Turns out that learning about psychology is just a hobby...

Good TGIF everyone! I know it's been 3 weeks since I had last made a post on here, let alone being active on here at all. To put simply, my worklife basically took over me. This meant I barely had enough time to be blogging on my site. Plus, I was away for 10 days just to kick back & relax from my busy life, which was indeed much needed! That aside, I've been feeling pretty good about myself lately.

As of now, I currently have enough down time to be active on here, as well as being able to make a post. And this post (as the above title states) shall be dedicated to something that I have learned recently in terms of the very topic of psychology. 

As it turns out, learning psychology is just a hobby...

What makes learning about psychology a hobby? 

Overall, I would say that learning in general can be classified as a hobby. This is because you can learn about something by reading, researching or just doing something practical to learn about something you want to do.

Going back on topic here, in terms of psychology being a hobby, there is a huge amount of creativity that plays a part in psychology. Being creative in something can also be classified as a hobby, as it shows you enjoy creating with things.  

*This post actually began on the 21/7/23, but got published on the following day (22/7/23)* 

Embrace the unpredictable

Another week gone by too quick! Too quick, that I was genuinely struggling with what to make a post about for this week. But then I thought I'll just have a scroll through on Psychology Today to see what I could find.

As the above title for this post states, I feel like I should share this article on here. Mainly because the title & statements sum up what I am currently going through in my life right now. Hence I picked out this article.

Overview: You know, as they say: "Life is like a box of chocolates, you'll never know what you're going to get" Which is true, because you don't know what your life is going to be like come at 20 years old, let alone when you are currently young as just 10. The overall point is, you just have to embrace everything you may face in life as it comes, as life is unpredictable like that. (Something I've always known)

Source link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-angry-therapist/202306/embrace-the-unpredictable%3famp

 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Since my mindset is now in a good enough place to be working back on here again, I thought about posting some more professional content on here by talking about something which I have learned at college last year. (The title says it all)

Who is the creator?

Abraham Maslow is an American Psychologist whom is famously known for his self-created theory of Hierarchy of Needs. 

What does the Hierarchy of Needs theory mean and why?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a triangle which consists of 5 individual needs. The bottom being the most essential to the top being optional. It is formatted in the way that is is because the needs at the bottom half of the triangle have to be met before any of the other needs.

*The above picture shows the Hierarchy of Needs triangle containing its 5 needs*

Physiological needs: 

As what is mentioned beneath, these are the most essential needs that have to be met before all the other ones above on the triangle. This is because these are the needs which will keep you alive and breathing by managing to provide basic survival needs.

Safety needs: 

Along with the topmost set of needs, safety needs are the second range of needs which centres around prioritising things that help to maintain your safety. It is important to be able to prioritise your safety, so it keeps yourself secure when out & about doing stuff in the world. All of these mentioned factors play a vital role in preventing yourself from insecure harm.

Love & belonging: 

By the time you've met the satisfactory level of both the most vital bottom needs on the triangle, your mind can start to adapt to working on what your love & belonging is. Of course, family being the most obvious, but you could also utilise this need to think about who else you wish to fit into your relationship circle to help you feel connected with other people. 

Esteem:

Now that you've come up this far on the triangle by working on building up the most essential needs, your mind can start to concentrate on building up a reflection of how you want yourself to be. The purpose of esteem being second top is that it gives you the chance to identify your own strengths & weakness, as well as making room by using them to unlock success.

Self-actualisation:

At the summit of the triangle is where you have met every satisfaction of the 5 needs, so you can go out and be the best person you could possibly be by putting the accomplished needs to perfect use for when you get to use them in the world. Don't forget to also put this need to its best use for when you believe you could achieve absolutely anything as humanly possible. 

Conclusion:

If we are talking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in terms of psychology here, it would be defined as prioritising the most essential needs around you to help you survive day in day out to being able to go forth and achieve the best in yourself. In a way, we could otherwise say that you must always start from the beginning to work your way upwards to getting to the top of somewhere, whatever it may be with where you are going in life. There is no skipping this whole process, as it HAS to be done by taking small steps at a time.

For anyone who is interested to learn more about what I've been discussing, click on this link: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html 

How does reading make people open their eyes to the world?

Finally got a day to myself today!  I was originally going to publish this on Sunday, but I never got round to doing it in the end.

Anyways, I took a short trip to Farnborough on Saturday, I happen to stumble upon The Works store, so I had a look around and that's when I discovered the book area... I've gotta admit, that book area had some decent books. As of such, I even read through the ones I liked the look of. 

Whilst enjoying my momentarily reading session, it got me thinking long and hard... There is more to life than just playing console games, wearing popular sport clothing and wearing expensive trainers. (As a person who used to vaguely relate to this, I feel like I need to make myself heard for others to listen)

My perspective from reading:

These were my thoughts when I got lost reading a few educational books. (Meaning, I was really enjoying them)

"Wow! Inhaling this knowledge can make a really big impact on my future". 

"I suspect these authors must be passionate about how reading can strongly educate people". 

"When I think about how many people choose not to read, they seriously don't know what they are missing".

With all that in the open, reading those books has given me a lot of inner inspiration, in terms of how I can learn about how reading can have a massively positive change to the world. This statement also links to how I can actually do something about it, in order to make those changes happen.

I mean, there is no such thing as learning too much already!

How can reading inspire other people?

Think about a subject which you like, and ask yourself these questions: Does that subject interest you? What do you like learning about that subject? How can that subject help you in the future?

If all of those above questions tick all your boxes, then you will be well on your way to read your way to success! In other words, read more about your enjoyable subject.

Alternatively, think of all that knowledge you'll be able use, so you can become more intelligent about how you vision the world, in terms of how your interest can help with that. The most beneficial thing about that, is how you can educate other people to do the same!

If I was to link the term 'conformity' into this, I would say that you do NOT NEED to blend in with other people, so you can justify yourself to be having fun. 

To back up my reason of what I just said, I came across a quote from a psychological quote company, which I follow on Instagram, saying that fun doesn't have to just justify as going out partying, drinking or going on holiday. Fun can be defined as to how you make it. Potentially speaking, doing something that makes you happy.

My question to everyone is... 

Do you enjoy reading? If so, then what do you like reading about?😉

The psychology behind conditioning

We're currently 15 days into 2022, and it's been so far so good for me at the moment. I say that, because I haven't been feeling anxious about anything during that time. Hence, I'm in a good enough headspace to be doing lots of blogging.

So... as the above title says, I'll be talking about how the term 'conditioning' works. This is another thing which I've been studying about in my college course over the last couple of months. I find it really interesting, due to the fascinating psychological effects it can have on people and even animals!

   What is conditioning?

Conditioning is, you work out a way to train a human being or an animal, to do something to make them respond in the way you want them to. 

The way how classic conditioning is demonstrated, is by using Ivan Pavlov's dog food and bell training example:

He trained his dog to respond the the sound of a bell, then he put a bowl of food infront of the dog, so he can make it produce saliva. (This is potentially known as unconditioned stimulus) Eventually, Pavlov will have trained the dog enough times to be able to automatically respond to the bell and show hunger, by salivering at the expectation of food. (Potentially known as conditioned stimulus)

That is where the chemistry comes into play. Pavlov has practically trained the dog to get hungry every time it hears the bell ring, even if there is no food! 

This similar kind of conditioning can may also be used on humans.

   

What goes through the minds of those during conditioning?

When one is currently under the spell of conditioning, they would think to themselves first time: "What is going on here?" Due to them being oblivious to what is happening to them. After many many practises of the conditioning spell later... One will eventually understand the routine, and will therefore think: "Oh, I know exactly what will happen now when I do this, so I must react to it immediately" 

To put this in more basic terms, your mind has adapted expectation skills.

In contrast to all the above, conditioning also defines as you being born to do something. An example of this, would be to always have a positive attitude in life. My conditioning falls under, as being the best person I can be. 

I reckon that just about wraps up that topic now.

Thank you for reading through, please feel free to let me know your thoughts and I should be back again sometime soon.

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!😊 

A message from yours truly on NYE

Well, 2021 has slowly come and almost gone...

Personally, I think 2021 has been a decent year for me. In contrast however, I also encountered many personal struggles along the way too. (Reasons that I would rather not specify)

With all that said, I'll prioritize the T-minus 1hr year, 2022 (time as of writing this) to reflect and learn from my growth, struggles and journey, in order to slowly better making myself a step more successful in life. Oh yeah, let's not forget about my blogging business!😂

Anyways, I hope you're all having a good evening on the final night of 2021. Be sure you celebrate something that's at least worth celebrating if you intend to watch the live fireworks tonight!

Without further ado... Here's my inspirational message for you all:

 

"Now that yet another year is coming to a close end, take a bit of time to reflect on the good's and bad's. Regardless if you're satisfied or not, don't worry about dwelling on it, as you carry over into the 24th hour, meaning, NYD.

Once that first day of the new year has entered, you can begin to enjoy yourself, by making self plans for you to simply go out and chase down. Remember, every single day is ALWAYS a day closer to achieving something. Even if that something takes for as long as 3 years to achieve! I've been through similar, so I can totally relate to that.

Always use the past as a learning opportunity for your planned future, as the only legit way to succeed in life, is to make mistakes, so you'll be able to learn from them, as well as to become proficient at performing them correctly with practice. Explanation of a typical human function.

In conclusion and potentially, you only get to live once, so make as many plans as possible for you to go out and achieve! Life is how you create it!"

  

What is conformity and how does it make us behave?

Conformity. Something very interesting I've learned recently.

In case if none of you here don't know what the term means, it basically means you're doing the same as everybody else, even regardless if it's something wrong... But with that said, it's always good to simply stand out as your own individual! 

I'm just about to further explain on that...

Example 1:

A good example of conformity, would be when you are officially a member of any uniformed public service and you must therefore, dress and behave the same as everybody else.

But why? It's because it shows respect towards your colleagues, the public and yourself, by physically demonstrating you want to be part of a hard working team.

This kind of behaviour, will eventually transform yourself into a confidently disciplined person, who feels proud to be a part of a team, by thinking that you want to be setting a prime example to those looking up to you. E.g. The public. 

Example 2:

A not so good example of conformity, would be when you go to see your favourite football team play.

Whilst you are either sitting down or standing up, trying to enjoy the game like most people, you then hear a small group of people (at first) shouting rude chants. Some can actually turn racist... Eventually you start to hear more and more people get involved with the rude chanting, even though, it seemed like they never wanted to intend on getting involved in the first place.

You sit there thinking to yourself if it's the right thing to do, by joining in with these people, but then again, you hate the idea of being disrespectful to the right-choiced people around you, let alone turning into a racist. This is where your 'Individual Liberty' and 'Human Rights' come into play.

Final conclusion: You must be able to identify the good and bad examples of conformity, as they both have different consequences.

Thank you for reading through and as always, I much appreciate your thoughts on the feedback. Have a great evening all, whatever you're doing.😉