Self-assessment

This semester I do a lot of activities in the english classes. These activities were individual Power Point presentations on ESP themes, moodle tests, writing summaries, shorts talks and speaking impromptu, listening practise and online exercises. Now I would like to evaluate my performance on these activities.

Indivivual Power Point presentations. This exercise was the most ineteresting for me. Talking about my performance on this, I think it was quite goods. ESP themes of presentations always were interesting for me and I had a lot to say. This task is useful, because it shows student's speaking and other skills.

Moodle tests. During this task I perform quite well. Tests were easy to understand and my grades were good, but for my opinion this exercise wasn't very useful. It was rather boring for me.

Writing summaries. Talking about summaries I wrote first semester of english and summaries of the last semester, I could say that my performance become better. Writing summaries wasn't very easy task for me and my grades wasn't very good, but I learned and improved my performance. So this task is really useful for students, because it helps to improve writing and also vocabulary skills.

Short talks and speaking impromptu. My speaking skills have improved a little. However, I still need to practise. During english classes I had a fear of speaking and cleary sharing my minds in front of others. I hope I still have a chance to improve it.

Listening practise. I could say that during this semester we did a lot of listening tasts and it was not only interesting, but also very useful. Tasks were quite difficult and I enjoyed doing listening.

Online exercises. I think it didn't show my individual performance, because all group at one time was doing this. However, it was quite interesting. I saw how well I understand ESP themes and so on.

All in all, I could say that english course was really useful for studying. My performance wasn't very good on some activities. However, other exercises were easy and interesting for me. I think I still improving my skills and knowledge.

Personality Type versus Behavior

We know a lot of people and in some aspects they all are unique and interesting. Everyone have something unique, it might be a feature of character or a part of appearance. But the main thing which separates us from others is a personality type.

To begin with, a personality type approach says you are either an introvert or an extravert. If a person is calm, continent, leisurely or serious and thorough, he is an introvert. If a person is open, eloquent, relaxed and confident he is an extravert. But the main difference between these types is that extraverts are energized by being around other people, while introverts need time alone to recharge their batteries and can be drained by too much time spent among many others.

Carl Jung gives another theory of personality. He talks about four functional types which he describes as most differentiated functions which play the principal role in individual’s adaptation or orientation to life. Thirst function is feeling - the method by which a person understands the value of conscious activity. The second is thinking which allows a person to understand the meanings of things. Another two is sensation and intuition. Sensation refers to the means by which a person knows something exists and intuition is knowing about something without conscious understanding of where that knowledge comes from.

One more way to describe a person’s personality is to assess a type of behavior. There are two behavior patterns. The type A behavior pattern is a cluster of behaviors involving hostility, competitiveness, time urgency and feeling driven. People who have type A behavior pattern have driven lives. They put in longer hours at work, are impatient with other people and could do several activities at one time. On the other side, type A behavior pattern is characterized by a patient, cooperative, noncompetitive and nonaggressive manner. These people are always laid back and easy going. What is more, psychologist Johan Denollet has found one more type D. Type D includes people who have insecurity and anxiety feelings, and the negative outlook.

There are a lot of theories of personality and behavior, but the main idea is that all theories exposed everyone’s unique abilities and characteristics. The appearance is not the only way you show yourself to the society, behavior also creates your personality. Like one psychologist said: “If we were equal, our shades would be the same”.

References:

Robert S. Feldman. 8^th edition, 2-3 pages.

http://www.straipsniai.lt/asmenybes_tipai/puslapis/14990

http://wilderdom.com/personality/L6-1PersonalityTypes.html

http://www.businessballs.com/personalitystylesmodels.htm#carl%20jung%27s%20personality%20types

Psychology of Handwriting

Every day we take a pen into our hands and writing something. It may be a letter, a diary, some notes at the university or work papers. We see our handwriting, but we never think abaut what our handwriting says about us. If we want to know a person under his touch we just need to know a few rules:

1. When letters are slightly inclined to the right: it shows that a person is generous, can control his emotions and is very communicative;
2. When letters are very inclined to the right: people writing like that try to display their feelins openly;
3. When letters inclined to the left: a person is tend to listed his mind rather than heart;
4. Straight letters: it means that there is a balance between heart and mind;
5. When line rises upwards: optimistic people are writing like that;
6. When line descends to the bottom: it is typical for sceptics and pessimists;
7. When line climbs on top of each other: it shows that a person is coward, indecisive man;
8. Straight line: shows man which is hard to derive from balance;
9. Circular letters: it means that a person is likely to communicate with others, is open-hearted.
10. Square letters: it says that human is active, seeking to win, a leader and critical;
11. Round and square combination of letters: it reveals the remarkable human ability to attract, also shows his hospitality, educated taste and temperament;
12. When a person is writing in small letters: it is said that he is particularly quiet, also able to accumulate;
13. Large letters: it is typical for ambitious and indipendent people.

So if you want to know what your handwriting says about you just follow these rules and see that it is true.

References:
http://www.paperpenalia.com/handwriting.html
http://www.handwriting.org/

Psychology of Conflict

Conflict is actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. Conflict as a concept can help explain many aspects of social life such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests and fights between individuals. When an interpersonal conflict does occur, its effect is often broader than two individuals involved and can affect many associate individuals and relationships, in more or less adverse and sometimes even way.
A clash of interests, values, actions or directions often sparks a conflict. Conflicts refer to the existence of that clash. Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. The world is applicable from the instant that the clash occurs. Even when we say that there is a potential conflict we are implying that there is already a conflict of direction even though a clash may not yet have occured. There are phases of conflict:

• Prelude to conflict - variables that make conflict possible between those involved;
• Triggering event - a particular event, such as criticism which creates the conflict;
• Initiation phase - occurs when at least one person makes it known to the other that a conflict exists;
• Differentiation phase - parties raise the conflict issues and pursue reasons for the varying positions;
• Integration stage- parties acknowledge common grounds and explore possibilities to move towards a solution.

There are also very many types of conflict, some of them are community conflict, diplomatic conflict, emotional conflict and so on. Conflicts in these levels may appear "nested" in conflicts residing at larger levels of analysis. Conflict is often best understood by examining the consequences of various behaviors at moments in time. These behaviors are usefully categorized according to conflict styles. Each style is a way to meet one's needs in a dispute but may impact other people in different ways.

• Accomodation – surrender one's own needs and wishes to accommodate the other party.
• Avoidance – avoid or postpone conflict by ignoring it, changing the subject, etc.
• Collaboration – work together to find a mutually beneficial solution.
• Compromise– bring the problem into the open and have the third person present. The aim of conflict resolution is to reach agreement and most often this will mean compromise.
• Competition – assert one's viewpoint at the potential expense of another. It can be useful when achieving one's objectives outweighs one's concern for the relationship.

By understanding these conflict solving methods, we may normalize the results of our behaviors in various situations.


References:
http://trendsupdates.com/constructive-conflict/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict
http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/onlinetraining/resolution/aboutwhatisit.htm

Psychology study at Mykolas Romeris University and University of Kingston

It is so amazing to have an opportunity to study in the university. Mykolas Riomeris University it is a very good place for everyone who wanna learn, get a degree or meet a lot of wonderful people. But universities in Lithuania and in abroad have some differences. And if I had a chance to study in somethere else, I would choose The University of Kingston in London. But now I would like to compare these two universities.

First of all, in both universities the psychology programmes are quite similar. In the MRU and in Kingston you will study about the hystory and development of psychological thought, how the brain processes information, how people interact, how we learn, what happens when psychological functioning goes wrong and so on. Also in both universities you can choose non-psychology subjects. On the other hand, in MRU aren't such as things as the psychology of ART or abnormal psychology.

What is more, between universities are some differences. One of them is, that the term of study in MRU is a year longer than in the university of Kingston. If you want to get a bachelor degree in the Mykolas Romeris university you will study four years, then in Kingston three years. And also,as distinct from MRU, the psychology programme in the university of Kingston is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) as conferring eligibility for graduate membership of the Society with the Graduate Basis for Registration (GBR), which is the first step towards becoming a chartered psychologist.

All in all, both universities trying to educate young people, to amass and nourish intellectual potential, to train leaders of society capable of creating and implementing innovations, which influence the overall scientific, cultural and technological progress of society. Also communicate with other universities and try to make the best conditions for studying people.

To sum up, I could say that Mykolas Romeris university and the university of Kingston are right places to study for everyone. Students graduated form both universities can pursue specialized studies in Psychology Master's degree programms and to acquire a master's degree in psyhology, providing the opportunity for self-employment.


References:
http://www.mruni.eu/lt/
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/