How is shopping on the internet different from and similar to shopping Essay

How is shopping on the internet different from and similar to shopping in stores - Essay Example Many stores as well as online shops provide the customers with a guarantee for the product for a certain period of time, during which the product can be replaced if it turns out to be inefficient or faulty. Store shopping is quicker and more convenient than the online shopping. The customer can go to the market any time, purchase the item and bring it along back to the home at the same time (â€Å"Traditional Vs. Online†). This way, the customer is able to save all the time that would otherwise have been consumed in shipping. Store shopping is also more convenient than the online shopping in terms of replacement. If the product purchased is damaged, the customer can quickly go and have it replaced without having to wait for several days in the case of online shopping. Online shopping is safer as compared to the store shopping. Items purchased online are insured and the companies take responsibility for full replacement in case of any damage caused to the item on its way to the customer. On the other hand, when a customer purchases an item from the store, he brings it home at his/her own discretion. The item may be robbed or stolen once it has been taken out from the store. Online shopping is also safer than the store shopping because the customer is not exposed to the risk of accidents on the roads. Online shopping proves more cost effective as compared to the store shopping. When a customer stays at home, he/she only shops the item he/she needs. When he/she goes to a store to buy a thing, there are a lot of attractions that encourage the customer to spend money on. A customer hardly ever returns without taking a light meal at the nearby restaurant or a cupcake shop that comes in the way. Concluding, online shopping and the store shopping resemble and differ from each other in a number of ways. While the two are the same in terms of the method of payment, the range of items and the responsibility for their

The Brick Tower †a Speech by Justin Hudson Essay Example for Free

The Brick Tower — a Speech by Justin Hudson Essay Ladies and gentlemen, family, faculty and my fellow classmates of the class of 2010, before I begin I would like to thank those teachers who chose this modest speech among the outstanding collection of speeches written by my highly competent peers. I would also like to thank all the people who have expressed their support for me and their anticipation for this speech. To be told â€Å"You are the best person in the grade to give this speech†, or some variation of that statement, more than once is truly humbling, and you all are either the most polite people I know, or the kindest people I know. It is a great honor to give this address, and I promise I do not take it lightly. I have chosen every word quite carefully because I am fully aware of the responsibility you all have bestowed upon me. Today, I stand before you as a personification of conflictedness. I find myself on this podium experiencing numerous warring emotions, and I am certain many of you here empathize with me on that point. Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, I am filled with a great sense of happiness and accomplishment. My peers and I have put much effort for the last six years—a third of our lives thus far—into being able to stand here today and say that we’ve earned the right to stand here. It was by no means easy, and there were many times when I thought I would not reach this finish line. But those struggles have only made this moment sweeter. The people who are on this stage survived four years of Latin, or 8th grade swim class, or English with Ms. D’Amico, or BC Calculus, or the 25% rule, and I think all of us can take some pride in that. Yet, my ambivalence on this day stems from the very fact that this ceremony is the end of an arduous journey. While I am ready to continue my academic endeavors, knowing that Hunter has thoroughly prepared me for them, I am also filled with a deep sense of anxiety and sadness. Hunter has been my second home for the last six years, and it has bordered on becoming my first home. Between my time diligently taking notes in the classroom, playing Chinese Poker in the hallway, taking a nap in the G. O. office, frantically rehearsing for a cultural show or theater production in the auditorium, cheering for an undefeated basketball team in the gymnasium, or simply sitting outside on the senior steps, istening to a boom box and enjoying nice weather in the courtyard, Hunter has truly become a sanctuary for me. My life has revolved around the fourstory brick building that stands on East 94th Street and Park Avenue, and Hunter’s intimate class size means that I have become as connected to the people of this school as I have to the building itself. It may sound disingenuous to say that I will miss each and every one of you, but all of you in some small way have shaped me into the person I am today, so I thank you all for that. Of course, the comfort that I have attained at Hunter makes this departure a rather anxious one, but with anxiety comes excitement, and the end of this journey signifies the start of a brand new one. As I leave behind the warmth that I have experienced at Hunter to enter a vastly new and quite frightening terrain, I can only help but think back to the last time I was in this situation, as a fresh-faced, wide-eyed twelve-year old entering the foreboding, windowless Brick Prison for the first time. Every aspect of my life since that point has been overwhelmingly positive, so all my fears about what lies ahead are slightly tamed by the idea that I will at least come close to experiencing in my future what I have already experienced at Hunter. However, ladies and gentlemen, more than happiness, relief, fear or sadness, I feel a very strong emotion that I cannot ignore today. More than anything else, today I feel guilty. I feel guilty because I don’t deserve any of this. And neither do any of you. We received an outstanding education at no charge based solely on our performance on a test we took when we were eleven year olds, or four year olds. We received superior teachers and additional resources based on our status as â€Å"gifted†, while kids who naturally needed those resources much more than us wallowed in the mire of a broken system. And now, we stand on the precipice of our lives, in control of our lives, based purely and simply on luck and circumstance. If you truly believe that the demographics of Hunter represent the distribution of intelligence in this city, then you must believe that the Upper West Side, Bayside and Flushing are intrinsically more intelligent than the South Bronx, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Washington Heights, and I refuse to accept that. It is certainly not Hunter’s fault that socioeconomic factors inhibit the educational opportunities of some children from birth, and in some ways I forgive colleges and universities that are forced to review eighteen year-olds, the end results of a broken system. But, we are talking about eleven year-olds. Four year-olds. We are deciding children’s fates before they even had a chance. We are playing God, and we are losing. Kids are losing the opportunity to go to college or obtain a career, because no one taught them long division or colors. Hunter is perpetuating a system in which children, who contain unbridled and untapped intellect and creativity, are discarded like refuse. And we have the audacity to say they deserved it, because we’re smarter than them. As students, we throw around empty platitudes like â€Å"deserve† and â€Å"earn†, most likely because it makes us feel better about ourselves. However, it simply isn’t the case. I know for a fact that I did not work as hard as I possibly could have, and I think the same is true for everyone on this stage. Nevertheless, people who work much harder than we ever could imagine will never have the opportunities that lie in front of us. I apologize if this is not the speech you wanted to hear, but you will have the rest of your lives to celebrate your accomplishments. I apologize if I have not inspired you, or uplifted you, but we have failed to inspire and uplift an entire generation of children. That being said, let me make it very clear that I am not giving anyone here a moral lecture, for I am as complicit in the system we are a part of as anyone else in this room. If anything, I only make these remarks to further emphasize how much Hunter has meant to me, because I am acutely aware of where I would be now without it. As recipients of fortune, we more than anyone else should be able to understand and respect what our high school experience has meant to us, and has done for us. My guilt ultimately stems from my awareness of the academic, social, emotional and psychological tools that Hunter has blessed us with. Therefore, I believe the best way to assuage this guilt is to use those fortuitous tools to not only better myself, but also improve the society that surrounds us outside these oh, so narrow walls. I do not know the capacity in which I will be able to make this world a better and more just place, but I strongly believe that education is the most effective means of creating social improvement, which is precisely why this is a battle we cannot concede. My experiences at Hunter have left me with one final emotion; the last sentiment I will share with you today is hope. I hope that I will use the tools that Hunter has given me as a means to provide opportunities to others, not out of a sense of paternalistic philanthropy, but out of a sense of duty to give to other people what Hunter has given to me. I also hope that you all will do the same, in whatever way you see fit. Even more so, I hope that in the near future, education itself will not be a privilege for the few in this world. I hope that a quality education will not be a privilege for the few in this country. I hope that the Hunter community will descend from its ivory tower made of brick, and distribute its tools evenly to the mass of humanity that is the City of New York. I hope that, despite its problems, Hunter can prove to be the rule, and not the exception, to what can exist as a school. Finally, I hope from the bottom of my heart that omeday a class speaker can stand on this podium and look into an audience of his closest and dearest friends whom he never would have met without Hunter and whom he’ll never forget, an audience of faculty members he has a deep respect and admiration for, an audience of family members who have supported him throughout his entire life without asking for anything in return. I hope this child can stand on this very stage, look at the most important people in his life, and feel happy, sad, relieved, scared, accomplished or whatever his heart desires, without feeling guilty about a damn thing. Thank you for your time.

Rutherfords Gold Foil Experiment :: essays research papers

Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment Rutherford started his scientific career with much success in local schools leading to a scholarship to Nelson College. After achieving more academic honors at Nelson College, Rutherford moved on to Cambridge University's Cavendish laboratory. There he was lead by his mentor J.J. Thomson convinced him to study radiation. By 1889 Rutherford was ready to earn a living and sought a job. With Thomson's recommendation McGill University in Montreal accepted him as a professor of chemistry. Upon performing many experiments and finding new discoveries at McGill university, Rutherford was rewarded the nobel prize for chemistry. In 1907 he succeded Arthur Schuster at the University of Manchester. He began persuing alpha particles in 1908. With the help of Geiger he found the number of alpha particles emitted per second by a gram of radium. He was also able to confirm that alpha particles cause a faint but discrete flash when striking luminescent zinc sulfide screen. These great accomplishments are all overshadowed by Rutherford's famous Gold Foil experiment which revolutionized the atomic model. This experiment was Rutherford's most notable achievement. It not only disproved Thomson's atomic model but also paved the way for such discoveries as the atomic bomb and nuclear power. The atomic model he concluded after the findings of his Gold Foil experiment have yet to be disproven. The following paragraphs will explain the significance of the Gold Foil Experiment as well as how the experiment contradicted Thomson's atomis model. Rutherford began his experiment with the philosophy of trying "any dam fool experiment" on the chance it might work.1 With this in mind he set out to disprove the current atomic model. In 1909 he and his partner, Geiger, decided Ernest Marsden, a student of the University of Manchester, was ready for a real research project.2 This experiment's apparatus consisted of Polonium in a lead box emitting alpha particles towards a gold foil. The foil was surrounded by a luminescent zinc sulfide screen to detect where the alpha particles went after contacting the gold atoms. Because of Thomson's atomic model this experiment did not seem worthwhile for it predicted all the alpha particles would go straight through the foil. Despite however unlikely it may have seemed for the alpha particles to bounce off the gold atoms, they did. Leaving Rutherford to say, "It was almost as incredible as if you fired a fifteen-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you." Soon he came up with a new atomic model based on the results of this experiment. Nevertheless his findings and the new atomic model was mainly ignored by the scientific community at the

Personal Quality Essay

When there seems the world is all against one, when it seems efforts are not yielding as expected and there is rather no companion to encourage and carry on with a task at hand, a residual doggedness and resilience becomes the most important personal tools necessary to fuel the battle to success. My standard is beyond meeting average, average is rather a stepping stone to my destiny; it is no point to rest laurel and celebrate. We live in a competitive world, as such; it becomes a persona to keep fit with the survival strategy to achieve remarkable impact amidst brilliant minds. Determination is the backbone or central to the passion sustaining my resilience and doggedness when involve in a task. I have got the lots to ensure a living beyond mediocrity. In my understanding, I see no one ever oozing his way out of mediocrity like a lazy slug. Everyone I know who models a high level of excellence has won the battle of the mind and taken the right captivating thoughts. However, with risks, the individuals have chosen to fill the role of an active pen flowing with ink rather than a passive blotter that only sits and soaks what others do; they have decided to get personally involved with life rather than sitting back, frowning and watching life dwindling to a trickle and ultimately stagnating. The power of their mind expounds the basis for determination leading to the evident doggedness and resilience on the path of success. Secondly I cherish team spirit. This is one of the leading qualities of a real-time organization or researching team in institution. A contributing skill requires excellent team spirit at work without lackadaisical attitude to one’s assigned role in a cooperative academic work. The difficulty I have faced when i arrived in this country was language understanding but my intellectual curiosity and personal talent have helped me overcome that barrier tremendously. My personal achievement helped me to discover a sense of individuality and to envision the contributions I might make it to UC Universities. Furthermore, the difficulty i faced when my father was diagnosed with cancer was equally developing after all. Unfortunately i had to work and go to school at the same time that was when my GPA had dropped a bit. But this accomplishment had me persistent to work harder in school and also had me mentally tougher to face the unpredictable challenges in school and life. Now I know that life is not constant and doesn’t stay in one situation for ever. With the excellent involvement in Hospital voluntary groups for two years, I have realized now that I have to take more responsibility in life in order for me to achieve my goal. I have always dreamt of being a doctor and there I strongly believe nothing can stop me from achieving this goal. This has been my life long dream. These experiences in life have helped me grow, learn and emerged my high level of maturity.

Education and the Subjective Quality of Life* Essay

Journal of Health and Social Behavior 1997, Vol. 38 (September):275-297 We examine whether education influences subjective quality of life. If it does, what are the mechanisms by which education affects well-being? We propose that educa- tion improves well-being because it increases access to nonalienated paid work and economic resources that increase the sense of control over life, as well as access to stable social relationships, especially marriage, that increase social support. We examine the relationship between education and a variety of indicators of subjective quality of life-depression, anxiety, anger, aches and pains, malaise, and dissatis- faction. Using two representative national samples collected in 1990 and 1995, we find that the well educated have lower levels of emotional distress (including depres- sion, anxiety, and anger) and physical distress (including aches and pains and malaise), but they do not have lower levels of dissatisfaction. Education reduces dis- tress largely by way of paid work, nonalienated work, and economic resources, which are associated with high personal control; but the extent to which it reduces distress by way of marriage and social support is much more modest. We contrast distress and dissatisfaction as indicators of the subjective quality of life. Does education matter to subjective quality of life? If it does, what are the mechanisms by which education affects well-being? We pro- pose that education is valuable to individual well-being because it provides access to the two primary determinants of well-being: non- *We are indebted to the National Institute on Aging for the grant (ROI AG12393) to John Mirowsky and Catherine Ross that supported the Aging, Status, and the Sense of Control (ASOC) data collection and analysis. We are indebted to the National Science Foundation for the grant (SES- 8916154) to Catherine Ross that supported the Work, Family, and Well-Being (WFW) data collec- tion. Sampling, pretesting, and interviewing for both surveys were conducted by the Survey Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois. We thank John Mirowsky for his statistical help, Barbara Reskin for her help with the comparison process theory of satisfaction, and JHSB reviewers for their suggestions. Address correspondence to: Catherine Ross, Department of Sociology, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 North Oval Mall, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1353; e-mail: ross. 131 @osu. edu. alienated paid work and supportive relation- ships. Compared to the poorly educated, we expect that well-educated persons have access to nonalienated paid work that increases the sense of personal control. Well-being comes, first, from nonalienated work in which people exert control over the labor process (Kohn 1976; Marx ([1884] 1964). Work that gives people the freedom from routinization, monot- ony, and external control on the one hand, and a chance to use their skills, develop as a per- son, and learn new things on the other, theo- retically increases subjective well-being, in part by increasing perceived control. Com- pared to the poorly educated, we also expect that well-educated individuals have access to stable social relationships, especially mar- riage, that increase social support. Well-being comes, second, from primary group ties and social bonds that increase supportive relation- ships with others, especially the personal secu- rity of marriage, and the sense of having other people to talk to and turn to in times of need (Durkheim 1951; Litwak and Messeri 1989). We propose that, through these processes, 275 276 JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR education improves the subjective quality of life, measured as psychological well-being and distress. We extend core economic and sociological perspectives on the meaning of education to individual well-being. We argue that educa- tion’s value extends beyond jobs, earnings, prestige, and power to people’s psychological well-being. According to human capital and status attainment theories, employers need workers who can read, write, do basic math, communicate, negotiate, solve problems, look things up, figure things out, and develop ideas; this human capital is acquired in school, and these skills, knowledge, and abilities help a person get a good job (Blau and Duncan 1967; Becker 1964; Hyman, Wright, and Reed 1975; Sewell and Hauser 1975; Spaeth 1976; Treiman and Terrell 1975). The same skills and abilities shaped by schooling, we argue, improve individual well-being through their effects on objective life conditions and social psychological resources. THE LINKS BETWEEN EDUCATION AND DISTRESS The negative association between education and psychological distress is well documented (Glenn and Weaver 1981; Kessler 1982; Lennon and Rosenfield 1992; Link, Lennon, and Dohrenwend 1993; Mirowsky and Ross 1989, 1995; Pearlin et al. 1981; Ross and Huber 1985; Ross and Mirowsky 1989), but the mechanisms by which education affects well-being are not. Education is rarely the focus of investigation in the sociological study of stress (Pearlin 1989). Instead, it is usually a control variable in research whose focus is on something else. This means that research has not identified the mechanisms by which edu- cation affects psychological well-being. Furthermore, when subjective well-being is measured as satisfaction, researchers find little positive effect of education. This raises the question of whether education’s effect is uni- formly positive. Well-educated persons are not more satisfied with their jobs than the poorly educated (Andrisani 1978; Gordon and Arvey 1975; Glenn and Weaver 1982; Quinn, Staines, and McCullough 1974; Ross and Reskin 1992), and they are not more satisfied with life in general (Pascarella and Terenzini 1991). Some argue that if education does not increase job satisfaction, or satisfaction over- all, maybe it has little real value to the subjec- tive quality of life, since a principal motivation for attaining a high level of formal education in the United States is access to satisfying work (Berg 1971; Quinn and Mandilovitch 1977). We examine the relationship between edu- cation and a variety of indicators of subjective quality of life. We distinguish distress- depression, anxiety, anger, aches and pains, and malaise-from dissatisfaction. Theo- retically, distress results from deprivation, whereas dissatisfaction results from depriva- tion relative to one’s expectations (Mirowsky and Ross 1989). We propose that education improves the subjective quality of life, mea- sured as psychological well-being and distress -measures not confounded by high expecta- tions among the advantaged. If education cor- relates positively with subjective well-being, what explains the association? We focus on two pathways by which education might affect individual well-being: (1) work and economic conditions, which increase personal control and (2) marriage and family conditions, which increase social support. Often educational attainment is used simply as an indicator of socioeconomic status. However, education, income, and work indi- cate different underlying concepts, so we keep the three aspects separate. Schooling indicates the accumulated knowledge, skills, values, and behaviors learned at school, in addition to being a credential that structures employment opportunities. Income and economic hardship indicate economic well-being. Work is pro- ductive activity (paid or not). Further, educa- tion, employment, and economic resources are not on the same causal level. Education is the key to one’s position in the stratification sys- tem; it shapes the likelihood of being em- ployed, the qualities of the job a person can get, and income. Combining variables from different causal levels obscures processes. If education affects psychological well-being, is its effect direct, or is it indirect by way of work or economic resources? Work and Economic Conditions Paid Work. Well-educated people are more likely to be employed and are more likely to be employed full-time (vs. part-time) than are those EDUCATION AND THE SUBJECTIVE QUALITY OF LIFE 277 with little education (U. S. Department of Education 1992). Employment, especially full- time employment, in turn, is associated with higher levels of psychological and physical well-being (Gore and Mangione 1983; Lennon and Rosenfield 1992; Pearlin et al. 1981; Ross and Bird 1994; Verbrugge 1983). Although physical and mental health affect an individual’s likelihood of being employed, the positive asso- ciation between well-being and employment is not simply due to the selection of healthy people into the work force (Kessler, House, and Turner 1987; Ross and Mirowsky 1995). Nonalienated Work. We expect that educa- tion gives people access to nonalienated work that involves a variety of tasks, nonroutine work, and the chance for continued learning and development, which decreases distress. In nonalienated work, workers control the labor process; they have the chance to use their skills in the design and implementation of the work. Nonroutine work gives people the free- dom to use thought and independent judgment in doing different things in different ways rather than doing the same thing in the same way in a process designed and controlled by others. Skilled work gives people the chance to learn new things and develop as a person through work. Together, creative, nonroutine, independent work that gives a person control over the labor process, and work that is intrin- sic to a person’s development not external to it, are the essence of nonalienated labor. Kohn and colleagues find that control over the work process, rather than ownership of the means of production or control over the labor of others, is most important to psychological functioning (Kohn 1976; Kohn and Schooler 1982; Kohn et al. 1990). We expect that the work done by well- educated people is less alienated than that done by the poorly educated, and that this work decreases distress. However, the evi- dence as to whether work characteristics explain some of the effect of education on psy- chological well-being is mixed. Lennon (1994) finds that the effect of education on depression is explained when work condi- tions-autonomy, time pressure, responsibili- ty, interruptions, physical effort, and routine- are added. Link and colleagues (1993) find that education’s impact on psychological well- being works largely through giving individu- als access to jobs involving direction, control, and planning. However, others find that the effect of education on distress remains unchanged with adjustment for job control and other occupational characteristics (Kessler 1982; Lennon and Rosenfield 1992). Economic Resources. Low levels of educa- tion increase economic hardship. Individuals with low levels of education have lower incomes than those with high levels of educa- tion (Sewell and Hauser 1975), in part because they are less likely to be employed, and if employed, more likely to hold low-level jobs. Low levels of education further deprive people of the problem-solving resources needed to cope with the stresses of economic hardship. Ross and Huber (1985) find a synergistic effect on economic hardship of low education and low income, each making the effect of the other worse. Hardship increases psychological distress; the chronic strain of struggling to pay the bills and to feed and clothe the children takes its toll, often in feelings of depression and malaise (Pearlin et al. 1981; Ross and Huber 1985). Marriage and Family Composition Marital Status. Evidence that education is positively associated with marriage is some- what mixed and indirect. The well educated are less likely to divorce, probably due to the fact that they marry later and do so under more favorable economic conditions (Glick 1984; Houseknecht and Spanier 1980). Education is negatively associated with widowhood, too, since men and women choose partners with similar levels of education (Kalmijn 1991; Qian and Preston 1993), and well-educated people live longer than those with lower levels of education (Rogot, Sorlie, and Johnson 1992). Although education is negatively asso- ciated with marital dissolution, either through divorce or widowhood, it is also negatively associated with marrying in the first place, especially for some groups. Education decreases the probability of ever marrying among Whites, while highly educated Blacks are more likely to marry than Blacks with lower levels of education (Bennett, Bloom, and Craig 1989). Women with high levels of education are more likely to postpone mar- riage, not to remarry after divorce, and never marry in the first place than are women with lower levels of education; and women who fail to marry in young adulthood attain a higher 278 JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR level of education than those who do marry (McLanahan and Casper 1994). All told, how- ever, well-educated women and men are more likely to be currently married than those with- out high school degrees (Qian and Preston 1993). Overall, married people and those who live with partners are healthier and happier than those who are single, divorced, or widowed (Waite 1995). Married people have higher lev- els of physical and psychological well-being than do unmarried people (Gove, Hughes, and Style 1983; Ross, Mirowsky, and Goldsteen 1990; Ross 1995). If marriage has any nega- tive effects on well-being, it may be due to child care responsibilities, which fall dispro- portionately on women. People with children at home do not have higher levels of psycho- logical well-being than nonparents (Gore and Mangione 1983; Kessler and McRae 1982; McLanahan and Adams 1987). In many instances, parents-especially mothers-are more psychologically distressed than non- parents (Gove and Geerken 1977; Pearlin 1975). Most of the stress of children in the home is due to economic strains, excessive child care responsibilities, and difficulties arranging child care while parents are at work (Ross and Huber 1985; Ross and Mirowsky 1988). Since children often accompany mar- riage, the effect of marriage on well-being may not be uniformly positive. However, the well educated may get the benefits of mar- riage, without the stress associated with chil- dren, since well-educated women have fewer children than poorly educated women. Women with high levels of education are more likely to remain childless, to postpone having chil- dren, and to have fewer children than are those with lower levels of education (Bloom and Trussel 1984; Rindfuss, Morgan, and Swice- good 1984; Veevers 1979). Since men and women tend to choose partners with similar levels of education (Kalmijn 1991; Qian and Preston 1993), well-educated men have fewer children, too. Social-Psychological Resources Sense of Control. Belief in personal control is a learned, generalized expectation that out- comes are contingent on one’s own choices and actions (Mirowsky and Ross 1989; Rotter 1966). The sense of powerlessness, the oppo- site, is the belief that one’s actions do not affect outcomes. It is the main form of subjec- tive alienation (Seeman 1959, 1983). Education correlates positively with the sense of control, and the sense of personal control mediates a large part of the negative associa- tion between education and distress (Mirow- sky and Ross 1989; Ross and Mirowsky 1989). The well educated have higher person- al control than the poorly educated, even adjusting for employment, job autonomy, earnings, minority status, age, marital status, sex, and household work (Bird and Ross 1993; Ross and Mirowsky 1992). People with high levels of personal control have low levels of psychological distress (Aneshensel 1992; Gecas 1989; Mirowsky and Ross 1986; Pearlin et al. 1981; Wheaton 1980, 1983), and perceived control over both good and bad outcomes correlates negatively with depression (Krause and Stryker 1984; Mirowsky and Ross 1990). High personal con- trol helps people cope actively and flexibly, to avoid problems and to prepare for those that cannot be avoided (Mirowsky and Ross 1989; Turner and Noh 1983; Wheaton 1983). In con- trast, the sense of powerlessness is demoraliz- ing in itself and interferes with active problem- solving. Social Support. Social support is the com- mitment, caring, advice, and aid provided in personal relationships, the sense of being cared for and loved, esteemed and valued as a person, and part of a network of communica- tion and obligation (Kaplan, Robbins, and Martin 1983). Little research has examined the social determinants of support. Education may provide social support by giving people access to multiple roles with independent social net- works which boost the potential for supportive relationships (Walker, Wasserman, and Wellman 1993). Education may also help peo- ple maintain supportive relationships with oth- ers directly by way of increased flexibility in dealing with problems, the ability to negotiate and compromise, and to see more than one side of an issue; and indirectly by reducing stressors of unemployment, poverty, and eco- nomic hardship which strain interpersonal relationships (Atkinson, Liem, and Liem 1986; Gore 1978). Ross and Mirowsky (1989) find that the well educated have higher levels of support than the poorly educated, but few other studies have examined the association between education and social support. EDUCATION AND THE SUBJECTIVE QUALITY OF LIFE 279 Low levels of social support, especially emotional support, are associated with psycho- logical distress, including depression and anx- iety, and poor health (Gerstel, Riessman, and Rosenfield 1985; House, Landis, and Um- berson 1988; Kessler and McLeod 1985). Social support reduces distress directly and it interacts with stressful life events and situa- tions, buffering their negative effect (Wheaton 1983). Summary of Proposed Mechanisms by Which Education Affects Distress We propose that education gives people access to nonalienated paid work and eco- nomic resources that increase the sense of personal control, and that education gives peo- ple access to stable social relationships, espe- cially marriage, that increase social support. Through these processes, we hypothesize, education affects subjective quality of life. SAMPLES We use two representative national samples. With these we will replicate regression analy- ses in order to strengthen confidence in our results, distinguish robust findings from sample-specific ones, and comprehensively measure distress and dissatisfaction in two years. The first is the Aging, Status, and the Sense of Control (ASOC) survey. It is a 1995 telephone survey of a national probability sample of U. S. households. Respondents were selected using a prescreened random-digit dialing method that increases the rate of con- tacting eligible numbers (or decreases the rate of contacting business and nonworking num- bers) and decreases standard errors compared to the standard Mitofsky-Waksberg method while producing a sample with the same demographic profile (Lund and Wright 1994; Waksberg 1978). The ASOC survey has two subsamples, designed to produce an 80 percent oversample of persons age 60 and older. The survey was limited to English-speaking adults. The main sample draws from all households; the oversample draws only from households with one or more seniors. In the main sample, the adult (18 or older) with the most recent birthday was selected as respondent.