Week 1: What is Psychology?

The first day of the day began with the introduction of all students. Unlike usual, where we can meet face to face in class, we barely have the chance to know each other during the online class due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hence, our lecturer, Dr Mohd Nasir, gave each one of us a little to do a brief self-introduction. We got to know each other better.

The lesson then began with the introduction of psychology. To me, all I know about psychology is that it is something related to the studies of our minds and emotions.  Dr Mohd Nasir explained the definition of the word psychology, which is the scientific study of mind and behaviour. It can be said as the science of behaviours and mental processes.  

Dr Mohd Nasir then introduced us where does the word "psychology" come from. It is made up of two words, psyche and logos. The word "psyche" has a different meaning as time passes. From Greek mythology and Roman mythology, it has the meaning of the personification of the soul. For now, Dr Mohd Nasir said that it is more towards the meaning of mind and feelings. 

Dr Mohd Nasir also explained how modern psychologists define psychology. Psychology focuses on behaviours, related mental, and psychological processes. As behaviours are observable, we can observe one's thoughts, feelings and wishes that accompany the behaviours.  Dr then concluded today's lesson with 3 simple words, mind, behaviour and feelings. These are the trilogy of psychology. 

In conclusion, I learned something new that I was not familiar at all. The lecturer had explained thoroughly and gave lots of examples for better understanding. I hope that we would cover something related to adjustment to be able to apply in real life. 

Week 2: What is Adjustment?

Last week, we had discussed the definition of psychology and how it differs from the ancient definition and the modern definition. Before the lesson started, our lecturer, Dr Mohd Nasir did a bit of flashback on the last lesson's topic so that we can relate the connection between psychology and adjustment. 

The lesson began with clarifying the definition of the term "adjustment". Based on the dictionary, adjustment is the make or become suitable for the circumstances. However, the true meaning of adjustment is beyond that. Adjustment is a behavioural or psychological process by humans or other living things to maintain a balance among all needs or between the needs and the obstacles from the environments.

The concept of adjustment was originally borrowed from biology, which is the biological term adaptation. The meaning of adaptation is referring to the efforts by a certain species to adjust to changes in the environment. For example, a camel has to adapt to the extreme condition in the desert or a person has to adjust to changes in circumstances such as a getting into a new school, getting a new job or the loss of loved one. There are several processes before we get into adjustment, motive, non-fulfilment, varied activities and response. 

In my opinion, adjustment is really important for us to ease or manage with the difficulties, needs, demands and challenges in daily lives. We have to learn how to seek an equilibrium between needs, demands and wants, between the needs of continuity for current state and adaptability to the new, and between our own self and others in the community or society. Learning the necessary skills for adjustment enables us to know more about ourselves and others, our limits and leads us to the benefits of compassion and emotions.   

Week 3: Happiness

In this lesson, we discussed the definition of happiness and the facets in life that have an impact on happiness. Happiness is the state of feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. Happiness has quite a loose definition. In fact, happiness can be either feeling or showing, meaning that happiness is not necessarily an internal or external experience, but can be both.

Based on a research, there are a few facets in life appear to have moderate impact on subjective well-being:  health, social activity, religion belief and culture. There are also a few variables that are strongly related to overall happiness: love, marriage, relationship satisfaction, work, genetic and personality. On the other hand, money, age, intelligence and physical attrativeness suprisingly have weak association with overall happiness.

Then, we were asked to do some research on the definition of happiness from the religoius perspective. I decided to look into the how Buddhist define happiness and below is the summary of my study:

     Buddhism is associated with happiness more than any other religion. According to Buddhist thinking, happiness and sorrow are our own responsibilities and can completely controlled by ourselves. According to Venerable David Lungtok, a Buddhist monk in Sydney, Buddhists say everything comes from the mid. Hence, we get happiness as the result if we train our mind properly.

     In the words of Buddha himself, "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world." This idea is in line with modern thinking in psychology, whereby we can change our feelings by changing the way we think. Buddhists focus more on detaching yourself from all thoughts to create a state of stillness conducive to ultimate self-understanding, or enlightenment. The key method of achieving this is meditation to arrive at a state where we are not distracted by our thoughts.

     Dalai Lama has said that in order to be a good person and a happy person, it's not necessary to practice Buddhism, or for that matter any religion. Therefore as we're all seeking happiness, it makes sense to try to be as good as possible.