| Sunday, August 21, 2005 |
| Saturday 'lab classes' for PSY1022 |
Psych. lab classes are nothing like Science ones. But they are slightly more interactive and fun. The main purpose of it was really to tell us about this experiment they did to investigate helping behaviour in campuses on Australia. It'd have been really fun to be able to do it here, but our school is far too tiny. The experiments were all conducted within the same period, so there were people dropping papers (to see how many would help) all over the campus! Which was quite an amusing idea to picture.
They put me in the Saturday group - 9am to 12pm, 1pm to 4pm. I thought I'd be falling asleep for sure since the night before I'd been at Raji's play (very very long). But I didn't! I did zone out a few times, but was never sleepy, even after lunch. Thank God! =D And the best thing about it, to me, was that I got to know better some of my classmates. So now I don't just know one person in my Psych. unit! Haha. I got to know the names of 2 new people, a guy and a girl. Also 2 people talked to me unexpectedly after I smiled at them after class. Also a guy and a girl. I think the guy is my senior from SA. I didn't get to ask his name. If I had I'd know. He really looks like someone who was from SA, don't ask me how I can tell. And the guys are not that bad after all. They do things like open and hold doors for people, and they let girls walk first.
They put us with some of the part-timers. At the end of the lesson this lady left a book behind. My friend pointed it out to me and I rushed to return it to her. So much for theories of 'social inhibition', 'diffusion of responsibility' and so on. After learning about how these theories tend to affect people when deciding whether to help someone (emergency or not), I've realised that all it takes is for a person to set a good example and people will be likely to model that behavior (modelling theory). And I've decided that I'm going to be the sort of person who helps regardless of whether other people are watching or not. Of course, it's still important to be smart and not get conned or involved in situations I can't handle!
Aussie accents are hard to listen to. Sometimes I zone out trying to figure out what they're saying! For eg., they pronounce 'data' as 'dah-terh' (silent r sound). Haha. The second lab session was more interesting. We had this guy who happily told us at the beginning that he wrote some of the course material for PSY1011. Lol. At first he seemed a little standoff-ish, but afterward warmed up. We did Stats (groan) and I didn't really understand the theory parts (like why it's important to use the z-score), but the application I do. Then we did this test for short term memory. I've forgotten the name. The original format is one-to-one, where the tester repeats a series of numbers to the participant who must then repeat what he heard. The one we did, however, was one-to-many and we wrote the numbers down on paper. I managed to remember up to 8 numbers! Though from 7 onwards, it gets harder. Then the second section was to write them down backwards. I cheated a little xP by writing from right to left starting with the first digit. But after that I did try to do it the right way and found it manageable even with longer sequences. By the last sequence, though, I wasn't concentrating anymore so it turned out totally different! Surprisingly, I got only one wrong. The last one of course. Minus the ones where I cheated, maybe 5 wrong, and all under the 'Digits Backward' section.
I guess my memory for digits aren't as bad as I thought they were after all!
Digression. I was just thinking about how we judge people by appearances. See, the other day, I saw this guy from my school. I hope he's not reading this! Ack. But the thing is he looked quite dorky in JC. He was a little plump, very fair, wore specs and had dorky hair. The other day when I saw him I almost didn't recognise him, and when I did, I was shocked! The first thing that struck me was how angular his face was now. He had slimmed down, gotten contacts (or Lasik eye surgery), a new funky hairstyle and a tan, and fashion sense too, to add to it. He actually looked quite good. Makes me wonder, really, if life would have been different for him in JC when he looked like that. (Let's just say he wasn't very popular.) I think it would have been, you know. It's humbling, but I think I would have treated him differently. Real food for thought. What about myself? I suppose if I still look the way I did in secondary school (you won't believe what I used to look like), I'd be treated differently too. But you know, I'm blessed to have friends (even if it's probably only about...one or two) who've stuck with me through the ugly and the fat.
Some of them have stuck with me through the past 2 years of retaking my As and all. Actually, now that I think of it, there are pillars in my life that I can lean on. In the centre of it all is the God-pillar, the thickest, strongest of them all. He could hold up my world on His own strength, but He understood that I needed people too. So He put them in my life. When I think about this, there's no reason to be cynical now, is there?
Note to self: Treasure and explore current friendships. Let go of the past. Don't judge a book by its cover. Be passionate about life! ;) |
posted by esther @ 11:21 PM  |
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