Philosophy

Love plays an integral role in mate selection in individualistic cultures. However, love does not have much role to play in the collectivist cultures. The more economically developed a culture is, the more will it be individualist in nature. Since in collectivist culture marriage between two people affects the entire family love takes a backseat.

There are many different combinations of love. There is infatuated love which lacks the components like intimacy and commitment and is solely based on passion. These relationships do not last long. This kind of love is more rampant in individualist society as it concerns only the lovers themselves. Another combination makes companionate love. This love generally lacks passion but has the ingredients like commitment and intimacy. This love is common in collectivist society where a large percentage of people opt for arranged marriages. When there is an arranged marriage naturally the entire family is involved and commitment becomes an important quotient. After many years of marriage when passion takes a backseat then couples are in companionate relationships. The third and the best combination of love is of course the consummate love. This love can be found in both the cultures especially in newly married couples. In newly married couples there is loads of passion and intimacy is not difficult to achieve. In collectivist cultures attaining commitment is not a difficult thing. While in the individualist cultures, there can be many cases when commitment is the basis of relationship. Thus if couples are able to achieve the ideal combination of intimacy, passion and commitment then they are the happiest of all.

There are two strong reasons that cause the different combinations of love. The first reason is of course the culture one belongs to. The culture plays an important role in deciding the ratio of intimacy, passion and commitment in individuals. The second reason is the stage of life a couple is in. Youngsters experience more of romantic or infatuated love. Couples with children are more into companionate or consummate love. Very old couples are into companionate love.

1. Discuss and give examples of how gender bias can become a factor in research.

Introduction
The American Heritage Dictionary defines bias as preference or inclination that inhibits impartiality prejudice (American Heritage Dictionary, 1983).

When it comes to academic positions, women arent promoted as often as men, or the case may be that female academics find it difficult to apply their knowledge in research. Rather than investigate real differences, investigates stereotypical differences or does not investigate issues important to women e.g. violence, pregnancy. The research may even bring about biased thoughts by searching for reasons in women for abnormal or different behavior

Traditional psychological research previously concentrated on the male experience and point of view. Feminist research methods have changed how traditional research on gender has emerged. There is now a interest in women focused psychology or what is now called andocentric bias.
Two theories of bias came about by, and were shaped, exaggerated, diminished the differences between men and women, Alpha Bias and Beta Bias they were termed. (Crosbie, 2009) Furthermore, these theories have contributed to the consensus that women were lesser by comparison to men male theory.

Examples of gender bias can be found in the following Kohlbergs work on male-female moral achievement. (Crosbie, 2009) His conclusions held that women were lower achievers than men. Bowlbys research on childcare raised the question as to whether or not women should stay at home instead of working outside and hiring childcare. Freuds theories of socialisation stated that women suffered from Penis envy that in turn leaves an imprint on their personality development. Erickson flatly said that women should stay home and care for their children.

Results extrapolated from research can also be skewed from biases. (Crosbie, L., 2009) For instance, stereotypes of typical females may be used instead of actual findings. This scenario if exacerbated can create unjustnon-substantiated differences. If the pool of peer reviewed articles, books, and other information is male dominated there can also be difficulties on finding credible studies that involve women.

Methodological bias
Using male preferred techniques such as carrying out Lab experiments when women are more comfortable in less controlled environments as in the case of interviews where there is emphasis on participation and personal experience.
   
A study carried out on intra-abdominal obesity and metabolic risk factors in Denmark was almost solely done on the men The subjects included 46 Caucasian subjects (6 women and 40 men). The conclusion of the study was for young people, intra-abdominal fat is the reason behind six metabolic risk factors. Unfortunately this has been shown only in males.

2. Evaluate the influence of family and media on gender development.

Family influence
A childs first exposure to the meaning of being male and female comes from the parents, (Lauer  Lauer, 1994 Santrock, 1994 Kaplan, 1991). From infancy, parents treat their daughters and sons differently, by dressing them in colors that are gender specific, expecting differing behavior form girls and boys an giving them toys differentiated by gender. Childrens experiences with different family members also shapes their perceptions on gender roles, e.g. the differing treatment of brothers and sisters in the family.
   
There may be of some benefit to maintaining strict stereotypical gender roles, but not be forgotten are the costs. These include reducing the opportunities for the girls and boys, carrying on unfairness in the society and ignoring talent. Due to the major influence parents have on the development of gender roles, parents who want to display gender fairness and encourage both their sons their sons and daughters to be their best should adopt an a gender role that is androgynous and foster the same attitude in their children.

Media Influence
Media utilize stereotypes. Magazines, radio, TV and computer software repeatedly show women and men in restricted roles. Importance is placed on mens strength and womens beauty. A good example can be found in Disney movies female characters are pretty and feminine and frequently need rescuing by men. The boys in magazines, movies and TV are portrayed as strong and show little emotion.
   
These gender roles and stereotypes do not serve the equivalent purpose that they did one hundred years ago on the contrary, these views of behavior and sexuality can be more of an impediment than help toward modern society.

3. Describe the way that girls are disadvantaged at school.
According to the International Labor Organization girls are still disadvantaged when it come to education. The organization reports that for every one hundred boys enrolled in school there are ninety four girls, with girls in the rural areas being most disadvantaged. The total enrollment in secondary school in developing land is 57 for girls and 61 for the boys. In less economically developed countries the enrollment is 26 for girls and 32 for the boys. These statistics indicate that in the most part of the developing world a large percentage of girls fail to gain access to education beyond primary level. Girls can often be amongst the last people to be registered and amongst the first when it comes to being removed from schools when a family needs to choose between sending a girl or boy to school. This fact implies that discrimination is a major concern (ilo.org, 2009).
   
A major reason why girls miss school is because they need to contribute to the family income. Cost also poses a major challenge, school fees are still charged in at least some 101 countries. Other barriers to the education of the girl child include violence in schools, conflict, early marriage and HIVAIDS. For example in Nepal, 40 of girls get married by the age of 15. In the Caribbean, girls between the ages 15-19 are infected with HIVAIDS at higher rates than boys. It is estimated that during the 1990s, about 100,000 girls directly took part in conflicts of not less than 30 countries, not to mention the fact that of the worlds 25 million IDPs, the majority are women and children (unesco.org, 2003). The girl childs access to schooling can also be restricted by other issues, for example lack of sufficient sanitation facilities or safety while journeying to school.  Lacking access to good education, girls land in the work force while still way under the minimum employment age, sacrificing their educational participation and success.

4. Compare face-to-face and online support groups
Online support groups provide online help for health problems. Current research indicates that 56,000,000 adult Americans use the online support groups, most of them coming from socio-economically deprived backgrounds and minority groups. These groups are available throughout and one may come and leave at hisher own pleasure, not so with face to face groups. Online support groups allow one to remain anonymous if they wish to, and just read without participating. In an online set up, moderators can remove or alter hurtful and dangerous words and phrases and warning signs can be displayed, this is not possible in a face-to-face setting, once words are spoken the damage is already done.
   
One of the greatest benefits of an online support group is that driving across town or even to a different town is eliminated. Access to enormous amounts of materials and information referred to can be retrieved at the click of a button. Additionally there are records of everyones contributions going back several months. Most importantly, there are billions if not zillions of online support groups, so each individual is free to choose one to suit their personal comfort level. That way people can get the support that they require where they feel most comfortable.
   
Face to face groups offer the warmth and comfort through human contact.  Participating in live group activities makes the experience more enriching. Members of face-to-face groups can exchange medication, supplements and other health foods. When a member of a face-to-face support group really needs help to do something, the support group members will be there to provide support. For instance if a member needs to move, everyone online will support the decision but none of them will be available to help with the packing.

Q4) The Path-Goal Theory
The path-goal leadership theory is a theory that was proposed by an American psychologist Robert House and it postulates that a leader must motivate subordinates by emphasizing the relationship between the subordinates own needs and the organizational goals. In addition, this theory also contends that a leader should clarify and facilitate the path subordinates must take to fulfill their own needs as well as the organizations needs (House, 1971).Clarifying the path may be by giving directives or vague hints. This theory was developed to reconcile prior findings and anomalies resulting from empirical investigations of the effects of leader task orientation and leader person orientation on subordinate satisfaction and performance. The essential notion that underlies the path-goal theory is that individuals in superior positions should be effective to the extent that they compliment the environment that their subordinates work by providing the necessary  cognitive working conditions  in order for them to attain work goals and at the same time experience intrinsic satisfaction .

According to House and Mitchell (1974), there are four types of leadership styles that can be used by a leader depending on the situation on ground and they are as follows.  (a) Supportive leadership-Here the leader creates a friendly working environment considering the need and welfare of the subordinates. It may include increasing self esteem and making the job more interesting for the workers. This style is best used when work is stressful or hazardous. (b)Directive leadership-This includes giving workers directives and appropriate guidance like issuing schedules of specific work to be done at specific times. This style can be used when the task to be done is unstructured and complex and the worker is inexperienced. (c)Participative leadership-this involves consulting workers and taking their ideas into consideration when making decisions and particular actions. It is best used when workers are experts and their advice is needed.(d)Achievement-oriented leadership-Here the leaders set high goals and expect the subordinates to have high level performances. Its best used when the task to be performed is complex. In relation with the dominant leadership paradigm of the time, the path goal theory is primarily a theory of task-person oriented supervisory behavior. It does not concern the leadership of entire oganisations, political behavior of leaders, and strategic leadership of organizations and the emergent informal leadership.

In conclusion the path-goal theory seeks to improve and ensure good leader-worker relationship only emphasizes the issues that affect the workers and their relationship with their seniors hence it does not totally look into any other part of the organization structure.

Q1) Steps in the research process
Hopkins (2009) defines research as any original and systematic investigation that is undertaken in order to increase knowledge and understanding and also to establish facts and principles. It encompasses the creation of new ideas and generation of new knowledge. He also goes ahead to define research as a process of creating new and unique knowledge which is specific to an applied field of study.

Basing on the fact that research is done in systematic manner there are several steps involved before it comes to completion and they involve the following

(a)Topic identification and development-This includes stating the topic of interest. This can be done using the question to which you want to find a solution and after stating, it has to be tested by using the main concept or key words by looking them up in the appropriate background sources.

(b)Finding background information-once the main topic has been identified, one or more sources of background information should be found to help in understanding the broader context of the research. Most common sources are books and general encyclopedias.

(c)Finding books about the topic-Books can be found by searching using keyword, by title and subject.

(d) Finding periodicals-they can be found using online databases obtain articles from magazines, journals and newspapers.

(e)Finding internet resources-This involves use of search engines and a subject directory to locate materials on the web and since information on the internet varies in reliability, Google scholar or encyclopaedia Brittanica online can be used for reliable sources.

(f)Evaluation of findings-This means critically analyzing the information sources you have identified to evaluate the authority and quality of resources that were earlier located.

(g)Citation of the material used-Credit has to be given where it is due by documenting the sources used in the research to allow hose who will read your work to duplicate it and be able to locate the sources. Citations should be given using MLA or APA format bearing in mind that representing other peoples work as yours is plagiarism (Hopkins, 2009).

In conclusion, researches being a systematic process, all the steps described above have to be followed critically in order to come up with a good successful and convincing end result.

Q2) Ways of determining reliability of a test
Reliability refers to the consistency of a test, survey, observation or any other measuring device. Normally a test is considered reliable if it gives the same results repeatedly. for example if a given test is designed to measure a certain trait, then each time the test is administered to a subject the results should be approximately the same. Although it is impossible to calculate reliability exactly, there are possible ways of estimating it two of which are discussed below (Kendra, 2010).

(a)Test-retest reliability. To gauge reliability, the test is administered twice at two different points in time and this is normally used to assess the consistency of a test across time. This type of reliability test assumes that there will be no change in the quality being measured. This method is best used for things that are stable over time like intelligence and reliability will always be higher when little time has passed between tests. If a test is administered twice and the same results are obtained, then the reliability coefficient will be 1.0.The correlation of measurements across time will normally be less than perfect due to different experiences and attitudes that respondents will have encountered the time of the first test. The test-retest method is a simple way of determining reliability but it is costly and impractical (Key, 1997).

(b)Inter-rater reliability. This type of reliability is assessed by having two or more independent people (raters) to score the given test after which the scores are compared to determine the consistency of the raters estimates. One way to carryout this test is to have each rater assign each test item a score. For example each rater might score items on a scale of 1-10 and then calculate the correlation between the two ratings to determine the level of inter-rater reliability. Another means of testing inter-rater reliability is by having the raters determine which category each observation falls and then calculate the percentage of agreement between the raters. For example if they agree 8 out of 10 times then the test will be said to have an 80 inter-rater reliability (Kendra, 2010).

In conclusion, different methods of testing reliability should be applied in any given test to obtain more accurate results because these methods usually have their disadvantages hence it requires one to use several of them in combination to obtain better results.

Most studies concerning human beings in the context of their culture as for a long time dealt with human death. Matters related to mortality have been given much attention in anthropology. Anthropology is the study of man in association with his culture (Piven, 2004). Human mortality and its rite do reflect the societys values and is also a significant aspect in determining them. The way that death is explained in a society does a lot in shaping the view of life in that society. It is the way a person expects to end that determines how heshe behaves in life. It is a fact that death is inevitable for every person. It is common in every society that every person has to die at a certain age. What differs is the answer to the question of death among societies (Twomey, 2007). Matters concerning death are explained differently by different cultures. This paper is a comparison of death in America and India.

Death in Indian and American cultures
Death matters are related to religion. The most prominent religion in the United States is Christianity while in India it is mostly Islamic and Hindu. The ultimate end of every human being is death. This is universally known across all cultures and across all religions. This is the most common aspect relating to death in America and India. There are other common elements, but they differ with the communities in question. They are common in the two cultures but may vary according to individual societies or people. One of the aspects of death in these two cultures is the belief in reward and punishment (Roppolo  Crow, 2007). The two cultures believe that after death the good people will receive their reward in heaven while the evil will be punished in hell. There is a faction of people in American culture who believe that death is the end and that there will be nothing after it. This is referred to as the state of nothingness. In the Indian society, almost every person believes in life after death. If there are any people who believe that nothing happens after death, they dare not express their views because this would be disrespecting their cultural beliefs. It is worth noting that Indians hold their culture and religious beliefs so dearly. Indians do not believe in the transmigration of souls. Hinduism believes that the departed soul moves through the pretaloka which is the world of spirits and ghosts up to the pitraloka which is the heaven. This is why after death the Hindus performs a lot of rituals. The rituals are believed to be for assisting the departed soul through its long journey (Tillett, 2005). America being a multicultural society has diverse beliefs in issues associated with death. Death in this society has a variety of explanations. Some people take it to mean dwelling in heaven or hell. Death is taken by some other Americans as a state of nothingness. There is yet another faction that believes it to be a transitory state that people enter before they return in another life or in another form (Frykenberg, 2003).

All the cultures believe in the separation of the soul from the body. The souls depart in different manner. Christians believe that the moment a person is dead, the soul leaves the body. The orthodox Muslims believe that when an individual passes on, the angel of death appears. This angel sits at the head of the dead person and talks to hisher soul depending on the character of that person. The souls of the evil people are commanded to leave to the anger of Allah, and the souls of the good people are asked to leave to the compassion of Allah (Piven, 2004).  
 
Americans unlike the Indian culture has gone through a lot of transformations in the views and understanding about death. Religious beliefs in America can be traced back from the puritans. The puritans colonized New England in the 17th century (Joshi, 2006). Back then, the beliefs about death that were held by this group were completely different from what the American society believes presently. The theological branch that dealt with death back then put people in a frightening state in death. The idea of the puritans concerning death was that every persons fate, whether old or young, was to forever dwell in hell. They believed that only a few people who had been chosen by God would go to heaven (Twomey, 2007). This group of people was only known to God. In this case, people had no control over their fate. They were left with no other option but to live a clean life, praying that they would be among the selected few who would see heaven.  Because of this belief, the time of death was the most tormenting time in a persons life. Death was not taken with calmness and acceptance. Due to the fact that there was no assurance of a persons fate after death, even to the most religious people, death was a period of terror and torment. Without knowing whether a person was among the selected few, the thought of burning for ever in hell was unbearable. As a result these people approached their death with doubt, fear and dread (Joshi, 2006).

The key purpose of belief is to provide people with a rough idea on what to expect after death. Most cultures believe that they know what happens to their people when they die. As a result they possess a mental image of where the dead goes and why they die. It a common belief across most cultures that death came up as a result of the fall of man. This is in other words as a result of mans fall from Gods grace. In this case death is everywhere and it is a reminder of Gods authority over his people. It was such belief that was held by the puritans (Joshi, 2006).

As time went by, the belief of the puritans started loosing ground. The community, due to enlightenment, came to realize that it was no use for a person to live a clean life while realizing that they were most likely destined to destruction. This was the cause for the society to do away with the beliefs of puritans. In fact this was the alternative taken by most people in the community. Due to this, people view of life and beliefs concerning death transformed (Joshi, 2006).

By the period of the American Revolution the sanctified view of death had been done away with completely. By the 19th century, the puritan view of death had disappeared completely and its place taken by a more naturalistic view. In this approach, the concern was not more on the dead individual but the immediate family. It is during this period that secularism began to take effect. In America secularism has affected the social values to great extent. It has brought in a lot of changes in the society (Twomey, 2007). This has made death and death-related issues to become less spiritual. Secularism has resulted to death becoming easily avoidable than was possible in the past. Although there were no major changes in the Indian culture concerning death, secularism brought in a few changes. The ritual of visiting graves was done away with. There was also a reduction in the mourning period. There were other simple changes, but the view of death in this culture never changed (Piven, 2004).

Even if Islamic is not the only religion practiced in India it has grown to be one of the most dominant in the region. The work of Islamic religion concerning death is detailed in the kit al-ruh. This can be translated to the book of soul. This book was recorded in the 14th century. According to the Islamic religion, death is predetermined by God. It is Allah who gives people life, decides the length of their life on earth, and decides their death (Tillett, 2005).

In both the American and the Indian culture bodies of the dead are disposed amid rituals. In the American culture the rituals performed are not as diverse as those performed in the Indian culture especially by the Hindus. The Hindu community cremates their dead and in most cases, the ashes are then buried. In American, most of the communities bury their dead. Muslims also bury the dead. It is worth noting that even in the American community, there are those who opt to bury dead people. This is not directed by any cultural belief, but it is directed by personal choice. In both cultures bodies are well prepared for ultimate disposal. In the Muslim community, the body is washed by people who are experienced in this field (Frykenberg, 2003). The body is then wrapped in a white cloth, and then put into the grave. There is usually no viewing of the body, except by the immediate relatives. The participants believe that, by participating in the ceremony, they will rewarded by God. Islam put the dying person facing Mecca (Roppolo and Crow, 2007).
 
In the past, different societies in America believed in contact with the dead. This is a practice that was carried out by spiritualists. In the American society, the development of science affected their view on death (Twomey, 2007). Most scholars and theorists began challenging the idea of god as the giver and ultimate taker of life. In contrast, this idea has never affected Muslims belief on the omnipotent Allah as the giver and taker of life. Science came in with evolution theory as an explanation of where people come from and their ultimate end. This theory is an argument that life evolves constantly. The beliefs of the society concerning death changed with the development of science being in a position to relieve peoples suffering through improved medicine. The development of the germ theory challenged the belief that it was God who caused people to die. In the images of the many who chose to believe in the scientific theory, the place of God as the control of nature was taken up by the scientific explanations. Science brought up an argument that death is not governed by the laws of nature. Therefore as people were in a position to be in command of nature, then they could control mortality as well. The Indian culture even with the development of scientific theories, still holds to the fact that they do not have any control over death (Piven, 2004).

In the 19th century the view of death as a natural occurrence had taken effect. In the American culture, death began to loose its sacred touch in the 19th century continuing up to the current time. Though most Christians and other religious factions in the United States still see death in a religious light, most of the Americans view it as a natural occurrence and when it happens, it does not cause a lot of fuss. Some authors have referred America as a death-rejecting society. Compared to the Indian community, the United States does not take death and the things related to it seriously. The Alaskan Indians have been referred to as death-affirming. This is due to the fact that they are well prepared for it and the moment it comes, every person in the community participates. Proof of American denial to death can be obtained from the Kubler-Ross states. This are practices in the united states of placing their dead in sterile facilities away from everybody. The places where these death people put are normally not visited by anyone, no even friends and relatives. In America death is usually referenced with euphemisms (Cassell, 2005).  No one in the United States is open in discussing death and the dying is avoided even by the relatives. Dead people are usually removed from their beds very fast and put away until when they are collected for burial. Man-made carpeting is utilized to mask the earth at the burial ground. In most cases the bereaved are given mild sedatives so that they do not suffer the pain caused by death of a beloved one. These are all revelations of denial in death (Roppolo and Crow, 2007). This can also be observed in the way the bereaved acts after the death of someone close. The first thing they do mostly is to remove all the items of the dead person so that they are not always reminded of the death. In the Indian culture, there is acceptance and understanding of death. They do not deny it as the Americans do. Death is taken as part of their faith in God. They fully understand that it is the destiny of every one and that it is their religious duty to accept and participate in death-related rites (Twomey, 2007).    

Despite the fact that America is a multiculture society, there has been one uniform aspect as far as death is concerned. Across all cultures in the United States there is the aspect of institutionalizing burials. Unlike other cultures like the Indian, burials in most of the United States have less involvement of the relatives and other members of the society. There is usually the fast removal of the body from the funeral facility, embalming, organized viewing, and speedy burial (Cassell, 2005). All the preparations for the burial are carried out through hired services. In most of the Indian community, the respect and the sacred image of death is still prevalent. In the Indian community, death is viewed as the whole family and society event. There is still the element of the dying person being allowed to see his family and as much as possible given the chance to set things in order before dying. In America, there are facilities like hospices and nursing homes where the dying is isolated as they await their final moments. People here are rarely visited and when this happen, it is usually for a few hours. In India people who are about to die are kept company by relatives and friends who encourages them and assure them that they are not alone. Mourning in the Indian community is a major even where the whole community participates. Various rituals are performed in a systematic way (Piven, 2004).

Conclusion
This paper is a research on the similarities and differences of death in Indian and American cultures. The similarities in the two cultures view of death are brought about by the fact that they both know that death is inevitable. The various processes that reflect the acceptance of death in people is culturally defined thus created the differences in the two cultures. In the Indian society, nothing much has changed in the view and understanding of death. In America on the other hand, since the time of the puritans, a lot has changed in their view and understanding of death. In India religion is part of culture. Death is connected to religious. This is the reason why in India death and issues related to death do not change. America culture on the other hand has become totally separated from religious issues. There is a very big distinction between culture and religion in the United States.

The Classical Conditioning Theory by Ivan Pavlov explains the role of the environment and experiences in stimulating responses that result into learning. In his experimentation with dogs, the dog learnt to salivate at the sound of a bell after several experiences of ringing the bell whenever food was presented. The food was the unconditional stimulus (US) since it could elicit a response (salivation) naturally. The original response produced by the unconditioned stimuli is referred to as the unconditioned response (UR). Eventually, after repeated bearing of food and the sound of a bell, the dogs learnt to associate the bell with food, and started to salivate once it rang even if no food was presented afterwards. In this case, the bell is the conditioned stimuli (CS) a stimulus that elicits a response after association with the unconditioned stimuli. The response caused by such a stimuli (CS) is called the conditioned response (CR). A natural stimulus is one that does not elicit any response.

Operant Conditioning Theory by B.F Skinner posits that some responses are learned because they produced pleasant consequences, rather than because they were associated with an existing stimulus-response connection (Hayes and Orrell, 19). He called it the Law of Effect, since what resulted after a certain behavior either discouraged or reinforced the behavior. For instance, say excellent after a correct answer by a student will reinforce the behavior of answering questions.

A positive reinforcement is one where a certain behavior is rewarded, such as buying a child a gift or prize after posting good academic results. The gift will motivate the student and other learners to work hard. Negative reinforcement takes place when a certain behavior is rewarded by exempting the person from undesirable experiences or activities. For instance, a student who gets to school on time may be excluded from manual work.

Positive punishment occurs when a behavior is discouraged by subjecting the person to undesirable experiences, such as caning. Negative punishment is achieved by denying the person something desirable, e.g. restrictions such as going for break or a walk. Primary reinforcement satisfies the needs of a person immediately, such as giving good grades for hard work. Secondary reinforcement is achieved when something else is associated with the primary reinforcement. For instance, getting a good job is a secondary reinforcement associated with good grades

In human beings, classical conditioning takes place after a desired experience (US) is associated for a time with a another experience not originally desired (CS). With time, people get used with the new experience by associating it with the originally desired experience. For purposes of demonstration, I chose the Nightlife TV program aired by ABC in the US. The program began in November 8 1979, a few days after some Americans were held hostage in Iran, in what came to be popularly known as The Iran Hostage Crisis. By then, NBS was updating Americans daily on the situation. NBS program, the Tonight Show was a primetime hit since the hostage news was a national sensation. After launching the Nightlife, it became very popular as it gave a daily briefing by anchor Tedd Koppel The Iran CrisisAmerica Held Hostage (Bilhartz and Elliot, 232).

However, with time, especially after the 444 days of hostage, Nightlife began featuring other subjects such as politics and celebrity life. Nonetheless, the audience had been already conditioned by the hostage reportage to get hooked to Nightlife, even when the initial attraction (news from Iran) had been removed. Its still a favorite program in most American homes, resisting the effect of time. This is what the conditioning theorists call reinforcements resistance to extinction (Hayes and Orrell, 20), that is, impacting upon a person long after it had ceased.

General Introduction
The topic selected for this report is Eyewitness recollection accuracy. The topic is of exemplary importance because it is one that has practical implications. A research performed in this area serves to contribute to the perception regarding the practice of taking eyewitness testimonies into account during legal proceedings. Needless to highlight, countless cases have been brought to their resolutions after taking eyewitness testimonies into consideration.

The research performed in this area on the other hand, reveals that the accuracy of eyewitness memory retention and recollection is far from accurate. It is because of this reason that there is a need for credible and research in the area that can serve to eliminate this paradox.

Article 1 Introduction
The research in the article addresses the problem or question outlined by attempting to study the legitimacy of eyewitness statements by establishing the degree to which eyewitnesses are able to accurately recall what they have seen (Megreya  Burton, 2008).

This approach is different from most of the previous researches performed in this area because previous researches fundamentally chose to rely on live targets to carry out their experiments while this research chose to make use of photographs instead of live targets (Megreya  Burton, 2008).

Article 1 Hypothesis
The study was designed to test the hypothesis that sought to establish the degree of efficiency with which viewers were able to accurately match photographs to live people under a minimal set of constraints. The variables involved in the study were the targets and the stimuli. The research specifically sought to test the efficiency of photographic to recognize individuals present in person, from their photographs (Megreya  Burton, 2008). This efficiency was measured by presenting participants with opportunities to match individuals present in person with a set of photographs in order to determine the efficiency with which they managed to do so correctly. The result expected from the research was the recording of a broadly low degree of efficiency for face matching abilities, indicating poor performance in memories of eyewitnesses.

Article 1 Method
The research employed three different experiments to test the singular hypothesis. The first experiment entailed the testing of immediate memory and used exposure to static video images, followed by exposure to a line-up of 10 faces in which only one was the same as the one shown in the static video image five seconds earlier. The second method removed the five second gap and the targets and the line-up and target images were put forth simultaneously (Megreya  Burton, 2008). This was followed by the third method in which the participants were provided with pairs of faces some of which were identical while others bore little or no resemblance. The purpose of all three experiments was to test the face processing system in order to test the hypothesis.

Article 1 Results
The result from the first experiment held that there was no difference between the accuracy of the recognition in photographed and live targets. Efficiency levels for both target-present and target-absent testing procedures were found to be considerably low. Participants performed poorly in identifying the faces even thought the setting was one that gave them an optimal environment (Megreya  Burton, 2008). The results from the second experiment showed that the participants were unable to positively recognize photographs even though they were present in optimal conditions. The third experiment asserted that the degree of accuracy to which individuals can match a real person to a photograph is the same as that of matching two photographs.

Article 1 Conclusion
The research concluded that the presence of a live target has no positive implications on positive identification and misidentifications were frequent. The research, through its multiple experiments, also concluded that the overall procedure of the encoding of unfamiliar faces is riddled with difficulty (Megreya  Burton, 2008). At this point, the research established its stance as one which agreed with former researches that had reported low accuracy rates.

It is essential to note that the research, in its first experiment, made use of a very brief time interval between exposure to target and the test array. This makes it considerably different from a real-world situation in which the interval can span well over hours. Also, the experiment did not take any other real-world variables into account (Megreya  Burton, 2008). While no considerable drawbacks were established for the second experiment, the third experiment incorporated the drawback of possibly incorporating bias in its findings. The key question that went unanswered in the research was the degree to which the difference between laboratory settings and reality differ and the implications that the differences have.

Article 2 Introduction
The research in the article addresses the subject outlined in your general introduction through a series of three experiments (Fiedler, Kaczor, Haarmann, Stegmuller,  Maloney, 2009). Each of these experiments was meant to acquire a better understanding of how eyewitness recollection can be stimulated through re-contextualization and a supporting of the ability to discriminate between seemingly similar targets.

The approach is not too different from other researches because it attempts to explore the subject of the study through a multi-experiment approach, which appears to be customary in the case of studies exploring eyewitness recollection accuracy.

Article 2 Hypothesis
The research considers the hypothesis that eyewitnesses tend to exercise a leniency bias that causes them to correctly identify just as many targets as they incorrectly identify. The study also hypothesizes that participants tend to negatively identify targets in a majority of the scenarios (Fiedler, Kaczor, Haarmann, Stegmuller,  Maloney, 2009). The variables considered by the study include those such as time interval between the incident and the recognition test, the feedback, the emotional status of the eyewitness, the presence of racial or ethnic bias in the eyewitnesses perceptions.

The study specifically aims to test the social-cognition approach to the memory of eyewitnesses. The research claims that many few studies in the past have done so and sets this as its focus in the earlier paragraphs of the study (Fiedler, Kaczor, Haarmann, Stegmuller,  Maloney, 2009). This measurement was made through three differing yet related experiments, each of which was designed to probe into the subject of the research through a relatable yet unique perspective.

Article 2 Method
The first experiment made use of a slide show that was synthetically composed in an attempt to generate a scenario incorporating numerous people in movement. Several recognition tests were carried out through exposure to numerous targets. A total of eighty research participants were used (Fiedler, Kaczor, Haarmann, Stegmuller,  Maloney, 2009). The second experiment incorporated almost the same fundamentals as the first experiment but entailed a drastic increase in the number of possibilities. The third experiment moved away from the sequence that the research had been following in the first and second experiments. The third experiment exposed participants to elements such as late impressions and the cognitive interview, both of which were designed to assess whether an improvement change occurred in the eyewitnesses recollection.

Article 2 Results
It was observed as a result of the first experiment that explicit memory is influenced considerably as a result of impression formation (Fiedler, Kaczor, Haarmann, Stegmuller,  Maloney, 2009). It was observed as a result of the first experiment that explicit memory is influenced considerably as a result of impression formation.

Article 2 Conclusion
The research concluded that former researches in the area of eyewitness memory and recollection hold weight since it was revealed that formation of impression stimulates accurate recollection (Fiedler, Kaczor, Haarmann, Stegmuller,  Maloney, 2009). The research also concluded that the augmentation of an impression-formation task serves to bring about a dramatic increase in the accuracy of the eyewitnesses recollections. The authors brought the research to a conclusion by highlighting the need for further research and elaborating on the increased severity of the variables in real world circumstances as opposed to a controlled laboratory setting. The findings of the research experienced limitations in terms of the absence of a theoretical explanation behind the cognitive processes. The researchers also present numerous questions as recommendations for further research towards the end of the article.

General Discussion
It is apparent from the details of the two articles discussed above that eyewitness memory comes across as a rather weak instrument to consider reliable when taking testimonies from eyewitnesses. Of the two articles chosen, one was a recent research while the second served to provide a comprehensive view of the body of research that is present. Both the studies showed that eyewitness memory is far from reliable. It was observed that eyewitness recollections are inaccurate in optimal research conditions and can therefore be expected to be even worse in real-world scenarios.

The marriage interview was conducted on a couple that lives in my neighborhood and requested to remain anonymous while committing complete sincerity to the exercise. The purpose of the marriage interview was to explore the manner in which a couple runs into complications and to comprehend how underlying causes contribute to changes in the relationship while exploring the concepts of psychology that apply to the case. The interview was conducted by making the participating couple sit on a wide sofa in a comfortable sitting room. The couple had been married for almost nine years now and both the husband and the wife were in their mid thirties.

The interview began by asking each of them about the qualities that they had always desired in hisher spouse (Feldman, 1996). It was observed that both of them were in unanimous agreement about wanting commitment, honesty, affection, reliability and intimacy from each other. However, the unity in the answers came forth as short-lived when each was asked how long heshe had expected it to last when they got married. In this case, the wife expressed doubts about how long the marriage was going to last while the husband sat in a bit of awe to the response of the wife. When asked why she was doubtful, she replied that she had always been a little scared of marriage and the extensive commitment it entailed.

The couple has two children and the next question inquired upon was whether or not having children had put strain on their marriage. It was observed that the husband considered some strain to have dawned on the marriage while the wife held a positive outlook about the children and their implications on the marriage.

The couple was then asked about the part of their marriage that they appreciate the most. The husband and the wife were somewhat romantic in response to this question as the wife mentioned the warmth her husbands arms and the husband mentioned her beautiful smile that gave him a reason to struggle in his life. It was evident that whatever the reasons, the setup allowed them to maintain considerable affection towards each other.

The couple was also asked about how they handle problems and arguments. It was observed that there was a bit of a conflict between them in this regard since the husband stated that he usually apologizes no matter whose mistake it is while the wife stated that she generally chooses to forget everything that happened and take him back.

The couple was asked about their perception of a typical marriage. They replied that a typical marriage in these times has mutated into a form where it is more a resort and less of a marriage. They were unanimous in the denouncing of the increasing frequency of divorce and stated that they considered such marriages to be of no use and that couples who think that there are chances for divorce within a few years of their marriage should not get married to begin with. It was evident that the areas they disagreed on served to strengthen the relationship between the couple (Booth, Crouter,  Clements, 2001).

In order to probe further, the couple was asked to consider a hypothetical situation in which they had divorced. They were asked to determine what they would lose in case a divorce took place under such a worst case scenario. The husband and the wife looked stricken with shock at the very question and refused to answer the question, requesting that I move on to the next question. It was inferred from this particular response that the couple, under unanimous consent, chooses to remain in a self-induced state of denial about the possibilities of divorce.

The husband and the wife both expressed a fear of the family and friends of their spouse. Both expressed that they held a strong desire to be acknowledged by their spouses family and friends when they had begun their relationship. The desire to be accepted was observed to be a strong one in this case.

In order to determine differences within the couple, they were then asked about their favorite parts of the marriage. While the husband and wife both agreed upon physical intimacy, the husband added elements such as having a wife to come home to and watching television with the children. For the wife, other elements included those such as watching the children learn and grow and conversations with the husband after he arrives home from work. It is apparent that while each appears to have a differing in this case, they are actually on the same page.

The couple interview served to show that remarkable differences between couples can exist even if they have been married for years (Gurman, 2008). In addition, disagreements are frequently settled by resorting to unanimously agreed upon states of denial. When a couple is faced with potential threats to marriage, they tend to find grounds on which they can put aside differences and disagreements in order to sustain and maintain their marriage. This is valid mostly in cases where the husband and the wife find a reason to stay together, such as the children in this case.

The Woman who changed the world of the mentally ill

History has very few instances of immense social development being attributed to the work of a single individual. Dorothea Lynde Dix is indeed one such woman who served the cause of the mentally ill. Todays perception and treatment of the mentally ill may be attributed to her. Born on April 4, 1802 in Hampden town of Maine, she was the eldest child of Joseph Dix and Mary Bigelow Dix. The father was a traveling Methodist preacher and an abusive alcoholic. The mother did not have a sound mental health either and the couple had two other children younger to Dorothea. When the family later moved to Worcester, the couple had two more children. Dorothea had to care for her younger brothers. Several times when household fights got out of control, Dorothea would seek her grandmother at Boston. Dorothea was later to comment that she never knew childhood. She developed a passion for teaching and in 1816 when she was fifteen she started a school with the help of her second cousin Edward Bangs. The school was located in a store and had about twenty pupils between the ages of six and eight. Those were the days when women were not permitted to attend public schools.

Dix was religious but without religious bias or bigotry. She was a liberal Christian associated with the early Unitarianism given her friendship with the Unitarian minister Dr. William Ellery Channing. Dr. Channing inculcated a sense of both faith and consciousness within her. Dix was inspired and developed a sense of personal mission, leading her to the path of self-financed social reform. Despite having so any admirers and friends, she chose to remain unmarried and didnt want a permanent home. She wanted to be an independent woman, with a sense of mission backed by spirituality and passion.  It must be noted here that even as Dix was eighteen, Edward had told her that he was in love with her and wanted to marry her. However Dix resisted the marriage proposal by not agreeing to a definite date of marriage. The reason for this was that Dix was scared that her life would become like that of her parents. Marriage to her involved desertion of children, fights, heavy drinking and seeking refuge.

In the March of 1841, when Dix was 39, she volunteered to teach a Sunday school class for a jail in Massachusetts, which laid the foundations for major reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill. At the East Cambridge jail, she noticed that criminals, prostitutes, drunkards and the mentally ill were all put together in pathetic conditions and were shivering. Upon raising objections, she was told that the insane and the mentally ill do not feel the heat or the cold. Her confrontation of the existing system initiated a lifelong crusade for the mentally ill. Though mentally ill people from well to do families were cared and even had paid caretakers for them, those with no funds and means suffered. She went to court and saw her first victory in a series of victories. The conditions at the East Cambridge jail were improved and heating was provided too (Viney et al, 1982). Continuing with her crusade, she observed inmates and their living conditions in the jails, asylums, hospitals and other care centers. Her observations and reform proposals were provided to the Massachusetts legislature, which approved her efforts and provided funds for upliftment of hospitals. Dix was increasing consulted on site locations and design of the new facilities. In cases where funds were lacking, she struggled to raise them too. In 1845 she wrote her book Remarks on Prison and Prison Discipline.

After Massachusetts she reached out to New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky and New Jersey, studying and documenting the living conditions of the mentally ill. In 1841 Dix started her surveys of the asylums for the insane in the US. By 1848, Dix had traveled over 60,000 miles, documented hundreds of institutions all through the country, having visited over 9000 mentally ill, retarded or epileptic people (Points of Light Institute, 2008). As a result of her efforts, about 32 state mental hospitals were either developed or expanded. She was also instrumental in improving the therapeutic programs within hospitals. These successes encouraged her to act similarly in the Midwest and South states. Here Dix received varied success, but failed in getting a federal legislation passed for financial support for mentally ill, blind and the, deaf and dumb. Dix then left to Scotland and England, where she impressed Queen Victoria and the English Parliament to improve the state of asylums in Scotland (Advameg, Inc., 2010).

Dorotheas perception of insanity was very radical for the time. She saw insanity as a disease, which should not be treated on par with crime. She was outraged at insane people being housed in prisons. Those days, the mentally ill were chained and housed away from public contact. The belief, which existed then, was that the mentally ill could never be cured and that living in dreadful conditions didnt matter much to them. Dix tried to transform such attitudes and even provided instances where mentally ill were cured by proper cure. The insane were not tolerated by the neighbors (Lightner, 1999). She discussed and sought humane treatment for the mentally ill. Apart from distinguishing them as curable and incurable patients, she sought treatment for those who are curable and comfort for those who cant. Dix tried to prove by evidence that complete restoration was possible with prompt treatment. Although she didnt know the processes behind mental illnesses and their cure, she realized that improving their conditions wouldnt hurt them.

Dix in 1848, sent a proposal to the US Congress asking for the allotment of five million acres for establishing a mental care facilities. By this proposal Dix was definitely well ahead of her times, by suggesting a role for the federal government in caring for the mentally ill. The relevant bill was passed in 1854, which was approved, by both the houses. The bill was however vetoed by President Franklin Pierce. Later traveling across Europe in 1855, Dix visited several countries, portraying the plight of the mentally ill people through her strong convictions and persuasive ability. Dorothea Dixs efforts in Canada led to the establishing of Nova Scotias first mental hospital. Dix investigated the pathetic conditions of the mentally ill in Nova Scotia in 1849, which at that time was the only Canadian province that did not have a mental hospital. The efforts to create a mental institution were too slow. However the provincial government approved the plans when Dixs efforts and progress achieved around the world, were highlighted.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, she offered her services to the Union Army even though she was 59. Although she had no formal training as a nurse, her uncommon organizational skills saw her appointed as the head of the Union Army nurses. (Casarez and Tana Brumfield, 2000). Prior to the Civil War, only male nurses performed army nursing duties. Dix however convinced the bureaucracy that women too could do the job, which paved the way for the recruitment of about 2000 women into the army. In the army she was noted for her rigid stand.  With the war being over, she went back to her work with the mentally ill. In 1881 she moved permanently to her quarters in the New Jersey State hospital, which to her was her first child. Here she lived till her death on July 17, 1887.

It must be noted here that though her involvement and efforts for reform did not contribute directly to the field of psychology, she contributed tremendously to the social history of psychology. However psychology is a unique multi-disciplinary field, whose intellectual history is complemented by social history. Dorothea Dix is perceived as the biggest advocate of humanitarian reforms in the 19th century, for the mental institutions of America. However her current standing and recognition of her contributions make one wonder if she has been neglected. Here achievements are noted in only five of the fifty-three textbooks covering the history of psychology. The reason attributed to this state is that Dix did not contribute to the understanding of mental disorders. It is also painful to note that Dix appears in only about 10 of todays general history books. Perhaps this is because Dix herself wanted it this way. She did not place her names on most of the publications neither did she allow hospitals to be named after her. She was embarrassed whenever praise and gratitude were showered on her. In her retirement years, she even refused to speak on her contributions and achievements. She wanted to remain beyond the realms of publicity and this is perhaps what she wanted.

The topic is to inform the individual that we are going to the pool and have fun the day after. The following were easy to discuss or relay

First of all, I exhibited a facial expression that is too happy. The friend I was having non-verbal communication easily understood that what I am talking about will be fun, happy, and without stress.
Second, I also used sense of touch to convey the message that I was very excited about it. She sensed it easily because I even shook her shoulders. She just knew that what I was planning was something extremely exciting.

Last but not least, through my body motions, she knew that I feel extreme excitement, happiness, etcetera already. I could not sit still whenever I would feel too excited I stand up again and hold her shoulders like saying Come on Lets go

Topics Which Were Difficult to Convey
On the other hand, there were topics that were a little difficult to relay
For instance, it was difficult on my part to tell her that she cannot bring her boyfriend to the swimming party because it is a girl thing and only females are allowed to join in the fun. It was difficult on my part because I dont know what strategy to use or if I would smile or stay serious in telling her this. She got so confused that she just waved her hand at me, meaning she just wants me to stop because she could not understand anything.

In addition to that, it was also a bit difficult to tell her that I would like her to fetch me at my place because my car broke and nobody else will be able to pick me up since everyone comes from the North while were the only ones coming from the South. She just nodded in the end because it was difficult for her to respond to anything I was trying to convey. After that she just stopped interacting for about three minutes or so.

Also, I was not able to convey to her my message that after the party, I would not accompany her in going home because my boyfriend will fetch me and we will go see a movie. I tried my best here but I never really knew to get my message through to her.

Maintaining Silence
It was difficult to maintain silence.
First of all, I was too excited about the party and I know she will be as well and not being able to convey the message in a normal manner made it really difficult. It would be faster if I just used words but then I was obliged to relay the message through non-verbal cues.
In addition to the aforementioned, it was not easy because I was a bit impatient. It is not my nature to speak about one topic only and tackle that for the entire fifteen minutes. This is why during that fifteen-minute silence I was tempted many times to just state the good news in a normal manner.

Frustration of My Friend
My friend got frustrated when she could not understand the last three messages I wished to convey. The messages which I had difficulty conveying were difficult to understand and discuss for her as well while the ones which I was able to make her understand were easy for her to respond to.

Clock
Fortunately, despite the excruciating difficulty of conveying messages through non-verbal cues, my friend and I did not stop interacting and watched the clock instead. Although she asked me to stop and she stopped interacting twice during the fifteen-minute duration of the non-verbal discussion.  

I remember I was walking home from an associates house with one of my best friends by my side. We were walking towards the bus stop when we glanced at an electronics store by accident and a big screen television in the window was showing an image of a plane crashing into what I thought was some Japanese sky scraper. I thought it was some new movie, but within the time frame of seconds, I realized that it was anything but a movie, and realization hit me at the speed of thought. It was breaking news about the passenger aircraft hitting the world trade center.

I and my friend stood by the roadside, and a small crowd gathered around the window of the electronics store.  The crowd dispersed within minutes as phones began to ring and I remember I began to walk home with my friend. My friend walked beside me and we were running home before we knew it. I got home and my friend, living only one block down, kept running. I do not remember if it was my mother I walked into first or my sibling. Nonetheless, we were in front of the television set before we knew it and lost in shock.

I felt as if I wanted to run and I kept expecting war to break out. Every siren in the street made me picture images of the bloodshed of war and I think I began to shiver out of fear. What comes as strange is that I dont remember anything concretely beyond this point until it was dinner time. I do not remember who I spoke to and what was said. All I can recall is that I was glued to my television set for the rest of the day and well into the night. What I do remember clearly is that I could hear people crying as I heard the news of the four planes colliding (Johnstone, 2006).

I asked my friend who I had been with earlier, to tell me about the sequence of events that he had experienced. I was quite amazed to see that there were differences between our recollections of the day in the very beginning. My friend said that he I had pointed towards the big screen television in the window and that he had gotten a call on his cell phone at the same time. Whereas all I managed to recall were people shouting, screaming and crying. My friend further recalls that military vehicles passed us as we ran towards our houses but I do not remember hearing military vehicles blaring through the streets until after I got home.

These are not the only differences, a profound point of concern here is that my friend recalls that we were nearly hit by a car as we ran across a road, but I cannot recall any of this. However, it is strange that when I consider it, I can bring myself to picture such a scenario occurring and I can bring myself to clearly see all of it happening, even though most of it I still find hard to believe. There are a lot of things that I have now added to my mental illustration of the events that took place that day. For one, I can now see my friend receiving a call and I can now see military vehicles running at top speeds across the roads as we ran.

I suppose there are differences between my recollection of the day and my friends recollection. I admit it is hard to consider that a day that is seemingly etched so completely in my memory has fabrications and voids in it, but I cannot deny that the differences exist.

Abstract
The major focus of this study is to explore the athletic performance enhancement in high school basketball. The study disclosed athletic performance enhancement skills such as team building, pressure control, mental imagery and self talk practice. The study also covered the roles played by motivation, anxiety coping and relaxation, goal setting and self confidence building. Motivation enables the athletes to thrive even in difficult conditions. Anxiety coping and relaxation enables the team to reflect on their previous performance and strategise on the way forward. Goal setting keeps the athlete on track. Self confidence building facilitates the team to move on even in difficult circumstances.

1.0 Introduction
Great athletes constantly possess certain merits that contribute to their success. Skill is not enough. Discipline, enthusiasm, self-assurance and competitiveness are just a few of these qualities. The ability to set goals is a skill that vastly enhances an athletes sport performance as well as provides an action plan for rehabilitation that includes short-term, intermediate and long term goals (OConnor, 2001).

By building and maintaining a certain level of self confidence participating athletes are able to stay focussed on the outcome goal and concentrate on achieving their process goals to get there. Using mental imagery can also help athletes achieve their goals by visualising success. Through this performance enhancement program, any athlete learns and is able to use these skills to overcome any obstacles. Setting goals, building and maintaining self confidence and using imagery are beneficial in any aspect of life (Armantas et al. 2007).

The coach must address the teams needs. This requires the coach to honestly assess the teams previous performance, predict how the team should do during the current season with the current roster, and make a decision on how to uplift the performance of the team. This assessment is an on going process through the preseason. Most coaches develop strategies for team building and assessing team needs. However, if the normal strategies for the team are not working or if a coach wishes to learn new plans and strategies for team building and needs evaluation, consultation with a sport psychologist may be supportive. Coaches must effectively add new athletes and sometimes new coaching staff to their team so that the team functions as unified fashion. If the team did not meet expectations, new ideas and new traditions are introduced (Performance Enhancement News, 2006).

2.0 Performance Enhancement Curriculum
2.1 Motivation
Motivation is one of the methods that enhance performance of the players. Motivation uses imagery. Vealey and Greenleaf (2001) defined imagery as the process of using all senses to create or to re-create all experience in the mind. Athletes use imagery to uplift both physical and mental skills. For physical skills, imagery can help an athlete to learn new skills, practice already developed skills, and solve problems with technique. Imagery is one of several mental tools used to help injured athletes return to play. Specific uses of imagery in the recovery process include pain management, stress reduction, and managing the fear of re-injury (Williams and Krane, 2001).

2.2 Building team cohesion is an important factor in team performance
According to Stewart (2005), team cohesion is important because it is a determinant of their performance. Thus, it is common to find that deeply cohesive basketball teams perform better that fragmented ones all other factors remaining constant. Teams that lack cohesion will portray some characteristics like disruptions in the training schedules, conflicts during the games and interpersonal disconnect. Ultimately, team cohesions are all about the cooperation that the team members acculturate amongst themselves (Carron  Brawley, 2000). This has implications that teams members must be attracted to one another at the sports level, must view each other from a positive note and must committed towards the success of the team.

Therefore, its is prudent to assert that cohesion is a means of enhancing better performance, which means that any person interested in investigating a basketball teams dwindling performance must have cohesion as one of the major points of concern. Past studies did not consider cohesion as a major influencer of performance until recently (Carron  Brawley, 2000). From a qualitative observation, team cohesion also provides a motivation for the members to stay in touch while new members also get attracted to join (Stewart, 2005).

Having noted the importance of team cohesion towards enhancing the performance, there are few steps that need follow up. First, team cohesions will rely on how frequent the members form and meet. This ensures that they can cooperate and achieve various mileages towards the teams success (Stewart, 2005). Second, the size of the team matters. In the case of a basketball team, this may not be a very major challenge because of the lean structures and definitions on and off the court (Stewart, 2005). Third, the experience of the team cohesion is also a determinant of their performance. Hence, experience of good cohesion leads to perpetuation of the same especially with the new team members.

2.3 Creating goals as an important factor in improving team performance
Goals provide an action plan for team performance enhancement (Chiswick Consulting Limited, 2010). An action plan includes specific goals written on how the team is going to reach the desired physical state. This allows the team to track progress throughout practice sessions and helps the team to adjust goals if they become too difficult to reach (Performance Management Company, 2009). The first step in developing the teams action plan is deciding what the teams outcome goal is going to be. A process goal is an intermediate goal to help get the team a little closer to its desired outcome. A clear path of short-term goals that aid in reaching the teams long-term goals is established. The team should be careful to avoid setting too many goals too soon (Performance Management Company, 2009). The SMART principle is used Specific goals are set. Goals that can be measured are set. Goals are adjusted when necessary. Moderately difficult, but Realistic goals are set. Goals that are attainable in a reasonable amount of Time are set (Peluso, 2000).

The team should write four to five specific process goals about how to reach the outcome goal. The team should keep in mind that the goals would help the team players reach their outcome goals within its desired time frame (Chiswick Consulting Limited, 2010). Goals should be challenging but realistic. Goals that are too difficult or unrealistic may frustrate and lead to depression and if self-assurance and enthusiasm decrease, progress can slow (Performance Management Company, 2009). A common problem is failing to amend goals when necessary. Competing team should accept the possibility of failure and be willing to adjust its goals when required (Peluso, 2000).

The teams should spot two roadblocks that the teams may encounter on the way to achieving any of their progress goals in performance. These can be anything that may interfere with reaching the athletes outcome goal. The teams should reflect about things the athletes can focus on everyday to help them stay committed. The teams should make a list of three specific things the athletes can do or focus on everyday to help the athletes be on track of reaching their outcome goal. The teams should write their goals down in a place where the athletes can see them every single day. When the teams reach a plateau or hit a roadblock, they should look at their goals and focus on how to overcome the obstacles (Peluso, 2000).

2.3 Anxiety coping and relaxation
As with all sports, playing basketball well requires a combination of physical and mental skills. The mental skills used depend upon the game situation. For example, athletes use concentration skills to keep themselves focussed in the game and during time outs and time on the bench. Attentiveness skills can also be used to maintain focus in spite of the distractions like the crowd and the opposing players. Other mental skill used is administering emotions and staying in control, even in the face of a bad call by a referee. Develop free throw pre-short customs, which can increase the success rate of foul shots and concentrating on the present and not worrying about past mistakes or thinking too far a head (Staples, 2010).

Developing the mental skills necessary to play well happens in the same way that physical skills are developed through many hours of practice under the guidance of either a sport psychologist or a coach who has been trained in sport psychology principles. As an illustration of the importance of mental skills in basketball, is to think about the free throw pre-shot routine of Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. Imagine what impact his routine had on his free throw success. As it is known, many games are won or lost at free throw line (Estes, 2009).

Coaches manage stress by sticking to routine, eating healthy and staying in shape. Adoption of more active stress management strategies will ideally help coaches to remain healthier and to continue coaching for so many years. Coaches are important real models for their athletes. Most coaches understand this but they do not make the connection that how coaches manage stress frequently translates how their athletes manage stress. Like any type of performing, becoming an effective basketball coach takes hard work, lots of preparation and effort. Coaches must have the ability to manage pressure in adverse situations efficiently and ability to lead others. Learning to manage pressure of coaching, not only allow coaches to continue doing their job, but also stay healthier. Learning how to manage pressure, allow the coaches to model handling pressure in a healthy and productive fashion for their athletes (Performance Enhancement News, 2010).

2.4 Self confidence building
An athlete with a high level of self-assurance can stay composed and focused, triumph over impediments, quickly learn from, and correct mistakes. The most important way for an athlete to sustain and build their self-confidence is to focus on performance accomplishments. As an athlete using physical therapy to rehabilitate an injury, it is vital that the athlete self-confidence is maintained and even built upon. Mamassis and Doganis (2004) reported increased performance and self-confidence with lowered pre-competition anxiety when compared to controlled conditions. Self-confidence building enables the athlete to reach full potential.

For instance, a basketball player on a fast break or a soccer player dribbling in the open field, find open teammates, be aware of oncoming opponents, and make a decision to pass, shot, or hold onto the ball all within a matter of seconds. The possible presence of fatigue, environmental stimuli, and performance anxiety may also contribute to an athletes loss of concentration, focus, and in ability to think properly. The athlete needs to have self-talk practice to build self-confidence (Theodorakis et al., 2001).

3.0 Increasing team confidence through imagery and preparation as a key factor in improving team performance

Imagery is a mental representation of movement. It involves athletes imagining themselves in a specific environment or performing a specific activity, rehearsing with the goal of improving motor performance. In this process, a participating athlete uses a creation or re-creation of an experience using all senses (Dickstein  Deutsch, 2007). Most participating athletes who compete at high levels employ a cognitive process. It is a tool used to help athletes cope with and prevail over injuries and allows them to re-enter their sport mentally prepared for success.

Two types of imagery are important for participating athletes to focus on. These are external (visual) and internal (kinaesthetic) imagery. External imagery is imagery of the person, the environment or both. First-person and third-person perspectives can be used in external imagery. First person viewpoint (kinaesthetic or visual) is the persons sight of the images contents or its kinaesthetic sensations (Dickstein  Deutsch, 2007). Third-person viewpoint involves the visual imagery of scenes outside the person. For example, with external imagery, a person views himself as if he were an external observer with internal imagery, a person actually imagines being inside hisher body experiencing the same sensations as they did the first time. The methods they engaged for controlling pain incorporated using imagery to deal with expected pain, disperse andor block pain and as a distraction (Driediger, et al. 2006).

Metal imagery and self-talk strategies were implemented by athletes in order to regulate arousal, decrease maladaptive behaviours, reconstruct negative thoughts, and to uplift ones attention and focus. Mental imagery incorporates ones visual, auditory, tactile, emotional and kinaesthetic senses. Visual motor behavioural rehearsal integrates the senses, which ultimately leads to increased awareness and performance enhancement. In contrast, cognitive theorists stress the importance of symbolic learning theory to mental imagery construction. This process driven model advocates the significance of how one learns a task rather than how one initiates specific motor skills. Athletes that implemented imagery practice on cognitive tasks had increased performance as opposed to purely motoric tasks. Many athletes felt that acquiring a mental edge on their opponents ultimately gave them an invaluable advantage during competition (Peluso, et al. 2005).

Regardless of what type of sport or athlete one is examining, an absence of a theory-based framework will continue to limit researchers understandings of the overall strengths and weaknesses of self-talk interventions (Hardy et al., 2001). Self-talk enhances an athlete to perform better in the sport. Furthermore, Hatzigeorgiadis et al. (2004) revealed that athletes who implemented various forms of self-talk such as instructional, motivational, increased overall performance and decreased vulnerability to maladaptive and competing thoughts, on a water-polo task, when compared to baseline scores. These findings suggest that athletes who incorporate self-talk imagery strategies will ultimately benefit from increased levels of awareness, concentration, and performance enhancement.

4.0 Results and discussions
4.1 Results
The majority of participants reported playing organized athletics were high school, 88, college, 19.3, intramurals, 53.3 and a minority of the overall population reported playing organized basketball were high school, 4.7,college 1, and intramurals, 2. A series of Pearsons correlations examined the relationship between participants overall time spent playing regulation P.G.A. and miniature basketball and overall difference scores. Results indicated a significant relationship between P.G.A. basketball experience and overall difference scores across all conditions r  0.172 p  0.05. Follow-up analyses suggested that of the 68 of the participants who selected other on the demographic questionnaire, approximately 87 reported never playing basketball. In addition, results indicated no significant relationship between miniature basketball experience and overall difference scores r  0.044 p  0.05 across conditions (Peluso, et al. 2005).

A series of ANOVAs were conducted across all nine conditions comparing pretest putting abilities. Results indicated that no significant differences were seen across all conditions across pre-test putting trials. Therefore suggesting that participants overall putting abilities were commensurate F (8, 141)  5.779, p  0.05. A 9 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA was conducted across all nine conditions comparing overall outcome performance between participants pretest and posttest trial scores. Results indicated no significant differences across conditions and between trials existed, F (8, 141)  1.916, p  0.05 (Pennington, 2008).

In contrast, a follow-up ANOVA indicated a significant interaction across conditions between participants overall divergence score across pretest and post test trials, F (8, 141)  4.009, p  0.05. Follow up paired comparisons on overall difference scores indicated improved putting performance across seven of the eight Performance Enhancement Techniques experimental conditions. Specifically, participants in the simultaneous internal imagery condition exhibited the largest difference score, Cohens d  0.7359, p0.05. In addition, results indicated a negative decline in performance across overall differences scores for participants in the delayed external imagery and no instruction control group (please refer to Table 1 and Table 2). Overall, across conditions results indicated that participants significantly benefited from implementing internalized forms of Performance Enhancement Techniques when compared to externalized forms of Performance Enhancement Techniques and the no instruction control conditions F (2, 147)  7.009, p 0.05 (Bracken  Nicole, 2008).

Given the high degree of variability regarding the number of hours of organized athletic activity participants reported, a series of one-way ANOVAs comparing performance across conditions was conducted. Results indicated that participants who endorsed ten hours or less a week of athletic activity preferred self talk interventions over the imagery and the no instruction control condition F (2, 119) 4.389, p  0.05. In contrast, participants who endorsed ten hours or more a week of athletic activity preferred imagery strategies to self-talk and the no instruction control condition F (2, 25)  5.27, p  0.05 (Dorchak, 2008).

More over, no significant differences were found between participants in both the ten hour or more and ten hour and less condition when assessing for preferences styles between internalized, externalized, simultaneous, and delayed conditions. These findings are consistent with the current literature which states that novice athletes will often engage in self-talk practice for athletic skill mastery whereas more experienced athletes will implement imagery techniques as an arousal regulation andor motivational technique (Cox, 2002). Finally, a paired comparison was conducted to determine the effect of participants self-efficacy on the golf putting task between ones predicted putting accuracy score and their actual putting accuracy score. Results suggest that participants across all conditions were able to accurately predict their actual putting score t(149)  -17.24, p  0.05.

4.2 Discussion
Athletic performance in sports can be enhanced in very many ways. Motivation is the drive towards success. A motivated athlete is a successful sportsperson. Athletes are stirred by successful practice where tactics are ever changed. When new skills are introduced into the sport, athletes become eager to learn. Athletes are also stimulated by good pay and teamwork. Successful in performance is an appealing factor. When a team wins, the athletes become happy and thrive to continue winning.
Goal setting is an important strategy that enables athletes to succeed by building their physical skills. Objective setting lays a plan that enables athletes to stay focussed. Training mile stones serve as guiding criteria for the success of an athlete. This allows the team to track progress throughout practice sessions and helps the team to adjust goals if they become too difficult to reach. The physical state of the athletes is the desired goal. Physiotherapy is done on the players who are injured to ensure their full recovery to the physical state of playing or participating in the sport. Once discipline is kept by athletes during training and competition, success in guaranteed.

Anxiety coping and relaxation is another mode of athletic performance enhancement. The coach and players are supposed to feed on good diet and put in place traits that allow athletes to control stress when playing under pressure. Good sport psychology coaching is encouraged to enhance good performance. Athletes should have time to relax after intensive successful exercise. Formerly the athletes are able to control anxiety, their performance in sport raises. An athlete with a high level of self-assurance can stay poised and focused, triumph over impediments, quickly learn from, and correct blunders. The most important way for an athlete to sustain and build their self-confidence is to focus on performance accomplishments.

Conclusion
Athletic performance enhancement is an importance factor in any sport. Mental imagery and self-talk strategies are implemented by athletes in to regulate stimulation, reduce maladaptive behaviours, rebuild negative thoughts, and to boost ones concentration and focus. Participants who engage in several performances enhancement techniques exhibit enhanced performance on a sport-putting task when compared to participants in a controlled condition.

Participants who allowed limited athletic familiarity and activity preferred self-talk exercise whereas participants who endorsed higher ratings scores of athletic familiarity and activity preferred imagery strategies. Flexibility of performance enhancement techniques such as imagery versus self talk, internal versus external, simultaneous versus delayed and how they can be executed to help an athlete reach his or her full potential. The coach should be able to apply psychology of sport during training sessions of the athletes. The coach should always work hard to ensure that the athletes and the coach himself are not stressed when participating under pressure. The athletes should always be focused and concentrate all the time.

Team building is another trait that enhances success of athletes. An athlete is able to do better in a team that is cohesive than being on his own. A good cohesive team gets good results. The coach should always ensure that the team is working as unit. A team that works as unit even if the team may be weak but ends up recording good results than teams that are strong but do not coordinate. Athletes should be given enough time to socialise with the team mates to develop friendship and trust among themselves. Once they develop strong bond, the athletes are bound to do well.

The topic of media violence has lacked a clear understanding for many years now. Most of the studies concerning media influence are centred on whether or not it causes violence and aggression especially in the children and the youth (Hitti, 2005). Many researchers especially in psychology have been so concerned with the relationship between the two. These studies have provided many results and conclusions. Most of the results and conclusions reached by different people are contradictory (Coyne, 2007). There have been varying descriptions and definitions of media violence. Most of the researchers argue that media violence is the key cause of aggressive behaviour (Carter  Weaver, 2003). This topic has sparked a lot of debate as to whether there is basis to prove this view. Huesmann Rowell, a lecturer at the University of Michigan claims that severe aggression takes place in a situation where there is compound predisposing and impulsive factors. There are other arguments that aggressive behaviour is a genetic factor. Other researchers have claimed that this behaviour can be understood by the theory of evolutionary psychology (Reith, 2003).  But whatever the cause, the question is whether or not there is a connection between media violence and aggression. This paper seeks to establish from review of the available literature, whether the connection exists.    

Huesmann Rowell asserts that there is a relationship between media violence and aggression. He argues that five decades of research provides proof that media violence renders the young to exhibit aggressiveness. This effect is carried on to their adult life. A professor in the university, Freedman Jonathan, presents a different argument. He argues that the scientific proof does not give a clear indication on whether media violence makes viewers violent or desensitizes them to violence (Hitti, 2005).

In the University of Ottawa, another detailed study from the methodical literature was done by Martinez Andrea. This research was conducted for Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Martinez found out that there is no agreement on the influence of media violence. She came to a conclusion that the scenario reflected three limitations that were in the studies (Hitti, 2005).
The first limitation was a fact that media violence is a complex topic that is not only hard to describe, but also to gauge. George Gerber, a professor at Temple University defines it as the action of causing injury or murder, the means utilised and the environment not withstanding. According to him this includes cartoon violence that is watched by many children. There are other researchers who do not include cartoon violence in their studies. Paquette and Guise, lecturers at the University of Laval, leave out cartoon violence due to the fact that it is comic and so fictional in the way it is presented. They present the argument that cartoon violence does not reveal any aspect of reality (Hitti, 2005).

The second limitation is that the research results have not provided a consensus on the type of connection the information they present supports. There are researchers who have argued that it is true that media violence leads to aggressive behaviour. Other researchers argue that media violence and aggression are connected, but there is no contributory association. This argument is based on the fact that though the two are related, there may be another factor that causes them. There is yet another group that claims that there is no connection between them at all (Hitti, 2005).

The last limitation is that even the groups that concur that there is a relationship between the two do not reach a consensus on the effect of one on the other. There is a category of researchers who argue that the connection is psychological. In this case, the connecting factor is rooted in the means through which people learn. This argument is supported by Huesmann who claims that young people build up cognitive scripts that direct the way they behave by copying the acts of their champions. As they are exposed to media violence, they gain the understanding of internalising scripts that show aggression as the proper way of resolving issues (Reith, 2003).  

There is another category of researchers who claim that it is the psychological influence of the violence that leads to aggression. Being exposed to violent image is associated with an increase in heart beats, increased rate of respiration and increased blood pressure. Some researchers believe that this stimulated fight or fight reaction is the one that causes people to act aggressively in reality (Reith, 2003).

There is yet another category of researchers who claim that aggression is predisposed in a persons mind and feelings. This category emphasises on the means of media violence as a catalyst to this predisposed state. They believe that these kinds of people already have the desire to act and only use media violence as a justification. Their acts are justified by the media imagery, where the hero and the bad character employ acts of violence to seek revenge, mostly without any form of punishment (Reith, 2003).
 
In the year 1956, researchers embarked on a lab study to determine the conduct of children being exposed to television. Twelve of the children were exposed to a violent cartoon, while another twelve were exposed to a non-violent one. It was later discovered that those who watched the violent cartoon would be more prone to hitting others and breaking playthings. In the year 1963, three researchers, Ross, D., Badura, A. and Ross, S. began a study on the experience with real-life, TV and cartoon violence. They separated 100 children into four categories. The first group was exposed to a person hurling abuses at a doll while beating it. The next group watched a similar incident on TV. The third group watched the same in a cartoon and the last group was a control group, therefore exposed to nothing. Later the four groups were exposed to a frustrating circumstance. All the children who were exposed to violence tended to act more aggressively than the last group. Those who had watched the cartoon exhibited less aggression than the first two (Coyne, 2007).

Results from outside the lab also give very similar results. Children who like violent behaviour usually tend to be more aggressive that those who watch non-violent ones.  The young people who usually act more aggressively are the ones who watch a lot of violent TV shows, believe the shows to be a reality, and identifies with the violent actors. More that 50 of the parents whose children are exposed to media violence claims that the children tend to copy aggressive characters from television (Coyne, 2007).

A study on the effects of violent video games carried out by Anderson and Bushman of Iowa University revealed nothing different. They found out that those individuals who are exposed to video games that are violent tend to be more aggressive in real-life. In 2003, Anderson, Carnagey and Eubanks discovered that violent songs raise aggressive thinking and antagonistic ideas on the young people. They found out that violent music just like all other media violence has an influence on aggression (Carter  Weaver, 2003).

Eron, a lecturer at the University of Michigan investigated grade 3 children and found out that the children who were exposed to media violence had a more aggressive behaviour towards their peer. He wanted to view the effect on these children as years went by. He went back to study the students after 11 years and realised that those students still viewed the violent shows and that they were the most likely to break the law as adolescents. Eron went back again when his subjects were 30. This time it was discovered that the ones who were exposed to media violence as children were more liable to be in trouble with the law, violently discipline their children and handle their spouses with aggression. Similar results were recorded by Monroe Lefkowitz. He carried a study in children aged eight. He discovered that the males who had exposure to media violence were more aggressive in reality. After ten years, he went back to the children and discovered that those who were exposed at an early age had become more aggressive at eighteen (Carter  Weaver, 2003).
  
Conclusion
Most of the studies have concluded that there is a positive, though not strong connection between media violence and aggression. Even if it might be difficult to scientifically establish the connection, as Van Der Voot argues, it is not wrong to claim that there is no connection just because the incident is rare or happens in specific situations (Carter  Weaver, 2003).  All media violence is responsible for influencing some form of aggression to those exposed to them. This is evident in violent cartoon and TV shows, violent video games, as well as violent music. It is also clear that the effect is not short-term but long-term. The lack of an agreeable conclusion in the connection on the influence of viewing media violence on aggression does not mean that the matter should be brought to a rest. It is evident that most of the children who act aggressively are the ones who are exposed to media violence. This is enough proof that media violence has some influence on aggression. What researchers should do is research more on the nature and kind of connection that exists between the two.