Charles Dickens Hard Times Essay examples -- Charles Dickens Hard Tim

Charles Dickens' Hard Times The book "Hard Times" was written in 1854. It was written in weekly instalments in a magazine called Household Words. This is like a normal soap but was weekly. The magazine was owned by Charles Dickens as he was a journalist. The book was written at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This was when factories were being built near major towns and cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. The Industrial Revolution was a time when there were big improvements in transport as there was vast expansion in the production of iron. The factories were in the towns so people from the countryside came to the towns for work and a house. They moved because their own mills weren't making enough items of clothing etc whereas the factories could mass produce. However, there weren't enough houses so many were hastily built. This meant they had no fresh water, no sewers and no toilets. This led to a poor quality of living where people got water from communal water pipes and put their waste in a big "pile" which was cleaned by a "waste disposal man". The poor quality of living was added to by the huge smoke clouds which hung over the cities. This "smog" made it hard to breathe and was so bad seeing things became harder. The book starts when Dickens introduces the characters; the first two chapters are short yet are scene-setters. Dickens explains that; Mr Gradgrind - a politician and schools owner, Mr McChoakumchild - a new teacher and Another man - we are not told who the man is or why he is present, are in a classroom full of children. Dickens describes Mr Gradgrind as being a square man and Mr McChoakumchild as a school teacher who was fresh for the factory which "mak... ...r those concerned. This is alike real life where people we meet can be different, alien like or how might we say normal. In "Hard Times" Dickens' does write realistically in a sense. However, in the first two chapters he writes in a more exaggerated way to arouse interest in the book. As this was written in weekly instalments he would have wanted to excite his readers with interesting first chapters so that they continue to buy the magazine. I think that after the first couple of chapter when Dickens' has an interested audience he starts to write in a more realistic fashion. In conclusion, life didn't turn out the way that was expected by many characters in "Hard Times." Those who strived to have perfect children didn't. And those who were looked down on proved to be essential characters in finding that there was more to life than what they were taught.

Impression Formation Study

Abstract This report is based on impression formation. A study was conducted to see if the order of information presented about a hypothetical person to a participant has an effect on their impression final first impression of that person.Participants from London Metropolitan University (80 participants) were put into two groups, in which they were asked to rate their impression of a hypothetical person with a list of given adjectives (positive and negative), first they are given words that describe this hypothetical person, the describing words were identical, just presented in different orders, depending on which one (of the two) groups the participant was placed in. It was found that a more positive opinion was described for the hypothetical person in which the participants heard positive to negative adjectives compared to that of the negative to positive adjectives.Intro A topic that has been explored in psychology is how people come up with first impressions, and what informatio n is important to help form impressions. The question asked here was simply; how do people form impressions of theirs based on limited information. The founder of research into this field was Asch (1946), who was worried about the principles behind forming impressions. Asch (1946) conducted a study where, he had two groups, in which both were given lists of words in different orders according to which group the participants were assigned to.Asch found that the group given the positive words followed by the negative words developed a more positive first impression than the group who received the words negative words then given the positive words. He concluded that the first words are the words that are most important and are the traits that are remembered this is called the primacy effect. However other research shows that the primacy effect isn’t always the one remembered, and the most recent (recency effect) adjectives may be the adjectives that influence the participant.Thi s may happen in situations where the participant has been given too much information; or they are tired and lack motivation and if these factors are not present, the more common effect is the primacy effect. It was concluded that the primacy effect is the main view to how people form impressions and it was stated that the first adjectives used are the most important and have a lot more influences then the later adjectives. The aim of this experiment is to build on the findings of Asch’s configural model and this study aims to replicate the results achieved by Asch.This study will employ the same design, two groups under different conditions. The lists of words are as follows, positive – negative intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious. Negative – positive envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious and intelligent. Thereafter the participants were asked to describe the hypothetical person with a set of adjectives (positive an d negative, and asked to apply these to the hypothetical person (generous-mean, sociable-unsociable, reliable-unreliable, polite-rude, pleasant-unpleasant).From these it was worked out whether the impression was more positive or negative. There are different sorts of hypothesis which could have been explored. It has been decided that hypothesis will be directional, casual hypothesis. The hypothesis of the experiment is that, Participants who are given traits, positive – negative will have a more positive view of the hypothetical person. Which means that the participants given trait negative – positive traits will have a more negative view to that hypothetical person. Method ParticipantsThe amount of participants used was a figure of 80 participants, this was divided into two groups of 40, one group which would receive the traits negative – positive and the other to receive positive to negative. The participants were students at London metropolitan university, wh ich consisted of an age range 17 to 44 years, Mean = 21. 35, Standard Deviation = 4. 67. There were 56 females and 24 males. The participants were treated in accordance to the ethical principles of the BPS and gave consent and were told they could withdraw at any point.Materials and/or Apparatus The materials used in this experiment included a computer, the size of the screen was 17 inches, where trait lists were used, and the trait list for the positive – negative group goes as follows; intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious. The other group received the exact same words, just backwards which goes as follows; envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, and intelligent. The words were viewed on a white back ground with a font size on 28 and font type of Calibri.The other apparatus involved included an online questionnaire. Procedure The participants were told they would be shown a screen of words, and were told that after viewing the wor ds they should form an impression of a hypothetical person and will have to answer an online questionnaire which according to the hypothesis should help us gain results which will contribute to research towards primacy effect. The participants were shown their respective trait lists, depending on the group they were assigned to. Each word was shown for 3 seconds with an interval of 1. seconds between trait adjectives, after being shown the words the participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire which consisted of 6 questions. To test the hypothesis, we must calculate the mean score and standard deviation for all participants in both groups. Starting with the positive – negative and ending with the negative to positive group. Results The results of the experiments are as follows; the group that received the positive to negative traits, mean average was M=3. 4 and the standard deviation SD= 0. 84.The results for the group which received the trait adjectives from n egative to positive had different results, the results are as follows, the mean was M=2. 72 and the standard deviation SD=0. 83 Discussion The hypothesis at the start stated the group which was given the positive – negative traits would develop a better and more positive impression, then the group who received the traits in the order of negative – positive. This has proven to be the case as the higher the mean number, the more positive the impression formed and noted by the participants, through answering the questions of the online questionnaire.The results which support the hypothesis support the theory of the primacy effect, which is consistent with and supports Asch’s (1946) previous work. However just looking at the results of the experiment without no averages or means, a couple of scores stood out, where participants in the positive to negative group formed an impression of the hypothetical person, which didn’t support the hypothesis, there was als o scores from the negative – positive group which didn’t support the hypothesis, which means recency effect was something that also took place in this experiment.Future research could include the same experimental design, however, it might be better if the research produced more qualitative data, this could be accomplished, by simply changing the online questionnaire into an interview, where the thought of the impressions formed can be noted, this may help can a better overall understanding, and would be a lot more useful than some of the statistics presented.References E. Bruce Goldstein, (2005). Cognitive Psychology; connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Perception 55- 75 Langdridge, D. , & Hagger-Johnson, G. (2009). Introduction to research methods and data analysis in psychology (2nd edition). Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

The Meanings of the German Verb Ausmachen

The German verb machen is a very common regular verb with the basic meaning of to make or to do. It gets plenty of mileage all by itself, but by adding the prefix aus-, machen turns into something even more interesting — and takes on many more meanings. (It can add other prefixes, notably an-, but well concentrate on aus- here.) Understanding German verb prefixes is an important part of learning German vocabulary and German verb conjugation. As we shall see with ausmachen, a prefix can make BIG changes in the meaning of a German verb. Although the essential meaning of aus (which is also a dative preposition) is out and ausmachen can mean turn off/out (the light) or put out (a fire), that is only one of its many meanings (in German or English). Lets examine this versatile verb, which has no fewer than ten different meanings, depending on the context. The ten basic meanings listed below are generally ranked in the order of how frequently the verb is used in that meaning, but this is not an exact science. Each meaning also has one or more German synonyms listed along with the English meaning. Ausmachen (là ¶schen) English Meaning: to put out, extinguish, douseExample: Kannst du die Kerzen bitte ausmachen? (Can you please douse/extinguish the candles?) Ausmachen (abdrehen, ausschalten) English Meaning: to switch off, turn off(Note: The opposite is anmachen -- to switch on, turn on -- another verb with several different meanings.)Example 1: Machen Sie bitte das Licht / den Fernseher aus! (Please turn off the light / the TV.)Example 2: Sie mà ¼ssen das Gas zuerst ausmachen, bevor sie die Reparaturen machen kà ¶nnen. (They have to turn off the gas before they can make the repairs.) Ausmachen (stà ¶ren, à ¤rgern)(etw macht jdm etw aus) English Meaning: to bother (sb), mind, object toExample 1: Macht es Ihnen etwas aus, wenn ich rauche? (Do you mind if I smoke?)Example 2: Es macht mir nichts aus, ihm zu helfen. (I dont mind helping him.) Ausmachen (ermitteln, entdecken)(etw/jdn) English Meaning: to make out (sth/sb), spot, determineExample 1: Ich kann ihn nicht ausmachen, weil es zu dunkel ist. (I cant make him out because its too dark.)Example 2: Es ist noch nicht ausgemacht, dass er seinen eigenen Putsch politisch à ¼berlebt. (It hasnt yet been determined that he will survive his own coup politically.) Ausmachen (ins Gewicht fallen) English Meaning: to make a differenceExample 1: Was macht es schon aus? (What difference does it make?)Example 2: Es macht gar nichts aus! (It makes no difference at all!) Ausmachen (vereinbaren) English Meaning: to agree to, agree on, set up (appointment)Example 1: Wir mà ¼ssen nur noch ausmachen, wo wir uns treffen. (We just need to agree on where well meet.)Example 2: Wie ausgemacht, habe ich das Auto am Flughafen gelassen. (As agreed, I left the car at the airport.) Ausmachen (austragen) English Meaning: to sort (sth) out, settle (a case, a dispute, an issue, etc.)Example 1: Das mà ¼ssen wir mit ihm ausmachen. (We have to sort that out with him.)Example 2: Kà ¶nntet ihr diesen Streit nicht unter euch ausmachen? (Cant you guys settle this argument among yourselves?) Ausmachen (auszeichnen) English Meaning: to be (all) about, be the essence of sth, make (up) sth, make sth specialExample 1: Was macht das Leben aus? (What is life all about?)Example 2: Arbeit / Liebe macht das Leben aus. (Work/love is what lifes about.)Example 3: Ihm fehlt alles, was einen richtigen Manager ausmacht. (Hes missing everything that goes to make a real manager.) Ausmachen (betragen) English Meaning: to amount to, add up to, come toExample: Der Zeitunterschied macht neun Stunden aus. (The time difference is/amounts to nine hours.) Ausmachen (ausgraben) English Meaning: to dig up (dialect, regional)Example: Sie haben die Kartoffeln ausgemacht. (They dug up the potatoes.)