Nature or Nurture Controversy

Developmental psychologists tell us that development is caused by two very extensive intermingling factors: heredity or nature, and environment or nurture. Often determining the demarcation line between these two factors, which directly or indirectly influences our biological and psychological constitution, is not an easy task. Nature speaks of the transmission of traits from parents to offspring through the genes which is universally known as heredity. This biological transmission of traits from one generation to another plays an important role in the determination of traits that are considered human and nonhuman. The biological structures, people inherit, at the same time, make people’s behavior possible. It is also these biological structures that limit human behavior (Hurlock, 1964). On the other hand, environment embraces all the influences that affect or shape man. The other process of development that occurs through the medium of the environment is called learning. There are more social or behavior scientists today who stand on the position that they adhere strictly neither to the nature nor to the nurture side. They are persuaded or tend to lean on an integrated or multi-dimensional approach. However, there have been specific areas in the study of human behavior that are being challenged on a continuous basis, and this includes subjects that aid to either the heredity or environment positions (Morris & Maisto, 1999). This short study attempts to provide evidences to the scientific inquiry that nurture influences early human development. It seeks to look into explicit observations already made, i.e., studies done that investigated the issue of nature and nurture. Discussion In general, it can be argued that all behavior reflects the influence of both nature and nurture. All organisms acquire or inherit a range of structures that set the stage for certain behaviors. Yet environmental influence such as nutrition and learning also help decide whether or not genetically possible behaviors will be displayed. The genius of such creative writers as C.S. Lewis or Stephen King may never appear should they have been reared in less fortunate circumstances without the privilege or opportunity of even writing and reading. Nurture especially during the early stages in the life span influences some of the arenas of human existence. The best illustration to this is in the aspect of intelligence. Many studies have been conducted to emphasize the role of environment and this is illustrated in the areas of research where scientists try to manipulate the initial milieu around which many young children are in jeopardy of developing poor intellectual functioning. These researches actually put stress or accentuate the preventive aspect instead of addressing the interventions that may be applied later on. A lot of families from below the poverty line reasonably, are not able to afford their children a cognitively motivating atmosphere. For this reason, majority of these children are even expected to perform below their capacity. It is arguably to the side of nurture in instances that intellectual functioning is compromised when the environment component is not maximized. Hence the reason that some of the government’s popular programs to address the problem are in place. They include such services as Head Start, which are confirmed effective strategies in developing the child’s intellectual capability (Ramey, 1989 in Halonen and Santrock, 1996, p. 280). Despite some of the controversies that surround the efficacy of the â€Å"No Child Left Behind Act† spearheaded by President George W. Bush, the rationale following this public policy is the fact that children coming from inner cities and minority groups will be provided ample opportunities for cognitive development via government funding. Schools that do not perform at par with â€Å"productive ones† will be evaluated and funding consequently is affected. This raises up the standard of the schools especially their teachers. Whether this is fail-safe or not, is not the question here. However, this is a clear illustration that without any environmental intervention, children left to themselves may not develop competence or achieve their potential. Another evidence that point to the effect of environment on human development especially during the early years is based on observations or studies on parental abuse of children. According to research, the growth and development of a child is modified incessantly by the influences in the environment. The fact that maltreatment by parents over their children account for the vast differences of performance of school age children and many of the resulting disorders or maladjustment problems that are frequent problems encountered by educators, substantiates the claims of nurture or environmental influence (www.ipce.info/library_3/files/glaser/glaser_2.htm). Early childhood environment impacts the child’s cognitive ability is also shown in a study on the effects of nutrition in infancy and later cognition. Nutrients as provided by formula or any other supplement affect brain development significantly.   The study supports the hypothesis that optimum nutrition in infancy â€Å"has significant consequences for cognitive development (Lucas, 1998). Conclusion Nurture is perhaps the strongest alibi any person attributes to whenever things turn out not as good as they want them to be. We often make justifications why we tend to be mediocre; â€Å"because my parents did not try their very best to train me and provide for all that I need,† is our typical rejoinder. To what extent is this true, and where does the line end when it comes to personal responsibility, genetic predispositions, or the responsibility and accountability of people who exert immense influence on us? The argument postulated in this paper is not so much as â€Å"drawing the line† in as much as it has evidently proven the great impact of nurture on personality and/or human development in general. This paper pointed out exactly, that many of individual decisions and government policies are responses to the effects of environment to early human development, thus proving the hypothesis correct. Parental abuse and neglect have been issues in learning because these are factors that are vital to the child’s overall performance and normal functioning as they operate as kids and later as adults in the real world. This is also true with nutritional status of children in their growing years. Several studies have proven the effects of these factors that they are consciously observed among the educated parents; as much as possible, many actively pursue in avoiding the drastic effects of either deficiency. Indeed, the environmental changes that are constantly influencing children in their early stages are established in the scientific disciplines; this despite the many arguments to the contrary. Reference: 1. Environmental influences on brain development. Accessed    August 11, 2007. 2. Hilgard, ER, RR Atkinson, and RC Atkinson, 1983. Introduction to Psychology. 7th ed., New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanich, Inc. 3. Hurlock, E.B, 1964. Child development. New York: McGraw-Hill    Book Company, Inc. 4. Lucas, A., 1998. â€Å"Randomised trial of early diet in preterm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   babies and later intelligence quotient.† British Medical   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Journal, British Medical group. Accessed August 12, 2007 5. Morris, Charles G. & Albert Maisto, 1999. Understanding   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychology. 4th ed. Prentice Hall, Inc. P. 73. 6. Ramey as cited from Halonen, Jane S., and John Santrock.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychology: Contexts of   Ã‚  Ã‚   behavior. 1996. Brown & Benchmark,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   USA, p. 280.      

Marketing and Fitness Center Essay

Our fitness is located in Cockeysville, Maryland, and provides fitness services to people of all age, level, and expertise. The main purpose of â€Å"Our Fitness† is to promote healthy lifestyles by providing knowledge on nutrition and exercising habits. â€Å"Our Fitness† is well known for it’s excellent services and aims to extend the business by providing two additional services. First, we will start fitness classes for people above 55 years old. These fitness classes are conducted to provide a comfortable environment for people above 55 to promote exercising habits and healthy lifestyles. Second, our fitness center will have our own restaurant next to the fitness center specifically designed for the members. Our fitness center’s restaurant will provide low fat, low calorie, and high protein and fiber food specially designed for promoting healthy eating habits. Strategically, Our fitness’s primary market target will consist of people over 55 and mostly retirees. Our secondary target market includes college and high school students. a. Three ways that determined these products and/or services would be the most feasible and potentially profitable for the company to add are: 1. Placement 2. Trends 3. IS the profit margin large enough to make money but small enough for your â€Å"target audience† to afford? Placement Placement or location is one of the most important factors in attracting and retaining customers. Everybody prefers easier and more convenient way to purchase products or services. Therefore, â€Å"Our Fitness† uses the placement approach to connect the products and services with the customer by making services and products more convenient and more accessible to the customers. Our fitness is located in the business area as well as densely populated  residential area with three different universities and one community college. On the other hand, there are only two fitness centers in the area with very expensive membership and maintenance service fees. Overall, this fitness center will be in the center of public places. At the same time, Our fitness center’s restaurant will be only one diet concerned restaurant in the area. Therefore, using competitive advantage through the introduction of two new services will help to retain old members as well as to attract new members in the area. 2. Trends People want to live longer and look good following healthy habits. It is very important to identify the market trends to assess the market potential. Understanding the market trends helps to respond according to customer behaviors as well as to develop sustainability. On the other hand, it also helps to analyze our competition and market potential. Different fitness centers are using different approaches to attract new members as well as to retain existing members. We have to understand that new members want new services. It is not possible to satisfy the consumers without understanding their needs. There is a fierce competition in the market to increase customer satisfaction by introducing new products/services. At the same time, there are many unsatisfied consumers who always change producers or owners because of unsatisfactory service or products. In our case, we even lost many members because of same services since last couple of years. So, we introduce our products/services as a result of customer survey and market research. Our market research and survey strategy will play a vital role to grow our target market in the future. 3.Is the profit margin large enough to make money but small enough for your â€Å"target audience† to afford? The profit margin is large enough to make money because we have young people who spend a great amount of money on food. You also have the retirees who spend a huge amount of money on good health. Also, these days people are more health conscious and follow healthy habits. Exercising and healthy eating are the main priorities of many people. The target audience will be able to afford it because it is a comfortable environment that promotes exercising habits and a healthy lifestyle which allows positive energy to follow. b. Competitive advantage is created through the understanding of your competitors and their products and services. One of the competitive advantages of Our Fitness is fitness classes especially designed for people over 55 as well as restaurant service for members with unique menus and special price. All fitness centers provide classes and specialty training but many do not have classes that target an older age audience. We want our members to feel more comfortable working out and training with people of the same experience level. On the other hand, people over 55 are the ones who spend more money on healthcare, and we aim to reduce their healthcare costs by engaging them with age specific and specialty classes. Our on site restaurant will provide nutrition rich health foods and diet services to members as well as other guests. It will be restricted to members only after one or two years, because we are using the restaurant as advertising to increase membership. A2. I will focus on newspapers for advertising, which reach a broad, geographically-targeted market. These ads will be focused to attract people who are 55 or older because they rely heavily on newspapers. Newspaper advertising is low-cost and involves short timelines. At the same time, this type of marketing channel will reach the total circulation, even if only a portion fits our prospective profile. I will also use Facebook as a marketing tool; Facebook is still, far and away, the most popular, with the most evenly-distributed demographics of any social media platform. Facebook is the only social media platform that you need, no matter what field your business is in. The main reason to use Facebook to advertise is the use of Facebook by all age people. In addition to ease of use, Facebook ads and business pages are cost effective, reliable, and very quickly disseminated to all users. Finally, we will rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising, as personal reviews are often the most trusted form of information. This marketing tool can also be used to reach the secondary market, visiting colleges and advertising our job opportunities as well as membership benefits. A3. Price is the value that you exchange for a product or service. Pricing objectives should align with the company’s goals and can be affected by factors such as competition, consumer reaction, and other regulatory requirements. Generally, other fitness centers charge $59 per month as service fee and $55 per personal training class in the area. So, we need to provide service for lower prices than our competitors. On the other hand, it is very important to understand the demand of product or services before pricing because there is a direct relationship between price and demand. Our main pricing objective is to maximize the revenue and quantity. This objective helps to maximize long-term profits by lowering costs and increasing market share. Penetration pricing will be used to maximize the sales of quantity by means of a low price. First, we will cut the one time member fee for all new members, so that they have to pay monthly fee only, which will be $39.99 per month. At the same time, for new members and existing members, who are 55 years or older, will have to pay only $15 per fitness class. The price may be gradually increased after establishing market share and customer loyalty. We will use cost-plus pricing method because it makes easier to calculate the selling price for our services/products. Since, our production cost per membership per month is $20.00, and $4 per fitness class. Therefore, our profit per person in membership is $20 and $11 in fitness class per person. Our goal is to add 100 new members in the first month and increase to 500 within next six months. Therefore, our revenue will increase by $2000 from membership in the first month. Similarly, we will provide competitively cheaper price for foods and drinks comparing to local restaurants. We will also offer promotional pricing, discounts and coupons for the restaurant and fitness center to attract more customers. Our overall goal will be to maximize the number of consumers to increase the quantity of sale. If we can maximize the number of consumers, then we can maximize the revenue as well as profit. A4. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the combination of technologies, strategies, and practices used by companies to manage customer interactions and improve customer relationship. The main goal of CRM is to improve  business relationships with customers by retaining customer retention and increasing sales growth. Ngai stated that â€Å"the purpose of CRM system is the building of relationships in order to affect the customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and profitability† (Ngai, 2005). I would like to use Salesforce as CRM system. Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system, and doesn’t need special installation and hardware. This system can be very cost effective by keeping IT cost low. CRM system like Salesforce can track the history of customer interactions and helps to grow our business. The system track includes calls, emails, presentations, meetings, or even the further step to close the deal. Salesforce can also track the deal details including the worth, competitor, and the stage of deal with automatic deal updates at a glance to close the deal. Salesforce can drive the process, productivity, and consistency by using sales app to map the sales and forecasting stages. It is equiped with quoting capabilities to track the quantity, standard and quoted price, product code, and expected sales in a given period. In addition, company’s e-mail, phone or website can be used to track customer inquiries and history of their activities. Salesforce provides customer relationship data with automatic updated instant access of full customer history of all communications. It also helps to create customized pitch documents about consumers and prospects and can focus sales staff’s attention on the right consumers. Cross-selling and up-selling opportunities become clear through better understanding of consumers and increase their satisfaction. Satisfied consumers are likely to become loyal consumers and common referrals. It can also be beneficial to the customer because it can provide email updates, alerts, referrals, discount coupons, and special events and promotions. Overall, Salesforce tracking system will be very useful in controlling and managing the inquiries and sales of products and services. A5. It is not possible to open any new business without incurring risks, and opening a new restaurant with established fitness center is no different. Financial risk is one of the most difficult risks associated with any new business. â€Å"Financial risk has been defined as any risk that has a direct impact on net cash flows† (Cabedo and Tirado, 2004). This includes problems  related to price, credit, inflation, liquidity, and potential losses due to changes in financial markets and defaulting large scale debtors (Meulbrook, 2000). There are also risks with opening a new restaurant. Our Fitness center require a large amount of capital upon opening, in order to hire additional staff, purchase high-end fitness equipment, and advertise the restaurant to local fitness and healthy food seekers. Personal injury is another significant risk of operating a gym and adding fitness classes especially to people of 55 or older who are more prone to injury. Aside from the legal aspect, injuries in our gym could cause a bad reputation, particularly if they are recurring. It is critical to maintain a good reputation to sell our fitness services and get people into our restaurant. At the same time, improving the quality of our existing services along with adding new specialty services and products is very critical, and is one of the most important aspects of business. Factors such as product contamination, product safety, business integrity, and failure to maintain high standards, may reduce demand for our business. The reputation of the company plays a vital role in our forward progress. Therefore, poor product quality or services may damage our reputation and could limit business activities as well as increase our operating costs. On the other hand, there is always a risk of substitute of products and services in the market. It is very important to study the market and meet consumer needs before launching any new business. A6. The most common risk associated with not launching the new products or services will be the lack of competitive advantage at the Our Fitness center.  Introducing new services and opening a new restaurant will provide the competitive advantage that we seek and will help to expand the business and satisfy existing members. Customer preferences and tastes change with time, it is necessary to meet their needs and tastes to increase the demand for our products/services. Therefore, the new restaurant will aim to compliment our new services/products and satisfy consumer demands. If we are unable to launch the new services/products into the market and meet the consumer needs, then it will not only negatively affect Our Fitness’s financial performance but it may increase by operating costs, and change  consumer perceptions about our existing services Innovation can be a key differentiator between Our Fitness and our rivals. Therefore, if Our Fitness will not launch new services then, it might run the risk of losing ground to competitors, losing key staff, decreased membership, or simply operating inefficiently. As a whole, Our Fitness financial performance could be adversely affected without new products/services, and in the end lead to its closure. References Cabedo, J. D. and Tirado, J. M. (2004), â€Å"The disclosure of risk in financial statements†, Accounting Forum, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 181-200. Meulbrook, L. (2000), Total strategies for company-wide risk control, Financial Times, London. Ngai. 2005. Customer relationship management research. Marketing intelligence & planning, 23 (6): 582-605. he Feasibility Study’s Purpose ï‚ · Evaluate the nature, scale and economics of constructing an indoor recreation center within the Area ï‚ · Identify the potential audience/supporting membership of an indoor recreation center within the Area ï‚ · Assess what amenities/programming would be most logical to provide as part of a recreation center ï‚ · Explore the physical characteristics of various sites on which the recreation center could be constructed 1 Evaluate potential funding sources available to support short-term and long-term Recreation Center alternatives