Psychology of terrorism

When we look to the past we can notice that every century has its major problem. Nowadays such problem is terrorism. Moreover, this issue is difficult to talk about from the psychological point of view. However, I would like to overview this topic.
The main difficulty of this psychological issue is that reasons of terrorism depend on many external causes. The main reason is religion. For example, Muslims believe hat dying in Jihad is very honest. So maybe we should look for reasons of such radical depending on religion. Some psychologists explain that when people have weak Ego, when they are not self-confident they unconsciously begin to look for some groups to join. Those groups may be of different types: It can be dependent on music style – rockers, rappers and so on, also those groups can be made by religious or social basis for example, Muslims, Christians, drug addicts or alcoholics. When people join any group they begin to feel stronger – this is the reason why they try to do everything for that group – they can even become a terrorists. Personally I support this idea.
However, it is said that psychological terrorism reasons can be explained as some combinations of traits, childhood events and some other factors. For example, extraversion + early death of parents + being poor. However, this theory isn’t finally proved. It is not valid yet because the same researches often give different results.
So finally, I can say that terrorism is one of those spheres where psychology can be improved. Perhaps after some time there will be some undeniable evidence about the reasons of this phenomenon. And let’s hope that soon some ways to deal with this problem will be found.

Creativity in psychology

A psychodinamic approach to understanding creativity was proposed by Sigmund Freud. He suggested that creativity arises as a result of frustrated desires for fame, fortune and love. However, later he changed his mind.
According to Graham Wallas creative insights may be explained by a process consisting of 5 stages:

1. PREPARATION- focusing individuals' mind on the problem.



2. INCUBATION - problem is internalized into the unconscious mind.



3. INTIMATION - the creative person gets a feeling that a solution is on its way.



4. ILLUMINATION - creative idea goes from preconscious processing into conscious awareness.



5. VERIFICATION - idea is consciously verified, elaborated and than applied.

Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the evolutionary process.

J. P. Guilford claimed that convergent thinking involves aiming for a single solution to a problem, whereas divergent thinking is involves creative generations of multiple answers to a problem. Sometimes even term "fluid intelligence" is used when speaking about creativity.

I was surprised but creativity can be measured. The first psychometric approaches were constructed by J. P. Guilford too in 1967. However, in 1974 Torrance developed those tests. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking involved simple tasks of divergent thinking and other problem-solving skills, which were scored on:

• Fluency



• Flexibility



• Originality



• Elaboration

In 2005 The Creativity Achievement Questionare was designed and it was shown that it is reliable and valid. It is widely used until these days.

Online broadcasts (self-assessment)

There are many ways to improve listening skills. Recently we have tried one new method - online broadcast listening. So now I am going to overview advantages and disadvantages of this way of listening.
Firstly, it is important to mention that to me it was difficult to find a broadcast of proper length and level of English. However, I found some in this website: www.bbc.co.uk. I have listened broadcasts called “Black type” (about 15min) and “Sweet mother” (about 20min). The first one was about educational problems of black teenagers. There was a discussion if the education system is failing black teenagers or their attitude to education. The second one was about young mothers (schoolgirls). I liked these listening because topics were interesting. Moreover, it was very good that I could read everything what was said. It was important because listening was for native people.
Although it was for native people, there were just a few unknown words. However, speaking was fast so it wasn’t very easy to understand it. I didn’t use dictionary and tried to understand everything from the context – I think I was successful. Some cases were difficult to understand but after listening second time everything became clear. Both broadcasts were listened twice.
Finally, I can say that listening to online broadcasts is an interesting task however, it requires much time and some equipment (for instance, the Internet, speakers and so on). Nevertheless, the fact that tasks like this are useful is undeniable.

Psychology of handwriting

When we are talking with someone there is a very important issue: if we know the listener we stand near him, if we are talking with some stranger our speech isn’t confident and we stay at the distance from him. So, it means space is very important. This concept is universal and we can see the influence of space in handwriting too.
There are four symbolic directions where we can write: high, low, right and left. So, what does it mean if someone writes high? Since older times high side is related to the sky, infinity and so on. This causes that writing high means thinking in a positive way, that a person is confident (sometimes even too much).
What does descending handwriting show? This is a symbol of the ground, which is something concrete, reliable, and touchable. Low writing person often has a lack of self-confidence, moreover, he or she is thinking negatively. Left side shows thinking about the past. Meanwhile, right side shows future intensions.
There are some more features of handwriting. If person uses wide letters it shows rational intelligence, mental concentration, and scientific abilities. Narrow letters show instinctive intuition, even interest for politics, lack of deepening.
Small handwriting shows bright intelligence, intense attention. If it is too small it projects inferiority complex. Large handwriting indicates incapability to observe details, dependence upon others. The fluctuating handwriting shows instability in emotions. Moreover, progressively reducing handwriting shows tendency to depression. However, it is a rare sign.
Finally, it is important to mention that psychology of handwriting has many oppositions and it is still very difficult to prove its truths. Each day it is being developed and perhaps after some time we will have more evidence about the meaning of handwriting.

Psychology of laughter

Laughter is an expression of amusement. It is a sound that can be heard. Strong laughter can sometimes bring an onset of tears or even moderate muscular pain as a physical response to the act. Laughter is a part of human behavior regulated by the brain. It is used as a signal for being part of a group - it signals acceptance. The study of humor and laughter and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called geletology.

Most psychologists concentrate on question what does laughter mean? It is undoubtedly true that in most cases it means amusement. However, quite often it shows negative intentions of a person. This issue is mostly analysed by psychoanalysts. For Freud, laughter is an "economical phenomenon" whose function is to release "physic energy" that had been wrongly mobilised by incorrect expectations. Other psychologists like Karen Horney claim that it is release of tension or even self-defence. For example, when someone is asked for a difficult question and doesn't know how to answer it, he or she often may begin laughing and joking.This proves Lange-Bard theory that physical response comes after emotion (we are sad because we cry, we are happy because we laugh...). After discovering this fact many researches were made and some laughter therapies invented. It was noticed that laughter increases blood pressure, heart rate, changes breathing, reduces level of certain neurochemicals, strengthens immune system. Even humor therapy for cancer patients were developed. So now laughter is very important to clinical psychologists too.

Finally, I can say that there are not much information about psychological benefit of laughter. Researches are still being done. So we can guess that in the future laughter will be used to cure more and more illnesses.

Psychology of conflicts

Firstly, I would like to define word conflict - it is a state of opposition, disagreement between two or more people or even groups of people. Sometimes conflicts are characterized by psychical violence. Military conflicts between two states may constitute war.
Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. Conflicts can exist at a variety of levels of analysis: interpersonal, intrapersonal, emotional, group conflicts and so on. But why do they arise? Many psychologists explain it differently. For example, Sigmund Freud spoke about EGO - it is structure of our mind (psyche) and it is responsible for self-defence and relation with surroundings. So when EGO is very strong and firm it often causes conflicts. According to Carl Gustav Jung, we have such a structure as Persona. Persona is responsible for relation with surroundings, communication. It is like a mask that help to communicate. So if person's Persona is weak, it is difficult to him to communicate peacefully. Persona must be flexible, this depends on particular situations of life. Speaking about one more psychologist Karen Horney it is important to say that she claims that conflicts are just self-defence from showing our weakness. When people don't want to show their weakness they unconsciously begin to conflict, disagree and so on. Psychologists claim that group often find itself in conflict over facts, goals, methods or values. It is critical to identify the type of conflict it is experiencing in order to solve it. However, conflicts are often linked to emotions that are very difficult to control, so this cause difficulties in dealing with conflicts.
Finally, I can say that conflicts are often difficult to solve, even when both sides want to get maximum benefit. The best way to do this is to find a compromise. However it is not always easy to do. But for this people can ask for a help psychologists.

Laziness

Laziness is the lack of desire to act or work in general to do an act or work that is expected of a person. In extreme cases, a tendency to do nothing can grow into apathy and be a symptom of depression. Laziness can be considered an exaggeration of the natural instinct to get healthy rest and conserve preciuos energy. Laziness is usually associated with procrastination. Moreover, laziness is considered by Christians to be one of the seven deadly sins, though it is called sloth on the list.

The expression "intellectual laziness" is frequently used to describe a tendency to not ask questions and not to scratch too much behind the apparent, applying a kind of mental routine or just following the crowd. Jeff Atwood has said: Be lazy, but not intellectualy lazy. It means that when you are doing something you should think and know what you are doing, not just do it without understanding.

Let's take one example. According to researches, Nigeria is the most coruppt country in the world. One of the reasons is considered to be mental laziness of its leaders and majority of habitants. Most of Nigerians do not want to go through pain and suffering to attain the level of wealth they want in their life. They want to get rich at the twinkle of an eye.

Finally, I can say that we all know what laziness is, and most of us like to be lazy in their freetime, however, laziness is considered to be a negative feature, so we should try to be active in order if we want to achieve our aims.

Cognition And Language

COGNITION AND LANGUAGE

Summary

All people use thinking in their everyday life. Every moment people are categorizing, comparing, analyzing or evaluating some things, even when they are sleeping and dreaming according to psychologists this is kind of thinking, however, only the minority reasons how they do this. When people are thinking they often face some problems, sometimes it is difficult to solve ones, sometimes it is easier. What methods are used for this? How can thinking be improved? When people are solving problems they express their minds by using language, however, there are many questions about this issue: is babbling some kind of language, do animals have their language and so on.

At first, it is important to define thinking – it is manipulation of mental representations of information. Although, there are many species of animals in the world but only humans use thinking to find a solution, advice or to solve problems. To do this people often use syllogistic reasoning – a formal reasoning when we derive implications from a set of assumptions that we know to be true. Moreover, algorithms and heuristics – rules that lead or may lead to a solution - are often used. All these questions are considered by cognitive psychology.

Speaking about problem solving it is important to say that it involves three major steps: preparing to create a solution, producing solutions, and evaluating the solutions. All people use these steps in order to solve a problem, however, their success of solving depends on the way a problem is framed, mental set, functional fixedness. There are some types of problems too: arrangement problems, problems of inducing structure and transformation problems. People use several methods to solve problems for example, trial and error method – trying various solutions and learning from errors, means-ends analysis – repeated testing when each step brings you closer to a solution. People can experience insight – sudden awareness, burst of comprehension. Some people are very creative in solving problems, they can combine responses or ideas in novel ways – this is divergent thinking. All people can improve their thinking by redefining problems, using fractionations, adopting a critical perspective, considering the opposite, using analogies, heuristics.

When it is spoken about language it is important to know that it is communication of information by symbols according to systematic rules. The basic structure of language rests on grammar which deals with three major components: phonology – study of phonemes, syntax – ways in which words and phrases can be combined to form sentences, semantics – the rules governing the meaning of words and sentences. When person is born he babble – make speechlike but meaningless sounds and this is the beginning of language. After some period he begins using telegraphic speech – when not critical words to message are left out. When person is at the age of five years he acquires the basic rules of language. Moreover, Noam Chomsky claimed that all worlds’ languages have common underlying structure. However, languages are different and people face problems of multilingualism. For example, bilingual education supports idea of students to be taught in both languages: native and foreign. Nevertheless, immersion programs say that students must be plugged into foreign language in all subjects immediately.

Finally, it is obvious that people are very clever features, but often do not realize that they have such spectacular mechanisms, that helps to solve problems, think and express minds by language. Humans must be proud of having such abilities.

Emotional Literacy

At first, what is emotional literacy? It can be defined as the ability to manage yourself and your own emotions and to understand what other people are thinking and feeling.
Why it is important, is it useful to be well-literate? Answer is accurate - Yes. Most political leaders use emotional techniques to affect electors. However, not only political leaders need to be experts in this area - If you want to be a good businessman relationship between workers and the management must be very good. Researchers found out that emotional literacy is one of the most important factors of learning, so more and more psychologist are needed at schools. Nevertheless, there is one problem - it is difficult to teach pupils (and other people with weak emotional literacy) how to express their feelings and emotions because their emotional needs are different. All people share the main needs (as need of water, food or sleep, freedom or security...) but each differs in the strength of the need.
Nowadays we can measure our emotional literacy by tests. I tried one myself and I was satisfied by results - my EQ was quite high (research shows that those with high EQ are better at reading non-verbal cues). The words I'm used to use in order to describe my emotions are typical to people with the level of emotional literacy as mine. There are a lot of words discribing feelings for example, comfortable (uncomfortable), accepted (rejected), loved (resentful) and so on.
Finally, I can say that some people express their feelings easier and it is much more difficult to others - this is one of the main factors of emotional literacy. We make things much easier when our language is clear and direct, so it is important to be well-literate in emotions in order to benefit from the life.

Summary

Queue Psychology

Queues are a part of everyones life. It is very important for Emergency Services, such as the Police, Fire Brigade or Ambulance, to avoid queues in order to save someones life. There are three types of queues: combined queue, multi-queue and single queue. In mult-queue system you can jump from lane to lane and not get stuck in the queue. In a combined queue, there's one queue and several servers so there is one great advantage of a combined queue - you don't get the "Slip Skip" phenomenon. Single queue guarantees that the first person in, is the first person served. People hate "empty time", so sometimes people leave queues after waiting for some time. For this for instance, in New York, the Manhattan Savings Bank is live entertainment - usually music. These facts of queue psychology let us to choose how to behave in situations related to queues.

Yeah.. I like it.. :)

There are three things I like the most: firstly, Chuck Norris, second - David Hassellhoff, third - Psychology. Now I am going to empasize the last thing - psychology because I am studying it and I hope to become a great psychologist in the nearest future. I chose this specialization because of its wide latitude. So there I am going to publish my ideas about the issues I am keen on.

In the nearest future I am going to review these topics:
COGNITION AND LANGUAGE
1. Thinking and Reasoning
2. Problem solving
3. Language

INTELIGENCE AND TESTING
1. What is Intelligence?
2. Variations in Intellectual Ability
3. Group Differences in Intelligence

MOTIVATION AND EMOTIONS
1. Approaches to Motivation
2. Human Needs and Motivation
3. Understanding Emotional Experiences

PERSONALITY
1. Major Approaches to Personality
2. Assessing Personality
3. Exploring Diversity