Psychology Nerdie!

Hello!

In this post, saya nak share more on the course that I have studied -  PSYCHOLOGY! Best. Course. Ever💖. This course is not as mainstream as other courses macam Finance, Medics, Engineering etc. Am not sure if it's already a mainstream thing but, masa dulu saya ambil course ni, tak ramai yang tau. But I did receive some questions regarding this course, quite a number of people told me yang diorang berminat tapi taktau & tak berapa terdedah pasal course ni. So I'll share more about it takat mana yang saya tau.

Let me tell you one thing: Studying Psychology has really changed my life. Nanti saya cerita ok! 
I'll tell you the requirement to study this course first & the process along the way before I finally got to study Psychology as my degree.
*If you're not interested to know the process etc, you can skip this paragraph*
Tapi saya share ni based on my experience dulu dengan MARA tau. I'm not sure with the general requirements though. So masa saya apply this course under MARA dulu, they required at least 5A's - BM, English, Maths, and the other 2 saya dah lupa la, most probably Biology and Add Maths (my favourite subjects💓), the rest tu credits. Please note that this is the requirement made by MARA, not the university itself. Masa ni I think isi borang atas kertas lepas tu pos ke pejabat MARA, bukan online. Sekarang macam dah boleh isi online kot, not sure la. If you guys want to apply, go to their website & rajin rajin la check offer dah buka ke belum. But please bear in mind that it's not a scholarship. It's convertible loan - awak bayar ikut CGPA, most probably 15-25% (kalau CGPA tinggi, sikit la percentage kena bayar) & tak ada interest macam PTPTN. Once dah habis belajar (rasanya after 8 months graduate macamtu), you have to start paying monthly starting RM100 for 3 years, then dia akan increase the amount for the subsequent years. Alhamdulillah la saya dah start kerja right after graduate, dah boleh bayar sendiri. Then, after a month or so, boleh check dekat website MARA if your application is successful. Next stage kena pergi interview. It's a group interview, they will separate the candidates into groups of 3, & give you tajuk to debate. If you pass, you'll get a place in a pre-Uni program (I was placed in INTEC) for about 2 years (1 year ADFP, 1 year ACTP) before they send you abroad. ADFP is American Degree Foundation program - sama macam foundation program but subjects are more US-like syllabus (correct me if I'm wrong), ACTP is American Credit Transfer program - This is considered degree program already, & subject credits tu boleh bawak ke University dekat Australia nanti. Australia recognized ADFP/ACTP, so boleh je nak fly pergi study sana guna certificate ni. Subjects masa ADFP/ACTP ni macam macam. Saya nak ambil degree Psychology tapi masa 2 tahun ni, kena study Accounting, Economics, American Culture (sumpah subject paling best - berlakon, drama, shooting hehehe), Public speech, Sociology, Literature, Biology mmm memang lari la subject subject dari Psychology. Kena struggle jugak la. Dah la SPM pun tak ambil some of the subjects yang ada tu. So for 2 years, you have to work hard to meet MARA's requirement - CGPA 3.5 minimum. Below is ADFP/ACTP grading chart kalau nak tau susah ke tak😶 . Hendak 1000 daya ok, bukan 1000 dalih! After 2 years, if you don't meet the requirement, MARA will probably still sponsor you to study in local university, or send you for twinning program. Atas budi bicara lah. Kalau dapat 3.5 Alhamdulillah, dah boleh standby untuk pergi STUDY OVERSEAS! Yayy!

ADFP/ACTP grading chart

Okay settle the boring part, NOW IT'S THE FUN PART!  It's all about Psychology! Yes, I really love Psychology. Memang saya malas pergi kelas (Please jangan ikut perangai ni), tapi everytime nak exam, saya suka sangat study & fahamkan betul betul apa yang saya tengah belajar tu. Sebab Psychology ni bukan theoretical je, it teaches about ourself (human beings), our behaviour, views of other people. Which means, semua benda yang saya belajar tu, saya boleh guna untuk tiap tiap hari dalam hidup ni. It really changes my perspective, and what I think about myself & others. It makes me a better person (bukan nak cakap saya baik, tapi better than before..I guess🙉), it makes me feel good about myself.  What makes me say so?

Firstly, one of my favourite subjects is neuroscience (it's all about the brain). Mula mula saya tak suka sangat sebab complicated. Rasa macam susah sangat. Tapi masa nak dekat exam tu lah baru saya sedar (sebab saya selalunya focus study 200% masa nak exam je, sebab tu baru sedar😛), subject ni bagus gila. Subject ni buat saya sayang gila kat otak saya. Ada satu masa tu, saya obses dengan otak (scary kan), sampai setiap kali bangun pagi saya cakap dengan otak *sambil usap kepala* "Thank you sebab banyak berjasa". Lagi lagi masa nak exam, saya akan comfort otak sendiri "You can do this, you're smart", "I believe in you", or "I love you, brain". Hahaha OMG it sounds so stupid, but I really did this (I still do this some times, up till now). Okay some of you akan cakap I'm a crazy psychotic Psych student by now, but I am not crazy ok, I'm still sane, I just feel extra compassionate love for my brain that's all😌. I don't know why, I feel content bila buat macam tu, it's like my brain is responding to me in such a manner (I mean, of course, my brain = me). There are tons of things I've learnt from this subject that made me appreciate my brain! So let me share one thing that I learnt from this subject sampai buat saya sayang gila kat otak saya tu. I love this one, I'm going to share about mirror neurons. Dalam otak kita, ada banyak neurons (brain cell). And there are bunch of this special type of neurons called mirror neurons. Dari nama pun kita tau, function dia macam mirror which is reflection. Neuron ni akan aktif bila kita tengok apa yang orang lain buat  & even apa yang orang rasa. Contohnya, bila kita tengok orang tengah berlari. Walaupun kita tengok je, tapi neuron ni still aktif dalam otak seolah olah kita yang tengah berlari. Rasa penat pun ada bila tengok orang lain lari (if this happens, it's your mirror neurons in action). & what I'm really impressed by these neurons is, they help us to improve our sports performance BY JUST WATCHING OTHERS! There's this research suggested, you can improve your performance when you watch other experts play the sports (but you need to already have a bit of the sports skill la). But still, even though kita tak practice atas padang berpeluh, simply by just watching others play the sports, it can already improve our performance. BY. JUST. WATCHING.🙀 OMG CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? I am so amazed by this research. Besides that, mirror neurons also played a role in emotions, and sensation. You watch others being punched & you'll automatically feel that 'ouch'. Betul tak? That's you mirror neurons, guys. This can be applied to our emotions too. How we feel will affect others feelings too & vice versa. Saya kalau tengok orang nangis, tetiba rasa nak nangis jugak. & That's also a reason kita kena chill & relax masa buat presentation. I realized this, kalau orang present before saya tu jenis chill, saya akan rasa relax je walaupun next tu turn saya & I'll perform better when it's my turn. Tapi kalau orang sebelum saya tu nervous menggigil gagap, mesti saya pun ikut sama stress tunggu turn saya. So lepas ni kalau ada kawan yang sedih datang kat awak, stay chill okay. Bila kita chill, nanti mirror neurons dia pun ikut kita. Can you see how powerful our brain is now😼?! Of course, our brain can do more than what I just shared. So, YOU BETTER SAY THANKS TO YOUR BRAIN OK!


Secondly, studying Psychology makes me feel good about myself because I know how to handle myself when I'm in distress - thanks to Psychotherapy & Counselling subject (Which explains some of my reasons to further my master). There are so many ways that we can help ourself when we're feeling sad, stressed, hopeless and so on. First thing, we NEED to change our perspective on ourself. This is so important. Macamana kita nak tolong diri sendiri kalau kita sendiri rasa diri kita tak guna, tak ada harapan etc. Ingat orang lain boleh tolong ke selagi diri sendiri tak ubah cara kita fikir. So apa yang buat kita stress? The answer is - how we perceive the situation/event. Example : kita fail exam. Ada few possibilities on how we will judge the situation, but I'll list down the common 2 je lah. A) It's okay, memang susah pun. B) Saya fail sbb saya memang bodoh. Okay, from these 2 possibilities, A tu kita boleh nampak it's a positive perception & B is a negative one. & What's more important is, A tu kita boleh ubah & kita tak salahkan diri sendiri (sebab exam susah, next time we can try harder), B kita tak boleh or susah nak ubah & kita letak kesalahan tu kat diri sendiri (Saya 'memang bodoh'). Of course la kalau fail exam, kita akan stress. Tapi compared to these 2 possibilities, I can guarantee you'll feel less pressure if you're on the A side. Let me share my experience on how I manage my stress. So there was this one time I could not handle my kid's behaviour in school, I became so stressed that made me think I am a bad therapist, that I should quit my job & it's unfair for the kids to have me as their therapist. You can see how I perceived the event negatively - I was on the B side (I blamed myself, I can't change the situation). When I finally calmed down, I talked to myself, rebuilt my confidence and put away those negative thinking. I went from the B side to the A side (I talked to my colleagues, ask for advice so I could do better next time, no more self-blaming). Right after the incident, I've become more confident, I can handle my kid's behaviour & even when I can't, I no longer blame myself, instead I will try my best to understand more and learn what's best to do💪 One more thing, when we have any problem, ALWAYS SEEK FOR SOLUTION. Talk to someone. Jangan biar lama lama. That's how you slowly become depressed. Talk to me if you need anyone to listen ok (I'm on my way to become a counselling student anyway😉  *winks).

Last but not least (actually there are more and more reasons to love Psychology), I love the fact that we can change others' (and animals' too) behaviour. This is what I do with my work, increasing the good behaviour. The one that we pay attention to, that's the behaviour that will increase. This makes me realize how to be a good parent as well (I took parenting subject too. Am I a spouse material already? Ahem😜 ). Banyak parents yang pay more attention to the negative behaviour than the good behaviour. Bila anak menangis, baru nak sayang sayang. Bila anak buat hal, baru nak datang kat dia marah marah (this is a form of attention too, ok guys). Tapi bila anak tengah duduk diam, buat kerja sendiri, time tu la parents sibuk nak buat kerja lain sebab anak tak kacau diorang. Can you see that we paid less attention to the good behaviour, but more attention to the bad behaviour (Macam dah repeat je ayat ni). So bila dah jadi parents nanti, cuba untuk reward anak bila dia buat benda yang betul. & even join them, give attention to these behaviours. In sya Allah your kids will show more good behaviours compared to the bad ones. Kids are smart, they learn really quick. Once they know you give attention to the good behaviours, they will keep on doing it.

I wish to share more! Psychology deserve chapters instead of 1 post! But I'll have to end it here. To you guys who are interested with Psych, go on. Explore more! You'll love yourself after learning Psych. But please jangan ingat Psych ni course senang, sebab tu awak nak belajar. It's not an easy course if you don't put your heart in it. You have to learn complicated stuffs just like other courses too. Brain parts (all the biological terms), hormones, statistics (ini sumpah susah, sebab tu malas nak cerita) semua tu still kena belajar ok. I support you 100% if you're pursuing this course! Thank you for reading! I hope this post benefits you 💞

Prof Matthew Hornsey.
My favourite Psych lecturer. Kelas dia tak pernah ponteng ok.