How to Select Online Psychology Courses?

There are hundreds of psychology courses available online. If psychology is something that you enjoy, then you have plenty of opportunities for you online. There are so many online psychology courses, you can be easily confused with these online psychology courses. Here are few simple tips that will help you find the best online psychology courses.

First decide which branch of psychology you would like to choose. Without first choosing your branch, you can easily get lose focus.

Secondly, be clear about the purpose why you are doing your psychology course. This will help you decide the right course. Some of us join online psychology courses to improve ourselves whereas others join online psychology courses to enhance their career.

Thirdly be clear about your budget. Online psychology courses however are much cheaper than attending a regular psychology course.

Shortlist the online institutions that you would like to join. They should enjoy good reputation.

Check with them in advance about the nature of the certification that you will get at the completion of your course.

Some of the online psychology courses expect you to attend seminars conducted by them for a stipulated number of days. So find out whether there are any such stipulations and whether you will be able to travel.

School Psychology

School psychology is basically a branch of psychology that will help parents as well as educators. It helps the educators mainly in understanding why students behave they do. It also helps them understand various motions school children undergo psychologically during each academic year and how we can make each student a star performer.

School psychology, identifies various disorders among the school going children and their age group. This branch of psychology helps the educators to mould their students well because educators can gain insights in to students behavior. They can save many children from getting into substance abuse and other abnormalities.

School psychology helps educators identify the traits of abused children and help them out deal with the problem. Once the problem of the student has been identified, it helps the educators to provide the required protection morally as well as legally.

The Psychology of Seduction

The psychology of seduction is one of the most interesting areas of psychology. At one time or the other all of us would have tried to seduce the other person in some way or the other seduction need not always end in bed, there are number of levels in seduction. Games of seduction are played not only by men, even women are equally adept in playing the seduction games. In fact they are much better players of seduction games. The difference between men and women is that women are more subtle but more decisive in their moves.

What does seduction basically do? Seduction tries to captivate the other person's attention and make them preoccupied with the thought of the person that seduced them. Seduction often has sexual connotations. The other person somehow does not his or her faculty of reasoning, it is totally handicapped so their actions will not have any sound reasoning. The seduced person will be often ready to go against their own principles of life, leave their family. The ultimate motivation here is sex.

Even the most responsible persons and mature personalities can make mistakes here. However, the question is it a mistake to be seduced? It depends on your status in the society. If you are a married person, then you are being irresponsible by trying to seduce another person or by allowing yourself to be seduced. If you are a single and the other person too is a single, then there is no clashing interests. In such a situation, seduction has no negativity unless the seduction itself is to achieve some other goal. Seduced people can be easily manipulated.

Dealing with Ennui or Boredom

All of us have our own share of good days and bad days. No one complains about the good days. But when it comes to bad days, it becomes unbearable. Boredom can make our bad days worse another term used to refer to boredom is ennui. It can be surprising for some of us to learn that people go the extent of committing suicide when they are hit by boredom or ennui. However, it happens only in extreme cases. Nevertheless, we need to be resourceful to handle boredom. No one knows when ennui will hit us, it can be during the middle of the week or during weekends, during our vacation, in the middle of the exciting project. It just comes from nowhere and makes life miserable.

Boredom strikes us when we find things that we normally do no more interesting. It can happen due to work overload or due to the nature of our job that is of repetitive nature. Our daily routine and rush itself can become a source of boredom.

How do we handle boredom or ennui? At times, we can chase off boredom by taking recourse in our hobbies. However, this will not work always; when bored, even our favorite authors may not read interesting or our favorite music may not be pleasant. We would feel like just throwing away everything and walk away from the normal things of life and JUST BE.

Boredom or ennui cannot be treated by medicines, we just need to endure it. We can meet friends, take long drives, find some new hobbies, spend some time for others rather than concentrating all the time about ourselves and so on. We cannot escape ennui; one time or the other all of us have to go through it. The most important thing to remember when hit by boredom is to keep our mind occupied. Never get into negative habits like over eating, drinking, substance abuse to combat boredom as it can ruin your life completely. Handle yourself with care because you are fragile.

Is Body Language a Genuine Discipline

Some of the questions that people have regarding body language is whether it is a genuine discipline or whether it is hoax. Can we establish a common pattern of gestures and postures that we use? Can we really interpret or understand what is in the other person's mind watching one's action? Body language is very complex area and it requires a lot of experience. We cannot read one's mind using isolated gestures and if we do, we will be running the risk of misinterpreting the other persons intentions.

There are number of factors that need to be taken into consideration. Culture is one of the major influencing factor. So we cannot have general rules of body language or general code for body language for the entire world. If at all body language needs to be a genuine discipline, it has to be localized according to different cultures. One needs to become a student of anthropology before one can fully become a body language expert.

There can be other factors such the person's health conditions for example, the person that we are trying to observe may be suffering from cold which makes him raise his arms and touch is nose frequently while talking and we cannot interpret this gesture for the person's falsehood.

Most importantly, each individual is unique and they have their own mannerisms we can be closer to reality only when we take this factor in to account. We cannot read a person's mind using body language. We can just get indicators of what might be going on in a person's mind.

Experts can even mimic what is considered to be the best body language and deceive the observer. So this field needs a lot more in depth research. Do not try to interpret isolated actions of the individual as you might be getting even contradictory messages which will confuse you further.

Consumer Psychology Can Help you Increase Sales

Today every business is trying to fight the effects of recession.If you want to promote your business online or offline, you need to master consumer psychology. Consumer psychology tries to understand the underlying currents in the decision making process of various groups of people. It tries to categorize consumers using various headings such as age group, sex, language, religion, body type, educational qualification, career or profession, social status, etc. Consumer psychology appreciates the importance of understanding each group in its own social environment. Consumer psychology teaches that each group has its own or specific needs and if our products and services meet those needs, we will be able to excel in marketing our products and servcies. It also teaches that before positioning our products, we should learn fully about the needs and wants of our target market. Only after learning the needs and wants of our target market we will be able to come up with effective strategies to position our products. All our commercials and advertising efforts should reinforce those needs and wants identified for each group. If our marketing and promotional activities do not take care of these factors, we cannot expect to become successful.

Consumer psychology has come a long way and it has helped the world of commerce and trade immensely. Knowing the importance of understanding consumr psycology all top brands spend a lot of money in taking surveys and polls about their products and other products. So the next time you come across an invitation for a product survey you will know that it is an effort taken based on consumer psychology.

Limitations of Psychology of Religion

Psychology of Religion has its own limitations. There has always been a tension in fixing the boundaries for Psychology on Religion. As we can observe there are number of similarities among the religious practices of people, though they are geographically miles apart. Psychology tries to provide with an answer basing on the human nature and man's quest to satisfy his needs which are quite considerably common any where around the world. Though religion which operates within the boundaries of this world and on basic human nature is something external where psychology will not be able to launch itself. The logic of Psychology has to loose hold at certain point. Psychology of Religion may try and give all possible explanations of Religion but it never has the final word on Religion. What finally matters is the individual's perception of the Supreme Power and his or her own experience.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH

Conception of mental health	Positive	None	Negative	Total
Abscence of illness	17	12	04	33
Appropriate social behaviour	12	04	05	21
Freedom from worry and guilt	04	03	05	12
Personal competence and control	02	02	11	15
Self acceptance, actualization	02	06	11	19
Unification and organization	00	01	00	01
Open mindedness & Flexibility	00	03	11	14
Total	37	31	47	115

(Line score chart on the relation between mental health and religion)
The research on the relationship between mental helath and religion was based on seven concepts. The table above, which is procured from 'Religion and the Individual' by David Batson shows the line score of the results obtained. They give only a partial answer to the correlation between religion and mental health. 'Therfore if we do not find such a correlation, we have evidence that religion does not cause health. Yet even if we do find such a correlation, this does not provide clear evidence that religion causes health.'

The results of the above research reveals that more than mental health religion is connected to mental sickness.

Jung's contribution to psychology of religion

Another giant figure in Psychology of Religion is C.G. Jung(1875-1961). Though originally a disciple of Freud he took a very different stance from his master's extreme individualism. He was more sympathetic to religion and had true appreciatioin for religious symbolism. One of his most important contribution to the field was The Terry Lectures, Psychology of Religion presented at Yale in 1938.

Jung defined religion as an 'expression of the tendency to regression, to the attitude of infantile dependence on the parent, which is characteristic of a unsarisfactory development of the individual's love-life'

Jung evolved a correlation between the symbolic structure and dreams. In his postulate he identified the exisence of two layers of the unconscious: individual and collective.

The beauty of Jung's system is that it allowed the scholar to treat mythology as something living. His appproach had a positive attitude to religious symbolism. He opened up an alliance between Psychology of Religion and Comparative religion which proved to be benificial to both the disciplines.

Great Names in Psychology of Religion

There were many great names and many great books in psychology of religion published before the world war I. Some of those are W.R. Inge's 'Christian Mysticism' (1899), F. Von Hugel's 'The Mystical Element of Religion' (1908), Evelyn Underhill's 'Mysticism' (1911) and 'The Mystic way' (1913).

J.B. Pratt's 'The religious consciousness' in 1920 was one of the most important handbook among those similar works between the wars.It evaluated and summed up the developments of the first quarter of the century.

The year 1913 turned out to be a year of great importance in the history of Psychology of Religion. The depth psychology especially of Freud and Jung had great impact on Psychology of Religion.

Freud tried to bring out connections between primitive religious practices and neurotic types. In 1913 he published his work 'Totem and Taboo'. This work had a very different approach to the discipline Psychology of Religion. Freud's Psychoanalysis tried to interpret dreams which was assumed to be a means of access to the subconscious. Freud continued to apply his theory of Psychoanalysis on religion which came out clearly in his work 'Moses and Monotheism' (1939). Though Freud's contribution proved valuable in Psychology of Religion he failed to see that his categories can be applied to anti religious with the same probability as to religious attitudes.

Attacks Faced by Psychology of Religion

The history of Psychology of Religion has not always been pleasant and smooth it had to survive the difficulties and attacks on it like any other growing discipline. During the beginning of this century Psychology of Religion faced severe attacks from German and French sociological schools. 'The German attack was lead by W. Wundt, in his monumental; 'Volkerpsychologie' (1900ff): in this work, as well as attacking the Americans and their European imitators Wundt advanced anthropological reason, in a collective rather than an individual way.'

The French attack was led by Durkheim. He argued that, 'The sacred - that which for man is vested with ultimate authority is none other that the group acting on and on behalf of its constituents'. Durkheim postulated three well defined stages in the evolution of religion in 1912. They are,
1. Mythological Stage
2. Metaphysical Stage
3. Scientific Stage

Within the first quarter of the 20th century Psychology of Religion had to face two other great difficulties,
a. the study of the exceptional events such as conversions, mystical states and traumatic experiences.
b. a preoccupation with psychopathology combined with a pretended "redutionism"

Starbuck, J.H. Leuba and J. Marechel dealt with the former difficulty. Marchel showed the impossibility of applying the psychological method, either of experimentation or of clinical observation, to mystics.

It is interesting to note that the reports of the 8th International Congress of Psychology in 1926 does not show any reports on psychology of mystics.Those reports started appearing only since the Symposium on the Psychology of Religion at the 16th Congress (Brussels-1957) and at the 17th Congress (Bonn-1960).

The second difficulty is due to the belief the certain mental illnesses such as obsessional neurosis, could be explained in a mechanical way, basing the argument on elemental needs like security and reduction of anxiety. But after 1930 researches were conducted which used statistical indices and other methods that were used in the observations of non religious behaviour to the Psychology of Religion. These experiments used attitude scales, multiple choice questionnaires and projective techniques.

20th Century Psychology of Religion

William James was another great figure in the discipline of Psychology of Religion. He stressed that human nature cannot be understood unless the religious element is taken into consideration.. He wrote a classic on the discipline, 'Varieties of Religious Expeiences' in 1902. This work served as model and it still serves as religious classic. Some of the topics included in 'Varieties of Religious Experiences' are, the experience of well being or of conflict in human response to God, the experience of religious conversion and of saintliness and mysticism.

Two years later Stanley Hall published a book 'Adolescence' (1904). In his work Hall studied how the notion of God and the moral sense developed among youth. And in 1910, the social aspects and anthropological development of religion were stressed by Irving King and E.S. Ames. They wrote 'The development of Religion' and 'ThePsychology of Religious Experience' respectively.

There were also contributions from French sociologists like Emile Durkheim, Levy Brhul, Hubert and Maurs.

Beginnings of Psychology of Religion - 18th and 19th Century

In the next few posts let us focus on one of the branches of psychology namely Psychology of Religion.

Different sources give different dates of origin for Psychology of Religion. If we could arrive at any consensus on the matter it is that Psychology of Religion as a separate discipline emerged from the 19th century. But according to the observation of Wulff, 'Roots of the descriptive trend in Psychology of Religion can be found in the writings that the Scriptures of the great religious traditions: in non canonical works for spiritual edification such as Augustine's confessions and the reports of the mediveal mystics and in the writings of certain philosophers and the theologians including Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), Fredrick Schleirmacher (1768-1834), Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and Albert Ritschl (1882-1889).'

Psychology of Religion basically emerged as an outcome of N.American Empiricism. Individual cases, autobiographies, journals and answers to questionnaires served as a sources for Psychology of Religion. They are analysed and assessed trying to grasp the phenomena of religious experience. Thus the method used by Psychology of Religion is a scientific method. Some of the pioneering names in the field are Wilhelm wundt, G.S.Hall, J.H.Leuba, E.D. Starbuck, William James, Freud and Jung.

Wilhelm Wundt is a German who was the first one to establish Psychological laboratory in 1879 at Leipzig. He analysed how religion united Groups, Societies and Culture. He was always conscious about the importance or religion in human development.

In 1882 G. Stanley Hall issued Psychological reflections on moral and religious education. He also founded 'The American Journal of Psychology'. This has been the first scientific forum of Psychology of Religion .

A milestone in the field was J.H.Leuba's article named 'A Study in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena' in 1896. Another important contribution of Leuba was 'A Psychological Study of religion'.
In 1899 Starbuck gathered a mass of personal testimony from various sources concerning the phenomena of religious conversion in his 'Psychology of Religion'. Until then there were no comprehensive work in the field. Starbuck's work served as the first comprehensive hand book.

Revenge and the Approaches that People Take

The feelings associated with revenge have a tremendous psychological impact on us. Revenge can cripple us mentally and we will not be able to think of anything else but about the person that wronged us on whom we want to take revenge. Different people have different approach to revenge. Some of us have a very high level of toleration and such people will not think of taking revenge so easily. They will not do anything to hurt the other person but if some mishap should befall their enemy, they will be happy. Second type of approach includes taking some decisive action immediately after the event in which we were wronged and this comes out as bursts of anger. The third type of people will take decisive steps to take revenge but they will draw up an elaborate plan so that their enemy will walk into the trap and draw upon himself or herself the planned mishap. Here the one who takes revenge is safe and the revengeful act will not be implicated.

In certain cases, people do take a different approach altogether and try to gain access to super natural powers. They will try to cast a spell on the other person and wait for the misfortune to befall them. Though we don't know whether this works or not, it is still one of the approaches adopted by people.

On the whole revenge is considered to be a negative feeling and presumed to affect the person with revengeful feelings negatively. Highly revengeful people lack sociodynamic skills often and they are often loners. They are always preoccupied with finding new ways of hurting people and so they tend to be under performers in the other areas of life as they are busy thinking about their enemy's fall.

Obesity and Psychology - Obesity and its psychological effect on people

Over 33% of Americans suffer from obesity. Obesity is not only an American problem but it is one of the common problems all over the world. What kind of psychological effects does obesity have on people?

Obesity and psychology are very closely related. Obese people tend to exhibit a certain common psychological traits after they gain weight. One of the traits that can be found is denial. Some obese people don't want to look at themselves as fat people and they don't want others to tell them that they are fat. They get very angry when somebody tries to tell them that they should have control over their weight. There are others who try to laugh about their over weight along with others so that others do not make them feel bad. But deep within they feel hurt about the whole scenario and they wish they could be slimmer. Third type of obese people will be obsessed with their over weight problem and try to do every thing possible to get rid of their fat and excess weight. Yet other group tries to blame their over eating problem on others or other things. It can be people or an event. They use projection as their defense mechanism. So we can find a variety of psychological responses from people on their obesity problem. Only a minor percentage of people try to look at the problem in a practical way and they may have some medical complications such as Thyroid related problems other hormonal imbalances which contribute to their weight related problems.

If you are using denial or projection as your defense mechanism, you will not be able to get rid of the problem because you don't do anything about solving the problem because you are either saying that there is no problem or blaming on someone else. You need to work with your mind as well when you are working with your weight related problems.

Are Hair loss and Stress Related?

Hair loss is one of the raising problems in today's society. Both men and women suffer from this problem. There is no specific age group for hairloss problem; it can affect any age group. There can be many causes for hairloss and one of the top reasons that has been identified for hairloss is stress. Some of us might be surprised to hear that there is connection between hairloss and stress. Yes, when we are under severe mental stress we tend to lose hair. This is one of the clear indicators on how closely our body and mind are connected. Hairloss is one of the psychosomatic symptoms. At times there can be more than one reason for hair loss and stress can be one of the contributing causes. In such cases we may not be able to stop hair loss by just relieving ourselves from stress. This may make people think that stress and hairloss are not connected. Before setting out to work on your hairloss, you need to consult a specialist so that they can advise us on the right approach to save ourselves from hair loss. If stress is the major reason for our hair loss, no amount of hairloss products are going to help. We need to deal with our stress first to stop the problem.

Stress is an indicator of major problems in life. We are under stress only when we have problems that we are finding difficult to handle. In such situations our body's priority is not our hair but the problem that is at hand. It is not only our hair that gets affected, our entire appearance including our skin loses its texture and we start looking sickly. All these indicate that our body and mind are working on something bigger than its appearance.

Sometimes this can cause a viscious circle. For example, if you already have hariloss problems and if your appearance is not so very good in your judgement, and if you are feeling that you are unable to find a partner because of your appearance, you will tend to get stressed as days pass by. You will also be under frustration. Your mind will now consider your need for a partner a top priority and start concentrating on that issue more than the cosmetic needs of the body. This will push your appearance further down. This again will make you look like "S***" making the problem all the more bigger.

So if you think that you are under stress and you are suffering hairloss, then it is best to look at methods or ways of relieving your stress so that you can get rid of one of the major causes of your hairloss.

Mental burnout and IT Professionals

Mental burnout is one of the rising problems these days. When mental burn out hits us we will lose interest in everything we do. Even though we may be physically alright, we will not have the energy to do anything because our mind is too tired to think about anything. Suddenly even our pet projects on which we have spent a lot of time and money will look futile. A sudden blankness will hit us. People who reach this stage will simply gaze into empty space and their look will not register anything.

This is one of the rising problems among the IT professionals. They sit for long hours before their computer. They have their breakfast before their computer, lunch before their computer, supper before their computer and only get out of their chair to relieve themselves. They even fall asleep on their chairs. Does it sound like you? Yes, there are millions like that and you are not alone. Our body and mind can take such a life style only for a while. We are actually made for the kill through our modern lifestyle we have settled for sedentary lifestyle and now we have bought too much into this sedentary life style. We get everything we need in just few clicks with the help of the internet. All these creates a lot of problem to the individual and in particular people who spend a lot of time before their computers. If you ever feel that you have been hit by mental burn out, the only solution to this problem is to take a break and a good one for that matter. Go out and do something wild of course something legal and get tired, come back to pick up your books, you will be alright.

Online psychology courses

We can find a number of online psychology courses that will help us to equip ourselves. These courses will help us at personal levels as well as professional levels. Many prestigious universities in the US, UK and across Europe offer many online psychology courses. These courses are ideal for people who have a great flair for psychology and but have very limited time to spare. By enrolling yourself for an online psychology course, you can acquire your diploma in psychology or degree in psychology by studying at your own convenient time. You will be in full control of your time. You can fix a schedule that does not interfere with the rest of your life. Online psychology courses are offered for varied durations. You have unlimited choices. You just need to do a quick online research to short list some of the top universities that offers online psychology courses. The cost of doing an online psychology course will be much cheaper than acquiring your psychology degree or psychology diploma by attending regular college.

Are psychological problems increasing due to recession?

Yes, the psychological problems in the society are increasing due to recession. Some of the problems that are associated with this are fear, anxiety, stress, depression, etc. Recession has subjected the entire society into mass depression. The entire globe is under stress. We can easily feel it as we move around. Everyone is feeling thing pinch of recession and its effects. It is affecting not only the middle class people and the poor, but even the rich and the affluent in the society have their own anxieties that result from recession. People's buying capacity have come down drastically. There are compulsive shoppers who shop when they are afraid, when they are stressed etc, even when there is no real need for buying things that they buy. This condition is called Oniomania or Shopoholism. Such people are unable to get their fix through shopping because they don't have that kind of money at their disposal. When they are without any relief for their stress through shopping, they can end up becoming kleptomaniacs which indicates a condition whereby the individual ends up with compulsive stealing habit.

Does one's personality change with aging?

There will certainly be changes in one's personality with aging. We tend to acquire more experience in various fields as we age. We would have handled lot more problems. We would have been energetic and outgoing when we were young but due to the limitations of aging we may not be able to be as outgoing as we used to be and over a period of time our personality will change; we will not be an outgoing person anymore not because that we cannot go out and mingle with people but because that is what we have become.

There are lot of products available to slow down the aging process. However, we need to train our mind to remain young because our mind has a great control over how we feel about things and how we respond to our environment as we age. May be if any of the anti-aging products should work, they will help us with the perception of ourselves. This is not a forum to discuss about the effectiveness of anti-aging products and whether they really work etc.

In general, we should expect changes in our personality. Even though we may not be able to feel the difference, others will certainly be able to feel that. When we are told that we have changed, we should accept it gracefully so that we can age gracefully.

Are cyberchondria and hypochondria the same?

Cyberchondria and hypocondria do not refer to the same thing though they are related. Cybercondria is one of the behavior patterns of an hypocondriac. Hypocondriacs who use the internet to find information about their health are called cybercondriacs. Today there is no shortage of free information online. Anyone can easily get information about any medical ailment using online search. While the internet is a great source of information, it also is one of the contributing factors for the increase in the percentage of hypochondria. The symptoms of both Hypochondria and cyberchondria are the same except for the fact that the cyberchondriacs make use of the internet extensively to do their research. They will lose their sleep spending digging deep in to the night and surfing the web trying to find out all possible information. Both hypochondria and cyberchondria can be treated with professional help.Psychotherapy will yield good results.

Who is an Hypocondriac?

Someone who is suffering from hypocondriasis is called an hypocondriac. But what on earth is hypocondriasis anyway? Hypocondriasis is referred to a psychological condition where by the one who suffers from this condition experiences unreasonable fear of health related issues. They will be preoccupied with their health. They will be constantly on the look out for new diseases and worry that they might contract them. They try to match the symptoms or feel that they have those symptoms. No specialists word will be enough for them to believe that they are in good health condition. They will watch medical shows, subscribe to medical magazines, try to learn about medicines and their side effects. They will also cross check whether the physician has prescribed the right medicine etc. In extreme cases hypocondriacs will not be able to lead a normal or healthy life style. They will also become introverts and their social life will shrink because they will fear that if they go out they may be infected with bad diseases that people have. Life can be really frustrating for hyprocondriacs. At times they end up taking self-prescribed drugs which can lead to other medical complications. If you feel that you are excessively worried about your health and you are not convinced that you are enjoying good health despite your physician's confirmation, then you might need to get professional help before things get out of hand.

The Dynamics of Remembering and Grieving

Grieving is an important aspect of recovering from the painful loss of loved ones. When we lose someone we are not ready to accept that they are no more with us. We try to relive the experiences we had with them in an effort to bring them back to life in our mind to minimize the pain of loss. This is not going to help us move on with our life because the more we indulge in such thoughts we will sink deeper in to depression. All of us need a reasonable period for grieving and it is healthy to give ourselves enough time to grieve the loss of our loved ones. It cannot overwhelm us completely whereby we are unable to lead our normal life.

One of the factors that blocks us from moving on with our life is our memories. Memories are formed through the process of association. We associate things, smell, color, taste, sense of touch, sound etc to remember or store things in our memory. If the loved one that we lost is someone close who lived with us then we will remember them in everything we do. Every where we turn in our house will be filled with their memory. This can affect us badly so we need to understand the dynamics of remembering things to handle grief or help people move on to the next phase of their life despite their loss.

Dream Interpretations and the related controversies

Dream interpretations is one of the most controversial areas.Different people give different value to dreams. For some it is minds way of erasing the unwanted memories of the past and for others it foretells what is to happen in the future. There are people who suggest that dreams will give insight into our current mental status. Each of these groups try to use dreams in their own way and try to get insights in to people's past, present or future. But the question is which is the right approach. Do our dreams tell us about future or is it about past? While these views are highly debatable, we cannot deny personal experiences of people whereby they get dreams which is an indicator of future and they experience the same in their life. Rather than rejecting other views we should consider dreams as a holistic experience and try to benefit from them which ever way possible.

Is the fear before an interview and before one's marriage the same?

All of us would have undergone fear at one stage or the other in our life. No one can say I don't fear anything at any point of time. All of us have a set of things that we fear. There are various factors that contribute to this feeling. Now the question is whether we respond to fear in the same way in all the situations. May be not, there are different grades of fear. The cause of fear will determine the intensity of fear based on what it means to us. For example the fear before one's interview is different from the fear we experience before our wedding. What we fear here are entirely different in these two situations. In case of interview, we want to get the job and we fear whether we will do well in the interview. In case of marriage or wedding, we fear that we should cope with the responsibilities that come with marriage. It is a life long commitment that is under consideration. Our reasoning in these two situations vary and our responses too vary. So before handling fear we need to find out the cause of fear and whether there is any underlying reason behind one's fear to treat extreme fears.

Anxiety Vs. Chronic Anxiety Issues

Anxiety is a sense of uneasiness about a pending, anticipated or unfinished event or issue. The main cause of anxiety is the uncertainty that is associated with the pending event. The one who is anxious because he or she is not sure how the pending issue will end. They are not sure of the results and whether the ending will be favorable to them or against them. It can be about a job interview that you attended or about a law suit that is going on or it can be about the delivery of your baby. It can be anything. It is normal for people to be anxious about certain things in life. It is normal to be anxious about things whose results are capable of changing one's life.

On the other hand the same thing turns out to be chronic anxiety when the individual becomes extreme and every event and every thing that happens in one's life becomes a test who's results are to be awaited eagerly. This goes to such an extent the individual who suffers chronic anxiety is unable to lead his or her normal life. When you suffer chronic anxiety you get chocked with unreasonable fear about everyday events of life.

Dealing with Ennui or Boredom

Ennui or boredom can be really killing at times. In extreme cases people have even been moved to kill themselves and that is the power of boredom. Any one can be hit by the spell of boredom or ennui. There is no age limit or any other criteria by which this happens. It can happen during weekends or after a vacation or when we are over stressed, when we are anticipating something for too long, etc. We can never predict when ennui can hit us. When you are hit by ennui, you will never be interested to do any of your regular activities. Even your regular time pass activities will turn out to be boring. Often depression is associated with ennui and boredom.

When you are hit by ennui or boredom, never take it light. Try to find positive outlets, call your friend or visit him or her. Take your dog for a walk do something to be in the midst of people as much as possible. This will save you from the risk of harming yourself. It is best to take a break from work when you are struck by ennui. Watch a movie, do gardening or get on to your cycle. Keep your mind occupied and do something different and new.

Possible way of falling victim of political violence and is psychological outcomes

Political violence may result in one are more of the following situations in the victim’s life:
The victim may have suffered,
1) physical abuse the victim may have been beaten up or raped or would have lost part of their body.
2) loss of one or more of the loved ones for example husband, wife, parents, brothers or sisters and friends.
3) loss of property –farm, house, car, etc.
4) threat from the unfavourable elements of the society.

EFFECTS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE:
The victims of political violence develop a condition, which is technically called as, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This manifests itself through the following:

1) Nightmares and intrusive recollection of events 2) Flashback episodes 3) Avoidance of associated stimuli, which could be people, place, activities or situations 4) Indifference through diminished interest 5) Feeling of detachment from others or withdrawal 6) Restricted range of affect or apathy 7) Increased arousal through difficulty in falling asleep 8) Irritability and outbursts of anger 9) Exaggerated startle response 10) Fear in the form of phobias manifested in variety of ways. 11) Hatred 12) Anger or Aggression 13) Passivity 14) Self Pity 15) Feelings of Helplessness and hopelessness 16) Insecurity 17) Paranoiac Delusions 18) Over protectiveness of one’s children 19) Restlessness 20) Inability to maintain relationships due to lack of trust 21) Feelings of rejection 22) Depression 23) Bereavement and 24) Psychosomatic disorders.