50 Handy Expressions About Hands

50 Handy Expressions About Hands 50 Handy Expressions About Hands 50 Handy Expressions About Hands By Mark Nichol Do you know all these expressions about hands? Most of them are cliches, but using just about any cliche is forgivable if you do so in a fresh way, or to add a note of humor. 1. â€Å"All hands on deck,† from the traditional nautical command for every sailor to report for duty, refers to the necessity of everyone involved to lend a hand, or assist. 2. To bite the hand that feeds you is to be hostile to someone who has been kind to you. 3. To be a dab hand is, in British English, to be an expert. 4. â€Å"The devil makes work for idle hands† is a proverb that means that inactive people are susceptible to the temptation to do wrong. 5. To know something firsthand is to be directly familiar with the facts. 6. To force someone’s hand is to compel them to act prematurely or involuntarily. 7. Having a free hand is being given wide latitude about how to carry out a task or responsibility. 8. To gain the upper hand is to obtain control. 9. To get your hands dirty is to engage in a important activity that may not be pleasant. 10. To give a hand is to help, though it also refers to applauding by clapping one’s hands. 11. To give a guiding hand is to offer advice or mentorship. 12. Something that goes hand in hand with something else is closely associated with it. 13. To be in good, or safe, hands is to be assured that you will be taken care of. 14. To hand something down is to offer it to an heir, or to deliver a decision. 15. To hand in something is to deliver it. 16. To work hand in glove is to work together intimately. 17. To hand something off is to pass it along to someone else, with the connotation of delegating it. 18. To hand something on is to pass it along to someone else in succession. 19. To hand something out is to offer it to recipients. 20. To hand something over is to deliver it to someone in authority, perhaps reluctantly or unwillingly. 21. To earn money hand over fist is to do so quickly. 22. To hand something to somebody on a platter (often a silver one) is to enable them to achieve something without effort. 23. To hand something up is to present it to a higher authority, such as grand jury to a judge. 24. To win hands down is to do so conclusively. 25. To be hands-off is to distance oneself from an activity or project. 26. To be hands-on is to directly involve oneself in an activity or project. 27. To have blood on one’s hands is to be culpable for an act. 28. When you tell someone you have to hand it to them, you’re giving them a compliment. 29. To have your hands full is to be busy. 30. To act with a heavy hand is to do so harshly or with too much force. 31. A heavy-handed gesture or action is one that is lacking in subtlety. 32. When the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, it means that communication among associates is poor. 33. To lend a hand is to assist. 34. To know something like the back of one’s hand is to know it thoroughly. 35. To live from hand to mouth is to be poor. 36. To be an old hand is to be familiar with or to be an expert at something. 37. To say that something is on hand is to indicate that it is available. 38. â€Å"On the other hand† is a synonym for however or â€Å"by contrast.† 39. To overplay your hand is to try too hard to achieve an objective, resulting in failure or complication. 40. Something that gets out of hand has gone out of control. 41. To play into someone’s hands is to be manipulated by an opponent into doing something advantageous to that person and detrimental to yourself. 42. â€Å"Put your hands up† is a command by law enforcement personnel directing someone to raise their hands so that they are in clear view and not likely to reach for a weapon. 43. To raise one’s hand is to lift an arm to indicate that one wishes to volunteer to perform a task or respond to a question. 44. A show of hands is a display of raised hands by those in a group in favor of or opposed to a proposal. 45. To take someone by the hand is to lead or nurture them. 46. To take the law into your own hands is to seek to right or avenge a wrong yourself rather than appeal to law enforcement for assistance. 47. To throw your hands up is to figuratively acknowledge defeat or frustration. 48. To be underhanded is to be deceitful. 49. To wash your hands of something is to absolve yourself of responsibility. 50. To say â€Å"When one hand washes the other† (the implied conclusion to the phrase is â€Å"and together they wash the face†) is to suggest that cooperation encourages success. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" Best Websites to Learn English30 Words Invented by Shakespeare

The Aspect of Family within Asian Culture Research Paper

The Aspect of Family within Asian Culture - Research Paper Example The analysis of the aspect of family within the Asian culture will focus on the nuclear and extended family, children and up keeping, marriage and divorce, and the respect accorded to parents. Other aspects that are of some importance include the effect of family on business relationships, and some few aspects that will be added in the paper. Asian family culture demands that families stay as close to one another as possible, so it is not uncommon to find completely close knit families in the Asian tradition and cultures (Abazov, 20). Existing literature states that the family is the most important part of the Asian make-up; therefore, considerations for the nuclear family take center stage in every individual’s life. This means that an individual will always consider the immediate family in every action. An example of this fact is the communal activity that each family will engage in together; an analysis of the culture reveals that most families will have communal activities to bring the family together, for example, during meal times; it is not uncommon to find the whole family eating together. As indicated, the aspect of the family in the Asian culture takes priority over all other aspects, which is probably a means of increasing family cohesion and instilling cultural values in the children. Relations in the nuclear family are normally blurred, since an individual is normally expected to have the same consideration for the extended family as the nuclear family. Therefore, it is to be expected that an extended family will live together in complete harmony, and the aspect of the nuclear family is only seen in urbanized areas. An analysis of the Asian family culture also indicates that the Asian culture has a deep rooted sense of respect for all family members, as is indicated by the values taught to children at a tender age (Teng 63). The Confucian system dictates that the sense of respect is instilled in the family values that are taught to children and all other members of the society. In the Asian culture, it is not uncommon to find several parts of the family brought together to honor other parts of the family. The Asian culture reveals that the identity of an individual is focused on the collective rather that the self. This means that an individual will have consideration for the whole society rather than the individualistic aspect. In the Western and American culture, it is common to find individuals with considerations only for the self, however, in the Asian culture, an individual is instilled with the values of the collective society, and therefore, an individual will consider the family before the self. As already mentioned, the Confucian system of family values is entrenched in the Asian tradition, therefore, it is to be expected that an individual will consider all other people before the self. According to Confucian tradition, all families have hierarchies, and every member of the family has a special part to play in the smooth running of the family (Hung and Smith). For example, the father in the house is the undisputed head of the family and is expected to provide for his wife and offspring without fail. The Confucian theory of family values dictates that the family is more important than the individual, so the eldest son in the family also has their own responsibility. For example, the eldest son is expected to have responsibility to the parents, siblings, and finally to the wife and daughters. The previous aspect discussed brings to light another aspect of the Asian

Critically study of Negotiation Skills 03071 Essay

Critically study of Negotiation Skills 03071 - Essay Example The study is going to provide critical evaluation of the negotiation process. Different theories of negotiation stated to cite that negotiation process is adopted among the almost each and every individual. Further, this study outlines the process of negotiation among the individuals, local authority, SME and society. Negotiation is mainly a collateral process of getting the concern of two or more parties. In general term, negotiation is the process of collective bargaining that promotes a process of transaction of anything between two or more parties. This process is promoting aim of welfare of both the parties, along with the requirements and expectation of parties associated with the negotiation process. On the other hand, it utilises common ground that empowers stake of both the parties. Moreover, it promotes the harmony among the parties regarding any settlement. In addition, negotiation is also made on the basis of the mutual concern that makes the resolution of any sort of conflict. Negotiation processes are proved to be one of the most important processes in the daily life of people and operations of any business (Barkemeyer and Figge, 2011). On the contrary, negotiation term is used in banking and financial sectors also. Negotiation in this type of industry refers to the acceptance of any sort of transaction or future buy and sells financial instruments. In addition, it is observed that financial instruments are mainly facing negotiation process in the trading terms. However, contracting segments are looking for making proper compensation of the client and involved parties. Contracts are adopting negotiation actions in terms of making proper bidding of transactions. However, negotiation will be increasing outcomes of contract policies. Negotiation is involved in the trading processes also. Mainly in the globalised era, organisations are making proper negotiation in terms of trading the different instruments and commodities

Four functions of management case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Four functions of management - Case Study Example However, you did not put some of the management functions in place. It was the reason for the business failures as the business grew in size. The management skills, which accrue to a business’s success that you did not put into consideration, include controlling, planning, organizing, and directing skills that accrue to a successful business. Directing: One of the reasons that affected the business’ success was your directive skills. According to your business statistics, you employed Lisa and entrusted her with all the business operations. Irrespective of you two being friends for a long time, you should not have trusted her with all the directive orders. She would report to work, wash the office and tidy up then start her daily chores. This was a lot for her and what she had not expected. She had to check all the tax forms and serve all the customers. For a business to be successful and achieve the goals and objectives, it should ensure a proper channel of communicati on between the workers (Richman 2012). Lisa had confidence that she was doing the right thing even after adding the three new employees. You should have controlled all of them since you are the senior manager. You should have given your orders to the employees in case of any changes, which should have been directly, or indirectly through According to Directive Path Theory, a business leader should give freedom to his/his employees for them to realize their job expectations. In reference to the theory, your management should do a follow up on employees’ tasks to ensure that they achieve the required job standards and set goals. Remarkably, members of the management are required to involve the subordinate staff in the process of making strategic decisions. You should have involved your employees in decision-making processes that would have helped produce effective workplace union. Employees can also motivated by awarding them accordingly after excellent progress in their work. Awards can be through issuing of presents and souvenir just as you did in your case. Additionally, you did not put your supervisions skills into consideration hence led to your employees taking advantage of the situation. As for Lisa’s case, she would not let you down due to your close relationship but the other employees would due to lack of an employee-employer relationship. It was the cause for the embezzlement of funds by your accountants. Communication is an essential measure in business management and should be employed to ensure a communication between top management and the junior staff (Richman, 2012). Communication avenues includes vertical and horizontal. In your case, you only emphasized on vertical communication. It entailed her communication skills with Lisa but not the other accountants. However, you did not consider horizontal type of communication. Good management skills allow both horizontal and vertical communication that entails an open office where commun ication occurs from all sides. These sides include communication from the senior management to the junior staff and the vice versa. Management should ensure an open office relationship where you allow your staff to make suggestions on issues before making decisions. Planning: On the issue of planning, you had good plans while establishing the job. You hired just one employee to cut costs that would boost the capital needed. However, according to management theories on planning, duties should be

Late Development And The Challenges Facing Late Developers Economics Essay

Late Development And The Challenges Facing Late Developers Economics Essay On the world stage, the list of the wealthiest countries has been dominated by European nations for the past six hundred years. Mid-last century a shift occurred that has seen the emergence of Asian countries growing at rapid rates. The surge was led by Japan and was quickly followed by those now known as the Asian Tigers. What problems did these countries overcome to grow so quickly while at the same time so many other nations are trapped in the quagmire of poverty and debt? Additionally, what challenges do the countries attempting development later than others face if they wish to emulate the Asian Tigers? This essay will briefly explain the problem of late development before outlining the challenges faced by late developers. Broadly speaking development implies wish to shift from an undesired state to a more desirable state; in this case a movement away from the situation of inequality and poverty to that of more equality and less poverty. Inequality in terms of social, cultural, economic and political needs is widespread in the world, not just between nations but within populations of nations. Such inequality leads to the poverty experienced by the populations of the undeveloped and developing nations of the word, causing millions of needless deaths every year around the world. Before any explanation or hypothesis regarding development of nations can be carried out, the term poverty requires discussion. An orthodox view of poverty is not having sufficient money to buy food and other basic material needs  [1]  . An alternate view of poverty is where people are not able to meet their own material and non-material needs through their own effort. The subtle difference between the two definitions will be expanded later in this essay. Additional to discussing poverty, the term development needs discussion. To determine the status of a nation as developed, developing or underdeveloped requires the use of a metric, criterion or standard of some kind. Which form of measure is hotly debated and is a very contentious issue. Different measures that can be used are national gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, level of economic industrialization or the Human Development Index (HDI) to name a few and the selection of which one determines the rankings of nations. During the Cold War, the terms First, Second and Third World were used to describe the USA, Soviet and non-aligned blocks of countries. The term Third World became synonymous with underdeveloped and developing countries and to this day is misused to describe these countries. THE PROBLEMS OF LATE DEVELOPMENT The same problems face developing countries, regardless of the metric used to measure a nations development ranking. The prime problem facing developing nation is their late start compared to the more advanced industrialised countries that are generally accepted as being developed. Late development precludes nations from using the first mover advantages of economies of scale, positive network effects and the ease of sourcing investment funds  [2]  . Nations that get a head start in an industry have the ability to compete evenly against other nations starting at the same time in that industry. As capacity builds, the high costs of initial production, research and development, and low levels of output alter because of innovation and improvement leading to more effective and cheaper production methods, enhanced products, and higher levels of output. All these factors enable the distribution of fixed costs, such as production and transport costs, across the greater output, thus lowering the final cost of an item. These economies of scale enable the first mover to produce a product at a lower cost than a late developer, which in turn, allows the first mover to either undercut late starters or make more profit when selling at the same price  [3]  . Late developers hence need to find ways around the economies of scale factor such as using cheaper local labour for production, leveraging off any local raw materials or new areas to in novate. A good example of the economies of scale at work is the early motor vehicle industry. The Ford Motor Company is generally credited with the first use of a production line type manufacturing method in the automotive industry that enabled Ford to mass produce cars at prices much cheaper than the completion. Follower companies adopted the same technology, but not after Ford had gained a significant market share in North America and enabled the company to create a world-wide manufacturing base that was not seriously challenged for over half a century  [4]  . Starting an industry or sector of technology first attracts people and firms into the area where that technology is found, thus creating a centre of excellence in terms of equipment and personnel. The network effect  [5]   of a centre of excellence also adds to the economics of scale effects, as raw material supplies are only shipped into one area and conversely distribution centres can also be centralised. Additionally, distributed manufacturing within such a network is sped up and costs reduced due to close proximity, thus reducing costs and time effects. Late starters wishing to build their own competing centres of excellence face the obstacle of attracting expertise away from established areas. The inability to match wage rates and favourable conditions of established centres of excellence need to be countered at the new location, often by government subsidies, low tax rates and favourable trade conditions. Well known examples of successful secondary centres of excellence are the Japanese automotive industry following America and the New Zealand and Australian movie production centres following in the footsteps of Hollywood and Bollywood. The effects of globalisation and easy flow of information and technology are continuing to reduce the need to physically concentrate people and industry; hence the network effects are being reduced for the first mover. Sourcing investment funds for any new industry is a challenge, yet sourcing funds to compete against a developed nations established industry is even more difficult. The first mover nations have the advantage of having the first opportunity to attract investment capital, whether internal to the nation or externally via foreign investment. Regardless of the source of investment funds, late developers seeking funding must compete against established industries with proven return rates and known levels of risk, therefore pay higher interest rates. These higher interest rates further erode the profit margin of the late developer and make their products less attractive on price and company success rates lower. THE CHALLENGES FACING LATE DEVELOPERS In light of the problems face by late developers, why is striving for development so important? United Nations former Secretary General Kofi Annan described a developed country as one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment implying that developing and undeveloped countries citizens do not enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment. The orthodox, or liberalist, view of development describes its purpose as the requirement to move from a subsistence economy to an industrialised and modern economy  [6]  . Compare such a view with the alternate or more socialist view, where the purpose of development is to create human well-being through sustainable societies in social, cultural, economic and political means. These two viewpoints differ significantly but suffer from overlapping sets of challenges that need addressing to successfully develop a nation. The orthodox view of development identifies a strong trend between development and industrialisation. This view sees industrialisation as a better path for growth of a nation than agriculture or resource extraction as there is a greater potential for capital accumulation. This growth is due to the higher productivity achieved with successful industrialisation, which in turn leads to better wage growth, better skill and expertise growth, and the unlimited potential of the free-market. Such an approach generally requires a top-down governmental control process, using external capital investment to attract technology and stimulate private sector growth. Using industrialisation as the pathway to growth and development has the disadvantages of exposing a nation to both the good and bad aspects of globalisation. Fast and freer information flows, financial deregulation, access to technology and exposure to the global villages cultural influence can have positive and negative effects on both markets and populations. The effects of global financial institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and open finance markets can lead to a nations own monetary policy having little control on capital availability and exchange rate control; a critical factor in ensuring a stable economy  [7]  . Ostensibly, small and vulnerable nations can be either manipulated easily or must flow global trends with few ability to cause self-determination in the globalised finance market. The alternate view of development takes a different approach to development. In this view the final target of development is not necessarily parity with developed nations using convention metrics, such as GDP per capita, but a more holistic vision of a journey towards self-sufficiency, self-reliance and unity rather than outright fiscal wealth. In this respect, development is more a process rather than a target. The fundamental difference to the orthodox view is that the alternate view is a bottom up process and involves the respect of nature and culture, political inclusion of marginalised groups and local control of resources and investments. Comparing the two very different approaches identifies that there are challenges to both, including some common challenges. The orthodox view has the advantage of potentially providing greater growth rates and hence reducing inequality between nations, but often at the cost of higher internal inequality as the gap between the richest and poorest within a nation widens. This effect is sometimes called the unavoidable consequence of economic growth  [8]  . Opponents to the orthodox view also content that sustained development is only viable through further growth within a global free-market, which benefits the suppliers of the initial capital more than the nation seeking development  [9]  . Conversely, the alternate view of development suffers the potential problem of creating slower growth rates than embracing outright industrialism and its side effects. This approach also requires assistance from external to the country, but more often in the form of education and material re sources, rather than direct capital injection. The Chipko movement in India and the rubber tapper movement in the Amazon are examples of successful grass roots versions of the alternate development methods  [10]  . Both are relatively small scale and limited to regions and ethnicities rather than whole nations. Both approaches suffer from the challenges of overcoming education, literacy, environmental and health issues which all slow rates of growth. Additionally, corruption is seen as a huge obstacle to developing nations, specifically in autocratic and flawed democracies. Later in the development cycle nations that grow strongly need to be able to keep their exchange rate competitive by neutralize the tendency of the exchange rate to head toward overvaluation  [11]  . This problem is related to the Dutch disease  [12]  , the policy of growth with foreign savings, and to exchange rate populism. CONCLUSION In summary, it can be seen that development of countries is import to reduce the gap between the most advanced nations in the world and the least. Development leads to a reduction in suffering by people who cannot meet their own needs through their own means, while at the same time enabling societies to become sustainable in economic, political and cultural terms. The process of development is slow and the challenges are many. Overcoming the problems of being a late developer is complex and difficult, but demonstrably possible as the Asian Tiger nations and other Newly Industrialised Countries have proven. Striving to industrialise by increasing exports has been a successful development strategy for the Asian Tiger countries, but not all nations have been successful using this technique. Local political, geographical and geological environments can both help and hinder development, as can the effects of globalisation by open both market and financial flows. While the history of development success shows that the crux of change is primarily national and local, such change now takes place in an increasingly globalised world of ever tighter political, economic, and cultural ties. The problems faced by developing nations are many and no universal answer or solution exists. Each nation that wishes to develop needs to create a development plan unique to their nation, based on their specific politics, cultures, resources, skills and geography. Only then can real and sustains development occur. Word Count = 2050

Tesco Marketing Strategy :: Marketing Business Management Essays

Tesco marketing strtegy Incomplete PART ONE STRATEGIC ANALYSIS Managers face difficulties in trying to understand the encionment. First  ¡Ã‚ °the environment ¡Ã‚ ¯ encapsulates many different influences; the difficulty is making sense of this diversity in a way which can contribute to strategic decision making. The second difficulty is that of uncertainty, managers typically claim that the pace of technological change and the speed of global communications mean more and faster change now than ever before. 1.Analysing the environment 1.1 Auditing Environmental Influence------PEST Analysis As a starting point, it is useful to consider what environmental influences have been particularly important in the past, and the extent to which there are changes occurring which may make any of these more or less significant in the future for the organization and its competitors. PEST Analysis involves identifying the political, economic, social and technological influences on an organization. It is increasingly useful to relate such influences to growing trends towards globalizations-of possible futures, to consider the extent to which strategies might need to change. 1) Political/legal - Monopolies legislation - Environmental protection laws - Taxation policy - Foreign trade regulations - Employment law - Government stability 2) Economic factors - Business cycles - GNP trends - Interest rates - Money supply - Inflation - Unemployment - Disposable income - Energy availability and cost 3) Socio cultural factors - Population demographics - Income distribution - Social mobility - Lifestyle changes - Attitudes to work and leisure - Consumerism - Levels of education 4) Technological - Government spending on research - Government and industry focus on technological effort - New discoveries/development - Speed of technology transfer - Rates of obsolescence 1.2 The Competitive Environment-------Five Force Model The next step in environmental analysis is moves the focus towards an explicit consideration of the immediate environment of the organization-for example, the competitive arena in which the organization operates. Five-force analysis provides a means of identifying the forces which determine the nature of the competitive environment, especially in terms of: 1) Barriers to entry. 2) The power of buyers. 3) The power of suppliers. 4) The threat of substitutes. 5) Other reasons for the extent of competitive intensity. 1.3 Identifying The Organization ¡Ã‚ ¯s Competitive Position---------Strategic Group Analysis STRATEGIC GROUP ANALYSIS The next major step in environmental analysis is analysis the organization ¡Ã‚ ¯s competitive position that is how it stands in relation to other organizations competing for the same resources, or customers, as it. One problem in analyzing competition is that the idea of the  ¡Ã‚ °industry ¡Ã‚ ± is not always helpful because its boundaries can be unclear and are not likely to provide a sufficiently precise delineation of competition. Strategic group analysis aims to identify organizations with similar strategic characteristics, following similar strategies or competing on similar bases.

Biological and Cognitive Development Essay

Developmental psychology studies the changes and how such changes occur over a course of an individual’s life events. It seeks to understand the changes that are universal, the changes that occur regardless of the individual’s culture or experiences. Moreover, it also seeks to understand why and how individual differences occur – why some people respond one way in a particular situation while others respond quite differently. Further, developmental psychology is particularly concerned with the process by which behavior changes during an individual’s lifetime. By studying biological and cognitive development, psychologists and humanity hope to better understand, predict, and modify an individual’s behavior. BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT Biological development refers to the changes in the body and brain from the moment of conception to old age. This development greatly influences people’s behavior. Three of these biological-related events are prenatal, from childhood to adolescent, and adult to aging. In prenatal development, the individual grows from a single fertilized egg cell, known as the zygote to an infant with billions of specialized cells. This period is divided into 3 stages: namely, the germinal, embryonic, and fetal changes. In the germinal stage, the zygote has become a small mass of cells; in the germinal stage, the fetus` brain and heart begin to develop, arms and legs appear, limbs and critical internal organs are rapidly developing; and in the fetal stage, the fetus` respiratory system has developed. So at the end of prenatal period, an individual have grown from a single cell into an amazingly complex individual who, on average, is about 20 inches long and weighs about 7. 5 pounds. The brain during the prenatal development begins to develop between the second and third week after fertilization, and by 3. 5 weeks a primitive nervous system is present. By the time of birth, virtually all of the approximately 100 billion neurons in the human brain are already present (Cowan, 1979). In the child development, an individual is like a virtual growing machine. By the age of 2, the average child is about 70 % taller than at birth and nearly 400 % heavier (Eichorn, 1989). As a rule of thumb, girls grow tall to about half their adult height by 18 months of age while the boys by the age of 2. Between the ages of 2 and 5 years, physical growth slows dawn and then levels off at a relatively steady rate until adolescence. The beginning of adolescence is also the onset of sexual maturation or puberty. The usual sequence of changes that occur during sexual maturation for girls are the following: breasts and pubic hair begin to develop and the onset of menstruation. For the boys, the first signs of puberty are the growth of penis and testes and the appearance of pubic hair. These early signs of sexual maturation take place during a rapid increase in height, muscle size and strength especially for the boys with growth peak at about the age of 14 years old. The girls on the other hand have their growth peak at 12 years old. However, boys grow taller than girls on average. But the growth of different parts o f the body is not uniform during the growing years. Physical growth ceases, on average, at about 18 years of age in girls and 20 years of age in boys. However, biological development does not stop until the end of life. The brain also grows rapidly during this period. At birth, the brain is about 25 % of its adult weight and size. By the age of 2, it has grown to about 75 % of its adult weight. Although all of a person’s neurons are present at birth, the number and complexity of the connections among neurons increase substantially after birth (Parmelee and Sigman, 1983), and this increase is partly responsible for the growth in brain size. Further, the increased neural connections and the development of myelin make possible more and more complex behavior and thought as an individual grows. In some areas of the brain, these developmental changes continue until adulthood (Parmelee and Sigman, 1983). The adult and aging life events are basically a declining stage. A variety of biological developments takes place as people age, including redistribution of body fat, decrease in bone mass, and decrease in muscle size and speed of contraction. Biological changes progress into old age. Many elderly people actually become shorter, partly because they slump and partly because of a decrease in bone mass. Muscle size and speed of contraction also decrease. Aging also takes its toll on internal body organs. The heart muscles become weaker, blood flow decreases, and breathing capacity continues to decline. Physical performance also declines. According to Stones and Kozma (1985), â€Å"these bodily changes are paralleled by declines in physical performance with age†. Beginning at about age 30, a person’s physical speed, strength, and endurance decline at an average rate at about 1. 5 % a year. The brain also continues to change biologically with age (Creasey & Rapoport, 1985). It decreases in size and weight, and some areas of the brain lose 50 percent or more of their neurons, specifically at the age of 50, with an average decrease of 2 % of brain volume every 10 years thereafter (Miller, Altson, and Corsellis, 1980). These age-related changes in the brain undoubtedly contribute to deteriorations of sensory, motor, and cognitive function. But just like biological changes in the body, these age-related changes in the brain are averages – the actual amount of change varies considerably from person to person. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Cognitive development refers to the changes in knowledge about the world or specifically, it refers to the development of sensation and perception, of the ability to learn, to reason, and to solve problems. Just like biological development, cognitive development continues from birth through old age. The three cognitive-related events that I would like to discuss are newborn infants, childhood and aging. In infants, cognitive development begins from the moment of birth as they begin interacting with and gathering information about the world. They have all the rudimentary sensory abilities such as; they can see objects, can tell the different shapes and patterns but can’t change their focus very well. Their vision rapidly improves over the first six months to a year, although it may be several years until it is fully mature. Moreover, infants can also hear at birth but their threshold of hearing is higher and can’t discriminate well between sounds than adults. As with vision, an infant’s hearing improves rapidly over the first year, although it will be several years before it is fully mature. Further, infants have a well-developed sense of taste (Cawart, 1981) as they can discriminate among different tastes; they can also smell and react to different odors; and their sense of touch is particularly well-developed. Infant’s motor behavior consists primarily of reflexes such as rooting, sucking, and grasping. These reflexes gradually give way to coordinated voluntary actions, such as sitting and walking. On the other hand, infant’s can learn from the moment of birth. They show habituation, a simple form of learning where they stop responding to a repeated stimulus. They also learn through operant conditioning, which is making a particular response that brings about either reward or punishments. Although newborn infants can learn, they do not learn as readily as older children as their memory is not as good as that of adults. Children’s cognitive development theory is most influenced by Jean Piaget. He believed that people acquire knowledge by interacting with the world and that they construct knowledge through assimilation, which is incorporating new information and accommodation or modifying old information. He further proposed a series of four stages of cognitive development, where he described children’s basic intellectual abilities sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. According to Piaget, these stages represent qualitatively different ways of thinking that occur relatively and abruptly and in the same sequence for all children. Though many psychologists challenged and modified Piaget`s theory, arguing that cognitive development is not really stagelike, its basic tenets remain widely accepted. During Aging, changes in cognitive abilities seem to decline. This decline may be due to factors such as slow processing of information. Moreover, aging also show declines in memory performance, partly because they use fewer encoding strategies for remembering information and partly because they use fewer cues to retrieve information from memory. But long – term storage itself appears to be relatively unaffected by aging and, under favorable conditions, the elderly are nearly as good as young adults at remembering information. Further, laboratory studies indicate that performance on a variety of problem-solving tasks declines with age. But these studies also show that training and practice can markedly improve older adults` problem-solving performance. What is more, when tasks are familiar and the subjects have experience with them, they show little or no decline in performance with age. Older people have accumulated a lifetime of experience, knowledge, and wisdom that they bring to everyday tasks, and this can offset cognitive deficits that may occur (Canestrari, 1986). The picture of inevitable severe intellectual impairment that many people have of the elderly is therefore, a misconception. So, when we consider each of these life events though discussed separately, we will see that each of these two major threads in the development (biological and cognitive) of the individual are interwoven. Hence, we cannot separate one from the other and thus must be considered when studying about an individual’s development or life-span changes. References Canestrari, R. E. , Jr. (1986). Age changes in acquisition. In G. A. Talland (Ed. ) Human Aging and Behavior (pp. 169-188). New York: Academic Press. Cowan, W. M. (1997). The development of the brain. Scientific American, 241, 113-133. Cowart, B. J. (1981). Development of taste perception in humans: Sensitivity and preference throughout the life span. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 43-73. Creasy, H. & Rappport, S. I. (1985). The aging human brain. Annals of Neurology, 17,2-10. Eichorn, D. H. (1997). 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