2007 m. gruodžio 17 d., pirmadienis

Restatement summary

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.

Babies are able to make social evaluations in the first months of their life.

2007 m. lapkričio 29 d., ketvirtadienis

Sleep. Insomnia

Sleep is vital for our health and mental wellbeing. We spend a third of our life in bed but sometimes there are some slumbering problems, which do not let us to have an everyday need sleep. Insomnia is one of sleep disturbances, which almost all of us had. It is the inability to sleep when it is the time to sleep. Insomnia could be due to a particular situations, such as the breakup of the relationships, worry about the test, the loss of a job, an exciting drama on TV just before bed time, or doing something violent for others, what may make us to feel guilty and worry about it during the bed time.

If we want to fall asleep on the time to sleep, we have to treat insomnia and the best way is to begin from stress reduction and good sleep hygiene. Psychologists studying sleep problems have a number of suggestions for overcoming insomnia.

The first one would be exercising during the day. It reduces the effects of stress, improves mood and deepens sleep. However, we should know that exercising early in the day helps us sleep, but exercising too close to bed causes wakefulness.

The second one could be relaxing before bedtime. It is helpful to stop all work-related tasks 90 minutes before going to sleep or to include taped relaxation exercises.

The third suggestion is to choose a regular bedtime and stick to it. That means that we have to go to bed and wake up at the same times each day, including on the weekend.

A good way is not to use your bed for all things doing: studying, reading, eating, watching TV or others activities. It should be used only for sleeping.

The next one is to reduce stimulants such as tea, coffee, cola, chocolate, cigarettes but a glass of warm milk at bedtime will help to fall asleep.

Eating a large meal within two hours is not a good decision although a little bit of food before bed can help to sleep. If we want to fall asleep in short time we should not nap during the day but a having a bedtime ritual, for example, at first we might read for a while, then have a shower, then change into pyjamas and go to bed, or reducing factors, which we may feel disturbing. It could be uncomfortable bed, extremes of temperature or external noise.

As we see, there are a lot of ways how to avoid insomnia and to prepare ourselves for sleep, which is very requirement for normal human functioning.

2007 m. lapkričio 15 d., ketvirtadienis

Influence

Everyone of us has met a person, who has had bigger or smaller influence on our personality. There could be people of inside or outside the family. A person who has made the biggest influence for me was Sister Caterina from the Missionaries of Charity.

Last summer I decided to give one month from my summer holidays for voluntary. I have chosen a monastery which helps for poor or sick people. Six sisters have been living in it but with one of them I had the best relationship.

If I spoke about her influential qualities, I would have to say that she had the richest the life of the spirit which I have ever seen. She was so nice for people who did not have their home and lived with sisters that even when others sisters used to objurgate them she used to intercede them. Sister Caterina saw goodness even in that people who were alcoholics, cripples and unacceptable for others. She was all heart. Sister had never gone through anyone who asked her help and everything what she did she did very committed.

Despite the fact that I have not seen her any more her influence has not gone. Now I always want to improve myself and an attitude to others and if I had not met her, I would have been egoist as before meeting. This sister was the best example of humaneness, which I expect to follow all my life.

In conclusion, our future depends on our behavior which is effected by the influence of other people and circumstance.

2007 m. lapkričio 3 d., šeštadienis

Phobias

A phobia is an excessive fear of a situation, for example driving, flying, seeing blood, or an object, for example animals such as rats, snakes, spiders, dogs. There are four main types of phobias: animal type(e.g.; spiders, dogs), natural environment type(e. g., storms, water), blood-injection-injury type(e. g., seeing blood, getting a needle) and situational type(e. g., enclosed places, flying, driving).
Medical and animal phobias typically begin in early childhood whereas situational and natural environment phobias begin later. Phobias have a strong effect on a person's life. Phobias cause a lot of distress and make it very difficult to function normally in social situations and at work. For example, a person with a fear of heights may not take a job in an office on a high floor of an office tower.
Many phobias are caused by experience of a traumatic event in the phobic situation(for example, a person has an accident and becomes fearful of driving) but there are number of individuals, who do not remember a specific time or event that caused their fear.
Simple and specific phobias can be treated using behavioral and cognitive theraphy procedures. In behavioral theraphy one meets with a trained therapist and confronts the feared object or situation in a carefully planned way and learns to control the physical reactions of fear.

To types of phobias

Coulrophobia is a fear of clowns. Like all fears and phobias, clown's fear is created by the unconscious mind as a protective mechanism. Some people believe that most people are afraid of clowns because it is impossible to recognize a clown's true emotions. Thanks to painted-on smiles, people can not distinguish if the clown is a happy as he seems. Although there are no official statistic, some experts believe that asmany as one in seven people experience some level of fear clowns. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausia and overall feelings of dread. Caulrophobia is most commonly caused by a traumatic experience in childhood. One famous person, who also has a fear of clowns, is JohnnyDepp.

Cynophobia is a fear of animals. Fear of domestic animals such as cats and dogs is the most common. Most others we can avoid by not going zoos, animals parks or circuses. Fear of domestic animals make life quite uncomfortable when friends, relatives and neighbours have pets of which you are phobic. And most pets act more responsibly towards you when you do not have a fear of them - because they can smell your phobia. But sometimes phobias like this can be very useful for your security.

2007 m. rugsėjo 29 d., šeštadienis

COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY

Many people think that colour is just a matter of how things look but they are mistaken. Colours of environment affect our behavior and mood, and colour psychology is a subfield, which focuses on the link between colour and mood/behavior. Colours are also used to express feelings. There is some meanings of colours:
  • Black is the colour of authority and power. It also can mean submission (for example, we could remember priest, who submit to God) or evel.
  • White is light, neutral and goes with everything. It symbolizes innocence, purity, trust and strenght.
  • Red is the colour, which attracts attention. It stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. Red also is related with danger, action and love.
  • Blue is the opposite colour of red. It can be cold and depresing but blue also means peace and calm. It is recommended for people, who are going to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty.
  • Green symbolizes nature. It is calming, refreshing, relaxing colour and it is the main reason why hospitals often use green.
  • Yellow symbolizes freedom and openness. It helps to enhance concentration and speed matabolism.
  • Brown is the opposite colour of black. It is the colour of earth and may be related with warm and weakness.

As we see, colours could be a reason of our health, it could help to create our image and mood.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

When we speak about psychology, everyone has it's image what psychology is. It could encompass from the biological basis of behavior till relationships between people and their physical environment or studies of how people thoughts, feelings and actions are affected by others. With reference to the diversy of areas, which psychology examines, it has a number of subfields, such as bahavioral neurosience, cognitive psychology, sross-cultural psychology, educational psychology, social psychology, sport psychology and ect. The field, which has attracted my attention mostly, was social psychology. Human behavior is often governed by social norms, which are the main for. Social psychologists study what we think about ourselves and each other, how we influence each other and communicate. It explains people behavior, how our convictions and attitudes are developed, what are relationships between our thinking and behavior, what encourage us to help for other people or to fall in love. All these things are very intesting for me. Other reason why I would like to study social psychology is the experience with cripples and drunkards. I see that they need help and I would be happy, if I hade an opportunity to help them.

2007 m. rugsėjo 6 d., ketvirtadienis


WHY HAVE I CHOSEN PHYCHOLOGY?

When we were children, everyone of us had a desire, who we want to be in the future. Phychology was not a speciality about which I dreamed in my childhood but all the time I knew that I do not want to sit in the office and to work by computer. Furthermore, when you meet a lot of people, who have their problems and ask for the suggestion, when you see alcoholics, who want to stop drinking and begin a new life, when you see children, who suffer violence in their families and do not have anybody to talk with them, a desire to help for them comes naturally. All these things were the main reason why I chose studies of phychology. If I had not entered to this speciality, I would have been tried to study sociology, social science or teology. I wish all young people, who do not know what they want to do, would find their own way.