Int Econ Term Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Int Econ Term Paper - Essay Example The paper attempts to examine how far the economic growth in Vietnam and the Czech Republic in recent years is attributed to a large scale FDI received by them. The paper also explores about the impact created by FDI on exports from these countries. Impact of FDI in Vietnam Vietnam moved to market economy in 1986. Since then Vietnam has been able to witness exponential growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income. Vietnam's average growth rate between 1986 and 1990 is estimated at 4.4 percent that went up dramatically to 8.18 percent during 1991-95. This resulted into almost threefold increase in per capita income between 1988 and 1995; however, Asian financial Crises in 1997-98 acted as a dampener and the GDP growth rate slumped to 4.8 percent in year 1999. During the five-year plan of 2001-05, economy of Vietnam grew at the average rate of 7.48 percent doubling per capita income at US $639 when compared with 1997 level. And all this is attributed to the huge FDI tha t Vietnam received during the period. Between 1988 and 2006, total 8,266 FDI projects were registered with capital outlay of over US$ 78 billion. In 2006 alone, Vietnam attracted FDI to the tune of almost US$ 12 billion (Hoang and Tubtimtong, 2010). Varamini and Vu emphasize, "There is a statistically significant relationship between FDI and the rate of economic growth in Vietnam" (137). They strongly recommend that Vietnam should further revise their economic policies. If the Vietnamese government forays reforms in banking and financial sectors then huge portfolio investment may flow in Vietnam supporting FDI inflows. It is important to note that all in all 76 countries have provided FDI inflows in Vietnam in past two decades. Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea form a largest group of countries having invested in Vietnam comprising over 46 percent of the total FDI (Varamini & Vu). Anwar and Nguyen argue that substantial economic reforms and trade liberalization policies has c aused massive inflow of FDI resulting into substantial economic growth in Vietnam. Their findings reveal that a relationship does exist between imports and FDI and exports and FDI in Vietnam for the period between 1990 and 2007; however, the impact of FDI on exports is significant during the post-Asian crisis period rather than pre-Asian crisis period. Not only exports but also imports surged during the period with the rising FDI. Foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in Vietnam have played a significant role in increasing export base. While counting for FIEs share in total manufacturing goods export, it has gone up from only 20 percent to over 50 percent during the same period (Athukorala and Tien, 2012). Weakness in having global distribution networks, lack of brands and economies of scale are principal reasons restricting the growth of exports in developing economies. The crux lies in export-oriented manufacturing activity. That is why export-oriented FDI has done miracles in Vietn am; the Vietnam’s case reveals that transitional economies can serve as a strong export platform for MNCs. Authors emphasize that cheap labor and an improved legal environment has made Vietnam a potential place for multinational companies. It is estimated that a 1 percent rise in FDI inflows is expected to increase Vietnamese exports by 0.13 percent (Xuan and Xing). Impact of FDI in the Czech

Leadership in Paramount Furniture

Leadership in Paramount Furniture I am working in the paramount furniture and our organization running from 1989. We make a sofa sets, bed, bed sofa with New Zealand products. The organization located in 12 FG Dalgety Drive, Wiri, Auckland, New Zealand. The email address is [emailprotected] and our website is www.paramountfurniture.co.nz. I am the leader of one team in paramount furniture. The vision and value of paramount furniture are, we are make sure we will be one of the best furniture company in the New Zealand, making new and loyal customers with good quality of products, open new branches in out of the Auckland, the paramount furniture making a plane dealing with international companies and making good quality of products for customers. My team members are apricate with visions and values. They follow the all rules and regulations, they all are honest, hard worker and all are good communicator. I received feedbacks from customers about the products and then I held a meeting with my team member for telling the ir performance about their work. All customers are happy with the paramount furnitures products so that means my team member understand the companys vision and values. I am the leader of the one team in paramount furniture and I applied some time participative leadership while working in a team. It is good leadership style with working in the team on project. For example, When I need some suggestion regarding the project work, I asked to my team member give their own views then after the team members review I put all members views on the project and which idea is good for project, so I going with those ideas. In this way team member work with me and they give lots of ideas about the project work. Â   Â   Â   Some time I working with autocratic leadership. For example, if any team member didnt follow the rules of company so I mark their absent according to the companys handbook. Either if any team member come late daily I mark their absent for first tea break and said to him get out from here now. In this way, all team member will follow the companys rules and they concentrate on the project work, if they concentrate on the work the project will be finish easily in managed time. The work start in paramount furniture at 9oclock and I reach there at 8:30 am and set all the things about the work. I wear companys uniform while working which is showing the health and safety and all members come factory come early and wear proper uniform and all members know about the vision and values of paramount furniture so, all are working hard in factory and making a good products and new customers also. when we start working on the project, my behavior for my team members is like a friend and a family member not like a leader. In this way, all team member feel free and they work very well on the project. Good communication is the big difference between a company with a vision and values statement and a company with a clear sense of vision is that a company with a clear sense of vision to his employees who have very strong alignment with the organizations core values. According to the working style I have made the vision plane for my team members I know it will be good for achieving goals and objectives. With the help of this plan all team member can concentrate on the project and they work according to the vision and values of the company. On the other hand, in the paramount furniture there are different people from different culture who are working and I have to understand all the culture because it is important for me and for companys production. If I understand all peoples culture they apricate with me and doing work properly. In this way, I can motivate the all member easily and terms to achieve the companys goals and objectives. Moving further, first I gave the coaching to all team member about the project and how we can make it fast and easy and manage the time. If we work in a team our behavior should be very friendly and we should treat all team members like a family members. I am the leader so I should know about which members behavior is good or bad and if anybody have a bad behavior its my responsibility to teach them about good behavior in team. For example- there is 2 boys which are in my team they fight every time while the working and they didnt do work properly so one day I called those boys in meeting room and listen their problems. They didnt talk with each other after the meeting I solved their problems. Then I called meeting of team members and ask everyone if anybody have any problem with anybody tell me and I also told about the work in discipline with the team members. Task 2 Section 1 Behavioral expectation I making a gathering meeting of all my team members and give the information what does the vision and values of our company have and what they expected from you, the all vision and values also related with the clients needs, I give the all discussion which should be good at all time for the team members in the project working. I also told about our team rules to all members like- All members should be come factory at a time. Good and positive attitude with other members. Hard working while work in a team or on a task. All worker should be wear proper uniform while working. No mobile phone using while working. Performance agreements After finish the project I made performance agreements for all the members. This agreement shows their Responsibilities, outcomes and Actual performance. Minutes of meeting In the meeting, we decide the problem about the work with all team members and then give the possible solutions for solving the problem also tell about the work process according to the time management. Date- 7-03-2017 Time- 10:00 am to 10:30 am Place- Paramount staff room

Acutrim :: Research Paper Essays

Acutrim Acutrim is a stimulant which has two effects on the body. It is a decongestant and an appetite suppressant. The active ingredient in Acutrim is a compound called phenylpropanolamine. Its is an FDA approved, nonprescription appetite suppressant to be used with a weight loss program. The drug is initially effective in controlling excessive eating (unc-clos.tierranet.com/phenylpropanol.htm). Acutrim acts similarly to its chemical cousin amphetamine. The phenylpropanolamine acts on the hypothalamus, the region of the brain that controls the appetite, by increasing the amount of serotonin-- the chemical that affect mood and appetite. This decreases the appetite and increases the feeling of being full. Like all stimulants, it increases heart rate and blood pressure (www.phys.com/b_nutrition/02solutions/08diet/phenylprop.htm & www.clos.net/aaceobesity.htm). This supposedly can assist weight loss by increasing weight loss by about an additional five percent by taking 25 milligrams thirty minutes before eating three times a day, or by taking 75 milligrams of a slow-release formula every morning (unc-clos.tierranet.com/phenylpropanol.htm). When used as part of a diet plan, it may help you lose about an extra one-quarter of a pound each week. But the effect will only last for the first month of your diet. After that, the drug has no effect on weight loss. The weight loss may not be permanent, especially after the drug is discontinued (www.phys.com/b_nutrition/02solutions/08diet/phenylprop.htm). The most common side effects of Acutrim and the active phenylpropanolamine are nervousness, sleeplessness, throbbing heartbeat, irritability, headache, sweating, dry mouth, nausea and constipation (www.healthsquare.com/pdrfg/pd/monos/acutrim.htm).. It is seriously dangerous to take this medication while taking any antidepressant in the chemical family called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO), such as Nardil, Marplan and Parnate. If you are being treated for high blood pressure, depression, or an eating disorder, or if you have heart disease, diabetes, or a thyroid disorder, do not take Acutrim unless you will be monitored by your doctor. This product should not be given to children under the age of twelve (www.phys.com/b_nutrition/02solutions/08diet/phenylprop.htm). Although Acutrim’s utility for weight loss has been recognized for many years, however the research and medical findings confirm the theory that the active ingredient phenylpropanolamine is not an safe or permanent means of weight loss. An article by Andrew Jenkins in The Journal of Physical Education briefly describes one of the dangers

Emi Group Plc In The Music Publishing And Recording Industry Essay

Music and recording industry present interesting development due to the introduction of new artists and the development of new music genre, to name a few. In addition, the industry also experiences significant challenge due to the advancement in digital technology that drives the industry to find appropriate ways in winning the competition. The challenge occurs since there is a difference circumstances in the competition of media industry where previously the existence of new media does not eliminate the old media. The existence of commercial radio, for example, does not kill the print media like magazines and newspaper. Similarly, the existence of television broadcasting also does not eliminate the existence of radio and newspaper. In many cases, the television broadcaster also owns radio and newspapers companies to complement their media business. However, the situation may be completely different in the digital age where the existence of internet and the development of digital technology like file compression (MP3, mpeg, and file-sharing technologies etc) could completely kill the old model of music distribution such as compact disc. The so-called MP3, often refers to MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, is an audio encoding format that reduce the file size from tens of megabyte (when using WAV or compact disc format) into less than 5 Megabyte (MB) in MP3 format for one same song. Audio Galaxy and Napster are two companies that employ file-sharing technology that enables their members/customers to exchange their music or video with others members/customers (Karp, 2007). Immediately, the invention of new audio encoding format increases the sales of portable digital music players like iPod. Coupled with the increased international internet bandwidth, the exchange of MP3 files rises significantly. A number of websites that enable users or music lovers to download the desired songs in MP3 format also rises. Despite the attractiveness of MP3 technology for audio, MP4, and MPEG for video, the technologies causes severe violation of copyright as downloading music and video without paying royalties to the owners/singers of the music is considered as piracy in digital world/domains. Concerning the challenges in the music and recording industry, this paper will discuss about Emi Group plc, a giant in music and recording industry. In particular, there are several issues including the identification of strategic choices that EMI performs, EMI and its critical success factors in competing in the industry within the last five years, and the use of appropriate management concepts in evaluating the suitability of EMI’s current strategies to deal with future competition. 2. Aim and Objectives The objectives of this paper are to analyze current and future positions of EMI Group plc in the music publishing and recording industry. Systematically, we can derive the objectives into four points. First is to analyze the strategy of EMI Groups plc that positions the company in the music and recording industry. Second is to use the appropriate research methodology, this paper is to assess EMI Group plc and its critical success factor in the last five years. Third is to use the relationship of research approach, deductive, quantitative to explore key resources and capabilities of EMI in the next five years and assess whether they can create sustainable competitive advantage. And fourth is to use the non-participant observation method, collecting data and analyzing qualitative information from journal, books, magazine and online materials, this paper is to adopt the management concepts to evaluate the appropriateness of EMI’s current strategies for the future. 3. Porter’s Five Forces This section will discuss Porter’s five forces on EMI Group the recording industry which details the threat of new entrants, power of buyers, power of suppliers, rivalry among existing competitors, and the threat of substitute products for market place organizer or transaction service provider industry satisfy following diagram: Figure 1 Diagram of Porter’s Five Forces Source: Porter, 1998 3. 1 Rivalry In music publishing and recording industry, competitive advantage plays a significant role in winning a competition. This is because it represents not only the greater benefits in terms of products but also in other Ps of marketing mix (place, promotion, and price). The possession of specific competitive advantages increasingly important since nowadays, customers use emotional side than rational side when decide which products or services they want to use (Manjoo, 2003). The rivalry in recording industry is quite intense since EMI Group does not only compete with similar company like Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group but also illegal distribution both in traditional and web-based distributors through several kinds of file-sharing program like Napster. Napster becomes the catalysts of online music service (Rupley, 2003). In order to prevent the distribution of illegal copy of music, Hodges Shaw and Brian B Shaw (2003) says that government has persuaded users regarding importance of not using file sharing for copyrighted materials over the Internet by considering it as illegal actions. 3. 2 Barriers to Entry One of common barriers to enter a new market is brand loyalty or in terms of multinational business, the main barrier could be the nationalism. In music industry, one significant challenge that continues gains popularity is iTunes, a legal web-based music distribution from Apple Company. In music industry, especially regarding the competition between EMI Music and p2p companies and iTunes, the brand loyalty is obvious since the fever for iPod products has driven the use of iTunes to download legal music (Manjoo, 2003). The entry to some markets like educations gets fiercer as Jason E. Lane and Margaret A Healy (2005) revealed in their article File Sharing, Napster, and Institutional Responses: Educative, Developmental, or Responsive Policy that file sharing (including music, video, and file sharing) has been parts of students activities. They usually use the internet to share their favorite music and movies illegally. In addition, Scott (2001) and Dong et. al (2002) reveals that file sharing remains a popular services due to their offering free downloading music and video. 3. 3 Products Substitution Impact of product substitution is possibly the most overlooked factor although its impact is damaging. Therefore, it is imperative that business must not only look at what the company’s direct competitors are doing, but what other types of products people could buy instead. The products substitution for EMI Group is the introduction of various digital formats like MP3 and MP4 that easily downloadable that enables customers to convert the CD format to MP3 and distribute it by e-mail. This is because EMI Group mostly still relies on the distribution of music in CD format that they believe is still better than others do. Figure 2 Music Format Source: RIAA, 2006 3. 4 Buyer Power In music distribution and recording industry, there are some factors that influence buyer power including size of buyer (larger buyers will have more power over suppliers), number of buyers (when there are a small number of buyers, they will tend to have more power over suppliers), and purchase quantity. 3. 5 Supplier Power Concerning the supplier power in recording industry, we find that digital format developer that invent MP3 and p2p technology continue gain popularity that further drive the customers to increasingly avoid the use of products distributed by recording companies (Manjoo, 2003). 4. EMI Groups plc Strategic Position in Music Publishing and Recording Industry Realizing the fierce competition that occurs in the music and recording industry, EMI Group develops several strategies such as the selection of new talents that will hit the market and develop sustainable distribution strategy to speed up the existence in new market. Among the distributions system, EMI Group appropriately conduct joint venture with foreign companies in order to smooth their distribution. One of them is with EMI Televisa joint venture that helps EMI Group to distribute Celestial and other English language album (EMI Group, 2006). The decision to conduct joint venture is a good strategy to be implemented for EMI Group since it is a model in business that composes of two or more enterprises that join hand-in-hand to increase their competitive advantages. In this scheme, joint venture is somewhat similar to partnership but joint venture is derived from one business transaction. Joint venture is preferred because it can help companies to divide potencies, reduce threats, and raise competitive advantages in the market. Joint ventures can be formed as separate business units or cooperation between businesses (â€Å"Corporate Venture Strategies†, 2001). Developing a joint venture properly can obtain many benefits and advantages, such as dividing expenses and risks, enhancing right of entry to monetary resources, admission to innovative knowledge and consumers, and admission to new decision-making performs. Moreover, companies are able to have some bearing on structural development of the business. Conduction of knowledge and skills are also accomplished easily (â€Å"Corporate Venture Strategies†, 2001). 5. EMI Strategic Choice EMI Group plc is a well-known company in music and recording industry. The company is currently perceived as the fourth largest recording company in the world behind Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group. The company main business is the distribution of compact discs, videos, and other formats under the auspices of their subsidiaries and partners including EMI Records, Capitol, and Virgin (Yahoo Inc, 2008). The label company is behind the success of many famous artists such as Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, and The Beastie Boys. Currently, the company also handles more than one million songs. The strategic position of the company has attracted many larger companies such as Warner Music Group (WMG) to takeover EMI Group plc. Although many acquisition attempts, the company finally bought by Terra Firma, a private equity firm, for $4. 9 billion in 2007 (Yahoo Inc, 2008). 6. EMI and Its Critical Success Factor The winning strategy of EMI Group exists since the company is suitably conducting several strategies that benefit the company in the long term. One of popular strategy is the decision to outsource their CD manufacturing in Australia. This decision occurred in 2004 where EMI Music and Warner Music conduct agreement with Summit Technology Australia Pty Ltd to own CD Manufacturing business together (EMI Group, 2006). This strategy provides great benefits for EMI Group since the company significantly obtains costs reduction and helps the company to insulate the business from the effects of changing volumes. Figure 3 Reasons of Outsourcing Source: Outsourcing World Summit This is in line with the general benefits of outsourcing where costs reduction becomes the main issues that companies perceive. When discussing the outsourcing business model, the images refer to advantages that organizations obtain, especially refers to costs reduction. However, the benefits of outsourcing do not merely the cost reduction. Figure 3 shows six main reasons of carrying out outsourcing in an organization like EMI Group according to Outsourcing World Summit. Similarly, to costs reduction, outsourcing also provides benefits of helping the company to focus on core competencies. In theory, outsourcing is only used for delegation of non-core activities concerning the mission statement of the company. Nevertheless, many corporations outsource some of their core functions to gain more value in competitive advantage. Furthermore, many if an organization is able to develop a good relationship with its outsourcing partner, the long-term effect would be a sustainable competitive advantage. Another critical success factor is the decision of EMI Group to take benefits of digital technology. Previously, the company relies on tradition supply chain as shown in the Figure 4 below. In traditional supply chain (figure 4), we witness that recording companies make huge revenue and thus the profits from the two elements (in blue boxes). However, this model soon changes considering technology advancement in music like MP3 that immediately spawned illegal peer-to-peer music download over the Internet. Concerning the issue, coupled with wide coverage of high-speed Internet access, recording labels realize that they should change their supply chain to adopt the advancement in information technology as described in the following section. However due to the benefit that digital distribution provides, the company also offers the digital option for the supply chain (Figure 5). By developing the digital distribution, the company starts receiving significant growth on digital revenues. In 2006, digital revenue contributed about 8. 5% of total Group revenues. In addition, digital revenues also experienced significant growth by 78. 2% in 2006, providing more opportunity to receive more revenue from this technology (EMI Group, 2006). In this web-based supply chain model, we witness that recording labels are massively legalize licensing strategy that significantly fire up a legal digital music subscription (in contrast to Napster that was illegal). 7. Key resources and capabilities of EMI in the last Five Years and Suitability, Feasibility, and Acceptability Concepts There are several key advantages and resources the company possessed within the past five years. First is EMI Music keep finding new talents that bear success in UK and North America, in particular, and in the world, in general including Letoya, 30 Seconds to Mars. This strategy represents the feasibility of strategy taken by EMI Group since competitions between recording industries is mainly regarding the artists that the company manages their music creation. Second is the success of current managed artists including popular artist such as All Saints, Keith Urban, Norah Jones, Robbie Williams, and Depeche Mode. This artist management represents the suitability to manage the popular artists and release the unpopular one. Meanwhile, EMI Music Publishing successfully finds songwriting talent that result in the attractive performance revenues that represents the acceptability (EMI Group, 2006) 8. Conclusion In the basic marketing management study, four factors characterize the successful marketing; they are product, place, promotion, and price. In the recording industry while product represented by the artists, distribution or place factor also provides significant contribution to the company. This is in line with O’Brien and Springman (2004) suggestion that say companies should balance supply and demand since focusing entirely on the supply side may result in unnecessary capital expenditures, inventory investments or suboptimal solutions. Concerning the challenges in the music and recording industry, this paper has discussed about Emi Group plc, a giant in music and recording industry. In particular, there are several issues including the identification of strategic choices that EMI performs, EMI and its critical success factors in competing in the industry within the last five years, and the use of appropriate management concepts in evaluating the suitability of EMI’s current strategies to deal with future competition. Reference: Carlson, Scott. (2001). Napter Was Just the Start of the Bandwidth Invasion. Chronicle of Higher Education, v47 Corporate Venture Strategies’, [Online] Available at: http://www. 1000ventures. com/business_guide/venture%20strategies. html Daugherty, Tyson. 2002, ‘Creating a Digital Music Marketplace’, [Online] Available at: elab. insead. edu/publications/mbareports/ Creating%20a%20digital%20music%20marketplace. pdf Elizabeth Scott, M. S. 2008, ‘Music and Your Body: How Music Affects Us and Why Music Therapy Promotes Health’, [Online] Available at: http://stress. about. com/od/tensiontamers/a/music_therapy. htm EMI Group Limited. 2005, ‘EMI Group Overview’, [Online] Available at: http://www. emigroup. com/About/Overview/Default. htm EMI Group. 2004, ‘EMI continues manufacturing outsourcing strategy with agreement to sell Australian CD plant’, [Online] Available at: http://www. emigroup. com/Press/2004/press18. htm —. 2006, ‘EMI Group plc results for the six months ended 30 September 2006’, [Online] Available at: http://www. emigroup. com/Press/2006/press70. htm Forness, Megan J, ‘Copyright and Fair Use’, [Online] Available at: http://lrs. ed. uiuc. edu/students/forness/copyright. html Freeman, Jillian S. 2005, ‘The Pros and Cons of Sharing Music on the Internet’, [Online] Available at: http://www. angelfire. com/de3/jfreeman/termpaper. htm Harcourt, Robert H. and Robert W. Hutchinson. 2004, ‘Sup

Alfred Binet and His Life

Binet attended law school in Paris, and received his degree in 1878. He also studied Natural Sciences at the Sorbonne. His first formal job was as a researcher at a neurological clinic, Salpetriere Hospital, in Paris from 1883 – 1889. From there, Binet went on to being a researcher and associate director of the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at the Sorbonne from 1891 – 1894. In 1894, he was promoted to being the director of the laboratory until 1911 (his death). After receiving his law degree in 1878, Alfred Binet began to study science at the Sorbonne.However, he was not overly interested in his formal schooling, and started educating himself by reading psychology texts at the National Library in Paris. He soon became fascinated with the ideas of John Stuart Mill, who believed that the operations of intelligence could be explained by the laws of associationism. Binet eventually realized the limitations of this theory, but Mill's ideas continued to influence his work. In 1883, years of unaccompanied study ended when Binet was introduced to Charles Fere, who introduced him to Jean Charcot, the director of a clinic called La Salpetriere. Charcot became his mentor and in turn, Binet accepted a job offer at the clinic. During his seven years there, any and every of Charcot's views were accepted unconditionally by Binet. This of course, was where he could have used the interactions with others and training in critical thinking that a University education provided. In 1883, Binet began to work in Jean-Martin Charcot's neurological laboratory at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. At the time of Binet's tenure, Charcot was experimenting with hypnotism. Binet was strongly influenced by this great man, and published four articles about his work in this area. Unfortunately, Charcot's conclusions did not hold up under professional scrutiny, and Binet was forced to make an embarrassing public admission that he had been wrong in supporting his teacher. When his intrigue with hypnosis waned as a result of failure to establish professional acceptance, he turned to the study of development spurred on by the birth of his two daughters, Madeleine and Alice (born in 1885 and 1887, respectively). In the 21 year period following his shift in career interests, Binet â€Å"published more than 200 books, articles, and reviews in what now would be called experimental, developmental, educational, social, nd differential psychology† (Siegler, 1992). Bergin and Cizek (2001) suggest that this work may have influenced Jean Piaget, who later studied with Binet's collaborator Theodore Simon in 1920. Binet's research with his daughters helped him to further refine his developing conception of intelligence, especially the importance of attention span and suggestibility in intellectual development. Despite Binet's extensive research interests and wide breadth of publications, today he is most widely known for his contributions to intelligence. Wolf (1973) postulates that this is the result of his not being affiliation with a major university. Because Binet did not have any formalized graduate study in psychology, he did not hold a professorship with a prestigious institution where students and funds would be sure to perpetuate his work (Siegler, 1992). Additionally, his more progressive theories did not provide the practical utility that his intelligence scale would evoke. Binet and his coworker Fere discovered what they called transfer and they also recognized perceptual and emotional polarization. Binet and Fere thought their findings were a phenomenon and of utmost importance. After investigations by many, the two men were forced to admit that they were wrong about their concepts of transfer and polarization. Basically, their patients had known what was expected, what was supposed to happen, and so they simply assented. Binet had risked everything on his experiment and its results, and this failure took a toll on him. In 1890, Binet resigned from La Salpetriere and never mentioned the place or its director again. His interests then turned toward the development of his children, Madeleine and Alice, who were two years apart. This research corresponds with that done by Jean Piaget just a short time later, regarding the development of cognition in children. A job presented itself for Binet in 1891 at the Laboratory of Physiological Psychology at the Sorbonne. He worked for a year without pay and by 1894, he took over as the director. This was a position that Binet held until his death, and it enabled him to pursue his studies on mental processes. While directing the Laboratory, Theodore Simon applied to do doctoral research under Binet's supervision. This was the beginning of their long, fruitful collaboration. During this time he also co-founded the French journal of psychology, L'Annee psychologique, serving as the director and editor-in-chief. n 1899, Binet was asked to be a member of the Free Society for the Psychological Study of the Child. French education changed profusely during the end of the nineteenth century, because of a law that passed which made it mandatory for children ages six to fourteen to attend school. This group to which Binet became a member hoped to begin studying children in a scientific manner. Binet and many other members of the society were appointed to the Commission for the Retarded. The question became â€Å"What should be the test given to children thought to possibly have learning disabilities, that might place them in a special classroom? † Binet made it his problem to establish the differences that separate the normal child from the abnormal, and to measure such differences. L'Etude experimentale de l'intelligence (Experimental Studies of Intelligence) was the book he used to describe his methods and it was published in 1903. Development of more tests and investigations began soon after the book, with the help of a young medical student named Theodore Simon. Simon had nominated himself a few years before as Binet's research assistant and worked with him on the intelligence tests that Binet is known for, which share Simon's name as well. In 1905, a new test for measuring intelligence was introduced and simply called the Binet–Simon scale. In 1908, they revised the scale, dropping, modifying, and adding tests and also arranging them according to age levels from three to thirteen. In 1904 a French professional group for child psychology, La Societe Libre pour l'Etude Psychologique de l'Enfant, was called upon by the French government to appoint a commission on the education of retarded children. The commission was asked to create a mechanism for identifying students in need of alternative education. Binet, being an active member of this group, found the impetus for the development of his mental scale. Binet and Simon, in creating what historically is known as the Binet-Simon Scale, comprised a variety of tasks they thought were representative of typical children's abilities at various ages. This task-selection process was based on their many years of observing children in natural settings. They then tested their measurement on a sample of fifty children, ten children per five age groups. The children selected for their study were identified by their school teachers as being average for their age. The purpose of this scale of normal functioning, which would later be revised twice using more stringent standards, was to compare children's mental abilities relative to those of their normal peers (Siegler, 1992). The scale consisted of thirty tasks of increasing complexity. The easiest of these could be accomplished by all children, even those who were severely retarded. Some of the simplest test items assessed whether or not a child could follow a lighted match with his eyes or shake hands with the examiner. Slightly harder tasks required children to point to various named body parts, repeat back a series of 3 digits, repeat simple sentences, and to define words like house, fork or mama. More difficult test items required children to state the difference between pairs of things, reproduce drawings from memory or to construct sentences from three given words such as â€Å"Paris, river and fortune. † The hardest test items included asking children to repeat back 7 random digits, find three rhymes for the French word obeisance and to answer questions such as â€Å"My neighbor has been receiving strange visitors. He has received in turn a doctor, a lawyer, and then a priest. What is taking place? † (Fancher, 1985). For the practical use of determining educational placement, the score on the Binet-Simon scale would reveal the child's mental age. For example, a 6 year-old child who passed all the tasks usually passed by 6 year-olds–but nothing beyond–would have a mental age that exactly matched his chronological age, 6. 0. (Fancher, 1985). Binet was forthright about the limitations of his scale. He stressed the remarkable diversity of intelligence and the subsequent need to study it using qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, measures. Binet also stressed that intellectual development progressed at variable rates and could be influenced by the environment; therefore, intelligence was not based solely on genetics, was malleable rather than fixed, and could only be found in children with comparable backgrounds (Siegler, 1992). Given Binet's stance that intelligence testing was subject to variability and was not generalizable, it is important to look at the metamorphosis that mental testing took on as it made its way to the U. S. While Binet was developing his mental scale, the business, civic, and educational leaders in the U.  S. were facing issues of how to accommodate the needs of a diversifying population, while continuing to meet the demands of society. There arose the call to form a society based on meritocracy (Siegler,1992) while continuing to underline the ideals of the upper class. In 1908, H. H. Goddard, a champion of the eugenics movement, found utility in mental testing as a way to evidence the superiority of the white race. After studying abroad, Goddard brought the Binet-Simon Scale to the United States and translated it into English. Following Goddard in the U. S. ental testing movement was Lewis Terman who took the Simon-Binet Scale and standardized it using a large American sample. The new Standford-Binet scale was no longer used solely for advocating education for all children, as was Binet's objective. A new objective of intelligence testing was illustrated in the Stanford-Binet manual with testing ultimately resulting in â€Å"curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency (p. 7)† Terman, L. , Lyman, G. , Ordahl, G. , Ordahl, L. , Galbreath, N. ; Talbert, W. (1916). The Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Scale for Measuring Intelligence. Baltimore: Warwick ; York. (White, 2000). It follows that we should question why Binet did not speak out concerning the newfound uses of his measure. Siegler (1992) pointed out that Binet was somewhat of an isolationist in that he never traveled outside of France and he barely participated in professional organizations. Additionally, his mental scale was not adopted in his own country during his lifetime and therefore was not subjected to the same fate. Finally, when Binet did become aware of the â€Å"foreign ideas being grafted on his instrument† he condemned those who with ‘brutal pessimism' and ‘deplorable verdicts' were promoting the concept of intelligence as a single, unitary construct (White, 2000). From 1905 to 1908, Binet and Simon developed a test primarily for kids ages 3 to 15 that would compare their intellectual capabilities to other children of the same age. He did a lot of trial and error testing with students from his area. Binet studied groups of â€Å"normal† children, and also children who were mentally challenged. He had to figure out which tasks each group of students was able to complete, and what would be considered standard in the groups. The tests were held between one interviewer and one student, and determined what level of intellectual thinking the student had achieved. The invention of the intelligence test was extremely important to the field of education. Binet published the third version of the Binet-Simon scale right before he died in 1911, but it was still unfinished. If it were not for his early death, Binet surely would have continued to revise the scale. Still, the Binet-Simon scale was and is hugely popular around the world, mainly because it is easy to give and fairly brief. Since his death, many people in many ways have honored Binet, but two of these stand out. In 1917, the Free Society for the Psychological Study of the Child, to whom Binet became a member in 1899 and which prompted his development of the intelligence tests, changed their name to La Societe Alfred Binet, in memory of the renowned psychologist. The second honor was not until 1984, when the journal Science 84 picked the Binet-Simon scale, as one of twenty of this century's most significant developments or discoveries. He studied sexual behavior, coining the term erotic fetishism to describe individuals whose sexual interests in nonhuman objects, such as articles of clothing. He also studied abilities of Valentine Dencausse, the most famous chiromancer in Paris in those days.References http://www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/psychtesting/profiles/binet.htm http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/binet.shtml