Dissertation Time - Who wants to take part??

So my time has finally arrived!!

My ethics have been accepted for my dissertation and I am proud (but extremely nervous!) to announce that the link for my questionniare is now live!

The link will take you to four questionnaires that will take no longer then 10 minutes to complete (promise!) and regards personality types with punishment.

I'd really appreciate participation for this research and pinky promise to write a blog post after the data has been collected and with the results found,

Go on....give it a press!

Press me!

Until next time Geekers 😄

Imaginary Friends

Hello fellow Geekers!

This is just a little filler whilst I am composing and editing a blog about recent Psychological thrillers that I have watched.

I recently sent an article to the Psychreg, which is a brilliant Psychological blog for anybody that is interested in the world of Psychology.  I am pleased to say that my article was published!! Below is the link, so please have a read and let me know what you think 🤓🤓😬😬

The article is titled - 'How Imaginary are Imaginary Friends?' 

Hope you are all having a good week so far,

Speak soon Geekers 🤓🤓❤️ Xx

S-Town

Hello hello my fellow Geekers!

As previously tweeted my blog is a tad late due to illness yesterday, apologies for that! And incase you would like to follow me on twitter, my username is: @JanerobinsonMeg 😀

So, as mentioned, this blog is about a podcast that I listened to whilst on holiday - it was recommended to me by my brother, who advised me that even though it isn't the jolliest thing to listen to whilst away, it is brilliant....and he was right.

If you haven't already - then get it downloaded and enjoy the soothing tones of Brian Reed whilst he relives his memories with John B. McLemore; a fascinating, eccentric and brilliant man with an equally brilliant mind.

Now I won't spoil anything for those that haven't heard the podcast - but the first few episodes relate to John wanting Brian to investigate a supposed murder in John's hometown, Woodstock (or sh*t town, as John calls it), Alabama. From this, the listener is then thrown into Johns' world and moods - be it happy, sad, or a big rant about Woodstock.

Brian Reed beautifully describes John as a person, his home and many dogs and after I finished the podcast, I did an internet search so see pictures and was shocked to find that what I had in mind was scarily accurate - and for this, I truly thank Mr Reed, (FYI, if you do an internet search then please be prepared for spoilers!)

There are many things that truly amazed me about John.  The fact that he builds a hedge maze in his garden (and nothing simple...this maze has gates that enable it to have 64 possible solutions), how he uses the dangerous and difficult gold plating technique 'fire-guilding' to rebuild antique clocks, as well as his intense interests and concerns for global warming - so much so that he compiles dense and fact filled journals which he regularly emails to Brian.

Thinking back on the podcast and insight into Johns personality, I think it is fair to say that John was haunted by depression, anxiety, loneliness and paranoia. The series shows Johns attitude towards Woodstock as extremely negative, but with this, John would never leave his hometown. He believes that corruption lies in all institutions - to which I should mention that there is a mystery about a mass of gold bars apparently hidden in his house or on his property.

John was a danger to himself when he was alone, it would seem that his educated mind would taunt him about world-wide problems that he was passionate about, but he knew that he alone could do nothing to stop them. He was a father figure to Tyler Goodson (his neighbour, his friend and someone that he took under his wing), but would repeatidly endanger this friendship with his clingy behaviours and outspoken attitude.

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast and how I got to catch a glimpse into the mind of the legend that is John B. McLemore. It is a powerful story and one that I passionately feel that everyone should listen to.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think 😀😁

Until next week Geekers xx

The tortiose can finally see the finish line.....eeeek!

So, again, its been a GOOD while since I have completed a blog, and AGAIN I have absolutely no excuses.

A quick update, I now volunteer two/three days a week at a local prison on the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) - I have been doing this for about six months and I completely love it!! I have also been involved with TedX at my uni as a Speaker Liaison Officer (amazing experience - blog to definitely follow!).

Keeping me busy over summer is me completing my application for a MSc, volunteering one evening a week with counselling sex offenders, the prison volunteering as mentioned above, as well as working two days a week as an administrator as unfortunately, volunteering does not pay those bills!

I am awaiting to start my final semester at university....after four years of attending lectures, working hard and desperately trying to keep myself motivated, the last semester is quickly approaching.....and as much as I have been waiting for this, now that its here, I could kind of do with it being a little further away....whats wrong with me!!?? I wouldn't even mind, but I have studied this avoidant behaviour in lectures and I know that it is better to be proactive...but still...

*sigh*.....*longer sigh*....I just have to sit down, give myself the time to get started and then ensure that I give myself the best chance that I can - after all, its what Ive waited four years for!

Another feeling that I have towards going back to uni is anxiety. Usually August arrives I am excited for the term to start, but this time, I'll be on my own.  You see, everyone that I started university with, has graduated. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely proud of those I know that have graduated, and the grades that they received are well deserved - but I can't help but feel that I am forever the bridesmaid and never the bride!! I think I'm just nervous about the importance of this last semester and how much it actually means....

I don't mean to be so self involved with this blog - but it's always better to talk and express feelings than to keep them bottled up, allowing possible expansion to a ridiculous scale!! Also, I'd like to think that if there is anyone else with these feelings that they are not alone, to take a step back and breath. Everything will be okay.

So, I have scheduled my next blog for Tuesday, so I'll be writing about a podcast that I have finished listening to called 'S-Town' - a gripping and twisting true life tale of a fascinating character and the life that he lived.

Until next time Geekers  👌😊 and thanks for putting up with me 💖 xx

More hours in the day please??!

So...it has been a while since I have compiled a blog and I cannot apologise enough for this...my excuse??! There literally do not seem to be enough hours in the day!! How is it February already??...that does remind me though...

So, a quick catch up....I am in my final year at university and last semester I sat Abnormal Psychology. I have never enjoyed a module as much as this one - even the assessments did not seem to give me the usual grief that I feel when composing a plan or desperately trying to search for wider reading.  I think the reason for this was the freedom that the fabulous lectures gave us.  We had to write a case study on a person of choice that had been diagnosed with a mental illness and written a first person account of their illness.

As long as the illness was studied in the module, we were free to run with it.  I chose Kay Redfield-Jamison - An Unquiet Mind:

This book is an amazing read and I thoroughly recommend that, if you haven't already, you buy it.  I initially chose to use this for my case study as I am wanting to take a Clinical Pathway and was intrigued that such an role model and presence in the movement for Bipolar Disorder is by that of an individual that suffers from the illness itself. 

Even though I had to read this book with an academic head and make annotations and comparisons to the DSM-5 for the assignment - I still enjoyed the poetic and romantic way in which the book was written.  Kay is brutally honest about the Major Depressive Episodes that she encountered and the deeply sad attempt to take her own life, but then she describes the ecstatic highs of the Manic episodes, the dream-like states that she encountered and how she flew among the rings of Saturn - with this, Kay also describes the financially crippling spending sprees and constant flitting from one thought to the next, how she struggled to read, struggled to concentrate and struggled to continue as a functioning Clinical Psychologist without admitting that she needed help.

I can't help but feel that this account of Bipolar Disorder is as close to the illness as you can get without actually suffering from it, and this is why I strongly suggest that you give it a read.

*******

At the moment, I am sitting the 'Psychological Assessment' as well as the 'Forensic Applications in Psychology' module, which are both pretty heavy going but none-the-less enjoyable. In these, I am mainly learning the structure to assess the risk of an violent offender who is to be released/regrouped etc (HCR-20 v3) as well as psychometric testing (which I have just attempted and spectacularly failed!) plus other assessment tools used in a occupational, clinical or forensic setting. So, reading for these is a little on the structured side, in that I am learning about the history of the assessment tools and when they are best used and what traits these tools highlight in an individual.
Therefore my future blogs will mainly consist of reading that I am doing for my dissertation (at the moment I am attempting to read about Machiavelli and also the role of emotional intelligence) as well as reading for the Forensic module as mentioned above- so mainly papers regarding sex offenders, interventions, psychopathy, violent offenders and intimate partner crime  All of which sounds lovely!!

Right, I have put a reminder on my phone for next weeks blog - by then I will have read a new journal/book to talk about,

Have a good week my fellow geekers! 😎😎😄