Phobias

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

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

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

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.