Given the extreme workload towards the end of last semester, finding free hours to type up an article or two became impossible. The exams are over now, for the time being, and I think I did alright. Painful though it was, the study process was quite cozy. Blisteringly cold weather sent the temperature in my unheated flat tumbling, so I joined some friends in the Games Labs where we proceeded to power-level psychology and computing, respectively.
For clinical psychology I studied the pros and cons of Cognitive Therapy (apparantly pretty great for most things) in comparison to Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (apparantly literally made of bias and lies). I examined the main diagnostic tool for American Psychiatrists; the DSM-IV-TR. For no reason, because the exam question was ridiculous! "The DSM looks at hundreds of conditions. What does it not look at?" Are you kidding?! To correctly answer that question -in an hour- we would have to know all of the areas it does look at, then try to fathom what exactly the examiners were wanting to hear from us. The incredible art of bullshitting answers lead me to suggest that the DSM does not examine sub-syndromal levels of the conditions (but it sort of does) and fails to take into account cultural differences (which it also, sort of does).
For communication and consciousness I had a lot of fun flicking my way through engaging articles about (a) examples of language affecting the way individuals thought; and (b) which explained the neurology behind our idea of consciousness. These both warrant bigger blog articles about them, but suffice to say that speakers of languages that exclusively use compass directions, develop a super-human sense of orientation. Hauntingly, it appears that our consciousness may just be a monitor for our brains, who make all the decisons first, and inform our minds second... Still hard to wrap my head around.
Most importantly, for evolutionary psychology I studied cultural transmission, religion, art, altruism, mate choice, jealousy... I went into so much depth on so many things, most of which linked seamlessly with my main interest; sexual selection. Over the course of the year I've decided that this is what I want to take with me into later life. It doesn't hurt that both my project tutor and the evolution tutor are incredible lecturers and motivators.The sun has risen over my last semester at Abertay Uni, and before I follow it past the horizon I have a lot of work to do; but at least I know what I'm aiming for.
In a couple of weeks, I head to Norway to stay with my Friend Mia and her patner Jorgen (with one of those mad Norwegian Os that I forget how to type on an English keyboard... I'll get there). I can't wait to see a country I've never been to before, and be guided by a great friend. I'll document my travels in a special diary-style blog post, so stick around for more regular updates again. I'm heading to a meeting to improve my academic CV right now, and I'll keep you posted about how this whole search for research positions goes.
'Dr Munro...'
I'm going to be so smug about that. Atrociously smug. I'm talking 'raising my hand when somebody shouts "Is there a doctor on this plane"' smug.
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