Tired. Environment

I feel tired. Not feeling tired physically, but tired mentally...I am learning how to stay strong- how could I pretend as if nothing has happened?

I always bear in mind that human life is complex and definitely not a safe sailling journey. Yes, we aware that many people are less fortunate than us..and yet, we can't help feeling the negative emotions when the expectations and the reality are totally different.

While spending my precious and limited time with my parents, I feel so relax at my home- the real home sweet home. There are many birds singing or even fighting for territories... created all sorts of 'noises' in my garden. I always noticed that many birds take turn to drink water from a small bucket where we placed in the backyard.

Back in S'pore, I am alone again. This is not my own house, not my own bedroom, not my own bed. There are no dogs running around/greeting me happily at the gate. No garden. This is a tiny island where everyone is working hard to earn dollars and cents. Noise pollution is a norm. I realize that only when I visited my caucasian ex-coursemate who lives in Bk Timah. BT housing estates are so quiet-just like Malaysia. I am too get used to the noises of HDB.

Now, I fully understand why my good friend explained that she couldn't stand the days working in KL alone. Thereafter, she decided to move back to her hometown, feels happier to earn less but enjoys to live together with family members.

Environment: the common attitudes towards a negative/unpleasant environment
1. leave the environment
2. change the environment
3. tolerate the environment
4. grumbling and staying in the same environment

At this moment, unfortunately, I am No. 4.... This is just an idiot bird who enjoys grumbling and yet find it too hard to leave sg....No matter what, S'pore is a good place to find worms. This is the price I choose to have. Pathetic.

Reliability vs Validity problem

Reliability
Reliability is a vital component of a valid psychological test. What is reliability? How do we measure it? Reliability is an important part of any good psychological test. Simply put, reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. A test is considered reliable if we get the same result repeatedly. Learn more about reliability in psychology tests.

Validity
When determining the merits of a psychological test, validity is one of the most important factors to consider. What is validity? Psychological assessment is an important part of both experimental research and clinical treatment. One of the greatest concerns when creating a psychological test is whether or not it actually measures what we think it is measuring. For example, a test might be designed to measure a stable personality trait, but instead measure transitory emotions generated by situational or environmental conditions. A valid test ensures that the results are an accurate reflection of the dimension undergoing assessment.

Psychology Research Methods Link

I am very headache with my research project right now. I just realise that translated version is always have this reliability check but not neccessarily validated. How to solve this problem? Can't help not to stop worrying about this matter for these few days :(

Alone~ random thoughts

"We are alone, we live alone, we die alone.
Only through our love and friendship, we can create the illusion for the moment that we are not alone."

Orson Welles (1915-1985)
American motion picture actor, director, producer, writer

I saw these words posted on the wall of Esplanade Library while waited for the free mini concert (piano, violin & cello).

The words touched my heart. So, i took out my pen and newspaper (that is the only choice) and jotted down. Recently, my sister took a picture for me ~ portrait of being alone or loneliness. At that point, I just felt that it was fun to take photos with different postures. Then, I suggested to take a view of my back. Woh, I just love it, more natural look rather than the typical smiling face of pictures.

At the beginning of a new life or close to the death, we come to this world and leave this world alone. Sometimes people tend to worry too much about daily hassle, let it be work, studies, family, relationship...etc. We may put too much emotion in something else, and later on realise that it is just a small matter. Things are for us to experience but not to understand. We afraid to lose face, not being competitive to fight with others... and the end of the day, people tend to worry for own problem rather than bother your stuff.

I always love writing. I appreciate my readers to look beyond words. For instance, recently I wrote about an article about dad's childhood on Father's Day. Then, the response was overwhelming ~ I know I am not a popular blogger, but I was very happy to learn that one of my reader felt the urge to write for her dad too. Later, I saw her dad had left comment in her blog. This is what I treasure - the power of a person's words influence others to make a change of his or her life, by writing an article to express feeling and thought.

I think I am getting out of topic...haha. Alone is not neccessarily means lonely, can be viewed as freedom, independent. However, for psychiatry fields, being alone is not good for depressive patients, as they may getting depress and make their clinical symptoms worsen. I treasure the time when I am alone at home, let it be reading newspaper, cooking, watching tv or shopping alone following my own timing. So relax.

In Singapore, I treasure the availability of free music concerts throughout the year, ranged from pop music, Chinese Orchestra to Symphony Orchestra. I always attend these concerts/shows alone, occasionally I get my music friend to companion me. It is not easy to expect people to appreciate this kind of music, so sad :(

I don't know what I write now, no sense of direction to organise my writing. This piece of writing is a bit like so called "bo-liao" kind. Initially I created this blog is meant for serious readers who want to know more about psychology and life. Right now, I just feel like want to write some casual stuff. Hopefully you don't mind :) Good night.

Kids in new generation?

I notice that ever since I open this new English blog, nobody dares to give feedback/comment. Perhaps, this psychology blog sounds too serious as I mostly either dumped in the psychology research or my psychology studies' writing. :) I guess there might be someone that I do not know, using Google to search certain psychology key terms and got into my website. If so, you are welcome too, but I wonder if you would give citation to my blog :).

Enough craps. Tomorrow is mother's day. If possible, I am trying my best not to duplicate information in my Chinese and this English blog. Let me copy my favorite columnist's story in Today newspaper,. I got a shock when I read it on MRT. Voice- Budget Tai Tai - Tabitha Wang, page 34, 25 Apr, 2008.

"There was a five year-old boy throwing a tantrum right in the middle of a supermarket aisle. Nothing unusual, you'd say. But what made passersby do a double take was the fact that the boy was taking it out on his father by punching him repeatedly in the crotch. It gets even stranger. The father was wincing in pain but instead telling the boy off, he merely tried to block the blows.The mother stood to one side, not saying anything. When she realised that people were giving her son strange looks, she remonstrated gently with him:" Boy, don't hit your papa in his you-know-what.""B***s," her son and heir said. I don't know whether he was trying to be anatomically-correct or plain rude. Personally, I'd plump for the latter, as the boy totally ignored his mother and continued pummeling his father. It's probably an extreme case but not an isolated one. I have seen so many Singaporean kids behaving badly in public that I have lost count."

I fully agreed with Tabitha Wang. I cannot imagine such a young kid would be so horrible, and what's more surprising, is the attitude of parents. Let me share my personal experience. In the shopping mall's toy section of Orchard, I saw one 4 year-old boy kept crying and begging his dad to buy a set of expensive toys, cost more than hundred bucks. Noticing that I was observing the scene, his dad told me that his son has more than enough toys at home. " You know la, what to do? Buy loh, hard to push him away." The father shrugged and grabbed the toy. His son stopped crying instantly. This little boy knew that this trick works well, and he is likely to use it again next round.

Tabitha Wang blames the parents. The deadly combination of declining birth rate and the fact that Singaporeans are having babies later is giving rise to a multitude of a little princess and emperors. Children are so precious that no one dares to interfere with these little treasures. The result? We 're nurturing a generation of spoilt brats.

Yeah, this is the so-called new generation of the kids. Well, we can notice the drastic change of the teenagers who were born after 1990s, compared to the older generation as 1980s or earlier. Materialistic, short-sighted, self-centered..... Each newer generation seems getting worsen, but not getting better. My dad, likes to point out that our Chinese society is no longer holding Confucianism values. Although I don't like Confucians ideas as he categorize woman as lower status, it is undeniable that some of the traditional values are good to preserved.

It is dangerous to let the kids to go all the way as they demand. They would think that they are like the sun in the central position, others have to follow and treat them nicely. As a result, they developed a childish attitude, Ego centrism. This is supposedly belongs to Jean Piaget's theory regarding cognitive development of 2-6 years old. They are unable to think from others' perspective. This attitude will create a big problem when they grow up, facing interpersonal issues in work, family or relationship. Learning to tolerate and being understanding are probably not found in their life dictionary.

Reducing quantity doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice the quality. As for me, I believe that parents are not just to produce babies without proper guidance. Parents have to take care of their children physically and mentally. At least, in future they won't bring problem to others.

"Bosses of the future might just need groin guards", this is the last sentence of the article that I quoted. It simply sounds too sad. As long as the parents do not wake up, it is indeed hard for their kids to be well-behaved by nature. I have had read enough psychology research papers discussing the parenting role and family influence on the children's personality, behaviours....and all these often correlates with a long list of headaches. It is much harder to fix the problems later on. Rome was not built in a day.

Please...Be responsible to raise your own kids!