This is the kind of thing that ticks me off about Christian “charity”: there are nearly always goddy strings attached. When believers tout the noble acts committed in the name of their faith, they never mention these strings. In contrast, when humanists or atheists do organized charitable acts, they never ask the recipients to abjure God or give up their faith.
And so, when Franklin Graham donated money to help set up a Covid-19 field hospital in New York’s Central Park, he required volunteers to adhere to the oppressive strictures of his brand of Christianity. Read (and weep) by clicking on the screenshot below, an article in the Charlotte [North Carolina] Observer:
Franklin Graham is of course the son of evangelist Billy Graham, and head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The news report is notable for highlighting not only Graham’s “strings,” but also his crazy Biblical explanation…
The first of these refers to the extent to which people experience positive emotions and feelings of happiness. Sometimes this aspect of psychological wellbeing is referred to as subjective wellbeing (Diener, 2000).
Subjective wellbeing is a necessary part of overall PWB but on its own it is not enough.
The two important ingredients in PWB are the subjective happy feelings brought on by something we enjoy AND the feeling that what we are doing with our lives has some meaning and purpose.
Types of psychological wellbeing
The term “Hedonic” wellbeing is normally used to refer to the subjective feelings of happiness. It comprises of two components, an affective component (high positive affect and low negative affect) and a cognitive component (satisfaction with life). It is proposed that an individual experiences happiness when positive affect and satisfaction with life are both high (Carruthers & Hood, 2004).
The less well-known term, “Eudaimonic” wellbeing is used to refer to the purposeful aspect of PWB. The psychologist Carol Ryff has developed a very clear model that breaks down Eudaimonic wellbeing into six key types of psychological wellbeing.
Self-Acceptance: One’s positive attitude about his or her self. An example statement for this criterion is “I like most aspects of my personality”
Environmental Mastery: One makes effective use of opportunities and has a sense of mastery in managing environmental factors and activities, including managing everyday affairs and creating situations to benefit personal needs. An example statement for this criterion is “In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live”.
Positive Relations with Others: High scores reflect the respondent’s engagement in meaningful relationships with others that include reciprocal empathy, intimacy, and affection. An example statement for this criterion is “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others”.
Personal Growth: High scores indicate that one continues to develop, is welcoming to new experiences, and recognizes improvements in behavior and self over time. An example statement for this criterion is “I think it is important to have new experiences that challenge how you think about yourself and the world”.
Purpose in Life: High scores reflect the respondent’s strong goal orientation and conviction that life holds meaning. An example statement for this criterion is “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them”.
Autonomy: one is independent and regulates his or her behavior independent of social pressures. An example statement for this criterion is “I have confidence in my opinions, even if they are contrary to the general consensus”.
A tourism product is perishable in the sense that, unlike a can of beans, it cannot be stored away for future sale if it does not sell the first time (Weaver and Lawton, 2006, p. 207). Tourists, for example, may stay away from a seaside resort when the weather is bad in a season when the weather is usually good. During this period of downturn the high capital costs at the destination (for example, the hotel and contrived attractions) still remain. The seasonal nature of tourism at some destinations is a problem that challenges the management of tourism.
Multiple Uses
Components of the tourism product may be used by both the tourists and the population of the host society. According to Cooper et al (1993, p. 82), the tourists are not always welcome users of the local facilities. In rural areas, for example, farmers complain of tourists who travel on their farmland and fail to shut the gates on the property. In Bali, there were complaints about water shortages in Denpasar because the elite resort, Nusa Dua, seemed to be getting more than its fair share of water.
Variability
Interaction between producers and consumers of the tourism product is unique experiences because they are subject to the potential for the unpredictability of the human beings involved in the encounter (Weaver and Lawton, 2006, p. 206). It is necessary that there should be uniformity in the quality of the various components of the tourism product at the destination. This is difficult because of the diversity of the components and their providers.
Distinguishing between companies according to whether they market services or goods has only limited utility. A more useful way to make the same distinction is to change the words we use. Instead of speaking of services and goods, we should speak of intangibles and tangibles. Everybody sells intangibles in the marketplace, no matter what is produced in the factory.
The intangibility of All Products
Intangible products—travel, freight forwarding, insurance, repair, consulting, computer software, investment banking, brokerage, education, health care, accounting—can seldom be tried out, inspected, or tested in advance. Prospective buyers are generally forced to depend on surrogates to assess what they’re likely to get.
Tangible products differ in that they can usually, or to some degree, be directly experienced—seen, touched, smelled, or tasted, as well as tested. Often this can be done in advance of buying. You can test-drive a car, smell the perfume, work the numerical controls of a milling machine, inspect the seller’s steam-generating installation, pretest an extruding machine.
In practice, though, even the most tangible of products can’t be reliably tested or experienced in advance. To inspect a vendor’s steam-generating plant or computer installation in advance at another location and to have thoroughly studied detailed proposals and designs are not enough. A great deal more is involved than product features and physical installation alone.
Importance of Impressions
Common sense tells us, and research confirms, that people use appearances to make judgments about realities. It matters little whether the products are high priced or low priced, whether they are technically complex or simple, whether the buyers are supremely sophisticated in the technology of what’s being considered or just plain ignorant, or whether they buy for themselves or for their employers. Everybody always depends to some extent on both appearances and external impressions.
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