SELF-ASSESSMENT

WRITING A SUMMARY
Writing a summary was hard at the start, because I have never written it before. Now it is easier. I think I need more practice and to keep focus on grammar mistakes.

PERFORMANCE IN ESP VOCABULARY TESTS
I think it was the hardest task for me. I have not done well and I know how to improve myself. After reading the topic I should look through new words few times and write them down.

LISTENING PRACTICE IN CLASS
It was the easiest task for me, because I was always good with listening. I do not think that I can improve much in listening, but I can try to do it by listening to music or watching movies in English more often.

MAIKING POWER POINT PRESENTATION
Making power point presentation was interesting, but hard, because I have never done it properly before. I made few mistakes, but next time I will not do them.

SHORT TALKS ON ESP THEMES IN CLASS
It was easy, but I need to improve my vocabulary to speak more fluently. I think that I need to speak more and on various topics to improve faster.

MOODLE TESTS
It was not very hard, but I know that doing a topic in Moodle tests after I read a topic it would improve my scores in Moodle tests, my knowledge about topic and my vocabulary, so I will do so next term.

Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. He is author of numerous experiments, researches and books. So I chose to speak about some of his researches and my view on them.

Firstly, Richard Wiseman released bestseller book about his research “The Luck Factor” and I really like the ideas which are written in it. Actually I don’t believe that the luck is somewhat like destiny and Richard Wiseman says the same. Actually you can learn how to be lucky and that is very interesting fact for me.

Secondly, before becoming psychologist Wiseman was a magician that is why he is in an ideal position to investigate the psychology of magic, deception and trickery, which is very interesting to me. One of most interesting things was that the easiest way to detect a lie is only to listen to a person’s speech.

Thirdly, most amusing of his researches of course would be LoughtLab. Which I think would be my favorite, because it is based around humor. And according to this research the funniest joke in the world would be: Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is
dead! What can I do?". The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

In conclusion, Richard Wiseman’s work is interesting to me, because of it is unusual approach and investigation of fields which I am concerned with. I recognize him and I am waiting for his new works.

References: http://www.richardwiseman.com/

Summary of “Time in bottle”

A lot of newly legal drinkers, the people who turn 21, celebrate their birthdays with alcohol and this often ends with vomiting.

Midnight drinking of the first hour of 21st birthday is called “power hour”. College students tend to drink more than their non-college peers. 40 percent of American college students would be classified as heavy drinkers.

Clayton Neighbors with colleagues studied what encourages college students to use alcohol. Social norms are the best predictors of drinking; more drinking students think that other would approve of their drinking. Men and club members tend to drink more, but students, who are encouraged by peers to drink, drink less.

Using alcohol to forget problems leads to alcohol related problems. Also, alcohol causes problems such as negative self-impairment, aggression, cognitive and behavioral impairment.

Students drink more when they associate it with positive things. To reduce college students’ drinking it is needed to change the views on alcohol consumptions from positive to negative.

Psychology of Language

Language-a system of human communication using words, written, spoken and particular ways of combining them. It is essential for communicating in everyday situation and we probably would not imagine our life without language.

To start with, basic structure of language rest on grammar. Every language has it, because it determines how our thoughts can be expressed. Grammar is divided to phonology, syntax and semantics. Phonology studies phonemes which are basically sounds. Syntax refers to the rules which indicate how to form sentences. Semantics studies the meaning of words and sentences.

In addition, language is very hard to learn. That’s why I will discuss some major points of learning it. The first step of learning it is babbling. It is production of different sounds, which is irreplaceable for training to make a word. Later on two-three year old child’s speech can be telegraphic-he leaves out some words, because his vocabulary is still poor. By the fifth year children acquire basic rules of language, but still don’t have full vocabulary and can’t understand more complex grammatical rules. Also the children develop their language faster if their parents talk in more intellectual language.

In conclusion, learning language takes a lot of time and effort. It consists of difficult system, but everyone must learn it, because it would be hard to imagine a life without language.

References: Robert S. Feldman “Understanding Psychology” 9th Edition

Summary of "You are how you wait: Queue Psychology"

Queuing started at the World War I and II.

Most common kinds of lines in Europe: multi-server queues-each serving counter has separate waiting line, in USA: “snake” line-all counters are served by one single line.

Most important thing is not how much time is spent in line, but how much time is thought that is spent, that was confirmed by Jacob Hornik (perception 30 percent longer than real time).

In 1950s when complaints about long elevator waiting time started, there were put large mirrors next to the elevators and people started caring more about their appearance than time.

Major airline companies recently got complaints about long waiting time to pick up bags. Average waiting time was 8 minutes, but customers were unhappy, because people without luggage did not have to wait and they saw them leave early.

To deal with complaints airline began parking airplanes at the other side of the terminal, so everyone walked 7 minutes and those with bags only had to wait additional minute (complaints stopped).

When queue-jumping, the person who is most likely to object such behavior is the person right behind the intruder, but people who stand few places behind would rarely protest.

My future profession

As I chose to study psychology it is obvious that I associate my future with it. Although I am not exactly sure what I want to do in my future, but I have few ideas of the future I would like to have.

One of the ideas is to be lecturer of psychology at university. Of course it is not easy to reach that goal, it takes a lot of time and determination, but I think I can manage. To my opinion it should be fun, because goal which is not easy to reach is more satisfying.

Another idea is to concentrate on medical psychology. It really would be interesting to apply knowledge I learnt studying in practice, so I think that this subfield would be perfect for that.

To sum up, I do not know exactly what I will do in future, but I know that it will be associated with psychology and it will not be easy to reach. Most likely I will be working as a lecturer of psychology or on medical psychology sector, but my opinion may change threw the course of my studies.