Visits to Nottingham Services

The rehab where I volunteer, Studio House, suggested I visit some of the services they work with around the Nottingham area in order to see for myself what is available for vulnerable people. 

I've visited a few places now and I enjoy meeting with the people who run them. As well as helping my confidence and communication skills, it makes me feel more connected and more knowledgeable about the help and support on offer around the area in which I am living and working.

Some of the services I've found out more about include:

HLG - a charity offering training, consultancy and support to vulnerably housed or homeless people

Compass - a charity offering support to under 18s concerning substance misuse issues

Recovery in Nottingham and Double Impact - support for those in drug and alcohol recovery

There really are some great services on offer in the area and I'm pleased to be getting involved and working with them.

News!

Recent Psychological News Pieces that I have found interesting

Research Digest 'Super Week': Since I am so interested in abnormality, I especially like to hear of cases where abnormality is viewed in a positive light, almost as if it is a super-power!

Young children with autism are more trusting than other children: I think autism is a very interesting disorder!

Why it's apt - psycho-acoustically speaking - that Darth Vader wasn't called Barth Vaber: interesting from both a psychological and linguistic perspective

What makes an internet video go viral?: since I love watching youtube videos I enjoyed finding out what makes them so popular

Comparing children's sharing tendencies across diverse human societies: could be interesting to apply to the nature/nurture debate

Want people to trust you? Try apologising for the rain: this could have some good practical applications! Connects to the things I've learned about phatic talk in English Language

Thor doesn't nail it in 3D: since I plan on going to see this film, this article was both helpful and interesting

Brain Gallery: this is really entertaining, I love it!

The 4 Ways You Can Use Body Language To Influence Success: practical tips backed up by psychological facts!

Attractive adults gain the trust of children more easily This is interesting research. I wonder whether it has an evolutionary basis - the more attractive, the less likely someone suffers physical abnormality. This could link to ideas of mental abnormality - those with good mental health are more likely to give trustworthy information and children may instinctively pick up on this.

Racism, mental health and depression: this is quite sad

The role of kissing in choosing a partner: these findings make a lot of sense, they have application in real life

Psychopathic traits young people: Psychopaths seem to be a popular topic for investigation at the moment, the research is compelling

Prenatal depression and the child's health: takes a very biological 'nature' approach to the mood disorder. I have learned about family studies like this for unipolar depression in A2 Psychology and this research links well.

The attractiveness of deeper male voices: it would be interesting to investigate the evolutionary basis to this and also to investigate how these attitudes may have changed over time

Cognitive therapy can help anxious patients: this is interesting as it links to the content of A Level Psychology - anxiety disorders (phobias and OCD)

How students adapt to university life: this was particularly relevant for me, since I will be going to university next year! I am really excited for the change, yet understand the challenges it will pose

The delight of fright: this is appropriate for Halloween (a holiday which I love) and this has always fascinated me - why do we enjoy scaring ourselves with horror films, haunted houses etc. so much? This offered some insight. I would like to find out more on this topic!

Kiss The C*** of a Cow! The Language & Psychology of Swearing!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Psychology Review - Sept 2013, Volume 19

Responses to, and notes from, Psychology Review Volume 19

Attachment Style in Adult 'Singles' - Schachner et al. 2008 (Explored by Richard Gross)

• Attachment theory: states that attachment behaviour can been seen throughout life and patterns established in child-parent relationships shape later romantic relationships.
• Study explored three main ideas: singles may be more avoidant (independence, self-reliance, employ cognitive strategies to help maintain separateness), singles may be anxiously-attached and have been rejected by partners who cannot accept this, singles may be reliant on attachment figures other than a sexual partner e.g. friends.
• Method: 142 people, mean age 40, 61 men, 81 women, 73 coupled, 69 singles, responded to a newspaper ad, from California. Part 1: questionnaires to determine attachment style, attachment figures, recalled quality of relationships with parents and quality of lives in general. Part 2: interviews about how they dealt with attachment.
• Results: no significant difference in prevalence of insecure attachment between singles and coupled participants. Singles reported worse child-hood relationships with parents and greater reliance on siblings and friends. Coupled participants identified children as key attachment figures (as well as their romantic partners) - this conflicts attachment theory's idea that attachment provides a sense of security.
• Evaluation: issues with reliability of sample and self report rather than behavioral observations.

Timeline of Behaviourist Approach
1901: Pavlov teaches dogs to salivate at sound of metronome.
1920: Little Albert (the barbaric style of this experiement still horrifies and fascinates me)
1924: Mary cover Jones demonstrates desensitisation to a phobic stimulus
1931: Skinner box - animals rewarded for particular behaviours
1948: Skinner demonstrates superstitious behaviour in pigeons
1961: Bandura demonstrates learning of aggression by imitation of a model
1968: Ayllon and Azrin use token economy system to improve behaviour in psychiatric hospital (makes me think of my own 'reward charts' as a child, which were effective in helping me to behaviour better)
1984: McCormick and Thompson demonstrate role of cerebellum in classical conditioning
1991: Richardson and DeLong demonstrate role of acetylcholine (neurotransmitter) in operant conditioning

Definition of Evaluation: to determine the value of something (from an article to help in essay writing)

Dance Psychology - Peter Lovatt
Evidence that dancing can improve the mood of people with both mild and severe depression (Koch et al 2007) (Jeong et al 2005). Striking a pose can change the way people think (Carney et al.). Some people sat in 'high power poses' and others in 'low power poses' and scientists measured how powerful they felt (those in high power poses felt more powerful/in control), risk taking behaviour (more risks taken by those in high power poses) and hormone levels (testosterone and cortisol - a stress hormone. High testosterone is thought to show dominance and high cortisol is a marker of low power. For those in high-power poses, testosterone levels went up and cortisol went down).
Evidence suggests that body movement can influence flexibility of thought in problem solving - unplanned movements (i.e. improvisation) release people from set patterns of thinking, whereas structured movement (i.e. choreographed routines) speeds up cognitive processes.
Relationship between symmetry of physical features and dancing ability - dancing of symmetrical people rated better than dancing of less symmetrical people. Physical symmetry is an indicator of genetic quality so there may be evolutionary reasons why when looking for a mate humans look for those with symmetry. Good dance is a way of signalling good genetic makeup. If physical symmetry is an indicator of genetic quality and if the way we move signals that genetic quality and influences people's perception of the quality of our dancing, then it seem that dancing is a natural behaviour.
Although I've never been very good at dancing myself, I have a lot of friends who are dancers so I found this very interesting. I have also considered the practical applications of the 'high power poses' and try to employ these when I feel I need a boost of confidence.

Addictive Behaviour - Risk Factors - by Professor Mark Giffiths
Addiction results from interaction between many factors (internal and external). Four main risk factors - Stress, Age, Peer Influence and Personality.
Stress key risk factor in initiation, maintenance and relapse. Addictive behaviours are a way of coping with chronic stress. A lot of research into link between long-term stress from childhood abuse and later development of chemical and behavioural addictions (not everyone who suffers childhood abuse will develop an addiction but it is a well-known risk factor). Stress management is one important intervention in preventing and overcoming addicition.
If someone's friends have highly favourable attitudes to addictive behaviours, this increases risk (most important factor in addictive behaviour during adolescence?). Addiction develops due to normative social influence and reinforcement of behaviour through feeling part of a group. However, individual attitudes towards addiction help determine the sorts of peers to which individuals are attracted.
Young people are at greater risk of developing addictive behaviour. During adolescence, the human brain is still developing so are particularly susceptible to lifetime addiction. Research shows, earlier someone engages in potentially addictive behaviour, more likely they are to develop a problem with it.
Personality: The five-factor model (Costa and McCrae) reflects individual differences that are strongly related to addiction and different addictions are associated with different areas of the model e.g. alcohol positively associated with neuroticism and negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness. Personality disorders e.g. antisocial and borderline also linked to addiction.
I found this article particularly interesting due to my work at an alcohol/drug rehabilitation project. It is also very relevant since we are starting the topic of substance abuse soon in Psychology A2.

Clinical Psychologist - day-to-day life
Very diverse, interesting, a lot of frontline work, elements of teaching and training, working in NHS. Because I am interested in abnormalities this may be an area I'd like to go into. Lots of extra training after degree and work experience required.

Interview with Elizabeth Loftus
Her job and work sounds very interesting. She wanted to study something that had social relevance which I can understand since I feel that it would be important for me that my work had real life relevance. She is very well renowned for her work, famous in the Psychological world. To me, she is a very inspiring figure.

Limerence: obsessive, irrational adoration and attachment to one person involving excessive thinking about and longing for the other and an emotional dependency on them. "Limerance is love as a living nightmare". Not identified as a mental disorder but that may be because of a lack of research?

I very much enjoyed this issue of the Psychology review.
There are some other articles that I may like to read that I have not got the chance to discover yet, such as:
Are Juries Reliable?
The Social Psychology of Prejudice
Human Behaviour - Nature, Nurture or both?

www.hoddereducation.co.uk/psychologyreviewextras
e-review: www.hoddereducation.co.uk/magazines

The Brain!

This post will be an on-going one which I will add to as I discover more!
As you would expect from a Psychology student, I am fascinated by the brain! Obviously, I am interested in the mental processes and the more 'psychological' elements, but at the same time this organ interests me from a biological and physical perspective. The architecture of the brain fascinates me - the structure, the chemical element, the physical stuff.
In this post, I hope to comprise information I discover about the brain - I am looking at this from the biological approach to psychology.
Brain Waves

Our brains cycle through four types of brain waves, referred to as delta, theta, alpha and beta. Each type of brain wave represents a different speed of oscillating electrical voltages in the brain. Delta is the slowest (zero to four cycles per second) and is present in deep sleep. Theta (four to seven cycles per second) is present in stage one when we're in light sleep. Alpha waves, operating at eight to 13 cycles per second, occur during REM sleep (as well as when we are awake). And beta waves, which represent the fastest cycles at 13 to 40 per second, are usually only seen in very stressful situations or situations that require very strong mental concentration and focus. These four brain waves make up theelectroencephalogram (EEG).

- Obringer, Lee Ann.  "How Dreams Work"  27 January 2005.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream.htm>  19 October 2013.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat

In this post, I intend to write a bit about Oliver Sacks' marvelous book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat".
I want to summarise each chapter, not only for my own sake (to provide a sort of reference and reminder) but to also inform others and persuade them to read this book.

Part 1: Losses
1. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - the case of Dr. P, a man who suffered visual agnosia, rendering him unable to recognise faces and other 'whole objects'.
2. The Lost Mariner - Jimmie G, sufferer of Korsakoff's Syndrome, making him unable to form new memories, meaning that he was 'stuck' in 1945 and believed things were still as they were then.
3. The Disembodied Lady - story of Christina, a woman who lost proprioception i.e. her sense of the positions, and ability to operate, her body parts. This left her almost paralysed, feeling as though she had no body, and she had to learn how to properly move her limbs again.
4. The Man who Fell out of Bed - the story of a man who woke to find what he assumed was a foreign leg in his bed, but, after throwing it out and falling with it, discovered it was his own! (although he was unable to recognize it as belonging to him) 
5. Hands - case of Madeleine J, a blind woman unable to use her hands, described them as 'lumps of dough' that did not feel a part of her. Her hands were not physically impaired but she could not use them to do anything or recognise anything with them. This was due to the fact she had never used her hands, so began to learn to use them at the age of 60.
6. Phantoms - a phantom, in these cases, is a persistent image/memory of a lost body part. 
7. On the Level - Mr MacGregor struggled with walking upright due to loss of his innate sense of balance, due to Parkinson's-like symptoms causing damage to his inner ears. He constructs a pair of glasses incorporating a spirit level to allow him to judge his own balance!
8. Eyes Right! - Mrs S, after suffering a stroke, had issues with her right cerebral hemisphere and had, as a result, lost the concept of 'left'. For example, she would not see food on the left side of her plate and would have to rotate in order to see it.
9. The President's Speech - about a ward of patients suffering aphasia (disturbance in the comprehension and formation of language) and/or agnosia (loss of ability to recognise certain things) watching the president's speech. Although unable to understand the speech, prosodic features were enough to cause the patients to laugh and enjoy it.
Part 2: Excesses
10. Witty Ticcy Ray - discussion of Tourette's syndrome, in particular in the case of a man called Ray who suffered multiple and explosive tics. He found, after taking a drug to relieve his symptoms, that he sometimes missed his tics, and that they were part of who he was. 
11. Cupid's Disease - 90 year old Natasha K, who suddenly became more energetic and 'frisky' in her old age, as a result of neurosyphilis (colloquially known as Cupid's Disease)
12. A Matter of Identity - the case of William Thompson, a sufferer of Korsakov's, who had issues with memory and trouble identifying people, and would identify people wrongly several times, each time he met them.
13. Yes, Father-Sister - Mrs. B, as a result of a cerebral tumour, had a change of personality, becoming 'indifferent' and always 'joking' e.g. calling the doctor 'father-sister' and not knowing left from right
14. The Possessed - a woman on the street, 'possessed' by 'tourettic impulses', causing her to frantically and uncontrollably imitate passers-by. An example of 'Street-neurology', a sad case in that she seemed to have completely lost her sense of 'self'
Part 3: Transports
15. Reminiscence - Mrs. O'C awoke from a strong reminiscent dream of her childhood in Ireland to find she could still hear, and was unable to stop, the music of her childhood inside her head. It was not a problem with her ears or insanity but due to temporal lobe seizures causing hallucinations. There was a similar case of Mrs. O'M and, while Mrs. O'C's music eventually faded, Mrs. O'M's got worse and was a cause of great annoyance. 
16. Incontinent Nostalgia - forced reminiscence, caused by L-Dopa, as displayed by a 63-year old woman, who, when released from Parkinsonism experienced psychomotor excitement and increased libido, as if she was young again.
17. A Passage to India - Bhagawhandi P, an Indian girl with a brain tumour causing seizures in which she would feel 'dreamy' and reminiscent and experienced visions of her home in India. The seizures took over, getting longer and more intense until she died. 
18. The Dog Beneath the Skin - the case of Steven D, who, after using many recreational drugs, awoke to find he had a heightened sense of smell.
19. Murder - Donald killed his girl and, due to amnesia, had no recolection of the murder. However, after sustaining a severe head injury, his consciousness grew clearer and his memory came back, meaning he was forced to a state of reminiscence of the murder. 
20. The Visions of Hildegard - Hildegard, a nun born 1098, experienced and recorded countless migrainous visions, interpretted as religious
Part 4: The World of the Simple
21. Rebecca - suffered cerebral and mental defects, making her clumsy, incapable of learning certain things but still able to form deep attachments and connect with the world in spite of her handicaps. She showed deep and meaningful appreciation for nature, deep grief when losing her grandmother and her movement problems did not affect her ability to dance. 
22. A Walking Grove - Martin A, a man with severe mental retardation but an incredible musical memory, and knew by heart, amongst other things, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
23. The Twins - autistic twin brothers, who are severely impaired in terms of reading and arithmetic but have an incredible ability to 'see' or 'perceive' numbers e.g. working like calendars, seeing how many matches fell out of a box, sharing 12 digit prime numbers. 
24. The Autistic Artist - the case of José, a young man with mental retardation, who suffered seizures. The found that drawing was his way of connecting with the world around him and to express himself.

This book was brilliant and I have written more about my views on it on my 'things I have watched/read' page.

Critical Thinking

Since I'm doing my Oxford Thinking Skills Test (TSA) in a couple of weeks, I've been trying to understand some critical thinking stuff as a way of preparation.
At first glance it all seems very deep, complicated and confusing. But, by working through 'Critical Thinking For Students' by Roy van den Brink-Dudgen, I've started to get my head round it. This book has been great in that it introduces me to the subject in small steps, tests what I've learned, then adds things on.
It's really very logical now that I've begun to get the hang of it. I'm glad that I'm learning this skill, not just because it will help with my TSA but because I feel that I can apply it to all of my subjects and all elements of life. Being able to analyse and evaluate are key skills. And since, although I considered Critical Thinking AS, I chose EPQ instead I think its good that I'm being active in developing such a skill. It will help me in Psychology no end, it evaluating and considering various approaches, explanations and pieces of evidence.
Overall, I am enjoying learning this skill (even if I am getting nervous for my TSA!)

Doctor Who!

BPS: The Psychology Behind Doctor Who!

Stumbled upon this and I thought it was great!

Magic Number 7!

Ever since we first learned about 'Miller's Magic Number 7' I have been intrigued by its simplicity. I like the fact that such a simple experiment can measure such a complex process as short-term memory and that it can be replicated and get consistent results time and time again.
The concept is simple: to test capacity of short term memory by digit strings that increase in length by one digit each trial ie. seeing how many digits and individual is able to hold in their STM. Miller stated the average number of digits was the magic number 7 (+/- 2).
I replicated this experiment with 4 of my friends today. Although conditions were not controlled and there was little ecological validity, I enjoyed playing the role of an experimenter and got the expected result. 3/4 of my friends recalled digit strings up to 7 numbers long (the magic number 7) and 1/4 recalled 5 digits (7-2). It's great how this simple experiment works so well!

Thoughts on the Madeleine McCann Case

The tragic case of Madeleine McCann seems to have reemerged recently and it leads me to consider the psychological questions surrounding the event.
Obviously the abduction and loss of a child is psychologically damaging to parents, which is likely to be made worse by the fact they do not have closure on the case; they cannot know whether she is still alive or not.
But what would the effects be on Madeleine if she is still alive? What trauma has she been through and how has this effected her development? I've learned from books such as 'The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog' how damaging early childhood trauma can be and the effects it can have on the developing brain, not allowing it to make the right connections or associations.
And what if she were to be reunited with her parents? Would she recognise them? Would there be some sort of internal instinct which allows her to really know that they are her parents? Or is it too late? Was she taken away too early in her development to ever regain a 'normal' relationship with her parents? Would she still have the original attachments? Would she need to, or be able to, form new attachments to them? Would she have emotional attachments to her abductor(s)?
There are many important questions raised by such a case, the answers to which we may never know.

Psychology Mentoring

I'm quite flattered and proud of the fact that college's Psychology department have asked me to be one of the 10 (or something) year 12 mentors. Of course I agreed. Anyone who knows me will tell you I can't shut up about the subject. Also, I love teaching people things and helping people really makes me feel happy.
Today I went along to do an awkward introduction to my group (they probably thought I was a bit weird, I mean, seriously, who introduces themselves with 'well I love Psychology'). They didn't seem overly enthusiastic but it was a Monday morning. I'm hoping some will want some help with something. If I can help just one person I'll be happy. I just really like sharing my knowledge and passion for the subject. I never saw myself as someone who would enjoy teaching but I'm starting to think perhaps I would!
I'll just have to wait and see how it all goes!

UCAS

My UCAS form has been sent and I'm getting emails from my chosen universities telling me they're received my application!
This is so exciting! 

"OCD" by Neil Hilborn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKZ4pdSU-s 

This is absolutely beautiful.

PTSD in War Veterans (BBC News)

On BBC news this morning, they were discussing mental health support for war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
They talked to one man about the support he was receiving and how this was beneficial to him. Psychological support was helping him to live a normal life again without suffering from PTSD, which made him aggressive and fearful.
For war veterans, a simple environmental stimuli, such as hearing an ambulance siren, could trigger distressing flashbacks and seriously disrupt their lives.
Offering veterans support with this, in my opinion, is a great thing.

Feral Children

Recently, I've been really enjoying studying child language acquisition in English Language A Level. As part of this, we've been learning about feral children. These strange cases of children brought up without human contact and the effects on them linguistically fascinate me. We watched a documentary titled 'Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children' which was captivating! I already have some prior knowledge of these children from reading 'The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog' by Bruce Perry. In fact, Bruce Perry featured on this documentary, which I got very excited about and exclaimed to my friend 'I know that guy!' to which she gave me a bemused look. Anyway, here's what I have discovered:

• Ever since the legend of Romulus and Remus (the twins brought up by a wolf, who founded Rome) people have been intrigued and fascinated by tales of children brought up by wild animals away from human contact
• The study of feral children is important in the nature/nurture debate of development i.e. is it genes or experience that determine how a child develops?
• Case studies of feral children are the natural experiment that is far too unethical to be carried out
• It can be argued that part of being human is being brought up by humans, meaning are feral children really human?

Victor & Itard

The first documented case of a feral child was Victor in 1800s France. Victor was found and studied by Itard who helped and cared for him. Victor developed empathy, however he was never taught to speak. This broke new ground in the education of the developmentally delayed.

In India, there were stories of feral children. In 1930, a properly documented case of two girls living with wolves emerged, however, they died before they could be studied.

Winthrop Kellog was eager to show that the effects of nature were the dominant force in human development. He knew that to engineer a feral child was unethical so instead he did the opposite: he brought a chimpanzee up with his baby son. Not only did monkey show human characteristics, but the son struggled with language. Kellog stopped the experiment when realising that it was damaging to his son, but had successfully demonstrated the vulnerability of early childhood.

In the 1960s, Harry Harlow showed the importance in the care-giving relationship between the mother and an infant. Baby monkeys were taken from their mothers at birth and given choice between two substitute mothers. All babies showed preference towards the ‘warm’ mother. But, as they developed, they became scared and confused due to lack of a real care-giver. Early isolation had damaged them for life but is this the same true for humans?

Genie

In California 1970, a child was discovered who had been isolated for all of her 13 years in a dark room by Clark Wiley (who later killed himself). This was just the case scientists had been waiting for! When discovered, Genie was still in nappies, couldn’t walk and had no verbal skills. She was physically deprived – the same size as a 7 year old. James Kent (a child psychologist) and Susan Curtiss (linguist) worked with Genie. She was considered as a new-born; for her, everything was a new experience. The people working with Genie helped her to develop but also used her to answer many questions/hypotheses about child brain development. There was a theory that children could only learn certain things at certain times (during ‘critical periods’), and language was one of those things. This theory suggested that Genie had missed her chance. However, she appeared to prove this theory wrong as she started to learn words for the things around her (showing she was not mentally deficient). Despite her progress, she was still haunted by the trauma of her childhood. Linguistically, she reached a point where she did not develop further and she could not develop grammar. Bruce Perry explains Genie’s brain: the left cortex (responsible for speech and language) was not stimulated as a child, making it less functional and disconnected, resulting in physical changes. It had not developed the capacity for language so would  never be able to learn. Nowadays, with modern imaging technology, it can be seen in feral children that, without normal stimulation, brains are smaller and malformed. More trouble came for Genie when, after her 18th birthday, she was moved to state care. Moving from home to home was stressful but those her originally helped her to develop (Susan Curtiss etc.) became her main guardians. However, Irene (Genie’s biological mother) decided Susan and others were too close, resulting in a law suit and their prevention from seeing Genie. Genie now lives in an adult care home and those who cared for her the most cannot see her. I think this is a very sad story.

Mirny, The Ukraine (a run down town)

1999 – social workers found 4 year old Edik in a deserted flat. He had turned to local stray dogs for warmth and protection after being abandoned, and, as a result, his behaviour was much like a dogs’. Over the next few years, in proper care, his behaviour and contact with other children improved, although, linguistically, he was slow. At the age of 6, his language was that of a 3 year old’s. Professor James Law (a language expert) worked with Edik. Edik was discovered earlier than some other feral children. His ability to relate to others and empathise had improved greatly as a result of this. Linguistically, he made good progress. Animal expert Steve Fryer described the relationship between humans and dogs as very special and says they have a primeval connection.

Oxana Malaya (born 1983)

Born a healthy child but with alcoholic parents. Left outside at the age of 3 and began to live with dogs for the next 5 years. When discovered, she couldn't speak since she did not think it was necessary. Children copy habits of creatures around them. Now, at the age of 19 – she can talk in simple sentences and discusses her experiences. However, she is still able to revert to old behaviour. Doctors are still working on correcting her behaviour and think that finding her an occupation will benefit her socially. She has made amazing progress but, like Victor and Genie, development has halted and will go no further. The earlier a child is identified, the better the outcome. For example, Edik’s future is encouraging linguistically – his vocabulary and grammar has developed, which is partly down to the fact he was discovered at such a young age.

In conclusion, it is wrong to see feral children as hopeless. New understandings of brain development  means we can offer these children more help.

This is a fascinating topic and I may investigate it further if I chose child language acquisition for my coursework investigation. 

I love libraries!

wow!

My First Encounter with Freud

The other day I was thinking about studying Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in English in year 10 and I remembered my first encounter with Sigmund Freud.
Hoping to give us a bit of high-level context to add to our coursework on the book, our English teacher spent a lesson teaching us about the strange and controversial theories of Freud.
I remember being madly fascinated. I couldn't write notes fast enough and I just wanted to know more. That was probably my favourite English lesson of the year and was one of the reasons I chose Psychology AS. I figured that if it was all going to be as engrossing as that lesson then it'd be really interesting. And I was right!

News Stories

There have been many news stories over the past year that lead me to consider human behaviour and to ask Psychological questions.

Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting 
This event is absolutely chilling and terrifying. What led Adam Lanza to commit this horrific mass murder of innocent children and teachers? What conditions are needed in order for the human mind to become disturbed enough and void of so much emotion to allow such cold-hearted shootings? Were Lanza's actions connected to his autism? Was he seeking revenge? What for? Were his actions a result of his genetics or environment? (Most likely a complex interaction of both) Why did he, a shy and withdrawn 'loner', commit this monstrosity, but others with similar personality traits never commit even a minor crime? How is there this much variation in humans? How is it possible that humans range from the extreme of of brutally shooting children to the selflessness and bravery of the teachers that sacrificed themselves to save the children's lives? How will this traumatic event influence the survivors? Will the surviving children ever psychologically recover or will this experience influence their own behaviours and mental processes for the rest of their lives?

Boston Marathon Bombings
There are many questions concerning the survivors of this horrible event. What are the effects on the human mind from being put through this amount of stress and trauma? How many people will suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Will they ever be able to live normal lives or will they forever be haunted by the event?

Jimmy Savile Sex Scandal 
What effect did Savile's sexual abuse have on the children involved? Have these horrible childhood experiences influenced their development and adult lives? Can a child recover from trauma like this or will it forever influence their future behaviours and responses? What motivated Savile to commit these sexual offences? What is going on in the mind of a paedophile?