Psychology of laughter

What is laughter? Laughter is a form of outward expression of amusement, pleasure, mirth and at times, other emotions. It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling and other stimuli. Inhaling nitrous oxide can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter. Strong laughter can sometimes bring an onset of tears or even moderate muscular pain as a physical response to the act.

Laughter is a part of human behavior regulated by the brain. It helps humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and provides an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group — it signals acceptance and positive interactions.
Modern neurophysiology states that laughter is linked with the activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which produces endorphins after a rewarding activity: after you have a good meal, after you have sexual intercourse and after you understand a joke.

It has been shown that laughing helps protect the heart. Doctors say that with deep, heartfelt laughter, it appears that serum cortisol, which is a hormone that is secreted when we’re under stress, is decreased. So when you’re having a stress reaction, if you laugh, apparently the cortisol that has been released during the stress reaction is reduced.

Laughter can help to reach physical fitness. It has been estimated by scientists that laughing 100 times equals the same physical exertion as a 10 minute workout on a rowing machine or 15 minutes on a stationary exercise bike. Laughing works out the diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles.

In conclusion, laughter is not just emotional expression, but also free drug from diseases too.

Conflict of psychology

First of all, conflict is a state of opposition, disagreement or incompatibility between two or more people or groups of people, which is sometimes characterized by physical violence. Military conflict between states may constitute war.
A clash of interests, values, actions or directions often sparks a conflict. Conflicts refer to the existence of that clash. Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. The word is applicable from the instant that the clash occurs. Even when we say that there is a potential conflict we are implying that there is already a conflict of direction even though a clash may not yet have occurred. There are a lot of types of conflicts : intrapersonal conflict, interpersonal conflict, emotional conflict, group conflict, organizational conflict,community conflict, intra-state conflict, international conflict, environmental resources conflict, intersocietal conflict, intra-societal conflict, ideological conflict, diplomatic conflict, economic conflict, military conflict and religious-based conflict.

Emotional conflicts are related to psychology. So, what is emotional conflict? It is the presence in the subconscious of different and opposing emotions relating to a situation that has recently taken place or is in the process of being unfolded, accompanied at times by a physical discomfort and in particular by tension headaches. Situations which cause emotional conflicts can be every day occurrences which might seem at the time unimportant. These inner emotional conflicts can sometimes result in physical discomfort or pain, often in the form of tension headaches, the duration of which can range from a few minutes to days and in some cases even months, but would normally be a few hours. These tension headaches can be episodic or chronic, with episodic normally occurring less than 15 days a month, and chronic occurring 15 day or more a month and sometimes stretching over a few months. The pain associated with Tension headaches is normally mild to moderate, but can be severe.

Queues psychology

First of all, queues are a part of everyone of us life. Queues are everywhere, from waiting in the market to waiting in the bank. When people are waiting they get bored, get stressed and lose their temper. Many studies show that each minute travelling on the bus lasts as long two or three minutes waiting for the bus in the queue. In other words, they waist their time!

For this reason, there is queues psychology. They try to reduce these bad feelings as much as possible. Psychologists use very different ways. For example, music, mirrows, animation on tv's, or puts different magazines. Customers didn't view the time waiting in the queue as "empty" or lost time, but rather as part of an entertainment experience.

I believe that every one of us, must understand something about queues psychology and how it works, because it would help you to divert your attention from waiting in line!

Emotional Intelligence

First of all, what is "Emotional intelligence"? The definition of it says that it is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, learn from, manage and understand emotions and often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient or EQ. I found that one psychologist S. Hein written that each child enters the world with a unique potential for these components of emotional intelligence:
1. Emotional sensitivity
2. Emotional memory
3. Emotional processing and problem solving ability
4. Emotional learning ability.
Also the way we are raised dramatically affects what happens to our potential in each of these areas. For example a baby might be born with a very high potential for music - he or she might be a potential Mozart -but if that child's potential is never recognized and encouraged, and if the child is never given the chance to develop their musical potential, they will never become a talented musician later in life. The world will then miss out on this person's special gift to humanity.
On the other hand, a child being raised in an emotionally abusive home can be expected to use their emotional potential in unhealthy ways later in life.
Because of these possibilities, we can make a distinction between a person's inborn emotional potential versus their actual emotional skills and use of emotional intelligence later in life. We can use the term "emotional intelligence" only for a person's inborn emotional potential.

My future profession

My future profession is very interesting. It's related with helping people and understanding yourself. It's psychology.
In fact, I chose this prefession, because it looks very different from all other professions. It's quite new in Lithuania, but I hope that in future it will be more popular than now. In my opinion, psychology is very necessary in all spheres.
I hope that by studying it, I'll learn a lot about human behaviour, mimics, the meaning of body language, mental process, how people think, how to help people with psychological problems and so on. At 1st term, I haven't known a lot about my profession, just main things about what is psychology, but I hope that I'll know much more this term and next year about it.
But on the other hand, it can be very hard to find a job in the future, because psychology sphere is not popular and it is not progressing so fast. Some psychologist works other jobs, even if they have high education. For example: as social workers, bussinesmans and so on. Our Psychological lectorer last term said that just 3 people who finished studies with him work as psychological specialist. But I believe that in future this profession will be very popular.