Self-assessment

ESP vocabulary tests

In my opinion, these tests were really useful because we should learn many new words which are concerned with psychology. On the other hand, it was really difficult to explain some concepts.

Writing summaries

Writing summaries is new for me. We had written all of them at home, so it wasn’t really difficult. Nevertheless, I made quite number mistakes and I needed time to understand the text and write summary.

Online exercises Multiple Choice & Filling in blank

This task is useful because we can revise the material that we learnt at home. Online exercises weren’t difficult when I saw into the module fairly.

Moodle tests

When I was doing these tests I was using the book. It was good because I could scan through the text one more time.

Online listening in class. Traditional listening to cassettes.

Listening was quite difficult for me. Sometimes speakers spoke too fast or their speeches were hardly understandable.

Power Point Presentation

Although this task was the most difficult and I spent a long time preparing presentation it was the most interesting too.

Speaking impromptu

I think that I was not enough active in class discussions and speaking impromptu was the hardest task for me because my speaking skills are not so good.

Short-talk (ready made speech)

This task is simpler than speaking impromptu for me because I can look for unknown words and prepare at home.

Have a nice day!

The mystery of memory

Interest in memory is not new. Scientists are trying to find out how exactly distinct brain regions and processes are working with in creating such phenomenon.

Human brain has a huge net of neurons. Every time a person tries to save new information this net becomes wider.

Scientists separate several types of memory. Firstly, there can be noticed short-term and long-term memories which term of keeping information alive. Second one, procedural (reminiscence of how to do something) that is more permanent than declarative which helps to recall material images of some object.

Also, there are such different processes as recognition and recall. Furthermore, very common from of memory is photographic memory related to people senses.

All in all, although scientists are made a lof of discoveries which reveal the mystery of memory they also have a many unanswered questions.

Richard Wiseman

Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician, but now he is professor at the University in the United Kingdom. This man is well known - over 1 milion people have taken part in his mass participation experiments and his Youtube channel has received over 10 milion views. Professor Wiseman has written three best selling books: „The Luck Factor“, „Quirkology“ and „59 Seconds“. Ofcourse, he has written more books, but these three are bestsellers.

Richard Wiseman is an author of the unique worldwide experiment. He has invited people from around the world to send the most favourite joke to his website. Scientist‘s aim was to find the joke which is the funniest in the world. Although, some jokes are popular only in some countries, Richard Wiseman considered that there are universal joke that is liked by all people and now, when this experment has finished, we can read the funniest jokes on the Internet (in Richard Wiseman‘s website or in wikipedia). Of course, we can read more about this experiment in Wiseman‘s book Quirkology.

All in all, we can clearly see that proffesor Richard Wiseman is really active psychologist. His experiments are interesting and original and he is liked by a lof of people.

References:
http://www.richardwiseman.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funniest_Joke_in_the_World

The Significance of dreams

The significance of dreams is explained in different ways. This phenomenon is not well explored so researches are trying to explain it.

To begin with, some people think that dreams may reflect waking experiences. Researcher Robert Stickgold in his experiment tried to prove it. Participants of the experiment play Tetris before going to sleep and when they were awakened during sleep more than half reported seeing falling Tetris objects in their dreams. Other research shows that thoughts that is tried to disguise can fall into sleeps. So the more people want to suppress thoughts the more likely to dream about that.

In addition, some research believe that people use dreams to help solve problems and it is thought that many artists have created their famous works inspired by dreams. However, the most important is that good night’s sleep helps to feel better and enhances cognitive abilities.

All in all, although scientists do not know why people are dreaming it is the fact that dream is an important part of the life.

Psychology of the Internet

Nowadays the world is unimaginable without the Internet. We use it every day and almost everywhere. The online environment can influence the way we behave, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. People from around the world are acting and interacting in many new, unusual and occasionaly alarming ways on the Internet. So I would like to review how the internet influences our behavior and thinking psychologically.

To begin with, in the virtual world individuals often craft identities that are different in reality. They represent themselves they always wanted to be. Individuals feel relaxed and free when they are communicating on the Internet. They can tell the lies freely and others won‘t see any blush on the liar‘s cheeks. As a result, others may not understand that they are reading total lies because they read just words in a screen and they can‘t see the reality. Needless to say, cyber identity-creation can become an addiction. People can forget their activity in real life over time. Therefore they lose the ability of communication, sharng ideas, expressing feelings with real people face to face.

In addition to this, internet makes people dependent. It is a really big problem especially among children. Playing computer games, chatting and others useless activities are very attractive to young people so they spend a long time by the computer‘s screen. As a result, they don‘t go outside, don‘t socalize with contemporaries and then it is harder for them to adapt with others. So ineraction is very important when children are growing and developing.

Futhermore, children learn a lot of new things by watching. Albert Bandura called it obsevational learning. So it is really harmful for children to surf  the net because there are tons of negative videos and pictures such as violent and pornoghraphy. And this information is easily available even for children. So they can learn, for egzample aggression, from videos.

All in all, it is the fact that online environment can influence our behavior. In my opinion, although internet is making a really a huge benefit for human it affects people's behavior negatively because they interact with real people not as much as they used to do in their real life.

You Are How You Wait: Queue Psychology

People spend a lot of time standing in queues. This phenomenon began in Britain and passed on to other parts of the world. Since then, scientists have been studying it and trying to manage this problem.

Europe’s most common kinds of lines are called multi-server system queues, where each serving counter has a separate waiting line. In contrast, public institutions in US have switched to ‘snake’ line, where all counters are served by one line. The multi-server system's customer that picks a fast line can be served a lot faster than customer that has been waiting even longer in a slower line.

People think that they are standing in queues more than the fact. Therefore some businesses have found out that customers’ contentment can be improved by taking up their time while waiting. Some offices put large mirrors next to elevators so that people will be looking at themselves while waiting and will not think how long they have to wait. Moreover, the airlines started parking airplanes at other end of terminal, so that people do not have to wait until baggage is brough.

All in all, it is important not to shorten the period of time but make it pleasant. So scientists work on it every day.

My Future Profession

Today I'm studiyng psychology in Mykolas Romeris university. It is really interesting for me. But I can't say that I will be a psychologist. The life is unpredictable so I might be only cleaner or even businesswoman in the future.

When I was a child, I had a dream to be a flower seller. I really wanted to have a little cosy shop where I could sell my flowers. To be quite honest, I have this dream until now. I won't be dissatisfied if have a little flowers shop in my real life.

Despite my childhood dreams, I'm studying psychology. I chosen this profession for some reasons. Firstly, learning about people, their behavior and psyche is really interesting. Psychology is very wide range of science so I have oportunity to learn not only about human's behavior and psyche but also about the body structure and functioning of organs. Secondly, I think that it is really viable speciality and after my studies I will be able to work in varios fields.

All in all, I can't say what is my future profession because the life can change every minute. One day I could be a cleaner, another day a psychologist and the third a flowers seller.