Good Fellas A Classic Mafia Film - 1266 Words

In the time where mobster business ruled the streets of New York, Good Fellas is a classic mafia film that brings a little bit of everything to the round table; the violence, the profanity, the sex, the drugs, and especially the money. â€Å"Forget about it!† It will have you on the edge of your seat, entertained and desiring to see more of it. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Good Fellas’, takes place in the 1960’s and 70’s in the beautiful state of New York. Mobsters were walking idols for the eyes of many, with nice, slick suits, puffing cigarettes with tremendous swagger. And one of them was Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, a local Irish-American kid who grows up in one of the baddest, most tough neighborhoods in the city. Dropping out of high†¦show more content†¦Murdering Billy Batts, a mobster from the Gambino Crime Family, Henry Hill was on the verge of living the glamoirous lifestyle by doing what had to be done and that was: never rat on your frie nds and keeping your mouth shut. After closing the trunk in one motion, the trumpets of old jazz music drifted slowing into the scene, and the title ‘GoodFellas’ appeared in vibrant red. The way the scene was presented to the viewer, made the curiosity of one to perk up like meerkat coming out of a hole. Some may ask themselves, â€Å"How did they get there? What happened before this all took place? Why are the killing this man?† Automatically, the viewer is reeled into the story plot of ‘GoodFellas . I mean, who wouldn’t be? With the opening scene showing the brutal stabbing of a mobster and finishing gunshots to his head, anyone could tell that this film is not for the faint at heart. Violence will always capture the attention of the viewers. As Henry Hill got deeper into doing â€Å"business† with Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito, there was no doubt that anything would get in the way of their lucrative lifestyles. They would go out and enjoy themselves with a few drinks in the nightclub called â€Å"Copacabana†. Obnoxious laughs, alcoholic beverages tapping glass on glass and tobacco smoke fills the air heavily. With such scene, you would think that you’re at a stand up comedy by whats being talked about. The director, Martin, made a good choice of placing Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito)

Accounting Information System Liquidation of Companies

Question: Discuss about the Accounting Information System for Liquidation of Companies. Answer: Introduction This study is based on the subject of accounting. During this particular study, the discussion is done on the liquidation of the Australian companies like, ABC Learning, HIH Insurance and One-Tel. The study evaluates the reasons behind the liquidations of the companies and at the same time, the study also discusses on the ethics and the governance of the financial stress of the three companies. Along with this, the study also evaluates whether the liabilities were the major factors that influenced the liquidation of these companies or not. At the end of the study, the conclusion is derived by considering the overall findings of the study. Discussion on the liquidation of the companies in Australia In recent past, many companies in Australia have faced corporate collapse and ABC Learning is one of them. ABC Learning was of the largest child care centers in Australia, which was operating in the market of Australia since 1988. However, due to several wrong steps the company collapsed in the year of 2010 (Crikey 2016). Logan, Sumsion and Press (2015) believed that the liquidation or corporate collapse of ABC Learning took place because of weak financial planning of the organization. In support of this, Jokovich (2016) stated that before the collapse took place, the organization started to acquire several child care centers, without taking proper strategy to run the acquired child care centers. The financial performance of the organization was much good at that time and the share price of ABC Learning was in increasing trend (Crikey 2016). The management of the organization decided to apply the tricks of leveraging the reliable stream of income that are used by Macquarie Bank. Howe ver, the organization did not diversify its assets base and did not take care of the increasing credit costs. On the other side, Ahmadi et al. (2015) mentioned that one of the main factors that influenced the corporate collapse of ABC Learning was the high subsidies provided by the government of the country. As per the reports, the government of the country provided the amount of subsidies, which was more than 40% of the total revenue of the company (Crikey 2016). At the same time, the government of the country did not played active role in controlling the activities of the child care center like, ABC Learning. The government of the country did not investigate on the business activities of the company, when the company was earning huge profit in the market (Crikey 2016). Due to the above-mentioned reasons, the financial position of ABC Learning started to fall down and gradually, the organization moved towards liquidation. However, if the liquidation of ABC Learning is analyzed on the basis of ethics and governance, then it can be said that the operation of ABC Learning was not as per the business ethics. AML et al. (2015) stated that the organization (ABC Learning) was enjoying maximum portion of government subsidies, which was not en ethical business activity. Betta (2016) added that at the time, when most of the child care centers in Australia were facing trouble in surviving in the market, ABC Learning was earning more than $40 million before paying the tax and interests. On the other side, if the evaluation on the governance, it can be identified that governance of the company was not up to the mark (Damiani, Bourne and Foo 2015). The wrong strategies took by the company indicates that the corporate governance of the company had weak long term vision (Adams 2016). Therefore, it can be understood that the financial stress of ABC Learning was influenced by the unethical practice and wrong corporate governance. Corporate collapse or liquidation of HIH Insurance was another big business failure in Australia. The company was one of the larger insurance companies in the country. The liquidation of HIH Insurance happened in the year of 2001 (Damiani, Bourne and Foo 2015). Before, the liquidation took place the company was the most reliable business organization in Australia. The company had huge customer base and the company was involve in several acquisitions. However, due to some wrong business decisions, the financial position of the company became very weak. The company faced a loss of more than $5 billion (Aph.gov.au 2016). Miglani, Ahmed and Henry (2015) stated that the main reason behind the liquidation of HIH Insurance was the aggressive business expansion strategy taken by the management of HIH. Until 2001, the business of the company covered maximum insurance business segments, nationally as well as internationally. Betta (2016) argued that HIH Insurance acquired few troubled organiza tions at much high price. For example, HIH acquired FAI against $300 million but the actual worth of FAI was only $100 million. Adams (2016) mentioned that at the time of acquiring FAI, both the acquiring and acquired companies were commercially insolvent; however, from outside, the financial position of HIH was strong. According to Miglani, Ahmed and Henry (2015), HIH Insurance had insufficient capital to meet its liabilities. At the same time, the company offered its products at a very low price (Damiani, Bourne and Foo 2015). The corporate governance of the company was so weak that it could not take proper strategy to manage its risk (Aph.gov.au 2016). Moreover, just before the corporate collapse, when the company needed extra capital, it took the decision to bought reinsurance. Apart from these, the company also misstated its financial reports and conducted several financial frauds that influenced the liquidation (Aph.gov.au 2016). Therefore, from the ethical point of view, the business activities done by HIH Insurance was not up to the mark. The misstatement of financial reports and the corporate frauds were the most unethical business practices done by the company (Damiani, Bourne and Foo 2015). On the other side, the corporate governance team of the company was not that much strong to run a business appropriately. The corporate governance team of the company included inadequate number of non-executive director (Adams 2016). At the same time, the CEO of the company believed in dominating business strategy. The risk management measurements taken by the company was inappropriate. The management of the company set the investment committee for managing the investment risk but the strategies taken by the committee were weakly formed (Ahmadi et al. 2015). Apart from ABC Learning and HIH Insurance, there was another company One.Tel, which failed to sustain in the market because of wrong business strategies (BBC News 2016). One.Tel was one of the largest telecommunication companies in Australia. This company faced liquidation in the year 2001 (BBC News 2016). Miglani, Ahmed and Henry (2015) stated that the company collapsed due to the huge debt burden. Ndzi (2016) noted that just before the liquidation took place, the total debt amount of the company was A$600 million. Jokovich (2016) mentioned that the corporate collapse or liquidation of One.Tel was caused by four factors - inadequate pricing policy, wrong strategies, unbridled growth and inappropriate expectations. The rapid growth strategy taken by the management of One.Tel caused two major business issues One.Tel came into direct competition with Optus, which was the largest organization in telecommunication sector in Australia and the other issue was the customers of One.Tel wer e attracted towards the low-priced offers given by Optus (BBC News 2016). Logan, Sumsion and Press (2015) mentioned that in order to compete with Optus, the management of One.Tel took the low pricing policy which affected the financial position of the company to the high extent. The inadequate business strategies taken by the company contributed a large portion in the liquidation of One.Tel. For example, in 1999, the company made a corporate agreement with Lucent Technologies in order to build a national network in Australia (BBC News 2016). The agreement cost A$1.15 billion. However, after few days, disputes took place between One.Tel and Lucent Technologies and the Lucent Technologies decided to build the national network in Europe against US$20 billion to provide the service of One.Tel to the European customers (BBC News 2016). However, in 2000, One.Tel faced the major loss of A$291 million and it was announced by Merchant bank that the company (One.Tel) is having shortage of liquid cash. The reserve of the company failed to A$35 million and the cash balance of the company was only A$25 million (BBC News 2016). In the analysis of the liquidation of One.Tel from ethical and governance point of views, it can be identified that the business activities of the company was unethical as it mislead the investors by not disclosing the liquid position on public (Damiani, Bourne and Foo 2015). At the same time, the cash position of the company was also much weak, which was again not unfolded by the company. On the other side, the corporate governance of One.Tel was also not standard. The corporate governance rules and regulations of the company were inadequate to solve the problems of it (Miglani, Ahmed and Henry 2015). The strategy of rapid business growth was one of the largest mistakes done by the company, which caused huge debt to the company. Therefore, in the above discussion and evaluation of the liquidation cases of three major companies in Australia, it has been identified that the liabilities were the major factors that contributed to the liquidation of the three companies. In case of ABC Learning, the company had inadequate assets base (Ndzi 2016). On the other side, the HIH Insurance had insufficient capital to meet its future liabilities and One.Tel had shortage of case balance to meet the liabilities. Therefore, in these three cases, the companies had huge debt burden but insufficient assets, capital and liquid cash balance to meet the liabilities (Adams 2016). Hence, it is proved that the huge liabilities influenced the corporate collapse or liquidation of the companies. Conclusion In this study, it has been identified that inadequate financial position of the three companies One.Tel, ABC Learning and HIH Insurance pushed the companies in liquidation. The analysis of the study has identified that the aggressive business strategies took by the companies created major problems for running their businesses. In the corporate collapse cases of these three companies, it has been identified that the companies were operating their businesses by conducting unethical practices of business. The study has identified that the company like ABC Learning misstated the financial reports and One.Tel did not disclose the weak liquid cash position. At the same time, the corporate governance policies of the companies were also not appropriate. It was true that he companies achieved high success in the beginning but that success was not the actual success of the companies. Reference list Adams, M.A., 2016. Contemporary case studies in corporate governance failures.Governance Directions,68(6), p.335. Ahmadi, S., Forouzideh, N., Alizadeh, S. and Papageorgiou, E., 2015. Learning fuzzy cognitive maps using imperialist competitive algorithm.Neural Computing and Applications,26(6), pp.1333-1354. AML, A.M.L., Laundering, A.M., Act, C.T.F., due Secteur, C.O. and Competition, A., 2015. ABC analysis, 270 Accounting fraud, 14, 42 Active compliance approach, coherence, 52 basis, 31.benefits,108, p.109t. Aph.gov.au. 2016. Home Parliament of Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/ [Accessed 7 Sep. 2016]. BBC News. 2016. Home - BBC News. [online] Available at: https://news.bbc.co.uk/ [Accessed 7 Sep. 2016]. Betta, M., 2016. Three Case Studies: Australian HIH, American Enron, and Global Lehman Brothers. InEthicmentality-Ethics in Capitalist Economy, Business, and Society(pp. 79-97). Springer Netherlands. Crikey. 2016. Crikey - On politics, media, business, the environment and life. [online] Available at: https://www.crikey.com.au [Accessed 7 Sep. 2016]. Damiani, C., Bourne, N. and Foo, M., 2015. The HIH claims support scheme.Economic Round-up, (1), p.37. Jokovich, E., 2016. Vale, John Kaye.Rattler (Sydney), (118), p.11. Logan, H., Sumsion, J. and Press, F., 2015. The Council of Australian Government Reforms [20072013]: a critical juncture in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy?.International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy,9(1), pp.1-16. Miglani, S., Ahmed, K. and Henry, D., 2015. Voluntary corporate governance structure and financial distress: Evidence from Australia.Journal of Contemporary Accounting Economics,11(1), pp.18-30. Ndzi, E., 2016. Executive Remuneration:(What) Can UK Learn from Cameroon.

Judaism Essays (2018 words) - Monotheistic Religions, Jews

Judaism Judaism Early History of Judaism It has been argued that Judaism can be seen not only as a single religion, but as a group of similar religions. It has also been pointed-out that through all the trials and tribulations that Judaism has suffered through, that there have been common themes that have proven omni-pervasive. Any institution with roots as ancient and varied as the religion of the Jews is bound to have a few variations, especially when most of its history takes place in the political and theological hot spot of the Middle East. In this discussion, many facets of Judaism will be examined, primarily in the three temporal subdivisions labeled the Tribal / Pre-Monarchy Period, the Divided Monarchy, and the Hasmonean / Maccabean and Roman Era. Among all the time periods where the religion has been split, these three seem to be the mostrepresentative of the forces responsible. As for a common thread seen throughout all Judiasms, the area of focus here is the place associated with the religion : Jerusalem. This topic will be covered in detail first, and then the multiple Judaism arguments will be presented. In this way, it is possible to keep a common focus in mind when reading about all the other situations in which the religion has found itself. A brief conclusion follows the discussion. A Place to Call Home No other religion has ever been so attached to its birthplace as Judaism. Perhaps this is because Jews have been exiled and restricted from this place for most of their history. Jerusalem is not only home to Judaism, but to the Muslim and Christian religions as well. Historically this has made it quite a busy place for the various groups. Jerusalem is where the temple of the Jews once stood; the only place on the whole Earth where one could leave the confines of day to day life and get closer to God. In 586 BCE when the temple was destroyed, no Jew would have denied Jerusalem as being the geographic center of the religion. From that point on, the Jewish people have migrated around the world, but not one of them forgets the fact that Jerusalem is where it all began. It is truly a sacred place, and helps to define what Judaism means to many people; a common thread to run through all the various splinters of the religion and help hold them together. Even today, as the Jewish people have their precious Jerusalem back (through the help of other nations and their politics) there is great conflict and emotion surrounding it. Other nations and people in the area feel that they should be in control of the renowned city, and the Jews deny fervently any attempt to wrestle it from their occupation. It is true that there is no temple in Jeruslaem today, nor are all the Jews in the world rushing to get back there. But it is apparent that the city represents more to the religion of Judaism than a mere place to live and work. The city of Jerusalem is a spiritual epicenter, and throughout Judaisms long and varied history, this single fact has never changed. Tribal / Pre-Monarchy Judaisms roots lie far back in the beginnings of recorded history. The religion did not spring into existence exactly as it is known today, rather it was pushed and prodded by various environmental factors along the way. One of the first major influences on the religion was the Canaanite nation. Various theories exist as to how and when the people that would later be called Jews entered into this civilization. But regardless of how they ultimately got there, these pioneers of the new faith were subjected to many of the ideas and prejudices of the time. Any new society that finds itself in an existing social situation, can do no more than to try and integrate into that framework. And this is exactly what the Jews did. Early Judaism worshipped multiple gods. One of these gods was known as Baal, and was generally thought-of as a statue god with certain limitations on his power. The other primary deity was called YHWH (or Yahweh) and enjoyed a much more mysterious and

Au Revior Les Enfants Essays - Childhood, Youth, Youth Culture

Au Revior Les Enfants Essays - Childhood, Youth, Youth Culture Au Revior Les Enfants 592099243 Au Revior Les Enfants The movie Au Revior Les Enfants ,or Goodbye Children translated, has a lot of symbolism that applies to the films theme and subject in its title alone. The theme of childhood, innocence, and adulthood-growing up and the subject of the movie is seen in the title and throughout the entire film. Childhood is portrayed throughout the film in many different ways. One obvious way is the games the children play on the stilts. It is ironic that the games they are playing have to do with war and fighting, the same things that are going on outside the gates of the monastery. During the movie you also see the innocence of childhood when the children trade different items for marbles and when Julian wets his bed. You also get to see the children start to grow up in a sense. The boys in the movie look at nude women, read books about romance and smoke cigarettes. These things show how the boys are growing up and about to enter adulthood but still are children and have a lot of growing up to do. The symbolism in the title is seen though out the movie in many different aspects. Goodbye Children is seen when the children start to grow up, they are growing up and saying goodbye to their childhood, The title is also portrayed when when the children are taken away from the monastery and Julian waves goodbye to the rest of the children. Some other ways the title is also seen is when Father Jean is taken away and says goodbye to the children. You are left not knowing what is going to happen to them if this is just goodbye for now or goodbye forever until the narration lets you know. Then you are also saying goodbye to the children also. The symbolism in the movie and in the title help show the theme and subject of the movie.The movie shows how the characters saying goodbye to the innocence of childhood and hello to the real world of adulthood. The fact that the children and Father Jean are taken away shows the movies title in the aspect that they are saying goodbye to the rest of the children. The movie has may other types of symbolism though out. These are just some ways the movie shows symbolism regarding its title.

Why Peace Processes Fail to End Violence Research Paper

Why Peace Processes Fail to End Violence - Research Paper Example The failure of talks among governments, societies, rebels, communities and other parties faced with conflict to come to consensus is discussed in the paper. Various examples of such instances have been given, and the challenges they face in the negotiation process outlined. Attempts and failure of dialogue in solving a conflict eliciting new beginning of the conflict have also been illustrated in this document. Factors hindering peace methods in curbing the conflicts have also been widely discussed. In various cases, both international and domestic, mediation has always failed; this is discussed with various relevant examples in the world.  Most warring parties embark on physical confrontation as a means of solving the problem. Political and fiscal reforms will be noted to assist in decision-making during the negotiation process. This often results in the elimination of peace as a solution to the problem that resulted in war. This idea has been viewed from different angles in this document such that it is realized that peace often fails in the process of ending violence.  The definition of peace may be varied, but, in this context, it can be summarized or explicated as the absence of hostilities or war. It can be attained by various applications depending on the context. Establishment of peace through peace method has proved inefficient in most cases thus termed to have failed in ending violence. This method is mostly applied through negotiations and settling of disputes through peacebuilding and peacekeeping. Political factors, in most cases, are the culprit of war thus making peace a difficult avenue to take in bringing things under control. The willingness of the warring parties to have a round table talk is a problem.

2 page letter to the editor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

2 page letter to the editor - Assignment Example This involves an ability to clearly think through an issue, formulate opinion / policy, communicate it effectively and argue successfully the merits and demerits of the opinion and alternatives. In other words, a leader has to talk, listen and argue coherently to win over skeptics if any. Since we are all individuals from different socio-economic and political backgrounds, we manifest our leadership qualities in different styles. Some of us are authoritative, some are democratic and yet others are of please-all by nature. These styles appear appropriate in different situations e.g., military commanders are in general more authoritative, HR managers are more democratic etc. Authoritative leaders impose their will on the subordinates or even colleagues by the force of their personality and the power of their hierarchical status. Persuasive leaders opt for a more democratic approach Since the topic of healthcare reform is with the political leaders, I wish to draw a parallel with the council member of our neighborhood and the successful way he practices his leadership skills. On the one hand, this council member has to listen to the suggestions and grievances of his constituency (voters), prioritize them and do his best to get them executed through the administration. On the other hand, he has to contend with similar (and sometimes, opposing) demands from the other council members who have obligations to their own voters. There are political careers involved here and the contest is, as in the National Congress, among local leaders. Our council member is a soft spoken Republican. His priorities are dictated by public opinion and national policy. His interactions with the other council members can be seen as the flip side of his interactions with his own voters. Skillfully, he persuades the other council members to support his priorities within reasonable limits and extends similar support to them. By this way, he has

Conditioned Stimulus Conditioned Response Essay Example for Free

Conditioned Stimulus Conditioned Response Essay This experiment showed that Albert developed a fear of a white rat through associating a neutral stimulus with a fear provoking stimulus. However some individuals may have inherited a high level of physiological reactivity. The extent to which the individual is classically conditioned to a neutral stimulus could be determined by this physiological reactivity. In addition, animal phobia is more likely to become classically conditioned because there is preparedness for survival from the EEA, other stimuli may not become classically conditioned. Davison found phobias of neutral stimuli cannot be easily conditioned as Alberts experiment suggested; he tried to condition phobias of neutral stimuli in a laboratory but had little success. However being in an experimental setting may have prevented the participants from behaving naturally; therefore the fear was not conditioned. The behaviourist concept of stimulus generalising suggest that a fear response to one thing can be generalised to other things, and as predicted by the behavioural concept Albert generalised the phobia of white rats to other furry white objects such as cotton wool, fur and white beards. However his reactivity may predispose him to the anxious disorder. Due to Albert being a child he may have developed his fear of the rat because he was immediately able to recognise the appearance of the animal is least like a human, he feared other objects that were similar to the rat because he developed a cognitive bias unconsciously. Also the research evidence on phobias being a result of traumatic experiences lacks reliability, as shown by Davison it is difficult to replicate Watson and Rayners experiment; although it was found 50% of people suffering from certain phobias recalled a traumatic experience that had triggered their phobia, therefore supporting classical conditioning. The other 50% of phobics that cannot recall an unpleasant experience initiating their phobia could be due to repression of the expression. The development of phobias can also be explained by Mowrers two-process theory, this involves operant conditioning. The first stage of the process involves classical conditioning, for example linking the white rat and the loud noise. The second stage of the theory involves operant conditioning as avoidance of the phobic stimulus reduces the fear response and is thus reinforcing, therefore the fear is maintained and a phobia is developed. Behavioural explanations are reductionist; they oversimplify concepts to one specific thing and ignore other factors. The explanation is also deterministic because it suggests behaviour is controlled by the environment and ignores the individuals own ability to control their behaviour. Social learning theory explains fear as not being intentional, the learning of the fear happens at an unconscious cognitive level. Evidence of modelling was found in monkeys that observed other monkeys displaying a fearful reaction to a snake; these monkeys developed a phobia of snakes because it is a harmful stimulus. Bandura proposed phobias can be learnt through observational learning, modelling and direct reinforcement. There are other psychological explanations of anxious disorders. The cognitive explanation suggests faulty thinking is the cause of phobias. Beck and Emery conceded that anxious people avail cognitive biases, which causes them exaggerate the threats posed by stimuli. This has face validity because phobics have reported high level of anxiety and it is plausible that phobics find their environment a threatening place. Clarks cognitive theory of panic disorder suggests individuals suffering from panic disorder tend to interpret their bodily functions over sensitively i.e. they react to their bodily functions in a life-threatening way. This makes them more anxious and increases their catastrophic thoughts. However it cannot be identified if cognitive biases are the cause of phobias or if the phobias are the cause of the individuals cognitive biases. Also the over consciousness of bodily response could be due to physiological reactivity of the individual and it maybe the underlying cause of the fear. The explanation is description rather than explanatory; it describes the thought patterns of the individual but does not explain why the individual is having these thought patterns. The social explanation is another psychological explanation of anxiety disorders. According to this explanation parental rearing styles have an impact on the development of phobias. It has been found that parental styles that are high in control and overprotection and low in affection are linked to social phobia and agoraphobia. However accounts of parental styles are retrospective. Another limitation is all that has been obtained is correlations between rearing styles and anxiety disorders, correlations do not prove causality. There is evidence that phobics experience more serious life events before the onset of the anxiety disorder, in Kleiner and Marshalls study, 84% of agoraphobics reported to have experienced family problems prior to their first panic attack. Finlay and Brown found a difference between anxious and depressed patients in terms of life events they had experienced in the 12 months prior to the onset of their disorder. Both groups had experienced an above average number of life events, but anxious patients tended to have experienced danger events, whereas depressed patients experienced loss events. However life events may be a factor of variables that developed the disorders. In conclusion the behavioural explanation claims phobias are developed as a result of classical and operant conditioning, this is called the two-process theory. The experiment with Albert demonstrated classical conditioning. However, research indicates that phobias do not depend on having previously encountered a frightening situation, and individuals that have experienced frightening encounters do not necessarily develop a phobia. Social learning theory is a behavioural explanation that may apply to some specific phobias. The cognitive explanation suggests that the individual suffering from the phobia have cognitive biases which cause the individual to exaggerate the threat posed by the stimuli. Some individuals may react to their bodily responses in a catastrophic way more than other individuals because they have a higher physiological reactivity. The social explanation can be used to explain the development of phobias through parental rearing styles and life events. The main problem with obtaining information about parental rearing styles may be the individual perceives the style differently from how it actually was. The main problem with obtaining information on life events is that it was in the past the so remembering them may be distorted and some events may have been forgotten. All three accounts of psychological explanations can be used to describe the development of phobias; however there are other explanations of anxiety disorders that are not psychological such as the evolutionary explanation. According to preparedness argument phobias are adaptive because they are a fear of things that would have been a threat to humans in the EEA. The evolutionary explanation is a counter perspective of the conditioning explanation and may explain why replications of Watson and Rayners experiment failed to condition phobias to neutral stimuli.