Psychology & Astrology

What do the stars say about your personality and future? This question illustrates the main assumption of astrologers. That is, astrologers assume that an individual's personality and behaviour is influenced by the position of stars and planets at his/her birth.
Of all the pseudo-psychologies, astrology is probably the most popular. For some, astrology offers an approach to utilizing their strengths, overcoming weaknesses, and fulfilling their potential. For others, it's a little frivolity.
Astrology, having existed for more than 3000 years, can consider itself to be the elder sister of psychology.
Both disciplines concern themselves with the psyche. As with astrology, there are different branches and schools of psychology. Some prefer scientific approaches - if this is possible with the complexity of the human psyche and others follow holistic or alternative concepts. These latter approaches often display parallels to astrology and combine easily with it. Among them is Carl Gustav Jung's Analytical Psychology.
Despite their individuality people "allow themselves" to be pigeonholed into certain categories.
Carl Gustav Jung explains this phenomenon by categorising people into four psychological types. According to his theory the conscious self knows four main modes of perception which express them differently and more or less strongly in every individual: the thinking function, the feeling function, the sensation and intuitive function. They can be defined as two contrasting pairs: thinking and feeling are rational opposites (in the sense that they evaluate and judge things). Both sensation and intuition are considered irrational functions, because they do not judge, but simply record things. Of course, not all four functions are equally strong within any one individual. One function dominates, while the other tends to be "underdeveloped". In order to become really whole, a person should attempt to develop all four modes of perception. This is an extraordinarily difficult task. Jung writes in Psychological Types:
We know that a man can never be anything at once, never complete - he always develops certain qualities at the expense of others, and wholeness is never attained.
The science of psychological astrology was born from Jung's theories and writings. This is an engagement of horoscopic astrology with depth psychology, humanistic psychology, and transpersonal psychology.
The first thing that the would-be astrologer should do is discard the idea that all forms of astrology is superstition mingled with the paranormal which can only be understood by mystics steeped in secret wisdom. Today, some astrology is presented this way, but this is not true "traditional astrology". Did you know that Astrology was considered science in man's early history? And some still do, with good reason.

Why do people believe in astrology? The answer to the question lies very much in the same realm as why people believe in just about any superstition. Astrology offers a number of things which many people find very desirable: information and assurance about the future, a way to be absolved of their current situation and future decisions, and a way to feel connected to the entire cosmos. In the past, astrology and other forms of divination were integral parts of many religions. Today, people either accept astrology alongside religions which technically condemn the practice or accept astrology in place of traditional religion.
Think about what happens during a visit with an astrologer: someone holds your hand (even if only figuratively), looks you in the eye, and explains how you, as an individual, are actually connected to our entire cosmos. You are told how mysterious forces in the universe around us, far greater than ourselves, work to shape our intimate destinies. You are told relatively flattering things about your character and life, and in the end you are naturally pleased that someone cares about you. In the hectic and generally disconnected modern society, you feel connected - both to another human being and to the world around you.
None of this is to say that astrologers' advice is never any good. Like a telephone psychic, even though the advice is usually very vague and general, it can often be better than no advice at all. Some people just need another person to listen to them and show some concern for their problems. On the other hand, astrologers who recommend against particular marriages or projects because of the "stars" might be providing disastrous advice. There is, sadly, no way to differentiate between the two.
Rather than being about divinations or predictions, psychological astrology looks at the birth chart as a map of who we are, our life journey, our complexes and can help us get a clearer picture of who we really are. It can help us work out our problems and clarify our goals.
A psychological astrologer will give you insight into what makes you tick as a person. It can help you understand where you are going in life, why problems recur in your life and teach you how to develop yourself better. This can lead to helping you have a greater understanding of yourself, your relationships with others and the direction of your life.
The application of psychological astrology makes a powerful tool for counselling and life management. It gives an incredibly helpful insight into areas such as lack of a sense of direction, low self confidence, conflicts in relationships, health, sexuality, love, vocation, addiction, depression and much more.

The Psychology Of Terrorism

Terrorism - is a unique form of crime, often encompassing elements of warfare, politics and propaganda, in the modern sense it is violence or other harmful acts committed (or threatened) against civilians for political or other ideological goals. Most definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear or "terror", are created for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants. Many definitions also include only acts of unlawful violence. Actually you can find some slight differences in many descriptions but the thing is that everyone is able to see some aspects of terrorism in our life which are more and more common. The world is not standing still, everything is changing, growing etc. So is the terrorism.
As some politicians think, the root cause of the terrorism we witness around the world today is religion. “Religions originate from paranoia, based on a misunderstanding of the unknown universe as a god. This paranoia becomes a threat to civilization when a religion insists that everyone should accept that, the way in which this religion misunderstands the unknown universe as a god, is the only right way” – say the followers of this theory. So as there are several religions which are different, they don’t go into a compromise and they don’t accept other religions. Personally I think that there is no ONE way of thinking, doing, concluding & so on. People should learn to adjust the information they have in their minds differently to various situations, not to be narrow minded. While someone says that the root cause of terrorism is religion, Tony Blair and other lefty- liberals say that those are poverty, ignorance and despair. Another opinion about that is such “The root causes of terror are Islam, a religion that not only approves but requires mass murder of those who reject it, and liberalism. Liberalism aids Islam through denial, rationalization of evil, refusal to take a side ("moral equivalence") and wilful ignorance of Islam's true goals, philosophies and practices.” This theory could be adapted not to all types of terrorism, although it’s true from many parts of it.
Moreover, in some ways selfish, uncaring behavior on the parts of groups of people show the adolescent stage of individuals when personal grievances or concerns become out of proportion. A trait leading to terrorism may be the lack of a proper balance between the liberty of the individual and the needs of the whole society. The rights of an individual to act as he wishes can never be absolute.
After this the personality of a terrorist is also a highly curious issue. As some researches show those people are rational, they are not insane as many of us may think. No comparative work on terrorist psychology has ever succeeded in revealing a particular psychological type of terrorist mindset. The researchers say that terrorists tend to have low self-esteem, they are attracted to groups with charismatic leaders, and, not surprisingly, enjoy risk. Researches also concluded that many terrorists are ambivalent about violence and guns.

listening to PODCASTS

#1
The first podcast I was listening to was very pleasant and quite easy. It included some information about a jazz performer and the story was sometimes interposed by some music that he played. It was interesting to hear that because it was not very typical. Despite that the two speakers had no strange accent, they spoke American English and the speed of their speeches was average. Their voices seemed relaxed, maybe this had some influence to my listening and understanding. I didn’t look to the reading of a transcript when I listened to these speakers because they were clear enough for me. Also I listened to this podcast once.

#2
This podcast was more difficult than the first one. It was a little bit scientific (had some medical terminology that was not all known to me). The podcast itself was about the same length as the first one but it had no pauses breaking the speeches of the speakers. There were two of them: the woman was a reporter speaking in pure American English and her speech was quite fast, but alright to understand. The other speaker was Chinese or Japanese but spoke English very well, only with a little accent. His speech was a little slower. Although this podcast was not difficult I listened to it twice to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. The second time I was listening to it I was glancing at the reading of the transcript. It made the listening easier and clearer.

People whose native language is English speak differently. The understanding of them depends on the topic they are talking about, the speed of speaking, the sequence of the story and so on. To conclude, it is clear that I can’t be sure whether my listening task in the exam will be surmountable easily or not really. Generalizing these two podcasts I should say that I still need some practice to be more confident in this case.

GRAPHOLOGY

There are a lot of studies, as we know, which may help while analyzing the character and personality. One of the most interesting of them is graphology. It’s the study of handwriting and the connection between handwriting and behavior. Researchers examine handwriting to detect authenticity or forgery. Graphologists examine loops, the spaces between letters, heights, slants, ending strokes, dotted “i’s” crossed “t’s” and so on. They believe that these researches can tell about the person nearly the same like astrology, palm reading and other similar things.

Some say that a very important detail is the content of the message that a person is writing. But many graphologists deny it. They say that the content should be irrelevant when assessing the research.

Basically there are 3 types of graphology:
1 – holistic (a profile of the person is formed from the movement, space and form)
2 – integrative (strokes are mostly related to personality traits)
3 – symbolic (analyses the symbols which are seen in handwriting)

Space between words. We write the words like they go in our speech. When a person speaks with pauses between words it may be because he wants to consider before acting. Or he is willing for the information to be better remembered by the audience. If the spaces between words are really small or there are none of them we can say that this person is impulsive and a person of action.

Pressure. 1 – the pressure against the paper (primary). This characterizes vitality and strength. 2 – the pressure against the penholder (secondary). Tells about our aims and inner convictions. Criminals often add extra pressure in their handwriting. Women have the handwriting without pressure more.

Slant. The left direction of writing shows a connection to the mother and also to the past. More women than men have the left writing direction. The upright slant reveals that a person is very independent in life and has no inclination nor to father nor to mother. The right slant is considered to be a normal one because it’s the most common and natural. These people are in a hurry, impatient and active.

psychology of laughter

Laughter is a pleasant topic to discuss. We laugh without knowing why we do it. The greatest advantage of laughter is that it binds people together.
One research showed that only 10-20% of our laughter is suited with jokes. Many times a stimulus for laughter is a person, not a joke. And even if it is a joke, people can't give particular reasons why it awakened their laughter. We send laughter as a signal to others and it disappears when there is no audience.
Gender differences in laughter are great. Females laugh more than males. Men seem to be the instigators of laughter through all the cultures and times. Try to remember who was the funniest person in your class or working place. Perhaps he was a male, Maybe that's why there are more male comedians. Women seek the men who make them laugh and men are eager to fulfil this request.
Some say that laughter is the best medicine. This develops from the fact that laughter unites people and social support improves our mental and physical health. Also pain reduction is one things that laughter can guarantee. People who laughed during some procedures tolerated more discomfort than those that didn't laugh. The same is with patients - the ones who watched funny videos requested less aspirin than those who didn't watch.
Laughter involves a collection of 17 muscles around the mouth and the eyes. Just an interesting fact =)
Another advantages of laughter are that it makes us less stressed, lowers our blood pressure, reduces anxiety (it's because laughter stimulates endorphines, tha netural painkillers). That's the way Freud saw laughter - it converts agression to something more acceptable. This explains why people laugh when they are nervous or sudddenly relieved.
Laughter helps to think us more creatively, it loosens up the mental gears and encourages us to think about things not in ordinary ways.
An intriguing thing is that people laugh more if their boss tells a joke rather than a simple colleague. Moreover, it funny whne someone slips over on a banana skin, but how funny it is when it happens to a policeman or politician?
Usually people laugh about 18 times as day but of course the spectrum varies. Some of the laughter is related to mood but there are some areas in the brain which explain why some people laugh more. It is also related with personality. People who laugh more cope with stress easier in their daily life, they live longer and healthier.
By the way, the arrival of a good clown to a village does more for its health than 20 boxed laden with drugs =)

.: Psychology of conflicts :.

We all know that a conflict is a natural disagreement which comes as a result from individual differences in values, opinions, needs and beliefs. Conflicts are quite damaging. That’s because usually they don’t begin if everything is right and correct. Because of their differences people might lose temper, get anxious, get into bad mood and so on. But also conflicts may be light and creating. It’s when people calmly come to a compromise, decide something together and sometimes this brings wonderful results and new ideas.

A conflict consist of needs, perception, values, power, feelings and emotions. A need is something essential to our well-being, we shouldn’t mix it with desires. So a conflict arises when we ignore our own or other people’s needs. The next thing is that people perceive causes and consequences of problems in various ways. The kinds and quantity of conflicts depend on the way people use and define their power. It also has much to do in solving the conflict. Conflict may occur because people can try to make others do something or behave in a particular way. Our values are the beliefs that we consider to be very important. A conflict may arise when two sides disagree on each others values or don’t accept different values than their.

Conflict managing is like riding a bicycle – at first we need some support and then when we catch how to do it there’s nothing more to do but practice. Most of us want to be able to manage conflicts really successfully but sadly it can’t happen without practicing. If we want to solve a conflict we have to analyze it, what caused it and so on. Many things depend on the type of relationships between people. If the relationship was based on trust and cooperation, the loss of these things caused by some previous actions is not easily forgotten. Moreover, denying those causes can lead to insecurity and fear of one side. There are some tips which help to manage a conflict with the least harm: first, watch your body language, tone and glances, these things really affect people. Then listen carefully, sometimes people don’t hear everything that the other party is saying (especially if we don’t want to hear those things). Also deal only with the present situation, don’t try to take points from the past. A tiny but important detail is to remove such words like “never and always” from your language, because they really don’t help in managing conflicts. It may happen that the case of conflict can be too difficult or unpleasant for people to solve it themselves. Then a therapist can help by suspecting some signals of unrecognized misunderstanding. He can help each side to paraphrase the other sides’ opinion - this process can help to understand each others point of view and come up to one opinion or action.

As we live in a technological world, what about online conflicts? They are heightened here for sure. It happens so because we don’t see the body language, facial expressions and don’t hear the voice of the people we speak to. To it’s up to our imagination and mood to understand in what way a person said one thing or another. Besides, people are more opened when they place and express their thoughts online and not face to face. But the internet is a perfect place to practice conflicts. You may not respond immediately, so in this way you can overthink the way you would like to respond and avoid the conflict.

Psychology of laziness

Laziness is the act of not doing things, avoiding tasks. Sometimes it may become apathy and be a symptom of depression. The bad thing is that laziness leads to bad health, low self esteem, lack of hope and self confidence. Laziness goes together with procrastination really often. It may lead to crisis, sense of guilt and loss of productivity.
There are 6 types of laziness: physical, emotional, creative, philosophical, intellectual, and pathologic. Each of them reveals itself in different situations in life – when a person has to go somewhere suddenly, to figure out some kind of problem in an unusual way & so on.
This distribution is not the only one. There are other types of laziness but we don’t use them so often in psychology. Eastern laziness – people are hanging around all day, drinking tea, listening to music, when western idlers rush around all day, do many things but actually they’re not important and not worth the time they take. In the end of the day people realize that they haven’t done anything useful.
If people want to overcome their laziness the most effective way is to keep themselves busy. Because you start being lazy when you feel tired. But you don’t feel tired until the moment you stop being busy. Planning your day (writing a schedule) is also very helpful. If you plan many things and make your day busy, you’ll be determined to do all of them so that your next day won’t be too busy. People are not deep in thought but friends and others also have influence to their laziness. If you communicate with people who have high motivation to do something, they’re determined - you’ll be alike them, at least try to. But if people in your surroundings are lazy, postpone their tasks and activities all the time, perhaps you’ll follow them.
What concerns children and their homework they should get prepared first. Their working space should be tidy, no useless objects, no music or TV so there would be no distraction. It’s also good to promise a reward for doing something difficult but food should be avoided in this case. Many kinds of activities like phone calls, walks outside are preferred. Children should also think of bad consequences – if they don’t accomplish their homework they’ll get a bad mark, their teacher will be disappointed in them & many more. Another small but meaningful point is the order of homework. It’s best to start from the easiest task. You finish it quickly, don’t put much effort and it gives a kind of estimation to do more because you were successful.

_SUMMARY_

Thinking and reasoning
In this chapter we learned some new things and remembered some already known. For example that people use mental images to remember something or in sport training. Also there was much attention paid to concepts – how they influence our behavior and how they differ in various cultures. I discovered that people sometimes use syllogistic reasoning - it’s drawing a conclusion from a set of assumptions. If a person has to make a decision, he may use algorithm which guarantees a solution to a problem or heuristic which may lead to a solution but cannot ensure it.

Problem solving
Before starting to solve a problem people have to understand and diagnose it. This is the start of the chapter. Then goes a list of kinds of problems: arrangement, problems of inducing structure and transformation problems. The way a problem is phrased is very important because its solving depends on that. Many ways of problem solving were presented: trial and error, means-ends analysis, dividing problems into parts and solving each of them. Some difficulties of problem solving were mentioned too – functional fixedness and mental set. It’s interesting that creativity has also much to do in problem solving – it gives an ability to combine ideas in novel ways; it’s also suited with divergent thinking – the ability to generate unusual responses to questions.

Language
The chapter starts with describing 3 main components in language – phonology, syntax and semantics. Each of them is irreplaceable because they all have their specific sphere in language. Before using these components children start to babble, then they acquire language, start to use telegraphic speech, learn some rules and produce language.
There are 2 hypotheses – one says that the notion that language shapes may determine the way people understand the world in particular culture; the other says that thinking produces language. It’s known that some chimps use “language” but it still lacks the grammar and novel constructions of human language. Another interesting discussion was about bilingual learning and immersion programs. It’s proved that bilingual speakers show more cognitive flexibility, understand concepts more easily & so on.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) describes an ability to perceive and manage the emotions of one's self and others. It has a very strong meaning in our achieving purposes & so on. If a person has a poor EIQ he may be held back from achieving his goals while those with a higher EIQ have more motivation to achieve success in life. This is so because emotionally intelligent people overcome difficulties more easily, they are able to control their moods and have more motivation to reach something. These people feel comfortable when closely surrounded by others. Besides, it’s easy for them to support and advise others.
Emotional literacy is the ability to understand ourselves and others, to use information about emotions of others so we could perceive what they are feeling and thinking. Literacy also helps us to respond to other’s emotions, especially in the helpful ways for us and other people. Emotional literacy can be divided into some parts: self understanding, understanding and managing emotions, understanding social situations and making relationships. To my mind that’s all really important because we live among people and to know the ways to deal with them gives us self confidence and much more in nearly all situations.
Another important issue in this topic is human needs. Most of the needs are basic but each person has a different strength in particular need. It’s the same like when one of us needs more water, more food & so on. One human may need more independence, while the other may need strong social connections and security. Basically people feel the need to be accepted, heard, confident, forgiven, admired, helpful, listened to, loved, supported, valued & the list goes on and on…
So if emotional intelligence has something to do with emotions it has some basic feelings that can be positive or negative. Positives ones are interest, excitement, joy, enjoyment. Negative – shame, humiliation, disgust, anger, rage, fear, terror, stress.
There are many more things about emotional intelligence like its criticism or how can it help to solve conflicts & so on. By the way there are many discussions on measuring the EI. Some scientists say that it can be measured like IQ and some disagree. I did a test to see what my EIQ is. It was quite strange because the questions reminded me the ones in a women magazine, they didn’t seem to be serious, despite that there was over a 100 of them. I also was unsatisfied with my results because I totally disagree with them. Maybe psychologists and other scientists still have to do much work on this subfield :) As we know tomorrow brings us some news to life.

Psychology of fears

There is no human who had never been afraid of something. But some fears are stronger than average. Fear keeps alcoholics drinking, addicts addicted & so on. The good thing is that fear and anxiety can help us to cope. But if we have anxiety disorder it can do the opposite – keeps us from coping and disrupts our daily life.
Most of fears develop in the childhood and they are considered a normal part of development. Parents should respect their child’s feelings and fears, not to ignore or to put the child down for them. Talking with a kid about why he is afraid is helpful.
Children’s fears vary by age, only if they are persistent, interfere with normal life they call for treatment. It begins with loud noises, loss of support, strangers, heights, even toilet, injuries, unexpected objects, also dark, animals, supernatural beings (ghosts, witches), thunder, then of course examinations and performances at school.
Some kids have a fear of going to nursery school or to a camp the first time. But it usually fades with time.
If a child has some kind of problematic fear and if it is not treated it can enter the adulthood. Many adults had a fear of going to school, being separated from parents, being in public places etc. These aspects in adults include a racing heart, nausea, trembling and others.
One of treatment forms is cognitive – behavioral therapy, it involves relaxation and changing thoughts, it helps to master the feeling of fear, it gives a sense of control over the situation.
Another interesting thing I found in psychology of fears was women’s fears. I discovered that some women have the fear of success. It develops from the thought that we live in a man’s world. Some women are afraid to take up such things as science or math only because they are considered to be manly subjects. Not seeking some kind of achievements in higher education is also a part of the fear. This kind of fear hinders the woman’s opportunity to do her best. It blocks her freedom to be herself and to do the things she wants to.
Sometimes people are afraid to share their fears even with families and friends. So it’s even more terrible to make an appointment to see a therapist. Going online for support for this sort of people is very helpful. It’s easier for them to open their mind and heart to others when they make posts under a pseudonym. When the darkest feelings are shared and others reveal that they feel the same people begin to feel more confident of themselves. Being around people who understand you can help to create strong relationships.
Sometimes the fear of overcoming the fear is greater than the original fear. It means we’ll have to go out and do something about our fears. To some of us it seems too scary :) The feeling when you conquer your fear is the most amazing feeling. It gives you a sense of achievement and the foundation that you can do anything. That feeling is worth the tears and sweat blasting through the barrier.

Queue psychology

Queues - they're such a thing that we can't avoid nowadays. They're almost everywhere : in supermarkets, cloackrooms, canteens, doctors offices, libraries etc. Although we collide with queues nearly each day not all people can handle them.
Queues require much patience because in most cases people have to stand in one place doing nothing and that really gets on their nerves. Some people crack inside and go out of the queue because they don't have enough patience or time.
What is important queues can be various - combined and single. Combined ones have the "social justice"- the first person in is the first person out. In single queues you don't have the feeling as though someone else has unfairly skipped the queue before you.
Let's take a queue in a supermarket as an example. Queing here can even cause paranoia - when you stand in a queue and you know that the queues beside you are going faster. Many people can't stand this. Luckily psychologists have some suggestions - people have to assume that all queues are almost the same, they are the same length and move at the same speed. Let's say we have 4 queues, so the chance that you will "cross the finish line" first is one out of four.
To sum up, I would like to say that queing is not such a terrible thing as long as we know how to make it not so annoying and to remember that it isn't going to take our whole life.

My future profession

I started to study psychology this year. I could say that I really enjoy studying this subject. Of course i can't be sure if my opinion would be the same after some period of time but i hope it remains.
Actually, i'm not sure what i will choose to study after my bachelor studies. Perhaps it would be something different because I'm interested not only in psychology. I hope to combine some subjects in my life and do something that I would really enjoy (I don't know what it is going to be by now but I have plenty of time to discover that).
Psychology seems important and interesting to me because I'll learn many useful things about people, their behaviour, communication, reactions, mood etc. From my point of view, the world today is based on communication, you can do nothing without it. So i believe that the key to more or less successful living is the ability to communicate to many kinds of people in various situations. It'll help if you want to sell or buy something, during journeys, parties, official conferences and so on.
That's not the only good thing about psychology. I'll also learn how to help people. The psychological help is very meaningful. Sometimes people have no motivation to do something to increase the good in their lives although they have all the posibilities to do that. In case they are fed up with everything or have some particular problems in families, their jobs or other, psychologist is the first one who'll return (at least try to) happiness and the right view to life.