Memory Improvement. Is that Even a Thing?

Memory Improvement has long been in line with "Badam Khao" in our culture. I am not an expert or dietitian to suggest how wonderfully this works but in Psychological Researches there has been some conclusions and suggestions to improve your memory. Most of the strategies listed below might not be new to you, but what makes this article different is the evidence of a research and evaluation attached, to have you concluded what memory strategy is the best.

1. Repetition: "Practice makes a man (AND WOMAN OFC) perfect". This is too old to be new. the more times information is memorized, the more accurate your recall is and hence, less time it takes to re-learn just in case if you ever forget in life. That's why your mamma has always been saying to you before exams: REVISE MORE THAN ONCE. 
   In Psychological Research, Ebbinghaus and Linton has been pioneers to study the repetition phenomena. They found out the greater the number of repetitions the less time it took to re-learn the lists. since the majority of the material was lost within the first day, perhaps the best time to test memory is after that time delay. Furthermore, everyday memories lasts longer if they are occasionally remembered.
   Now before you start repeating and memorizing every xyz you want to, remember that Ebbinghaus only tested himself and used nonsense syllables. You're different from Ebbinghaus and certainly have meaningful syllables or rather your exam syllabus to learn about, no? Advertisers and Psychologists have found that simple verbal repetition is not very effective. Bekerian and Baddeley found that frequently repeated radio information did not produce strong memory
   
2. Elaboration: Ever heard of "Words makes you think a thought?!". Information to be remembered should be made as meaningful as possible. New material will be remembered better if it is integrated with existing knowledge and if it is richly associated with other information. Remember your Mamma saying, "Samajh k yaad karo beta"
   In Psychological Research, Craik and Tuiving found deep semantic level processing increased recall. Morris et al, found that football fans recalled a list of football results far better than non-football fans. The fans' interest and knowledge made the scores more meaningful and deeply processed. Ley found out that patients remembered medical information better if they had existing background medical knowledge.
   In terms of its efficacy, its definitely productive. But all you gotta do is do the extra effort such as keep your phone aside or chats deactivated while reading or learning something, before your mamma shouts "Dehan aur Demagh kahan hota hai tumhara?" Because without Dehan and Demagh you can't make sense of things, can you?
   
3. Memory Cues: Mmhmm, recalls a song from 10 years ago and entire Pandora box of memory opens? Well that song was a cue for you to those memories. often memorizing cues or memory jogs will help access to large amount of information. Recreating a condition under which material was learnt can act as a trigger to memory.
   Tulving and Pearlstone found that cues such as category headings could improve recall of lists of words under those headings. Godden and Baddeley showed how state or context could act as a powerful memory jog when testing driver's recall of material under water and on land.
   Remember VIBGYOR OR ROY.G.BIV for violet, indigo, blue, green ....for colors in rainbow? Yes, that's the power of the cue. Now, start figuring out ways for memory cues to be written/identified for your upcoming exam.
   
4. Organisation: Information is better remembered if it is presented in a structured way. That's why all your text books are organized in chapters (Wait, how long that you open up a text book?!). The structure may aid recall (nerd in your class might say: "Oh I remember it was in chapter 2!") by linking information in a meaningful way, grouping or ordering material more manageably or by taking advantage of the mind's existing ways of representing knowledge (for example in semantic categories). 
   In Psychological Research, Bousfield found in free recall studies that information is automatically organised in Long Term Memory in semantic clusters. Bower et al., found higher recall for words organized in meaningful hierarchies. Miller showed how the capacity of Short Term Memory can be improved by organizing/chunking information into larger meaningful units, while many studies have supported the primacy/recency effect where word order affects memory.
   
5. Improving Consolidation: Memory can be improved by limiting disruption to it (Through preventing interference) or by strengthening it. Now you know you can't learn anything when its too noisy or why your mamma say to keep phone aside or why libraries are made or why actual study group works. (By actual study groups i meant those who study not a get together for party.)
   Jenkins and Dallenbach found memory was less disturbed if material was learnt before going to sleep while McGeoch and MacDonald found interference effects were greatest if two sets of information were learnt close together in time and were similar. Also, caffeine may also help in strengthening whatever you're learning indirectly by increasing attention, or via a state dependent effect. (Coming this from a Caffeine dependent Shrink, Ha!) 

As A Psychologist I Better Know?

As a psychologist I know better..

I’ve begun to know things better and understand that none of us gets to chose our sorrows. We can’t make ourselves want what we want, chose what’s good for us or what’s good for our loved ones. We don’t even get to chose what we are or what we become.

Because as a psychologist I understand that life is a catastrophe. I don’t care what you say or how often you try to persuade me that life is some awesome bed of roses-let me tell you. Let me tell you, what I understand of life. It’s the basic fact of existence of trying to feed ourselves twice a day, find work, find friends and whatever else we do—is a catastrophe. It’s sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins, broken hearts and fragile egos. Life is no way forward but old age. Life is no way but death. You can’t escape from old age, sickness or death. And yet all of us breeds, drag more innocent creatures to suffer through sorrows of life until they too pop out new fodder for the grave.

As a psychologist I have seen boring jobs, failed marriages, breast enlargements, hip replacements, hair loss, colostomy bags at the hospitals and lonely cups of the coffee. Yet people played and gambled, golfed and planted, had sex and trade, did yoga and drive, cried and fussed over their children, decorated their homes and gossiped about neighbours, founded charity organisations and supported corrupt people, signed in to every social media platforms and traveled and dined and entertained in every direction to forget: where they are, what they are. As a psychologist, I see it’s rotten from top to bottom.

I am sure you’ll stop me here to say, ‘Hey! I know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing being a psychologist here’ My dear reader, we are in it together. Life is a same catastrophe for everyone-so if you’re in the sorrows you don’t get to chose-can we turn away? Stop our ears to hear about it all with a wax? Ignore all questions our heart screams on us? Or wait, I am a psychologist-I better throw my head into a laughing pit because no sorrow is a sorrow in wit and wisdom of a shrink!

For humans, doctors I rather say-there’s no mercy. They live a while and they fuss with their life at the hands of  immunity against disease they cured other patients for, the bankers too rot in ground like garbage when in debt, teacher—even teacher don’t know everything. All of this startles a new flavour of despair in you, no?

Why am I complaining when I know nobody’s in charge to take care of it? But does it make sense to you when it’s bad it’s bad for all of us. Most Happiest of us, most intelligent of us, most beautiful of us.

I want you to hear that as long as I (psychologist) live, I’ll instill hope in people against a catastrophe life is known for. But people (you) in their lot, small and easy ways deprive us of  everyday kindness. Amidst heart wrenching circumstances I’d miss out on the ‘kindness’. Rather the word kindness sounds like farther at a distance of unconsciousness, trying to rise into hospital awareness of voices at the beeps of digitized machines attached to arms and legs and heart.

I’ll end in the words of Pessoa, ‘The Slave of my own character as well as of my circumstances, offended not only by other people’s indifference but also by their affection for whom they think I am—-such are the human insults heaped on me by destiny’

Read Beyond Words: Portrayed Mental Disability in Young Adult Literature

Young Adult literature facilitates an ideal opportunity to examine ourselves in context of our interests, issues and global challenges reflecting contemporary fears and future concern. That’s to say, book serve as mirror when reader finds it familiar to the world they have experienced. Reader identifies himself as not being isolated in his lived experience. However, novels unlike reader’s experiences are termed as windows in which there’s an opportunity to look through other people’s life with an understanding what it is like to be someone else. Windows and mirrors create ways for readers of all levels of mental health to either acknowledge their experience or to be aware of people’s life in an abusive environment or with mental pathology. 

The growing number of novels being published that portrays mentally disability protagonists highlights an existing interest and demand for a discussion about mental disability, offering a large platform with diverse perspectives.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher andWhen we Collided by Emery Lord have been selected to consider the emerging themes of a mental disability along the lines of parental relationships and/or friendships. These themes offer substantial areas motivate a reader to develop an insight about how efficiently issues are depicted in a novel. Recently, several young adult literature have been adapted on electronic media increasing its accessibility, availability and preference.

Picture Credits: Awaisha Inayat

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

All the Bright Places touches upon neglected parenting and how the complete absence of parenting causes a distorted image-of-self. Throughout the novel, Finch suffers from Bipolar Disorder, yet is given no help from his divorced parents. Finch conceives in his mind his father wants nothing to do with him and has already replaced his children with his second wife’s kids.

Finch creates an identity of being replaceable based on his relationship and interactions with his father. When Finch kills himself, his father acts completely shocked, showing how far removed he is from Finch’s life and feelings. He allows his identity to be shaped by his father instead of turning to other relationships to see how he could mold his identity based on interactions with people who truly care about him, like Violet. This shows the power of parental interactions and how characters take their parental figure’s views of them seriously and form their identity based on their interactions with these figures, either positively or negatively. In Finch’s case it was definitely negative.

Violet in All the Bright Places also recognizes the importance of parental guidance and supervision. After losing her sister in a car accident, Violet is lost in life and only goes through the motions day by day. Her parents’ sense these directionless and hopeless attributes because Violet used to be optimistic, involved in many extra-curricular activities and always spending time with her friends. Violet feels like she lives in a different world from her parents until Finch helps her realize what her parents’ love actually means.

For most of the novel, Violet cannot understand why her parents are so obsessed with her well-being and wanting to make sure she leaves the house and starts writing again like she used to. How invested her parents are in making Violet happy again is apparent to Violet by the end of the novel and she begins to mold her sense-of-self off of her parents once Finch has died. By understanding how to love unconditionally, even in desperate situations when no amount of help seems to be the answer, Violet sees how the parental role creates an identity in her and the children of other parents.

Violet places herself in the shoes of her parents and creates a sympathetic identity that contrasts her initial belief that no one could help her or understand her sadness in the loss of her sister. She can now comprehend what it means to be a parent and love so selflessly, even in the midst of tragedy and when that love is not reciprocated. Even in seemingly hopeless situations, Violet still conveys love because of the love she is shown by her own parents.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Parental interactions and family are pivotal in adolescent’s life because every character has parents, whether present or not. Parental interactions can be easily understood by the reader because of the universal notion that everyone has a set of parents. Parental failures to attend their children are not only limited to the aspect of understanding them but are also tied to the economic challenges that plagues middle class family described in 13 Reasons Why.

In the book 13 Reasons why Hannah Baker is a white middle class high school student who suicide. She as one half of novel’s two voiced narrative explains her reason for suicide and possible role people played in their suicide through cassette tapes she had emailed before suicide.

Clay who is the first recipient of the tapes confuses him because he believes he has always been a good friend to Hannah. As Clay looks for answers for her suicide, Hannah’s story of bullying behavior and exclusion raises questions about complicity and the consequences of cruelty.

In her taped-retelling of her decision to suicide, Hannah also mentions the financial pressure her parents face when their business begins to fail. Though her tapes make clear that many factors, and people, led her to suicide this distance with her parents makes such issues all that much harder to bear. When her mother fails to notice the haircut, she connects this with other examples in the novel where people have failed to see her, see her pain and offer help.

Parent-child relationships in all of the novels reflect contrasting intentions: these young protagonists crave parental love, devotion, involvement, and admit they need it. Whereas they also push parents away to figure life out on their own while also believing that parents are misfit in their social worlds, “the real world” that they reside in is far from the love and protection of parents and home.

Adolescence is a period of human life when the brain, still more intensively than before, learns to recognize and attribute mental states to ourselves as well as other people. The unpredictability of the adolescent stage in life is very much a product of how we are raised and the society that brought us up. Parents contribute to this atmosphere immensely with their interactions or lack of interactions. Attributing mental states deals with identity in that image-of-self is formed by how these interactions with parental figures either build up or destroy self-image.

When We Collided by Emery Lord

In the book When We Collided features one of the dynamic characters of young adult literature: Vivi Alexander who in her own words is describes as, full of “fight and art and entire swirling galaxies”. Her empowering quotes throughout the novel promote a positive self-love. She is also wonderfully unapologetic about both her personality and her disability.

Vivi had been diagnosed with bipolar II disorder before the events of the story took place, though readers do not know this until after several chapters. Visiting Verona Cove for the summer, she meets Jonah Daniels, and the two quickly fall in love. It certainly begins with the rather typical summer love story, complete with an instant connection, dramatic gestures of love to celebrate Vivi’s birthday. Yet novel also goes deeper into an exploration of mental health that takes precedence over the admittedly addictive love story. In fact, Vivi is not the only one with a disability.

Jonah’s large family is recovering from the loss of his father, and his mother has had a particularly difficult time dealing with it. Throughout the story, Jonah worries that her grief has turned into clinical depression since she has seldom left her room in the past six months, while responsibility for running the home and family restaurant shifts to Jonah and his older siblings.

As Vivi and Jonah begin dating, her energetic personality wins the hearts of his siblings, and the two explore their relationship, Jonah’s grief, and various family struggles. Vivi’s more obvious mania begins after she decides to find and contact her father, whom she has never met before. When she realizes that he has had an entire life—complete with wife and children—without ever trying to get to know her, she understandably struggles to come to terms with her discovery. This encounter is not necessarily the cause of Vivi’s mania, as she had suddenly bought a Vespa a few days before spontaneous decisions being another suggestion of mania but it does contribute to the extremes of Vivi’s emotions, resulting in a few days of sadness followed by another mood shift. She ends up crashing her Vespa, resulting in an emergency trip to the hospital, where her mood is stabilized and her broken arm and ribs are treated. By the end, Vivi and her doctor can loosely recreate the timeline as events which occur before the summer “depression, hypomanic episode in March, depression after the hypomanic episode,”— and events during her time in Verona Cove—“then new medicine and manic again”

Jonah for the most part accepts Vivi for who she is, without trying to change her although he does argue with her over some of her more overenthusiastic actions. However it effectively reveals the romanticized trope before showing a more empowering alternative, one which does not erase disabled uniqueness but rather supports it.

Vivi also directly addresses an instance when Jonah misunderstands the depression of his mother. Recognizing that Jonah views his mother as disempowered because of her illness, Vivi points out his biasness by emphasizing how important it is to listen to disabled people. Though the two ultimately break up when Vivi moves back to Seattle after the summer, neither of them regret their relationship. Vivi decides it must end both because of the distance and because she knows that as she continues to adjust to her bipolar disorder, she cannot be affected by someone else’s life. Though heartbreaking to read, Lord positions the reader to respect and embrace Vivi’s decision to place her mental health over a relationship.

These characters have thus achieved balance: without forgetting that hard challenges will always exist, they can still move forward towards making their lives and their world a better place. These characters do not hide behind the presentable or normative moments of their daily lives but are empowered by the entirety of the disabled experience.

Instead of keeping mental disability or social distress a stigmatized and a taboo topic, discouraging its discussion at an institutional level (family, schools) would not lessen its reading rather it will end up in being read and not addressed or supervised. Rather, discussions over social distress through these books will be an excellent way to help address adolescents and young adult issues which otherwise would is difficult to spoke about generally in Pakistani context.

While all readers should be aware of empowering themes in young adult disability novels, students and educators in particular can create more inclusive classrooms by addressing disabilities and challenges associated. One of the concerns for educators, scholars, and authors is their own disability status, particularly if they hope to include a disability perspective but feel unsure about their ability to approach it effectively. The subject of disability is thus an important topic for all students who have encountered societal norms. Literature is also a powerful social force and conversation starter about mental health and distress awareness. Dealing with challenges to one’s mental health is thus should not be an occasional experience, and educators have a responsibility to include such perspectives in curriculum. It is thus important to recognize that educators play a key role in the empowerment and appreciation for disability which has been the central idea of this article.

(Dear Readers, The following article is originally published at Safety and Security Today (Quarterly Magazine: Apr-June 2019)/ Furthermore, the main idea of the following article has been one of my research work which is published at Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities with my Supervisor Dr Saima Masoom.) 

Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom came to me as a strong recommendation long time back. I am super proud of myself for having it read before 2018 ends, that too in just few hours. The book instantly became one of my favorites with really 5/5 stars.

As the Cover of the book says, "'An old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson", the book begins when an old professor Morrie Schwartz is diagnosed with fatal disease ALS. After seeing his professor first time on TV after 16 years Mitch reminisces the memories he had with his teacher, he after a lot of thought decided to meet him and their meetings were then being held on Tuesdays. Both the teacher (Morrie) and student (Mitch) discussed different aspects of life in fact in the words of book: subject was meaning of life and was taught from experience and the last class of  old professor had only student and that was Mitch.

However, while reading this particular book review you might think of DOZENSSS of self-help book you came across, THOUSANDSSS of self-help quotes you get to see everyday and SO MANY other venues where life's various aspects are being discussed, you might then think of this book as ONE OF THEM. While writing this book review, this is where i want to make it clear how this book came different and in this particular genre this is definitely recommended.

Morrie has discussed various aspects of life like Death, Family, Emotions, Fear of Aging, Money, Love, Marriage, Culture and Forgiveness with such optimistic reality that too as a dying man. He confessed whatever he has done, suffered, enjoyed in the life he had and how every moment had given him a different perspective even at the time he knows he''ll be a prisoner in his own body (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) causes the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles.)

The book is a short read, no hardcore philosophies written with the simplest of language that you will feel either two people are talking or probably there's teacher talking to you. The teacher in the book also focused on how materialistic culture has made us self-centered, weakening the human connection and how strong bonds with love and affection can help us cope up hardest of life's battles. (also as a psychologist i felt i am reading Carl Rogers or Erich Fromm in simple language :p)

here comes one of my favourite quote mentioned in the book. 

my most favorite quote of the book was "In business people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want, may be you're used to that. Love is different, Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own".The book on many occasion reminded me  of my mother and then the reminder "death ends a life, not a relationship" took me to such depths of inspiration and how much i need to work up on myself. However, this particular book excerpt caught me, the point where i took half hour break from the book :P (See the image below)

With this book, i have successfully read 9 books in  2018.  ((Happy dancing!!))

if  you want a review for any other book, mention it in a comment box below.

One last thing add me on Goodreads, you readers https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/18030438-awaisha-inayat

Book Review: Sapiens-A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens- A Brief History of Humankind by Dr Yuval Noah Harari

If I am to ask how was the history of humankind written in this book, i'll conclude in words of Charles Dickens "It was the best of times, It was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, It was the age of foolishness"

One of the last few chapters of the book states "....Humans cut down forests, drained swamps, dammed rivers, flooded plains, laid down tens of thousands of kilometres of railroad tracks and built skyscraping metropolises. As the world was moulded to fit the needs of Homo Sapiens, habitats were destroyed and species were extinct. Our once green and blue planet is becoming a concrete and plastic shopping centre" Where as the book begins with the Cognitive Revolution of Humankind:

The screenshot was sent by a beloved friend Capt. Tahir Khattak. We both started reading together and all along the way i had to send a pirated print image of a page to get to see the beautiful color e-copy he was reading from, and of course persuasion all along to shift from hardcopy (NEVER HAPPENING).

I am an amateur reader of this genre, however, this book came as a surprise observation that it was picked by even those who generally don't even have time to read. It's too soon for me to say this book is one of the masterpiece of anthropology. It talks about humankind (home sapiens) revolution in the context of Cognitions, Agriculture, Science with in the framework of Genes, geography, psychology, religion, ideas, philosophy, economics, culture, community, conflicts and on and on. 

The book on many incidences challenges our thinking, provokes a new train of thought where as at some pages i felt that the argument being done is totally futile. (I believe, that's the case with every book-you don't agree 100%, do you?) But the book comes under the category of must-read, without a doubt. 

Personally, i absolutely loved Harari's intake on our ability to communicate (part of cognitive revolution) and capitalism. We learn better through gossips and spin fictions along the way (concept of shared myths) precisely on money, religion and power: forces which unites and divides the humankind. His explanations of the shared favors, barter failure and economies are a wonderful read. Empires which started off as communities were fruitful for sapiens lodging but turns out to be horrific in their existence, making earth's habitat a living hell. He also brilliantly defines how politics and economics are simply two sides of a same coin, and how world in it's macro view affects EVERY individual's survival and wellbeing in large.

There's also a chapter of happiness. In this chapter, just like many, Harari gave no conclusion but posed such powerful questions that you stare and ponder. Questions like why are we here? what does our happiness mean? As a reader, considering which event in history had a significant impact on mankind: war, famine, conquests, advent of religion and ideologies, industrialization, communication revolution, technology, science..? As soon as you end the book you might not come with the answer but you will realise from where we started to where we are heading towards.

My most favorite parts of the book were Part 3 (The Unification of Mankind) and Part 4 (The scientific revolution), then came Part 1 (the cognitive Revolution). I honestly found The agricultural revolution a drag. You may disagree (because you have a right to do so). Since i promised, there will be no spoilers, there aren't because while reading you'll realize you know everything what's being written here YET YOU DON'T KNOW. 

My rating: 4/5. Next to-read: Home Deus-A brief history of tomorrow.

Mere Lahore Par Bhi Ik Nazar Kar

Mere Lahore Par Bhi Ik Nazar Kar.

(Have a glance On My Lahore also)

I have always loved traveling but past month Lahore came as a surprise. I received a whatsapp message on 2nd of June about a conference on Psychology being held in Lahore in collaboration with Punjab University, Riphah University (Lahore campus) and Bahria University (Karachi Campus). Considering it one of those random notifiers, i informed all the people whom i thought would likely attend, uploaded on WhatAapp status and slept. Waking up on 3rd June, i was being asked by my supervisor for not considering this opportunity for myself. With no excuses being accepted by supervisor, on 4th June i found myself struggling with my research paper with the abstract submission deadline literally around the corner. I with all the confirmation of my paper being rejected, submitted the abstract 2 minutes before the deadline (Considering it was Ramadan, i had work and bla).

Theme of The Conference was "Impact of Global Challenges of Mental Wellbeing" happened on 6th and 7th July

All the habits of under-estimating myself  were down the drain when i was notified that my abstract has been accepted (as it is-without single error. Sometimes conference demands to make likely changes depending on your content, clarity etc of your research topic) and my nervousness of packing and asking for leave from workplace (i was on probation period at new workplace) started. Then before leaving i had to check Truck load of assignments and Researches of students as well as make papers for semester's final in July. I wasn't afraid of traveling or accommodation at Lahore. PIA's service for traveling and PU executive hostel was booked for 4 nights. 5th July was for pre-conference workshop (CBT, NLP and Play Therapy were the topics)
Funfact: entire attraction for attending conference was Dr Zainab Zadeh from Bahria-Karachi and Dr Salma from NUST-Islamabad.

WITH HUGE ENCOURAGEMENT, SUPPORT AND MOTIVATION FROM MY SUPERVISOR DR. SAIMA, I was ready to fly on 4th July. It rained cats and dogs and apparently Niagara Fall was discovered day before i was due traveling in Lahore. However Rutaba's and Abeer's constant support from Lahore came about with an assure-ty that i'll reach my hostel even if it kept on raining. 4th came and of course Airport's entire attraction was Coffee Planet.

Never understood the fact that Coffee Planet is on Karachi Airport but not otherwise in entire city. 

Without a difficulty I reached Lahore and hostel with literally no hours of waiting. It's worth mentioning the fact that Punjab University's new campus was  just not big enough but well-facilitated and well-managed. Being a Karachite the huge attraction  was greenry in entire campus (entire city as well). However, with just being 10 minutes in the hostel room i realized my accommodation is not liveable. My room had swimming pool nearby, all kinds of sport and good eating facilities, conference venue on walking distance, entire New Lahore was just out the campus gate, Abeer nearby, Rutaba being in PU, my room had TV, AC, Fridge bla bla and still it wasn't liveable. I have Lizards Phobia and entire campus was full of Lizards with the ENOURMOUS GREEN COLOR SIZE i have never seen about in my life. Inside the Room lizards wandering about a speed of Cheetah. I almost had a panic attack, with screams so loud that accommodation manager came about to see the matter himself. He came with a good news that since it has just rained in entire city, campus being green isn't just full of lizards but also with Chameleons.  He encouraged me to be brave, and be like other conference members who somehow found the place liveable. However considering my physical condition of intense sweating, paleness on face and anger, he assured me to have a solution out.

Almost after 10 minutes i found myself leaving for a hotel nearby hostel. Being out of the room till sitting in car i was given a farewell by two chameleons, one of them crossed by, one on the tree and two lizards over the speed of cheetah went over my feet. I have no pictures of campus whatsoever even during conference because i had no courage to leave the auditorium except to dine in areas for lunch/tea. From Hostel, Hotel was a savior and perfect accommodation till the moment i left for Karachi.

Anyways, The first night in Lahore was a perfect drizzling-rainy night to roam about, and it took me long enough to be in senses. Went to Gloria Jeans nearby, and coffee helped.

5th June, i still had no courage to went back to campus and attend the workshops. Also it's important to see the workshop agenda closely, i am in field for past 2.5 years and the workshop being held were simply introductory/time-money waste for person like me but fruitful for students otherwise. Hence i with friend decided to roam about a city. We Started the day too soon with Capri famous Nashta. It was the Capri which gave me instant reminder about Lahore's crowd. They'll stare you to bones inside and would make you so uncomfortable with no sense of personal distance whatsoever. Initially, you'll find it pretty awkward but slowly you'll be immune to it (not about the physical distance though). I had a plan to go to Old Lahore this day however considering how the locals will treat us with that stare, most we could touch was Lahore museum in the Old City. While Traveling all the way from Mall Road, i was awe-struck over the fact that despite crazy rains day-two ago, Lahore was clean, clear, running and happening, where as Karachi in similar circumstances is mostly shut down for 24-48 hours.

Lahore Museum is worth to visit. However, over there on a weekday, early in the morning i felt i am in China. There were no local visitors at that time except Chinese who took our pictures and were roaming about comfortably. Lahore museum has a century old history, founded in 1865 during British Colonial Period and we were told that it is the largest Museum of Pakistan (Must-Visit if you are into hertitage/vintage stuff). The collections in the Museum dates back from the Indo-Greek, Buddha, Mughals and Hindu Shahi Period. From the Akbarnama to the original scripts of Persian Quran to coins, pottery, weaponry, fine arts, ethnology the place was worth a visit. The museum was also under construction/renovation for the periods of pre-independence and post independence era.

Picture Credits, Yours Truly. Phone wasn't allowed inside hence the scenes were huge miss to snap

The old age colonial buildings are a sight to die for. 

From there on, we decided to move to  Bahria Town. There's huge distance from Old city to Bahria town, but when you're in the city, there's absolute pleasure in sight-seeing with people carrying about lives and you observing them from a distance. Often we had a discussion with drivers on upcoming election and i could sense tabdeeli coming. I love to roam about on foot. Weather was cloudy enough to be on foot however Lahore's crowd couldn't convince them to be on foot. However we were on foot in Bahria from Eiffel Tower to Grand Jamia Masjid to nearby Cafes but let me tell you it was the most boring place to be on foot.

Went till top, weather was cloudy and apparently lift guys forgot to bring us down. Until of course they saw us on top. Also, you'll get a student discount to go on top. 

Grand Jamia Masjid. It was interesting to see a throwball court inside the mosque. Probably the idea of Holistic Education being Promoted In Madarsah?

The Bahria Town also had a sight of Egypt's Cleopatra. I have a habit of forgetting to snap when i am enjoying a little too much. Cafes inside were almost the same we have in Karachi with same burger pizza stakes serving. Hence we decided to go all the way to some local underrated place for tasty ribs and upon reaching we found out it was closed for renovation. We  then decided to stick with local lobia chawal with loads of salad and dahi for lunch at mall road. Followed by Tawa Tikka and other tasty BBQ from other local food ventures in Dinner. The best part are the naans. Karachi can't serve the type of kulchay and naans are in Lahore. However, i craved for good dhaba chai in Lahore and failed, alas.

The day of Conference Came. I was surprised to find out the potential of local researches in scientific sessions. There's a wave of developing and validating Pakistan-based tools for Psychological assessment, screening or research in Islamabad especially and Lahore. Academicians from entire Pakistan came, psychologists and intellectuals under one roof for two days was a sip of relief for the thirsty soul. The address from the speakers were thought provoking especially from Dr Anis Ahmed who's concentration was Deviance among masses from following majority-authority philosophy. In his own ways he focused on "Jaam khali nahee rehte kabhee soqraton (Socrates) k" to provoke us to think and work in ways beyond.  My contribution was on the second day of conference at Riphah International University.

Again the credit and immense support came from Dr Saima and my entire department.

Many  people asked me about my outfit. Hence courtesy: Limelight and Sulafah

The Old city roaming was a hit mainly to badshahi masjid and Heera Mandi foodstreet. From Colonial buildings to colored old age buildings to butt ki karahi, haveli and ribs, it was worth everything.  Found  Emporium mall a lot better in other malls, Packages mall was uselessly huge and boring to walk-a corridor walk honestly. Another Unfortunates for the rest of the two days were Cuckoo's Den being occupied for some model shoot *Cried a river*

 


Finally we decided to also give a try to local cafes and Arcadian Cafe came on top. From Ambiance to Quantity, Quality and Budgeting, it was 10/10. for beef lovers their drunken noodles are on top most, taste you could crave for and a must try menu. I had coffee planet almost everyday i was out. Had no shopping except a book from Liberty because coffee planet and liberty were always together (Also, Lahore has more book places and shops accompanied by SO many coffee places-rightly to conclude Lahore being the heart of Pakistan). O City of Lahore, May your Liveliness perpetuate forever.

I have had several meetups planned and i couldn't do anyone of them due to shortage of time. However, the break wasn't just traveling but a plus point for my MPhil in progress. I'd love to encourage academicians to interact with their community nationwide. The exposure of a city to its people and profession that too alone with friends you made and met there isn't just the break but an experience which never comes about in books. No one to accompany you in friends from your city, not a problem.. set your foot, leave and seek out more people in the same boat.

Read, Study, Participate and Travel are my advice for you all this Independence Day.

Normality isn't Problem-Free: Normal Problem Behavior from Infancy to Adolescence.

Children across the world seem to pass through the same sequences of development within the same broad developmental schedule. Although the pattern is generally the same for all children, it is important to remember that each child is different. Different areas of development are interrelated. The ideas, the language, the communication, feelings, relationships, and other cultural aspects among which each child is brought up influence his or her development profoundly.

Children with special needs or suffering from some kind of psychological pathology often seems to dance the developmental ladder as they move through developmental stages in unusual ways. For instance, they might learn to sit and walk on right time but not talk at the usual required age.

However, the question arises whether certain kind of portrayed behavior comes under normal development or is it a pathology?

Psychologists when consulted help out parents in ruling out the normal from the deviant development. Normal development also has some problem behaviors since normality never means problem-free. Many parents or teachers find normal behavior as abnormal or pathological and seems very concerned.

In my professional experience, the following normal problem behaviors were referred to me as pathological by either teachers or parents. The idea for this write up was also conceived through frequently referred cases as abnormal or deviant for which all of us need to know that problem behaviors are inherited in normal development.

In a series of studies conducted by Campbell (2002, 2000), it was found out that half the children in kindergarten through grade two were described as "restless" while another study found out that a similar percentage of 6 to 12 years old were described as "overactive"

Whereas both of these behaviors are part of the syndrome of hyperactivity, it would be incorrect to assume the half of the children were hyperactive since they neither have the clustering nor the intensity and chronicity of problems that would interfere with adaptive functioning. On the other hand, it would be equally foolish to deny that restlessness and over-activity constitute a problem both at home and in school.

Campbell (2002, 1986), over a series of studies classified the following typical normal developmental problems during the infancy, preschool period:

1. The "Difficult" Infant: Some infants are difficult to care. They tend to be irritable, slow to adapt to change in routine, intense and negative in their reactions and irregular in their biological functioning. If cared for sensitively, infants can outgrow this difficult phase, however, if care-takers are impatient and intolerant, or change routines abruptly then chances of behavior problem in later life are increased.

2. The Defiant Toddler: Disciplinary problems and uncertainty about when and how to set limits are the major concerns of parents of such toddlers. In most cases, problems are stage-specific, leaving no residue. However, parental mismanagement, for instance, in the form of over-control may increase the likelihood that problems will develop and persist

3. The aggressive or withdrawn preschooler: Aggressive behavior towards peer is a common complaint of parents and teachers of such preschoolers, with boys being more aggressive than girls. However, as with other behavior problems, there is no need to read warning signs into such aggressiveness unless its coupled with mismanagement by parents or conflicting family situation. Social withdrawal, unlike aggression is relatively rare. There is tentative evidence that the shy, quiet child is less at risk for developing behavior problems than the disruptive one.

The following are the normal problem behavior in adolescents:

4. The Oppositional Adolescent: Adolescents often practice their new higher reasoning skills by engaging adults in debates, arguing persistently and taking an oppositional side over matters that may seems trivial to their parents. Similarly, they are often highly critical of adults (teachers in many case) around them, seeming to intentionally search for differences, contradiction or exceptions to what adults say. Parents or teachers who take personally this excessive fault-finding might experience raising an adolescent as a highly frustrating experience. However, the teenager's argumentativeness is best viewed as a form of cognitive exercise that helps adolescents to develop their critical thinking skills.

5. The Overly Dramatic/Impulsive Youth: The teenage years are a time of heightened emotionally and sometimes, impulsive thinking. Adolescents may appear to jump to conclusions, stating extreme opinions that startle and concern the adults around them. Similarly, adolescents may have a tendency toward over-exaggeration and dramatic because they are experiencing their world in a particularly intense way. While adults may complain that everything seems to be a big deal to teens, to the youths themselves, what is happening in the moment indeed appears dire.

6. The Egocentric Teenager: As adolescents focus inward in order to explore such stage-salient issues as identity, and gender role, they may appear to adults to be excessively "me-centered-person". With time, they can be expected to develop a more reciprocal orientation. Where perspective-talking abilities do not develop naturally, these skills can be taught intelligently by parents as well as teachers.

There are numerous other normal problem behaviors which are present in every culture. A behavior cannot be considered abnormal or pathological until it creates distress for the child or individual (for example a painful symptom) or disability (for example impairment in one or more areas of adaptive functioning). Adaptive functioning can be considered as age-specific routine task in school or at home.

Psychologists can be consulted for both normal problem behavior and pathological behavior. In normal problem behavior, teachers and parents are counselled in managing a child to resolve this issue as well as including child in the process. Whereas for pathological behavior, proper protocol is followed in order to treat or manage the deviant issue. However, it's very important to know the normal problematic behavior which should not be labelled as abnormal or deviant since it can turn out to be dangerous to child's personality and future life.

References:
Campbell, S, B. (2002). Behavior Problems in Preschool Children: Clinical and Developmental Issues. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, 9, 1-26.
Campbell, S. B., Shaw, D.S., & Gilliom, M. (2000). Early Externalizing Behavior Problems: Toddlers and Preschoolers at risk for later maladjustment. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 467-488

The article was originally published in The Proseed Educational Magazine: https://proseedmag.com/normality-isnt-problem-free-normal-problem-behavior-infancy-adolescence/