"Environmental degradation is neither the inevitable price of, nor a desirable path for, economic development
"Environmental degradation is neither the inevitable price of, nor a desirable path for, economic development." (UNDP, et al, 2005) Introduction Environmental degradation is now apparent on a global scale. In addition to the deterioration of what were once considered free goods (such as air and water), escalating scarcity of natural resources, deforestation, desertification and threatened bio-diversity are now commonplace across the spectrum. There are certainly no reservations over the scale of this degradation, however there is much controversy concerning the apparent environmental degradation - economic development nexus. Many have argued that short-term tradeoffs exist in the form of environmental degradation, for superior long-term economic gains. One of the positions put forward is that environmental degradation is the result and inevitable price of economic development. This viewpoint is based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve, regarding environmental degradation as the 'necessary evil' for achieving 'economic development' and suggesting that environmental assets are degraded in the early stages of economic development, only to improve after some income threshold has been passed at a later point. In the last decade, extensive literature has argued that a direct link between environmental degradation and economic development is too simplistic and that the
To what extent is the oil crisis of 1973 a turning point in postwar economic development?
Chin Ying Lin Olivia (2) 6L 07/02/2010 To what extent can the oil crisis of 1973-4 be regarded as a turning point in the development of the international economy? The 1973 oil crisis was an event when the members of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur war and lasted until March 1974. In this essay, a "turning point" is defined to be a landmark- an event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend. While acknowledging that the oil crisis certainly had dramatic and lasting impact on the development of the international economy: in terms of signifying the start of a worldwide shift in power away from the U.S for the first time, bringing about catastrophic repercussions on the international economy and also leading to the formation of the G-7 ; to regard it as a " turning point" would be an overstatement, due to the temporary nature of the crisis, as well as preceding events such as the collapse of the Bretton Woods System, and the continuity of dominance of the US in the global economy, albeit with lesser power than before the oil crisis. All these suggest otherwise: either that other events qualify more as a "turning point" than the oil crisis, or that there remained continuity of
Economic and Social consequences of Unemployment
Economic and Social consequences of Unemployment Unemployment has both social and economic costs. According to ILO (International Labor organization), unemployment is defined as, '' people of working age who are without work, available for work and actively seeking employment.'' In other words, it is a state of an individual looking for a job but not having one. Unemployment is one of the factors crucial in determining the economic stability of a country. There are several factors which might lead to unemployment such as labor market conflicts (trade-unions) and downturns in economy. Seasonal unemployment occurs when a person is unemployed or their profession is not in demand during a certain season. On the other hand, cyclical unemployment is when there is less demand for goods and services in the marker so the supply needs to be reduced. There is myriad number of social and economic problems related with unemployment. The reason why government stresses much on reducing the unemployment levels is because it poses a great cost on an economy. In case of unemployed people themselves, they will receive less or no income based on whether or not they receive unemployment benefits from the government. Reduction in income means less spending and therefore lower standard of living. The cost of unemployment worsens the longer a person is unemployed because it affects as he becomes
Freud's theory of psycho-sexual development
According to Freud, sexual drive, along with aggression, is the central factor in determining the personalities of human beings and the main driving force that gives reason to, and influences what we do and who we become. He asserts that if each psycho- sexual-oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital - stage is not resolved, fixation at that particular stage, and thereafter personality and behavioural problems might occur in latter life. More importantly, infantile sexuality, which encompasses the first three stages, is said to play an imperative role in the shaping the personalities of adults. Freud believes that while boys and girls would progress similarly during the earlier oral and anal stages, it is at the phallic stage where complications in undergoing a two-fold change in sexual object and leading sexual organ might make it more difficult for girls to progress through this stage, if at all. His work experiences dealing with neurotic women has also led him to proclaim that, "Now will you have escaped worrying over this problem - those of you of are men; to those of you who are women this will not apply - you are yourselves the problem".1 He believes that women's constant need for attention and attention from their parents -and in later life, their husbands- leads them to have illnesses, which "are the result of intentions"2, albeit unconsciously. His cure for such
Outline the development of attachments
Developmental Psychology - Key Assessment Task a) Outline the development of attachments An attachment is a powerful bond between an infant and its caregiver. Infants form attachments because they are helpless at birth and so need caregivers to provide for and protect them. There are many long term effects of attachments, for example an attachment gives a foundation for emotional relationships e.g. the infant is learning how to form an emotional or "love" relationship. Schaffer and Emerson believed that infants form attachments by three stages, this argument was based on a large scale study of 60 infants in a working class area of Glasgow over 2 years. The first stage of attachment Schaffer and Emerson believed a child to go through happens when they are 0-6 weeks old, this is known as the Asocial Stage and involves the infant smiling and crying but not directing these emotions at individuals. The second stage of attachment is known as Indiscriminate Attachment and happens when the infant is 6 weeks to 7 months old; this involves the child seeking attention from different individuals. The last stage of attachment is Specific Attachments and happens when the infant is 7-11 months old, this stage shows a strong attachment to one individual, with good attachment to others following afterwards. b) Describe the procedures and findings of one study of individual difference in
Freuds Psychosexual Stages of Development
Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development Freud advanced a theory of personality development that centred on the effects of the sexual pleasure drive on the individual consciousness. The following five stages are based around the notion that with each stage, the child's libido becomes centred around certain erogenous zones. The Oral Stage The oral stage begins at birth, when the oral cavity is the primary focus of libidal energy. The child, of course, preoccupies himself with nursing, with the pleasure of sucking and accepting things into the mouth. The oral character who is frustrated at this stage, whose mother refused to nurse him on demand or who truncated nursing sessions early, is characterized by pessimism, envy, suspicion and sarcasm. The overindulged oral character, whose nursing urges were always and often excessively satisfied, is optimistic, gullible, and is full of admiration for others around him. The stage finishes at the weaning stage. The stage lasts approximately one and one-half years. The Anal Stage At one and one-half years, the child enters the anal stage. With the advent of toilet training comes the child's obsession with the erogenous zone of the anus and with the retention or expulsion of the faeces. This represents a classic conflict between the id, which derives pleasure from expulsion of bodily wastes, and the ego and superego, which
To what extent is inflation a serious economic problem.
To what extent is inflation a serious economic problem Inflation is defined as the general and sustained increase in prices of goods and services. It is caused by many factors, but in particular three factors have a major effect on the value of inflation. The first cause is too much demand within the economy. This occurs when an increase in demand cannot be countered by an increase in production in the short term due to fixed factors (e.g. land) and so producers will increase the prices to decrease demand for their products. Aggregate demand, the demand within the whole economy, suddenly rises for a product for two reasons in particular. The first is that inflation has been so low in the economy that tax revenue, for example has been falling, due to less spending and increased saving, so in order to 're-flate' prices. They provide subsidies and ask for a lowering of interest rate to boost spending and 're-flate' the economy. The second reason maybe that greater consumer confidence within the economy has lead to increased spending and thus Aggregate demand increasing. This will mean that prices for consumers have risen, due to producers 'pulling' up their prices. There could be a disadvantage to pulling the prices up. To begin with, by pulling prices up, in the future, demand will fall and we will see that profits fall for producers, as a result of less revenue. Thus
Discuss the Impact of Genome Sequences on the Study of Development
Cells and Development Discuss the Impact of Genome Sequences on the Study of Development Development refers to the biological process an organism undergoes during growth. The introduction of genetics this century has greatly accelerated our understanding in this field. It appears to be exponential, continually more scientists are being drawn into the field and more data is being generated. In this essay I will briefly outline the course of development as a subject over the past 100 years (with a slight bias towards animal development) commenting on how important the use of model organisms has become and the contribution to the field their genomes have made. Development started with Aristotle in the 4th century BC. He noted the different ways in which animals were born, oviparity, viviparity etc, and began to look at the transition from conception to adulthood. Not much happened in the study for about 2000 years, until a man named William Harves in 1651 made the profound statement that all animals are from eggs, "ex ovo omnia". The subject never really took off because the specimens were too small to analyse. The invention of the microscope revolutionised the science and allowed study of these once unseen structures. This coupled with the Morgan's' use of Mendel's' genetic theory to create the chromosomal theory of inheritance allowed scientists to begin to make
Outline and evaluate one Social Learning Theory explanation of personality development
Outline and evaluate one Social Learning Theory explanation of personality development Bandura believed that an individual's personality was developed as a result of interaction between the individual and their environment. He called this interaction reciprocal determinism, and suggested that people play an active role in determining their behaviour in an environment: they will behave in a certain way that is appropriate for the setting that they are in, but their behaviour may also change that setting. This, according to Bandura's social-cognitive theory, occurs by means of a process of observation and imitation, known as modelling. Modelling is spontaneous and requires no deliberate effort on the part of the learner or the model (the person whose behaviour is to be observed and imitated), and reinforcement is not necessary for such learning to occur. This means that the study explains what the Behaviourist explanation of behaviour could not: the ability to produce or reproduce behaviour without reinforcement. However, although unnecessary, reinforcement will affect the performance of the behaviour; this is known as vicarious reinforcement. Bandura's theory incorporates cognitive factors into its explanation, and for a model's behaviour to be imitated, there must be some internal mental representation of the model. There are five steps to the modelling process. The first
Freud's' psychodynamic approach attempts to explain what drives or motivates personality development
Freud's' psychodynamic approach attempts to explain what drives or motivates personality development. He suggested that an individual is driven to satisfy biological urges and theses motives cause us to interact with the environment, so that early experiences play an important role. Freud identified three different parts of the mind, which are based on our level of awareness; conscious, preconscious, and subconscious mind. The conscious mind is where we are currently in focus of attention at the moment. The preconscious consists of things which we are aware, but we are not paying our full attention. These thoughts can easily be brought into the conscious mind if chosen to do so. It is possible to control our awareness to a certain extent. The subconscious level consists of content that is out of direct reach of the conscious mind. The subconscious thinks and acts independently. One of Freud's key findings was that much behaviour is driven directly from the subconscious mind. This has the alarming consequence that we are largely unable to control our behaviour. Freud also went on to describe the human personality as being structured into three parts, the Id, Ego and Superego. He explained that an individual's feelings, thoughts, and behaviours are the result of the interaction of the id, the superego, and the ego. This creates conflict which in turn creates anxiety, which
