Psychology
Linda Guðmundsdóttir
An article translated from English to Icelandic
http://www.goodtherapy.org/find-child-psychologists.html
Most parents who have spent time watching their children develop and grow can attest to the idea that the process is a fascinating one; from observing children learn how to walk and speak to witnessing their social interactions and self-exploration at school and beyond, the process of learning and maturing is both complex and exciting. Child psychology is a field that attempts to investigate and understand the development of the human mind during childhood and adolescence, with many applications to treatment options and special programs to help improve, heal, and uplift the lives of young people. Child psychology may be encountered in an academic environment, or may be experienced as the underlying science involved in child psychotherapy and other types of mental health care.
The field of child psychology shares many aspects with other types of psychology and studies of the human mind and consciousness, while retaining a distinct focus on human development as it applies to kids. One of the most exciting times in life biologically speaking, childhood is rich in significant physical, emotional, and mental changes, all of which can have a profound impact upon quality of life and experience. When studying child psychology, an expert or other professional may look at the operation of the brain itself, might investigate physical responses to certain stimuli, or may observe how children interact with others or consider themselves. The study of child psychology attempts to find answers to many of today's most pressing social questions, such as whether a person's behavior and set of circumstances is primarily a result of their innate nature, or the environment in which they are raised. [...]
Flestir foreldrar sem hafa eytt tíma í að horfa á börnin sín þroskast og vaxa geta borið vott á það að ferlið er töfrandi; frá því að sjá börn læra að labba og tala, til þess að vera vitni af félagslegri virkni þeirra og sjálfsskoðun í skólanum og fleira, ferlið sem fylgir því að læra og þroskast er bæði flókið og spennandi. Barnasálfræði er fag sem reynir að rannsaka og skilja þróun heilans meðan við erum börn og unglingar, með mörgum aðferðum fyrir meðferðar möguleikum og sérstökum áætlunum til þess að hjálpa til með að bæta, lækna og lyfta upp lífum unga fólksins. Barnasálfræði gæti rekist á það að vera í akademísku umhverfi, eða verið talin sem undirstaða af vísindum um sállækningar og aðrar tegundir af andlegum heilsu lækningum.
Fagið barnasálfræði deilir mörgum skoðunum við aðrar tegunir af sálfræði og rannsóknum á heila og hug og meðvitund, á meðan hún tengist líka við mannlega þróun þar sem á við börn. Einn mest spennandi tíminn í lífinu, lífræðilega séð, er barnæskan, hún er full af andlegum, líkamlegum og huglegum breytingum, sem allar geta haft veruleg áhrif á gæði lífsins og upplifum okkar. Þegar lærð er barnasálfræði gæti sérfræðingur litið á gang heilans og gæti rannsakað sálfræðileg viðbrögð við ýmsum áreitum, eða gæti horft á það hvernig börn haga sér við aðra eða hvernig þau horfa á sjálfan sig. Rannsóknin á barnasálfræði felst í því að finna svör við mörgum af daglegum félagslegum spurningum, eins og hvort hegðun einstaklings og kringumstæður hans séu eingöngu afleiðingar frá meðfæddum eiginleikum þeirra eða vegna umhverfisins sem þau eru alin upp í. [...]
-I chose this text because it really explains the concept of children's psychology. I am very interested in psychology and when i graduate the plan is to study psychology and i would like to be either a children's psychologist or a sport psychologist. The theme of the webpage is of course psychology but like in the interview i talked to an Icelandic children's psychologist so that is pretty much the "main theme" so i really thought this article would fit in nicely.
An interview with a person related to the subject
I took an interview with a known Icelandic psychologist named Jóhanna Kristín Jónsdóttir and she runs her own practice called Barnageð. She mostly works with children. I asked her some questions about her work as a psychologist and how she desided that's what she wanted to do for a living. She studied psychology at the University of Iceland, she first took a BA degree an then a Cand psych degree, that is a masters degree and is nessasary for people to study if they want to be working psychologists. She finished her degree in 2004 and has been a psychologist for 11 years soon. I asked her why she chose psychology and she said that she thinks psychology chose her and that it propobly helps to have an interest in the human person and her behaviour. What charmed her most about psychology was that she can help the children that seek her help when they are having hard times and she can help them feel better and have a better life and a future. What surprised her most about being a psychologist was how various her job can be and how much time it can take for an individual to find out what type of psychology suits you best to work with. What she thinks is the toughest thing about being a psychologist is that sometimes there is a lot of preasure on you and you can't always help all the people who come to you with a problem and also that sometimes the parents of the children she helps have too many problems their self's so they can't help their children. Some cases she needs to report to the child protection agency, in that case she needs to ask for help for the family and parents can either be supportive of that or very much against it. What she finds most fun about being a psychologist is to work with the children, talk to them, get to know their imagination and help them reach their goals.
-I chose to take this interview with Jóhanna because she is a children's psychologist and i could really imagine myself becoming a children's psychologist when graduate so this way i could really learn a lot about that field of psychology and ask her questions i would like to know about it.
Questions:
1. What charmed you most about psychology?
2. Why did you choose to study psychology?
3. Where did you study psychology?
4. What is the hardest thing about being a psychologist.
5. What is the most fun about being a psychologist?
6. What surprised you most about psychology?
7. How long have you been working as a psychologist?
Three videos from Ted.com
http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology
-Martin Seligman talks about the new era of positive psychology or the 11th reason to be optimistic and how optimism can do you better than negativity. He talks about how psychology is not good, how it is good and how in some years it can really become good enough.
- I chose this lecture because it is interesting how he reasons for psychology being good and bad and not good enough right now and i really learn a lot about psychology and the state of it today by watching this lecture.
http://www.ted.com/talks/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think
- Alison Gopnik talks about how people once thought that babies pretty much couldn't think or it's brain didn't function like a grown ups brain does. We think about what babies are thinking and babies might be thinking the same thing about you. There were studies done about how babies could think about food. Then they show which thing they like and they knew what other people liked.
- I chose this lecture because psychology is based on trying to get to know what people are thinking and how the brain works so this lecture is interesting because you can't always know what a little baby is thinking because it can't really express itself and just say what it want's to say and it helps me because i would be interested in working as a children's psychologist.
http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model
-Cameron Russel talks about how looks are not everything and they don't define you as a person and how people are quick to form they're opinion on a person by they're looks. She explanes how modeling is not really a career path and you can't deside on being a model when you grow up but it kind of desides it self when you get older.. you get picked. She is not the person on the covers of fashion magazines.. that woman is photoshopped and touched up.
-I chose this lecture because i think it speaks so much truth, like people can really judge models by saying things like "oh she's just a model" and "she's so pretty, life must be so easy for her!". People don't have a better life it they're prettier or if they look better and being a model is propably much, much more harder than just sitting in front of a camera posing.
An Icelandic article translated to English
Hvað er jákvæð sálfræði?
[...]Flestar þær rannsóknir sem vísað er til í því sem eftir er af fyrsta kafla eru unnar af sálfræðingum eða vísað til í greinum og bókum sálfræðinga sem vinna eftir markmiðum jákvæðrar sálfræði. Jákvæð sálfræði er sérgrein innan sálfræði sem var stofnuð árið 1998 að frumkvæði sitjandi formanns amerísku sálfræðisamtakanna APA (e. American Psychological Association) Martin Seligman (Colman, 2010: Seligman og Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Áhersla hefur verið lögð á það í rannsóknarstarfi innan jákvæðrar sálfræði að auka þekkingu vísindamanna sem varðar jákvæðar upplifanir, jákvæða eiginleika fólks og þau atriði sem stuðla að framþróun þessara upplifana og eiginleika (Duckworth, Steen og Seligman, 2005). Með hugmyndafræði og aðferðum jákvæðrar sálfræði eru rannsakaðir styrkleikar og siðferðisdygðir í fari fólks og byggir jákvæð sálfræði á þeirri trú að fólk vilji rækta það besta í fari sínu, bæta og efla upplifun sína af ást, vinnu og leik, auk þess að vilja lifa fullnægjandi og tilgangsríku lífi (University of Pennsylvania, e.d.). Ekki er hægt að rannsaka „hið góða líf“ án þess að taka til skoðunar gildi og áhrif menningar og hefur því jákvæð sálfræði leitað innblásturs fyrir rannsóknir sínar og kenningar í skrifum siðfræðinga, heimspekinga og trúarbragða (Seligman og Peterson, 2004).[...]
What is positive psychology?
[...]Most sources that are used in the rest of this first chapter are mostly worked from psychologists or refer to articles and books that psychologists work with according to the goals of positive psychology. Positive psychology is a specialty inside of psychology that was founded in 1998 by inisitive the sitting chairman of the American psychology association APA Martin Seligman (Colman, 2010: Seligman og Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Emphasis has been made in researches for positive psychology to increase knowledge to the scientists when it comes to positive expiriences, positive qualities to people and other things that alliterate the evolution of these expirienses and qualities. (Duckworth, Steen og Seligman, 2005). With ideology and psychological methods strenghts and moral virtues are researched in people and postitive psychology builds up the belive that people wan't to emprase the best in them, make they're expiriance on love, work and play better, also wanting to live a fufilling and a purposing life (University of Pennsylvania, e.d.). "The good in life" can not be researched without taking to consideration the impacts of colture and positive psychology has looked for inspiration for they're researches and theories in the writtings from philosophers and many religions. (Seligman og Peterson, 2004).[...]
http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/16952/39473/1/Hamingja_LoraElinEinars.pdf Lora Elín Einarsdóttir, 17.12.2013, Skemman.is