Self-assessment

This is my self–assessment for the last semester of ESP.

ESP vocabulary tests

Vocabulary tests have always been one of the hardest parts. It is really hard for me to remember all definitions in the right way. But now I have some experience doing that so during this semester it was easier than before.

Writing summaries

During this semester I tried to put more effort into writing summaries. I hope it will bring me some good results and I will manage to right it well during the exam. I have got a lot of remarks from my teacher so I will try to remember what style, words and structure I should use.

Online exercises – multiple choice and filling in blanks

Online exercises are quite questionable because sometimes they are easy and sometimes really hard. Maybe it depends on the topic. I would evaluate my work with this task neither good, nor bad.

Moodle tests

I think moodle tests are the hardest task for me because I am not sure how accurate I should be and my memory is not so good to remember everything that I need for filling the moodle tests. But I manage to do it and I think my marks during this semester are better than before.

Speaking impromptu

I like speaking impromptu because I can share my opinion, hear others opinion, discuss and improve my speaking sills. I feel more self-confident now when I am speaking impromptu than I was during the first year.

Traditional listening to cassettes (in class) and online listening in classroom

I do not feel any need to separate these two kinds of listening because I feel equally good about both of them. I manage to do this task quite well and I hope that I will not fail during my exam.

Power Point Presentation

Power Point Presentation is the task which I like the most. I am not sure if I got better in preparing presentations but it is a good, useful task and I hope that I will use my knowledge about that in the future

Short talks (ready-made speech)

I have not got the possibility to give any of my short talks in classroom because of different reasons but I have prepared them and I think that they are better than before, more informative.

I hope that all these tasks and the material I have learned will be useful during my exam and especially in the future during my psychology studies and work.

Personality vs. Behaviour

It is a well-known fact that there is a great number of reasons why a certain person behaves in a particular way and why his/her behaviour is exactly like it is. One of the biggest behaviour controllers is the personality of a person. It is obvious that our personality determines our behaviour in most situations. In this blog post I will analyze some of the cases.

It all starts in childhood. Some kids are the so-called angels and others are the so-called devils. A lot of parents think that they are responsible for their children behaviour. In some cases it is absolutely true. When a child is treated with love and care he/she more likely would behave well and if he/she is treated irresponsibly we can expect horrible behaviour. On the other hand there are many situations when it doesn’t matter how the child was treated because his/her behaviour depends on his/her personality. If a child is an extravert, he/she would love to run all day, play with other children, explore the world, environment, other people, he/she would be very energetic, emotional, active, and that energy could cause some troubles for the parents. If a child is an introvert, he/she would choose quiet, peaceful games, would like to stay alone, and wouldn’t like to play with a lot of other children. The same is with adults. They also can be divided into two groups of introverts and extroverts and they also have the same features.

When a person grows up, his/her self-esteem and self evaluation form quite fully. If a person depends enough upon himself, his behaviour is more courageous, more active, energetic and he/she can achieve more, and if a person has low self-esteem and has no trust in himself then he/she would behave passively, reluctantly, his/her behaviour would be unwarranted and he/she wouldn’t be able to achieve a lot. Of course, when a person is an adult, self-confidence is a part of the personality but its development in the childhood depends on the parents’ tenderness.

Attitude, opinion and erudition often go together when we are talking about personality and behaviour. Every person behaves just like he/she thinks he/she has to behave, according his/her opinion, moral values, attitude and knowledge about that particular situation in which he/she has to behave. These features also have to be well-developed in the time when a child is growing up.

In conclusion, there are some personality features which are innate but a lot can be developed. So parents should understand that it depends on them if their child in future will behave well or not and or maybe neutral. Parents can create their children’s personalities.

Psychology of handwriting

Nowadays we do not have a lot of opportunities to write something not by computer but by hand. However, to write a letter or a postcard on real paper with real pencil could be delightful. Moreover, handwriting of a particular person can tell us about him or her more than we could ever expect.
There are a few simple traits in handwriting which can easily show some specific psychological features of a person. For example, the directions - height, right side or left side – show what personality is in general. If a person writes at the top of the sheet he or she is of “a free soul”, has a well developed imagination and considers the sky as the greatest symbol of spirit. On the contrary, if a person writes at the bottom of a sheet, he or she is rational, concrete and reliable. The sides of a sheet are related with the time. If the text is written on the left side then the person thinks about the past and the right side shows thoughts about the future. The sheet of paper can be lined. In such situation each person has his or her own position where he or she will write. This shows whether a person likes to conform to other people’s standards. Non-conformist people write away from the lines.
Another important feature of handwriting is size. The larger the handwriting is, the more outgoing the person is. If the handwriting is middle-sized, it shows that feelings of a person often change. Handwriting can also be totally vertical or lean to the left or the right. If a person’s handwriting leans to the right it means that the person is more expressive and if it leans to the left it represents the opposite person who hides his feelings. Vertical writing shows that a person can vary to either side depending on the mood and the situation.
To tell the truth, there are a lot of different symbols and handwriting features which can tell a lot about a person, and there are many books and studies on this topic, because the handwriting is a part of a person’s identity – no one else has the same handwriting like yours.

Self-assessment

This is my self-assessment of my achievements in English during the second semester.

ESP tests
My ESP tests are quite the same as during the first semester but now I can do them faster because I understand the system how they should be done and how should I prepare for them.

Power Point presentation
I enjoyed preparing my Power Point presentation because I had an opportunity to get deeper into psychology science. I think that my second presentation is better than the previous one because after my first presentation I got some useful remarks.

Listening
On this semester I did not found any listening very difficult. I think that I am quite good on this task and I like it the most.

Reading
During this semester I had to put more effort into reading. It was always my weakest point. There are many new words in texts and when texts are longer it is very hard to keep concentrated on reading them. However, I find the reading quite interesting and I think that I am doing it better than during the previous semester.

Summary writing
There were not many summaries to write during this semester. I think it would be nice to write more of them because I am not very good on that and even worse than on the first semester.
In my opinion summaries are useful because when writing them I can practice my grammar.

Performance on moodle test
Moodle tests was a new task on this semester so I cannot compare my achievement with previous semester. However, my performance on it was neither good, nor bad. I was really annoyed by system’s mistakes in grading. Nevertheless I really had made some mistakes. I think in the future I will do this task better.

Speaking
During this semester we had to speak a lot. I think that I am quite good at this task but still it would be good to improve it more. I like speaking because it is the most relevant part of English for me. I have a lot of friends from abroad and I need to speak with them in English. So I think that on this semester I speak better and I hope that I will do it perfectly on next semester.

To sum up, I feel that my English knowledge is improved and that I know a lot more about psychology in English than before. However, I think that I need study this subject more to get better knowledge in the future.

Psychology of obsession

Every person has different habits. Some of them are positive, others are negative. But problems start when those habits become out-of-control, abnormal, in other words – when they become obsessions. Psychologists engage obsessive thoughts with compulsions which are caused by those thoughts. This phenomenon in psychology is called obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD).

OCD is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce anxiety, by repetitive behaviours aimed at reducing anxiety, or by combination of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour. It is the fourth-most common mental disorder and is diagnosed nearly as often as asthma and diabetes. There are different kinds of OCD, for example repetitive hand–washing, extensive hoarding, preoccupation with sexual or aggressive impulses, or with particular religious beliefs, aversion to odd numbers, nervous habits.

The factors which cause OCD may be both psychological and biological. In 14th – 16th centuries in Europe it was believed that OCD sufferers are obsessed by the Devil because people didn’t know what OCD is. But in 20th century Sigmund Freud attributed obsessive-compulsive behaviour to unconscious conflicts which manifested as symptoms. The cognitive- behavioral model suggests that compulsive behaviour is carried out to remove anxiety-provoking intrusive thoughts. Unfortunately this only brings about temporary relief as the thought re-emerges. One of the biological factors which cause OCD could be the abnormalities with the neurotransmitter serotonin, although it could be either a cause or an effect of these abnormalities. A possible genetic mutation may contribute to OCD, as well as abnormal brain development and subsequent malfunction. All these causes aren’t analyzed sufficiently and there is still research being done on this topic.

People who suffer from OCD have to deal with many different difficulties. They experience sneers from other people, annoyance, they waste precious time and have difficulties in their social life, communicating with others. Of course, a positive person could find some benefits of this situation. For example, if a person suffers from repetitive hand-washing, his/hers hands are always clean. But in general the obsessive-compulsive disorder is a terrible thing which can’t be healed and can only be treated a little in difficult and patience requiring ways.



Weight obsession



References:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_disorder
- http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/smt/lowres/smtn252l.jpg

Studying psychology in MRU and in University of Kent

Studying psychology in Lithuania is a little bit different than studying it in other countries. I am the student of Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, but sometimes I wonder how it would be to study psychology in another university, for example in the University of Kent.

First of all, psychology is quite a young science. Because of that people are afraid of it and they don't trust psychologists. This is a worldwide problem, but somehow in the UK it is a smaller problem than in Lithuania. That is why the University of Kent has a better aproach to psychology and a better, more informative programme for students than MRU. Moreover, the University of Kent appears to be quite good at research, it has good specialists, modern equipment and good knowledge. That provides students with more and better opportunities to learn and understand psychology and its methods. And of course, just like in all universitys in the UK, studies in the University of Kent last 3 years, not 4, which is a good point for students.

On the other hand, psychology is not an easily understandable subject to study. It is quite hard to study it in the native language so I can only imagine how hard it should be in French or English. For example, how hard it would be to learn the parts of the CNS (central nervous system) in English. And one more huge disadvantage of studying psychology in Kent, in my opinion, is the fact that the students over there have to choose what kind of psychology they want to study during those three years. And here, in the MRU, we are studying psychology in general. I think it is better to study the basics first, because not all of us are going to be psyhologists, so after 4 years we could decide if we want to be psychology specialists or if we want this knowledge just for our life, etc.

I believe that studying psychology is quite an interesting and good thing anywhere, either in MRU or in University of Kent or even in any other place. But I am proud and happy that my University has a good reputation and is as good as other universities in Europe.

Refrences:
information- http://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/
pictures-
http://www.tmi.lt/upload/iblock/6fc/mru_fasadas.jpg