Super Strength Me!

Sweet msged in the aftnn to tell me that he’s enjoying hightea w our mums.

And asked y am I so busy.

Obviously he thot I was having fun and partying my break away…

But NOOOOO~~~

And I told him exactly y I’m busy:

“3papers, 2quizzes, 2presentations, 10hrsoftuition, 8hrsofdriving, occasional CT affairs and currently a persistent running nose.”

oh yeah he sounded impressed haha

Maybe to some ppl, this is really no biggie, but my life haven been this hectic since I stopped dancing like months ago, and even then, I din think it was this “happening”!

Alot of things gng on and alot of things to achieve…

It makes me happy and keeps me motivated when I look at my new entry in my CLB:

What I picture myself to be in 5 years time.

I prayed for wisdom b4 I wrote it down, so I really hope they are all part of God’s plan for me

Writing down goals is never the tough part.

We write about our goals in a pretty book, daydream abt the joy and success we’ll be enjoying when we attain our goals and chuck the book right out of sight.

Only to read it 5 years ltr and ask, “why am I so far away from where I planned to be?”

It is remembering the hard work that we have to put in and the persistence we need to make it happen that isn’t easy.

Where do u wanna be in 5 years’ time? What are u going to achieve? Are u well on your way to your goals?

It’s never too late to have a goal,

It’s never too late to have a direction,

It’s never too late to start working for it.

If u start NOW

And all I can do now is to pray for strength and work my ass off, with a great deal of persistence

ok, I just popped a flu med and I’m gng to slp nw.I hope I dream Evo Psych so I can score well tmr :S

All the 4XXX

Level Fours are no joke.

I’ve never taken any seminar-style mods for the past 3 years of my life, so the 1st week of 3 hrs seminars was quite a stretch for my attention span…

Then again, the super boring admin matters apart, all the lessons have aroused my interest for Psych to another level

Advanced Abnormal started out more like a career seminar, with Dr Woo advising us to go for Clinical Masters and PsychD.

Then there were interesting cases of psychopathology that he meets in his line of work.

Collinson kicked off Clinical Neuropsych with the brain anatomy.

His summary of it is so much clearer than the entire sem of biopsych… coz they are not in so much details…

And he showed us scans of brains with injuries like bullet shots, man walking into helicopter propeller, woman with kitchen knife in her head and we discussed which parts of the brain are affected and what sort of disorders are the patients most likely to get.

(source: medscape)

(source: foxnews)

Cool stuff man!! It’s surprising how many of these patients actually stay alive because the impact of the trauma missed the vital parts of the brain….

Then there was Psych Assessment ystday morning (my 1st morng lect at 9am!!). I thot the mod will be mainly on psychometrics like personality tests, IQ tests, projective tests and neuropsych tests… But it’s more than that… Psych assessment also includes things like interview and observation of the patients, and what kind of info do we actually release to the patients…

Dr Ramos showed us a vid of the trial for a murder case and the lawyer for the murderer actually requested for a psych trial, suggesting that his client could be suffering from certain mental disorders which led to improper behaviors. 5 diff psych professionals administered diff tests, interviewed him and observed his beh b4 coming to a conclusion.

The observation part is really interesting coz they read the case to see if his rxns during and aft the arrest is normal, and how he ans qns when he was giving his statement. Very detailed and insightful obsn from some psychologists…

Speaking of which, I wanna watch Forensic Heroes II and Criminal Minds

Another reason y I think yr 4 is no joke is bcoz during lect, Dr Ramos was telling us that there will be no TB, but we’re supposed to find the relevant books in the lib to get the readings.

Aft class, I went to the toilet and headed for CL to get the books to photocopy.

When I reached RBR, the books are alrdy gone and there are 3 other ppl waiting at the shelves for the books to be returned o_O

Dammit. I shouldn’t have gone to the toilet…

Anw I managed to find the girl with one of the books and she gave me her copy to photocopy

Poppy went OBar last night and they’re planning for a Wala trip on one of the Thurs…

I’m trying to convince myself that I can no longer afford such a carefree lifestyle.. I’ll have to seek fun and joy in other ways.

Like mugging with Poppy Pie on weekend aftnns!! haha ok, I’m sounding more and more like a muggertoad.

Yeah, wadever

Unsettling Goodbye

While talking to shammy ystday morning, she suddenly brought up the name Elisha.

And my mind filled with the happy moments that MIX had at Gotham few mths ago, coz we entered under the invitation of Peggy’s fren, Elisha (a very very goodlooking guy, while I’m at it).

Then the nxt sentence came:

“He passed away. Suicide.”

There’s an article in the papers, but I cant bring myself to read it…

While no one really close to me has chosen to end their life, he is def not the 1st one I noe that has commited suicide.

When I was doing Abnormal Psych last sem, there was this particular topic on Depression and Suicide.

I guess it’s high time I share these info with u guys (all taken from PL3236 notes):

MYTHS ABOUT SUICIDE:

1) “There are no warning signs”

- Most people do tell others of their intentions (up to 70%), therefore all remarks about suicide should be taken seriously

2) “Faked” suicide attempts are about getting attention and not serious”

- Many people accidentally kill themselves while they are at it

3) “Talking with someone about suicidal ideation will increase likelihood someone will kill themselves”

- Talking is likely to prevent a suicide attempt

- Useful for gauging severity of threat

- Contract can prevent suicide (eg, asking a person to promise to call u if they ever feel depressed or is thinking about suicide again)

4) “Suicidal people want to die”

- Many people are grateful when s’one actually helped them to prevent a suicide attempt

WARNING SIGNS:

- Low mood / depression (note: risk of suicide may be greatest as the depression lifts because it’s only then that a person has the energy and will to plan and carry out the attempt)

- Hopelessness

- Suicidal ideas / remarks

- Well thought out plans

WHAT TO DO:

- Do something – don’t ignore

- Talk about it with the person

- Contact a GP

- Contact a psychiatrist or psychologist

I guess we may not be able to stop everyone who want to commit suicide from taking their lives, but at least we can spot them and do sth for them b4 anything happens…

There may be alot of ppl who deeply care for them, but they may not have realised how precious they are to the ppl ard…

Life is really precious, it’s God’s amazing gift to us, and I really hope that everyone can cherish evey single moment of it because He has great plans for all of us…

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

- Jeremiah 29:11

Hellloooo to Honours!

Ok, just checked my results.

Not as fantastic as last sem…

But I still managed to improve (a little bit) on my overall cap score

Praise the Lord for that!!

Yup, just mms Poppy’s results to him… I thot he did well… but he missed IT by just dat little bit.

Oh wells, I hope he’s still happy abt his grades

So… now it’s module planning, module preference, lots of headache and 1 more (lovely? I hope so…) year in (erm… lovely??) NUS.

All mapped out.

It’s 3.20am and I’ve officially completed my mindmaps for this sem!!!

I totally gave up on Abnormal. Coz if I mindmap for that, I need to mindmap the entire TB.

I’ll really become abnormal by then…

[The Final Mindmap - Personality & Individual Differences Lecture 12: Personality Disorder & Review]

Like some artwork no? haha

**Weilong went to send my packages alrdy! Shld receive in 6-10days. Pls come b4 Mother’s dayyyyyyy**

Good Night o_o

Love and Obligation.

Me: “Do you think that love is a form of obligation?”

**Long Pause**

Pops: “Yeah….. in some sense…”

I have no idea when this thought struck me. But aft much pondering, I came to this (personal) conclusion:

“Love is filled with automatic processes of obligation.”

If you love s’one enough or more than yourself, you tend to be obliged to him / her.

- To give him the best, to will to all his requests, to make him happy…

If you love s’one but not as much as yourself (or rationally and not crazily in love), you tend to be obliged to… well… yourself.

- To keep YOUR promises made to him, to make YOUR plans for him / with him come through, to make YOURself a good gf…

Then again, they are AUTOMATIC thought processes, thus they are:

- Unconscious

- Effortless

- Rapid

So we don’t really think about them during our daily interactions with our loved ones.

That said, perhaps love follows a “Love Schemata”. So once you know (or think) that you are in love, certain concepts of how to behave and what to do immediately (and automatically) comes through without much thinking.

So, perhaps, for those who are head-over-heels in love with their special s’one, their Love Schemata is pretty much activated by thoughts of the special s’one and what can make him/her happy and loved.

In the case of those who are “rationally” in love with their partners, their Love Schemata is probably activated by the thoughts of THEIR love for the person and wad THEY can do to make him/her feel loved and appreciated.

And maybe these are not fixed?? Alike to Entity and Incremental theorists, perhaps your Love Schemata follows different concepts depending on the situation. Some day you feel like u’re crazily in love with him, on other days he’s not exactly your TOP priorities ( e.g. Vday/ his birthday / HOLIDAYS vs. EXAM period / Girls’ day out / MY birthday)

Oh no, isit getting boring already??

Why on earth such a “scientific” description for sth so romantic??

I dunno… I always thought I’m a romantic person… But I guess it’s all the journal articles on Social Cog

The whole pt I’m trying to make (though certain points din really come out the way I meant for it to) is that it’s probably ok if you suddenly feel like you are loving out of obligation or that u think u are obliged to do sth for the one you love.

Because Love and Obligation may not be mutually exclusive aft all – feeling obliged doesn’t mean you don’t love the person.

Ultimately, I believe that it is out of Love that we are obliged to give the best to our loved ones, to appreciate them and to protect them (or conversely, these obligations are simply manifestations of our Love).

G.I.

Dear Lord,

thank you so much for the great opportunity tmr. I pray for strength, wisdom, a clear heart and a calm mind.  I pray that I will be able to give my best. I really hope that this is one big step closer to getting there, but  I’m placing it all in Your hands because you know what’s best for me.

In Jesus most precious name, Amen

An Atypical Poster

Finally, I can declare that I’ve completed my LAST proj for this sem!!

I’m not happy.

I’m exhilarated!!

No doubt fun at times, proj can be a real time-sapping machine…

Anw, this final proj is probly one of my most memorable proj so far.

For 3 reasons:

1) It’s a POSTER presentation, so we had to use our handicraft talents, which is so Primary school!! I like

2) We chose to do on Singlish and came up with an interesting hypothesis that no study has covered yet.

3) My proj partner is Sham and Sham alone!! Working with just one great proj mate saves ALOT of time and EFFORT

Anw Shammy came over to my hs in the morng to finish up our Baby and prepare our speech. Aft lunch, dad sent us to sch

The poster session was quite fun actually… More fun to be presenting than walking ard and looking other posters :p

Basically, it conjures up the image of a small scale… IT Fair, Career Fair and the likes… Coz everyone’s either roaming ard to look at posters or speaking at the top of their voices to “promote” their posters…

Not to mention, we were “mistaken” as Red-bull girls, DBS credit card girls and even Singtel grid girls!!

-_-

Creative ppl.

I really really love our Baby poster, esp the “interactive” coloured foams

I hope it comes back in one pc aft our lecturer graded it!!

Anw, checked my SW term test results in the evening.

The lecturer super old sch, posting it outside the dept’s office rather den on IVLE’s gradebook -_-

Looks ok, really thank God for that, coz I had very little time to prepare for it since I had a presentation just b4 the test…

**I’m still worried abt Abnormal!!**

I hate chimps.

Coz only they alone, of all the animals in the research, have a correlation of Conscientiousness with human in their personality traits.

And I wanted to put Conscientiousness! Until I vaugely recalled seeing Openness.

So I chose Openness instead.

Come to think of it, that was such an illogical answer -_-

Dammit. Should have gone with my guts. Even though they have not been functioning too well these days…

And now I have one wrong ans alrdy

Anyway… the lecturer continued with Psychodynamic Approach aft the test.

if u don’t recognise the term above, u’ll probably still be able to recognise its founder:

SIGMUND FREUD

Honestly, he’s the very 1st name I came across when I 1st got in touch with Psych (before uni that is).

yup, this is how commercialised he is

Just for fun, here’s one of the most classic Freudian-slip (rmb, by the theory of Freud, nth is accidental or random ):

**Apparently, Bush had alot of Freudian-slips. I wonder wad was he thinking. Or NOT trying to think…**

Ok… time for Social Cog and Abnormal -_-

Gimme a break!

Really.

I wish there is s’one I can shout at to demand my term break to be returned back to me.

I scurry though those 7 days trying to complete readings and mindmaps for all 19 chaps of wadever lectures I had.

19 chaps! I had to cover at least 4 chaps a day.

Then there was proj meetings, inconsiderate grp mates, term paper, blast class…

It was worse than sch days.

Coz I really had no break

Ok, cept for my lil moments of joy during all my bday celebrations

See, even den, I did my readings aft I came hm from the celebration with PPs, I was doing mindmap until CHAOS had to wait more than an hr to surprise me and I was reading on Anxiety Disorders before I left for my celebration with Dar.

And I still have not completed that 19 chaps worth of mindmaps

Even aft sitting on this chair for the past 15 hrs today, I’ve only done 5.

At least the readings are done -_-

Anw, I’ve decided to skip all tuts and lects tmr to go full-force on my revision for my 3 consecutive term tests.

I’ve set a new goal for myself. And I really want to achieve it.

It’s not impossible, it’s just not dat easy to achieve.

Then again, wad’s the point of a goal that’s easy to attain right?

I’m praying for God to grant me the wisdom and strength I need to give my very best shot

“I’m able to do all things through Him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13

So wadever break I’m wishing for, they’ll have to come aft Thurs.

And I cant wait for movies with Pops that day

For now, I’ll be glad if I dun break my back as I cont sitting in this chair for 1 more mindmap.

Art, life and stories.

I believe (and it’s proven) that ppl are able to appreciate art pieces better when they are told wad they mean or noe the story behind these work of arts.

I’ve got 2 amazing websites to share with u guys.

1) The Cunningham Dax Collection.

The paintings there are mainly done by people who are undergoing or have been through mental illnesses or psychological trauma.

The online gallery shows some of the selected works by mental patients accompanied by a short commentary that includes some info abt the artist, what kind of mental illness is he/ she going through and psychological perspectives on what the painting might be trying to portray.

A pity that they only update the online gallery every 1 to 2 years… But feel free to explore the rest of the exhibitions, there are always new and interesting information to be gathered in a site like this

2) Days with my Father.

The actual exhibition just ended in Esplanade on 18th Jan.

Didn’t manage to catch it, but there’s the online version

The collection comprises of photographs that Phillip Toledano took of his 98 year-old father who has “no short term memory” (possibly anterograde amnesia??).

It’s an online journal of the remaining time he has with his father.

Every picture is accompanied by the thoughts and reflections of the photographer.

And every picture and word speaks of the love between them.

Perhaps, in the midst of it, u can find the words that expresses the way you’d describe the love for your dad

Are u mad?

Almost every yr as a psych student, I get reminded that ard 17% of us in the LT might end up with a mental illness at some pt of our lives.

Which means 17 of us in a class of 100… And for an Intro  class with 800 students, that’s 136 “potentially mentally unsound” ppl.

And almost all of us will, at some pt of time, know of someone who has mental illness… Be it family members, relatives, friends, colleagues or even neighbours… I’ve already known of some myself…

And mental illnesses actually account for 40% of disability in the global population…

So if you thought that mental illnesses are for the rare few ppl or they are of little importance compared to physical illnesses…

Think again.

Having a good life?

Finally completed my stack of super-dense reading on Emotions and Well-being.

Mm… dat doesn’t really make me VERY happy, but it helped me to understd more abt wad makes a good life.

There are 2 views on that:

1) Good life is a Happy Life!!

Where desires are met, needs are satisfied, you feel positive emotions, and no bad emotions.

Mainly focuses on all the good and wonderful things happening to you.

2) Good life is a Meaningful Life!

Where u experience Personal Expressiveness – feeling alive and real coz you are living as who u are.

Does not only involve nice and warm experiences, but also negative events that can bring heartaches to you, but eventually help you to grow as an individual.

I guess ultimately, it has to be a combination of 2 for one to feel true satisfaction in life and to enjoy the fact of being alive.

(Although s’times I do wish it is as simply as just leading a normal, happy life, with everything accounted for, nth to worry abt… But that’ll be BORING no??)

Now what about the things that make you feel high on personal well-being and that u’re leading a good life?

1) Wealth

You guys think it’s THE most (or at least one of the most) important factor to leading a good, or simply, happy life??

NEH… not really…

Research has shown that wealth, beyond poverty level, do not increase individual well-being significantly. While money is definitely necessary to attain certain levels of needs, beyond basic nessecity, wealth fails to provide boost in how ppl rate their well-being. Not only so, ppl who focus excessively on wealth and material goals are less happy than ppl who focus on intrinsic goals.

However, the research did not mention abt the impact on perceived well-being when individual wealth decreases. It’s one thing having MORE of sth, it’s another when we’re talking abt LOSING sth… And wad a better time to ponder on this than in the midst of a giant financial crisis? *Note to self: Thesis-worthy idea*

But we see, that having MORE of wealth doesn’t really mean you become MORE happy. So quit thinking abt “buying” joy with money. Spend ur time on sth more significant like…

2) Relationships

NUMEROUS studies have suggested that r/ships with loved ones (family, friends, partners…) actually makes your life better. Lots of mediating factors over here I believe, but ultimately, ppl feel that their lives are better when they have quality relationships (not so much the quantity). This will involve individuals feeling understood, being able to engage in meaningful communications, and having fun with their relational figures.

So YES, indulge in the love of the ppl ard you, and spread the love ard. Spend quality time with them and continue to invest time and effort into maintaining these relationships. Ultimately, if u work 8 hrs a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year – for money, you’ll be able to put in SOME effort into sth that’s really impt to ur well-being right??

I hope so

And I hope I rmb all these when I’m out in the real-world, doing the 8-hrs-a-day thing.

That I will not forget how impt and precious relationships are and that they warrant every bit of my time and effort in maintaining them.

*Note to self (again): I’m alrdy guilty of sacrificing tons of quality time with my family, and frens, and relatives*

Anw, most of the info are taken from Ryan & Deci, 2001 (I tot I better cite :p )