Socio-Psychological Study of Personality Essay Example for Free

Socio-Psychological Study of Personality Essay Social psychology and personality psychology have the same job: to seek to understand the meaningful, consequential, and for the most part social behaviors of daily life. Cognitive psychology examines component processes such as memory, perception, and cognition. Biological psychology seeks to understand the physical underpinnings of behavior in the anatomy, physiology, functional organization, genetic basis and evolutionary history of the nervous system. Developmental psychology explores the roots of behavior in genetics and early childhood experience, and changes across the life course. All of these fields could be viewed as foundational for the common concern of social and personality psychology, which is to understand what people do every day. In this light, it is unsurprising that courses in social and personality psychology are among the most popular offerings on most college campuses; their subject matter is not only important, it is personally relevant and intrinsically interesting. This division of labor makes a certain amount of sense, but problems arose as the fields gradually became so specialized that many practitioners of each field became unaware of the basic principles, findings and methods of the other, and grew worse when social psychologists began to suspect that personality psychology’s emphasis on individual differences was misguided. In his memoirs, the eminent social psychologist Roger Brown described one memorably awkward encounter between the two traditions: Personality Psychology Personality can be defined as an individual’s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms – hidden or not – behind those patterns (Funder, 2007). The ultimate goal of personality psychology is to explain every individual from the inside out. The mission includes describing, measuring and explaining how people differ from one another, uncovering the conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings that drive behavior, and predicting what people will do in the future, among other goals. But this mission has one problem: it is impossible. The complete study of the individual encompasses too many considerations at once to be feasibly pursued by investigators with human limitations of time and intelligence. The Basic Approaches to Studying Personality Biological Approach The biological approach to studying personality searches for the organic roots of individual differences using anatomy, physiology, genetics, and evolutionary theory. Anatomy. Research focusing on anatomy attempts to identify brain structures that play a role in various personality traits. For example, research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has shown that shy people, compared to people described as more â€Å"bold,† respond to pictures of unfamiliar people with bilateral activation of the amygdala, and to pictures of familiar people with activation on just the left side of this organ (Beaton, Schmidt, Schulkin, Antony, Swinson Hall, 2008). The challenge for the next generation of research will be to use these intriguing findings to illuminate aspects of personality that were not previously apparent, and to outline psychological processes and interactions among them that are not detectable from overt behavioral data alone. Modern imaging technology offers a theoretical promissory note that will someday be paid but, to date, remains to be cashed. Physiology. Biological research on personality also addresses physiology, examining biochemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones) that might be associated with individual differences in behavior. Dopamine and serotonin are widely studied neurotransmitters. Research suggests that dopamine is involved in the experience of reward and the reinforcement of behavior (Blum et al., 1996), while serotonin plays a role in emotional regulation and feelings of well-being (Knutson et al., 1998). The hormone testosterone has received considerable attention and appears to play an important role in sexual behavior and aggression (Zuckerman, 1991; Dabbs Morris, 1990, respectively). Cortisol, the well-known â€Å"fight or flight† hormone associated with anxiety, fear and aggressive response, appears to be surprisingly low in shy individuals (Beaton, Schmidt, Ashbaugh, Santesso, Antony, McCabe, Segalowtiz Schulkin, 2006). But it also is low in people high on the trait of sensation-seeking, so the situation, as always, is complicated (Zuckerman, 1998). Behavioral Genetics. Behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology both focus on the inheritance of individual differences in behavior. For the good and the bad, we are more similar to people with whom we share more genes (e.g., our parents) than fewer genes (e.g., our cousins). We look like our parents, we are more likely to have high blood pressure if our parents do, and we even have an IQ level similar to our parents. Behavioral genetics extends this knowledge and studies the question: Are those who are more genetically similar (e.g., monozygotic twins) more similar in personality compared to those who are less genetically similar (e.g., dyzygotic twins)? Decades of research has established that most and perhaps all personality traits are heritable to some degree. Indeed, one authoritative researcher seriously suggested that â€Å"the first law of behavioral genetics† should be everything is heritable (Turkheimer, 1998, p. 789). Genes matter, to at least some degree, to a ny psychological outcome and certainly any personality trait. Evolutionary Psychology. Evolutionary psychology studies behavioral patterns proposed to have been adaptive during the development of the human species. It assumes that behaviors that are common to humans (a) have a genetic basis and (b) increased the likelihood of survival and/or reproduction during evolutionary history. The more a behavior helps an individual to survive and reproduce, the more likely the behavior is to be genetically transmitted, and therefore, appear in subsequent generations. Evolutionary psychology has particularly focused on variation in sexual behavior between males and females. It is commonly hypothesized that gender differences in behavior that are still present today exist because, in the history of evolution, the behaviors that increased the likelihood of reproduction for males were different from the behaviors that increased the likelihood of reproduction for females. Psychoanalytic Approach While biological research seeks to identify the specific physical foundations of behavior and personality, the psychoanalytic approach often operates on a level of almost metaphysical abstraction – one that, nonetheless, leads to unique insights and, on occasion, testable hypotheses. Psychoanalysis seeks to understand personality at the deepest psychological level and takes on the unique challenge of explaining what is going on in the hidden and sometimes dark recesses of the human mind. From a psychoanalytic perspective, personality is shaped by early childhood experiences and behavior is ultimately determined by the outcomes of unconscious processes and conflict. The psychoanalytic approach focuses on constructs such as the unconscious mind, defense mechanisms, attachment, and ego-strength. Humanistic Approach The humanistic approach was originally based on an even less scientific tradition than psychoanalysis. Early pioneers, such as Carl Rogers (1951) and Abraham Maslow (1987), believed that personality is a special entity that cannot be studied dispassionately from a distance. They argued that unlike rocks and trees, people can perceive, think, and feel, and this fact makes the study of people fundamentally different from other sciences and more difficult than is usually acknowledged. The humanistic approach proposes that the key to understanding behavior requires appreciating each individual from his or her own unique perspective. Humanism is also different from the other approaches in that it focuses on human strength, growth, and well-being, rather than human weakness. Humanistic psychology’s core concern with how people construct their views of reality is echoed in cross-cultural research, which involves understanding the ways in which people from different cultures may have fundamentally different views of the world. Learning-based Approaches Classic behaviorists ignore concepts like happiness and construals of reality because their approach strictly dictates that they study only that which can be directly observed. Behaviorism is a learning-based approach to studying personality and it places heavy emphasis on overt behavior and the rewards and punishments in the environment that condition individuals to behave in certain ways. From this perspective, personality is simply the behaviors that an individual performs as a result of environmentally imposed reinforcement contingencies. Cognitive Approach The cognitive approach, which evolved from and overlaps with the social learning theories, focuses on perceptual processes, thoughts and beliefs, and motivational processes that form the basis of personality and behavior. One way of conceptualizing personality traits is to think of them as dimensions along which people think and perceive information differently. For example, one person might have the disposition to have positive thoughts more readily accessible, whereas another person might have the disposition to have negative thoughts more accessible. Trait Approach The trait approach to studying personality places individual difference constructs (i.e., personality traits) front and center. According to Allport (1931), traits are psychological mechanisms that determine people’s responses to stimuli. He believed that traits motivate and organize an individual’s behavior and knowing an individual’s traits requires observing his or her behavior repeatedly. Such observation will reveal the consistent behavioral patterns from which the underlying psychological mechanisms can be inferred. From this perspective, traits are like gravity. Gravity is a concept that describes the force of attraction between objects and explains a wide range of astronomical observations (e.g., how planets orbit the sun). Similarly, traits are psychological concepts that are used to describe individual differences in behavior and give coherence to a wide range of psychological observations. Nobody has ever seen either gravity or narcissism directly, but perhaps their nature can be discerned from their effects. Behavioral Assessment of Personality The foundation of empirical personality psychology is the observation of behavior – the only way to examine a personality construct is to propose a behavioral manifestation and then observe it. This is true regardless of the nature of the construct, which, as we have seen, might be anything from stimulus generalization, to rejection-sensitivity, to self-esteem, to conscientiousness, to gender identity. The scientific study of personality rests on the following simple formula: P → B. A researcher might theoretically view P as causing B, or view P as a summary of B, but the method of study remains the same. Single Traits When a researcher develops a personality test that measures a single trait, the trait is usually one that that seems particularly important and a huge effort may be made to explore all possible implications. The traits that receive this kind of attention vary over the years, for reasons that may be less than clear. Some traits appear to become well-known and widely researched because they address a social issue that seems particularly important at the time. Multiple Traits Other widely-used personality tests measure a large number of traits at once. The â€Å"many-trait† inventories are typically used to examine the many possible psychological characteristics that are related to an important behavior or life outcome. For example, the California Adult Q-set[1] (CAQ: Block, 1978, 2007; Bem Funder, 1978) consists of one hundred descriptions of specific psychological attributes (e.g., Is critical, skeptical, not easily impressed; Is a genuinely dependable and responsible person). Essential Traits Finally, some personality research is motivated by the question: Which personality traits are the most important? Currently, the most widely accepted answer to this question is the Big Five. The Big Five represent the culmination of more than a hundred years of research aimed at reducing the many possible personality traits to an essential few (Galton, 1884; Thurstone, 1934; Allport Odbert, 1936; Cattell, 1943; Fiske, 1949; Tupes Christal, 1961; Norman, 1967; McCrae Costa, 1987; Goldberg, 1990; Digman, 1990). Research on the Big Five traits is based, in part, on the lexical hypothesis (e.g. Goldberg, 1981), which proposes that anything truly important to human life will be labeled with words. This idea suggests that the most important personality traits will be encoded in language. Therefore, researchers extracted trait-adjective words from the Oxford Dictionary and factor analyzed ratings of them, many times over, along with scores on a multitude of personality inventories. Beyond Self-report Although self-report questionnaires have traditionally dominated the literature and probably deserve credit for having contributed most of what has been learned about personality, they entail two major disadvantages. First, people may sometimes be unwilling to reveal undesirable aspects of their personalities. Second, people are not always aware of every aspect of themselves. Several studies suggest that people rate themselves higher on socially desirable characteristics (e.g., trustworthiness) and rate themselves lower on undesirable characteristics (e.g., laziness). Person Perception and Accuracy The way that an individual is perceived by others is highly consequential. Reputation determines the opportunities that others will make available to the individual and the expectations they will hold. A person with a good reputation will be trusted and find that other people like him or her; a person with a bad reputation probably not get the job that he or she wants, not attract his or her love interest, and be generally disliked. Moreover, a people tend to live up or down to their good or bad reputations because they tend to behave in ways that confirm the expectations of others (Rosenthal Rubin, 1978; Snyder Swann, 1978). The study of how people perceive one another is a major research topic in social and personality psychology (Macrae, this volume). It is called â€Å"person perception research† within social psychology and â€Å"accuracy research† within personality psychology and the difference in labels is more than superficial. The two research paradigms are based on fundamentally different philosophical perspectives, focus on different aspects of social perception, and are studied using different methodologies. Person Perception Person perception research in social psychology is based on social constructivism, in the sense that it treats the views people have of one another as mental constructions, a property of the social perceiver rather than of the person who is described. Therefore, the focus of person perception research is on the cognitive processes that underlie the construction of impressions. Accuracy Research Accuracy research within personality psychology follows a fundamentally different strategy. It is based on critical realism (Rorer, 1990), a philosophical approach which asserts that the best way to assess a judgment is in terms of multiple fallible external criteria that probabilistically indicate the degree to which it is a true reflection of reality[2]. Methods of Accuracy Research. The primary methodology involves comparing multiple sources of information about a person in order to evaluate the degree to which a personality judgment is accurate. For example, if Person A is judged to be high in extraversion by his or her acquaintance, we can evaluate this judgment by comparing it to Person A’s self-judgment of the degree to which he or she is extraverted, to direct observations of Person A’s behavior (e.g., does Person A talk more than others?), and to relevant life outcomes (e.g., does Person A successfully engage in an occupation that requires being outgoing and energetic?). Accuracy research differs from person perception research in that the typical study uses real people as the target of judgment and gathers personality judgments from people who know them in real life along with other indicators such as self-judgments, behavioral observations and life outcomes. Competition Although the accuracy and person perception paradigms differ in many ways, they are potentially complementary. It is not difficult to imagine an interdisciplinary effort that combined social cognition and accuracy research into one big theory that ultimately explained how people perceive one another. However, deep philosophical and methodological differences between social and personality psychology have stood in the way of this integration. Towards a Cooperative Social-Personality Psychology The most useful way to consider situational and personal variables is as interactional partners. This view was operationalized in Lewin’s (1936) well-known formula: B = f (P,S), which explicitly defines behavior as a function of the person and the situation. This equation implies that if we knew all of the relevant psychological properties of a person and all of the relevant properties of his or her situation, we could predict with high precision what the person would do.

How Do Humans Acquire Language? Essay -- essays research papers fc

How Do Humans Acquire Language?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Humans live in a world full of communication. Humans possess a native language that separates them from other animals. Language is developed within the first few years of a person’s life. By the time one is a child; he can speak and understand almost as well as an adult. Children world-wide exhibit similar patterns of language acquisition even though they may be learning different languages. How humans learn even the most complicated languages has perplexed the minds of many scientists. Two of the most popular beliefs on language acquisition today are held by Skinner and Chomsky. Their opposing belief on how humans acquire language has become the two standard views on this complicated issue; however, other researchers have also reported convincing theories.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some theories of language acquisition that are not as commonly recognized as Skinner’s or Chomsky’s theories are still important in understanding language development. â€Å"Even before using any words, the infant learns to communicate through gestures, facial expressions, and reciprocal vocalization with a caretaker† (Levine 4). These nonverbal behaviors are very important for an individual’s speech development. Another author, Fromkin reported that: Children diagnosed at birth as mentally retarded acquire language in the same way as those with normal intelligence. Not only can children learn any of the thousands of languages that exist in the world, they do so without being overtly taught. It is difficult, if not impossible, to account for this ability without assuming that the brain is genetically ‘pre-wired’ for language. (2) One renowned researcher of language acquisition, Pinker, endorses language as being an instinct. The term instinct conveys the idea that: People know how to talk in more or less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some unsung spider genius and does not depend on having had the right education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spider brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to succeed. Although there are differences between webs and words, [†¦] it helps to make sense of the phenomena. (5) Pinker also acknowledged that Darwin was the first to articu... ...suggested that language was developed through observational learning and classical conditioning. Some people believe that language development is a combination of the two theories and language development cannot occur unless both are present. Thus far, it is not precisely known how humans develop language. If researchers discovered how humans acquire language, they may be able to solve the problem individuals with hearing impairments experience or prevent hearing impairments from occurring. Works Cited Berry, Mildred. Language Disorders of Children: The Bases and Diagnoses. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Fromkin, Victoria. â€Å"The State of Brain/Language Research.† Language, Communication, and the Brain. 66 (1988): 189-214. Gazzaniga, Michael & Heatherton, Todd. Psychological Science: Mind, Brain, and Behavior. New York: Norton, 2003. Hamaguchi, Patricia. Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening Problems: What Every Parents Should Know. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1995. Levine, Linda. Great Beginnings for Early Language Learning. Tucson: Communication Skill Builders, 1988. Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: Morrow, 1994.

How important is it that Othello is black?

Othello's race and colour are explored in the play, especially in terms of his interracial marriage with Desdemona and therefore are very important and significant. The play ‘Othello' generates dichotomy views on the issue of race at that time and the different confrontations of it allow us to acquire a perspective on Elizabethan attitudes as well as to consider our own argument. One could argue against the importance of Othello's colour like A.C. Bradley who introduced a contention, which acquaints us with such an argument. However, even though Bradley's aspiration to respond to race in a humane manner is hesitant, it is reasoned as he focuses on character and motivation. Bradley fails to observe the racial issue a very significant one and considers it to be: ‘unimportant in regard to the essentials of Othello's character.' He does not find Othello's colour damaging to his dignity either: ‘He comes before us, dark and grand, with a light upon him from the sun where he was born' and recalls that in his view an Englishman would have been as much a victim as this Moor in these circumstances. An interesting issue that many critics debate about is Othello's precise ethnic origins, taking great pains to prove that Othello would have been Arabic in appearance. What Bradley explains on this issue is: â€Å"Perhaps if we saw Othello coal-black with the bodily eye, the aversion of our blood†¦would overpower our imagination†. He most probably had in mind a very dark skinned African Othello, which he argues would be inappropriate for the play. A further argument against the importance of Othello's race could be seen from Jane Adamson who recalls nothing on the debate about the exact shade of Othello's skin, apart from the fact that it is absurd. She assumes that the significance of race in the play: â€Å"has usually been over-emphasised by 20th century critics and producers†. I too agree with her acuity of the matter and furthermore stress to highlight the unsuitable overemphasis on the aspect of Othello's skin colour because other elements in the play such as the tragedy of the play are being isolated. On the basis of being against the importance of Othello's colour and race, it could be argued that Shakespeare presented a black hero instead of a white one to introduce the idea of difference or simply included it as a stage decoration, and from Bradley's point of view if anyone congratulated Shakespeare on the â€Å"accuracy of his racial psychology† – he would have laughed! It is also fair to argue that Othello's race is a very important and crucial issue that many would say interferes with the ethics of the Elizabethan principles at that time, but some chose to find justifications in order to come to terms with Othello, his race and his presence in the play. In his criticism Calderwood focuses on Othello as an extreme outsider amongst the Venetians: â€Å"Moors were simply outsiders, the other who is not like us† however he concludes by awarding Othello his acceptance due to Othello's Christianity. Throughout his criticism Calderwood does not stop supporting the idea of Othello being an outsider, by calling him a ‘sub-human' and emphasising his Moorish and demonic qualities by stating that the Venetian people were ‘honest citizens' and Othello was a ‘deceitful infidel' who was more closely related to animals and the ‘Prince of Darkness'. Nevertheless Calderwood contradicts himself as he jumps from criticising Othello about his race to excusing his dislocation in Venice by accepting the Moor based on his Christianity and his similarity with the Venetians in religion and affirmative actions. Calderwood goes on to reinforce his viewpoint by saying that with his new Christian attitude and lifestyle Othello essentially belongs in Venice â€Å"because he is newly washed in the Blood of the Lamb† and he is not actually an evil enemy amongst honest citizens. He also insists that although Othello is from a different race that comes with many negative associations as well as that he was a former ‘infidel', he should be accepted based on his positive Christian characteristics. Bearing in mind the argument put forward by Calderwood, it is necessary to consider the subsequent viewpoint: Could it be argued that perhaps due to the criticisms, needless and false comments from different characters like Iago on the subject of Othello's race and his marriage to Desdemona a negative transition occurs from a noble Christian to a traditional black Moor? The pressures of Othello's marriage and the negative reactions of those around him do add to his downfall, all of which race is a major factor of, and that underlines the importance of Othello's race in the play. Calderwood set up Othello as a terrific monster, and attempted to renovate him as a Christian, who was worthy of being accepted into his surroundings, however in my opinion, in attempt to explain why he feels Othello deserved the acceptance because of his Christianity, Calderwood's contention is unconvincing but interesting as its an intriguing justification for such a important question of matter in the play as ‘race'. It is difficult to settle on one aspect of the dispute as the contentions introduced by Bradley, Adamson and Calderwood seem to evolve into an assumption against the importance of Othello's colour and race. I must however stress to extend the argument in favour of the importance of Othello's race and colour. All criticism of the marriage is based solely on ‘racial considerations' and this provokes characters to turn against Othello. At the beginning of the play Othello sees himself as worthy of Desdemona's love and his self-perception is that of equality with Desdemona. He accentuates this when he says: ‘She had eyes and chose me' (III.3.192). Othello begins as a respectable Christian general, however, with extensive criticism such as Brabantio's, Othello loses confidence and becomes easily persuaded by Iago who views Othello as a ‘violently jealous fool like all Africans' and ‘a lascivious moor' (I.1.125). With his insight on the nature of Othello, Iago's menacing and insidious racism deteriorates throughout the play and causes the obliteration of the black and white harmony that existed before and causes Othello to behave in an artificial way setting him into an utterly destructive fury that destroys himself and his marriage. When Iago annihilates Othello's positive perception of Desdemona, Othello starts to feel the threat towards his honour and articulates his anger by speaking of his colour in a cynical way: â€Å"Her name, that was as fresh as Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black as mine own face† (III.3.389-91). It is a good example to show how Othello's unawareness of the significance of his race changed by Iago's racism and cruel intentions, turned him into a completely different person, conscious of his displacement and Desdemona's infidelity. Desdemona alone has always acknowledged Othello's inner worth: ‘I saw Othello's visage in his mind' (I.3.252), and even when his morality was concealed she preserved her vision: ‘†¦his unkindness may defeat my life, but never taint my love' (IV.2.162). She is unswervingly loyal to Othello and even when she dies, she declares her love for the inner, obscured Othello, saying: ‘Commend me to my kind lord' (V.2.126). Desdemona identifies her husband's jealousy as ignorable and continues to give him her love to the fullest extent: ‘†¦my love doth so approve him, that his stubbornness, his checks and frowns †¦have grace in them' (IV.3.19). Considering the controversial notions, it is also crucial to analyse attitudes to race in the Elizabethan era, as historicist or Elizabethan attitudes to race in the 16th century were very different to the attitudes now. One could argue that Othello's race, being black in colour, had a shock value effect on Shakespeare's audience. To the Elizabethans Othello's skin colour would not only have displayed a ‘visual ugliness', but moral inequalities. His interracial marriage with Desdemona – a white female, also added to the antipathy of the audience, but also to their interest and excitement as it could be seen that the contrast in their skin colours would in fact provide the exciting theme of forbidden love, but it is the subplot which indicates the threatening atmosphere of hate and distrust in the play. In Vaughn's argument, the critic's focus is on the reaction of the Elizabethan audience towards Othello. She states that Othello's dark race proved to be â€Å"visually significant to the reaction of the audience† and that his physical nature gives visual evidence of him not belonging to his Venetian surroundings. Vaughn reveals that Elizabethans were fascinated by Othello's experiences and related his black colour with â€Å"negation, dirt, sin and death†. His explorations and adventures also contributed to his ‘otherness' and his ‘foreignness' with the connections to ‘nakedness, savagery, and general immorality'. It is true to say that at that period of time the Elizabethans would recognize having black skin as having satanic qualities and perversion, and would link the vilest qualities to African and Moorish people. I believe that the Elizabethan audience could have been appalled by the joining of such ‘contrasting figures' and probably viewed Othello's blackness as being associated with dirt, filth, and the devil as in the Elizabethan mind Othello's race proved him inferior and unworthy of Desdemona and all her positive Venetian qualities. Whereas in modern day criticisms, such a matter would not be concerned as an issue worthy debating about, because ethnic groups became very accepted in England and the different approaches to the issue of race help us acquire different interpretations. Elizabethan environment at the time of the play was tense and the generalizations that were made during that time. Her observation on these generalizations helped to clarify and explain the stereotypes made during the play. Despite the insight into the reaction and thoughts of the Shakespearean audience, the article tended to be repetitive by restating the negative qualities that were associated with Othello's race instead of explaining why they were associated with one another. Concluding could it be argued that Shakespeare made Othello black in order to explore dislocation along with opposition and the consequences of such issues? It would be inconsiderate to ignore the importance of Othello's race in the play because it is most definitely a significant matter. In order to slightly captivate his audience, Shakespeare could have easily added a slight feature in Othello's complexion to add the foreign affect that would be enough, or he could have even made him completely white, nonetheless Shakespeare insisted upon the blackness of Othello as otherwise there wouldn't be the mention to intentionally repellent imagery.

Product Innovation - A Report on Plastics - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1482 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Uncategorized Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? Introduction Plastics have inspired and continue to give an impetus driving innovation that helps to solve societyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s greatest challenges from lifesaving technologies to more sustainable living. In 1850s, plastics were first introduced by Alexander Parkes in the UK while the demand for natural polymers like amber, tortoise shells and animal horns was increasing but their supplies were limited (Andrady and Neal, 2009). As created to have similar and comparable properties to those natural polymers, plastics or synthetic polymers have been accepted to be innovative products and widely used in all industries. To date, there is a very few thing around the world which are not made of plastics. What are Plastics? Plastics are synthetic materials which typically are produced by polymerizing small single molecules known as monomers derived from petrochemical plant (Thompson et al, 2009) or other organic materials such as wood fibers, corn or banana peels. They are divided into two main categories, namely Thermoplastics and Thermosets. Significantly, the majority of plastics produced are Thermoplastics due to being moldable, reheated and reformed repeatedly without chemical change, whereas the latter can be formed only once and will be decomposed after reheat (Gloag, 1946). Although there are many different types of plastics in each group with different characteristics, all plastics have their general attributes including resistance to chemical, thermal and electrical insulators, lightweight, various degree of strength and wide range of characteristics and colours (American Chemistry Council). They can be mixed with a wide range of additives, depending on required finished products, to improve mechanical, physical or chemical properties such as foamed structure, flame retardancy, surface appearance improvement or friction reducing (American Chemistry Council). Plastics consumption Since they can imitate natures, plast ics inevitably have been involved and revolutionized our lives for more than a century. The amount of global plastic production has increased over the last 60 years, from 1.7 million tones in 1950 to approximately 280 million in 2010 (Plastics Europe, 2013). Interestingly, there are four main reasons for such an increase in plastics consumption. Firstly, plastics can enhance their properties relating to toughness, lightness and chemical resistance by adding various types of chemical additives. For example, plasticizers allow plastics to be more flexible. This can be found in food packaging and processing such as plastic film wraps (American Chemistry Council). UV stabilizers, in particular, are added to prevent plastic degradation. Thus, the normal addition of various additives leads to both radical and incremental products innovation in all industries including packaging industry, building and construction industry, automotive industry, electrical and electronic industry and oth ers (Plastics Europe, 2013). Secondly, plastics can be molded and transformed into a wide range of forms which are necessary in all industries ranging from clothing to cutting edge technologies. Thirdly, in comparison with natural materials, plastics are inexpensive and capable of industrial cost saving. Therefore, they replace most of previous key materials such as natural polymers like metal and woods. Lastly, culture change also has an impact on the demand for plastics. Plastics were taken into account as an innovation in packaging industry, as Figure 1: World plastic production Source : Plastics à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the Facts 2012 : An analysis of European plastics production ,demand and waste data for 2011 replacement for glass and aluminium packaging, when consumers demanded for product visibility (Lange and Wyser, 2003). Although most of plastics are not transparent, they can be added some additives to create transparent plastics, such as Acrylic (polymethla methacrylate), Butyrate (cellulose acetate butyrate), Lexan (polycarbonate) and PETG (glycol modified polyethylene terphthalate). Societal benefit of plastics 1. Plastics reduce carbon monoxide emission from transportations. Due to their light weight, plastics reduce vehiclesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ weight and fuel burning, resulting in less carbon monoxide emissions which contribute to global warming. Nowadays, 20 % of private or public vehicles is made of plastics, typically in door liners, steering wheels and electronics, to make vehicles lighter than using other materials such as metals (Andrady and Neal, 2009). Wings and fuselage of Airbus A380, for instance, are designed to use 22% of carbon fibre plastics compound and consequently can result in 15% fuel saving (Plastics Europe, 2013). 2. Plastics offer health benefits in many ways. In food industry, plastics are used extensively as food containers. PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate), in particular, is normally employed fo r drinking water bottle, to keep food and water fresh and reduce food and water waste (American Chemistry Council). More importantly, plastics can protect water from contamination caused by water supply. Thus, metal pipes in original pipe system which became rusty because of Oxidation of iron in water (BBC Bitesize) were replaced by plastic pipes. Additionally, in medical aspect, plastics also offer a wide range of medical advantages such as medical packaging and devices including blood and IV bags, supporting tubes, syringes and surgical equipment (SPI, 2013). Obviously, they are incorporated into hospital design as they assist in easy cleaning and sterilizing operation room as well as isolation area against infectious and medical advance technology, especially involving restoration of heart, joints and teeth functions and creation of artificial plastic blood (Plastics Europe, 2013). 3. Initiate economics growth and employment opportunities. As great demand of plastics, there are more than 1.6 million people are employed in the European plastics industries with 300 million euros turnover (Thompson et al, 2009). 4. Plastics enable more efficient renewable energy. Plastics can be used for an innovation of generating renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy. To produce wind energy by windmills, using fibre-reinforced plastics (FRIP) in production of a plastic blade and a plastic rotor offers 33% saving on Greenhouse Gas emission (GHGs) which are the major factor of climate change (Plastic Europe, 2012). In addition, 98% of solar cells are plastic photovoltaics which provide more cost-efficiency, flexibility and GHGs saving than rigid silicon solar cells (Plastic Europe, 2012). 5. Plastics lead to advance technology. Plastics possess the properties of thermal resistance, light weight and lower cost. Consequently, they are always engaged in developing electronic products and applications. For example, in hybrid solar cells, a new generatio n of solar cells from a combination between plastics and nanotechnology causes lower cost and is easier to be produced than their semiconductor counterparts. 6. Improve building and construction performance as well as save energy. Insulation foams or Polystyrene (PS) is recognized as one of the most energy-efficient building materials. By comparing insulation properties between insulation foam and concrete, 1.6 centimeters thick of rigid plastic foam is equivalent to 1.3 meters concrete thick (Plastic Europe, 2012). Furthermore, an installation of plastic applications such as doors and windows frames tends to be easy as they are lighter than other materials. Also, plastics can be used for road base-courses. A Styropor foam, commonly known as EPS, is a thermoplastic replacing concrete in construction of road when load-bearing subsoil is poor, to prevent soil deformation from the weight of concrete (GeoTech Systems Corporation, 1993). The potential example in this respect is the 10 0 % recycled plastic bridge in the Onion Ditch Bridge; a new bridge in Logan County, Ohio, whose important parts were water bottles and detergent bottles which were made of PET plastics. In construction and civil engineering, plastics are usually molded into I-Beam or I-shaped sectors in order to create strength and lightweight (Rhey, 2012). Opportunity to be failure products Although plastics become basic components in all industries as they bring numerous societal benefits, there are several concerns that might cause their failure in the future. Firstly, plastics cause public health problems. Most of additives, including bisphenol A (BPA) ,which are found in many products such as medical devices, food containers, cosmetics, toys and flooring material, and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE), are toxic and can transfer directly from plastic packaging to human (Thompson et al, 2009). The second is waste management problems. Owing to their durability, plastics require a great amount of time for degradation or biodegradation, depending on the chemical compounds of materials and additives added. Moreover, they never burn easily as they melt and bubble and cause a terrible and dioxin smell. Most importantly, plastics cause environmental problem. If they are destroyed by burning, they will emit hazardous gas such as hydrogen chloride gas which causes greenhouse effect and eventual climate change. Moreover, if they are buried into the land, it will bar eluviation of rain water, possibly resulting in flood. Even though 26% of used plastics such as plastic bottles can be recycled, a considerable proportion of 38% is arranged into landfill (Thompson et al, 2009). As a result, toxic from additives in plastics will contaminate surrounding environments like rivers, seas or oceans. Conclusion Plastics are described as a very successful product innovation indicated from a continuous increase in demand and their productions. There are three main succes s factors for plastics to become success innovative product. Firstly, their adaptable molecule structure for various unique properties such as flexibility and durability and forms lead to many technological advance in all industries. Secondly, they bring numerous societal benefits including health and environmental benefits and employment. Lastly, they have lower cost than other materials. However, there is an opportunity for them to obtain failure in the future because they can bring about important problems, particularly concerning environment and public health. 1 Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Product Innovation A Report on Plastics" essay for you Create order