A stereotype is defined by the Oxford Dictionary

A stereotype is defined by the Oxford Dictionary Every individual holds stereotypes. A stereotype is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology (pg. 730) as: ‘a relatively fixed and oversimplified generalisation about a group or class of people, usually focusing on negative or unfavourable characteristics’. When people put too much faith in stereotypical descriptions of people they can become prejudiced and can often discriminate against other groups. This can be very harmful and has led to countless atrocities, such as the racial purging of the Jews by the Nazis. Prejudices still are being fought through laws, such as Equal Opportunities legislation. However, the subject being discussed is not whether stereotypes are harmful or justifiable; it is whether they have a practical purpose, or are wasteful. It is generally the common consensus that stereotyping and prejudice should not continue. However without stereotypes we may find the social world a lot harder to perceive and understand. We rely on stereotypes to h elp us function in society. With such a diverse population, the environment we live in could be very confusing. Unfortunately stereotypes may block out a lot of what makes our society so diverse and just group people into simple categories. They may also affect peoples’ choices in life. Career paths people may want to take could seem inappropriate for someone in their group and so are avoided. From an evolutionary standpoint, stereotypes must have a use because they exist. People start creating stereotypes from a very young age and they are hard to break. However, having a purpose doesn’t exclude the fact that stereotypes are wasteful. The main beneficial use of stereotypes is that they greatly speed up cognitive processing. The world is full of people, they all look unique and the all behave differently. If each person chose to actively perceive and evaluate every individual they encountered, there wouldn’t be much time for anything else. This is why stereotype s exist. People can glance around a room, see a spectrum of faces and not have to stop to think about each person. This frees up the brain for more important tasks. Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen (1994) as cited by Taylor, Peplau, & Sears (pg. 184). conducted an experiment to see if the priming of stereotypes can leave the brain freer to process other information. Students were presented with a list of trait words for an individual and, at the same time, information about Indonesia. Half of these students were first given a group label for the individual, e.g. Black or Italian. Those given the group label remembered more traits that were label consistent and more information about Indonesia. This demonstrates that stereotypes make the social world a lot easier to process and are definitely very useful. However, this oversimplification of the world we see can lead us to prejudice against other groups, and can lead to discrimination. People often look only at the negative characteristic s of a group. In doing this we may waste the important contributions that these different groups’ perspectives can offer. Taylor, Fiske, Eticoff, & Ruderman (1978) as cited by Taylor et al. (pg. 185) asked participants to observe a conversation between people of a mix of races. When asked to remember which individual made certain contributions the participants would often only be able to remember the race of the individual. This shows that people often place far too much emphasis on group membership and can ignore the attributes of the individual. This can lead people to ignore information that comes from a source that they may deem inferior.

Libertarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Libertarianism - Essay Example If the state interferes the people would have to face problems at the hands of the state. Injustice and inequality would prevail in the society if the state intervenes. Individualism and self owner ship are some other concepts of libertarianism. Both these concepts relate to the ownership of private resources and independence of the people. They put forward that the state should not intervene in the matters of private ownership as it would disrupt the peace and integrity of the society. Minarchism is another form which puts forward that the states should only come into play when there are protection issues. Equality is also one form which is promoted by this concept so that the people do not share natural resources unequally. This equality can only be promoted if a stateless society exists where the state does not intervene much into the matters of public. There can be many advantages for libertarianism if seen from a rational perspective. As the state will not intervene in the matters of the private properties people can live easily and without problems. Cooperation is at the core of the philosophy and it can help people in all ways to get over the problems that they may face. As individual liberty is promoted in this political philosophy it is possible that the people would live in peace and harmony without any interference from the state. Injustice would not be done at the hands of the state this philosophy prevails. Moreover equality can also be promoted through this political philosophy. On the other hands the political philosophy has other problems which many people cite when referring to it. Individual liberty can be beneficial to the state till one point but after that it can harm the integrity and peace of the whole society. Individual ownership and less interference from the states can create a gap between different groups. The states necessarily have to show

LeGAL ASPECTS of contract administration Assignment

LeGAL ASPECTS of contract administration - Assignment Example Regardless, exclusion clauses are not always enforceable because they do not meet the three-rule test. Exclusion terms are part of virtually every contractual agreement (Culp, 2010). The clauses and related implied terms function by excluding or restricting the entitlements of a party to the contract in the event of a breach (Frey, & Frey, 2000). For instance, if a party to a contract intends to restrict his or her liability, the party is expected to incorporate an exemption clause restricting the amount of reparations that they will be willing to part with in relation to a clearly defined total amount of damages (Round & Shanahan, 2012). In a number of cases, a party may incorporate a written term seeking to exonerate them from any kind of liability for a particular issue that could affect the contract, for example, brittle goods being broken whilst in shipment (Latimer, 2012). This way, exclusion terms function to the advantage of one party to a contract. Generally, an exemption clause in contract law can only be effective if the party relying on it has been reasonable enough in his or her notification of the other party regarding the same (Culp, 2010). The party consenting to the exemption clause must also be cognizant of its inclusion into the contract. Latimer (2012) notes that to secure its enforceability, the following conditions should be met: firstly, the proposing party can serve notice of the exclusion clause on the other party via actual or constructive means. Actual notice takes place when the offerer actually notifies the other party or when it is apparent in the contract and can be seen by a reasonable person (Scott, 2013). Secondly, constructive notice takes place when the offerer had acted reasonably to notify the other party of the existence of such clauses. Lastly, courts may be persuaded to resolve any disputes