Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Negative Effects of Pornography Essay Example for Free
Negative Effects of Pornography Essay According to research by Malumuth, men who fit the rapistââ¬â¢s profile report more sexually coercive behavior in the past and more sexually aggressive intentions for the future than do men who do not fit this profile, Men who fit the rapists profile are also more likely than other men to have high levels of arousal in response to violent pornography. The Family and Pornography -Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their conjugal relations and less emotionally attached to their wives. Wives notice and are upset by the difference. -Pornography use is a pathway to infidelity and divorce, and is frequently a major factor in these family disasters. -Among couples affected by one spouses addiction, two-thirds experience a loss of interest in sexual intercourse. -Both spouses perceive pornography viewing as tantamount to infidelity. -Pornography viewing leads to a loss of interest in good family relations. The Individual and Pornography -Pornography is addictive, and neuroscientists are beginning to map the biological substrate of this addiction. -Users tend to become desensitized to the type of pornography they use, become bored with it, and then seek more perverse forms of pornography. -Men who view pornography regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual aggression, and sexual promiscuity. -Prolonged consumption of pornography by men produces stronger notions of women as commodities or as sex objects. -Pornography engenders greater sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to a greater risk of out-of-wedlock births and STDs. These, in turn, lead to still more weaknesses and debilities. Research on the effects of pornography on aggression has found that violent pornography tends to have greater immediate effects on male-to-female aggression that on male-to-male Other effects of pornography -Many adolescents who view pornography initially feel shame, diminished self-confidence, and sexual uncertainty, but these feelings quickly shift to unadulterated enjoyment with regular viewing. -The presence of sexually oriented businesses significantly harms the surrounding community, leading to increases in crime and decreases in property values. -The main defenses against pornography are close family life, a good marriage and good relations between parents and children, coupled with deliberate parental monitoring of Internet use. Traditionally, government has kept a tight lid on sexual traffic and businesses, but in matters of pornography that has waned almost completely, except where child pornography is concerned. Given the massive, deleterious individual, marital, family, and social effects of pornography, it is time for citizens, communities, and government to reconsider their laissez-faire approach. -Research demonstrates that exposure to films containing sexual violence against women results in inaccurate beliefs about rape, less sympathy toward victims of rape, and increased aggression to women. 1. Porn contributes to social and psychological problems within men Anti-pornography activist, Gail Dines, notes that round men who become addicted to porn, ââ¬Å"neglect their schoolwork, spend huge amounts of money they donââ¬â¢t have, become isolated from others, and often suffer depression. Dr. William Struthers, who has a PhD is biopsychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, confirms some of these and adds more, finding that men who use porn become controlling, highly introverted, have high anxiety, narcissistic, curious, have low self-esteem, depressed, dissociative, and distractible. Ironically, while viewing porn creates momentary intensely pleasurable experiences, it ends up leading to several negative lingering psychological experiences. 2. Porn rewires the male brain As men fall deeper into the mental habit of fixating on pornographic images, the exposure to them creates neural pathways. Like a path is created in the woods with each successive hiker, so do the neural paths set the course for the next time an erotic image is viewed. Over time these neural paths become wider as they are repeatedly traveled with each exposure to pornography. They become the automatic pathway through which interactions with women are routed.. They have unknowingly created a neurological circuit that imprisons their ability to see women rightly as created in Godââ¬â¢s image. After all, pornography works in the most basic of ways on the brain: It is Pavlovian. An orgasm is one of the biggest reinforcers imaginable. If you associate orgasm with your wife, a kiss, a scent, a body, that is what, over time, will turn you on; if you open your focus to an endless stream of ever-more-transgressive images of cybersex slaves, that is what it will take to turn you on. The ubi quity of sexual images does not free eros but dilutes it. 3. Porn turns sex into masturbation Sex becomes self-serving. It becomes about your pleasure and not the self-giving, mutually reciprocating intimacy that it was designed for. 4. Porn demeans and objectifies women This occurs from hard-core to soft-core pornography. Soft-core pornography has a very negative effect on men as well. The problem with soft-core pornography is that itââ¬â¢s voyeurism teaches men to view women as objects rather than to be in relationships with women as human beings. Pornography gives men the false impression that sex and pleasure are entirely divorced from relationships. In other words, pornography is inherently self-centered ââ¬â something a man does by himself, for himself, by using another woman as the means to pleasure, as yet another product to consume. One experiment shows that men and women who were exposed to large amounts of pornography were significantly less likely to want daughters than those who had none. Again, it needs to be emphasized, that this is not an effect that only rests upon those who have viewed porn. The massive consumption of porn and the size of the porn industry has hypersexualized the entire culture. Men and women are born into a pornified culture, and women are the biggest losers. By inundating girls and women with the message that their most worthy attribute is their sexual hotness and crowding out other messages, pop culture is grooming them just like an individual perpetrator would. It is slowly chipping away at their self-esteem, stripping them of a sense of themselves as whole human beings, and providing them with an identity that emphasizes sex and de-emphasizes every other human attribute. 5. Porn squashes the beauty of a real naked woman For most of human history, the erotic images have been reflections of, or celebrations of, or substitutes for, real naked women. For the first time in history, the imagesââ¬â¢ power and allure have supplanted that of them. Today, real naked women are just bad porn. 6. Porn has a numbing effect upon reality It makes real sex and even the real world become boring in comparison. It particularly anesthetizes the emotional life of a man. Pornography leaves men desensitized to both outrage and to excitement, leading to an overall diminishment of feeling and eventually to dissatisfaction with the emotional tugs of everyday life. Eventually they are left with a confusing mix of supersized expectations about sex and numbed emotions about women. When a man gets bored with pornography, both his fantasy and real worlds become imbued with indifference. The real world often gets really boring. 7. Porn lies about what it means to be male and female Pornography tells a false story about men and women. In the story of porn, women are ââ¬Å"one-dimensionalâ⬠ââ¬â they never say no, never get pregnant, and canââ¬â¢t wait to have sex with any man and please them in whatever way imaginable (or even unimaginable). On the other hand, the story porn tells about men is that they are ââ¬Å"soulless, unfeeling, amoral life-support systems for erect penises who are entitles to use women in any way they want.â⬠These men demonstrated zero empathy, respect, or love for the women they have sex with.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Humorous Wedding Speech for a Groom in Sales :: Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeches
Humorous Wedding Speech for a Groom in Sales Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen - Today, I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to a man who personifies intelligence, ambition, tact, generosity, and integrity. But it is Johnââ¬â¢s wedding so it's only fair that I talk about him as well. Laughter Now, I only met John a few years ago at university, meaning that Iââ¬â¢ve had to rely on him perhaps more than I would have liked to get the details of his past. But apparently, the young John Cervoni was an exceptionally gifted child. After publishing his first novel at 15, John tells me that his English teacher was left in tears when he opted for the Sciences at A Level. He then reluctantly turned down offers from Harvard and Stanford, in order to study at that other great beacon of learning ââ¬â State University. But between leaving school and going to State, where I met John, I can only assume that something far too terrible to enquire about must have happened to transform him into the mediocre bum that I know. While at State U. John spent so much time skipping lectures they almost changed his degree to home economics. And when he left, his head of department gave him this reference: ââ¬ËAny company who gets Mr. Cervoni to work for them will be very lucky indeedââ¬â¢. So not surprisingly, John has done absolutely nothing to help with the planning of this wedding. At one stage, Melissa got so desperate for help she had me search him for a socket. She wondered if maybe she had to plug him in. Believe it or not, I wasnââ¬â¢t Johnââ¬â¢s only friend at university. Laughter John developed a close relationship with an African exchange student, named Chimaka. Their relationship was close in the sense that John admired Chimakaââ¬â¢s essay writing abilities and John was kindly always on hand to help Chimaka tidy up his written English. Now Chimaka, whoââ¬â¢s father was a tribal elder in Chimakaya and whoââ¬â¢s village had donated money to send Chimaka to England, was rather shocked to find himself called into the Dean of Faculties office one morning to explain similarities in his essay to those of John. Two hours later, finding Chimaka on his doorstep threatening suicide, or murder, John's future skills as a salesman came into play. Quoting statistical probability, quantum mechanics and astrology with a straight face, John managed to save both university careers.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
ââ¬ÅGod Sees the Truth, but Waitsââ¬Â by Leo Tolstoy Essay
Biography: Leo Tolstoy was born in Tula Province, Russia, on September 9, 1828. His mother died when he was only two years old. After Tolstoyââ¬â¢s father died in1837, he was cared by his relatives. He attended Kazan University for three years but he never could complete it because of joining to Russian army on active duty. However, being a soldier could not stop his desire to write literary plays and during his duty he published his first work childhood. After writing childhood, he continued on writing autobiographic plays and his life on the army; the works included boyhood, Sevastopol Tales book, youth and an uncompleted work entitled The Cossacks. In 1859, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and devoted himself to be management and study educational practices. In 1862, He married Sophia Andreevna Behrs who was 16 years younger than him. They had thirteen children which five of them died at early age. His wife helped him as a secretary to complete is works, especially on writing his first great novel, War and Peace. Their early life was full of happiness and they had no problem. However, their relationship became progressively worse as he was being radical to the extent of disowning his inherited and earned wealth. He was known for his complicated and paradoxical personality. In 1972, he wrote the short story of God Sees the Truth, But Waits which was about a merchant who was jailed innocently. In his life, he has written a lot of short stories which the well-known ones are The Candle, How Much Land Does a Man Need?, Little Girls Wiser than Men and The Coffee House of Surat. In 1973, he wrote the novel of Anna Karenina which was the best known one in his writings. Other most famous works were The Living Corpse and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. In his life, furthermore, he wrote various pieces on social, political, and economic topics ranging from vegetarianism to capital punishment but could not be published because of government. Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russia. Tittle: Throughout the tittle, Tolstoy wants to tell the readers the fact that reality can be hidden but one day it comes out. The tittle has a lot of interpretations considering real life and the events of the story. Godà always sees the truth in whatever people do, but the meaning of ââ¬Å"waitsâ⬠is debatable and purposeful. First of all, in the tittle, the notion of the truth is isolated and not became known for some reasons. Sometimes, God examines those people who have good personality and looks gentle among people so that they prove their faith. On the other words, He takes them to a bad situation to purify their sins and reward them for their patient. And no one knows what is happening in the future; people may see something wrong, but in reality it will be good, and vice versa. So, if people commit illegal works and sins, they always do secretly and keep them silent. At this time, just God knows the truth and waits to see whether the man is going to regret or not, and do the right thing or not. Regarding the short story, there are two opposite characters, Aksionov and Makar; innocent and guilty. At the beginning of the story, readers know that Aksionov is not the doer of the murdering but he is sentenced to be in jail for 26 years. A part of the truth, God knows about everything but waits. For Aksionov, there are two truths which the first one is his meek personality. But the second one is the reality of his personality in every conditions. God does not make something to declare his innocence till He examines him by punishing and away from his beloved family, and to see what Aksionov will do, seek to revenge or forgive. By this bad condition, the true reality of Aksionov will be obvious to all, because if he revenges himself upon Marker and ruins his life as him, he has no difference with Makar. Plot: Once upon time, in the land of Vladimir, a young merchant named Ivan Dmitri Aksionov lived with his family. He was in his young life and very happy by experiencing luxurious things that was offered by the world. One day of summer, when he was about to go to Nizhny fair as he planned, his wife warned him not to go. She told him that she had a bad dream, she said ââ¬Å"I dreamt you returned from the town with hair of grey.â⬠Ivan laughed and showed himself as if he didnââ¬â¢t care and continued on going to the fair. In the half way of his traveling he met a merchant. He drunk tea with him at the night and shared a room in the inn. Aksionov did not use to sleep for long hours, so he decided to wake up and continued his journey. While he was in the way of his journey, he was stopped by two soldiers in a troika toà begin asking questions. Their questions were about the merchant that he met on the travel and spent time with him for he was found dead. As all evidences of the crim e were pointing guiltiness of Aksionov, he was imprisoned. When his wife heard this bad news, she remembered her dream. She was very worried to her husband and thought that her husband was guilty. Aksionov felt sadder when he realized this thought. 26 years in prison made Aksionov a well-grounded and God-fearing man. In spite the fact that his family has completely forgotten him, he still serves as a ââ¬Å"Grandpaâ⬠to the other prisoners. Then came a new prisoner named Makar Semyonich. After a while, they knew each other, Aksionov discovered that Makar was killed the merchant. Although he realized everything but he uttered nothing about it. One night, while the prisoners were sleeping, Aksionov saw that Makar dug the earth. Makar told him not to tell anyone about what he has seen or else he would kill him. One day, a soldier noticed that a prisoner took some earth off his boots, when the soldier immediately started for searching any escaping plans and found the tunnel. At that time, they asked the prisoners who knew about the plan, but no one replied. Since Marker warned them if they declared anything, they would be killed. Finally, the governor asked Ivan for he was the most generous man there. But Ivan said it is not my job and I donââ¬â¢t care. At night, when Aksionov was on his bed and about to sleep, Makar went to him to thank him. He felt very sorry for he made Aksionov suffer for all this years. He did not want forgive till he sobbed to Aksionov, then said the Lord will forgive you. Makar said that he will confess to the governor so that Ivan would be free. In fact, since Aksionov had no family neither home, he did not want to go out of prison. Rather, he waited for his last hour to come. In spite of what theyââ¬â¢ve talked about, Makar Semyonich confessed his guilt. But when the order for Ivan Dmitri Aksenovââ¬â¢s release came, he was already dead. Conflict: Sadness comes to Aksionov when he found out that the man he stayed with last night has been killed. The soldiers searched his bag and found a knife with blood. In fact, Aksionov is not the murder, but at the end of the story he sees Makar in the same jail that he has been prisoned who is the killer. In the short story, there are some conflicts: 1. Man vs Man : Aksionov with himself and Makar 2. Man vs Nature: Aksionov with his black fate 3. Man vs society: Aksionov (as an innocent man) with court decision. Characters: Protagonist: Aksionov: he was a young merchant lived in the town of Vladimir. He had two shops and a house of his own. Aksionov was a handsome, fair-haired, curly headed fellow, full of fun, and very fond of singing. In one of his journey, he accused by murdering a merchant and was sentenced to be jailed for 26 years. Although he was innocent, but he couldnââ¬â¢t anything with his fate. Finally he found the murder and forgave him for sake of God. Antagonist: Makar: He was a bad person who appeared at the end of the story. He was the real murder who killed the merchant and wanted to kill Aksionov but he couldnââ¬â¢t. He felt shame for what he did for Aksionov and begged him for forgiveness. Finally, Aksionov forgave him and Makar confess the secret to the governor. Themes: The short story takes place in Russia, Vladimir (Aksionovââ¬â¢s home and inn) and in Siberia where Aksionov was arrested. And the story was narrated in omniscient style that the narrator seems know all of the things that happen there. 1. Forgiveness vs Revenge and Bitterness Leo Tolstoy, the writer, wants to show the readers what is the real forgiveness and what wise people do when they face difficult situations. In the short story, Aksionov has to accept his fate which becoming a murder while even he did not kill the merchant. After 26 years the governor found out that he was not the murderer when Makar, who was the real murderer, came to the jail and confessed his fault and asked for forgiveness. Aksionov forgave him without having desire to revenge. This shows the fact that Aksionov was different from normal people; people often revenge upon their enemies whenever they can. Furthermore, he also did not announce the truthà as he promised to Makar. 2. Truth vs â⬠Justiceâ⬠Aksionov did not get justice that earned by himself. He was a good and innocent man, but court judged him as a murderer. In our daily life, we can see a lot of the same examples that people get something that they donââ¬â¢t deserve. Court and also people judge the event as they see their appearance not reality. It declares the fact that every judgments are true. 3. Injustice vs Forgiveness It is belonged to the religious idea that people should be kind in every situation. Aksionov was areligious man which followed that idea and finally forgave Makar. Aksionov may represent Tolstoyââ¬â¢s characteristic because Tolstoy was a religious man. 4. Innocence vs injustice The evident faults in the injustice system. The idea that God does what he does, such as withholding the truth, to allow us the opportunity to learn something vastly more important, such as the power of forgiveness the power of circumstance and persuasion over logical thoughts and deductions. Tone of the Short Story: The tone of the story is humanââ¬â¢s depression and sorrow which is very tragic, and sympathetic. We can see the sympathetic depression of Aksionov When Makar asking Aksionov for forgiveness, he replied: ââ¬Å"It is easy for you to talk,â⬠said Aksionov, ââ¬Å"but I have suffered for you these twenty-six years. Where could I go to now?â⬠¦ My wife is dead, and my children have forgotten me. I have nowhere to goâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ Personal value: The purpose of Tolstoy in giving Aksionovââ¬â¢s suffering is to show us a good example of real generous man. He wants to tell us that God knows everything but does not appear the reality purposefully. It does not mean that He hates His people, but examines them so that they realize their real personality. Look at Aksionov, after suffering for 26 years, he felt inner peace when he forgave his enemy. The short story tells the readers must to be faithful in Go, in every moments of life, because He will bring justice to everyà situation. By reading the whole story, the readers learn the power of forgiveness and its impact on offering inner peace. Moreover, they will learnt to be freed from being angry and indignant with the world and having achieved ââ¬Ëinner peaceââ¬â¢. Tolstoy used a nice style in writing the story that interact the reader to read the whole story. The title is ambiguous that makes the reader to read the story so as to find the ambiguity. Throughout the short story, he pointed on some perspectives such as religion, society and politician. Through the characteristics of Aksionov, he viewed that people must believe in God and his power. And he pointed out that religious people should be gentle and calm in difficult situations. Furthermore, he showed us that some time you cannot use what you have in society. Aksionov was rich, he had two shops and a house, but at the end he couldnââ¬â¢t use them and even lived with his family. In addition, although he was innocent, but he and his wife couldnââ¬â¢t win the court because they did not have witness. Finally, the writer tells the reader that when people let someone down God will pick him up.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Behavioural Finance in the Field of Finance and Investment - Free Essay Example
Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2517 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Did you like this example? Introduction The intention of this essay is to analyse the development of Behavioural Finance within the field of finance and investment. It will highlight some of the literature that has come about as a result of research in the field, some of the implications it has had on historical theories and some of the implications it has had within the world of investment. The Birth of Behavioural Finance Behavioural Finance is considered by many to be a new field within finance, but it does have its origins in the early 20th century. One of the initial publications to highlight the importance of investor psychology was authored in 1912 by George Selden, the intention of this book was to discuss the belief that the movements of prices on the exchanges are dependant to a very large degree on the mental attitude of the investing and trading public(Selden, 1912, pp. Preface), this was a pioneering thought and began the start of linking psychological aspects within the world of finance. Throughout the 20th century, many developments were made in relation to combining psychological aspects to the world of finance. Since George Selden, many have built upon this idea and in 1956 the US psychologist Leon Festinger introduced a new concept in social psychology: the theory of cognitive dissonance.(Sewell, 2010, p.1). This was of importance as considering the dynamic nature of finance, a de cision one makes can often be offset by the introduction of new and inconsistent information, this may often lead practitioners to make irrational decisions which in turn affects markets, pricings and causes inefficiencies. After this, John Pratt considers utility functions [and] risk aversion(Sewell, 2010, p.1), which considers how practitioners evaluate a monetary amount gained or lost and also how they feel about incurring various levels of risk and how this affects behaviour and decision making. From this point the research and developments entered rapid expansion as more researchers and prominent people within the fields began to take interest in this idea that psychology may play an important role within markets and practitioner behaviour.. In 1973, two psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman put forth an article and within this paper they explore[d] a judgmental heuristic in which a person evaluates the frequency of classes or the probability of events by availabil ity, i.e., by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind.à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973, p.207). A heuristic is something that financial practitioners use [as a] rule of thumbto process data they are generally imperfect. Therefore, practitioners hold biased beliefs that predispose them to commit errors.(Shefrin, 1999, p. 4). This along with the earlier articles and research began to explore in more depth the affects of individuals cognitive errors and misjudgements which we now know can lead to market inefficiencies. Then, in 1974, Tverky and Kahneman produced another article with the intention of further developing the field and gaining a more in depth determination of the heuristic identified in their previous paper, within this article they had identified and described three heuristics which can be seen to be in use when making decisions under uncertainty. These three heuristics are as follows; representativeness, which is usually employed when people a re asked to judge the probability that an object or event A belongs to class or process B,(Tversky and Kahneman, 1974, p.1124) in simple terms this is when someone tries to predict the probability of an unknown event by comparing it to a known event and assuming the probabilities will be similar. This can and usually does lead to errors as practitioners may over or underestimate the probability, and also may misjudge the comparative example which in turn will lead to errors. The second heuristic is that of availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when are asked to assess the frequency of a class or the plausibility of a particular development,(Tversky and Kahneman, 1974, p.1131) in simple terms they have described a way in which individuals are more inclined to assess the frequency of an event by the ease in which instances of the events can be brought to mind. The third heuristic is that of adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numeric al predication when a relevant value is available(Tversky and Kahneman, 1974, p.1131) in simpler terms they have described how an individual will use an initial piece of information and then any other piece of information gained thereafter will encounter a bias based on the initial information. This leads the practitioner to hold on to their initial beliefs in regard to the scenario and leads to an inaccurate reading of the situation resulting in errors. These are heuristics, which are mental-shortcuts which, through a lack of adequate mental analysis and evaluation, lead to an inaccurate reading of the situation, leading to a misjudgement. These heuristics are important as they began to form reasons why financial practitioners are prone to make mistakes, which in-turn lead to market inefficiencies and in the area of investment cause stock-prices to deviate from their fundamental value. From this point, Tversky and Kahneman went on to produce another article in 1979 They disco vered that people tended to value losses greater than equivalent gains; An alternative theory of choice is developed, in which value is assigned to gains and losses rather than to final assets and in which probabilities are replaced by decision weights.(Tversky and Kahneman, 1979, p. 263). This was named Prospect Theory. This was an important development as it showed further irrational behavioural of practitioners and put greater emphasis on the study of how human errors do affect the financial markets, something that was held in contrast to popular belief at the time, it also contributed further to the study of how practitioners deal with the evaluation of money. Then, in 1985, Werner De Bondt and Richard Thaler published an article that discovered that most people tend to overreact to unexpected and dramatic news events.. The empirical evidence is consistent with the overreaction hypothesis market inefficiencies are discovered.(De Bondt and Thaler, 1986, p.793). This discovery, aided by the previous advancements of the better part of a centurys worth of research effectively formed the start of what has become known as behavioural finance and was of great importance and the field now had empirical evidence which backed up theory to suggest that psychological errors contributed to market inefficiencies thereby putting into question historical theories which had once been considered valid. To summarise, over the course of the 20th century there has been significant research within the field of psychology and then a merging of psychological research with the field of finance. Many consider Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman to be the pioneers with the vast amount of research they conducted in the field, which lead to Werner De Bondt and Richard Thaler producing empirical evidence, with the use of psychologically based background, in their paper; Does the Stock Market Overreact?which proved that at times there exists inefficiencies within the markets. Donââ¬â¢t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Behavioural Finance in the Field of Finance and Investment" essay for you Create order How it has Affected Historical Theories The birth of Behavioural Finance has had many implications within the fields of finance and investment. One of its greatest and most important impacts is calling into question the rationality of financial practitioners, this notion that practitioners are rational provided an assumption which formed the foundation on which some of the most influential economic and financial hypothesis were created. To analyse the full impact of behavioural finance as a topic is something that cannot be achieved within this essay, instead it will discuss its effect on Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), a theory put forth by Eugene Fama in 1970 titled Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work,à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã (Fama, 1970) . Within the document Fama describes an efficient market as a market in which prices always fully reflect available information,(Fama, 1970, p. 383) in order for markets to fully reflect available information an assumption is made that the markets and the inve stors within them are rational, this is one of the assumptions that provides a foundation for Efficient Market Hypothesis; This notion of rational markets and investors has been seriously questioned by the development of Behavioural Finance and due to the research that has been conducted and empirical evidence which proves that at times the markets both over and under react to information which results in inefficiencies; it can be stated that the Efficient Market Hypothesis isnt entirely correct. This is important as since the theories inception; financial practitioners accepted it as valid and began to develop ideas, models and other theories with EMH as a foundation. Other theories such as Capital Asset Pricing Model have been put into question as they were developed and buil[t] on the assumptions of EMH.à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã (Bell, 2010). The development of Behavioural Finance and the findings from various researches which put into question market efficiencies, it can now be state d that long held beliefs and theories about the way markets and financial practitioners operate can be considered false. It has also brought about an idea named Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH) which was put forth in 2004 by Andrew Lo, he argues that the emerging discipline of behavioural economics and finance has challenged [EMH], arguing that markets are not rational [he] propose[s] a new framework that reconciles market efficiency with behavioural alternatives.(Lo, 2004). This new hypothesis seems to make more sense and is in conjunction with behavioural finance issues and while we wait for it to be solidified by long-term empirical evidence, it seems that the future is more AMH than EMH. Its implications for Investment Since the development of Behavioural Finance and the psychological aspects that are at play within the world of finance and within the investors psyche have been seen to lead to unhelpful or even hurtful decisions. As a fundamental part of human nature, these biases affect all types of investors,(Byrne and Utkus, 2013, p.4) and often lead to misjudgements and errors, the implications for this are that each and every investor will make use of these heuristics and inevitability will make mistakes. The world of investment has now recognised that this area of study is of great importance and can help explain not only investor behaviour, but also the behaviour of markets. One of the intentions of Behavioural Finance is to identify these errors and their causes so that investors are in a position to work around them or profit from other investors mistakes. There are now many heuristics and biases which have been discovered and have an impact on financial practitioners decision making ability and in turn have implications for markets, some of these are as follows; Availability Bias, Representativeness, Gamblers Fallacy, Frame Dependence, Mental Accounting, Loss Aversion and Overconfidence to name just small amount. One of these biases, Overconfidence, has found that humans tend to have unwarranted confidence in their decision making. In essence, this means having an inflated view of ones own ability.(Byrne and Utkus, 2013, p.4). In terms of investment this can lead some investors to have placed an overestimation on their own investment choices and ability and as such, at times, disregard the overall external factors which have an impact on the market. Another affect that overconfidence may have on certain investors is in relation to trading, for example, too much confidence is placed within their own ability to trade. Professors Brad Barber and Terry Odean studied US investors with retailed brokerage accounts and found that more active traders earned the lowest r eturns.à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã (Byrne and Utkus, 2013, p.6). Another bias is that of the loss aversion where behavioural finance suggests investors are more sensitive to loss than to risk and return,(Byrne and Utkus, 2013, p.8) where traditional finance theory tended to focus solely on the relationship between risk and return. Two professors, Hersh Shefrin and Meir Statman, developed theories put forth by Tversky and Kahneman in a paper titled The Disposition to Sell Winners Too Early and Ride Losers Too Long: Theory and Evidencewhere they found evidence to suggest that investors sell winners too early and hold losers too long.(Shefrin and Statman, 1985, p.777). This can negatively affect investor returns and depicts some form of short-termism within investors psychology down to the bias of loss aversion. Conclusion To conclude, Behavioural Finance is a field that has had profound effects on the world of finance and investment, so much so it has put into question previous theories that were once considered valid and used as a foundation for most economic and financial hypotheses such as EMH and CAPM. As the field has developed practitioners have taken more notice of their own and others irrational behaviour, which is important considering prior to the introduction of psychological issues most were of the belief that themselves and others were rational. This can now be considered to be false, and as the dynamic nature of the financial work-environment induces mental and behavioural short-comings it is likely that the field will see further developments. Bibliography Bell, W.P. (2010). Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) Contributing to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). [Online]. Available at: https://williampaulbell.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/capital-asset-pricing-model-capm-and-efficient-market-hypothesis-emh-contributing-to-the-global-financial-crisis-gfc/ Byrne, A.B. and Utkus, S.U. (2013). Behavioural Finance Understanding how the mind can help or hinder investment success,Vanguard, pp.1-32. [Online]. Available at: https://www.vanguard.co.uk/documents/portal/literature/behavourial-finance-guide.pdf De Bondt, W.B. and Thaler, R.T. (1986). Does the Stock Market Overreact?The Journal of Finance, 40(3), pp. 793-805. [Online] Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1985.tb05004.x/pdf Fama, E.U. (1970). 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Shefrin, H.S. and Statman, M.S. (1985). The Disposition to Sell Winners Too Early and Ride Losers Too Long: Theory and Evidence,The Journal of Finance, 11(3), pp.777-790. [Online] Available at: https://www.economia.unimib.it/DATA/moduli/7_6069/materiale/shefrin-statman-85.pdf Tversky, A.T. and Kahneman, D.K. (1973). Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability,Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), pp. 207-232 [Online]. Available at: https://dtserv2.compsy.uni-jena.de/__C1257641005FF6B0.nsf/0/1538BC6A54743092C125764700444391/$FILE/TVERSKY+Availability+A+heuristic+for+judging+frequency+and+probality.pdf Tversky, A.T. And Kahneman, D.K. (1974). Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biasesà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã , Science, 185(4157), pp.1124-1131. [Online]. Available at: https://psiexp.ss.uci.edu/research/teaching/Tversky_Kahneman_1974.pdf Tversky, A.T. And Kahneman, D.K. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under RiskEconometric, 47(2), pp. 263-291. [Online]. Available at: https://www.princeton.edu/~kahneman/docs/Publications/prospect_theory.pdf
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