Credit Score Essay Essay Example

Credit Score Essay Essay Example Credit Score Essay Essay Credit Score Essay Essay Thesis Statement: Credit scores are a fair measure to help lenders estimate potential risk. Thesis Statement: Credit scores are a fair measure to help lenders estimate potential risk. IThere are many different companies that specialize in credit scores. Some of these companies include Experian, Transunion, and Equifax are the three most popular credit bureaus in use today. A. Equifax – most up to date information, information good format and easy to understand B. Experian – very reliable information can be old data that is being used to estimate score. Not updated regularly and site is user friendly C. Transunion – very out of date information and site was hard to navigate with very confusing information D. Talk about different information that is on site II Each credit bureau finds and handles their information differently and each creit bureau has their own formula for defining a persons credit score. A. The generalized factors B. each bureaus individual factors C. how to boost those factors to help your score III For most people the idea of a credit score is daunting because until recently credit scores have not had such an impact on peoples borrowing. A. discuss what score actually is B. Who uses the scores C. ways to protect yourself against a bad score IV Recently with the newfound importance of a persons credit score, there have been issues with people falsely obtaining lines of credit using other peoples information A. discuss fraud and identity theft B. ow to find out if you have been a victim C. how to correct then protect yourself in the future V With the wide varitey of information that lenders do use to estimate a persons potential risk and the amount of information that is used to compute a persons credit score, it can be said with relief that a persons credit score is a fair measure when a lender is looking at an individuals risk potential. A. overview what is credit score made of B. how is information portrayed c. review quick how to find yourself and keep informed

Netball skills Essays

Netball skills Essays Netball skills Essay Netball skills Essay As you can see from the set of scores above I have improved in all areas. Some only slightly but I am pleased that the areas I have worked on for my netball skills have improved.  As you can see from the graph above I have improved in all areas from my first attempt. Although I havent reached the blue print 100% in all areas I am still pleased that I have improved. This means the five week programme I took out has made an affect. As you may notice on the speed and agility the scores have gone down. This is actually an improvement because it means I have completed the task in a faster time. Also on some of the scores I have past the 100% mark such as the speed, and on the co-ordination, endurance and power I have reached the target of 100%. Looking at the graph above I am very pleased with my results. Evalution When comparing my first set of scores to my second I can point out that I have improved on my weak areas that consisted of speed, endurance and the most important one I needed to work on was strength. I have also improved on the other areas this was because of following a personal exercise programme for five weeks in the school fitness suite.  In Swimming co-ordination is mainly hand/foot. This is used when you use your hands to pull you through the water and your feet to propel you through the water. After completing the first tests I noticed that this wasnt one of my weak areas so I didnt work on it. Although as you can see from the graph comparing results I did improve. Even though I only improved by 2 more catches this still brought me to pass the 100% mark and I am pleased with that. In my first set of tests I realised that strength was a weakness. This is needed in swimming for good strong strokes. For strength I worked on arm weight machines which included pull down and chest press. I increased my reps and weights each week of my programme and this has lead to me improving in my second attempt. Although according to the blue print scores I am still only 50% I am still happy that I have improved. To help me reach their target I am going to continue working on my arm strength in the gym. As my scores have increased this shows that my method is affective and has helped me. Speed is needed in swimming to win and move quickly through the water. As speed come out to be one of my weaknesses I worked on this on the treadmill, bike, cross trainer and the stepper. The stepper worked on the muscles in my legs leading to them becoming stronger which then lead to them being able to take more pressure. On the cardiovascular machines I pushed my self each time and increased the speed to my limit. According to my second attempt at the tests this has proven to have been a good strategy as I have improved to almost 100%. I am very pleased with my improvements in this component as it is needed almost all the time in a Swimming competition. In swimming agility is needed so that each competitor can successfully perform a tumble-turn. Agility wasnt one of the areas that I worked on in the fitness suite although as I have been working on the speed of my legs on the cross trainer this has caused me to improve. If ever in the future I feel the need to improve in this area I will take out a series of weights on my legs and some skill work with a swimming pool and other swimmers to compete. As I have improved in this area I will be more skill full in a swimming competition and be able to move quickly through the water. Power in needed in swimming so that a swimmer can quickly move through the water with speed and get a good strong jump. After I had completed the first set of tests I found out that this wasnt one of my weak areas. I didnt include this into my exercise programme. Although when looking at both sets of results I have slightly improved. It may not be shown to be much but I am still pleased that when not working on an area the other exercises I did take have lead to an improvement. I think this is a result of working on the cardiovascular machines a lot. I used the cardiovascular machines and these are good because as I have shown in my programme it can improve all areas. When I worked in the weight machines in my legs this has resulting in an improvement and this is good in swimming for when I am diving of the starting platform. Endurance is needed in swimming to keep the body going strong through out the race. When I completed the first set of results I realised that endurance did need some improving on. So in the fitness suite I pushed my body each time causing me to work longer and increasing the amount that my body could take. I worked mainly on the cardiovascular machines that were the treadmill and bike. I pushed my self each time this was to push my body to its limit. This has clearly worked as comparing the two set or results I have improved by quite an amount. On my first tests I got level 7 shuttle 7, on my second I got level 8 shuttle 4. This means I didnt just improve by one level. I also increased on my shuttle amount. I am pleased my results in this component of fitness. Overall I am pleased with my improvements. I have improved in all areas even those I didnt specifically work on. This indicates that I have become a better person and my personal exercise programme that I have taken out and completed my self has been a success. Hopefully this will go on to me being a much stronger competitor in swimming and maybe I will continue to use this plan to improve my skills even more.

International business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

International business - Essay Example To Black Well (UK) to effectively penetrate the business, a proposed entry strategy will be provided in the study. For the last part of the study, the impact of cultural and ethical factors in shaping the involvement of Black Well will be tackled. Prior to conclusion, recommendation on how Black Well should standardise its marketing mix within Holland’s floricultural industry will be provided. The strong support of Holland government in the development of floricultural activities is an important success factor. As a way of encouraging floricultural breeders to develop new variety of plants, the government protects them under the intellectual property rights to enable them to generate more income out of exclusively selling a specific plant variety (Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, 2008). Aside from protecting the players within the industry, Holland government also supports the development of more effective greenhouses by sponsoring the trials of newly innovated greenhouse that enables the growers to make use of surplus heat during summer which will be consumed as heat during winter or convert the heat into electricity (Alter, 2006). Since there is significantly large number of players within the Holland’s floricultural industry, the business players within the industry are experiencing tight competition in both domestic and international markets. For this reason, each business player need to pay close attention on having a tight quality control over cut and potted flowers to enable them to maintain a close business relationship with its domestic and global distributors and regular customers. Aside from giving importance with the tight quality control on horticultural production, each business player within the industry also need to continuously innovate new technology that will enable them to effectively produce their specialized floral species with less operational cost. (Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and

Summery Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Summery - Article Example This has raised question concerning the superiority of each strand of paradigm to another. This diverts attention of the main issues which are: activities to be included in requirements engineering, what institutes a requirement, and issue that need more attention. Requirements engineering activities involves the incorporation of standard mechanisms in fashions that are advanced instead of persisting with the exercise of reinventing the constituents themselves. What constitutes a requirement explains the complete statement of what the system will do without regarding to how it will do it. To understand this we should differentiate functional and non-functional requirements. Issues that are fundamental include: backing-up market-driven inventors, ranking requirements according to desirability and necessity, integration of design artifacts, accessibility of requirements methods and tools, and coping with incompleteness. For effective management of these requirements we should seek to avoid common mistakes like underestimating the cost of the shifting requirements, discovering wrong requirements when it is too late, lack of understanding the main user needs and problems, and lack of communication of urgencies and status to the team. The main objective for requirements engineering is to narrow the gap between research and

General Investment Discussion Posts Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

General Investment Discussion Posts - Assignment Example Wieland (2010) denotes that a passive investment strategy has a rate of return of 7% per annum. This, Wieland (2010) denotes that is the main disadvantage of a passive investment strategy. That is, an investor will not get a high return for his or her investments. Barnes (2009) denotes that an active strategy will incorporate a method in which an investor seeks to buy bonds or stocks expecting a high return. On this basis, its main advantage over passive strategy is that an investor can acquire unlimited return. However, this method is very expensive, and there is no guarantee of success. It is important to denote that approximately 80% of actively managed stocks usually underperform (Barnes, 2009). Those that perform well are not consistent over the years. On this basis, the best form of portfolio management is the hybrid system. This is because it is a combination of the passive and active investments strategies (Wieland, 2010). On this note, the hybrid system combines the advantages of these two investments strategies, as well as mitigating their disadvantages. Toporowski (2010) denotes that one major strength of a projected P/E is its ability to explain the degree of confidence upon which investors have on a company. Toporowski (2010) further denotes that a P/E which is low in value will imply that investors do not have confidence with the company. On the other hand, a P/E which is high will denote that investors have confidence with the company. Investors will therefore purchase the various securities and stocks of these companies. On this note, the projected P/E ratio provides a guideline in which investors will know a company that performs well or not. However, the P/E ration has limitations. This is because the P/E ratio uses earnings as its indicator. It is important to denote it is possible to manipulate the earnings of a company. On this note, it is therefore

It Happened On The Way To War Paper Essay Example for Free

It Happened On The Way To War Paper Essay It Happened On The Way To War is a book by Rye Barcott. This book talks about a marine who dreams of making a difference in the world. We read about his life, feeling as if we were a part of it. Three values that he clearly shows in this book are balance, leadership and Inspiration. Somebody once said that in order to succeed in life, you have to have a balance between your personal life and your professional life. Rye Barcott not only shows us the importance of having a balance, but he also shows us how hard it is to find that balance. While he was a part of the Marines, he was expected to transition easily from the combat mode to peace keeping mode. He thought that he will be able to separate the founder of Carolina for Kibera(CFK) from the marine that he was meant to be and vice versa. However as he started his journey, he soon realized how difficult finding balance actually is. After he came back from Kibera and started bootcamp. Rye noticed a difference in his performance. His said that for the first time in his life, he was in the bottom half of the class. â€Å" It’s like a dual culture shock† (90 Barcott, Rye) thats what is what his mother said that he was going through. This was the first time, we see Rye struggling to keep his personal and professional life separate. As time went by he was able to over come the cultural shock, however once he was an official marine. he was presented with a new challenge. He had to look at children that he was trying to improve the lives off, as potential suspects. As a marine he had to check kids that looked innocent for bombs and weapons and then then as a founder of CFK he had to go and help them. In my leadership class, I have been taught that in order to be a good leader you need to do 5 things. You have to model the way, inspire a shared vision, encourage the heart, challenge the process and enable others to act. In the book, Rye demonstrates most if not all of these 5 qualities. He modeled the way, by showing people that you don’t need to be rich in order to make a difference in the world, you just need dedication and a good group of people who are willing to work with you. When Rye met Salim, he decided to take take Salim’s vision of Kibera and make it his own. He inspired a shared a vision, Salim told Rye his dream about Kibera’s future and how he is currently trying to achieve it, however he probably did not expect Rye to actually support the dream or even come back to Kibera. However Rye shocked him by not only coming back to Kibera, but also by working with him to achieve his goal. Tabitha’s meeting with Rye is a great example of how Rye encouraged the heart.He had just met Tabitha and she was asking him to trust her and help her. There was no guarantee that Tabitha would succeed, but Rye supported her and helped her achieve her dream. Challenging the Process requires you to stand up and stand out of the crowd. There are many books published about a person and the amount of good her or she does in the world. However the reason that Rye’s story is different from others is because Rye is a marine. People are attracted to this book, because on the front cover the caption reads â€Å"A Marines Path To Peace† Which is very unique. When people think about the Marines, they think of war not peace. There aren’t many books about a marine that fights a war in the day, and runs a non-profit organization by night. The work that Rye does in his book, things like organizing soccer tournaments and trash clean ups, enables others to act. In order for the kids to play the sports, they have to help the community by cleaning up the trash. It taught the kids positive feedback. They did something good for others and in return they got something good out of it. This practice motivated the people of Kibera to act! This wasn’t the only way he enabled other to act, he was able to convince his friend Nate to help others and modeled the way for him. Inspiration is a huge deal in Rye’s life. He would have not achieved some much in his life, if he wasnt inspired by the people he met in his life. Tabitha and Salim showed him that even though they have faced many hardships, it is still possible to achieve your dreams as long as you work hard with passion and integrity. His teachers/professors at UNC helped him tremendously. When him and his friends weren’t able to get many funds, it was his professors that helped him get through, and motivated him and gave him guidance that eventually got him the funds that he needed. Not only did they guide him, but they helped him with his project. Professor Peacock and Kohn who he met in his freshman year helped him with his thesis in grad school and taught him how to run an effective non-profit organization. Even when he was a kid, his father’s marine friends were mentors for him. â€Å"My good fortune started when I was a bot.† (110, Barcott, Rye) They guided him and helped him realize his future plan. They guided him because they knew that he would in return be an inspiration and guide others in the future. Which is exactly what he did. He became an inspiration for the kids of Kibera. Rye Barcott’s journey in this book, wasn’t an easy one. The three values that he demonstrated in this book, balance, leadership and inspiration made him very unique. When he first started his journey, he did not have all three values, however as he grew as a person, he developed these values and tried to perfect them. Work Cited †¢ Barcott, Rye. Carolina For Kibera. N.p., n.d. Web. . †¢ Barcott, Rye. It Happend on the Way to War. USA: Bloomsbury, 2011. Print.

Socialisation Is A Fundamental Sociological Concept Sociology Essay

Socialisation Is A Fundamental Sociological Concept Sociology Essay Socialisation is a fundamental sociological concept as it is the way we learn to be a functioning part of the society we are in, how to become a member of the group. Socialisation starts from the moment we are born and there are many arguments that help to show how such socialisation is a continuous process. It continues throughout our lives to help us fit into and be accepted into the many groups within society that we encounter during our lifetime or to just adjust to the changes in our existing community. Although an Important social topic that affects all members of society at one time, widespread mainstream literature concerning gender socialisation is difficult to come by. As mentioned, socialisation starts from the day we are born, the very start, so to help understand socialisation as a whole, developing an understanding of some of its parts is helpful. For this piece of work I shall be focusing on gender socialisation and the impact it has on an individuals socialisation into society. The concept of gender socialisation helps us to understand how the notion of gender, what is expected of individuals as males and females in society and how much it matters. Throughout examining literature for this topic I hope to gain a better understanding of what academic sociologist have to say on this topic. The aim is to try to Identify important factors that impact gender socialisation and what literature is current on a similar topic. Has there been a change in attitude to such gendered socialisation and the idea or construction of gender? What are these and how are these developing; I.e. gendered parenting/modern schooling? I also would like to explore nature vs. nurture/boy vs. girl/male vs. female. What are these titles and how are they explained in a sociological way. I hope to gain a greater concept of gender theories and what is already known about my chosen topic. To help to develop my understanding of sociological explanations for gender socialisation I have approached several academic texts to help guide and aid my understanding. The first book that I revised is The Paradoxes of Gender (1999) by Judith Lorber. Written by Feminist and sociologist Lorber I found that this book challenges the basic idea we may hold of gender and its construction. Lorber argues that gender is a social fact constructed wholly by socialisation. Lorber also notes that gender is also a social institution, comparable to religion, the economy and the family as with it follows consequences and social significance. As a feminist Lorbers work focuses on the need for gender and how it is an inevitable fact that is important not only for the identity of an individual but also for societys construction. While I initially focused on Lorbers Text for a main point of reference I also followed up with works such as Women, Men and Society (1999) Renzetti and Curran, The Gender T rap (2012) Emily W Kane. These texts form the primary reading for this lit review. I supplemented these with more classical theory books such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Classical Sociological theory (2006) What is gender socialisation? There are many different theories of how gender socialisation happens and how/when it occurs. To help understand gender socialisation, an attempt at a definition is helpful. In its simplest form gender socialisation is how an individual learns and accepts the expected gender norms and values of the culture and society they are born into. Through this education they begin to develop a sense of identity and their ideas of gender become internalised and guide their behaviour. The Paradoxes of Gender (1994) attempts to explore all areas of Gender and the influences they have on gender identity and wider gender influences. To help with gender socialisation there are ideas within the wider concept that help to make up a persons gender socialisation. Lorber sees Gender norms as a set of rules appropriate for males and females; they are a set of expectations these expectations help to dictate how men and women are labelled, and therefore how they should behave. The rules and expectations follow on to become internalised and help to forma gender identity, which leads us to the second point highlighted to help gain an understanding of gender socialisation; Gender identity. Sociologists make a clear distinction between gender and sex. A persons sex is biological determined and gender is culturally learnt. Gender identity goes beyond just recognising the physical biological gender characteristics belonging to male and female and identifying them from each other. Gender identity is in fact an internal personal conception of how an individual view themselves as male or female. Gender cannot be equated with biol ogical and physiological differences between human males and females. The building blocks of gender are socially constructed. (Lorber 1994:17) How gender socialisation impacts Individuals life choices. Gender socialisation impacts all areas of social life and therefore does in fact make it an important topic of study. The way an individual is socialised in terms of their gender has an overall impact on daily life including that of social self, self-concept and the way we conduct personal relationships with others and the perceptions we make. Family, friends, social peers and outside uncontrollable sources are all agents through which socialisation occurs. Religion, mass media education and pop culture are becoming ever increasingly influential over socialisation and how an individual views themselves in respect to their gender. Boys and girls are treated different right from birth, this treatment is often primarily from members of their own environment, such as their parents, siblings and extended families, and the way they are treated helps them to learn the distinction between being male or female. Most parents create a gendered world for their new-born by naming, birth announcem ents and dress. Childrens relationships with same-gendered and different-gendered caretakers structure their self-identifications and personalities (Lorber 1994:25).Similar to The Paradoxes of Gender (2004), Men, Women and Society (2002) also addresses the many aspects of what we see as gender. One of the most interesting research topics explored in this book is the concept of how outside choices influence a childs gender socialisation. This is quite often transmitted through simple gestures such as the selection of gender based toys or giving a child a gender based task Research does show that children express gender based toy preferences as early as one year of age, but their toy choices may have been inspired even earlier by parental encouragement (Renzetti and Curran1999;74). These seemingly insignificant acts do in fact play a large part in the socialisation of children, and as a result how they develop their gender identity, and therefore their ender socialisation. A common th eme throughout all the literature based around gender, explore varying influences on what is gender and how it constructed. Nature vs Nurture vs gender identity. An influential and on-going debate amongst sociologists is the argument of the importance of nature vs. nurture in terms of gender socialisation. This ever evolving debate attempts to discover how a biological identity differs over individuals social surroundings to develop a gender identity. A biological and genetic gender identity fuels the nature area of debate whereas society and external influences help to form the idea of nurture. Many argue that to efficiently form an active gender identity, there must be a significant influence from either nature or nurture, but the question continues as to which is more influential, if either. In the Journal article The Nature of Gender Udry attempts to distinguish between what is sex; and what is gender. Gender is the relationship between biological sex and behaviour; a theory of gender explains the relationship. A gendered behaviour is the one that defines sex (Udry 1994;561). This idea and the theme of this article help to highlight my in itial argument about discussing how gender is a social construction. Sex is a given but a persons gender can be perceived differently dependant on how they behaviour. My project will attempt to further this idea by looking into how this behaviour is shaped and learnt. Children start to come into contact with such norms that define what it is to be masculine or feminine. What is acceptable or unacceptable behaviour is placed upon them in both conscious and unconscious ways. Young boys are taught not to show high emotion, to be strong and powerful whereas girls are showed how to be forgiving, docile and ladylike. If a child shows to be going against such expected norms then there is the chance that they can expected to be ostracised from their community or culture, or treated badly. In exceptional circumstances some cultures limit access to basic human rights such as nutrition health care. The treatment of genders in some cultures can also help to reinforce a separate gender identity, for examples in many third world cultures, girls have both different legal and ethical access to education so therefore go on to expect to be treated differently from boys, all based on their gender identity. Toy selection and clothing although seemingly innocent can i n fact play a crucial part in gender socialisation. Clothing plays a significant part in gender socialisation. As children become mobile, certain types of clothing encourage certain or discourage particular behaviours or activities (Renzetti and Curran 2002; 70) by this Renzetti and Curran refer to the idea that the way a child is dressed can influence their expected gender identity. For example a female child dressed in a soft, flowing or lace detailed dress would be expected to behave more soft and gentle compared to a male child in Denim jeans who would be accepted for rough and tumble behaviour. The Psychological and Biological explanations for gender. To develop a greater understanding of sociological explanations for gender socialisation it is also important to compare and contrast the arguments raised to those of another discipline. As Urdy notes it is important to consider new schools of thinking as social science stems from such thoughts. It is also impossible to study gender without noting the biological differences of human beings. Gender has biological foundations (Udry 1994 ; 571) One of the most prominent theories about gender acknowledgement comes from the school of psychology. Sigmund Freuds work focused on the importance of childhood and the experience that children experience that children gain throughout it, especially in relation to their gender. Freud noted that gender development is an unconscious experience that occurs through forming a bond with a parental figure. Although this project will focus on primarily the sociological explanations for gender socialisation many texts touch upon further academic disciplines who discuss the construction of gender. It is therefore important to include such references into my project, due to the reference through the literature I have reviewed. Societys expectations. Societys expectations of male and female positions within society have also changed over time. Throughout this project I hope to investigate the suggestion that societies tolerant of the changing gender of identity of females has become more positive. A rise in females in the workplace, taking on stereotypical male occupations (fire fighter, police force, and, engineer) and asserting dominance in regards to their position throughout society. Family socialisation can be seen to encourage female children to display characteristically male but male children are often scorned from displaying any stereotypical female behaviour. Girls are accepted even if they prefer to play with male orientated toys, if they were trousers or show an interest in rough and tumble but if a male child played with baby dolls or wore a dress may experience more negative reaction from society. Parents, through primary socialisation, can be seen to be more likely to encourage their daughters to these masculine qu alities then allow their sons to display feminine qualities (Van Volkon 2003) Here Van Volkon gives weight to the importance primary socialisation, through their family can have on a child. The role of women is seen to be changing in contemporary society, but does this mean that the main social gender identity is getting left behind? Conclusion. Looking at gender sociologically helps to reveal societal and cultural proportions of something that is generally thought of as biologically fixed. It helps us to understand how individuals are in a new viewpoint and to help raise and in the end answer new issues and debates surrounding gender. Throughout this project I hope to uncover answers to sociologically questions such as is gender culturally learnt? I am also interested in uncovering how important, or how much influence the family have on gender socialisation, especially in relation to children and childhood. To help with this the work of Emily Kane in The Gender Trap (2012) has proved useful. By conducting Interviews and observations of families, parents and children this literature helps to give empirical backing to the texts I have read throughout this review. Gender socialisation and how it is understood is an ongoing sociological question. Above is a brief overview of what literature I have found useful to attempt to study the subject of gender socialisation. As society can be seen as every changing I am interested in what such change, if any has on the construction and notion of gender. As understood throughout the literature reviewed modern institutions, such as education and the family, have great influence on society and how its individuals are taught how to fit in. Ideas and the construction of gender are constant with more radical forms of socialisation occurring i.e. gender neutral parenting and its societal impact. Not all the literature I have come across has proved useful to my project research, but this has allowed me to learn mistakes that previous research uncovered and helped to give my research direction and fresh thinking for future research. Throughout wider reading, I have concluded that using more contemporary sources and academic texts helped to give my research weight and productive reference. Introduction. The aim of this paper is to examine the influence that family has on gender development and the socialisation process. It will focus on how family influence can affect the construction of gender identity in children from birth through to the first year in primary schooling, around 5-6 years of age and also how the process of socialisation impacts parents. I shall attempt to examine both primary and secondary influences that can shape the gender identity of a family. The first part of this paper shall look at how becoming a parent can force an individual to have an influence on the gender identity of another and how this process may change their existing gender identity. Secondly this paper shall attempt to examine how the primary socialisation process impacts female children compared with male children. Society and its actors view the world through a series of lenses: those lenses can include class, race, age and gender. Society is full of stereotypes and the expectations that come with them. Social actors have little choice but to be subjected to learning these expectations and to submit to the influence they have on their personal identity. From childhood to adulthood our identity is constantly being reinforced as to what our culture and society wants and sees as acceptable. These stereotypes are expected of everyone but in fact may not be fair to all members of society. As they move through childhood, children are influenced by those that they interact with and are taught right from birth what it is to be a successful member of society. To understand the sociological concept concerned with the construction of gender, it is important to comprehend first of all the factors that influence ones gender construction. The continuing aim of this paper is to show that it is possible to identify different areas of gender socialization, which vary in their impact on children and those around them, which are essential to build up a gender identity. The best way to understand the concept of gender is to gain a basic knowledge of the concept it. From a structural perspective, gender is seen as the division of individuals within a society into contrasting and complementary social categories; boys and girls into men and women. In this conceptualisation, gendering in the process and a gendered social order can be seen to be the product of some kind of social construction (Lorber, 1994). Gender based norms can be defined as what we expect from males and females within society whereas gender stereotypes can be seen as how a society generalizes these expectations. Gender based stereotypes are generally first thought of being taught in the home, which are later reinforced by peer interactions, education and schooling, as well as widespread media contact. It can be seen that the family unit does in fact have the largest influence on a childs gender development. Their family members, parents in particular, overtly and covertly teach their child gender roles and reinforce the ideas of gender that they hold about themselves. Both socialisation, primary and secondary, cultural expectations and given biological attributes are all seen to influence an individuals gender identity and as a result has a significant effect on their personal identity. Vuorinen Tuunala, (1997) noted that Socialisation is the process, through which the child becomes an individual respecting his or hers environments laws, norms and customs. (pg45) From this, socialisation can be seen as a fundamental sociological concept and therefore is an important area of analysis. It is the way that individuals learn to be a functioning part of society and how to become an accepted member of the social group in which they are living amongst. Socialisation starts from the moment we are born and it is seen as a continuous process. It carries on throughout our lives, to help us fit and be accepted into the many groups within society that we encounter during our lifetime or to simply adjust to the changes in our existing community. The educational function that Murdock refers to, can also be termed socialisation. The family has the responsibility of transmitting a societys way of life, norms and values to the younger members. This function is an important one as, wi thout culture, the society could not survive, and too much deviation from the norm would disrupt the stability of the society. Classical sociology has also be long concerned with the process known as socialisation. Talcott Parsons (1959) has written about the functions of the family and identified two functions that he perceives as being basic and irreducible. For Parsons, the family provided primary socialisation of children and as a result, produced the stabilisation of the personalities within adults amongst wider society. [Haralambos Holborn, 2000, p.509] How children become socialised into different characters can be based on their sex. Through this more focused form of socialisation, boys and girls are repeatedly taught what it means to be male or female and what gender roles will be expected of them is termed gender socialisation (Giddens, 1993). Although it is an important social topic that affects all members of society at one time, widespread mainstream literature concerning gender socialisation is difficult to come by. There are many different theories of how gender socialisation happens and how or when it occurs. The two main theories I shall touch upon within this paper are social learning theory and as a follow on to this, social identification theory. These two theories are concerned with the development of gender identity and attempt to explain how the environment around an individual can influence their personal and social gender identity. Social learning theory proposes, established by Bandura (1971) that both gender identity and gender role are learned through a process including observation, imitation, punishment and reinforcement. On the other hand, social identification theory developed by Tajfel and Turner (1979) as a response to Bandura is based upon the notion that an individual portrays certain behaviours or an identity that reflects the social group to which they belong, to help them adapt and adopt the ways of the group. In its simplest form, gender socialisation is how individuals learn and accept the expected gender norms and values of the culture and society they are born into. Through this education they begin to develop a sense of identity and their ideas of gender become internalised and guide their behaviour. The mass media, wide spread social norms, environmental factors such as living conditions and even language distribute the stereotypes which influence social behaviour and therefore what is expected from gender in society. These external factors contribute to categorizing members of society and placing social label upon them. Examples of labels can include race, class and most importantly for this paper, gender. A shared stereotype is when an expected behaviour or conformity is mutual and accepted by all members of the social group, the way that individuals interpret this label determines how well they are accepted into their social group. Such gender stereotypes can be seen as a set of rules appropriate for males and females. These rules help to guide how males and females are labelled by their social group and indicate how they should behave, expectations become internalised and form an individuals gender identity. Separate stereotypes are linked to male and female members of society, with no two overlapping. Men are seen to be strong and emotionless whilst women are expected to show their emotions and are seen as submissive and gentle. For example, if a woman is seen to cry at an emotional moment in a movie, in a public cinema for instance, no individual around her would glance or question it, but if a male viewer was seen to cry openly and express such intense emotion, he may be exposed to ridicule or judgement. How fair this situation may be is often debated. For this paper the question of how such judgements occur will attempt to be answered. Why have social actors been encouraged to accept such stereotypes as a given? Why do individuals therefore find themselves accepting these roles for themselves? To understand gender identity it is important to make a distinction between sex and gender. Sex involves the biological and physical differences between men and women, whilst gender is culturally and socially learnt. Terminology such as male and female are sex based categories; however masculine and feminine are gendered categories. An individuals sex is a biological fact that is the same in any culture or society, nonetheless sex categorisation means, in terms of gender role as man or woman, can be viewed extremely differently across cultures ( WHO 2013). These gender roles can have a lasting impact in an individuals public and private identity. Although often used interchangeably, sex and gender are clearly different characteristics. Gender involves social customs, attributes and behaviours whereas sex can be seen as a more personal demonstration of such characteristics. In its simplest form sex is biological and gender is sociological. Gender role is seen sociologically as the characteristics and behaviours that society can attribute to the sexes. What it means to be a real man, in any society requires a male to be both recognised biologically as a man plus what the culture of that society defines as masculine characteristics and behaviours, likewise a real woman needs biological female attributes and feminine characteristics. Such stereotypical features are clearly defined for each sex, with those who break such guidelines being seen as deviant, outcasts in their given society. This paper will look further into what are expected gender behaviours and the sociological explanations for these expected personas. Gendered differences can depend on the given society and the cultural values, economic system, history and family structures that it holds, and are thoroughly maintained through these mediums. As a result of this a continuous loop-back effect between so called gendered institutions and the social construction of gender within individuals can be seen to exist (West and Zimmerman 1987) Gender identity goes beyond just recognising the physical biological gender characteristics belonging to male and female and identifying them from each other. Gender identity is in fact an internal and personal conception of how individuals view themselves as male or female and therefore how they conduct their actions within society. Gender cannot be equated with biological and physiological differences between human males and females. The building blocks of gender are socially constructed (Lorber 1994:17). As a social group, communities are embedded with gender, all members experience gender constructed experiences throughout their childhood, adolescence and eventually adulthood. These experiences are reproduced in and through those that they interact with. To what extent individuals accept the expected gender roles they are shown is debateable although no matter how much or how little they see themselves as masculine or feminine, gender can still influence their day to day existence. British sociology saw the only significant form of stratification within any given society was that of class. The term gender wasnt mentioned in early sociological thought, with any reference to difference between men and women categorised and referred to as sex. Sex being considered as an important and influential sociological concept only came into consideration with the emerging and developing feminist perspectives of the 1970s. Feminists had to fight through traditional theories to change existing thought on the concept of differences and inequalities brought about by an individuals gender and sex identity. Socialisation is a fundamental sociological concept and can be applied to many areas of society that are seen as important to sociological study. As highlighted earlier, socialisation is defined as the way in which an individual learns to become part of a group, including wider civilization, as well as their small immediate environment and community. Socialisation begins the moment an individual is born, and they encounter different degrees of the process throughout all their life stages in order to help them adapt to each and every social group they encounter. Socialisation also helps to equip a social actor with the tools they need to cope and bend with any changes that may occur within their existing social group. Given the importance of socialisation within the discipline of sociology as a whole, concentrating on a focused area of socialisation can help with building a general knowledge that can be applied to further study of sociology and its topics. Gender is something that is experienced and encountered by all members of any given society and there are many different theories about what exactly affects an individuals gender socialisation, but this paper shall focus on early socialisation and the influence family life can have in the socialisation process. Parental influence on gender identity A childs initial experiences come from their parents; therefore as a result their first experience with gender identity also comes from their close family environment. With the advancement in technology, expectant parents can learn the sex of their unborn child as early as 14-16 weeks into a pregnancy (nhs.co.uk). From that moment the words its a boy/girl! leave the technicians mouth, gender expectations begin. The most innocent of tasks such as buying a babys first blanket is gendered. A pretty pink flowered one for your baby girl is associated with the expectation that she will be soft and delicate, whereas purchasing a vivid blue truck covered blanket for the soon to be baby boy, can be seen to set him up to be strong and tough. Associating such gender traits in a simple act may seem extreme but it is just the start of teaching a child what is expected from their gender. The process of gender socialization can be seen to begin in the context of the family (McHale et al., 2003). The family unit is the environment that a child is introduced to the world in and what their developing gender demands. Although many factors are seen to have an influence on the socialisation of a child and teaching them what is expected from their gender, parents are seen to act as the principle source of socialisation, the primary socialising agents of a childs gender roles. (Block, 1983; Witt, 1997). Studies have shown that gendered treatment of children is evident in the first 24 hours after birth. Children internalize what they see from their parents behaviour and by the age of two, they have a compressive awareness of the difference in sex roles. Ruble and martin (1998) studied preschool children whose socialisation had only occurred at home (primary) and saw that children showed awareness of stereotyped gender traits. They could recognise males as having a higher power them females, but also associated negative connotations with a male figure, such as anger or unfriendliness, whereas they saw women as having less significant social standing but associated with positive traits such as kindness and approachableness. Children also demonstrated to discover gender identity through their own gendered perception. For instance, when asked to assign a sex or gender to a neutral doll, a girl would use female associations similar to them, whereas a boy child would make the doll into a male and demonstrate traits that are associated to societys masculine gendered attributes. Parents are seen to encourage such gendered behaviour by adhering to sex-based toys and games for their children, which have a heavy influence in the construction of gender identity and stereotypes. While both mothers and fathers contribute to the gender stereotyping of their children, fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often than mothers do (Ruble, 1988). Lytton and Romney (1991) conducted a meta-analysis of 172 parents and their treatment of the boy versus girl children they were raising. Within this study, Lytton and Romney discovered that out of multiple identified socialisation areas; the only area that showed mothers and fathers treating children differently was giving them activities based on their separate genders. Giving boys and girls activities initially based on their sex, resulted in an enforcement of gender roles and becoming gender orientated. Encouraging their daughters to play house or with dolls and prams, or by allowing their sons to play with trucks or building blocks, parents may both knowingly and unknowingly be encouraging their childs future gendered persona. Perhaps due to an influence of western culture norms, Lytton and Romney saw that parents scold and punish boys more severely in the advent of misbehaving or going out of their gendered expectations, then that they do with female children. This idea shall be further explored in a later section of this paper. A further study, this time by Cowan and Hoffman (1986), saw that a childs first words are also seen as gendered. For instance, being taught to assign a different name to each of their parents, mother for female carer and father for male carer, demonstrates how parental influence takes place. Hoffman also noted that the