Summarise 2 Theories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summarise 2 Theories - Essay Example Social Control Theory circulates around certain principles (Siegel, 2008). These principles are peoples relationships, values, commitments, norms, and values. These principles encourage people not to break the laws of the land. Major contributors and their contributions to the Social Control theory follow assertions by a couple of ideologists. Albert J. Reiss defined personal control as the ability of a person to cease from meeting needs in ways which clash with the rules and norms of the society. Social control, he stated, refers to the skill of social groups to create rules or norms that bring full success. The second main contributor was Jackson Toby. He quarreled that the casual adolescent is an entrant for group socialization. He recognized group socialization as a piece of social control that connects, motivates, and that leads to wrongdoing. He put out the idea of stakes in conformity to make clear the candidacy for studying such experiences (Siegel, 2008). This theory does not reflect on motivational issues. It argues that individuals may decide to engage in a variety of activities, unless the varieties are restricted to the processes of social learning and socialization. This is taken from the Hobbesian analysis of human nature that is stated in the Leviathan; that all options are controlled by implicit agreements, social contracts and understanding among citizens. Thus, ethics will be set in the building of social orders, consequences and assigning costs to assured choices and terming some of the choices as immoral, evil or unlawful (Siegel, 2008). Labeling theory closely relates to symbolic interaction and social construction analysis theory. Labeling theory maintains that disobedience is not inherent in wrong doers, but instead looks at the possibilities of majorities to negatively tag minorities or those seen as weak from normal cultural norms. The theory circulates around certain principles.

Supply Chain Management at World Co. Ltd. Essay Example for Free

Supply Chain Management at World Co. Ltd. Essay Industry Facts: Specialty Retailing Sector -Women’s apparel industry in Japan seasonal industry products have short life cycles and extremely uncertain demand International Competition 3 Distribution Alternatives- company-owned stand alone stores, shops in fashion malls, and shops within department stores â€Å"store-within-a-store† Company Facts Operates in women’s apparel industry Company uses both wholesale and retail distribution methods Wholesale items are sold in other stores (retailers) Specialty store Private-label apparel (SPA) merchandise which includes the OZOC and Untitled brands was sold at stores owned by World Uses SPARCS, a business process system that allows World to monitor sales trends and focus on customer demand to maximize the efficiency of store support operations By late 1990’s World sold over 40 different brands in approximately 7,000 shops and stores World’s divisions are organized by product (brand name) 1998- World Employed 2,394 workers Net sales $1.8 billion and net income of $32million Company held a 3.5% share of the Japanese apparel market Major U.S. competitors are Gap Inc., The Limited Rooted in Domestic Manufacturing Brand Facts Targeted at female customers 25-29 years of age Annual Sales 2.2 million Introduce new collections twice annually (Spring-Summer; Fall-Winter) Introduced New Products Every 2 Weeks At the end of 1998, Untitled Brand could be Found in 110 Stores Qualitative Analysis Industry Analysis: Threats: Lack of Channel Power Uncertain Demand Seasonality Inventory Risk Opportunities Fewer Variations In Store Assortments Fast Changing Fashion Trends (Social) Low Inventory Levels International Manufacturing Company Analysis Strengths World’s High Inventory Turns (5/year) (Operations) 47% Gross Margin Keen Competitive Intelligence- reviewed competitor’s brands every six months (Marketing) Decentralized Merchandising Operations- each brand was autonomous (Operations/Marketing) High Responsiveness (Operations) Versatile Line Workers Recruited talented individuals who were unafraid of change and could motivate others (Management) Weaknesses Weak Pay-for-Performance System (Management) Low Brand Awareness Left over inventory is markdown 50% Quantitative Analysis: Wholesale net sales=(total net ales- net spa sales) ¥1,643,130,000 World’s private label spa brands  ¥250,000,000 Net Sales Of World Corporation ¥1,893,130,000 Cost of Sales  ¥983,610,000 Gross Profit Margin at 47%  ¥909,520,000 World’s private label Spa brandsNet Sales:  ¥250,000,000 SPA’s Cost of Goods sold:  ¥130,500,00 Purchases @ 97% ¥126,585,000 Other ¥ 3,415,000 G. M. of Spa brands at 47.8% of Sales Gross Margin:  ¥119,500,000 Cost of Goods sold include merchandise inventory, purchases, (purchase discounts), total merchandise available for sale Average Inventory for World Co., Limited and SPA Brands World Co., Limited Average Inventory = Cost of Goods sold =  ¥983,610,000 =  ¥$96,722,000 Inventory Turns 5 times a years SPA Brands Average Inventory = Cost of Goods sold =  ¥130,500,000 =  ¥15,294,117.65 Inventory Turns 8.5 times a years Cost to Retail Ratio Problems How to overcome Bargaining power of suppliers- retailers charge high prices for retail space Poor implementation of push (or pull) strategy Inventory Markdowns is second greatest variable expense accounting 24.10% of total Sales staff does not enter shipments into the computer upon receipt How to overcome compromised information accuracy during semi-annual sales

Risk Management Evaluation within a Hospital

Risk Management Evaluation within a Hospital By: David John Vidanes A WRITEN REPORT ON RISK MANAGEMENT Every organization that has been put up will go through different challenges, problems and conflict that could expose to different risks such as interruption in its operation or worst the risk of closing down of a business. This event could happen from the biggest or to the smallest and simplest organization in any industry, be it on Business, Agriculture, Information technology and/or Healthcare. Different risks are not only present in organizations but also to personal level. Risks are everywhere and because of this â€Å"Risk Management† come into picture. I’ve been part of Howard Hubbard Memorial Hospital back in the Philippines for two years. It is a 98 bed capacity industrial hospital and manages by DOLE Philippines. DOLE is a multinational company that mainly produces exports of different preserve fruits and also complies with different international standards organization like â€Å"ISO† or the International Organization in Standardization in its operation including its policies and procedures pertaining to risk Management. Risk management specific to safety in the workplace in my organization is done by group of people composed of high-level managers and mid-level managers (safety committee). They make necessary policies and procedures focused on eliminating if not reduction of identified risk. Risk management has proved its importance in the institution over the span of time that I work there. Risk management is the same as securing the future or it is a helping hand in attaining the goals and objectives set; there for when one organization utilize the risk management this will result in progress and development. For example, an employee who neglects or skips a certain safety protocols has a higher risk of facing an accident that could decrease on his or her productivity which also result in the loss of a company, while on the other hand, a worker who adheres to all safety procedure have a lower percentage of facing work related accidents therefor he/she is an efficient worker and that is always good for a company. Risk management stresses its importance by its benefits and contribution it brings to an organization. Obvious benefits of risk management in my previous organization are: Prevention of any possible undesirable event The decrease in the probability of an incident to happen Reduction of the most probable impact or effect of an incident that could happen Hence, this report will focus with different risk in my previous workplace specifically on safety. Prevention of harmful event is the common benefit since risk is defined as something that could happen in the future and leads to a loss of something of value, so managing risk is essentially prevention. One good example is the simple procedure done in the hospital I work is the Hand washing. Hand Washing before and after caring for a patient will â€Å"Prevent† Nosocomial Infection or the hospital acquired infection. It will safeguard the patients in the hospital and also the nurse who is caring for them. The managers cannot control everything inside the organization; same is true with the elements outside the organization that could affect a business such as the Community and Politics. Thus, risk management can decrease this probability of uncontrolled accidents or events by identification and assessment of different risk, their causes, and formulation of preventive measures and protocols basing on the identified causes this steps will aid greatly on minimizing the likelihood of an incident. Example, in the community that I am in, cases of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever is increasing over a short span of time; everyday each month there is prominent escalation of cases in the hospital. To decrease the incident of the disease, the hospital conducted Health teachings or Education to the community which contains the causes, mode of transmission, signs and symptoms and how to treat the disease. As a result, the community gains knowledge and awareness regarding the disease thus helped in the red uction of possible casualty. Components Affecting Risk Management A. Review activities and internal environment The hospital that I work back in the Philippines is the only facility in my town located at the foot of Mt. Matutum an active volcano that is monitored by DOLE Philippines and the local government. The hospital have all the basic services required for it to operate such as: Laboratories to take and test blood samples from patients Imaging and Radiology for conducting X-rays and Ultrasound imaging Pharmacy for all the medication needs of the patients Intensive care units, Neonatal intensive care units Operation Theater, Emergency Department Ambulance services Medical and Surgical wards Pediatric wards OB-GYNE wards Out-patient department Isolation Rooms for infectious patients Individual private rooms complete with a television and Refrigerator Canteen or cafeteria This given facilities and services comprise the 98 bed capacity industrial hospital. Staffs are all hardworking and friendly although sometimes conflicts in different departments is unavoidable but this minor conflicts are easily solved by the management. The facility is backed by DOLE Philippines in its finances; this includes the bills from electricity, water and telecommunication. Although the hospital is assisted by DOLE it still has a negative effect like, before we can purchase or request medical supplies for the day to day operation, it needs to be check and approved by a certain department in DOLE thus making thing complicated that sometimes result in the delayed in the resupplying of our stocks. The hospital mainly caters DOLE employee and their families since we are an industrial hospital of DOLE Philippines, aside from that we also take clients from the community. These clients keep the hospital staff busy from Monday to Sunday, day and night. The hospital staff encounters different people with different cases all throughout the day, especially in the emergency department where I am assigned. Most of the emergencies I handled are drunken patients who encountered vehicular accidents, a gunshot wound from an assassination attempt, heart attacks, patients with strokes, job related injuries from DOLE and all sorts of emergencies that one can imagine. B. Setting objective With all the activities and the environmental hazards inside the hospital, the objectives for a risk management is clearly focused on the safety of the staff and the clients inside the facility. The objective covers all the population inside the hospital whatever the purpose and transaction one at hand as long as this person is inside the hospital premises. C. Event identification Every day has different situations and different scenarios or situations; to keep tract with the happenings in the hospital, we have all sorts of different log books in almost all the areas. Aside from that, the facility has its own CCTV cameras and security personnel who patrols every now and then. â€Å"IR† or the incident report is the most common one; this is done by writing a report by the staff or staffs who are involved in an incident. Almost all of the activities in the hospital are recorded in the different log books by the staff to monitor; this will help the review of the causes and effects of an event or incident. One good example is when a staff was punctured accidentally by a needle used in a patient, the staff needs to write an Incident report containing the following: The nature of incident, place, time, date and on why did the staff think the incident happened. After which the staff needs to write in the log book specifically for all needle stick injuries. The most perceivable risk in the hospital that I work before are: Risk for needle stick injury, Risk for acquiring infectious diseases Risk for earthquake and fire since we are literally at the foot of volcano and a very warm environment Risk for physical injury for staff assigned at the emergency department. D. Risk Assessment The identified risk then will go through assessment prioritization and careful study as to its impact and on how often these incidents happen. The risk management firstly prioritizes on the risk of the staff to acquire highly contagious diseases because every day, staff nurses interacts and personally care for these infected clients. Its likelihood to happen is high without proper precaution and will not only affect the organization but also the community. In an instance, a staff nurse is caring for a patient with tuberculosis, after a few weeks the nurse shows signs and symptoms and has acquired tuberculosis. The staff then is now capable of spreading the disease to his/her workplace and the community. The mentioned situation has immense damaging outcome that it needs to be prioritize. Risk for needle stick injury is also common but controllable if safety procedures and protocols are followed. The same goes with the risk for injury in emergency department, the nurse can always ask f or assistance to a security in uncontrollable situations. The fire, earthquake and volcanic eruption on the other hand have a much greater impact than the rest but the likelihood of the event is less than the other identified risk. E. Risk response plan There are different strategies and plans formulated after careful assessment, study and prioritization. Different strategic plan were formulated in response to the risks. These are: To counteract the risk of obtaining an infectious disease, the use of personal protective equipment such a gloves, mask, gowns and goggles is strictly implemented. Hand washing every contact with a patient is also habitually done. For the risk of needle stick injury, the management posted several reminders and procedures in proper handling and disposal of sharp objects such as needles and surgical knives all over the hospital, specifically at the nurse station. On the emergency department, nurses assigned are reminded and thought to assess signs of possible aggravation of drunk and drug patients, security officers also take their rounds every now and then at the area. There is a yearly fire, earthquake and evacuation drills in the hospital which involves all the staff and patients. Aside from that all of the staff is thought on how to use a fire extinguisher and to do a first aid. Safety orientation to the new employees and reorientation yearly to the old staff is a continuous routine. All of these are strictly followed and implemented in the hospital I that I belong to before. F. Control activities The Safety committee had their regular meetings quarterly. In the meeting, they show reports of recent incidents that happen in the period. They check, verify and compare the data with the previous reports. They also held emergency or special meetings for emergency cases. Moreover the committee also sends personnel to different seminars and trainings to keep up to date in the different trends in occupational hazards and safety in general. G. Information and communication Information and communication is handled really well in my organization. Memos and new safety guidelines and being communicated well through series of orientation and meetings with different departments to make sure the information is being understood and clearly discussed with the staff. Different signage and posters are posted in different areas within the facility and can easily be seen by the clients, like the arrows pointing to the different emergency exits and posters of new information concerning the safety of the clients and staff on the hospital. H. Monitoring Safety committee monitors these protocols and procedures by doing daily or weekly checks or preventive maintenance on the different safety equipment such as the fire extinguishers, sprinkles smoke detectors and others. A personnel assigned makes sure that they are working properly and ready to use in emergencies. Evaluation is done through surveys and suggestions are always welcome to improve the situation or consequently to decrease the different risks. Howard Hubbard Memorial Hospital is a small facility compared to other institute in the county, but I think even though we are just a small organization, the management has a clear understanding of different risk at hand and on how to manage those risk, sure there is still room for improvement but I can see that the management is open for suggestions and is capable of changing the situation. Risk Management in this report as I have said is focused on operational aspect specifically to safety risks since there is a negligible financial risk due to the financial support by a successful company.

The Slavery of the Millennium Essay -- Ethical Issues, Sex Traffickin

It is common ideology that slavery is a thing of the past. This is far from true; sex trafficking is prominent all across the world on a massive scale and is the new form of slavery. According to the U.S. Department of State estimates that 560,000 women are trafficked each year across international borders and forced into the sex industry. {{34 Holman,M. 2008; }} Other non-government programs such a UNICEF have these numbers in the millions. {{34 Holman,M. 2008; }} The real numbers of sex trafficking are unknown, but the problem is evident. The general public is unaware of the sex trafficking epidemic because the forced labor business is not only inhumane: it is well hidden. The business is kept underground due to the stigma associated with prostitution. Because of this most of workers of the business are from â€Å"forced recruitment†. {{25 Samarasinghe,Vidyamali 2007; }} Sex trafficking is not only an issue over seas, it is also a problem in the United States a culture tha t â€Å"glamorizes pimping and prostitution."{{31 Kotrla,K. 2010; }} This culture of tolerance, fueled by the glamorization of pimping, is embodied in multiple venues of daily life, including clothing, songs, television, video games, and other forms of entertainment. Traffickers easily control victim of their trade by using techniques such as â€Å"force, fraud, or coercion, including techniques such as confinement, beatings, rape, confiscation of documents, debt bondage, false owners of employment, and threats of harm to the victim or the victim's family.†{{30 Potocky,M. 2010; }}Once in the business, it is almost impossible for a victim to escape, and if they do they are not likely to come forward to authorities. There are four main ways out of sex trafficking enslavemen... ...ggling are often confused as activities, and the police and immigration officials are ill-equipped to recognize and respond to the problem as one involving victims as well as offenders.† (28) [add to this] If these simple changes are implemented to the standing sex trafficking legislation, mainly the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act implemented in 2000 failing in its attempt to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers. The TVPA will be up for reauthorization in November 2011. As this quickly approaching, it is imperative the public is educated on the human exploitation that is often ignored. Sex trafficking is a global problem that can only be taken down by the help of a government that recognizes the weakness in its current policy. The victims and the public deserve better than the U.S. government has done thus far.

Divorce Research Paper Essay

Pondering question to get reader thinking about topic II. What the problem is d. â€Å"Children do not fall behind their peers in these areas during the potentially disruptive period before their parents divorce, the study revealed. Instead, it’s after the split that kids seem to have the most trouble coping. Include this from Healthday reporter Alan mozes e. What the child feels, they feel its their fault and makes them more upset III. Statistics f. What classes children with divorced parents are struggling in g. Average grades for the kids h. What it does to teens IV. My personal experience i. How my grades were before and after j. What classes I was struggling in k. My personal feelings about it V. Conclusion l. Say how parents really need to think about how it will affect their child before going through with it. m. My views on the statistics and why it is valid info n. Opinion about parents being more involved in children’s schoolwork. Christian Startt Mrs. Pantusa English 1 A. P Prep April 26, 2013 Divorce and How It Affects Children Introduction Divorce can be the most inconvenient and hardest long-term problem of a child’s life, affecting all parts of his or her life all because of the parent’s failing marriage. 41% of first marriages end in divorce (Irvin, M), which is a substantial percentage of marriage that has not followed through with their vows and left their kid’s normality in the dust. Grades, emotions, and innocence all are changed in the process of the divorce, as well as a new set of challenge and problems these kids have to face in everyday life. Divorce isn’t just a split between a family, it’s more of a life changer. â€Å"As soon as me and my wife Terri divorced†, explains Chris Startt, â€Å"basic life changed heavily. Laundry, cooking dinner everyday, and constantly worrying about my son’s grades has really kept me busy and stressed†. I asked Chris how his son’s grades were after his divorce. â€Å"When me and my ex were still together, Christian’s grades were outstanding, strait A’s. But later (a year passes) his grades went from strait A’s to B’s and C’s later on in middle school†. According to Healthday reporter Alan Mozes, â€Å"Children do not fall behind their peers in these areas during the potentially disruptive period before their parents divorce, the study revealed. Instead, it’s after the split that kids seem to have the most trouble coping†. Research suggests that the odds of a divorce occurring in a household before the children become grown rest at about 50% (Ahilburg and DeVita, 1992), with divorce rates beginning to soar in 1963 (Jeynes, 1999). A 60-year literature review of 347 experimental studies confirmed that many studies have concluded that divorce has negative consequences for children’s academic achievement (Kunz, 1992). Most research shows that the child’s math scores were the ones that were mostly affected. â€Å"Kim found that while a divorce is in progress, first, second and third-graders experience a dip in math test scores — a decline that holds steady once the divorce is final†. (Mozes) But, at the same time reading scores didn’t really seem to be changing, as research from (Mozes) shows that â€Å"†¦however, Kim found that reading scores remain unaffected†. When my parents divorced, about 6 years ago, I was 9 years old in 3rd grade and that’s when my grades went from strait A’s, to A’s and B’s, and then a C here and there. Mathematics really begun to get more and more difficult to concentrate to and the tests were getting harder to understand. Reading, however, was my strength in elementary school, and it remained un-affected after my parents divorce. Researcher Hyun Sik Kim explains, â€Å"Reading is not that cumulative. But with math, you must understand previous things to develop. For example, if I do not understand that one plus one is two, then I cannot understand multiplication. Divorce really puts a child’s mind in motion. After the divorce the child may feel like it was his/her fault, causing stress and emotional problems. By this happening, the child will become more stressed by the moving between houses, therefor making it harder to concentrate on schoolwork and thus grades beginning to lower. My personal experiences also help support my argument. Divorce should be decided with caution; you have to think about how its going to affect your child and how its going to affect their future.

The Acquisition Between Merck and Schering-Plough

On March 9, 2009, Merck & Co., Inc. and Schering-Plough Corporation announced that their Boards of Directors have unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement under which Merck and Schering-Plough will combine, under the name Merck in a stock and cash transaction. As the two companies' combined 2008 revenues were $47 billion. The deal officially closed on November 3, 2009. Background of the two parties Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was initially formed in 1891 as a United States subsidiary of the German chemicals and pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA. During World War I, it was established as an independent company from confiscated assets. Since then, it has grown to become one of the top seven largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide. Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) is one of the medium-sized players in the pharmaceutical industry, with sales of $18.5 billion in 2008. Its two largest products are autoimmune medication Remicade, sold internationally, and Zetia & Vytorin, a joint venture taken with Merck that fights cholesterol. While growth of Remicade has been strong, Vytorin has taken a hit after studies questioned its efficacy compared to the older drug it is based on and in treating blockage of the heart valve. The process of the acquisition The Merck and Schering-Plough took the typical reverse merger arrangement during the acquisition process. The Merck- Schering-Plough merger agreement contemplates a two-step transaction involving Merck, Schering-Plough, and Schering’s two special purpose, subsidiary holding companies, Blue, Inc. and Purple, Inc. In step one of the mergers, Blue will merge into Schering-Plough and each share of Schering-Plough will be converted into the right to receive (i) 0.5767 shares of the surviving Schering-Plough and (ii) $10.50 in cash. In step two of the merger, Purple will merge into Merck and each share of Merck will be converted into 1 share of the surviving Schering-Plough. After the completion of these two steps, the surviving Merck will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the surviving Schering-Plough. Yet, the shareholders of pre-merger Merck will own approximately 68% of the surviving Schering-Plough and shareholders of pre-merger Schering-Plough will own around 32% of the surviving Schering-Plough. Although Merck will become a subsidiary of Schering-Plough Merck’s pre-merger shareholders will together possess a majority of the voting and economic rights (or beneficial ownership) of Merck’s new parent company, Schering-Plough. One peculiarity of the Merck-Schering reverse merger transaction structure is that between steps one and two Merck finds itself in a slightly precarious situation. After the completion of step one, Schering’s pre-merger shareholders will have received shares of the surviving Schering-Plough and a cash payout, but Merck’s pre-merger shareholders will not yet have seized control over the management of the surviving Schering-Plough. The merger agreement has come up with a way to protect Merck’s shareholders during this governance gap. Simultaneously with the completion of step one of the merger, Schering has agreed that its board will cause all of its directors (other than 3 specified exceptions) to resign and to elect the members of pre-merger Merck’s board of directors as the directors of the surviving Schering corporation. Even before pre-merger Merck’s shareholders acquire their supermajority share of the beneficial ownership of the surviving Schering corporation after step two, they indirectly will have already taken the helm of the surviving Schering corporation through the election of their own directors to the new parent company’s board. The motivation of the acquisition Merck faces many of the challenges that face all pharmaceutical companies, including issues surrounding patent expiration and FDA approval. Patent expiration may affect 30% of sales through 2008. In addition, there is growing pressure in the US and abroad to lower the price of medication. Schering-Plough has a particularly small pipeline, with very few drugs currently in development. In the near term, it does however have one of the safest profiles in the industry, with very few major patents coming up for expiration in the coming years. The newest merger will result in a strengthened product pipeline in areas such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease and oncology, and should eventually yield $3.5 billion annually in cost savings. Merck is also set to be hit by patent expiries of some of its top sellers in the next decade, while Schering-Plough is not.

Topography, an ABA Term to Help Describe Behavior

Topography, an ABA Term to Help Describe Behavior Topography is a term used in applied behavior analysis (ABA) to describe behavior- specifically what behavior looks like. Topography defines behavior in an operational way, free of the coloration of values or expectation. By describing the topography of behavior, you avoid many of the problematic terms that find their way into definitions of behaviors. Disrespect, for example, is more often a reflection of the teachers reaction than the students intent. By contrast, the phrase refusing to comply with a direction would be a topographical description of the same behavior. The Importance of Topography Clearly defining the topography of behavior is especially important for creating appropriate interventions for children whose disabilities are in part defined by behavior, such as emotional and behavioral disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. Teachers and administrators without extensive experience or training in dealing with behavioral disabilities often overreact and create more problems by focusing on the social constructs surrounding misbehavior without observing the actual behavior. When they do so, these educators are focusing on the  function of a behavior  rather than its topography. The function of a behavior describes why the behavior occurs, or the purpose of the behavior; whereas, the topography of the behavior describes its form. Describing the topography of the behavior is much more objective- you are simply stating objectively what happened. The function of the behavior tends to be much more subjective- you are trying to explain why a student exhibited a certain behavior. Topography Versus Function Topography and function represent two very different ways of describing a behavior. For example, if a child throws a tantrum, to explain the topography of the behavior, it would not be enough for a teacher to simply say the child threw a tantrum. A topographical definition might state: The child threw herself on the floor, and kicked and screamed in a high-pitched voice. The child did not make physical contact with other individuals, furniture, or other items in the environment. The functional description, by contrast, would be open to interpretation: Lisa became angry, swung her arms and tried to strike other children and the teacher while screaming in that high-pitched voice she often uses. Each description could be defined as a tantrum, but the former contains only what the observer saw, whereas the latter includes interpretation. It is not possible to know, for example, that a child intended to injure others through a topographical description, but paired with an  antecedent, behavior, consequence (ABC)  observation, you may be able to determine the function of the behavior. It is often helpful to have several professionals observe the same behaviors and then provide both functional and topographical descriptions. By observing the antecedent- what happens immediately before the behavior occurred- and determining the function of the behavior as well as describing its topography, you gain additional insights into the behavior that you are observing. By combining these two methods- decribing the topography of a behavior and determining its function- educators and behavior specialists can help chose a replacement behavior and create an intervention, known as a  behavior intervention plan. Loaded Descriptions Versus Topography To truly understand how topography might describe a behavior, it can be helpful to look at loaded (emotionally tinged) descriptions of a given behavior versus topographical descriptions (objective observations).  Behavioral Learning Solutions  offers this method of comparing the two: Loaded Description Topography Sally got angry and started throwing items during circle time trying to hit others with the items. The student threw items or released items from her hand. Marcus is making progress and, when prompted, can say â€Å"buh† for bubbles. The student can make the vocal sound â€Å"buh† Karen, happy as always, waved goodbye to her teacher. The student waved or moved her hand from side to side. When asked by an assistant to put away the blocks, Joey got mad again and threw the blocks at the assistant trying to hit her. The student threw blocks on the floor. Guidelines for Topography of a Behavior When describing the topography of a behavior: Avoid value-laden descriptions, such as good, best, and bad.Describe as much of the behavior as you can in as objective a manner as possible.Ask another professional to observe the behavior and review the topographical description.Set aside time to observe the behavior more than once.   The topography of a behavior may also be referred to as the operational definition of behavior.