Child Recognition of Emotions

Child Recognition of Emotions CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Human emotions serve as a means of expression, often indicating an individuals internal conscious experience or physiological arousal. Emotions also serve as a form of communication, alerting individuals to important aspects of their environment and their relationships with other individuals. Emotions influence a persons actions, cognitions, and how they are perceived by others (Strayer, 2002). For example, emotions may influence how individuals respond to an environmental threat, as feelings of sadness may indicate a withdrawal of behavior or feelings of fear may engage the activity of flight (Strayer, 2002). The experience of emotions, in turn, provides individuals with meaning about both their internal and external environments and information about how they should respond to a social situation. The ability to develop an adequate understanding of emotions is known as emotional competence. More precisely, emotional competence is defined as a demonstration of self-efficacy in emotion-eliciting social transactions (Saarni, Campos, Camras Witherington, 2006, p. 250). For children, one way to gauge their emotional competence is to examine their ability to perceive their own emotions and the emotions of others (Saarni et al., 2006). This type of assessment allows researchers to determine an approximate measure as to childrens emotional development level. The first skill of emotional competence is for children to develop an understanding of self. Through an ability to be aware of their own personal emotional experience, children begin to develop self-conscious emotions. Feelings of shame, guilt, and embarrassment, for example, allow children to refer to themselves as having conscious awareness that they are distinct from others (Lewis, 1993, 1995; Mascolo Fischer, 1995). In addition, childrens emotional competence is developed through an ability to be aware of multiple emotions or to feel that their emotions are in conflict with their environment (e.g., ambivalence; Stein, Trabasso, Liwag, 2000). As children become aware of their own emotions, emotional development is strengthened and refined. A second important skill development to emotional competence is for children to make sense of others inner states (Saarni et al., 2006). Specifically, children learn to comprehend and interpret others behaviors and begin to realize that others are capable of forming their own beliefs and emotions (for a review see Dunn, 2000; Halberstadt, Denham, and Dunsmore, 2001). Understanding the distinction between ones own emotions and the emotions of others is crucial to emotional development in children. For instance, studies indicate that childrens ability to accurately identify emotions in self and in others may work as a gauge to assess social competence (Halberstadt et al., 2001). In these types of studies, childrens social competence is established by correlating their understanding of emotion terms, facial expressions, and elicitors of emotion terms (e.g., situational descriptions of a happy or sad event) with their social competence rating from teachers ratings or by peers sociometric choices (Saarni et al., 2006). Childrens ability to distinguish differences in emotional features in combination with how others view their ability provides a measure of their social competence. Monitoring childrens social competence allows one to identify socially disadvantaged children and implement effective coping strategies before any harmful, long-term effects manifest (Benford, 1998). Through childrens awareness of their own emotional state, in combination with the skill to discern others emotions, children begin to achieve more effective emotional processing skills. Understanding childrens emotional processing is important because it affects many social outcomes, such as childrens helping behavior (Chapman, Zahn-Waxler, Cooperman Iannotti, 1987, Miller Jansen op de Haar, 1997), aggressive responses (Harris Siebel, 1975), and self-control (Ceschi Scherer, 2003). Few studies, however, have examined how emotion affects childrens abilities to accurately identify the emotional state of others. Consequently, the present study sought to examine the effects of childrens own emotional states on their social/cognitive abilities to recognize emotional states in others. More specifically, this research sought to understand how positive, negative, and neutral emotional states of children affected performance on emotion recognition tasks that utilized different levels of cognitive complexity. By utilizing two types of emotion recognition tasks, the research examined the influence of differently valenced emotions on childrens social-cognitive abilities. Results may help to expand existing social information processing models by incorporating the influence cognitive complexity and affect may serve in childrens recognition of others emotions. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Understanding Others Emotions through Facial Expressions The ability for children to understand what others are experiencing emotionally develops through an interaction between the awareness of their own emotional experience and the ability to empathize and conceptualize the causes of emotions in others (Saarni et al., 2006). In addition, the more children learn about how and why others act the way they do, the more they can make inferences about the emotional state of others. Children typically rely on facial expressions to infer others emotional state (Ceschi Scherer, 2003; Holder Kirkpatrick, 1991). The face is considered the primary indicator of human emotion (Ekman, 1992). For example, body gestures are easily concealed (e.g., hiding a clenched fist behind ones back) or verbal communication can be eliminated by simply refusing to speak. Facial expressions, however, are more difficult to disguise (Ekman, 1993). Additionally, the diversity in an individuals face allows for a variety of emotional expressions, each associated with a distinct facial expression (Ekman, 1993). Facial expressions serve a dual purpose; facial emotions can indicate a persons internal emotional state or function as symbols referring to something else, such as a form of communication (e.g., deterring or placating someones actions; Lewis Michalson, 1985). Facial expressions are commonly used as a means for gauging emotion states in research. By 2 Â ½ years, children can distinguish a number of basic emotional states in the facial expressions of adults, but do not always label them accurately (Izard, 1971). At 5 years, children can accurately label 41% of the emotions depicted in a set of adult photographs (Odom Lemond, 1972). Overall, young children can recognize some of the more common emotional expressions as displayed by adults (e.g., MacDonald, Kirkpatrick Sullivan, 1996). By the ages of 11 or 12, most children recognize and verbalize that a persons expression may be both a social and an emotional response (e.g., Underwood Hurley, 1999). Consequently, children realize that a persons facial expression may indicate both the individuals internal state (e.g., I am feeling sad), as well as what the cues represent socially (e.g., I am expressing my feelings of sadness towards others). Each form of emotional expression is essential in order for children to interpret and comprehend anothers emotion (Underwood Hurley, 1999). Developmental Differences in Childrens Understanding of Others Emotional Experiences As children mature, they acquire greater abilities to make inferences about what others are feeling (Gross Ballif, 1991). Children, in an attempt to understand the emotions of others, begin to combine facial and situational cues. The ability to combine these cues, however, is strengthened and refined as children age. The easiest emotions for children to discern are positive ones (Saarni et al., 2006). Children can more readily identify happy reactions in a naturally occurring setting as compared to negative reactions (e.g. Fabes, Eisenberg, Nyman, Michealieu, 1991). Negative facial expressions, on the other hand, such as sadness, fear, and anger, are more difficult for children to decode. Negative emotions become easier to interpret, however, when they are paired with an emotion-eliciting situational context (Saarni et al. 2006). In addition, the causes of negative emotion are easier for children to decode than causes of positive emotion, an explanation that appears consistent with negative emotions eliciting a more intense response (Fabes et al., 1991). For example, children can easily determine the causes for their goal failures because it is an undesired consequence. Developmental differences are apparent when evaluating childrens understanding of the causes of emotions (Fabes et al., 1991). Younger children (i.e., 3 year-olds) are more prone to attribute causes of emotion to a persons wants or needs, whereas older children (i.e., 5 year-olds) make use of others personality traits to determine their future reactions to an emotional event (Fabes et al., 1991). Children aged 5 to 10 years can use a characters past experience to determine the characters reactions to a new situation (Gnepp Gould, 1985). For example, if a characters best friend harasses him, children aged 5 to 10 can infer how that character will later react to seeing the best friend on the playground. The developmental difference is evident in the quality of the response. Younger children are more likely to infer what the character is feeling solely through the current situational information (e.g., the character would be pleased to see the best friend), whereas older children are m ore likely to use the prior experience to evaluate how the character will react (e.g., the character will avoid the best friend on the playground; Gnepp Gould, 1985). Further support for this developmental difference is that younger children (i.e., preschoolers) are more likely to infer the emotional state of others when a characters emotional cues are presented explicitly (e.g., pictorial representation of the characters face) as compared to older children (i.e. school-aged) who can adeptly determine the characters response when less explicit cues are utilized (Lagattuta, Wellman, Flavell, 1997). These investigations demonstrate that by school age, children are well equipped to identify emotional expressions in others. Although there are developmental differences in childrens abilities to identify reasons for the emotional expression, by the age of 5, children generally distinguish differences in emotional cues and identify different types of emotional expressions in others. Integrating Cognition and Emotion There has been considerable interest in how children interpret, encode, and respond to social environments. One such model that attempts to explain the relationship is the social information processing model (Crick Dodge, 1994). The social information processing model assumes that the way in which children understand and interpret social situations directly influences how they respond behaviorally (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). In turn, the social information processing model offers an explanation for how children process and interpret cues in a social situation and arrive at a decision that facilitates their understanding of the social environment (Crick Dodge, 1994; Dodge, 1986). For any social interaction, children utilize their past experiences and biologically determined capabilities (e.g., memory store capacity) in order to rapidly assess the situation (Crick Dodge, 1994). To illustrate the social information processing model, imagine a child who gets pushed on the playground by another child. First, the child must encode the social cues (both internal and external) to determine what happened (attention, encoding) and then determine why it happened (interpretation: an accident or on purpose?). In the third step of the model, the child begins to clarify his or her goal in the social situation (e.g., goal to show others he/she wont tolerate the behavior). In step four and five of the model, possible responses to the situation are generated in terms of anticipated outcomes and how those actions relate to the individuals goals (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). The child may choose to retaliate in response to the other childs actions or the child may choose to not retaliate for fear of the situation escalating. Finally, the majority of children generally choose the most positively evaluated response with respect to goals and anticipated outcomes before the behavio r is enacted (e.g., the child ignores the push and walks away; Crick Dodge, 1994). The social information processing model has been useful in assessing how children encode and interpret social situations. The model, however, does not specify how emotion affects the processing strategy (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Lemerise and Arsenio (2000) argue that it is possible to expand Crick and Dodges models explanatory power by integrating emotion processing with social information processing. Before integrating emotion and social information processing, it is important to understand the relationship between the two. Emotions and cognitions may appear similar because both are types of information processing, but the way each influence human behavior makes them distinct (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Emotion is about motivation; cognition, on the other hand, concerns knowledge. This view is shared by many functionalist theorists, neurophysiologists, and some cognitive theorists (e.g., Campos, Mumme, Kermoian, Campos, 1994; Damasio, 1994; Oatley Jenkins, 1996). Because cognition and emotion are two distinct processes, an attempt to devise a model that integrates and utilizes the two is pragmatic. In Lemerise and Arsenios (2000) social information processing model, the researchers added and expanded to Crick and Dodges (1994) original concept. In particular, the researchers implemented other emotion processes that could influence accessing and evaluating responses. As an example of this approach, intense emotions can interfere with the steps of Crick and Dodges model where children assess possible responses to a situation (Steps 4 and 5). For example, children with intense emotions may react negatively to a social situation (e.g., becoming easily upset and running away), thereby reducing the probability that they will interpret and encode the situation from the perspective of all parties (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Intense emotions, in turn, can influence how a child responds in a social situation. In addition, the childs reaction to the soci al situation may be dependant on whether he/she cares about and wants that person to like him/her (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Emotions heavily influence this social decision making process. It is difficult to adhere to a social informational processing strategy without accounting for the influences emotion may serve. Support for the role emotions play in social information processing has been demonstrated in more recent research (e.g., Orobio de Castro, Merk, Koops, Veerman, Bosch, 2005). Specifically, researchers examined the relationship between emotional aspects of social information processing and aggressive boys. After hearing a series of vignettes that instilled provocation by their peers, participants answered questions concerning social information processing, including feeling of their own emotions, the emotions of others, and emotion regulation. Aggressive boys used less adaptive emotion-regulation strategies, attributed more hostile intent to others actions, and reported less guilt concerning their own actions (Orobio de Castro et al., 2005). For aggressive boys, anger attribution (i.e., encoding of emotions) significantly influenced the interpretation step of the social information processing model, a view that is consistent with Lemerise and Arsenios (2000) model. Clearly, emotions can influence childrens social information processing strategies. By combining emotional processing with social decision making processes, researchers can expand Crick Dodges models explanatory power, perhaps offering further insight into the influence emotion serves for childrens cognitive abilities (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000). Induction of Positive and Negative Affect Researchers examine emotional influences on social information processing and other social behaviors by experimentally inducing emotions and assessing the effects (Bryan, Mathur Sullivan, 1996; Bugental Moore, 1979; Burkitt Barnett, 2006; Carlson, Felleman Masters, 1983; Masters, Barden Ford, 1979; Stegge, Terwogt Koops, 2001). Inducing affect typically consists of an experimenter having subjects recall events that make them happy or sad before examining their responses to a variety of social and cognitive problems. These problems can range from measures of altruism, self-gratification, or delay of gratification (Bugental Moore, 1979). For this type of induction procedure, the researcher asks the child to recall and reflect upon a happy or sad past event for approximately 30 seconds to 2 minutes (Bryan et al., 1996). This type of procedure allows psychologists to examine how affective states influence individuals social and psychological behaviors (Bugental Moore, 1979). Pre-recorded videotapes or audiocassettes are another technique used to implement positive or negative affect in children (e.g., Carlson Masters, 1986; Rader Hughes, 2005). The recordings improve the reliability and standardization of the affect inductions. The recording typically follows the same procedural method as the other affect induction studies (e.g., Carlson et al., 1983; Masters et al., 1979; Moore, Underwood, Rosenhan, 1973)—the person reading the script (e.g., actor, puppet) asks the child to ruminate on a past experience that is positive, negative, or neutral for approximately 30 seconds. For any procedural method chosen, it is important to validate if the affect induction actually takes place. There are multiple methods for conducting manipulation checks. Procedures include: having two or more experimenters rate the childs mood and assessing interrater agreement (e.g., Carlson Maters, 1986); having participants use a word item check-list to indicate their current mood (e.g., Vosburg, 1998); or comparing if the performance of children in the positive or negative condition differs from those in the neutral condition (e.g., Bugental Moore, 1979; Stegge et al., 2001). As demonstrated in past research, the induction of positive and negative moods is experimentally possible. Positive and Negative Affect and Emotional Processing There are a number of experimental studies that demonstrate the influence of childrens emotional states on a variety of emotional processes and behaviors, such as altruism (Chapman et al., 1987, Miller Jansen op de Haar, 1997), aggression (Harris Siebel, 1975), and self-control (Ceschi Scherer, 2003). One study, in particular, induced positive emotional states in a group of 5-6-year-old children to examine their responses to social comparison situations where the participant was rewarded unfairly, sometimes in the participants favor, sometimes in anothers favor (Carlson Masters, 1986). Children were exposed to one of three emotion inducing conditions: self-focused happy, other-focused happy, or neutral. After the children focused on their own happy emotional experience (self-focused) or the emotional state of a friend (other-focused) or had no emotional focus (neutral), they and other players received a reward for participating in a game. Children received either more (positive inequality) or less (negative inequality) of an award as compared to the other players. Children in the self-focused happy condition did not demonstrate a reduction in generosity after receiving an inequality of rewards (Carlson Masters, 1986). The authors interpreted their results as supportive of the po sition that positive mood facilitates tolerance of aversive experiences (Carlson Masters, 1986). What these studies did not answer, however, is what influence emotion serves in other social information processes. Specifically, how do inductions of positive or negative affect influence childrens emotion recognition? One research experiment did attempt to investigate the influence childrens own emotional states has on their ability to recognize emotions in others (Carlson et al., 1983). Experimenters induced emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, or neutral affect in eighty 4 and 5 year-old children. The children were then provided with a label of an emotion (e.g. happy) and asked to identify the correct facial expression from a group of photographs of other children who were displaying various emotions. Significant differences in accuracy across the mood induction conditions were not found, but childrens own feelings of sadness did influence their perception of sadness in peers (Carlson et al., 1983). Sad participants were not more inaccurate than happy participants when identifying emotions, but when they were inaccurate they tended to confuse sadness with anger. The induction of positive and negative mood in children appears to have an influence on childrens emotional processing. Negative affective states appear to lead to inaccuracies in the perception of others sadness, whereas positive affective states appear to help children maintain positive emotional experiences, even in the presence of aversive social situations. Influence of Emotional States on Cognition for Adults Despite the number of studies assessing childrens emotion processing ability, only a few studies have investigated how emotion-directed information processes, such as perception, attention, judgment, and memory recognition and recall, are influenced by the childs own emotional state, whether enduring or temporary (Greene Noice, 1988; Masters et al., 1979; Rader Hughes, 2005). Because of this dearth in the literature, it is useful to review studies conducted with adults. One particularly important study, which examined the role affect plays in adults cognitive performance, induced positive and negative affect through the use of a role-playing technique while participants carried out three cognitive tasks (Izard, Wehmer, Livsey, Jennings, 1965). The cognitive tasks ranged from participants generating as many possible uses for a particular object (multiple-use task), recalling sets of numbers (digit span test), and giving verbalized responses for creativity problems. Positive affect increased performance for both the multiple-use task and the creativity problems as compared to those in the negative affect condition. Some literature supports the finding that positive affect results in higher productivity and creativity (Ashby, Isen, Turken, 1999). Specifically, induced positive affect improved cognitive processes such as memory, judgment, risk-preference, decision-making, creative problem solving, categorization, and logical problem solving (Ashby et al., 1999). Other research, however, does not support the claim that positive affect improves cognitive productivity and creativity. Positive affect may actually interfere with performance on some tasks (e.g., Kaufmann Vosburg, 1997). In an attempt to explain the discrepancy in these results, Forgas (2000, 2002) affect infusion model (AIM) suggests that affect results in inattentive processing for complex tasks. As participants experience positive affective, for example, substantive processing or systematic processing may be hindered, thereby interfering with their ability to solve elaborate and complex problems. Specifically, negative moods may facilitate differentiated, analytic processing whereas positive moods may facilitate global, synthetic processing (Forgas, 2000). Negative moods may be more adaptive for cognitive tasks that require one to reduce complex decisions to a series of one-on-one comparisons, thus simplifying the results (i.e., analytic processing). Positive moods, on the other hand, may be more adaptive for cognitive tasks that require one to generate a wide variety of responses, often seeking out all possibilities for a solution (i.e., global processing). Following Forgas (2000, 2002) AIM model, it is clear how research supports the notion that positive and negative affect are adaptive for different types of cognitive tasks. To clarify, some studies show that positive affect facilitates cognitive performance by increasing participants creativity (Ashby et al., 1999; Isen, Daubman Nowicki, 1987; Isen, 2002; Izard et al., 1965). Other research, however, shows that positive affect results in inattentive processing, thereby reducing participants creativity and problem-solving (Forgas, 2000; Kaufmann Vosburg, 1997). These seemingly contrasting findings are explained by differences in task specificity. In the research conducted by Kaufmann and Vosburg (1997), for example, positive affect significantly inhibited creative problem solving. After the researchers experimentally induced affect, participants responded to a series of tasks presented in a paper-and-pencil format, and received no outside feedback. Contrastingly, in research conduct ed by Isen et al. (1987), they used creativity measures such as the candle-problem, which required participants to physically manipulate objects and to come up with as many solutions to the problem as possible. In addition, the participants received feedback, which allowed them to instigate further solutions to the problem. Clearly, the tasks used in each of these studies are distinct. The notion that positive and negative affect are adaptive to different types of cognitive tasks is important because it points out the need to carefully consider the type of cognitive task being performed. Positive or negative moods may facilitate processing for different types of tasks in adults; therefore it is useful to examine how positive or negative moods affect childrens processing in different types of tasks. Influence of Emotional States on Cognition for Children There are indications that the influences of positive affect on childrens cognitive performance are similar to those in adults (Rader Hughes, 2005). For example, eighth-grade students who were experimentally induced with positive affect showed greater cognitive flexibility than students in the control condition and obtained higher scores on a verbal fluency test (Greene Noice, 1988). Likewise, researchers have examined the effects of emotional states on learning (Masters et al., 1979). After the induction of a positive, negative, or neutral emotional state, children completed a series of shape discrimination tasks. The dependent variable in the experiment was how many trials it took the children to achieve perfect mastery for the task (e.g. identifying 12 consecutive trials of shapes correctly). For children in the positive affect condition, positive affect enhanced performance. Contrastingly, for children in the negative condition, negative affect hindered performance dramatically (Masters et al., 1979). In addition, positive affect increased performance for children on a block design task, a challenging cognitive task that requires the use of spatial analysis (Rader Hughes, 2005). Research also suggests a relationship between affect and childrens thinking processes (Bryan et al., 1996). Specifically, negative affective states decrease participants efforts for processing cognitive information (Ellis, Thomas, Rodriquez, 1984). Positive affective states, on the other hand, improve participants memory on various tasks, which include: mastery of a discriminatory task (Masters et al., 1979); altruism (Chapman et al., 1987; Miller Jansen op de Haar, 1997); and child compliance (Lay, Waters Park, 1989). In sum, positive affective states increase complex cognitive functions when participants are required to synthesize information in new and useful ways (e.g., word association and memory tasks, creativity tasks, problem-solving tasks; Bryan et al., 1996). Social Information Processing and Cognitive Complexity Childrens awareness of their own emotional state, in combination with their skill to discern others emotions, allows them to develop more effective social information processing skills. As children become more aware of emotions they or others are experiencing, it facilitates problem-solving (Saarni et al., 2006). In turn, when children know how to respond emotionally to an encounter, it can aid in their decision making strategy, thus influencing behavioral or cognitive processing strategies. Task complexity can negatively influence accuracy in identifying emotional expressions in others (MacDonald et al., 1996). Specifically, research has shown how incorporating contextual information for an emotion recognition task results in lower levels of performance as compared to a task where children are given the label for the emotional expression (MacDonald et al., 1996). Labeling tasks involve an extremely easy stimulus (i.e. children are given a word), whereas contextual information tasks involve integrating and synthesizing implicit information (i.e. children must derive a word from the vignette)plexity. paragraph should be eliminated. This is more relevant to cognitive processing strategies rather than levels of task. Adding contextual information to an emotion recognition task, therefore, increases the difficulty of the task, resulting in lower performance, especially for younger children (MacDonald et al. 1996). Past research on childrens emotional recognition has not adequately addressed the influence of childrens own emotional states (positive or negative) on the accuracy of the perception of emotional states in others. Research addressing the topic is minimal; only a few studies have approached the issue (e.g., Carlson et al., 1983). In addition, past research has not directly demonstrated how emotion and cognitive task complexity influence childrens ability to recognize emotion in others. Based on the information regarding childrens ability to recognize emotions in others through their facial expressions; the developmental differences in childrens facial recognition abilities; the influence of emotion on childrens emotion processing; and the influence of emotion on adults cognitive processing, researchers can devise an appropriate social information processing model. The model, in effect, should integrate emotion and cognitive processes to determine the influence affect and task complexity have on childrens recognition of emotions in others. The component of the model the present study investigated is how childrens own emotion affects their interpretation of social cues, specifically the emotional expression of others. Inaccurate interpretations will provide potential consequences to childrens subsequent social decision making processes. The Present Study The study examined the influence positive and negative affect has on childrens emotion recognition. Children, aged 5-to 8-years, participated because of their ability to identify emotions in others (Fabes et al., 1991, Gnepp Gould, 1985, Saarni et al., 2006). Because emotion processing and cognition are considered an integral part of childrens social competence (Lemerise Arsenio, 2000), the study design combined and evaluated cognition and emotional processes. Specifically, the study investigated how the cognitive complexity of the task interacted with mood effects on emotion recognition performance. In the experiment, children were individually tested. They were first exposed to one of three mood induction conditions (positive, negative, or neutral) using a computer setup with a pre-recorded audio file, a method that is consistent with a brief mood induction procedure (Rader Hughes, 2005). For the testing procedure, the experimenter utilized two forms of emotion expressing questions: label-b

Piano by D. H. Lawrence Essay -- Piano D. H. Lawrence Essays

â€Å"Piano† by D. H. Lawrence   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The poem Piano, by D. H. Lawrence describes his memories of childhood. Hearing a woman singing takes him to the time when his mother played piano on Sunday evenings. In the present, this woman is singing and playing the piano with great passion. However, the passionate music is not affecting him, because he can only think about his childhood rather than the beauty of the music that exists in his actual space.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A woman is singing† softly to the speaker â€Å"in the dusk.† The speaker is describing the place he is at in the present moment. It’s partially dark, and a woman is singing to him. As he listens to the woman’s soft voice, he remembers the time when he was little. He says that it is taking him â€Å"back down the vista of years,† till he sees â€Å"a child sitting under the piano.† This child is the speaker.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The child is â€Å"sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings,† and he is â€Å"pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.† When the speaker was a child, he used to be under the piano where the strings were tingling since his mother was playing the piano. He used to press his mother’s feet, which were in balance. His mother was singing with a smile on her face.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The speaker sees this scenery in his mind. As a reader, I can even imagine him standing in a dark room looking at a woman singing and imagining his old days with his mother. Using the picturesque words such as â€Å"softly,† â€Å"dusk...

Terrorism and Immigration Legal Report

As the world's population grew, so did political and economic instability, as well as major international conflicts. Tensions between countries and cultures tightened, and eventually and inevitably, one of them attacked. This terrorist act brought with it the panic and chaos fuelled haze that was post-911 Australia, and similar to many situations in the past, the fear and vulnerability associated with the community allowed the government quite a substantial amount of political power. This atmosphere of fear and ignorance lead to several incomplete and somewhat extreme pieces of Anti terrorist legislation to be passed by the Howard government, in order to ensure the safety of all Australians, or so they said. Dr Mohammed Haneef a doctor working in Queensland on a skilled migrant visa, soon found himself a victim of these laws. When two Indian men attempted to bomb an airport in Glasgow, UK, Mohammed Haneef became a suspect in the eyes of the Australian Federal Police, and was arrested shortly. Several blunders and misinterpretations by the AFP lead to the wrongful detention and charging of Dr Haneef, a man who spent a total of 12 days in detention without being charged and had his visa unfairly revoked during his trial. Haneef was eventually released and all charges were dropped against him, when the Public Prosecutor determined that there was no legitimate trial against him. However, the course of events that Dr Haneef experienced brought to light the glaring dilemmas associated with Australia's radical Anti Terrorist laws and corresponding government agencies. The Clarke inquiry and concurrent recommendations As a result of the badly handled Mohammed Haneef case, the labour party ordered a full inquiry be conducted into the legal case, in order to identify the key faults and inefficiencies in government agencies and legislation that related to the Haneef Case. This Inquiry was called the Clarke inquiry, conducted by John Clarke, a Supreme Court judge. Despite the inquiry lacking several crucial powers, it worked well to suggest a number of key findings and recommendations. Some very key recommendations that worked toward rectifying mistakes made in the Haneef case were as follows: That the government consider establishing legislation or necessary arrangements that would consequently apply to other inquiries and reviews that involve national security. That parliament review part 1c of the Crimes act 1914, the part that relates to terrorism offences. That the Australian government appoint an independent reviewer of the Australian counter terrorism laws. That the Minister for immigration and citizenship be included in the list for security intelligence notifications and reports produced by ASIO, in order to prevent miscommunication in the future. All of these recommendations and more were implemented and thoroughly elaborated on by the Australian government. Anti-Terrorism laws reformed due to the Haneef case. Following the Haneef case and the Clarke inquiry, the government decided that necessary reforms were in order and announced its intentions to amend and alter several Anti-terrorism laws in order for them to correlate with conventional, sophisticated standards, standards that find a fair balance between national security and civil liberties. The Labour government took a major step in deciding to abolish the sedition terms within anti terror legislation while focusing more on rebellious acts that insight violence. The previous laws were deemed restricting of academic liberty and free speech. Some of the other significant changes listed in a newspaper article include the advancement of individual review of the Australian federal police, the government's decision to broaden powers assigned to the Inspector general of intelligence and security which allows inquiries to extend across all National security agencies, and the in-statement of an independent reviewer of Australia's counter terrorism laws, to be named the National security Legislation Monitor. These reforms are a strong representation in the government's effectiveness in update obsolete or otherwise procedurally dangerous Anti-Terror laws. These changes are the first of many steps in order to find the balance between human rights and National security. Claims for compensation by Mohammed Haneef After the ill handled arrest and charge against Mohammed Haneef and the distasteful cancellation of his Visa, Haneef has finally returned to Australia to claim compensation against the federal government on the basis on his trauma, loss of wages and career, defamation. Despite having an almost iron hard case against the federal government, Haneef opted to first try his best to resolve the manner through a mediation process. A News article reported that Mohammed Haneef's lawyers were able to reach an agreement with the federal government and rested his claims for compensation, a substantial claim, though the actual amount is undisclosed. It can be seen as a victory for the Mohammed Haneef and the Australian government, whose reputation will be partially restored over the matter. The government chose to make a good decision and provide Haneef with legitimate compensation through very discreet and uncontroversial means, casting little to no negative association to the government. Formal apology from the Federal government Almost immediately following Dr Haneef's success in claiming compensation, as reported in a relevant media article, the federal government released a document in the form of a formal apology on behalf of the AFP's several blunders and misinterpretations, which lead to the prolonged detention and charge of Mohammed Haneef. Haneef's lawyer congratulated the Government for recognising the need for such measures in a formal declaration of innocence, that would help clear Haneef's name of any wrong doing . The AFP also participated in the assist of Dr Haneef's claim for compensation, and were eager to rectify its previous hastily made mistakes. The Federal government's formal apology not only allowed Haneef's professional reputation be cleansed, but also publicly rid them of any negative association with the controversial court case. Conclusion The politically fueled implementation of Anti-terrorism legislation by the Howard government was a rushed and ineffective endeavor, and despite Mohammed Haneef becoming the victim of such broad laws, his Case, as well as the efforts of the labour government, allowed these radical laws to be reformed to concur with Australia's legal and utilitarian standards.

Understanding The Corporate Debt Market In India Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1378 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? The Planning era began since 1951 and DFIs were increasingly encouraged to finance the project funding needs of the Indian corporate sector. The Government of India and RBI facilitated the concessional rates for corporate sector by giving the following to the DFIs: Access to low cost funds Permission to issue bonds with government guarantee Allocations from budget With the onset of economic reforms, the budgetary support and government guarantee to DFIs was withdrawn. The DFIs converted themselves into commercial banks to have access to the public deposit mechanism and served as source of long term finance to the Indian corporate sector. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Understanding The Corporate Debt Market In India Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Primary issuance market, in the corporate debt market, is dominated by non-banking finance companies and relatively small amount of funds are raised through issuance of debt papers by manufacturing and other service industries. The following are some of the different types of corporate debt securities issued: Non-Convertible Debentures Partly-Convertible Debentures/Fully-Convertible Debentures (convertible in to Equity Shares) Secured Premium Notes Debentures with Warrants Deep Discount Bonds PSU Bonds/Tax-Free Bonds The sections herein explain the following: Significance of a vibrant corporate bond market Prerequisites for the development of corporate debt market Reasons for under-development of the corporate bond market in India Significance of a well developed corporate bond market 1. Reduce dependence on banks for long term finance Due to regulatory constraints and absence of proper incentives to opt for corporate debt, the corporate sector in India prefers the banks as a source of long term finance. The East Asian crisis showed the pitfall of excessive reliance on bank financing. 2. Create a source of long term financing Developing countries like India will have opportunities for long term investments, especially in infrastructure projects. Banks, having short term liabilities, may not be able to continue and meet the growing needs of a developing country with long term financing requirements. A vibrant bond market gives access to such long term debt. The ability of raise funds has a long lasting effect of the growth of the economy of a country. Hence creating a more stable source of long term finance is crucial. 3. Cheaper source of finance Corporates with good credit rating lose out on the opportunity to raise funds directly from the market. As the corporate debt market develops and becomes liquid, the cost of raising funds will also reduce and also bring stability. Prerequisites Less complex regulatory framework for public issues The main deterrence to corporate in issuing debt securities to the public is the lengthy and rigorous procedure that entails it. Thus the regulatory framework needs to be simplified and made more conducive and issuer friendly to good credit rated companies. Reduction in time and cost of issuances The time required and the costs incurred in making public issues must be reduced to incentivise the corporate sector. Reduction of corporate sector dependence on banks The mindset of the Indian Corporate sector to depend on banks to finance their long term investment needs must change. Legal Structure There must a robust legal structure in place to encourage innovative financial products that would cater to various risk-return appetite of a diverse set of investors. Market Infrastructure The market must be made more conducive to the trading, reporting and settlement of trades in the corporate bond market. Transparency must brought in through efficient price discovery process. Presence of rating agencies Credible rating agencies must be present in the market to give information about the credit worthiness of the issuer and the debt securities Developed Government securities market The G-Sec market needs to be well-developed as the price and yield of corporate bonds are marked on the basis of the benchmark G-Sec prices and yields. Reasons for slow development of Indian corporate debt market Lengthy regulatory requirements and disclosures The regulatory requirements for public issues were rigorous in terms of quality and type of disclosures Utilization of funds The utilization of funds raised through public debt securities was required approval and was mandatorily needed to be disclosed to the retail investors. Minimum Investment Grade Bonds had to have a certain minimum investment grade for it to be issued in the primary market. Those below this minimum investment grade were not allowed to be issued to the public. This clause was removed as per circular to amend the DIP (Disclosure and Investor Protection) Guidelines, 2000. Risks Involved The offer document must contain the issueracirc;â‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s perception of risk on matters such as assets and debtors, dilution risk (changes in credit quality of pool of assets), currency, interest and other risks. Disclosures Disclosures regarding the public offer, the debt instruments, the issuer, the originator, the servicer, the Trustees, the transaction structure and cash flows. The rigorous norms that have to be followed for issuing bonds make this process lengthy and burdensome process as compared to raising funds from the banks or other institutions or through private placement option Listing of debt securities Filing on stock exchanges: The firm needs to make an application to one or more recognized stock exchanges for listing of their debt securities. Draft offer documents: The firm needs to file draft offer documents with the designated stock exchange and have it posted on the websites (if any) of the company, lead merchant banker and the designated stock exchanges. Excessive dependence on bank loans and private placement The Corporate prefers bank loans to finance its long term investment needs to issuing debt securities in the primary market. Also, they can raise funds in the primary market through public issue of bonds or through the private placement route. The Indian corporate sector still prefers private placement as the firms find issuance of public debt securities is a lengthy and rigorous task. Also, the cost of issuance exceeds the cost of private placement. Another factor is that more funds can be raised through the private placement route. Non-transparency The corporate bond market was non-transparent as there was no system to enable efficient price discovery and allow comparison of prices quoted by seller and strike the best deals. Non-availability of information Till 2007, there was no information available on the trading activities in the corporate debt market. To improve this, SEBI, in 2007, permitted BSE and NSE to set up reporting as well as trading platforms to get real time information of trade volume, trading prices and other trading activity related data. Trading on OTC market could be reported through the reporting tool of NSE or BSE. Issuance costs Advertisements The public issue needs to be accompanied by advertisements in a national daily with wide circulation informing the public about the issue and giving truthful information. Credit Rating Earlier, bond issuers had to obtain rating from two separate credit rating agencies increasing the cost of issuances. This clause has been amended since 2007 to obtain rating from just one rating agency. Minimum Subscription The issuer may decide on a minimum amount of debt it seeks to raise from the public and it must be mentioned in the offer document. In the event of non-receipt of the minimum subscription, the money needs to be refunded to the applicants. Thus all costs involved for issuance like merchant banker charges, advertisement costs will have to be incurred with no result. Dematerialization of instruments Also, the issuer has to enter into an arrangement with a registered depository for dematerialization of the securitized debt instruments that are proposed to be issued to the public. Auditing expenses An auditor and a valuer may be appointed to look into the books of accounts of the entity and for proper valuation of asset pools. The expenses of such an audit may be borne by the originator. Fees Application fees, registration fees, annual fees, filing fees for offer documents. Settlement and Clearing System There was no settlement and clearing system in place for the corporate bonds. The settlement on BSE is done on a rolling basis using BOLT (BSE Online Trading) whereas NSE uses its NSCCL (National Securities Clearing Corp. Ltd) platform to settle corporate bonds trades. However, majority of the transaction is in the OTC market with bilateral settlement. Investor diversity Most of the investors do not have a long term view in mind. The household which could form a major part of the investor base is practically absent in the corporate debt market in India.