Self-assessment

Self-assessment

I am going to sum up my performances on short talks, speaking impromptu, online listening, listening on cassettes, ESP tests, online exercises on modules, summary writing, moodle tests and presentation in English classes and working at home.

First of all, I would like to talk about speaking - short talks and speaking impromptu in classrooms. Speaking impromptu really helped to learn how to put my thoughts into words, This kind of exercise helps to learn grammar faster, teachers comments and correction helps to understand where you vocabulary needs more work. On the other hand, preparing short talks at home helped me with my vocabulary as well, because I looked into dictionary, tried all kinds of sentence arrangements. Talking in front of the class helped to gain more confidence, I improved my diction and pronunciation.

Online listening. Listening is the other way to improve my dictionary. Online listening really helped me understand real English language, because we have listened to a lot of English spokespeople. This exercise helped me improve my language skills.

Listening to cassettes. Same as online listening - helped me to improve my vocabulary and English language skills. One of the advantages of this exercise is writing down the tasks. This rely helped me with my grammar and now I think that it is better than last year.

ESP test. My testing did not improve since last years, but it is OK. In my opinion testing has its advantages and disadvantages. Memorizing definitions is not always a good way to learn. I often was feeling stressed and fatigue after memorizing definitions. However, all that memorized definitions from time to time come back, e.g. on vocabulary test, or reading a text I remember what one or another scientific word means. So I think that these kind of tests eventually helped me with my psychology vocabulary in English.

Online exercises. This task really helped me to fixate the learned definition into my memory. Revising the difficult parts of text and remembering the words improved my psychology vocabulary once again.

Summary writing. I think this exercise is the most profitable one. I learned to short my thought, to put them all together and write in short text form. It also helped to learn how to analyze text, to choose the key points and tie them all together. This learned skills will help me in my following studies for sure.

Moodle tests. My moodle test scores are quite well, sure it seems that taking test at home with answers right before you is easy, but the questions were not that easy at all. I had to think and explore my memory, remember the modules i have red. This exercise helped me to revise all the vocabulary that I once had to memorize and learn.

Power Point Presentation. I always liked to make and to present the PPP. I think that this years presentation is better than last's year, mostly because it did not include unnecessary facts and definitions, everything that I need to pass to the audience, I reported in words. I think this task helped me to understand what presentation is all about and presentation that I will make in the future sure will be formal and informative as this one was.

In conclusion, I think some of my English aptitudes improved, and I am very glad, but there is a place for more improvement for sure. I have taken from the ESP course as much as I could and I am sure, that my English will not disappoint me in my future.

Personality types vs. behavior

We all know that there are no two people with identical personalities – everyone reacts to a particular situation different and have different perspectives, motivations. Personality is a tricky thing to traverse. We think that we know a person close to us – parents, friends, siblings and even ourselves – quite well, however, there always will be situations that will require decisions and actions that we never think they or we would do.

Each type of behavior is characterized by particular behavior and manners. There are many classifications made by many psychologists and philosophers – Ancients Greeks came up with four “humors”, Sheldon’s three somatotypes, Block’s personality types etc. The most known and widely used are the Jungian personality types, which are the groups of these traits:

· Extroversion (E) - Introversion (I)

· Intuition (N) - Sensing (S)

· Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)

· Judgement (J) - Perception (P)

Using the letters above, it is possible to have a unique 4 letter code to indicate each of the 16 Jungian personality types, e.g. INJT.

It is easy to state that the person is an extrovert because he or she is outgoing, sociable, creative etc. Conversely, if a person is shy, loner and often distant from the others then he or she is an introvert. However, there is much more complex difference in manners between people.

We all realize that there are manners that is more acceptable for the society than are others – yelling, being rude, and not following the rules of etiquette – are not tolerated behavior to express being among people. We have been taught to be polite and humble. Although, these rules are shaped in us from when we were children, it is hard to change one’s personality. Bossy person most of the time will be manipulative, strict and imperative, and it will be difficult for an introvert to be the soul of a company and a dominant person. On the other hand, different situations, especially situations which we cannot avoid, may lead to shaping our behavior. Shy person can take over the leadership when it is needed and unavoidable, and rude person may learn to say things in his or her head instead blurring them out.

So, as we can see, our inner world is much more complex than we can imagine. Our personality is a product of massive components and manipulating one of them may change not only our behavior, but also our perception. Also, there is no one way to determine how a person will behave and react to a particular situation, even if we think we know this person very well.

Psychology of handwriting

Today’s psychology is trying to deepen knowledge about person not only through verbal communication but also through body language, the style of how we behave. Psychologists interested in nonverbal behavior suggest that it can say a lot about personality's traits, interpersonal communication, and characters. This idea can be explained by structure of personality which is composed not only of traits, minds but also different style of behavior.

Graphologists suggest that it is possible to interpret characters from such a graphic signs:

1) Ascending handwriting which is associated with self-love and pride;

2) Handwriting composed of thin lines, saying that it is very shy person;

3) Personality's strength is associated with a thick letter "t";

4) Long "t's" stem means toughness

5) Writing letters "a" and "o" roundly shows reserve, reticence.

There are four symbolic directions where we can write: high, low, right and left and there are these types of handwriting which can “say” a lot about ones personality.

Size:

The size of a person's handwriting reflects how outgoing they are. The larger the handwriting is the more outgoing and expressive the person typically is. Which means that those with tiny handwriting are withdrawn and tend to bottle things up inside. Handwriting that's in the middle is just that, a person who's in between the two extremes, and handwriting that varies shows rapidly changing feelings. This might be a sign of deeper psychological problems, or it could simply mean they're in a confusing mood at the moment.

Slant:

Handwriting will lean either to the left, the right, or be almost totally vertical. Handwriting that slants to the right, or leans in, means the person is more expressive of their emotions. They're more likely to tell how they are feeling, whether it's an outburst of anger, joy, or sadness. Leaning to the left is the opposite. These people hide their feelings and try to control their emotions. Vertical writing shows someone who can vary to either side depending on their mood and the situation. The degree of how intensely the writing is slanted shows how intensely a person holds back or how much they express themselves.

Position:

It’s the way people write on a piece of paper. If the paper is lined, do they write on the lines or do some words go above or below? This shows whether or not they like to conform to other people's standards. More non-conformist types tend to write away from the lines. If the piece of paper has no lines, where do they start writing? If they start in the middle then they like to be the center of attention. If they start more to the left they are focused more on the past. Starting closer to the right edge shows a person living more in the future.

Even something as small as a word or something that irrelevant as a size of written letter can show in what mood the writer is, what is on his or her mind and what kind of person he or she is. the psychology of handwriting should not be underestimated, because it is a quite powerful tool to glance into our soul.

Self-assessment

I am going to sum up my performances on speaking, listening, ESP tests, moodle tests and presentation in English classes and working at home.

First of all, I would like to comment my performance on moodle test. It seems that taking test at home by computer is very easy task. However, tests were more difficult than I hoped and taking test at home is not always useful. In my opinion my moodle tests scores are quite well, despite some mistakes what happens to everyone. The system itself was not very reliable. Good answers were mistaken for a wrong one and vice versus. I hope in the future electronic testing will improve.

ESP tests. These tests are very good for one reason, that most of the information that I have learned before writing one test or another is still in my head. Writing from your memory is very useful, if only memory does not fail. In my opinion my scores did not improved, but still I am glad by mine performance.

Speaking. I really enjoy speaking in English and I am pretty sure that I am good at that. However, I think that we should use more offhand speaking, because memorizing text at home and then spitting it out for a grade is not really useful. I am sure that speaking from your heart and not the head will be good for students and for sure I will improve my English speaking skills even more.

Listening. I think that the biggest advantage of this task is writing down dictated text. In my school years we have tried this kind of task only few times so I really enjoyed it in this semester’s English class. It was very pleasant to see how much my grammar have improved. As for the listening I always thought that my listening skills were very good. However, sometimes it was difficult for me to understand English people’s accent, but now I am sure, that my understanding of it has improved.

Presentation. I always enjoyed presenting some kind of topic, mostly because I could be creative. I think that this semester’s presentation was not worse or better than last semesters. Making a presentation is really good for revising and analyzing more accurate a given topic. This could really help you during your tests or exams.

To sum up, I think some of my English aptitudes improved, such as speaking and listening and I am very glad about that. There is no doubt that in the future I will keep improving. I am very glad that now English is not only about grammar, I have learned really important subjects. Now I am looking forward to the new semester!

Psychology of Laughter

Most psychologists concentrate on questions what does laughter mean? It is undoubtedly that in most cases it means amusement. However, quite often it shows negative intensions of a person. This issue is mostly analyzed by psychoanalysts. For Freud, laughter is an "economical phenomenon" whose function is to release "physic energy" that had been wrongly mobilized by incorrect expectations. Other psychologists like Karen Horney claim that it is release of tension or even self-defense. 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.
There are many different kinds of laugh:

• Etiquette laughter - people rely on laughter as a means to get along with others. Ancestors hadn't fully developed speech and laughter was a way of communication and agreement.
• Nervous laughter - during the time of anxiety and stress we use to laugh to reduce it and calm down, usually it just heightens the awkwardness of the situation. It considers a afake laugh.
• Pigeon laughter - it is laughing without opening your mouth. It is used in laughter yoga and therapy. This kind of laughter produces humming sounds like pigeons.
• Silent laughter - smile and let your belly to push the air in and out, or just smile. That is how you laugh silently. This type of laugh is also used in yoga and therapy.
• Belly laughter - it considered the most honest. Men can grunt or snort while women can giggle or chuckle. It can make pain go away.

Some psychologists claim that laugh is linked with inner state. Some examples:

• Snorting - expressing disapproval
• Sniggering - insensitive, immature
• Cackling - land, ape-like shrieks
• Chuckling - kind and thoughtful
• Belly laugh - open and trusworthy

All types of laugh are assorted into 2 groups according to different approaches:

• laugh that comes from pure glee
• laugh that meant to send a asocial message

or

• voiced - laugh that is usually spontaneous
• unvoiced - conscious expressions

It is hard to point out the drawbacks of laughter because mostly it seems that it has not any. Still, thinking more carefully might bring into surface some negative qualities. As any kind of emotion expressed in public in a wrong time and wrong place, laugh can also make us uncomfortable and embarrassed. Laugh can also send wrong message or show our real opinion about an idea and etc.
However, 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 was developed. Laugh is also used in yoga for relaxation. Those benefits shade any drawback the laughter may have.

Psychology of Conflict

Conflict is a state of opposition, disagreement or incompatibility between two or more people or groups of people, which is sometimes characterized by physical violence. In other words - a clash of interests, values, actions or directions often sparks a conflict.
There are many different kinds of conflicts, for instance: intrapersonal, interpersonal, emotional, group, ideological, economic, military and many more.

Psychological studies are more likely to research emotional conflicts. Emotional conflict is the presence in the subconscious of different and opposing emotions relating to a situation that has recently taken place or is in the process of being unfolded, accompanied at times by a physical discomfort and in particular by tension headaches. Situations which cause emotional conflict can be everyday occurrences which might seem at the time unimportant.
Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. The word 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 directions even though a clash may not yet have occurred. For example:

• Approach - approach conflict: a choice must be made between two attractive goals. The problem is that you can choose just one of the two goals.
• Avoidance - avoidance conflict: a choice must be made between two unattractive goals.
• Approach - avoidance conflict: a choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects.

The basic drawback of conflicts is that they can sometimes result in physical discomfort or pain, often in the form of tension headaches. Furthermore, person who is susceptible to conflicting situations is more likely to feel miserable, unhappy and disgruntled for most of a time. Also that type of a person may lose friends or close people because of his arrogant personality.

Despite the fact that there are many negative things about conflict, still there are some benefits. Dealing with conflicts may increase person's self-confidence, self-control and may teach to stay classy in intense situations. Also the more practice we get, the more we will be able to analyze every step, every emotion and improve our charisma and ability to communicate.

In conclusion, conflicts are very hard to avoid. No matter what type of conflict person is dealing with, inner or outside, it can bring a lot of suffering into person's life. Mastering the art of conflict management can last more than we aspect and no matter how difficult it may seem, dealing with conflicts makes us only more confident and controlled.

Studies in MRU or in University of Amsterdam?

Like every high school graduate student after receiving my diploma I started to wonder where shall I continue my studies. There are so many opportunities for students in Lithuania and abroad. I chose Mykolo Romerio University in Vilnius.



Although I do not regret my choice there are a lot of universities to be chosen from. One of them is University of Amsterdam. Why this university? How is it better?


First of all, I always wanted to visit the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam, so to live and to study there would be amazing. However, nothing comes for free. Scholarships in University of Amsterdam are only available for students who are not from EU countries, since I am from Lithuania education would not be free for me. Although study's fees are not so high, it is always better to get free education like I do in MRU. Also living in Netherlands is much more expensive than living in Lithuania.

Secondly, I always wanted to improve my English language skills. MRU also has several opportunities to learn English, but it would be so much better to talk to a native English man, this way is more productive. Also it would not hurt to learn additional language like Dutch. There are courses for students like me, who has no skills of Dutch language at all.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things that can stop you from going to study abroad, for me it would be costs of education, long distance from home, lack of friends and fear of being alone in foreign country, but it has also its advantages like new adventures and new friends, more opportunities to improve your life and to expand your world view, also University of Amsterdam gives you everything you need to be save as long as you study there. On the other hand studies in Lithuania seems to have more advantages, you are home, save and warm, you do not need to worry about anything, language is clear, it won't be any confusions and studies in MRU gives me that.