The Significance of Institutional Conflict

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assignment criteria:

• Competency 1. Identify variables within structures or institutions that can promote conflict.
  • Describe specific problems that can result from institutional conflict.
• Competency 2: Apply theoretical perspectives on conflict.
  • Explain the significance of institutional conflict.
• Competency 6: Communicate effectively in a variety of formats.
  • Incorporate sources effectively into a discussion about the significance of institutional conflict.
    • Communicate effectively through writing, including the proper use of sources and APA style.

Conflict is inevitable. As an employee of any institution, you will encounter conflict. Despite your best efforts, conflict will occur.

Institutional conflict can be viewed as either functional or dysfunctional. From the functional perspective, conflict can be seen as productive because it causes members of the institution to learn, improve, and develop creativity and problem solving skills. On the other hand, conflict can be seen as dysfunctional to the degree that it threatens the structure and stability of an institution and to the degree that it stifles creativity and change. Managed properly, conflict can cause people and the institution to grow and improve.

For this assignment, you will research institutional change. (You may even want to use the Coleman chapter you selected.) Using the Capella library, write a 1–2 page paper plus an annotated bibliography that includes a minimum of five scholarly resources. Do not use your course textbooks or sources from the Internet. Be sure to incorporate your sources clearly into your analysis. Drawing upon your sources, your paper should address the following questions:

• Explain why institutional conflict is significant. Why does it matter?
• As part of your explanation of why we should be concerned about institutional conflict, describe some specific problems that result from institutional conflict. Some of the many examples to consider include employee turnover, increased absenteeism, and increased health claims.

This assignment will help prepare you for the final project in Unit 10. You will include a portion of your research findings from this assignment in the final project.

Assignment Requirements

• Written Communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA Formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA guidelines.
• Page Requirements: 1–2 pages plus bibliography using at least five scholarly resources.
• Font and Font Size: Times New Roman or Arial, 12 point.
• Attach document in Microsoft Word format.

This assignment uses the same data that was used in assignment 1. A due date for the assignment will be determined shortly and announced in class. You are to perform a wide variety of tests on the data and submit the EXCEL workbook containing your work and a WORD document summarizing your results.

1. Conduct the following tests on the data
   1. Test whether the variance of SALES equals 4,600,000 at the 95% level.
   2. Test whether the variance of SALES is greater than 5,000,000 at the 95% level.
   3. Test whether the variance of TEMP is equal to 300 at the 99% level.
   4. Test whether the variance of MIN is less than 200 at the 90% level.
2. Conduct the following tests on the data using the following definitions: Winter is December, January and February; Spring is March, April and May; Summer is June, July and August; and Fall is September, October and November.
   1. Test whether the variance of SALES is the same in Winter and Summer.
   2. Test whether the variance of SALES is the same in Winter and Fall.
   3. Test whether the variance of SALES is the same in Winter and Spring.
   4. Test whether the variance of SALES is the same in Spring and Fall.
   5. Test whether the variance of TEMP is the same as the variance of MIN.
3. Conduct the following tests on the data
   1. Test whether SALES are the same in the Spring and the Fall at the 99% level.
   2. Test whether SALES are more than 5,000 higher in Summer than in Winter at the 90% level.
   3. Test whether SALES are higher on Weekends in May or Weekends in September at the 95% level.
   4. Test whether SALES are higher in Fall than in Spring at the 99% level.
   5. Test whether SALES are equal on weekdays and weekends during the Summer at the 95% level.
4. Repeat all the problems in 3. above using ANOVA instead of the direct test. Point out any differences.
5. Create a frequency distribution of the temperature variable from the first assignment – use decile temperatures (30-39, 40-49, etc) for grouping the data. Answer the following questions using Chi-Squared tests.
   1. Do you believe that the data are distributed uniformly on [30,100]? (HINT: This would mean the same number of observations in each temperature block).
   2. Do you believe that the data are distributed normally? (HINT: You will need to create a standard normal equivalent using mean and standard deviation from assignment 1 and create probabilities for all of the endpoints of the data blocks to find the expected frequencies).
6. Create a frequency distribution for the sales variable from the fist assignment – use $1,000 increments ($0-$999.99, $1,000-$1,999.99, etc). Answer the following questions using Chi-Squared tests.
   1. Do you believe that the data are distributed uniformly on [1,000; 10,000]?
   2. Do you believe that the data are normally distributed?
7. What assumptions were needed to perform the tests in 1.-4.? Perform the tests in 1-4 again using a test that makes no (or minimal) assumptions. Describe the test and contrast the results from this test with the tests in 1.-4.
8. What assumptions were needed to perform the tests in 5.-6.? Perform the tests in 5.-6. again using a test that makes no (or minimal) assumptions. Describe the test and contrast the results from this test with the tests in 5.-6.

WHERE DO THOUGHTS COME FROM?

Where do our thoughts come from? Are they byproducts of brain activities, somehow electrically and chemically manufactured in the gray matter and then exported to the mind? Or are they distinct from and unconstrained by the biological workings of the brain? These questions intrigued seventeenth-century philosopher Rene Descartes and continue to occupy present-day scholars.

One of the most interesting and emotional debates argued by Descartes’s intellectual heirs involves the origin of thought. This version of the nature-versus-nurture question is well understood: Are we the products of our genes, or are we what we have experienced? Today, we do have some scientific answers. For example, Roger Sperry, Nobel laureate in medicine, found that the circuits of the brain are, for the most part, hard-wired during embryonic development, suggesting that each cell possesses its own chemical individuality, rendering it unmodifiable (Horowitz, 1997).

For this 5–8-page assessment, you will evaluate the connection (if any) that you see between neuroscience and altruism. In addition, you will assess how the history of cognitive and affective psychology supports your position and how understanding the interplay between these two topics can impact your professional practice.

Based on what you know and have read on the ethical brain, evaluate the connection (if any) that you see between neuroscience and altruism. In a 5–8-page paper, address the following:

• How does cognitive psychology help us understand altruism, if at all?
  • Examine how cultural differences could impact this debate.
• Include an assessment of how the history of cognitive and affective psychology supports your position.
• Finally, assess how understanding the interplay of these two topics can impact your professional practice.

By successfully completing this assignment, you will do the following:

• Explain how the field of cognitive and affect psychology evolved into a recognized psychological discipline.
  • Assess how the history of cognitive and affective psychology supports a position.
• Evaluate the theories and principles that pertain to the cognitive components of cognitive and affective psychology.
  • Evaluate the connection between neuroscience and altruism.
• Explain how the theories and principles of cognitive and affective psychology can be incorporated into professional practice.
  • Assess how understanding neuroscience and altruism can impact professional practice.
• Explain how the theories and principles of cognitive and affective psychology apply to diverse populations.
  • Explain the impact of cultural differences on neuroscience and altruism.
• Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the psychological professions.
  • Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the psychological professions.

Resources

The following e-books and articles are linked directly in this course.

• Pillion, T. J., & Gala, G. (2009). Neuroscience and philosophy: Brain, mind, & language.Psychological Medicine, 41(4), 887–888.
• Burnham, T. C., & Hare, B. (2007). Engineering human cooperation: Does involuntary neural activation increase public goods contributions? Human Nature, 18, 88–108.
• Cunningham, W. A. (2010). In defense of brain mapping in social and affective neuroscience. Social Cognition, 28(6), 717–722.
• Kitayama, S., & Park, J. (2010). Cultural neuroscience of the self: Understanding the social grounding of the brain. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(2–3), 111–129.
• Lolordo, A. (2005). Descartes’s concept of mind. [Review of the book Descartes’s concept of mind, by L. Alanen]. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences, 41(4), 396.
• Montague, P. R., & Chiu, P. H. (2007). For goodness’ sake. Nature Neuroscience, 10(2), 137–138.
• Peper, M., & Markowitsch, H. J. (2001). Pioneers of affective neuroscience and early concepts of the emotional brain. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 10(1), 58–66.
• Rose, S. (2005). The future of the brain: The promise and perils of tomorrow’s neuroscience. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Sperry, R. W. (1968). Hemisphere deconnection and unity in conscious awareness.American Psychologist, 23(10), 723–733.
• Pribram, K. H. (1986). The cognitive revolution and mind/brain issues. American Psychologist, 41(5), 507–520.

You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the Cognitive/Affective Psychology Library Guide to help direct your research.

Internet Resources

• Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS). (2014). Retrieved fromhttp://www.cogneurosociety.org
• Lende, D. (2010). Cultural neuroscience – Culture and the brain. The Public Library of Science (PLOS) – Science Blog Network [Web log]. Retrieved fromhttp://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2010/11/26…

The Resources Listed Below:

Covers research in neuroscience and altruism and are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise, these materials are available for purchase from theCapella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP(FlexPath) course designation.

• Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2012). Cognitive psychology (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
  • Chapter 2 “Cognitive Neuroscience.”

Can neuroscience explain complex human traits such as altruism?

Pfaff (2007) argues that nearly every cultural system, past and present, has a type of golden rule: a rule so ingrained in human behavior as to be “intellectually invisible” (p. 7) and rarely questioned. But where does it come from? Pfaff (2007) explains:

Some experts would claim this principle is a product of evolution. Individuals who behave altruistically—that is, they aid others, even at some cost to themselves—help their group to survive better and ultimately to produce more offspring like themselves. The impulses toward this behavior have been passed down along with the rest of the genetic code for the human brain, and now appear not only in behavior but also in brain activity that we can detect and track. If this is so, we can understand why this rule and its many variations have survived in human ethical systems, philosophies, and religions. (pp. 7–8)

If you agree with the experts (Pfaff mentions that we are biologically predisposed to altruism), then would it logically follow that altruism is not limited to human behavior? Consider the following comments by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan (1992):

In a laboratory setting, macaques [rhesus monkeys] were fed if they were willing to pull a chain and electrically shock an unrelated macaque whose agony was in plain view through a one-way mirror. Otherwise, they starved. After learning the ropes, the monkeys frequently refused to pull the chain; in one experiment only 13% would do so—87% preferred to go hungry. One macaque went without food for nearly two weeks rather than hurt its fellow. Macaques who had themselves been shocked in previous experiments were even less willing to pull the chain. The relative social status or gender of the macaques had little bearing on their reluctance to hurt others. (p. 117)

After pointing out the cruelty of the experiment (“our own moral sympathies do not lie with the scientists”), Sagan and Druyan (1992) note:

By conventional human standards, these macaques—who have never gone to Sunday School, never heard of the Ten Commandments, never squirmed through a single junior high school civics lesson—seem exemplary in their moral grounding and their courageous resistance to evil. (p. 117)

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have studied the influence of genes and the environment on psychological traits of identical (monozygotic or MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic or DZ) twins raised together and apart (Minnesota Twin Family Study, n.d.). Their findings are summarized below:

Preliminary analyses of the data so far collected, on some 2,400 twin pairs, suggest that the broad heritability of socioeconomic status, years of education, and present income level ranges from about 0.30 to 0.40. Not surprisingly, education and SES are correlated positively with Positive Emotionality and Self Esteem, negatively correlated with negative Emotionality and Alienation. There is a weak but significant tendency for twins from larger families to produce more offspring themselves. The within-pair correlation for number of offspring, for MZ pairs where both twins have been married, is about 0.30, which should be compared with a maximum possible correlation on the order of 0.50. Similarly, the risk of divorce, like procreation, is a two-person game, and should probably be compared with a maximum possible risk of about 0.50. This risk is nearly 3 times the risk for MZ twins whose co-twin has never been divorced. Since all of these variables – attained SES, years of education, family income, number of offspring, risk of divorce – are plainly complex, multi-factorial outcome variables, it is clear that this evidence of significant heritability implies that many of the diverse personality, interest, and aptitude variables that act together to influence these outcomes are themselves substantially influenced by genetic variation. (p. 3)

John E. Dowling, in his 2004 book The Great Brain Debate: Nature or Nurture, summarizes things nicely (Dowling, 2004):

What the neurobiology is telling us—bottom line—is that genetic directives are clearly most critical in brain building, although the environment can also play some role, whereas environmental factors play the fundamental role during brain maturation, although there is genetic restraint. (p. 165)

References

Dowling, J. E. (2004). The great brain debate: Nature or nurture?Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.

Horowitz, N. H. (1997). Roger Wolcott Sperry. Retrieved fromhttp://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/la…

Minnesota Twin Family Study. (n.d.). The Minnesota twin family registry: Some initial findings. Retrieved from http://www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/mtfs/mtrf1.htm

Pfaff, D. W. (2007). The neuroscience of fair play: Why we (usually) follow the Golden Rule. New York, NY: Dana Press.

Sagan, C., & Druyan, A. (1992). Shadows of forgotten ancestors: Earth before humans. New York, NY: Random House.

Please clean up this Power Point Presentation It must pop and be a presentation equivalent to Master Level Work.

I have attached the necessary chapters to be utilized from the text book. You must utilize both the notes section and slides. Please do not arbitrarily place in text citation where they don’t belong.

The original instructions to the assignment are listed below and must include each bullet point and include text book and two additional oustside sources:

Develop a plan of action that you or another teacher could use to assist that students. Include at minimum the following:

Please use attached text as well as two additional outside source. All work should be in APA 6^TH Edition

Please advise if you need my prior week’s work to build off of.

Please use PowerPoint, for the plan. The plan should be a minimum 12 slides excluding cover page and reference page.

Student Background

• Level of cognitive development as described by Piaget
• Exceptionalities (disabilities, giftedness) (I would prefer Gifted and Talented students with ADD or ADHD)
• Linguistic issues (ELL)
• Socioeconomic and family status (poverty or affluence) (I would prefer a two parent income with financial difficulties over the past few years due to job loss and/or job change and change in housing: ie: going from living in 2000 sf house to living with in-laws)
• Level of motivation
• Behavioral problems (Be sure to discuss the hormonal changes of pre-teen to teen)
• Other factors limiting success (divorce, death of parent, health issues, etc.)

Suggested Instructional and Behavioral Strategies

• Based upon your knowledge of learning theories and practical applications, develop a plan of action to improve student outcomes.
• Using a Christian worldview perspective, describe how you would create an individual instructional and behavioral plan for the identified student.

Paper #4 – Social Contract

Subject: Our critical thinking assignments this semester have all dealt with social contract (the concept that authority is given to a group or individual inside a society for a moral obligation or implied goal). Every day, individuals deal with a variety of forms of social contract at home, at work, at school, and in society. For this assignment, pick a form of social contract that you think is currently broken in contemporary American society and that, if it isn’t addressed soon, could possibly bring down the American society. Explain why you feel the form of social contract is failing and why it is important for society to take action. You can propose steps for solving the problem in your conclusion, but the goal of this assignment is to identify an important aspect of social contract that jeopardizes the integrity of American society and explain why this is such a dire threat. You CANNOT use the forms of social contract we have already covered in class:

• Lack of oversight of prescription drug use (government and industry)
• Current racial and religious tensions between minorities and majority population (government)
• American government’s failure to help impoverished areas of the country (government and industry)
• Identity theft (industry and government)
• Also, you CANNOT use a topic you’ve previously discussed in another paper in this class.

Sources of information: Minimum three sources required – academic sources must be used (no Wikipedia or dubious websites). When using sources in papers (whether summary, paraphrase, or direct quote), you must cite the sources using in-text citation AND a works cited page. Not doing so will be considered plagiarism and an automatic F on the paper.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to persuade an audience that your choice of social contract failure is a dire issue to the future of America. Questions that you must address in your paper are:

• What is the broken social contract?
• Who are the groups / parties involved in the broken social contract?
• What is the historical context for the broken social contract?
• What would things be like of the social contract you are exploring wasn’t broken?
• Why your selection of broken social contract threatens American society more than any other current issue.

Audience: Your audience is an academic audience. While that includes your peers (classmates) and your instructor, there are other expectations an academic audience has of a college level paper.

Length and document style: The minimum length requirement for this paper is 4 pages. Maximum length of this paper is 8 pages. Going over or under length requirement will result in a grade penalty of ten points. You will use MLA format for this paper. The required works cited page does not count towards your page count.

Deadlines: The paper is being assigned 6/29/17. Peer response for this paper is 7/3/17. The final draft is due Thursday, 6/7/17. No late work will be accepted for this assignment.

Special assignment stipulations: Students will not be allowed to use first person (I, me, my, we, us, our) or second person (you / your) for this paper. This paper must be third person exclusively. You may be thinking, “how do I talk about something I think is a problem without using first person?” Everything within the paper is your opinion, so it is unnecessary to say “I think” or “I feel.” Instead of saying “I think such-and-such is a problem” you just say “Such-and-such is a problem.”