Psychological contract breach effects and violation on employees

Psychological contract breach effects and violation on employees Abstract The goal of this study is to examine the influence of personality on the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation and its respective impact on employees work-related outcomes such as turnover intentions and counterproductive work behaviors. In this paper, personality was assessed on the basis of the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990) that is comprised of the following dimensions: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability and Openness to Experience. Introduction In difficult times when companies must adapt to different changes in the global economic climate work behaviors are of great interest to organizations. In trying to retain the best employees, managers are interested in reducing turnover and preventing counterproductive behaviors. In order to understand employee responses and reactions to the work environment, contracts become vital as they create a behavioral guideline for both the employee and the organization. The psychological contract is a major element of any employee organization relationship, and consists of an employees beliefs concerning the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between that focal person and another party (Rousseau, 1989, p.123). Employees often feel that their organization has not fulfilled at least some of the promises it has made; and when they do their psychological contract is said to have been breached (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). Numerous studies have analyzed the consequences of psychological contract breach on employees work-outcomes and generally conclude that there is a positive relationship between psychological contract breach and job dissatisfaction and turnover intentions (Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, Bravo, 2007; Bal, de Lange, Jansen and Van der Velde, 2008). Psychological contract violation has been defined as feelings of betrayal and deeper psychological distress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [whereby]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the victim experiences anger, resentment, a sense of injustice and wrongful harm (Rousseau, 1989, p129). While psychological contract breach may not always lead to undesirable work-related attitudes, it is expected that employees who experience intensely negative feelings might take different measures against the organization they work for (Suazo et al., 2005). This is why in this paper we focus on the role of psychological contract violation as the mediator between psychological contract breach and employees work-related outcomes. But do all people have the same reactions to contract breach or could it be that there are individual differences in personality that lead some employees to react more strongly to psychological contract breach than others? Many authors have investigated the relationship between personality traits and job related outcomes (Judge, Heller and Mount, 2000; Tallman and Bruning, 2008), but there is little research on the relationship between personality and psychological contract breach and violation. Raja, Johns and Ntalianis (2004) is one of the few articles that report on the impact of personality on psychological contracts. These authors found that people high in neuroticism and low in conscientiousness are the ones that are more likely to perceive psychological contract breach. Moreover, the paper revealed that some personality traits moderated the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation. People high in neuroticism tended to perceive a stronger relationship between breach and violation than people high in locus of control. The main focus of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the psychological contract breach and violation relationship by analyzing whether this relationship is moderated by the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990).The study tries to fill in a gap in the existent psychological contract literature by examining the extent to which personality can explain changes in employees attitudes. Compared to other studies in the field, this study focuses on all five personality traits of the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990). This study is structured as follows: the next section describes the current state of the art with respect to psychological contract breach and violation; section three includes the research method and data collection; results will be discussed in section four and the main findings and implications for study and practice along with limitations and suggestions for future research in section five. Literature review and hypotheses The psychological contract As explained in the introduction, the term psychological contract is used to explain the relationship between an employee and an employer and the promises they have made to one another. Many researchers have explained the psychological contract in terms of social exchange theory. This theory (Blau, 1964; Robinson and Morrison, 1995) suggests that individuals enter relationships which consist not only of economic exchanges but also of more diffuse social obligations. These obligations change over time, but research has shown that individuals feel most comfortable when they are in a balanced exchange environment (Gouldner, 1960; Wayne, Shore and Liden, 1997), an environment where they feel that there is a fair equilibrium between what they offer the organization and what they receive in return. When the organization fails to fulfill its promises, employees might feel that there is inequality in the employment relationship (Lester, Turnley, Bloodgood and Bolino, 2003) and might as a result be inclined to take actions to rebalance their work situation, by for example reducing their contribution to the organization (Rousseau, 1995). Psychological contract breach and violation The psychological contract is a subjective perception, so the employee and the organization can possess radically different views of what are the obligations or promises that they have made to one another (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). This is why often employees feel that their psychological contract has been breached and that the organization has failed in keeping its promises (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994). Although both the employee and the employer can feel that the contract has been breached by the other party, in this paper, as in many investigations on the psychological contract (cf. Zhao et al., 2007) the focus is on the perspective of the employee. In the early phases of research into the psychological contract there was not a very clear distinction between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation and researchers used these terms interchangeably (Suazo, Turnley, Mai, 2005). In 1997, Robinson and Morrison made a clear distinction between the two. These authors defined psychological contract breach as a cognitive perception, while psychological contract violation was defined as the emotional or affective reaction that can sometimes arise from the perception of a breach of the psychological contract (Morrison and Robinson, 1997). Research has shown that not all breaches lead to emotional reactions on the part of employees (Morrison and Robinson, 1997; Turnley and Feldman, 1999a) because these emotional reactions can be influenced by different individual differences such as personality (Raja et al., 2004) or fairness perceptions (Morrison and Robbinson, 2000), but in those cases where emotional reaction do es occur the employee may have feelings of anger, injustice, resentment and distrust toward the organization that has not honored its promises (Raja, Johns and Ntalianis, 2004). Several studies have linked psychological contract breach to violation. Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski, Bravo (2007) have summarized these studies and report a meta-analytic correlation of 0.52 (p In line with research findings and with social exchange theory, it is proposed here that psychological contract breach is positively related to psychological contract violation. Hypothesis 1: Psychological contract breach is positively related to psychological contract violation. Psychological contract breach and employees responses Previous studies have linked psychological contract breach to negative work outcomes (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994; Robinson and Morrison, 1995). When psychological contract breach occurs, employees start reducing their contribution to the organization as they feel that the organization has failed them (Robinson, 1996). Turnover intentions and counterproductive behaviors are employee possibilities of reducing their efforts and contributions towards the organization they work for. Zhao et al. (2007, p.651) define turnover intentions as the subjective probability that an individual will leave his or her organization within a certain period of time. The meta-analytic study shows that there is a positive correlation between psychological contract breach and turnover intentions (r=.42, p Hypothesis 2a: Psychological contract breach will be positively related to turnover intentions. Counterproductive behavior can be seen as destructive reactions toward an organization (Kickul, Neuman, Parker, Finkl, 2002). When employees feel that there psychological contract has been breached their level of commitment and trust in their organization decreases (Ball, Trevino, Sims, 1994) and they might react destructively toward the organization (Kickul et al., 2002). This reaction may be characterized by a set of different deliberate acts that harm the organization or even the organizations stakeholders such as clients, owners or supervisors (Spector and Fox, 2005). Counterproductive behavior is a very broad construct which contains behaviors ranging from theft or sabotage to violence against others (Gruys and Sackett, 2003). Each one of these actions create great problems to the organization and are also economic threats as organizations need to spend money to protect themselves against such actions (Bennett and Robinson, 2000). The employees counterproductive actions may even escalate until the level where they interfere with co-workers jobs or where they give a disrespectful treatment to their supervisors (KicKul et al., 2002). Bordia et al. (2008) found that the psychological contract breach was positively related to both minor offenses (ÃŽÂ ²=0.44,pË‚.001) and major offenses (ÃŽÂ ²=0.49, pË‚.001) of the employees at the work place. Following on their results, we propose that psychological contract breach will be positively related to the employees counterproductive behavior. Hypothesis 2b: Psychological contract breach will be positively related to counterproductive behavior. Psychological contract violation Prior to 1977, the terms psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation were used as synonyms, so much of the existent literature focused on the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees responses. Only after the paper of Robinson and Morrison (1997) the two became the separate concepts as we know them now. In this part of the paper we introduce psychological contract violation as a mediator of the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees reactions. As not all contract breaches results in feelings of violation and not all employees respond negatively to their psychological contract being breached (Morrison and Robinson, 1997; Rousseau 1995, Turnley et al., 2003) we believe that it would be interesting to test whether psychological contract violation could have a mediating effect on the psychological breach employees reactions relationship. One paper that focuses on the mediating role of psychological contract violation is the meta-analysis of Zhao et al. (2007). The authors use affective events theory to explain the relationship between psychological contract breach, affect (violation and mistrust), job attitudes and individual effectiveness. Following this theory, a negative event at the workplace causes negative emotional reactions, which in turn are taught to cause negative work attitudes (Bal et al., 2008). In their study, the authors find psychological contract breach to be a negative event leading to emotional reactions and job attitudes. The authors found that psychological contract violation fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract breach and job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intentions to quit. While psychological contract breach may not always lead to undesirable work-related attitudes, it is expected that employees who experience intensely negative feelings (psychological contract violation) will take some measures (such as leaving the organization or working less) against their organization (Suazo et al., 2005). Based on the affective events theory we expect that psychological contract violation will mediate the relationship between psychological contract breach and employee responses toward the organization they work for. Hypothesis 3a: Psychological contract violation will mediate the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees turnover intention. Hypothesis 3b: Psychological contract violation will mediate the relationship between psychological contract breach and employees counterproductive behavior. 2.5 The moderating role of personality Robinson and Morisson (2000) showed that attributions and fairness perceptions moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation. The authors explain that when employees felt that they were treated unfair there was a stronger relationship between the breach of the psychological contract and an emotional reaction to it, so lower levels of fairness were predicting violation. Other papers suggested that organizational influences and also employees personal dispositions may be predictors of psychological contracts (Rousseau, 1995; 2001). But only little research has been conducted on the relationship between personality and psychological contract breach (Raja et al., 2004; Tallman and Bruning, 2008) even though there are a lot of papers that emphasize the importance of personality on work attitudes such as job performance or job satisfaction (Barrick and Mount, 19921; Judge and Bono, 2001). The focus of this study is to analyze whether personality might moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation. We consider that personality could significantly influence this relationship because personality can explain how people differ in their social interactions, reaction to perceived injustice and attachment of importance to various extrinsic and intrinsic outcomes (Raja et al., 2004, p354). Zhao et al. (2007) also state that future research should focus on personality as a moderator when studying psychological contract breach and outcomes. The personality dimensions used in the paper are derived from the Five-Factor model of personality (Goldberg, 1990) and consists of 5 personality types: Extraversion, Neuroticism (Emotional Stability), Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience. We chose this model of personality because it has been used in a variety of studies (Barrick and Mount, 1991; Judge, Heller and Mount 2002, Raja et al. , 2004) and have been related to numerous work attitudes and behaviors (Costa and McCrae, 1992). Raja et al. (2004) article is one of the very few studies that established a connection between personality and psychological contract breach. These authors studied only the effect of Neuroticism, Extraversion and Conscientiousness, because they were unable to establish a reliable level of measurement for the Agreeableness dimension and considered Openness to Experience to be a too controversial structure. Still, in a more recent study of Tallman and Bruning (2008) the authors were able to measure all of these personality dimensions with the help of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory questionnaire, so we decided to also focus on all five personality aspects and their relation to the psychological contract breach and violation. The authors (Raja et al., 2004) found that employees personalities are related to their contract choice, as people high in neuroticism will tend to choose transactional contracts, while people high in conscientiousness or extraversion prefer relational ones. Transactional contracts are characterized by short-term economically focused attitudes and relational ones by a set of long-term attitudes that include features like loyalty or security (Raja et al., 2004). The authors also found that people who were more sensitive to equity issues (equity sensitivity dimension) were more likely to feel negative emotional reaction when there psychological contract was breached, than people who were more internal (external locus of control dimension). Tallman and Bruning (2008) extended the study of Raja et al. (2004) and the research on the relationship between psychological contracts and personality, by studying the link between employees personality and their beliefs regarding the employees obligations and organizational behavior. The authors linked personality to nine employee psychological contract obligation dimensions: commitment to the organization, commitment to the job, stewardship behaviors, showing initiative, serving the needs of the organization, support in the job, growth, support as a person and existence and their results showed that employees personality explained the variance for 4 out of 9 dimensions. Even more, they found that each of the Five-Model Personality dimensions was related to at least one of the dimensions, indicating that using all the 5 personality types was important for the study. As research has showed personality is an important factor in employees beliefs regarding their psychological contract; this is why we believe that personality might moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, influencing the extent to which employees perceive there psychological contract being violated and not only breach. The next part of this chapter will be divided according to the Five-Factor Model: Extraversion (1), Neuroticism (Emotional Stability) (2), Conscientiousness (3), Agreeableness (4) and Openness to Experience (5). Extraversion (1) Extroverts are highly sociable, talkative, energetic, ambitious and assertive (Costa, McCrae, 1992). The assertiveness of extroverts is associated with a desire for increased status and salary (Cattell, 1981). Extraversion is associated with high job performance, job satisfaction and team performance (Judge and Ilies, 2002; Judge and Bono, 2000; Kickul and Wiesner, 1997). Previous studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between extraversion on the one hand and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002) and organizational commitment (Erdheim et al., 2006) on the other. Even though extroverts are seeking for monetary rewards they tend to form long-term relationships, because in these ones they can develop themselves and have better opportunities to gain a better status and a better income (Tallman and Bruning, 2008). Tallman and Bruning (2008) found that there was a positive correlation between the extroversion personality dimensions and the perceived obligation extrovert people felt organization towards them in fulfilling their growth needs (ÃŽÂ ² = .25, p Extroverts are high performers and they are committed to their organization (Tallman and Bruning, 2008), in addition they are assertive, so they will tend to stand up for their rights. Breaching the psychological contract of extroverted people will probably lead to stronger negative emotional feelings toward the organization they work for than when comparing to introverted people. This is why it is proposed here that extroverts will be more likely to react emotionally to their psychological contract being breached than non-extroverts. Hypothesis 4b: Extraversion moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation, so that the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation is stronger for extroverts than for introverts. Neuroticism (2) People high in neuroticism are anxious and lack trust in people, and it is said that they are more prone to perceive failures in life (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, Barick, 1999). They have a greater tendency to pay attention to the negative side of a situation than other people who have a more balanced view of things (Ho, Weingart, Rousseau, 2003). They are usually poor team performers and they fear change (Kichuk and Wiesner, 1997). Previous research has shown a negative relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002). Other authors have linked neuroticism to a preference for transactional psychological contracts (Raja et al., 2004) because these contracts do not require much initiative or confidence (Raja et al., 2004). Tallman and Bruning (2008) showed that neuroticism is positively related to the organizations obligations to provide support for the employees and to stewardship behavior. Because people high in neuroticism are more worried and anxious we believe that their reaction to a psychological contract breach would be stronger than that of people emotionally stable. This is why we propose that people high in neuroticism will have stronger emotional reaction and will tend to perceive their psychological contract as being violated. Hypothesis 4a: Neuroticism moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation, so that this relationship is stronger for people high in neuroticism than for those low in neuroticism. Conscientiousness (3) Conscientiousness is related to an individuals degree of self-control, need for achievement, order and also persistence (Costa, McRae Dye, 1991). Conscientious people tend to be more concerned with tasks accomplishment than with the task rewards (Stewart, 1996) and are interested in forming long-term employment exchange relationships (Zhao and Chen, 2008). Research has shown that there is a positive relationship between conscientiousness and work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2002) or commitment (Erdheim, 2006). Orvis et al. (2008) tested the hypothesis that conscientiousness moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and work outcomes. In their study, the authors showed that lower levels of conscientiousness led to a higher level of perceived psychological contract breach and lower levels of job satisfaction, organization loyalty and higher levels of intentions to quit. Raja et al. (2004) also found that there is a strong relation between conscientiousness and psychological contract breach: people with higher levels of conscientiousness perceived lower levels of psychological contract breach. Thus, it is expected here that it is unlikely that conscientious people will feel that their psychological contract has been violated upon perceiving a breach of their psychological contracts. Hypothesis 4c: Conscientiousness moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, so that the relationship between psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation is stronger for people low in conscientiousness than for those high in conscientiousness. Agreeableness (4) The agreeableness personality dimension refers to a persons preferences for interpersonal interactions that can range from compassion to antagonism (Costa McCrae, 1992). One of the few papers that investigated the relationship between agreeableness and psychological contract breach and work-related outcomes is the paper by Tallman and Bruning (2008). In their research, the authors show that there is a positive correlation between the agreeableness personality dimension and that perceived obligation agreeable people feel their organization has in supporting its employees (ÃŽÂ ²=.20, p Agreeable people value their interpersonal relationships and are characterized as being very interested in maintaining positive relations with the people that surround them (Ho, Weingart, Rousseau, 2003). The fact that agreeable people are more prone to maintaining long-term and pleasant relationship with others might have an effect on their perception of their psychological contract being breached. Because the psychological contract is an agreement made between two parties and involves an interpersonal element, agreeable people might be more tolerant and forgiving so it might make agreeable people feel fewer negative emotional reactions to breach than other personality types. Hypothesis 4b: Agreeableness moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, so that this relationship is stronger for people low in agreeableness than for those high in agreeableness. Openness to Experience (5) Openness to Experience represents open-minded individuals, who are imaginative, inventive, creative, curious and unconventional (Costa and McCrae, 1992). Open people have a high need for autonomy and tend to be creative and adaptive to change (Costa and Mcrae, 1992). Furthermore, open employees are less likely to feel that they must serve the organization or their managers and will look for organizations that will allow them enough freedom to try new ideas and approaches in their activities (Tallman and Bruning, 2008). Because open employees will look for interesting and challenging jobs, we would consider that they will also seek an organization that supports their decisions and that allows them to grow and satisfy their needs (Tallman and Bruning, 2008). This is why we expect that they might feel strong negative emotions when their freedom is limited or when they dont feel their organizations support. Hypothesis 4e: Openness to experience moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and violation, so that this relationship is stronger for people high in openness than for those low in openness. Research model In the previous sections four sets of hypothesis were established. As shown in the figure, the principal relation in the paper is the one between psychological contract breach, violation and employees responses (turnover intentions, counterproductive behavior), while personality traits are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between breach and violation. Figure 1. Research model 3. Method 3.1 Sample The study was conducted in the Netherlands and used 3 data sources: full-time or part-time employees in the Netherlands, their supervisors and one of their friends. The questions related to psychological contract breach, psychological contract violation and turnover intentions were answered by the respondent, the questions regarding counterproductive behavior were answered by the respondents supervisor and personality was assessed by obtaining ratings from the respondents friend. We consider that the employee is the best source of information when considering psychological contract breach or violation as he is the only person who knows exactly what were his expectations and beliefs regarding his psychological contract. For the turnover intentions we use the employee as a respondent for similar reasons: he is the only one who can tell about his thoughts on leaving the company he works for. In what concerns the measurement of counterproductive behavior we expect that employees will be more reluctant to state the situations were they were acting accordingly, so we consider that their direct supervisor will give more objective responses. Supervisors ratings were previously used to assess counterproductive behaviors in Bordia et al. (2008) or anticitizenship behaviors in Kickul et al. (2001). We also ask one of the respondents friends to fill in the personality survey because employees might distort their personality scores (Rosse, Stecher, Miller and Levin, 1998) and answer the questions the way they think that they should be answered (Mahar, Cologne and Duck, 1995). The respondents were approached through a press release and invitation which were available to them through different websites like: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The total number of questionnaires spread among the employees was à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ from these, only a number à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ participants responded. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. In the beginning the employees were sent an email with the link for completing the survey and after 1 week they also received a reminder. The supervisors and friends were approached through the employee, who received a separate link to forward to its supervisor and friend so that they could participate at the survey. X% of employees were male, X% were female, Y% completed their university education, Y% their secondary education programThe average age of respondents was from à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, X% of them were working X hours a week, Y% of them were working Y hours a weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ X% of employees reported an organizational tenure of X%, Y% of employees reported an organizational tenure of Y yearsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Y% of the supervisors were male and Y% were female, Y% completed their university education, Y% their secondary education program The age of ranged from supervisors was from à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, X% of them were working X hours a week, Y% of them were working Y hours a weekà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The average organizational tenure of supervisors was T%. The frequency of contact between the supervisor and employee was for X% daily, for Y% weeklyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Z% of the friends were male, Z% were female. Their age range was from X to Y years, X completed their university education, Y% their secondary education program. 3.2 Measurement of variables Control variables The results of this study were controlled for the effects of: gender, age and organizational tenure. Gender was controlled for because employees might be evaluated differently according to gender (Turnley, Bolino, Lester and Bloodgood, 2003). Age was controlled for because age could affect work behavior or could also influence the kind of job people choose and finally, organizational tenure was necessary as a control variable because the length of employment might be related to the number of psychological contracts breaches an employee might experience (Turnley at al., 2003). Psychological contract breach The scale of Robinson and Morrison (2000) was used to assess psychological contract breach (Cronbachs ÃŽÂ ± = .92). The scale consisted of five items that assessed the employees perception of psychological contract breach. An example item is: I feel that my employer has come through in fulfilling the promises made to me when I was hired. Thr

Good vs evil in Shakespeare’s Macbeth Essay

The play ‘Macbeth’ is a very tragic one. It is about the downfall of a hero who is led by temptation to mass murder and cruelty. Shakespeare uses various styles and techniques to display very evidently how Macbeth’s character develops as the story progresses, and thus we see how Macbeth turns from good to evil, from a â€Å"valiant cousin† and â€Å"worthy gentleman† to a â€Å"bloody butcher. † The play tells the story of how a noble warrior, Macbeth, descends into evil after meeting with three witches – supernatural beings who prophesy Macbeth’s destiny. He is told he will become King of Scotland, and this idea of gaining power leads him to murder the king, take his throne and then continue his ‘murder spree’ on seemingly whoever he feels like. Eventually Macbeth is slain and order is restored in Scotland. From the very start we have progressively come to abhor Macbeth, however, we cannot help but feel a certain admiration for him. But much more we have a sense of irony and waste: irony because some sterling qualities have been put to such evil use, waste because Macbeth was a potentially great man who was lost. . Macbeth is a play concerned wholly with the battle between good and evil – throughout the play we continually see signs of a supernatural struggle between the two, with evil ‘winning’ over good when Macbeth murders the king, but then good finally defeating evil when Macbeth is slain. In fact, in the very opening scene we see signs of supernatural happenings and evil – the witches: â€Å"Fair is foul and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air† Here we see that, to the witches, what is evil is good (â€Å"foul is fair†) and what is good they find repulsive (â€Å"fair is foul†). This seems to be their attitude to life, but it could also be a warning to the audience that things to follow are not what they might seem. The first we hear of Macbeth is with praises to his name. He is called ‘brave Macbeth’, ‘valiant cousin’ and ‘worthy gentleman,’ fighting a war for God, king and country. â€Å"For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name – Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, Which smoked with bloody execution†¦ † However, it is in scene III that good and evil collide, when Macbeth meets with the witches. Some say that this is the beginning of Macbeth’s downfall, as in his first soliloquy he has already thought of the idea of murdering his king. This small seed planted in his mind will soon sprout and he will indeed commit treason. Already, the audience loses their adoration for Macbeth as we see his mental frailty and evil intention. The question at hand is what Macbeth should do; is he determined on evil intent or is divine intervention the answer? He contemplates this, and decides that it is not worthwhile to throw everything away for one guilty conscience, instead the solution is murder. We are soon introduced to Lady Macbeth, and it becomes clear that she is the ambition, the ‘driving force’, behind her husband. To Lady Macbeth, her husband is brave, loving, ambitious yet he is too noble to fulfil the third prophesy. Lady Macbeth then calls upon evil spirits to make her ruthless so she can kill Duncan. â€Å"Come you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the top toe-full Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood. † After reading the letter, she already has a plan brewing. However, she fears Macbeth’s nature. ‘yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness’, ‘Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it’, ‘What thou wouldst highly, that wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. ‘ The planning of the murder of Duncan is one of the most important sections of this tragedy. Here we see a conflict in Macbeth’s character, one side wants him to commit the murder, while the other wants to let fate take its course. In a way it is due to his wife that Macbeth is finally persuaded into committing treason. This shows one of the flaws in his character, which Shakespeare exposes. A while after Macbeth has certain misgivings about the affair. In his mind he argues out the advantages and disadvantages. The good side of him says that ‘he’s here in double trust’ ‘I am his kinsman and subject’, ‘as his host who should against his murderers shut the door, not bear the knife myself. ‘ The more cunning party says that ‘ his virtues will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against the deep-damnation of his taking off’, ‘but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other’,’twere well it were done quickly’, ‘but this blow might be and the end all here’, ‘bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague th’ inventor. ‘ Yet he cannot maintain this spark of morality as, under the influence of his wife he commits treachery. After the murder Macbeth experienced remorse, guilt and regret, still revealing his nobility. â€Å"I am afraid to think what I have done† he says. He is troubled by his conscience, he realizes that he is cut off from heaven. He is in fact so hampered in his actions by the conflict between his knowledge that he has committed the crime and his abhorrence of it, that he becomes immobile. Macbeth’s evil is so great that he cannot even say amen to his prayer â€Å",I could not say amen. † By now he realizes he is too deep into his acts of violence to turn back. Macbeth has confused the values of good and evil. That is, he has confused fair and foul, which confusion has all along been the devil’s aim. Macbeth has completely committed himself to evil. Macbeth still thinks of himself as a man, and as such would rather die than suffer the indignity of being ‘baited with the rabble’s curse. ‘ This feeling in him reminds us of the worthy Macbeth at the beginning of the play. We also see that he still has the courage to act on his convictions, desperate though that courage may be. For he knows now that he must die. He fights as a man. Macduff and Macbeth fight which signifies the ever on-going battle between good and evil. Eventually Macbeth is slain and the evil has been stopped in Scotland – good has triumphed, as Malcom is crowned the new King.

Mental Accounting And Its Effect On Consumer Decision Making

Consumers’ choices can fall prey to discrepancies that can arise in cognitive accounting but by learning when and how one falls prey to these, they can improve their decision-making process. Mental accounting affects a consumer’s decision making because it allows consumers to account for their monetary funds in different ways. The mental accounting principle is â€Å"the set of cognitive operations used by individuals to code, categorize and evaluate financial activities† (Thaler, 2008). This can occur when a consumer divides their funds into sections such current income, current wealth, or future income (Argosy University, 2015). Reason is the basis of the standard economic theory, while the mental accounting principle forms its foundation on a combination of perceived value, the way gains and losses are coded, and reference outcomes (Thaler, 2008). The mental accounting principle can affect consumer decision-making in multiple ways. One of the most common ways is through segregate gains and integrate losses. The basic principle of segregate gains is an item that is more desirable due to multiple options or included extras will influence the customer’s purchase (Thaler, 2008). On the other hand, integrate loss is when a consumer would prefer to combine their loss instead of multiples (Thaler, 2008). Another aspect that can affect consumer decision-making is the Transaction Utility Theory where a customer determines the perceived value of getting a good value or â€Å"deal†Show MoreRelatedAbstract for Choices, Values, and Frame1319 Words   |  6 PagesAmeriacn Psychologist, 39 (4) Abstract This article discuss when consumers feel a certain price which is bringing the loss rather than the income, they are more sensitive to price. Consumers are feeling a certain price more cost-effective manner and the other a less cost-effective. 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Four Marriages of Philip II of Spain Women in His Life

The marriages of Philip II, king of Spain, highlight the roles that women were expected to play in royal marriages of the time.  All of the marriages helped foster political alliances – either with other countries with whom Spain wanted peace in the interest of building more Spanish influence and power, or with closer relatives to keep the power of Spain, and the Habsburg family, strong. Also, Philip remarried each time a wife died and kept fathering children in the hopes of having a healthy son. While Spain had recently seen a woman ruler in Isabella I, and before that in the 12th century in Urraca, that was Castile’s tradition. Aragon’s tradition of following Salic Law  would have confused the issue if Philip left only female heirs. Philip was closely related by blood to three of his four wives. Three of his wives had children; these three all died in childbirth. Philip’s Reign Philip II of Spain, a part of the Habsburg dynasty, was born on May 21, 1527, and died on September 13, 1598. He lived at a time of upheaval and change, with the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, shifting alliances among the major powers, expansion of Habsburg power (the phrase about the sun never setting on the empire was first applied to Philip’s reign), and economic changes. It was Philip II who sent the Armada against England in 1588.  He was king of Spain from 1556 to 1598, King of England and Ireland by marriage from 1554 to 1558 (as husband of Mary I), King of Naples from 1554 to 1598, and King of Portugal from 1581 to 1598. During his reign, the Netherlands began to fight for their independence, though this was not achieved until 1648, after Philip’s death. Marriages played no small part in some of these changes in his power. Philip’s Heritage Intermarriages, for political and family reasons, were part of Philip’s heritage: Philip’s parents were Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Isabella of Portugal.  Charles and Isabella were maternal first cousins: their mothers were sisters Joanna or Juana of Castile and Aragon and Maria of Aragon, daughters of the powerful Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.Philip’s maternal grandfather, Manuel I of Portugal, was a first cousin of Philip’s great-grandmother (on both the maternal and paternal side), Isabella I of Castile and Aragon.At the same time the marriage of Philip’s parents Charles and Isabella was arranged, a marriage of Charles’ sister and Isabella’s brother was also arranged: Catherine of Austria and John III of Portugal. As siblings of Charles and Isabella, Catherine and John were also maternal first cousins.The daughter of Catherine and John was Maria Manuela, who was Philip’s first wife; she was thus his double first cousin.Philip’s younger sister, Joan of Austria, married Maria Man uela’s brother, John Manuel.  Joan’s husband died while she was pregnant with their son Sebastian. Joan returned to Spain without her son and served as regent for Philip in Spain while he was in England during part of his marriage to his second wife, Mary. Later, when Sebastian died without issue, Philip II became King of Portugal.Maria of Austria, Philip’s younger sister and Joan of Austria’s older sister, married Maximilian II, a paternal cousin of Philip, Maria, and Joan. Maximilian’s father, Ferdinand I, was a younger brother of Philip’s father, Charles V. Philip’s fourth wife, Anna of Austria, was a daughter of Maximilian II and Maria, and thus Philip’s niece. Wife 1: Maria Manuela, Married 1543 - 1545 Maria Manuela, as detailed above, was Philip’s double first cousin, meaning they shared all four grandparents: Manuel I of Portugal, Manuel’s wife Maria of Aragon, Maria’s sister Joanna of Castile and Aragon, and Joanna’s husband Philip I of Castile. At the time of their marriage, Philip was known as Prince Philip of Asturias and was the heir apparent of the Spanish crown. Philip did not become king of Spain until 1556. Their son, Carlos, Prince of Asturias, was born on July 8, 1545. Maria died on August 12, due to complications of the childbirth.  Carlos, recognized in 1560 as the heir to the Spanish crown as Philip’s eldest son, was physically deformed and had delicate health, and as he grew older, mental problems became apparent, especially after a head injury sustained in a fall in 1562. When Carlos rebelled against his father, he was imprisoned in 1568 and died about six months later. Carlos was, despite his physical and later mental problems, a marriage prize, and several potential marriages were sought for him, including: the daughter of King Henry II of France, Elizabeth Valoisanother of Henry’s daughters, Margaret of ValoisMary, Queen of ScotsAnna of Austria, a daughter of Philip’s cousin Maximilian II, who later became Philip II’s fourth wife Wife 2: Mary I of England, Married 1554 - 1558 Mary I, the daughter of Henry VIII of England and his first wife,  Catherine of Aragon,  was a first cousin of both of Philip’s parents. Catherine was the sister of both of Philip’s grandmothers, Joanna of Castile and Aragon and Maria of Aragon. Mary I was born in 1516 and Philip in 1527. While Mary seems to have adored Philip, Philip did not seem to have returned the affection. It was purely a marriage of political alliance for him. The marriage, for Mary, was also an alliance with a Catholic country. Mary is known in history as Bloody Mary for her campaigns against Protestants. When the marriage was being proposed, Philip’s father gave up the title of King of Naples to Philip, to raise his status in the marriage. Philip was given equal status in many ways to Mary with the marriage, but only so long as the marriage lasted. Many in England preferred that Mary marry an Englishman. They had no children. Mary’s last illness seems to have been a false pregnancy. She died in 1558. Philip proposed marriage to Mary’s successor, her half-sister Queen Elizabeth I. She did not respond to his offer. Later, Philip backed an effort by Mary, Queen of Scots  to unseat Elizabeth, and of course in 1588 sent the ill-fated Spanish Armada against England. War between Spain and England lasted until after the deaths of both Philip and Elizabeth, ending in 1604. Wife 3: Elizabeth of France, Married 1559 - 1568 Elizabeth of France was the daughter of Henry II of France and his wife, Catherine de’ Medici. She was less closely related to Philip than his other wives were, but they had some common Bourbon ancestry. Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, was a third great grandfather to both Elizabeth and Philip. (Charles was also the 3rd great-grandfather of Maria Manuela and 4th great-grandfather of Anna of Austria.) They were also both descended from Alfonso VII of Leà ³n and Castile. Elizabeth’s first pregnancy ended in the miscarriage of twin daughters. Two daughters were later born, both of whom lived to adulthood. Elizabeth died when her fourth pregnancy miscarried in 1568; that child, stillborn, was also a daughter. Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, their older daughter, married her maternal first cousin and paternal first cousin once removed, Albert VII of Austria. He was the son of Maria of Spain, sister of her father Philip II, and Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, paternal first cousin of Philip II. Maximilian II’s father was Ferdinand I, Charles V’s brother. (Charles V was the father of Philip II and Maria of Spain.) Catherine Michelle of Spain, their younger daughter, married Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. They were related in several ways. He was a great-grandson of Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon, as was Catherine Michelle through Philip II. Catherine Michelle’s great-grandparents, Francis I of France and Claude of France, were grandparents of Charles Emmanuel. Wife 4: Anna of Austria, Married 1570 - 1580 Anna of Austria, Philip II’s fourth wife, was also his sororal niece and paternal cousin once removed. Her mother was Maria of Spain, Philip’s sister. Her father was Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, Philip’s paternal first cousin. Anna’s brother, Albert VII, married Philip’s daughter from his third marriage, Isabella Clara Eugenia, so Albert was Philip’s nephew, brother-in-law, and son-in-law. Philip and Anna had five children, only one surviving childhood: Ferdinand, who died at seven; Charles Laurence, who died before he was two; Diego, who died at seven; Philip, later Philip III of Spain, who lived to age 43; and a daughter Maria, who died at three. Anna died giving birth to Maria in 1580. After Anna’s death, a marriage to her sister, Elisabeth of Austria, was proposed, but Elisabeth declined. Elisabeth had been widowed at the death of Charles IX of France, a brother of Philip’s third wife Elizabeth (Anna of Austria had been considered for marriage to him before she married Philip); Elisabeth had also refused to marry Henry III, her husband’s successor and brother. Philip did not remarry after Anna’s death. He lived until 1598. His son from his fourth marriage, Philip, succeeded him as Philip III. Philip III married only once, to Margaret of Austria, who was both his paternal second cousin and his cousin once removed. Of their four children who survived childhood, Anne of Austria became Queen of France by marriage, Philip IV ruled Spain, Maria Anna became Holy Roman Empress by marriage, and Ferdinand became a cardinal.