Department of Psychology Science and Technology Center Rider University

Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by admin in Culture, Education in Science

This hypertext book explores the psychological aspects of environments created by computers and online networks. It presents an evolving conceptual framework for understanding how people react to and behave within cyberspace: what I call “the psychology of cyberspace” – or simply “CYBERPSYCHOLOGY.” Continually being revised and expanded, this hypertext book originally was created in January of 1996. See the article index Which indicates the articles most recently added and revised. (more…)

Stonehenge: unearthing a mystery

Posted on 13. Feb, 2010 by in Culture, Experiments & Research, Featured, Human Biology

More than 4,000 years ago, the people of the Neolithic period decided to build a massive monument using earth, timber and eventually, stones, placing it high on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England — about 137 kilometers southwest of London. (more…)

How to Write a Report on a Biography?

Posted on 11. Feb, 2010 by admin in Culture, Educational Resources

You’d rather e-mail your friends or watch the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but your teacher wants you to read a biography and write a report. How can you make it interesting? (more…)

First Year Survival Guide

Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by admin in Culture, Educational Resources

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” That’s what Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz after her house crash-landed into Munchkinville. You’ll find yourself saying the same thing whether you’re away at school for the first time or entering the strange new world of graduate school. (more…)

Save It in a Scrapbook

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Culture, Educational Resources

Do you have collections of photos and other souvenirs tucked away in boxes? Why not organize them in a scrapbook? Scrapbooks are a great way to save keepsakes and remember a special time of your life. (more…)

How to Write a Top-Notch Current-Event Essay

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by admin in Culture, Educational Resources

Your teacher has given you a tough assignment: picking a current event and writing an essay about it. You’re wracking your brain–”How do I pick a topic? And how do I decide what to say in my essay?” (more…)

The general director of Cultural Property

Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by admin in Culture

Speaking to journalists, the general director of Cultural Property, Guadalupe Ruiz, said that they are “great pieces of Spanish and Andalusian Baroque”, being an “opportunity” that “the Institute has been restored,” because for the itself is “a privilege and an honor” to have worked with carvings of “great artist Alonso Cano,” adding they had “an assurance that the restoration was to be respectful” and that such works can be seen that there is a “restoration well done. ”

Also, Ruiz said the sculpture of Adam and Eve were in the transverse arch of the Cathedral of Granada, while the busts of the Virgin of Bethlehem and St. Paul were in the Cathedral Museum. These images will be returned to the temple after having been restored for a period of approximately 22 months since, especially the first, “needed urgent intervention in terms of support for the separation of parts” among other reasons, as noted one of his restorative, Maria Teresa Real.

Thus, the restoration of these busts expressed that they “had a very mixed condition,” so they had to act upon “the particular needs of each.” Thus, highlighted the works of Adam and Eve, which has been brought to light a “unique polychrome” and “the same in the two heads after removing previous interruptions and different layers that obscured the original colors “, stressing that they could” save the original color, which helps unify the sculptural.

In this line, said Ruiz, the size of St. Paul has followed the same process, as has been obtained through various techniques the original color, as happened with the Virgin of Bethlehem, which is has made “a clean surface. In addition, a preventive manner, has carried out a sculpture disinsection make some alterations caused by insect borers.

BUSTS OF ADAM AND EVE
Made by Alonso Cano to 1666, remained unfinished at his death, so that the polychrome was carried out in 1676 his pupil, Juan Velez de Ulloa. The cathedral chapter of Granada acquired the estate of the artist, being documented from the eighteenth century its location on the site now occupied in the Cathedral, the transverse arch of the chancel.
In these busts is evident, “evidently, the genius of Alonso Cano, and even without complete its polychromy, transmitted through volumes of his greatness and his keen modeling expressive intention” so that as the said Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Historico, “represent the culmination of the production material of this artist, one of the best figures of Andalusian Baroque.

OUR LADY OF BETHLEHEM
With this small image – 45 inches – conducted in 1664 to replace the teacher Immaculate had carved Lectern for the auction of the Cathedral of Granada, Cano follows the outline sketch of his last Immaculate although with some variations. Intervention in the IAPH has been focused on conservative action and in the realization of a uniform cleaning of the work, which had been submitted prior to cleaning uneven. Furthermore, it has returned with polychromy in some areas which had experienced losses of paint.

BUST OF SAN PABLO
Held on the last leg of the artist around the years 1660 and 1665, is preserved in the Museo de la Catedral de Granada. This is an absolute masterpiece of Cano, which “is distancing itself from its usual intimate and concentrated forms” to provide a sculpture – 46 inches – “extrovert” features tormented, strong expression and full beard base wrought of “winding and long locks of hair,” imagers effect previously tested as Andres de Ocampo, recalling his style “the Moses of Michelangelo’s immortal.”

In short: a musical petition for Copenhagen

Posted on 17. Oct, 2009 by admin in Culture

Kofi Annan himself has launched a petition calling for music to take account of “climate justice” at the Copenhagen conference. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary, is now president of the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization seeking to raise awareness about the challenges and problems that will make climate change. In this context it has launched a petition in world music for an agreement on “climate justice” at the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen. Beds Are Burning is a cover of a song by Midnight Oil, as amended for the occasion by the Australian group itself.The petition for a new genre has been produced by The Hours and gathers 60 artists include: Andrew Wyatt, Aurelia Chaplin, Charlie Winston, Eric Serra, Fergie, Guillaume Canet, Heidy Allende, Jamie Burke, Jet Li, Lilly Allen, Marion Cotillard Mark Ronson, Milla Jovovich, Scorpions, Vincent Perez and Yannick Noah.
To participate, simply visit the site and download the free title: the name of each person performing a download is automatically added to the list.

B. SOCIAL-CULTURAL.

Posted on 14. Oct, 2009 by admin in Culture

The human being is an eminently social lives and develops in a specific society, which creates a culture. The social culture is defined by Newstrom and Davis (1993) as “the social environment of belief created by human beings, customs, knowledge, and practices that define conventional behavior in a society. This behavior commonly accepted in a society influences all conscious and subconscious levels of thought that influence the actions an individual performs in accordance with the expectations of other members of that society.
A good example of the above what are the myths and stereotypes that societies construct and express their values, traditions, customs, etc.. at a certain time. Gonzalez Torres (1996) clarifies the need to build a society of myths and stereotypes for their own consumption, saying that this happens “sometimes as a statement of which are run from the authorities, sometimes as a compensatory mechanism, sometimes as underground subversion, or all of these together. Here the mythic imagination is generous and democratic: almost any object or person is susceptible to becoming myth and become part of the body of fetishes and remarks that put the individual in the world and society .

The sociability of a culture have an impact on the forms of social organization and therefore its economic and political development. An article by Fukuyama (1996), entitled “Social capital and the global economy,” emphasizes culture as the promoter of economic development when it facilitates the spontaneous forms of socialization that is trusted among strangers, to “work together in new ways and flexible organization. ” These forms of spontaneous sociability is weakened in those cultures that make stress upon family relations, giving rise to more serious when education and work are also weaknesses of culture.

Confucian and Judaic cultures underlie the development of their processes of socialization in familism it weakens its organization, but offset this effect with the strength they derive from their education and work. Fukuyama (1996) exemplifies the original argument of Max Weber’s strong Chinese cultural orientation toward the family, is an obstacle to the modernization of its development, affirming the importance attached to ties of kinship and “the centrality of the family in that culture” in the Chinese organizations for recruitment and selection of managers, supporting this argument as “the reason for the relatively small scale of Chinese businesses,” which affects the existence of relatively “few large corporations, hierarchical, professionally managed,” characteristics of the Japanese organizations.

The researcher concludes that currently emerging economic cultures of China and Japan as two rival economic cultures “with their own guidelines and features that characterize it:” Each of these cultures are united in the literal sense for large organizations typically based network in generalized social trust in the Japanese case and the family and kinship in the Chinese case. These networks obviously interact with each other on many points, but their internal wiring diagrams come along very different avenues. ”

The contrasts between the two cultures, Japanese and Chinese, whose common denominator is the “Asian model” show that there are, according to Fukuyama (1996) “cultural aspects common to virtually all societies of East Asia. The contrasts between the two Asian cultures have serious implications for every one in particular. Among these common features to the model affected by Confucian culture, the researcher states:
a. – the respect for education, and
b. – a strong work ethic.
But despite these features common to both Asian cultures, “… in terms of industrial structure is a long way … and will be difficult for Chinese companies to adopt Japanese practices.”

Another good example is quoted by Fukuyama (1996) analysis by Banfield in a village with an Italian peasant culture “whose families were nuclear, small and weak. The family business continued to be marginal and employers failed to build because they believed it obligation of the State do it for them. ” The conclusion drawn by Banfield’s analysis can be validated in a culture like ours which has many similar traits and Italian.

Fukuyama’s study are the similarities of family and cultural characteristics of different countries which make them look regardless of the economic bloc to which they belong and which are also its significance for economic development, thus rests on the thesis Weber postulated that the economic development of countries is based on values and religious beliefs, which also overlap with the political, social and cultural rights. Zabludowsky (1996), interpreting the work of Fukuyama and Weber, sustains that “the causes of our economic underdevelopment can be explained by the differences between a” fighting tradition “feature of Anglo-Saxon Protestant and a” contemplative tradition “of the Iberian Catholicism. The terms “fighting tradition” and “tradition contemplate” are terms originally used by Basanez (1986).

However, even Fukuyama (1996) not sure that “the inability of low-trust societies to create large-scale organizations, constitutes a particular constraint to economic growth rates set …”. and with the benefit of the doubt, argues the rapid growth in the decade of the eighties experienced economies “Italy and other Latin and Catholic Familists companies in the U.S.”, “discarding therefore Mexican society -. With this argument, Fukuyama (1996), corrected to Max Weber who argued that the strong cultural orientation of Chinese society family privilege to be the main obstacle to their “economic modernization”. Do not forget the various cultural reasons that explain the differences in family relations in different countries and appears not taken seriously by Fukuyama although intended as an argument to prove otherwise to explain the economic development of countries.

Despite this analysis, Fukuyama (1996) concludes: “But clearly both the need for an industrial policy as the ability to implement it depends on cultural factors such as social capital.” Although questions about the importance of culture, and the orientation of the securities have been a constant concern in sociological theory, says Zabludowsky (1996), by referring to the fact that it is a controversial author who again put this issue in the forefront. However, it strongly criticized for its lack of scientific rigor. One of these criticisms are straightened to the simplistic presentation that Fukuyama makes “family trust-trust parity extrafamilial a zero sum game where the increase in one necessarily leads to a decrease of the other” in a narrative that recalls the use of “double standard” of Mexican conceptualize it as “a being masked,” said Peace (1972) or the weight of the “colonial servitude described by Ramos.

Buy Green, a safe-conduct for a less moral?

Posted on 11. Oct, 2009 by admin in Culture, Experiments & Research

Consumer choices reflect their taste or budget, but also reflect social and moral values. Witness the remarkable growth of the global market for organic products and environmentally friendly. According to a new study, being surrounded by green products make us more altruistic. But would buy the opposite effect .Researchers have discovered that buying green would make people less altruistic and even steal and lie more easily! In the minds of consumers buy products that claim to have a low impact on the environment would, somehow, the “moral credentials” eligible for selfish behavior or questionable.

N. Mazar, a professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and buying green products, and coauthor Chen-Bo Zhong, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Rotman School, have conducted three experiments. The first, conducted with the participation of 59 student volunteers (including 32 women), showed that people perceive eco-consumers as being more cooperative, altruistic and ethical than others.

For the second experiment, 156 students (95 women) were divided into 2 groups: people visiting an online store and other eco surf shop in a conventional line. In both groups, some could make purchases online, others not. During a game simply subjects exposed to organic products have shared more money than those who visited the shop treaty. In contrast, those who had shopped in the store less organic than the others shared.

More lies and theft among buyers green
In the final experiment, 90 participants (56 women) have all sailed on an online shop organic but, again, some might buy while others could not. When a new game, buyers were more liars and stole more cash than others. “This is not to point fingers at people who buy green products. The message is more important, said Nina Mazar, do a selfless act does not mean that all our actions will be. ”

But the people have awareness of this green-washing going mental when they buy green products? And, more importantly, would they feel entitled to break moral rules more important? Teachers and Mazar Zhong does not yet know the answer and are eager to explore these new tracks .