Thursday, October 31, 2019

Google Analytic and Business Intelligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Google Analytic and Business Intelligence - Essay Example Content group enables the company maximize on its search engine optimization. Monitoring goal conversions enables the company to measure how well the site contributes to its business objectives. Lastly, the e-commerce section contains reports on merchandising and revenue. However, these entire groups only provide the company with data. For actual business intelligence, Google Analytics enables the company cross-reference data from these categories, compare timelines or even compare two metric against each other to help to make sense out of the data (Clicksharpmarketing, 2008). Moreover the derived summaries could be presented in diagrammatic representations and even be shared Google shared with colleagues through email in different formats such as PDF or XML. The extent to which real estate financial organizations could learn from Google Analytics shall only be restricted by their own imagination. That is to say that they could cross-reference data from the five categories: visitors, traffic sources, ecommerce, content and goals to give them a wide breath of information. For example cross-referencing visitors with content real estate financial organization will be able to tell which properties are attracting the most attention as such they could adjust their costing accordingly. Also, traffic sources can inform them of localities having more demand for their services than others which may lead them to open outlets there or vice

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Global Warming Essay Example for Free

Global Warming Essay One of the biggest problems facing the world today is global warming. Many scientists believe that our production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is having a heating effect on the atmosphere, and this could be very dangerous for human life. This essay will examine the problem of global warming and suggest some ways of solving the problem. Many problems could result from global warming. One of the biggest problems is rising sea level. This could result in the flooding of low lying coastal areas and cities, such as Egypt, the Netherlands, and Bangladesh. Some countries might even disappear completely! Another problem caused by global warming is changes in weather patterns. Many areas of the world are experiencing increased hurricanes, floods, and other unusual weather. A third problem associated with global warming is the effect on animals. Fish populations could be affected, while some insects which spread disease might become more common. There are several things we can do to solve the problem of global warming. One solution is to stop producing C02. We can do this by switching from oil, coal and gas to renewable energy. Another solution is to plant more trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, which is not a greenhouse gas. A third solution is to use less energy and to recycle more products. Generating electricity is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide. If we use less electricity, we will produce less C02. In conclusion, if we make small changes now in the way we live, we can avoid huge changes in the future. Scientists, governments and individuals must work together to overcome this threat.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Theories of Self Leadership

Theories of Self Leadership Introduction Self leadership is normally defined as a process whereby individuals are able to control their own behavior and at the same time lead and influence others to follow them (Neck, 2006). The individuals are able to use several behavioral strategies to empower and lead others. They also use several skills to attain self influence, self motivation and also achieve a certain self direction that is necessary to undertake the leadership process. Individuals who strive to become self leaders need to have certain competencies such as self awareness, tolerance, adaptability, emotional resilience, self reflection or assessment among others. One needs to identify the growth experiences that exist and that can lead to development or provide support when one is carrying out the leadership process (Rothstein, 2010). In this context self reflection or self assessment in self leadership are held to be important practices when it comes to human resource development. This paper discusses and critiques self assessment within the context of self leadership and discusses the implications on contemporary human resource practice. It also gives recommendations on further research that can be done on self assessment in self leadership. Literature Review Several studies have been carried out in regard to self leadership. Christopher Neck (2006) defines it as the process of controlling oneà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s behavior and at the same time leading and influencing others to follow the individual. To back up this definition Mitchell Rothstein (2010) puts it that the individual self leader needs to identify experiences for growth which they need to take advantage of so that they become better leaders and influence others to follow them. Mitchell also adds that the self leaders need to understand and examine themselves before they can undertake the task of leading others. Robert Lussier and Christopher Achua have discussed self assessment in the leadership context defining it as the process through which individuals review and gauge their performance for the purpose of improving their leadership performance. Authors Rajnandini Pillai and Susan Stites have however brought to light the drawbacks of self assessment in self lead ership and human resource practices among them that the assessment instills too much confidence on the self leaders when they get a high score. The high score according to the two authors does not mean that the leader has effective leadership skills. David Andrew and Leanne Atwater on the other hand identify the 3600 Feedback method as one of the self assessment methods that can be used in organizations as part of human resource development practices. The method leads to an improvement of the performance of the organization and its members. Rothstein also adds to the discussion by highlighting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator method as a practice that can be used to improve the organization and impact the human resource practice. In light of the perspectives brought by the different authors on self assessment in self leadership and the impact on contemporary human resource practices, this paper adequately matches up to the discussion. Findings Self Assessment Self assessment is the process through which an individual is able to review and systematically gauge their own performance for the sole purpose of improving their own performance. The individual carries out the review on their own identifying their weaknesses and strengths as well as their own skills and level of knowledge (Lussier Achua, 2009). From the results of the assessment the individual is then can identify the areas and the need for development of their skills and abilities. Review and Critique of Self Assessment Self assessment when used strategically in self leadership and human resource development it can not only increase the motivation and the engagement of the leader but it also helps to pinpoint the areas the individual needs to develop and improve. It can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the development process as well as increase the ability of the individual to make decisions based on his self leadership role (Rothstein, 2010). The process of self assessment involves the use of various activities such as self study using workbooks, identifying capabilities and other preferences. Self assessment is best done as a continuous process where an individual can explore their values, interests, personal resources, goals and decision making styles as a leader. Advantages of using workbooks and other materials to carry out the self study include the fact that these materials are developed by third parties who are experts and very experienced in the field (Werner DeSimone, 2008). However modifications can be done to suit the style of the leader and the needs of the individual leader. These methods of self assessment are also well structured in a way that allows the individual to easily understand and one is also able to perform the assessment on their own at their own pace and time. Other advantages of the self assessment process in self leadership include the fact that the results of the assessment give the individual a sound basis for the decisions, goals and strategies that they set. The goals and strategies made are very effective and efficient in the self leadership role (Werner DeSimone, 2008). However the self assessment process does have its disadvantages when it comes to self leadership and how it is carried out. One major disadvantage that is identified once the self assessment is carried out includes the fact that the individuals are prone to confuse a high score on the self assessment with self leadership effectiveness (Pillai Stites, 2003). Self assessment models can be complicated and this also confuses the individuals taking the test. Attributes that are needed in a certain situation in the model may be used on some of the universal self leadership quality situations and be appropriate in the different contexts thereby depicting unintended resul ts (Pillai Stites, 2003). Implications of Self Assessment for Contemporary Human Resource Practice 3600 Feedback This is one of the methods that are used as part of the human resource development practices to effectively improve the performance of the leaders and lead to an improvement of the performance of the organization (Waldman Atwater, 1998). It is considered to be a starting point in the journey of self discovery and self assessment. It helps empower the individual in the face of negative feedback as well as positive feedback. In areas where the feedback is different from the perceptions of the individual, the differences provide an insight to the individual on the impact of their behavior and actions on others. The method is beneficial in the human resource practice in that it allows for the involvement of other employees in the organization. Their input to the organization is valued as they contribute to the future of the organization and their future. The Federal Express organization uses this kind of system to evaluate their managers (Waldman Atwater, 1998). The Survey Feedback Action program (SFA) puts the philosophy of the employees first as they give their feedback on the performance of their managers and leaders. The method also improves the communication between the leaders and the employees as it facilitates the communication between the two. Organizations are also able to empower their culture as well as holding the managers accountable for their actions. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) This is a self report in form of a questionnaire that is concerned with the perception and judgment of the individual. It also seeks to measure the personal preferences, communication patterns, decision making skills, the thinking style and the leaderà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s orientation with other people (Rothstein, 2010). The method of self assessment has several benefits which include the identification of the weak and strong areas of individuals. It also clarifies the behavior of the managers and the leaders as well as helping the individuals understand different methods and perspectives when solving different problems. It also aims to maximize the benefits and the diversity of leaders as well as the subordinates and helps them to reach more insightful and useful decisions. Through integrating and offering interactive challenges, the approach offers the entire team of the leaders and the employees a chance to generate greater understanding and insights for the development of the entire organization (Johnson, Mauzey, Johnson, Murphy, Zimmerman, 2001). The method is also known to resolve conflicts within organization and also create a lasting impact among the employees and their leaders in the organization. The approach also bears the benefit of helping individuals to understand themselves better regardless of their personality type or their personal traits. Recommendations for Future Research A lot of study has been done on self assessment in self leadership and the impact on human resource practices. Most of the authors have focused on the role of the self assessment in self leadership and how it can be used to improve the performance of the organization and the leaders. While all these approaches and study is important and very beneficial, much more research is needed on the different methods that leaders and individuals can use to assess themselves on their leadership skills and attributes. This will help to bring in some light on the issues that leaders are likely to face as they undertake the assessment and the emerging changes that are occurring in the environment. Research is also needed on the different characteristics and attributes that the self assessments try to highlight and identify. The individuals also tend to use different sources of data to help them to identify their strong and weak areas as well as their development needs. Research should also focus on the different sources of data that the individuals use when carrying out the self assessments and the important role that they all play in the development process. Conclusion Self leadership is considered an important process in the corporate world today. For one to be a leader in any organization, one needs to portray self leadership skills. One of the primary elements of self leadership is self assessment. This element helps the individuals to understand themselves better and to highlight the personality, behavior, skills, talents, strengths and weaknesses among other attributes that help an individual to carry out the self leadership role effectively. The self assessment is carried out with an aim of improving oneself and also enforcing a leader to embrace their individualism. Leaders need to be supported to bring out the best in themselves in order for them to take the organization forward. The self assessment should be followed with a learning process to develop a culture and a practice that will benefit the organization and members of the organization as well.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Complete Despair in in Anton Chekhovs Misery Essay -- Antov Chekhovs

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the story "Misery" by Anton Chekhov, I identified despair and misery as a theme. The surroundings amplify the sentiment of the main character, Iona Potapov. Cold and gray surrounds Iona Potapov and he is extremely miserable. Iona Potapov wants to speak to another human about his son's death but no one will listen. Failing to speak with any humans, Iona is resigned to speak with his horse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the beginning of the story Anton Chekhov sets the environment for the story. "The twilight of evening." (30) While reading this story, I envision the scenery by what Anton Chekhov wrote. "Big flakes of wet snow are whirling lazily about the street lamps, which have just been lighted, and lying in a thin soft layer on the roofs, horses' backs, shoulders, caps." (30) The picture portrayed is that of dull, gloomy, sludge and gray ash covering all of the surrounding areas. " The familiar gray landscape." (30)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The dispair and loneliness that Iona feels are sorrow. "May it do you good . . . But my son is dead, mate . . . Do you hear?" (33). Iona desperately wants to tell about his sons' death, and how it is affecting him. "He wants to tell how his son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died"(34). Ionas' son has died, and he feels as though it should have been he to the grave instead of his youthful son. "My son ought to be driving not I"(34).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The gray dismal surroundings entrap Iona and make the desolation worse ...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Materials and Appropriation of Tracey Emin

Tracey Karima Emin or better known as Tracey Emin was originally born in London in 1963, she was brought up in Margate with her twin brother Paul by their mother from a very early age (hence the well known nickname, ‘Mad Tracey from Margate’). From a very early age Emin was subjected to sexual abuse, which in turn has been the subject for a substantial amount of her work including sexual nature. Emin attended the Royal College of Art in which she gained an MA in painting. But Emin has described this period in her life as a negative experience, as she felt as though the other students attending the college were far too posh, thus creating an alienated experience. â€Å"Emin has described feeling conspicuously different and alienated from other students. † (Brown, 2006, page 16) Emin is also a member of the Young British Artists group (YBAs) and it is also wildly known that Emin came up with the name for the Stuckism movement in which her boyfriend at the time Billy Childish was a member of. It is believed that the name for this movement came about by Emin claiming that his oeuvre was ‘stuck’. â€Å"Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! – Stuck! Stuck! Stuck! (That is, stuck in the past for not accepting the YBA approach to art). † http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Tracey_Emin 16/11/2010 So who is Tracey Emin? Is she a painter, print maker, photographer, instalaitionist, film maker, sculptor or writer? I would actually consider Tracey Emin to be all of these professions, including much more, due to the wide variety of her skills. Her work consists of a number of techniques that we, as the viewer, have seen since she has been in the public eye from the early 1990’s. The range of materials Emin has used (and still uses to this very day) is very vast indeed. There are very few artists out there in the world who use such an amount. Instead of just complying with the normal standard of art and just subjecting herself to a limited supply of materials, but then again most contemporary artists tend to think outside the box and do not want to conform to normality. The main piece of Oeuvre that I was to talk analyse is Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995 1995, otherwise known as ‘The Tent’ (fig 1 and 2). This was originally shown at the South London Gallery as part of a group show called ‘Minky Manky’, which substantionaly became the turning point in Emins career. In regards to the materials Emin has used, the overall body of this piece is actually a shop brought tent (ready made object), which is the shape of a hexagon. It makes me wonder how Emin came about in deciding that this was the tent to use. I can just imagine Emin visiting a substantial number of retail shops searching for ‘the right tent’. Maybe this tent in particular just had that ‘ju ne se qua’ about it that drew Emin towards using it. She has also introduced more forms of materials such as an old mattress that she has placed inside of the tent with the text ‘with myself, always myself, never forgetting ‘appliqued on the bottom of the mattress in the centre. Inside of this small tent Emin has listed all the names of everyone that she has ever slept with during the time period in the title, 102 in fact. Her use of re- appropriating in regards to the appliques method which also includes the use of materials also used in this piece is something that I will be looking into a little later on. I find this really intriguing, as the use of appliques is quite an old fashioned way of making art these days. For centuries women all over the world had used this technique as a simple way of passing the time, as it was not even considered art in itself, and yet here we have a Young British Artist using this old fashioned method as part of her core work. Emin has even used this very same method in other pieces of her work including ‘Hate and Power can be a Terrible Thing 2004’. Now at first I thought this was an arbitrary shameless exhibition of her past sexual conquests. But when I took the time to look at the pictures of ‘The Tent’ (As it would now be impossible to view this in any art gallery, as it was destroyed in an unfortunate fire at the Saatchi Gallery in 2004), I was able to see that included in those names are members of her family, including her twin brother and also her unborn children i. e. , foetus 1 and 2. As I have already mentioned, that this could have been portrayed as an exhibition of past sexual conquests, Emin claims herself that all of the people she has named within the tent are in fact about intimacy and purely nothing sexual. â€Å"Some I’d had a shag with in bed or against a wall, some I had just slept with, like my Grandma. I used to lay in her bed and hold her hand. We used to listen to the radio together and nod off to sleep. You don’t do that with someone you don’t care about†. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Everyone_I_Have_Ever_Slept_With_1963%E2%80%931995 23/10/10 I know from reading about Tracey Emin regarding this piece that the members of the audience that went to view this piece, have said that when they emerged from he tent they were thinking about their own past lives, including the people they have cared about â€Å"Some observers found the action of climbing inside the tent to read the names strangely intimate. http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/3753541. stm 15/11/2010 This just goes to show that she has deliberately played with our minds to make us instantly think about what she wants us to think about, and that is those we care a great deal about. As Emin has said herself, it’s all about the communication. She has more or less re-appropriated this method and made it her own. Instead of sewing the regular ideals of something traditional such as a quilt or clothes in that matter, that would usually be commissioned using this historical method, she has re-invented this technique and used it for something to express her past sexual experiences through the representations of her own body, not necessarily physically for the viewer to see, but through the senses in ways that Emin portrays by symbolising the names of her past. Could Emin be playing with the Signs and Codes of ‘The Tent’? I honestly believe that she could well be. I feel that she is trying to tell us through When it comes to discussing such signs and codes Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) believed that the signs and codes where a way in which the artists and audience could communicate. â€Å"Saussure believed that all of culture is made up of signs. That is to say, social life is characterised by the circulation and exchange of forms to which convention has been given meaning. A sign for Saussure is simply any device through which human beings communicate to each other†. Ward, 2003, page 83) However all of these names have been Appliqued, are those of family, friends and boyfriends (One of which is her former boyfriend Billy Childish). When I think about the signs and codes Emin has used, I start to wonder, did she do this on purpose? Is she forcing me as a member of the audience to subconsciously think about all of the people that I have ever cared about in my own life? As Emin has stated in the quote above that this piece is about intimacy. I believe that Emin has truly cared about all of these names at some point in her own life, as the time and effort she has taken to create this. The use of appliques, which is the term for sewing fabric directly on top of more fabric, of which she has used to attach all of the 102 names inside. This is in itself is a time consuming process and I believe that this is truly a sign to show that she has put as much effort into creating this Oeuvre as much as she did with the relationships in her life. Tracey Emin also uses representations of the body in a number of her drawings and monoprints. Here she uses the method of monprint as a way of capturing her thoughts and ideas. Usually these thoughts are again to do with her turbulent past. When you look at her drawings such as Suffer Love II, 2009 (fig 3) in which you can only see of what is presumably Emins own body is that of two naked legs erotically spread open wearing high heel shoes , you can see who her influences are e. g. Egon Shiele (fig 4). â€Å"Schiele’s eroticism and emphasis on childhood sexuality took this interest to a moral extreme. His depictions of childhood sexuality are a dangerous theme, and one shared by Emin†. (Brown, 2006, page 29) Here you can see that she is expressing her thoughts entirely just by a simple yet effective drawing. Both of the artist’s drawings are very alike in terms of the irrational lines that express how they must have been feeling at the time they were produced. Although Emins work is mostly of sexual emotions, her work does engage the audience. â€Å"Emin is a storyteller whose subject matter comes from Emin's own rich life. Through the poetry of her honest retelling of unique and intimate life-events Emin establishes a generous dialogue between the viewer and the artist. † http://www. saatchi-gallery. co. uk/artists/tracey_emin. htm 20/10/2010 Although some of her work can be quite controversial. Everybody at some point over the years has heard of Tracey Emin either through television or from reading newspapers and magazines, regarding her radical use of her exploration of her own body and personal past life. Her work is very autobiographical, in which her main source of study is herself, and about her past experiences in which she obviously wants to share with us. I would say that in that situation she must either be very naive or just completely an exhibitionist. At first I was unsure as to why I should write my essay on Tracey Emin, but after researching her, I have come to understand the ‘method in her madness’ so to speak. The way in which your mind starts to think in overdrive in how and why she creates such pieces of oeuvre and why she mostly only concentrates on certain parts of her past. I feel that all she is trying to achieve is basically instead of writing a book on her past life, she is giving us the visual experience instead, as sometime books can literally be boring with their little pictures and overrated text, but Emin takes away the boring text and replaces them with bold, brass exploiting words that make you want to read and want to learn more about her.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Affects of Divorce on Youth

In Canada, it is estimated that four in ten marriages end in divorce. Despite the â€Å"’til death do us part† vow couples participate in at the time of marriage, there were 69,600 separations in Canada in 2004 (Statistics Canada, 2004). It has also been determined that every one in two divorces involves children. Although there have been many studies done which attempt to prove that children who experience parental divorce do have behavioral problems, fail to complete high school, and have emotional discrepancies, the effects of divorce on the overall outcome of a child is not detrimental to his or her development. Those who take the stance that divorce is a determining factor through their various studies have not taken a proper representative sample of cases from children nor considered other determining factors which could also lead to a child's lack of well-being. Today a divorce is when a marriage is legally dissolved because the relationship is irretrievably broken. However, before the Divorce Act of 1968, divorces were increasingly difficult to obtain. In order to be granted one, the couple would have to meet at least one criteria of marital breakdown – they would have to be living apart for a year or longer, one of the spouses has to have committed an act of adultery, or one spouse has treated the other in a cruel way. The average Canadian family features parents who deal with a plethora of stressors. One of the main reasons for marriage dissatisfaction, however, is money. This problem is prevalent when a family does not have enough income to support its needs or wants. Pressure to fulfill these desires will create an unhappy relationship between everybody involved. Regardless, when parents separate, it can create a whole new distress in the child which can outweigh that of any economical situation the family could be facing. While parents toying with the idea of divorce may think that by legally separating, they could be risking their children’s overall happiness; by staying together they could be putting the child at greater risk of mental and emotional problems. Children who are witness to their parents constant fighting and conflicts are at higher risk of long-term distress (Jekielek, 1998). Divorce where there is little parental conflict will actually do a child less harm than no divorce with high parental conflict. The symptoms of being in an environment where there is high parental conflict is very similar to those seen in children of divorce; they can develop anxiety and aggression (Morrison and Corio, 1999), as well as behavioral problems in school such as antisocial behavior and difficulty concentrating (Amato and Sobolewski, 2001). Socialization of children is essential during school years. Children who are affected negatively during this time by parental conflict or divorce can create problems for the future by making them socially withdrawn. Poor social skills and shyness can force children into complications which have the potentiality to permanently damage their views and impact the formation of healthy relationships. There are three factors which account for much of the distress among children, and high parental conflict is the most determining factor. The second is a decline of living standards; this is where the child’s family has a low economic status and cannot fulfill the needs and basic wants of a child successfully. A child’s family can reach poverty if the mother or father who is granted custody does not earn enough money to support the child, due to the loss of complimenting income from the noncustodial parent or the fact that they cannot get a job because they had sacrificed their education and employment opportunities in order to care for the child. The third factor is the absence of the noncustodial parent. This is because the child loses a role-model who they look to for emotional and physical support (Resnick et al. , 1997), an issue which the social learning theory commends. The time with the noncustodial parent will eventually decrease with time, whereas the child’s relationship with his or her mother will increase (Amato and Booth, 1996). Whereas evidence in the past has supported findings that a child is well adapted, self confident and secure in who they are when they are raised in a two parent as opposed to single parent household, a child with divorced parents is said to suffer both mentally and emotionally. There are two propositions, one of which suggests that children who grow up in households where the two biological parents are not present will exhibit lower levels of well-being, and the other says that the adverse effects on youthful ell-being will be especially acute when the cause of parental absence is marital separation, divorce, or desertion. They often tend to develop behavioral problems and do less well in school than children of intact families (Demo, Fine, and Ganong, 2000). On top of that, they are more likely to engage in dangerous behavior such as substance and alcohol abuse. These damaging effects have the potential to last the child into adulthood. One study showed that almost half the children of divorced parents entered adulthood as worried, self-deprecating, and sometimes angry young men and women (Wallerstein, Lewis, and Blakeslee, 2000). They also tend to be less happy than a child with intact parents, and increasingly likely to suffer from health problems, depend on welfare, earn low income, and experience divorce themselves. Problems with marriage are thought to be prevalent in cases where a child’s parents have experienced divorce and can lead to an increase in divorces between them as well as an overall aversion to marriage (Anthony, 1974). Many of these adults continue to struggle with depression, anxiety, and overall feeling of dissatisfaction with their overall lives. These people will utilize more mental health services than will those who grew up with both parents (Amato and Sobolewski, 2001). Compared to children whose parents did not separate, children with divorced parents are more likely to drop out of high school, less likely to attend college, and complete fewer years of education overall. Some believe that this is due to the emotional disturbance which is caused in households where parental conflict is high, resulting in a poor sense of self in the child. Poor sense of self also leads to other relationship troubles including infidelity, reoccurring divorces, and remarriages and in extreme cases spousal and domestic abuse. It has also been found that those living in a single-parent household are associated with a greater risk of not completing high school (Deleire and Kalil, 2002). In one study, it shows that the proportion of children graduating from high school is the highest for children with no change in their family structure and lowest for children with three or more changes in their family structure. Relative to children in households that reported no change in marital status, children who experienced any type of change in family structure were less likely to graduate from high school. The odds of completing high school for children whose parents experienced parental divorce only were 61 percent lower than for children whose parents remained together. However, despite evidence which proves that divorce does cause an emotional disturbance within children, some analysts disagree. Despite the link between divorce and long-term negative consequences, this evidence is based on families who seek psychological counseling. These families are a small and unrepresentative minority of the population. Another discrepancy in this theory is that some analysts fail to ask whether factors other than divorce might be responsible for the long-term distress experienced by children of divorced parents. A re-analysis of 93 relevant studies showed that the overall effect of divorce on children’s well-being is not strong and is declining over time (Amato and Booth, 1991). Whereas some studies show a significant decrease of education completion, one study done across Canada, Australia, and the United States of America shows that divorce is not an educational â€Å"disaster†. Rather, it says that children whose parents divorce get approximately seven-tenths of a year less education than children from intact families. A divorce is not the determining factor in long-term distress in children; rather, it is a multitude of factors which complement each other in creating a child with various mental and emotional difficulties. Despite evidence supporting both sides of this argument, those who believe that studies which discredit the results which seem to support divorce as the major distress-causing agent of previous studies seem to be the most believable; this is because there is simply so much more to a divorce than the act of separation in itself. Determinants such as parental conflict, economic status, and the upbringing of the child all play major roles in providing distress in a child’s life. Although the argument of divorce causing some sort of problematic experiences in a child, which will last them into adulthood, is a strong one, one must remember all of the other agents which build up to a divorce when deciding whether or not a divorce is the sole detrimental attribute to a problematic childhood. ?