Phobias

A phobia, or morbid fear, is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is beyond one's control, or if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made. Let's analyse some widespread phobias.

Aviophobia (Fear of flying)

Aviophobia is a fear of being on a plane while flying. Fear of flying receives more attention than most other phobias because air travel is often difficult for people to avoid—especially in professional contexts—and because the fear is widespread, affecting a significant minority of the population. A fear of flying may prevent a person from going on vacations or visiting family and friends, and it can cripple the career of a businessperson by preventing him or her from traveling on work-related business. The fear of flying may be created by various other phobias and fears, such as claustrophobia or a fear of terrorism. In some cases, educating people with a fear of flying about the realities of aviation can considerably diminish their fears. Learning how aircraft fly, how airliners are flown in practice, and other aspects of aviation can assist people with a fear of flying in overcoming its irrational nature. Famous people who suffer from this disorder include : Aretha Franklin, singer; Whoopi Goldberg, actor; Billy Bob Thornton, actor; and boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

Arachnophobia (Fear of spiders)

It is among the most common of all phobias. The reactions of arachnophobics often seem irrational to others (and sometimes to the sufferers themselves). People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they believe could harbor spiders or that has visible signs of their presence, such as webs. An evolutionary reason for the phobias, such as arachnophobia, claustrophobia, remains unresolved. The fear of spiders can be treated by any of the general techniques suggested for specific phobias. Tennis star Andre Agassi is arachnophobic.

To sum up, phobias are the most common form for anxiety disorders. Otherwise, person should just recognize that he could defeat his phobia and do not be afraid of it then he will achieve the best results.

references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviophobia
http://www.phobias-help.com/Famous_People_With_Phobias.html
https://www.caremark.com/Imagebank/Articles_images/PhobiaFlyFinal.jpg

END-OF-TERM SELF-ASSESSMENT

• Writing (A summary)

I feel progress this term in summary writing because we really wrote a lot of summaries and that is why I have no more problems in writing a summaries.

• Performance in ESP vocabulary tests

I feel quite good in ESP vocabulary tests because I am trying to read a module in time then there is no problem in writing a test. I think every person in group feels quite same because it is just take a couple of hour to rethink all the definitions before the test and to be concentrated during the test.

• Performance in class dictations

I am not quite sure with my performance in class dictations because I wrote it only once and I could not really understand the point of writing dictations.

• Listening practice in class

I think that listening practice is a really good and useful thing for student, as a shame my performance in it is not as good as I could be but I will try to work on it.

• Listening to peers' Power Point presentations

In my opinion, PPP is a very essential thing in university, that is why PPP listening is very interesting and useful thing for me. I like the way every student present his topic.

• Making Power Point presentations

I enjoy that type of work, because making presentation let me collect a lot of useful information and to share it with peers.

• Short talks on ESP themes in class

I really enjoy talking activity in class, but I think that short talks on ESP themes is rather boring because all students in the class are repeating same things.

Professor Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman is a professor of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Wiseman started his professional life as a magician, before graduating in Psychology from University College London and obtaining a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. Richard Wiseman is famous by his researches in such human life areas as luck, humour and paranormal.

Professor Richard Wiseman has studied the principles of good and bad luck, publishing the results in his very famous book "The Luck Factor". Psychologist found out that both good and bad luck result from measurable habits. Lucky people are outgoing and observant and therefore have many more chance encounters than unlucky people, each of which could bring a lucky opportunity.

It was very interesting for me to read Wiseman's blog, where he is posting his experiments, tests for people and other stuff few times a day. As I can see in blog, he is not afraid of communicating with people who are interested in his research. In his blog everyone could find a useful information or just funny things to read.

To sum up, professor Richard Wiseman made a great influence in modern psychology by his experiments and research.

references:
http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wiseman
http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/new/Rarologia/Rarologia/Images/RichardWiseman.jpg