Effect of Wishing Good Luck on Performance

Effect of Wishing Good Luck on Performance Running head: WHY DOES WISH WORK Does the wish work because of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish is a positive sentiment? Suellen, Hei Lon Kong Abstract The present research examined whether the wish worked because of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish was a positive sentiment. Individuals (N=241) were being put into three different conditions: Good luck with prize draw, Good luck with task and No wish after being informed that they would be entered into a lucky draw. It was hypothesized that wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. We predicted that their belief in luck (specific superstitious belief) for the prize draw should not affect word puzzle performance. However, if the phrase â€Å"good luck† generates a better mood, a higher level of self-esteem or other factor in the individual, it should be effective. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in the word puzzle score between the three conditions. This research showed that wish did not affect the participants’ performance in the word puzzle test. Introduction Walking under ladders, opening umbrellas indoors and breaking mirrors are all actions that are believed to bring unfortunate; it seems people are just as superstitious when it comes to bringing about good luck too. People also create their own superstitions and rituals in the belief it will change their fortunes. Nearly 6 millions of people in UK admit to being superstitious. Why do people believe in things that cannot be explained and what leads to superstitious behavior? Most conceivable reason is that it is individuals fear of the unknown that drives them to believe in superstitions. External locus of control from own cultural beliefs is another potential explanation to superstitious behaviors. Media also plays an important role in reinforcing superstitious beliefs such as horror movies, it is a powerful source that makes superstition exist in the world, e.g. ghost, supernatural experiences. Superstitious is often defined as excessively credulous belief in and reverence for the supernatural. It can also be defined as, irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown according to the Collins English Dictionary. Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, Richard Wiseman, once said People can create luck and good fortune by changing their outlook on life, focusing on grabbing opportunities and creating positive expectations. He also believe that some people actually want to be unlucky because it helps them to avoid taking responsibility for their own failings, actions that turn out to be harmful, immoral, or stupid. Superstitious behaviour can also be caused by intuitive thinking that is gained through past experiences. In support to this, researchers had carried out research on pigeons, superstitious actions that are by chance co-occur with the expected outcome, and subjects continue to appear to do so through conditioning process. This shows that stimulus has reinforcing value and can set up superstitious behaviour. (Skinner, 1948) There are negative and positive consequences in superstition. In the traditionally unlucky ghost month (July) in Taiwan, the evidence points to reduced fatalities by drowning. (Yang et. al 2008) It seems that being superstitious can sometimes be a positive thing as some superstitious beliefs prevents fatal accidents like the research I mentioned above (Yang et al 2008). Kevin Abbott, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa said, â€Å"From an evolutionary perspective, superstitions seem maladaptive, It plays an important role in human evolution which affects human behaviour. On the other hand, superstitious has its own negative consequences too. In situations over which people have no control (lotteries), superstitious behaviours are a waste of time. However, when some level of control does exist —such as car accidents — the consequences may be more negative than this. There is some evidence for increased car accident rates on Friday 13th relative to other Fridays, though it is argumentative. (Scanlon et al., 1993; N ¨ayh ¨a, 2002; Radun Summala, 2004) It is believed that it is the distraction caused by anxiety as the presumed mechanism. The goal of this research is to test whether wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. The method of research for this study will be a distribution of a word puzzle generated by the experimenter to the Warwick Undergraduates and their families and friends. The question is whether wishing them â€Å"good luck† with the prize draw will affect their puzzle performance. Gender and age data will also be collected. Looking at the data examined and studied so far are the following proposed predictions: If there is a specific superstitious belief in invoked, it should not be effective: Their belief in luck for the prize draw should not affect puzzle performance. If, however, the phrase â€Å"good luck† affects a more general mood, self-esteem or other factor in the individual, it should be effective. Method Participants For this research, 241 participants took part which included Psychology Undergraduates from University of Warwick and their families and friends( Undergraduates from other departments in Warwick) from 17 through 45 (M= 19.49, SD= 3.15). The participants consisted of 110 females and 131 males. They were not volunteers or getting paid. The department of Psychology in Warwick decided there would be a  £50 Amazon Voucher lucky draw for all participants after they had completed the word puzzle (only for Warwick students outside of Psychology). Designs The independent variable in this research was the condition participants were put in Good luck with prize draw, Good luck with task and No wish. The dependant variable was the number of words they got from the word puzzle. It was an independent Measures ANOVA (Between Subjects ANOVA) with three groups and one condition. Materials An informed consent sheet with Word Puzzle which consisted letters such as: U E P C I I L O S U R T attached at the back. Procedure The study began by gaining the participants consent which they signed and put down their email address and personal information such as age, sex on the consent form. Participants were informed that once they had completed the experiment, they would be entered into a random prize draw with other participants for a  £50 Amazon voucher. As the offer only opened to Warwick student outside of Psychology, the department would use their contact address to check that whether they were eligible and to contact them if they won. In this experiment, participants were allocated to three different conditions: 1: Good luck with prize draw, 2: Good luck with task and 3: No wish. In the first condition, experimenter would wish them good luck on the prize draw before they began to complete task. In the second condition, experiment would wish them good luck on the task and in the third condition, the experimenter would say nothing and let them begin. They were required to complete the word puzzle, to create as many English words as they could from the set of letters: U E P C I I L O S U R T. They were only allowed to use a letter twice if it appeared twice in the list that was in the case: I; they were asked to complete the task within two minutes. Following completion of the task, experimenter would note condition (e.g. 1, 2, 3). The experiment were completely anonymous, instead of names, we used numbers to identify the participants. All data would remain strictly confidential. Participants were then debriefed at the end and were told that they had the right to withdraw any consent given, and to require that their own data such as the score they got from the task, their email, be destroyed. Results The mean and standard deviation of the scores for condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw† was (M=14.1, SD=7.6), Condition â€Å"Good luck with task† was (M=15.2, SD=8.1) and Condition â€Å"No wish† was (M=14, SD=6.5). There was no significant difference between the three wish groups as determined by one-way ANOVA in the ability of getting higher score in the word puzzle. (F (2,238) =0.682, p > .05). A Tukey post-hoc test revealed that the score gained from the participants have no significant difference in the condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw (14.1  ± 7.6, p = 0.616) and the condition â€Å"No wish† (14.0  ± 6.5, p = 0.536) course compared to the condition â€Å"Good luck with task† (15.2  ± 8.1). There was no statistically significant differences between the condition â€Å"Good luck with prize draw† and the condition â€Å"No wish† (p = .990). Discussion Our hypothesis was that wishing participants â€Å"good luck† with the word puzzle will give better performance at the puzzle than nothing. The data obtained did not support our hypothesis as there was no significant difference in the score from the three conditions. In this study, we used the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of three independent variables (the three conditions). Although the one-way ANOVA could not tell us which specific groups were significantly different from each other, it tells us that at least two groups were different. Age differences was an issue in this research, the fact that the participants’ age ranged 17-45. As we grow older, we would know more words than we did when we were younger. Age of the respondents seemed to better explain some ethical differences among respondents in some situations. This is in line with earlier research that found that people tend to be more ethical as they grow older (Weber and Green, 1991;Terpstra et al., 1993). It is not appropriate to use participants that have a large range in age. Our findings can be generalised to the whole populations as there is no significant difference in the score in the three conditions. In this research, we would say that the wish does not affect the puzzle performance because of a superstitious belief as proved by the results. In the future research on this topic, researchers should use participants that have similar age to make it an ethical test and that wish does not work of a specific superstitious belief or because the wish is a positive sentiment. References BBC. (2010). Superstitions: Friday 13th unlucky for you? . Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/britain/superstitions.shtml. Last accessed 9th Feb 2014. Berrill,A. (2012). Isnt it all pants? One in six superstitious Brits refuse to walk under ladders, while over 800,000 admit to having lucky underwear. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2230328/Britons-superstitions-Walking-ladders-breaking-mirrors-opening-umbrellas-indoors.html. Last accessed 9th Feb 2014. Landrum, R. Eric. (2008). Undergraduate writing in psychology : learning to tell the scientific story. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association. p.57-p160. Mills, C. (2011). Superstitions Have Evolutionary Basis. Available: http://www.livescience.com/14504-superstitions-evolutionary-basis-lucky-charms.html. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014. Sidani,Y., Zbib,I., Rawwas,M.,Moussawer, T. (2009). Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity. Gender, age, and ethical sensitivity: the case of Lebanese workers. 24 (1), 211-227 Tavris, C., Aronson, E. (2008). Mistakes were made (but not by me) : why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful act. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt. p1-57.

Recording, analysing and using HR information Essay

Recording, analysing and using HR information GFM needs to collect and record data for legal and internal reasons. Legally we need to ensure that we are complying with the â€Å"Working Time Regulations and pay rates for the Minimum Wage Act 1998 and tax and national insurance obligations†, we also need to be complaint with the data protection and freedom of information act. We need to ensure that employees know why we are holding this information and how we secure it. Internally we use the information to send reports to managers on absence, performance, salary, leavers and joiners, recruitment and health and safety. We also use this information to help us communicate any necessary information regarding themselves or company policies to individuals. The following data is collected from an employee either prior to their commencement of employment or the day that they start with us: CV / Application form New employee form, on this form it asks for personal information i.e. name, dob, contact numbers, address, marital status, national insurance number, next of kin details, bank details (sort code, account number and bank address) P45 or P46 Health and safety questionnaires Equal opportunities data Valid UK passport or full birth certificate Signed contract The reason the above information is collected is to support the HR function in the following ways: Legal / Compliance – with WTR, MWA, DPA and FOI Communication – To keep in touch with employees, address for written communication, phone numbers for verbal communication and next of kin details in case of emergency. We need to inform employees of any contract changes and policy and procedure changes Payroll – to ensure that we have the correct details on file so we can pay staff for the hours that they have worked in line with the Minimum Wage Act 1998 and tax and national insurance obligations Data capture – to produce accurate reporting on absence, recruitment, equal opportunities and health and safety, findings are presented to line managers for effective management  of their teams This information we hold is stored on our secure HR electronic system and manually in a locked filing cabinet. Holding this information electronically means that the information relating to any employee or former employee can be accessed quicker and the management of employee documents is easier. Another benefit of this is accuracy, easy to search for items contained within some ones file and less chance of someone else’s details being stored in another personnel file. It also requires less physical storage space, so if you are a company with limited storage space then this is a very effective solution. A benefit to having manually locked filing cabinets would be that it is less expensive to set up , if the computer systems were to fail you would still have access to all employee records and information, there would also be less risk of corrupted files and or loss of data should the electronic system fail. At all times any personnel or data capture information relating to an employee or organisation must be compliant with the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Act. The Data Protection Act â€Å"gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them, and provides a framework to ensure that personal information is held correctly.† To HR this means that information must be held securely, protected and that only relevant information relating to that employee is held on their file. The Freedom of Information Act is the request for public records relating to something specific. In HR if we were asked to release information, specifically related to our head count or equality information we would be obliged to make this information available to the public.

Be the First to Know What an Old Pro Thinks About Essay Topics for Ias Mains

Be the First to Know What an Old Pro Thinks About Essay Topics for Ias Mains Basically, in the essay paper, a mixture of all of the above types is normally required. Should you do, it is going to show essay you don't have proper understanding on this issue and you've written go here came to your mind. An individual should plan the entire essay keeping the term limit in essay when writing the topic, though there's no such strict instruction ias word limit given by the UPSC. There are a couple of essay writing tips to bear in mind whilst writing for IAS mains examination. What Does Essay Topics for Ias Mains Mean? You may also become many discounts on our site which will help you to save some more money for future orders or anything you want to spend them on. Again, so as to ias so reading is important. The content following a sub heading should have a major element linked to the principal topic plus stick to the excess information meant to provide under that. 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It won't be any different than every other blood test you've received . Why Almost Everything You've Learned About Essay Topics for Ias Mains Is Wrong Whenever you opt to ask us for skilled guidance, don't hesitate to speak to our support managers. Nagasaritha With increased power comes increased responsibility. It's always 10 steps to earn a business plan for those students to self-evaluate their performance and gauge their knowledge of the concepts. You need to have all sections of the test under control before you demonstrate your skills in their entire entirety. Vocabulary There is not any need to memorise complex words for writing a fantastic essay. So when you stumble across them, note down and ponder as to the way you may use them in your essay. Each essay is going to be marked on 125. Essay writing strategies for upsc mains essay needs to be organized in well-structured paragraphs coherent with the stream of the essay. Remember it's a General Essay Paper and you shouldn't be highly technical. Essays enable a writer to come up with and increase his writing skills. Each Essay topic would be communicated, together with a suggested framework, to enable you to start. Selecting an Essay topic is the most significant STEP in Essay writing, which comes out of a normal practice, I have to say a minumum of one essay each week. The End of Essay Topics for Ias Mains The term limit has to be adhered to strictly. Your selection of topic does not have any bearing on the marks and that is the reason why, selecting an unpopular topic only for the interest of it is unwise. Memorising difficult words isn't going to help much. You might need to modify the structure in accordance with the demand of the question. At the conclusion of that para you'll be able to write a hyperlink sentence Further, we have to be conscious of the simple fact that Artificial Intelligence poses a big challenge not just economically , but also ethically. Credit is going to be online for effective and precise expression. Our on-line test can be found at a minimal price. Do the entire analysis properly. How to Get Started with Essay Topics for Ias Mains? Devote the initial 10 minutes of the exam to think and pick the topic that you need to compose an essay on. There's only ONE optional subject to pick from the list of optional subjects that are given below. Usually, relevant topics are the ones that have made headlines the past calendar year. Every one of the topics were given in Hindi in addition to English. A normal dictionary for reference needs to be kept handy while preparation. When you're writing, attempt to prevent employing the very same words and phrases over and over again. 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Sigmund Freud s Theory Of Dreams - 1259 Words

Sigmund Freud was instrumental in developing many theories. Of the many ideas and contributions he made to research, his analysis of dreams was one of the greatest. Today, his theories are both recognized and disputed, bot nonetheless, significant. Freud incorporated the conscious, unconscious, and developments of thinking into his theories in his book, â€Å"The Interpretation of Dreams.† In The Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s, â€Å"Another look at Dreaming: Disentangling Freud’s Primary and Secondary Process Theories† Michael Robbins, 20014, adds to Freud’s theories with his own, and analyses previous theories as well as explains how we interpret dreams. According to Freud, one must first understand the levels of consciousness to understand his theory of dreaming. The conscious level is what we are aware of. They are the normal day to day activities/thoughts we recognize exist. 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