Stress Test

Recently I have done an online stress test. I was really surprised by the results so I have tried explaining them to myself.

To start with, my overall score was 3,74 out of 5, the higher score-the less stress person has. My score meant that I am stressed and short professional counseling could improve my life. It was weird because I don’t feel more stress or feel bad.

What is more, I realized that test might not be suited for me, because some questions was about pain or fighting, while I am karateka I cannot avoid neither of those. Also, I do not have good relationship with my mother and had few quarrels recently. In addition I am a student, sleepless nights, rushing everywhere is the style of life for me, so that should have affected the score.

In conclusion, I think that I might be little stressed, but there is nothing wrong with it, I am adjusted to it and if there was no stress there was no reason to do anything. I admit that there might be more stress than casual person has in his life, but the professional counseling is not necessary for me, I feel comfortable with my life and I think the stress I have keeps me going forward, if there was less I think I felt that my life was boring.

References: http://www.suite101.com/content/psychological-disorders-a16446

Cloning

Cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another and I am going to talk about human cloning, because I think most of us know about it from science fiction movies than from the news. I wish that this information will be interesting to you as it was to me.

Firstly, there are three types of human cloning: therapeutic, reproductive and replacement. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning cells from an adult for use in medicine and is an active area of research, it clones only the organs of human body to use them as transplants so that the body of the patient would not reject them. Reproductive cloning is making human clones. Replacement cloning is only theoretically possible and would entail the replacement of an extensively damaged, failed, or failing body through cloning followed by whole or partial brain transplant.

Secondly, the ethical views on human cloning are very different, but most of the countries banned all kinds of human cloning, but there are countries where it is legal. In some countries therapeutic cloning is legal, but the thing is that private clinics can do all kinds of researches on cloning and the law cannot control that.

All in all, human cloning is not science fiction anymore, it is the real thing, but most countries, religions look at it skeptically and it slows downs its research. I think it is the future of the regenerative medicine and at least therapeutic cloning should be approved in most of countries.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cloning
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/

Psychology of Creativity

At first we have to define what creativity is. Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. And there are four kinds of creative abilities: fluency-the ability to produce lots of ideas, flexibility-ability to produce lots of different types of ideas, originality-ability to produce unusual ideas, elaboration-the ability to develop those ideas. Knowing this we can start talking about how creativity works and what effects it.

Firstly, according to Graham Wallas there are five stages of creating an idea. First: preparation-preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions. Second: incubation-where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening. Third: intimation-the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way. Fourth: illumination or insight-where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness. And fifth: verification-where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied. This is how ideas are created.

What is more, there are some things that effect creativity and one of these things is personality. A lot of researches have been done and there was found correlations between personality types and creativity. Personality consists of big five: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. Neuroticism, extroversion and especially openness to experience have positive correlation to creativity, whereas conscientiousness has negative correlation, but only for art, not science.

Moreover, motivation also effects creativity and it is something you can change so it is important if you want to become more creative. After lots of researches it has been proved that extrinsic motivation negatively affects creativity, whereas intrinsic motivation affects it positively. Extrinsic motivation-motivation caused by outside effects like reward, intrinsic motivation-motivation caused by inner things like joy of doing something, because it is fun. People who are forced to do something do it less creatively, so if you think about your task not like work, but more like a game it will be easier to do and it will become more creative.

To sum up, creativity is a phenomenon which can be found in human nature, but science of psychology had shown that it is something that can be controlled. With some knowledge about creativity, you can increase it, this can make your work more efficient and original.

References: http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/psy444.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/clurr/psychology-of-creativity-london-ia-300310-3641382
http://talentdevelop.com/interviews/psychcreat.html
http://www.psychology.org/links/Environment_Behavior_Relationships/Creativity/

Mulltiple Inteligence Test

Recently I have done few Multiple Intelligence tests online to find out my weaknesses and strengths, to check how much reliable they are.

Firstly, both tests I done showed that kinesthetic and intrapersonal intelligences are well developed in me. I think it is natural, because I was doing sports since I was little, also was involved in dancing, what is more I love parties, I easily understand people, I am empathic, this should help with my future profession.

Secondly, musical intelligence was also high, I think it is because I had a lot to do with music, I played a piano, I danced, as I mentioned before, also I was involved in music making, moreover I just love music and cannot live without it. What is funny that my logical/math intelligence in one test was one of the highest and at the other average, but I think it is one of my strengths, because I had a high score in my national math exam, also I did well in a lot of math contests and many people recognize my sense of logic, I think this characteristic of mine will be very useful in psychology, because there are a lot of tasks when needed to find some kind of link between something.

Thirdly, my spatial intelligence is quite high, it is probably the cause of being keen on drawing in a childhood. Linguistic intelligence is average, I do not think that I use it a lot so o do not think is my strength and I do not need it, intrapersonal intelligence is quite low, well I think it is, because I am difficult person so it is even hard for me to understand myself sometimes. The lowest score got my naturalist intelligence, but I think it is obvious, I do not make a lot of concern about nature and I do not act like I do.

To sum up, the tests I have done shown me nothing new, but they were fun, they are free of charge so everyone can do one. I think that you should not trust them blindly, if you get results which were unexpected do some more tests and see that maybe the test that was poor. Anyway, I enjoyed this task.


References: http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/cgi-bin/results.cgi
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/results.cfm

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.