Psychology 6 Marks Question

Stress - Our response to events that disrupt or threaten our physical and psychological functioning.
Effects of stress on psychological functioning:

• Emotional - Mood swings, erratic behaviour, decreasing confidence, anxiety, depression etc.
• Physiological - Increased production of certain hormones like adrenal in, cortisol e.g. high BP, metabolism, physical activity.
• Cognitive - Mental overload, impaired decision making, poor concentration, reduced short-term memory.
• Behavioural - Eating less nutritional food, increased intake of stimulants like tobacco or other drugs, disrupted sleep pattern, increased absenteeism, reduced work performance.

My friend has tendency to plan only, to do some work. He never implement it. I would like to change his habit. I would suggest him sitting around visualizing isn't enough to make change happen in our life. Be a strong believer in action. Th.at's where we really start to see the change happen. Try create a new story in our life, we'll be able to see opportunities in places we've never noticed them before. We'll also have the courage to try things that we never did before. I immediately started challenging myself. I started making a conscious effort to speak up in social situations and to express my opinion. I started asserted my needs more. I was able to see things for a more positive perspective. I'm not saying that I am always successful. I most certainly am not. Sometimes I fall back into old habits, but I remember that simply making the effort gets me a step closer to my ideal than I was before.Be Kind to Yourself:
The physical circumstances around you won't change overnight. You won't change your story to being abundant and then suddenly have millions of dollars in your bank account the next morning. What will happen, though, is that you will recognize the opportunities that will get you there. Don't be angry with yourself or the universe if it doesn't happen fast enough for you, or if you fail to make the changes you want all once. Taking small steps in the right direction every day will get you were you need to be. It's important to be consistent. Don't beat yourself up if you fall back into old habits. We are often our biggest critics. Just pick yourself up and start again. It's the abilitv to continue moving forward that will get you to your goal.

For becoming an effective psychologists, following competences are essential:

1. General Skills.
2. Observational Skills.
3. Specific Skills.

1. General Skills:

• General skills are essential for all professional psychologists.
• These skills include personal as well as intellectual skills.
• Once ensuring that a student has these skills subsequent training in his/ her area of specializations to him/ her intellectual and personal skill are as follows:

Interpersonal Skills: Ability to listen and be empathic. It may be verbal or nonverbal.

1. Cognitive:

• Ability to solve problems.
• Having curiosity and flexibility.

2. Affective Skills:

• ​​​​​​​Openness to ideas.
• Agreeableness.
• Honesty.

3. ​​​​​​​Expressive skills: Ability to communicate in verbal and non-verbal form.
4. Reflective Skills:

• ​​​​​​​Intrapersonal intelligence.
• Ability to examine own motives, attitude and behaviour.

5. ​​​​​​​Personal skills:

• ​​​​​​​Personal hygiene.
• Time management.

2. ​​​​​​​Observational Skills: Psychologists should have training in objectives and systematic observation.

1. ​​​​​​​They should have skill to observe various aspects of surrounding including people and varying events.
2. Psychologists should engage in observing people and their actions with following precautions:

• ​​​​​​​Patience.
• Optimistic curiosity.
• Respecting clients privacy.
• Awareness of people reactions, emotions and motivation.
• Training good questions which could be answered during observation.

3. ​​​​​​​Specific Skills: If the psychologist wants to work in a specialized field then professional training in specific skill development is essential.

The main specific skills are as follows:

1. Communication skills.
2. Psychological testing skill.
3. Interviewing skill.
4. Counselling skill.

Interview refers to purposeful conversation through face-to-face interactions.

1. It follows a basic question-answer format.
2. First, the objectives of the interview are set.
3. The interviewer then prepares on interview format.
4. There is a basic format which is followed, regardless of the interview's purpose; i.e., an interview has three stages:

• Opening.
• The body.
• The closing.

1. Opening of the Interview:

1. In involves establishing report between the two communicators, so that the interview becomes comfortable.
2. Generally, the interviewer starts the conversation and does most of the talking at the outset.

This serves two functions:

• It establishes the goal of the interview.
• It gives the interviewee time to become comfortable with the situation and the interviewer.

2. ​​​​​​​Body of the Interview:

1. ​​​​​​​This is the heart of the process.
2. In this stage, the interviewer asks questions in an attempt to generate information and data that are required to fulfil/ required for the purpose.

Sequence of Questions:

To accomplish the purpose of an interview, the interviewer prepares set of questions called a schedule for different domains or categories he/ she wants to cover.

• To form the schedule, the interviewer must first decide on the domain/ categories under which information is to be generated. For example for questions used in job interview (box 9.5), the interviewer selected various categories such as not use of the organization last worked for, satisfaction with the past job, views on product etc.
• These domains/ categories and the questions within them are formed ranging from easy to answer to difficult to answer.

3. ​​​​​​​Closing of the Interview:

​​​​​​​While closing the interview, the interviewer should:

1. Summarise what she/ he has been able to gather.
2. Give a chance to the interviewee to ask questions or offer comments. One should end with a discussion of the next step to be taken.