Psychology ESP Course

End-of-ESP Course Self-assessment

2008-12-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

Writing (a summary)

I am glad that even though this term there were only few summary writing assignments, I feel quite sure about my writing skills as we have practiced a lot previously. I am also satisfied with my knowledge about the types and ways means how to write an accurate and brief summary.

Writing ESP vocabulary tests

I think that I have not managed to write all of the tests as well as I think I am able to. It might be due to a lack of time or motivation (or even both). Nevertheless, I understand the importance of these assignments and I am bit disappointed about having such poor marks.

Writing class dictations

Since I read a lot of material in English I think I have acquired a common sense of written language. I still make a lot of grammar mistakes and I am even getting weaker and weaker in this area.

Listening comprehension in class

I strongly believe that I have a sufficient level of oral English comprehension as I easily understand what is said and I am quite good at listening comprehension assignments.

Listening to peers’ power point presentations

I have heard the majority of the presentations and they were all more or less interesting and relevant to our course subjects. It was easy to listen as the language used by a presenter was simple and usually fluent.

Making power poin presentations

While making my presentation about Psychotherapy, I have found and revised some really useful information. I also did my best to give as much as possible of this knowledge to my peers.

Speaking on ESP themes in class

From my point of view, the main thing I have learned this year is how to find the most important and relevant information in the text, how to fluently present it, include your own ideas and examples. Also while speaking about the modules I have acquired a broader view of all the subjects we are learning. All in all I think my speaking achievements can be seen very frequently.

Psychology of Kleptomania

2008-12-02T11:28:00.001-08:00

To begin with, it is important to preface the true meaning of Kleptomania and its psychological aspects. Kleptomania comes from the Greek kleptein, “to steal” and mania, and is usually described as a condition of not being able to resist the urge to steal. However, we are not talking about planned thefts, confirmed by people who seek to posses the stolen object due to its value or steal out of anger or vengeance. It is the process itself, the tension preceding the unplanned theft and a relief at the time of the theft – that is the main temptation for people with Kleptomania. Therefore kleptomania is regarded as psychological disorder, specifically obsessive-compulsive disorder, since it usually similar to excessive, unnecessary and unwanted actions.

Furthermore, the treatment for kleptomania can also be psychological.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is frequently recommended as an additional method of treatment along with medication. After the treatment people feel less urge to steal and a reduced intensity of stealing thoughts and stealing behavior can be observed.

All in all, kleptomania cannot be simply defined as an act of stealing for the pleasure of stealing itself. It is a serious psychological disorder and even though there are some uncertainties about its classification into one group or another, there are special treatments, which help people to cope with it.

References:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556858/kleptomania.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptomania

Picture from: http://www.faqs.org/health/images/uchr_05_img0536.jpg [2008-11-27]

Self-assessment of ESP Learning

2008-05-08T23:53:00.000-07:00

WRITING SKILLS
From my point of view, I have written not so many summaries, ESP vocabulary tests and contributions to my weblog. I simple did not manage to complete the given tasks before deadline. Nevertheless, I have learned how to write several kinds of summaries, and in general I am satisfied with my test results. I do not feel good enough at writing dictations, but I think I am steadily improving in this field.

SPEAKING SKILLS
I always feel relaxed during our speaking tasks, as I enjoy speaking in English and have lots to say. However, I have noticed that I am not applying new words and definitions I have learned as much as possible and I think I am not always talking as fluently as I would prefer to. I have not given the presentation of the theme I have chosen; therefore I cannot describe how it was.
I have noticed that it is getting more and more easily to start a dialogue with a foreigner, which I think is at least in part due to our obligatory to speak only in English during the class activities.

LISTENING SKILLS
I think I am quite good at listening during listening activities in our classes; however I am still making comprehension mistakes, even though the number of them has decreased clearly in comparison to the previous term.
I was pleasantly astonished when I have found that I can easily understand a native English podcasts and to listen news from BBC or CNN.

READING SKILLS
I think about 80% of the material I am reading is in English (we are reading in English for all other subjects of our curriculum, except from the Methods of Statistics). Therefore, the speed of reading and the number of words I know has increased markedly. However, when it comes to comprehension exercises I still have to go through the text more than once and I even then I am making at least few mistakes.
I think that all of the computer tasks have had a great significance to my reading skills as you must really understand the material you are reading if you want to use it appropriately.

Six-minute nap "may boost memory"

2008-03-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

In the the article "Six-minute nap "may boost your memory" BBC reporter describes an experiment reported in New Scientist megazine.

The team of German scientists from the University of Dusseldorf , led by Dr Olaf Lahl have tested a group of students by giving them a set of words to remember and then dividing them into two groups: the first was allowed to sleep for 6 minutes and the second one was not.

Students who have taken a nap have outperformed others in a memory task. The researchers suggest that "ultra-short" sleep may have activated certain processes in the brain which lead to memory enhancement.

According to professor Jim Horne, from the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, the colected data is yet to be convincing and reliable.

The Psychology of Body Language

2008-02-28T16:36:00.000-08:00

It is common for as to relate communication with orally presented language. Nevertheless, we should not forget the paralanguage, which refers to all kind of communication that is not verbal. Body language can be defined as a category of paralanguage, which includes body movements and gestures that can be either used with or instead of verbal expressions.

Body language is studied as a part of social psychology, as it is an extremely important tool of communication between social groups. There are differences across the world, but the main principles remain the same and if you were able to express yourself and to gain information using your body language in your country, you will be able to do it anywhere. This ability to understand others from their body movements and gestures is now applied in the field of selling: sales personnel are trained to observe and read the body language of their potential customers in other to really know how to communicate with them. This technique is also used frequently by policemen during the investigation.

It should be stated, that body language is referred to as being a mirror of our unconscious mind. It represents our true thoughts and emotions and cannot be hidden so easily. There are several signals of body language that can be noticed quite easily almost every day: crossing our arms against our chest, loosing an eye contact, touching the ear or scrathing the chin, tilting the head to one side etc.

There are also a great amount of books, videos and learning courses to teach people how to master their skills of nonverbal communication. A person can learn how to persuade, how to attract others and do not reveal the traits of his own personality through the body language.

All in all, body language not only plays an extremely important part in our communication and development (taking as example the understanding between an infant and his mother in the first years), but also is put into practise as its psychological value to understand humans has been proved.

Restatement summary

2007-12-11T02:35:00.000-08:00

Babies 'show social intelligence'

New research shows that babies posses the ability to understand the intentions of other people.

The experiment was carried out by the scientists of Yale University, US.

The techniques of social and youth psychology were used during the experiment.

28 babies from two different age groups (6 and 10 months old) were tested, out of whom 26 showed the trace of social intelligence.

The scientist from UK doubts whether the results of the research actually represents babies' understanding of social life.

The experiment proved that babies are developing skills of social interaction earlier than it was though previously.

Sleep and dreams

2007-12-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered how essential sleep is to your existence? From my point of view, it should be placed next to the air and water, as it is one of the elements required for a normal daily life. Even though, there are few individuals who were able to carry on without sleeping for more than one hundred hours, it is well known and proved with scientific methods and experiments that the amount of sleep influences equally our state of health and mind.
The importance of sleeping can be also seen from the number of disorders related with it. These would be insomnia, narcolepsy, bedwetting, sleepwalking and sleep talking (somnambulism), sleep apnea. Some of them are more common than others, though they all have negative aspects to individuals regular functioning.
Along with the ability to sleep comes the experience of dreaming. Even though the purpose of dreaming is still wrapped in mystery, the importance of it was proved without any doubt. People, who were prevented from dreaming (they were always awakened when the REM sleep was about to begin (which is normally associated with persons dreams)) tend to be less capable to remember what they have learned previously, to concentrate, to obtain new information. Figures show that people normally have approximately 600 hours of dreaming a year, more than 1400 dreams – an amount which ought to have influence on us though we realise it or not. It is a well-known thought, that the more usual and ordinary thing is, the less of interest it obtains. Nevertheless, sleep and dreams do deserve our attention and concern as it is an important side of our consciousness and requires our appropriate care, thus improving our health in the hole.

Phobias

2007-11-30T18:50:00.000-08:00

In the beginning, while talking about the phobias, we should most certainly clarify its description. A phobia is an intense, overwhelming, uncontrollable, and irrational fear of something, whether it is a physical something or simply a situation.
The majority of people do have some minor irrational fears, but it is only considered as phobia if it interferes with daily life and the person cannot function because of the extreme fear reaction. Most often phobias are also fallowed by these physiological symptoms: a tightening of the throat, shortness of breath, queasy stomach, elevated pulse rate and blood pressure, flushing of the face, and trembling.
Phobias are generally divided into three major types:
1) simple phobias (related with specific objects or situations);
2) phobias, from which escape is difficult (for example agoraphobia - fear of open, public places and situations);
3) social phobias.

(There are other ways to categorize phobias, eg. : 1) animal type; 2) natural environment type; 3) blood-injection-injury type; 4) situational type; 5) "other type").

While some phobias are related to a certain event or experience a person has had, many phobic people do not recall a situation that has lead them to being afraid of something so strongly. Usually phobias begin to appear during adolescence or adulthood; nevertheless they can affect at any age, in any profession and can even vanish with no time. Number of phobic people is able to confront their fears, though more commonly they avoid the situation or object that causes the fear. This avoidance impairs person’s freedom, therefore it must be treated.

There are several psychological approaches used to treat phobias. These would be so called behavioral techniques (using classical conditioning, positive reinforcement, exposure therapy and modeling), desensitization, emotive imagery, relaxation techniques (used by the hypnotist or therapist) and meditation techniques. Phobic patients who are well familiar with their own phobia can use many of the mentioned techniques on their own. Nonetheless, if the phobic patient cannot do this and phobia interferes with his daily life, individual should seek psychiatric help.

Psychology of Colors

2007-09-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

While exploring the world the sense of sight is of great importance. Along with this comes the ability to see colors - something we are not able to avoid. It is now known, that colors do affect our mood, can help to express and understand emotions and may even be a cause of current feelings towards an object or a person.
Number of charts have been created explaning what does different colors mean and which of them are the most suitable in a specific situation. Furthermore there are such colors whose significance can be considered as international: white-peace (flag), black-mourning, purple-royalty, yellow-sun (happyness) etc. This is of course not the only meaning of the colors mentioned though the idea is clear. People tend to express themselves dressing in various colors.

Advantages and disadvantages of working as a psychologist in specific subfield

2007-09-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Working as a psychologist requires determination and strong desire to help people. From my point of view, cross-cultural psychology is one of the most atractive and necessary subfields in this day and age. Though it still has both, positive and negative sides.

To begin with, working as a cross-cultural psychologist involves interaction with members from various ethnic, racial, subcultural groups. The knowledge acquired through this experience strengthens the feeling of tolerance towards others as well as reveals the differance of the perception of life accross the world. Futhermore, this kind of job can also be a motivation to explore the culture you are part of, be proud of it and manage to compare and explain its features.

On the other hand, as the above-mentioned subject investigates the similarities and differences in and across various cultures and ethnic groups it claims for much more than academic intelligence. You are obligated to cognize a complex culture from the inside, though it may sometimes be very different from yours, to understand particular subtleties and the finer points of it. You must put in lots of effort and strengh if you want to become a good psychologist. Even a small misunderstanding can lead to unpleasant consequences due to simple inattention to details.

Nevertheless, despite cross-cultural psychology may look like a tough one, I admire it a lot as it offers the possibility to expand your horizon, ensures active and vital life-style and provides thrilling and exciting way of learning.

Why I decided to study psychology

2007-09-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

To tell the truth I made this decision after I had taken all of my exams. There were only couple of weeks left and I still had not filled my application form. Then I started crossing out the courses I would never choose to study until five subjects were left. One of these subjects was psychology. After I had found and read credits of psychology at Mykolas Romeris university I was attracted and surprised how interesting it looks like. I wrote psychology at the top of my application and... here I am!
I am not highly excited and I am neither sad. It was not "a dream come truth" for me, because I did not know then and I remain unsure of what is the destination of my life and where it leads. Though I think the following four years will bring a great pleasure to me and I will find more and more amusing sides of psychology.