Blogger’s babble: Exams and my awakened Creative streak

It has been quite some time since my exams and I have begun to notice a sneaky little pattern during every exam- one that shows a relationship (maybe) between creativity and stress, which I have illustrated below:

I don’t really know whether or not studies have been done in this field or not, since I haven’t come across any, but I do think I have a hypothesis as to why this happens with me at least. As always, these creative ideas (anything ranging from sketching, painting, wanting to learn a new musical instrument to distracting, attractive life plans) strike me before or during peak exam time and serve as something which I really look forward to doing. They hence serve as something which distracts me from the negative repetitive thoughts that I might have in those free ‘break time’s when I’m not studying (like “Oh my God, there is SO much to study” or “This subject is going to pull my grades down”).

Blogger’s Babble: Psychological techniques for enhancing cleanliness in Public places

I’m sure most of us are frustrated about littering in public places and often wish that some parents had put in more efforts in reinforcing cleanliness values in their kids. Not only does it ruin the mood but it also makes you feel bad about how your country is being portrayed to travelers from other countries. I’m from New Delhi, so yeah- loads of garbage and loads of foreigners and i don’t feel so happy with the impression they take with themselves of a ‘third world country’ and this bad impression only reinforces their stereotypes of the country-people. A third, and probably the most important reason why cleanliness behaviour should be increased is that garbage has detrimental environmental consequences and  is as hazardous as it is polluting.

From what little I have learned so far in psychology, I realise that there are many techniques which can be applied to bring about changes. The easiest one is reinforcement.

One can be provided either an incentive to work for the cleanliness cause (positive reinforcement- where the probability of an action increase due to the consequence following the act) or one can be negatively reinforced (where the probability of an action decrease due to the consequence which might follow after the act).

In the above picture, any citizen gets a gift card for stopping a rule-breaking cop which is positive reinforcement- thus the likelihood of a person stopping a rule-breaking police-person will increase (positive reinforcement).

Blogger’s Babble: “Life is travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.”

Hey everyone! I returned from the outskirts of Nainital a few days ago. It is a picturesque hill-station and a much sought holiday-destination in India and I really enjoyed my stay there. Much of my travel there was on foot, allowing me (I believe) to experience much more of nature’s bounty than a car journey would have.

For many of us travelling is an escape or a break from everyday life and by everyday life I mean stress, deadlines, unavoidable social duties and responsibilities. There are those who are more comfortable with the ‘known’, with their regular schedule and timetables but most of us seek a break in the monotony. Maybe it isn’t a monotony for the former- maybe they are travelling inside, journeying to their own centers and seeking themselves. However others seek external stimulation, experience and are filled with more curiosity about the outer world with its variety of cultures. But somewhere travelling plays a more important role than breaking the boredom, putting a pause on the stress or satisfying curiosity.

I was in awe of the decades old tall trees- not that I hadn’t seen them before on the Discovery Channel, but to be standing in front of them, breath in the fragrance-filled fresh air of the pines and wonder what the world would be

Blogger’s Babble: Gender Schema

Schemas are what we think the ideal object should look like or act like. It is a framework, structure or a plan. If we talk about a chair, our schema of it might contain four legs, a platform on them for sitting, back rest and possibly even arm rest. Now on the basis of this schema, when we encounter an object, we recognize whether it is a chair or not. Schemas help us in functioning faster and recognizing unseen objects as we come across them.

Gender Schemas are organised mental structures that contain our understanding of the attributes and behavior that are appropriate and expected for males and females. – Ben (1981)

To put it in a simpler way, gender schemas are a set of implied hypothesis about sex difference. Stereotypes are certainly one kind of hypothesis but stereotypes and gender schemas are not essentially the same things. ‘Stereotype’ is a more derogatory word whereas ‘gender schema’ is a more inclusive word. It is not these schemas which are wrong but the error which gradually creeps into their formation, maintenance and application (according to Gender Schemas at Work by Case Western Reserve University).

Right from the conception, certain gender schema creep in the baby’s