptive statistics give some hints about overall level of self-efficacy of participants, and it is almost sure that this is not something uni-dimensional. However a multivariate analysis is beyond the limits of this essay and number of cases is very small to conduct further analyses. Consequently remaining parts of this essay will be based on the assumption that self-efficacy is uni-dimensional, something possible to measure in a single dimension. Efficacy scores of respondents are calculated on their raw scores obtained by using above described self-efficacy questionnaire. Total efficacy score is calculated by using a simple summation of responses. Theoretical maximum score is 100 showing the highest self-efficacy score, and minimum theoretical score is 20, indicating that respondent stated him/herself on the lowest end in each question. Table . Descriptives of Self Efficacy Scores Average Std. Dev. Min. Max. Efficacy 66,15 7,34 53 86 Descriptive statistics are presented above. Mean self-efficacy score is 66,15 with a standard deviation of 7,34. Coefficient of variation (V) is 0,11, indicating a low level of variation. Minimum score is 53, which is above theoretical minimum and observed maximum 86 is below theoretical maximum. These findings show that scores are located between 60 and 90. In order to facilitate interpretation of analyses, all raw scores are transformed to standardized (Z) scores. Newly created self-efficacy scores have a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1. Distribution of this new scores are presented in the below histogram. Although number of participants is limited (we have only 20 cases), this distribution is very close to be normally distributed. Figure . Histogram of Standardized Self Efficacy Scores Measurement of Academic Performance: Quiz Scores It is so far argued that quiz scores are used to measure academic performance of participants. Quiz scores are graded over 100. Table . Descriptives of Quiz Scores Average Std. Dev. Min. Max. Cause and Effect Quiz Scores 60,05 7,78 52 83 Above table shows that average quiz score is 60, and standard deviation is 7,78. If we consider that range between minimum and maximum scores is only 31, it is possible to conclude that quiz scores are relatively less dispersed. Correlation Analysis Our expectation is that academic performance of students is correlated with their self efficacy. As one students is more confident about his/her efficacy, it is expected that he/she performs better in courses; and as he/she performas better academically; his/her self efficacy increases. Since direction of causality is not clear; correlation analysis is the best tool to present the nature of the relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance. In our cases, self-efficacy of participants are measured by using a self completed questionnaire and their self efficacy scores are calculated based on their answers; meanwhile their quiz scores are accepted as indicators of their academic performance. Table . Correlation Analysis Compare and Contrast Quiz Self Efficacy 0,60 Above table shows that correlation coefficient between self efficacy and compare and contrast quiz scores is 0.60. Correlation coefficient is a score located between -1 and 1, where -1 stands for perfect negative correlation and 1 stands for perfect positive correlation. As this coefficient comes closer to 0, it shows that power of relationship is relatively week, if it is 0, it means that there is no relationship between examined variables. A correlation coefficient of 0.60 means that there is a positive correlation between self efficacy of participants and their academic performance, a finding not falsifying our expectations. If we emphasize on the strength of this relationship, 0.60 shows a more than moderate relationship between our two variables. This finding shows that there is a positive relationship between self-efficacy of participants and their academic performance. As ones self efficacy increases, his/her academic performance also increases; and since correlation coefficient is a symmetrical measure; this finding also shows that as ones academic performance increases; his/her self-efficacy also increases. Although the measurement of self-efficacy precedes the measurement of academic performance; it is not sufficient to talk about a causal relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance; because self-efficacy of participants most probably affected by their previous academic performance, such as their performance in the high school or other exams they attended. Consequently accepting self-efficacy scores as an indicator of academic performance is a less risky choice compared to using them to forecast future academic success. In order to make such a forecasting, we need much more detailed measurement of academic performance and self-efficacy and higher number of respondents. Anova Test A further analysis is conducted to see whether there is a significant difference between students, based on their self-efficacy scores. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is preferred because it allows us to test statistical significance of an intervening factor on a dependent variable. We expect that students having high level of self-efficacy are more successful in academic terms. Above discussed measurement of self-efficacy is accepted as the independent variable and Quiz Scores are dependent. Since self-efficacy is an interval level variable, recoding these scores to a nominal level variable is needed. It is preferred to use standardized self-efficacy scores to facilitate interpretation. Standardized self-efficacy scores are recoded as follows: Those having a score less than 0 are recoded as low efficacy and those having a score less than or equal to 0 are accepted as high efficacy. 12 students are categorized as low-efficacy students and 8 are grouped as high efficacy students. Table . Descriptives of Quiz Scores according to the Level of Self Efficacy Average Std. Dev. Std. Error N Low Self Efficacy 57.33 3.45 0.995 12 High Self Efficacy 64.13 10.7 3.772 8 Total 60.05 7.78 1.739 20 Descriptive statistics of both groups are presented above. It is known that overall average of quiz scores is 60.05 with a standard deviation of 7.78. Students with low self-efficacy scores have an average of 57.33 and standard deviation of this group is 3.45. Meanwhile, students having high self-efficacy scores are also more successful in quizzes, their average is 64.13. At this point, we need to consider that standard deviation of these students is very high, 10.7; compared to other students. Table . ANOVA Results Sum of Squares Df. Mean Square F. Sig. Low Self Efficacy 221.41 1 221.41 4.30 0.05 High Self Efficacy 927.54 18 51.53 Total 1148.95 19 Above presented results of ANOVA shows that difference between average quiz scores of low self-efficacy and high self-efficacy students is statistically significant. F score is 4.3 and this score is statistically significant at 0.05 level. Thus, we can falsify our hypothesis that group means are equal, meaning that students with high self-efficacy scores have higher scores in the Quiz, than students with low self-efficacy scores. Similar to correlation analysis, ANOVA analysis does not allow us to make generalizations about the causal relationship between self-efficacy of students and their academic performance. However, it is clear that there is a statistically significant difference between these two groups of students. I believe that causal relationship has to elaborated by using more sophisticated data analysis tools and using these instruments with higher number of participants. DISCUSSION This essay targeted to discover whether there is a relationship between students perceptions about their efficacy in the English language and their academic performance. Literature review led us to think that there is a positive relationship between self-efficacy scores of students and their academic performance. There are a lot of reasons of this relationship discussed in details in literature review section of the essay. Our hypothetical expectation is that as self-efficacy scores of students increase, their academic performance in writing also increases. Since this relationship is recursive, meaning that self- efficacy leads to better performance in exams and better performance may also lead to higher self-efficacy, causal relationship wont be tested in this essay. In order to measure self-efficacy of students, an adopted version of the questionnaire developed by the Marquette University has been used with 20 students at the beginning of semester. Original questionnaire was shortened to limit it with writing related items. By using these questionnaires, an index of self-efficacy is calculated and standardized. Meanwhile academic performance of students are measured with their grades in a Quiz held on XXXth week of the semester. Correlation analysis showed that there is a positive correlation between self-efficacy of students and their academic performance. With a coefficient of 0.60, this relationship seems to be moderately powerful. As a result of restrictions of correlation analysis, it is not possible to understand direction of causality between these two variables. My second analysis also showed that difference between mean quiz scores of students with high and low level of self-efficacy is statistically significant. Standardized self-efficacy scores are transformed to a binary variable. ANOVA showed that these two groups have different mean quiz scores and this difference is statistically significant. While correlation analysis showed that there is a positive relationship between self-efficacy scores and academic performance; ANOVA results presented that students having high and low level self-efficacy scores have different quiz scores. Both findings indicate that self-efficacy scores matter. It is so far argued that these findings cannot give any idea about direction of causality, since relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance is recursive. However, my analyses presented the existence of a relationship and it deserves further discussion. It is possible to repeat this exercise with a larger sample and to prevent a possible falsification of hypotheses as a result of small sample size. Questionnaire revised to measure self-efficacy may be refined and developed to make a better measurement of this concept. Fu

Macbeth by William Shakespeare :: Papers

Macbeth by William Shakespeare Recently in class we have read and studied one of Shakespeare's most famous plays: Macbeth. I found the language a bit difficult to understand and rather archaic but the themes as relevant as they were when the play was written and set. The play was an intriguing one. Whilst studying the play we were focusing on the main character whom the play was based upon and named after, Macbeth. Having finished the play, I felt a sense of pride and achievement that I have read a Shakespearean play. In this evaluation I wish to consider the accuracy of Malcolm's comment that Macbeth died a "butcher" Macbeth towards the end of the play appeared extremely cold and heartless yet at the beginning was a hero who did have good qualities which is why it was such a tragedy that he turned evil. Macbeth is a very complex character and Shakespeare began by highlighting his good points, portraying him as a decent person thus making us care what happens to him. Macbeth being hailed a hero,(in Act1Sc2) was a well-deserved title. He was a brave and gallant soldier, ironically fighting against traitorous behaviour to the king. We are told in gory detail that he "unseamed" one traitor by ripping him apart with his sword from his navel to his mouth showing his military capability Described as "Belona's bridegroom" by Rosse, Macbeth was being compared with Mars, the Roman God of War a compliment by any standard. This reinforces the bravery and ability of Macbeth and showed that in the context of his times, Macbeth was a first class soldier and admired by many. In fact, to the bitter end Macbeth remains a brave character fighting against all odds when he himself has become the traitor. Another virtue of Macbeth's is that he is held in high regard by the king. On several occasions, King Duncan praises Macbeth going as far as saying on one occasion, " we love him highly". King Duncan obviously held a lot of trust in Macbeth even visiting his castle and

Toy Story

Name: Karl Dent Instructor: Morgen Thomas SP13: SOC 101 Date: Mar 19, 2013 â€Å"A Toy's Story Observation† When you think about toys the first thing that comes to mind is the joy they gave when you were a kid growing up, and the smile they put on your kid’s face when you see them playing with them on a daily basis. What if toys could talk? What information would they give us? What would they tell us? Recently I set out on a quest to better understand what information I could get just by looking at the toys in my local neighborhood toy store and how they shape the mind of kids from a young age.Unfortunately for me, the day I went to the toy store there were not many people shopping, so this made my research a little harder to complete. I wandered around the store for several hours, going through many different aisles and looking at many different toys. At times I felt like I was being watched; it was so quiet I could hear whispers as if the little action figures were gi ving me the information I needed. By looking at toys as a way of seeing things from a sociological stand point, I can understand why the manufacturers of toys make certain types and what goals they are trying to accomplish.By studying different toys, I started to use them as tools to see the world in a new way and to see how they shape society from both nature and nurture. My views of toys were like sociological imagination; I started to see how contextual our lives are. I then realized our individual identities were only sensible in a social context. But how can you look at toys and figure out how humans behave in our society? The only possible answer I found to my question was sociology. Toys help to form one important aspect of our lives which we come to understand as gender identity.By having toys specific to boys and girls it helps us to understand what it means to be male or female. Understanding gender identity is said to be one of the most important ways we develop who we ar e and where we belong in our society. With many of the toys I observed, I noticed they would have a specific age group on the box, which is known as the functional age symbol. This helps parents understand the expected developmental growth of their child, being able to compare it with the age of the kids on the toy boxes.There was a lot of cooking toys for girls, and a lot of police toys for boys, which illustrated to me gender inequality. These toys present the message that men are dominant and above women. By looking at the boxes they showed boys play an authority figure of catching bad guys and there weren’t any girl cops on any of the police toys that I saw. This led me to believe that they saw women as being weak and not able to go out and be a police officer in the community that they would eventually grow up and be a part of.There were also toys that sent the message that some men were over other men and some women where over other women. G. I. Joe toys are a way of sh owing boys what they should grow up to be, while a princess doll shows a girl that she is expected to be a pretty lady. This is the process of general socialization in our society. While this process starts at birth, it continues throughout our lives by way of the nurturing of kids through toys. Laser tag toys are more group oriented because they require more than one person to play.This then teaches group cohesion, this is where an individual would start learning how to work as a team while playing with other people. Looking at a play house princess set you can see how that particular toy prepares girls for the future role that society would proclaim them to have. Society expects our girls to grow up and be wives, the one who is always back at home taking care of the kids and the house and making dinner for the husband. The differences in toys between girls and boys also create gender inequality.It would lead you to think that girls will grow up doing just domestic jobs and that bo ys will grow up to be cops, soldiers, firefighters, etc. Gender inequality also creates a wage gap for women in our society because it puts male and female with the same potential on an unequal playing field. NBA toys are modeled after real people. They were of James, Bosh, Williams, Durant and Griffin which are all black male players. There were not any female basketball toys; this showed the separation of race, sex, color and gender, and how sports and athletes are seen in American society.By giving athletes the achieved status of celebrity and role model, it enables the toy company to create a new market of toys based on the person and not the sport. By not promoting female sports as much as male sports, we are sending a message that male sports are more dominant than female sports and males are more important than females when it comes to sports. There were not any white basketball toys and this was an appeal by the toy company to get whiter kids involve in basketball so they ca n be famous and one day own their own toy in a toy store.Separating gender by toys can also lead to other things such as stigma and sanction by family, friends and even teachers. A girl playing with a boy toy and doing boy things will be seen as a tom boy and a boy playing with a girl toy will be seen as s sissy. This can cause serious sanction by parents if they are around friends out in public and society will view this as being deviant because they are going against the norm of what is expected from them. Ranking boys above girls is a form of social inequality and relates to the structure of mobility because it brings about what is called social stratification.One set of toys that stood out were the Home Depot toys. They showed white males being builders and taking control of the development of buildings and handling tools. This was showing men as being engineers and future bosses and did not show where girls could do the same jobs as men in the future. By not giving girls the op portunity from a young age to do what they want, we continue to limit the ability of women in our society. Toys are a very important way for kids to develop. This is one of the many ways they learn to start sharing things with each other.Toys help kids to understand their roles and gender. Day-care, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten are very good places for kids to start their venture of learning. This is where individuals and groups get a chance to interact. In this setting, they have the ability to focus on the creation of their personal identity through playing with toys and others. Of particular interest is the relationship between individual action and group pressures. Having this opportunity to be away from their parents and spend time around other kids will help them nderstand what friendship is and learn the difference between boys and girls. We can expand military toys not only to boys but also to girls because women have proven to be just as productive in the military work forces as men. Allowing boys to play with dolls without being sanctioned is a good way of teaching them how to take care of a child and be more loving when they hit adulthood. Making NBA toys for both males and females is a way to promote the WNBA as much as we do for the men and to gain the interest in the sports for more women.Making white NBA toys will show our kids that white basketball players are as good as black. Teaching girls how to work in construction is not a bad thing because women can also be successful engineers and builders. Domestic jobs such as taking care of the kids should be taught to boys and not just girls. Giving girls more access to the things that are normally set aside for boys from an early age and allowing social mobility will allow them to move from one class to another. If we made these changes we could reduce gender inequality in our society between girls and boys.

Case Study: Our Perfect Wedding Essay

Claire has done a reasonably good job about target markets for her new web based business, and understands the relevant needs quite well. But for the marketing mix, she as fallen short because it’s not clear whether this business involves one strategy or several strategies. For example, a marketing mix that appeals to engaged couples would not be the same as a marketing mix that appeals to the companies that pay for web pages. Claire’s target markets are engaged couples /newlyweds (for gift registry); companies that target newlyweds with both goods and services (with the advertising of web pages); and friends and family of the couple to be married (whom the advertisers want to reach). Claire has done a reasonably good job about target markets for her new web based business, and understands the relevant needs quite well. But for the marketing mix, she has fallen short because it’s not clear whether this business involves one strategy or several strategies. For example, a marketing mix that appeals to engaged couples would not be the same as a marketing mix that appeals to the companies that pay for web pages. Claire’s target markets are engaged couples /newlyweds (for gift registry); companies that target newlyweds with both goods and services (with the advertising of web pages); and friends and family of the couple to be married (whom the advertisers want to reach). What may or may not be obvious at first is that there is little about this business that requires that it be focused only on customers or advertisers in the same city or metro area. To the contrary, gift-givers who are inclined to get on the internet to check a wedding registry might be equally willing to order gifts from distant companies (advertisers), especially if the company provides special services such as gift wrap, personalized gift cards, and delivery direct to the recipient. Even for local customers, there may be a number of mail order, catalog, and specialty retailers in distant locations who are interested in reaching this target market. Simply focusing on retailers or service providers in the local area to generate website listings and advertising revenue may not make sense. Similarly, there is little reason that the registry service should be limited to local couples-a user of the Internet usually doesn’t know or care whether the base operation for a website is nearby or far away. To the extent that there are advantages of localizing aspects of the service, Claire could potentially set up a segmented approach in which different parts of the website were designed to appeal to people from different areas. As a start, for example, she might think about retailers or advertisers who have facilities or base operations in her own area but who also are targeting customers in other places. Let’s think about the marketing mix that Claire offers for each of these target markets. For each group: What is the specific product (and what are its benefits)? What is the price of obtaining those benefits? How are the benefits promoted? And (to a lesser extent) what is Claire’s role in the place arrangements between the advertisers and their customers? How does her current geographic focus come into play? The benefits for engaged couples seem pretty clear. The $20 price to register is not a big investment if it saves time and leads to the desired gifts rather than things that are not of interest. So, it is unlikely that price sensitivity should be big concerns unless other services appear that will provide the service (and/or other superior benefits) for free. This is certainly a possibility because revenue from advertisers could pay for the services provided if enough advertisers and customers can be attracted. If the couple doesn’t know about the service and doesn’t know to look for it, they won’t sign up. There is also some evidence for this diagnosis because the main flurry of activity came after Claire finally got some attention with publicity. That attention and interest simply wasn’t forthcoming from her limited advertising. Claire should work harder to get more publicity. There also seems to be a very important role for word-of-mouth referrals here. For example, there is no explicit discussion in the case about how friends and family of the couples are supposed to learn about the website, but it would certainly make sense to develop ideas that could be shared with the registered couples about how to inform gift givers about the website, what it is supposed to do, and how it is supposed to work. Furthermore, the relationship with couples who do sign up needs to be a close one, even if for only a short time period. Most couples are not going to be repeat customers but on the other hand, couples who are about to get married often know others who are at the same life stage; especially the among the younger first time married. Claire needs to think about how to stimulate word-of-mouth referrals so that people who do sign up help to bring in additional customers. Since she doesn’t have a lot of money, one way to do this is to think in terms of marginal revenue from new customers and what it might cost her to acquire a customer. It might be better and cheaper to offer couples who recommend the service to a friend a $5 or $10 â€Å"rebate† on the $20 fee, or perhaps she could enter them in a bi-monthly drawing for some more substantial prize like a honeymoon trip. So far, Claire has not done a particularly good job of giving advertisers a reason to buy into her service. She is basically selling a professional service to them, but most of them can’t evaluate it in advance and they are unclear about its benefits. The comparison with the cost of a Yellow Pages ad is interesting because it provides a sort of reference price for the advertiser. Yet, the advertiser probably sees some sort of Yellow Pages listing as a must buy. Perhaps this sort of website advertising will become a must buy, but probably not until more of these companies target customers who think of the web as â€Å"the place† to look for this sort of information. Claire is also being a bit production-oriented in the way she is thinking about her product. She designs web pages in her other job, and so she is thinking about potential advertisers who need a web page. But companies that already have a good web page might be more interested in something else, like a banner ad or button ad at her website that would allow a net surfer to click over to get their existing message. Companies that have already invested in a website know that they face the same problem that Claire does–they want to attract people to the site. So, for them the value of banner ads (perhaps at a lower cost, or even with the fee based on the number of click-through from Claire’s website) might be easier to see. Claire also might think about the pricing arrangement for advertisers. She currently bundles the price of the on-time service of preparing the web page and the ongoing online web page. She might want to charge separately for the preparation of the web page and/or allow customers to have something more elaborate than a single page. Claire’s service in many ways operates with the same approach as a magazine attracting an audience and advertisers who want to reach that audience. Yet, most companies that sell advertising media time and space rely on personal selling and/or offer incentives to advertising agencies or others that refer business. Claire hasn’t done much personal selling to advertisers, even after her direct response mailing didn’t work. The case offers several hints why she didn’t like the job she had doing personal selling, and she is busy doing other things. It is likely that if she is going to need to get help if the personal selling parts of her promotion blend is going to be handled well. Since she doesn’t have a big budget, she might think about trying to find someone who would sell advertising space on her website on a straight commission basis. That way, she would not have much expense until she had revenues. Of course, the salesperson would still need to have a good story to tell, and that might depend on having a way to better establish the link between the advertiser’s sales and visits to the websites. For example, if Claire could convince advertisers to offer a small discount to customers who purchased because of the website she might be more successful in getting customers to tell the advertisers that â€Å"I am an OurPerfectWedding. com† customer. The case also portrays her as a doer not as a planner, which is in part true. She had an idea but doesn’t have a detailed plan for what needs to be done. Rather, she hasn’t yet really made the investment of time and money to give her idea a chance to work. She’s a doer when it comes to some things but has not really been a dedicated doer when it comes to getting this business started. She probably wouldn’t have the time to do that unless she gave up her full-time job or really cut back on her social life. While it is not hard to think about different things that Claire could do, what is perhaps more relevant is what is she willing to do.