Psychology studies in mruni and abroad

All over the world are plenty of universities in which people can study psychology. In some cases these studies are similar, but also the syllabus at our Mykolas Romeris University has some fundamental differences from other universities. I’ll compare our and University of Bradford studies of psychology.

At first, in our University studies continue four year and involve more subjects which are not directly concerned with psychology. In Bradford University people study three year and there aren’t any extra subjects.

Moreover, there are more differences in syllabus than similarities. At our Mykolas Romeris University psychology students encompass much more different subjects, such as Logics, Philosophy, Language of Specialty, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Whereas Bradford students learn fundamental subjects, such as The Psychology of Learning and Study, Cognitive Psychology, Psychobiology and Perception, Social Psychology. Comparing with our university there are similar lectures of Neuropsychology, perception, personality, developmental psychology. Bradford University in the first year gives a foundation in a number of core subjects, and in the second year build upon the foundations that were laid in the first year, by expanding and deepening knowledge of these areas. In the third year Bradford students have to write dissertation and they learn how to do it. Also, they take modules from a range of options, which will reflect the lecturers’ research interests and areas of specialism. Therefore, our University students have to write term papers after forth and sixth semesters and the dissertation only after four year.

In my opinion in our university are too many not very necessary subjects. I think that it will be better to learn only those things which are really essential for our specialty. But if I can choose there I want to study I will pick Mykolas Romeris University.

References:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/socsci/course/undergraduate/psychological/psychology.php

http://www.mruni.lt/en/

Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. It can mean different things to different people.

The sociologist Ruut Veenhoven has made a study about happiness in 95 nations. According to his studies happiness doesn’t correlate with gender, age, education, income or other material things. The happiest people are in Iceland and Denmark. Also, independent of lack of food, water and good living conditions people from Africa or Australia are happy too. As we can see from World Database of Happiness people from rich countries aren’t very happy. Moreover, Lithuania is in the end of the list – 83. What are the reasons of such as situation? Maybe our countrymen are so unhappy because of volatile climate, unemployed, low salaries or something like that. But in my opinion some people just doesn’t understand that happiness brings trivial, daily details such as meetings with friends, their smiles, sunny days, the first spring flower…

“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…” said Thoreau. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how old are you, what is your gender or nation – everybody can and must be happy.

References:

http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/

http://www.whatismykarma.com/entrance/images/happiness.jpg

Picture:

http://docwhisperer.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/positive-psychology-the-science-of-happiness/

Self-assessment of success in learning ESP

Writing a summary
In first summaries I faced with some difficulties such as formulating the sentences and recognizing the main points of the text. But now I progress and my summaries are much more accurate.

Writing comprehension tests on modules in psychology
My performance was very good, because I spent a lot of time on learning. However, some material was confusing, not all of the definitions were understandable. So, there were some tests in which I did not avoid mistakes.

Making power point presentations
I did my presentation a lot of time ago and it was not very difficult. The theme I had chosen was not very interesting so I try to brighten it with some funny pictures. However, I did not present my work in front of the class yet. I think it will be quite difficult for me, but I try to do my best.

Impromptu speaking in class
My performance in this skill did not improve. I have some difficulties speaking in class and I do not fight with this problem. Next semester I pay attention to this skill and try to improve it.

Performance in listening practice
On the one hand, I think there were some easy tasks with already known information. On the other hand, I faced with some difficulties when information was new. It was hard to follow the text and answer to the questions in one time. Despite this, I think this practice improve my performance a little bit.

Writing contributions to e-portfolio (WEBLOG)
This task was the most interesting for me. I am keen on writing such as contributions. It was very interesting to search the new information and wrote it in my weblog. My performance was not very bad, but now I learned a lot of new words connected to my speciality.

Learning ESP

Foreign languages are necessary for all of us, particularly in our improving world. Learning ESP (English for specific purpose) is quite difficult, because of the new information which we have not only to understand, but also to learn. There are some effective ways of learning English.

Firstly, it is very important to get speaking practice. Most students are motivated to be active in class, because they can improve their speaking skills. Short talks on ESP issues help to get more speaking practice using specific terms and new knowledge. However, there are plenty of students who afraid to participate in class discussions because of mistakes. Generally, the best way to learn is learning from our mistakes.

Moreover, ESP includes some listening practice. Students have not only tried to raise their ability to hear in the class, but also watch some movies related to specific subject. Thus, the students improve pronunciation and can understand more quickly.

Another method to gain more knowledge on ESP is writing. Individual Power Point presentations on ESP themes, summaries writing and contributions enlarge student’s ability to write accurately and clearly. Students understand that is the main information in the text, as a result they can easier read specific books and write specific texts related with their future profession.

All in all, to learn ESP isn’t very difficult if you are active, reasoned and want to be the good specialist.

Analytical summary

Robert S. Feldman
Sleep and Dreams

In the module “Sleep and Dreams” Robert S. Feldman introduces our states of consciousness during sleep. Author explains different stages of sleep, dreams theories and sleep disturbances.

Firstly, Feldman describes four stages of sleep and gives short definitions. Furthermore, the writer explains REM sleep and gives some charts. What is more, author mentions sleep deprivation and its consequences.

Secondly, the writer argues about the function and meaning of dreaming. Moreover, Feldman describes three major theories of dreams and talks about it quite broadly.

Thirdly, author introduces main sleep disturbances. After this, the writer discusses circadian rhythms and gives graphic view of human body changes over every 24-hour period. Furthermore, Feldman describes daydreams and gives some advice to avoid insomnia.

Finally, Feldman’s main idea is to explore major information on sleep and dreams.

Analytical summary

Robert S. Feldman
Introduction to Psychology

Robert S. Feldman in the book “Understanding Psychology” introduces key concepts of psychology. First theme of this book includes three modules in which the author explains the science of psychology and its roots.

In module 1, Feldman discusses psychologists at work. Author introduces different subfields of psychology and gives explanations of them. Moreover, in module 1 it is mentioned where psychologists could work after graduation.

In module 2, the author describes the Past, the Present ant the Future of psychology. Feldman explores the roots of psychology, mentions some famous scientists and their approaches, which have made substantial contributions to psychology. Furthermore, author describes five major perspectives, which help to understand behavior and mental processes.

Module 3 reveals psychology’s key issues and controversies. Author claims that all fields of psychology are unified and rely on one of the five major perspectives. Moreover, Feldman gives an example how culture, ethnicity and race influence behavior and even some advice how to separate accurate information from pseudo – psychology.

Finally, Feldman’s one of the major goals of first theme is to introduce the psychology definition, roots, perspectives, subfields and to provide information for consumers of psychological knowledge.

Psychology of shopping

1 in 20 of us, women and men alike, can’t control the urge to spend. This shopping addiction is called oniomania or, more commonly shopaholism. The shopaholics always have a compulsive desire for shopping; they lose control and buy many items which they don’t need at all.

We all shop for many reasons. Mostly we know what we need and don’t waste money for the unnecessary things. People with shopping addiction buy to relieve anxiety and over time the buying creates a dysfunctional lifestyle. They may have problems with their marriage, fall into debts. The causes are:

• Emotional deprivation in childhood


• Inability to tolerate negative feelings


• Need to fill an inner void


• Excitement seeking


• Approval seeking


• Perfectionism


• Genuinely impulsive and compulsive


• Need to gain control

Psychotherapists say that the first step to treat this disorder is admitting you have a problem. Secondly, you have look at your individual reasons for shopping. When you do that you can begin serious and deep treatment. A wide range of shopaholism causes give start to a lot of effective treatment options: drug treatment, individual, group and couples therapy, counseling for compulsive buying, Debtors Anonymous, Simplicity Circles. They are usable also with most other addictive, impulse control or compulsive disorders.

Also, there are some types of behavior:

• Compulsive shoppers


• Trophy shoppers


• Image shoppers


• Bargain shoppers


• Codependent shoppers


• Bulimic shoppers


• Collector shoppers
  

Famous shopaholics in history include Marie Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Princess Diana. Their addictions ranged from clothing (Diana) to art and antiques (Hearst) to shoes (the heralded Marcos collection) to gloves (Mrs. Lincoln owned 84 pairs of them). Nowadays famous shopaholics are Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton, Eva Longoria Parker and others.

Often shopaholism is a symptom of something else - perhaps shopping is fulfilling something in a person's life or is a substitute for something. It is disorder which has to be solved, because shopaholic can have extremely serious consequences and significantly erode quality of life.