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@emegareva
hi emegareva, stumbled upon your post as i was searching for mno3330. are u still an undergrad? would like to find out more about that mod!
Hey there! What about the module would you like to know? :) I’ve just graduated from NUS this year and I have to say taking this module is one of the pivotal moments in my student journey, although it wasn’t good for my grades (I SU-ed it lol). Which year and major are you?
NUS AY2016/17 Semester Two (Modules Review)
This is my last time writing a module review in my undergraduate years! =D Assuming I’m going to pass my modules in this semester...
I must have been nuts to take these two modules together in my final semester on top of my thesis. Not a good idea. And you will see why...
In this review, I will be sharing 4 main things: the who (the lecturer), what (the workload), how (to study for exams), and why you should take this module and why should you not. I will also share some thoughts on my life as a year 4 psychology student who has looked beyond grades and into the future in my final year in NUS.
Modules: PL4238, PL4241, PLmajorlife
Just two modules in this semester. Including honours thesis and my involvements in my residential college (i.e. CAPT), life is busy enough that you can start to neglect your studies a bit!
1. PL4238 Social Neuroscience
This module was taught by Dr. Richard P. Ebstein. A google search on him showed that he is an expert in genetics, human biology, and neuroscience, and he bagged a ton of citations and publications in his research endeavour.
The module sounds interesting, right? There was no group work for this module, just 1x essay (60%) and 1x finals (40%, MCQs). As a year 4 who is struggling to finish his thesis and indulging in life beyond academics, I’ve decided to not take modules with group work at all because I want to control my own time and not having to affect others should I decide not to put in the effort to do a good job in the group work.
I should have expected that life in this module will be miserable when 1) there was no course outline provided on IVLE (you never know what is the topic you are going to learn for each week) and 2) friends have been discouraging me to take this module under this professor and to drop it as soon as I can. However, I went ahead with it because and I’m glad I lived to tell this tale.
Dr. Ebstein gave us recommended textbooks for the module. But.. don’t buy them because you never need them anyway, unless for your reading pleasure. His powerpoint slides are dense - more than 100 slides - and one powerpoint deck can last for 3 seminars. In total, we only have 5 powerpoint slides for the module. There was great emphasis on human evolution, as though social neuroscience was all about that. I got bored by his teaching (he reads off the slides and adds in stuffs on the spot) and stopped attending classes after recess week.
oops.
You can write about anything under the sun for the essay. I wrote mine on ASD and emotions regulation in the workplace. (somewhat social neurosciencey I guess?) Do drop an email to the professor to discuss your essay outline so that you know you are on track. I got a 70% for my essay - his comment was that this topic is indeed important, but I did not manage to discuss it properly. To be fair, I did not put in much effort - hitting the minimum of about 5 pages (I had to focus more on my thesis!)
Study his powerpoint slides for the exams. There’s no need to read other readings. His tip on the final seminar was to focus on the earlier part of the module because he set his paper about a month ago and he did not know where he could finish teaching. I did not study the last powerpoint slides and true enough, nothing came out from there. The MCQs are not easy to tackle - either you know it or you don’t. So, study smart, not study hard. Almost the whole class left when we were allowed to leave the exam hall at the one hour mark xD
Would I take this module again? Definitely not under this professor. I’m sorry for the year 3s who took this as their first level 4000 module - it is not representative of the other modules I guarantee!
My final grade: B-
2. PL4241 Exploring Consciousness - Theory and Neuroscience
Another neuroscience module! There were no finals and no group work (initially) for this module, and assessment was only on the essay (75%) and class participation (25%). Later in the module, the prof said that the class participation consisted of a group presentation, while 15% was for essay proposal.
The professor was Dr. Camilo Libedinsky. He is a knowledgeable professor and I think he teaches well for a dense topic. I was engaged in the first few seminars as he touched on the philosophical framework about consciousness - it’s like a revision of what I’ve learnt in philosophy of mind.
The workload is pretty light. You just need to prepare for your own presentation and write your essays. There was no need to prepare for the start of each class - well, you could read the required readings for the seminar which will be talked about by the presentation group.
Similar to PL4238, you can write anything under the sun for the essay, but it has to be related to consciousness. This is a tough topic to tackle, so do arrange consultations with Dr. Camilo to discuss your essay and he will help guide you through.
Would I take this module again? With a sane mind, I know I should not. But since this was the final semester of my university life and I wanted to try out new modules I’m not comfortable with.. I went ahead. Neuroscience and consciousness - they are not easy topics. But I must say that the brain and biology parts in this module is minimal :) If you are thirsty for some philosophy in your psychology, then go for it!
My final grade: B
3. PLmajorlife - overview of my 4 years
I spent 7 out of 8 semesters studying psychology modules, and 1 semester doing the NUS Overseas College (NOC) programme. There was no need to extend my graduation date although I did overload a few modules over the semesters. I had intended to complete a philosophy minor (i already did 4 out of 6 modules) but decided not to overload in my final year in NUS. I read a total of 176 MCs, overloaded in three semesters.
Life was good. I always stress myself out, but I survived at the end. I stayed in CAPT for the first two years of my university life, which was the formative years for me to explore things in university. I’m glad I did my internship with Skillseed (during NOC Singapore) for a good 7 months and then SEP in Amsterdam after that. That allowed me to take a break from the rat race in NUS for a good one year. I was also lucky to return to CAPT for the final year in university, to give back what I’ve learnt in the past three years to my juniors in CAPT.
I was most disinterested in studying in my final year of university. I had the luxury of not having to worry that my degree classification will change despite not putting in much effort to study. I focused my attention to my thesis, as well as setting the foundation of my startup by networking a lot. At the same time I was still running the coffee interest group in CAPT, but stopped having sessions by recess week to focus on my thesis. I had to re-collect data for my thesis because my experiment design was too complex and the data showed no significant results. Not that a significant finding is necessary for the thesis, but I did not control my variables well enough to justify and defend my findings.
Overall, life was good but life was also a tad lonely in school. I enjoyed my weekends spent at home with my family, doing the simplest things such as having a meal together, or simply just staying at home.
-------
Thank you for reading this far and I hope my experiences provided some reference for you to make decisions in university life :) I am heartened to hear from juniors who read my tumblr and then shocked / surprised to later see me in real life and realize we are friends HAHA. I’ve also spoken to random people via private messages and fb messages to share what I have gone through. My journey in university ends here, but learning never stop. If you are reading this, I implore you to follow my startup, Foreword Coffee, where I seek to make a difference to the lives of persons with special needs through coffee. I will be sharing my reflections and thoughts in my startup through a blog you can find at www.forewordcoffee.co. That’s all I have now, till next time - maybe you will see me working as a barista in my cafe, or as a trainer in a coffee workshop =P
All the best in your university life, and feel free to contact me if you need!
Cheers,
Wei Jie
Cups and Your Coffee Experience
One of the most important yet often overlooked part of your coffee experience is the coffee cup. To the customer, the cup often goes unnoticed, especially when it comes in the traditional ceramic cups or the generic plastic/paper cups which you get for takeaways. Customers may not even know how much coffee there is in an 8oz vs. a 12oz. You may not even know how small is a Starbucks “Tall” and how large is a “Venti”.
However, for the barista and the cafe owner, the cup is all about economics and great tastes. Cup sizes affect the amount of ingredients that go into it (your espresso and milk) which therefore affect the recipe of your drink. To a small cafe, not knowing what goes into the cup and not calculating the cost price of each cup of coffee can be detrimental in the long run (you don’t want to make a loss)!
Can you guess the sizes of these cups?
Moreover, the design of cups can subtly influence the perception of the quality of the coffee. The cup sizes you choose to have in your cafe can also influence the behaviour of your customers; conversely, the cup sizes you have in your cafe can attract certain customers. Take Nylon Coffee Roasters for example, they serve their coffee in 3oz, 5oz, and 7oz sizes. By doing so, they are better able to manage the expectations of their customers based on their milk to espresso ratio. A friend of mine, a coffee fanatic, confided in me that he liked to buy the largest cup of coffee (16oz) that can help last him the whole day as he works in the lab. Well, that is a practical consideration for a cup of coffee :)
What about biodegradable / compostable paper cups? Are customers willing to pay more for takeaway cups that are more “sustainable” to the environment? A friend, another coffee fanatic, told me that he is willing to do so because he feels that he is playing a part to save the environment. Most paper cups used for takeaways are not recyclable due to the wax lining that keeps the cup water-resistant. Even if compostable cups are being used, can/will recycling companies recycle them?
In an upcoming cafe that I will be running, I am looking into the ergonomics of coffee cups, how cup sizes affect my recipes, and how best can I encourage a more sustainable consumption coffee culture here in Singapore. For a start, I am looking at procuring biodegradable takeaway cups and to be a stockist of a reusable alternative that looks good and is functional (I believe good aesthetics make a good cup of coffee taste better, heh!). I’ll then look into providing incentives for people to use their own cups for takeaways. I have a hypothesis that people are willing to pay more for a cup of coffee that feels chunkier in the hand for the same volume of coffee - but such customized takeaway cups cost more and could erode the higher potential earnings from customers anyway, especially for a small cafe that doesn’t have the economies of scale.
Which cup do you think has a larger volume?
Have you ever thought about your coffee drinking experience? Do share with me what you think! Or if you have the time.. take a short poll here on how much you think you know about your cups!
Have a good day!
WJ-
Coming soon: fb.com/forewordcoffee
Emotion Regulation in ASD and its application to the Workplace in Singapore
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, henceforth “autism”) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent social communication and interaction deficits, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In the United States and United Kingdom, the cost of supporting a person with autism during his/her lifetime is estimated between US$1.4 million to US$2.4 million (Buescher, Cidav, Knapp, & Mandell, 2014). Although employment serves as one way of reducing the economic costs of autism, labour force participation rate for persons with autism in the United States is only 58% (Roux, Shattuck, Rast, Rava, & Anderson, 2015). Here in Singapore, there are about 50,000 persons with autism, of which about 38,000 are above the age of 19 years old (Autism Resource Centre (Singapore), 2016). More than 50% of graduates from special education (SPED) schools remain unemployed yearly (Ministry of Education Singapore, 2016). Not only do persons with autism have few employment opportunities, underemployment is also a common problem faced by them (Chen, Leader, Sung, & Leahy, 2015; Hedley et al., 2016). Beyond reducing economic burdens, employment play a part in providing cognitive stimulation to persons with autism and reducing the caregiving load on their families. With increasing number of diagnoses for developmental problems such as autism in Singapore (Tan, 2016), it is imperative that more is done to meaningfully engage and integrate persons with ASD into our society.
Prototypical behaviours of persons with autism include throwing tantrums, exhibiting self-injurious behaviours, and having outbursts of emotions, commonly known as “meltdowns” (Berkovits, Eisenhower, & Blacher, 2017; Mazefsky et al., 2013). To the uninformed person, it is understandable to feel uncertainty and fear when interacting with persons with autism. The attitude towards persons with autism held by employers and co-workers is important when hiring and working with persons with autism; when it comes to running a business, employers are concerned about how persons with autism can contribute effectively towards achieving the company’s bottom line. Employers may not be keen to hire persons with autism because disruptive behaviours would affect a company’s productivity; these behaviours exhibited by persons with autism may be in part explained and managed by emotion regulation.
Emotion regulation (ER) refers to a set of processes that people undertake to manage their emotions to suit a given context (Gross & Thompson, 2007; Koole, 2009). It encompasses what we do to modify our emotions, when we do so, and how emotions are felt and expressed (Gross & Barrett, 2011). Few research were done to understand the emotion processes underlying behavioural problems in persons with autism; most studies took on the developmental perspective in trying to understand ER in autism. In a study involving young children between the ages of 4 and 7 years old, a correlation between ER, social and behavioural functioning, and symptoms of autism was found (Berkovits et al., 2017). This suggests that some behavioural problems exhibited in in the early school years could be attributed to emotion dysregulation. Adolescents with high-functioning autism was found to be using similar levels of voluntary, adaptive forms of ER as typically-developing (TD) adolescents, but the autism group was found to be using more maladaptive, involuntary forms of ER as compared to TD adolescents (Mazefsky, Borue, Day, & Minshew, 2014). People with high-functioning autism were also found to be more likely than TD individuals to experience alexithymia (difficulty in identifying and describing felt emotions) and were less likely than TD individuals to reappraise their emotions (Samson, Huber, & Gross, 2012). These studies illustrate the importance of ER in the study of autism and how the understanding of ER can help persons with autism to enhance their daily interaction with people. The rest of this paper will discuss the importance of ER and how the understanding of ER can benefit persons with autism in the workplace.
Emotion Regulation in ASD
The role of ER in autism is not yet clearly understood. One potential explanation for poor ER in autism is that emotion dysregulation is commonly found across many psychiatric disorders and poor ER is an indicator of a comorbid disorder. Maladaptive ER is common to many psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, and borderline personality disorder (Berking & Wupperman, 2012). In a community sample of 10-14 year old children with autism, 70% of them were found to have at least one comorbid disorder and about 40% had two or more (Simonoff et al., 2008). A large controlled study in adolescents with bipolar disorder found that about 30% of adolescents with type 1 bipolar disorder met criteria for an autism diagnosis. Therefore, the presence of ER in ASD is commonly thought to indicate the presence of a comorbid disorder (Mazefsky et al., 2013; Mazefsky & White, 2014).
It could be the case that emotion dysregulation is part of autism and that other cognitive and behavioural characteristics of autism also influence ER in autism (Mazefsky et al., 2013; Mazefsky & White, 2014). Deficits in ER has been found to be related to all core features of autism (i.e. communication deficits, repetitive behaviours, and sensory abnormalities) and repetitive behaviours was found to have the strongest association (Samson et al., 2014). Deficits in the theory of mind (ToM) – the ability to understand that other people have thoughts, desires, and beliefs different from one’s own – was proposed to be related to poor ER (Samson et al., 2012). Persons with autism used less cognitive reappraisal and more suppression than TD individuals, suggesting a link between deficits in ToM and a less adaptive ER ability in persons with autism as compared to TD individuals. Alexithymia has also been identified as a characteristic of autism that interfere with ER (Bird & Cook, 2013). A study with 22 high-functioning children with autism found that children with autism have less developed emotion concepts which leads to reduced capacity to distinguish their emotions within the negative spectrum (Rieffe, Meerum Terwogt, & Kotronopoulou, 2007). The study found that children with autism were as good as the control group in acknowledging emotions of opposite valence within one scenario, but not in acknowledging different emotions within the same valence (i.e. the negative emotions), suggesting that developmental delay is not attributable to alexithymia experienced in children with autism (Rieffe et al., 2007). The ability to acknowledge different emotions within the same valence usually precedes the ability to acknowledge different emotions of different valences. Such differences between persons with autism and TD individuals suggest that emotion dysregulation in the former group has specific characteristics that are unique to them.
Recent studies look into the neural mechanisms and shared risks across disorders, including autism, which could have led to poor ER. A review on longitudinal prospective studies with a focus on autism in siblings found that many children who developed autism exhibited greater irritability and lower positive affect when they were infants (Rogers, 2009). This suggests that general distress or a high baseline for negative affect could play important roles in autism. In one fMRI study, adults with high-functioning autism demonstrated decreased capacity to increase activity of the nucleus accumbens when instructed to think more positively about faces and also decreased capacity to reduce activity of the amygdala when instructed to think negatively about faces (Richey et al., 2015), as compared to a control group of participants. Differences in the emotion processing loop between TD individuals and persons with autism shed light on the underlying mechanisms that contribute to poor ER. Impairment in social-affective processing in autism implicates the medial-prefrontal cortex (mPFC), amygdala, cingulate cortex, and the orbitofrontal cortex (White et al., 2014). By reviewing studies that investigated the neural substrates of ER in autism, White et al. (2014) proposed a causal model that links autism to deficits in ER, which in turn leads to anxiety. Such models serve to help identify the underlying mechanisms of ER impairments in autism and allows a more targeted approach when coming up with a plan to deal with impaired ER in autism.
Three explanations on how ER is conceptualized in autism were discussed above: impaired ER as a shared condition across psychiatric disorders, ER deficits as part of the characteristics of autism, and abnormalities in underlying neural mechanisms leads to impaired ER. Next, we will discuss how autism is managed in the workplace and how an understanding of ER in autism can help employers work with persons with autism.
Autism in the Workplace
Employment provides not just financial empowerment, but also social support and cognitive stimulation for persons with autism. There are several challenges, both internal and external, that serve as impediments to employment for persons with autism (Chen et al., 2015). Two internal challenging factors that could influence employers’ attitude include social difficulties and challenging behaviours exhibited by persons with autism (Chen et al., 2015). In a study which examined young adults with autism in the United States who were enrolled in the National Longitudinal Transition Study–2 (NLTS2), it was found that a having higher functional skills or better conversational abilities was correlated with having a higher paid job, on top of coming from high-income households and being older in age (Roux et al., 2013). Also based on the NLTS2, Chiang, Cheung, Li, and Tsai (2013) found that secondary school graduates with autism and poor social skills were less likely to be employed; the authors recommended for effective social skills interventions to be made available to students with autism to increase chances of employment and participation in the workforce.
One challenging behaviour that is part of the behavioural phenotype of persons with autism is difficulty to cope with change in routines and their environment (Test, Smith, & Carter, 2014). This characteristic could also be seen as a potential for persons with autism to function well in jobs that are repetitive and boring to able-bodied persons. In Singapore, the United Overseas Bank (UOB) hires persons with autism at their Scan Hub where documents such as credit card application forms are scanned and kept (Goy, 2015). Representatives from UOB commented that this hiring initiative has resulted in lower staff turnover rate and increased productivity. A survey based in the United Kingdom highlighted the lack of understanding from employers and staff, and failure to make adjustments in the workplace as main barriers to employment for persons with autism (López & Keenan, 2014).
Finally, a stigma threat towards persons with autism exists in the workplace that could influence the well-being of a person with autism. Milder forms of disorders, such as high-functioning autism, were found to be more stigmatizing than severe forms of disorders (Johnson & Joshi, 2016). Mild autism could be trivialized by employers and co-workers as individuals with mild autism may come across as “normal” in the workplace and behaviours may be regarded as highly disruptive when symptoms of their disorder are exhibited (Johnson & Joshi, 2016). It was recommended for organizations to work with paraprofessionals to learn how to effectively support employees with autism as part of their diversity management programmes, to establish an informal network of support and inclusive norms which would be more beneficial for employees with autism.
Towards a Better Work Experience for Persons with Autism
Few studies look into how the concept of ER in autism can be applied to workplaces although it is recognized that disruptive behaviours resulting from poor ER is a source of barrier to employment for persons with autism. Studies that look at outcomes beyond obtaining employment were few and of poor quality (Hedley et al., 2016); nevertheless, studies have reported improved outcomes in quality of life and improved cognitive functioning for supported employment settings compared to sheltered work employment (Garcia-Villamisar & Hughes, 2007).
Pouliot, Müller, Frasché, Kern, and Resti (2016) devised a tool called “Communication Stories” to help young adults with intellectual disability (ID) or autism to communicate functionally in three domains: comprehension deficits, expressive language deficits, and social language deficits. “Communication Stories” are customized to each young adult’s way of communication, providing a rich account of how employers and co-workers can effectively communicate with them. This tool empowers the young adult with ID or autism, as they are involved in every step of the process when coming up with their own communication story. It also creates that opportunity for employers and co-workers to get to know the young adult intentionally.
Assistive technology (AT) helps level the playing ground for persons with autism in the workplace. Using popular consumer devices such as the iPad, individuals can be trained to use the applications to help them with scheduling, organization, social interaction and leisure enjoyment (Hill, Belcher, Brigman, Renner, & Stephens, 2013). Such AT leads to increased independence and successful employment outcomes and more AT that helps to enhance the daily functioning of persons with autism should be supported and encouraged.
Bringing it all together, in Singapore
There are research that looks at emotion regulation in autism (Mazefsky et al., 2014; Samson et al., 2012; Samson et al., 2014), employability and employment outcomes for persons with autism (Chen et al., 2015; Garcia-Villamisar & Hughes, 2007; Hedley et al., 2016), managing emotions in the workplace (Scheibe & Zacher, 2013), but no research combine these fields to investigate how the capacity of emotion regulation influences work performance of persons with autism. Since ER has been recognized to be important in autism, future research could shed light on this topic.
Information on the prevalence of persons with special needs, or disabilities in general, is scant and not readily available in Singapore. For the first time in Singapore, the latest Enabling Masterplan revealed the prevalence of disability in the population by the age group (Goy, 2016). Prevalence of disabilities increases with age; it is 2.1% in the student population (aged 7 to 18 years old), 3.4% for people aged 18 to 49, and 13.3% for people aged 50 and above. All the research mentioned earlier in this paper were mainly done in the United States or United Kingdom and there were no studies conducted with Asian populations. Perhaps disability is considered a taboo topic in Asian communities and therefore not commonly talked about. There is, however, increasing awareness on creating a more “inclusive Singapore” and there is no better time than now to push forth research in this area (Koh, 2017).
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Samson, A. C., Phillips, J. M., Parker, K. J., Shah, S., Gross, J. J., & Hardan, A. Y. (2014). Emotion dysregulation and the core features of autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 44(7), 1766-1772. doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-2022-5
Scheibe, S., & Zacher, H. (2013). A lifespan perspective on emotion regulation, stress, and well-being in the workplace The Role of Emotion and Emotion Regulation in Job Stress and Well Being (pp. 163-193): Emerald.
Simonoff, E., Pickles, A., Charman, T., Chandler, S., Loucas, T., & Baird, G. (2008). Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: Prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(8), 921-929. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/CHI.0b013e318179964f
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Test, D. W., Smith, L. E., & Carter, E. W. (2014). Equipping youth with autism spectrum disorders for adulthood: Promoting rigor, relevance, and relationships. Remedial and Special Education, 35(2), 80-90.
White, S. W., Mazefsky, C. A., Dichter, G. S., Chiu, P. H., Richey, J. A., & Ollendick, T. H. (2014). Social-cognitive, physiological, and neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation impairments: understanding anxiety in autism spectrum disorder. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 39, 22-36. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2014.05.012
Back; to the future.
In the mood for a thought-full post. It’s amazing how the past four years of university life has shaped me - my thoughts and character. It’s amazing how I went into all the random stuffs, meeting new people that became really good friends, and how I become.
4.5 years ago.
Before I entered the College of Alice and Peter Tan, I went for Eusoff Hall camp. I was accepted into Eusoff, but “chickened out” the day before I’m supposed to check-in to the hall, and applied for CAPT. I did that because I’m privileged to be a recipient of the NUS scholarship, and I realized that FASS helps me to pay for my first two years of stay in CAPT but not for my stay in hall. Therefore, to make economical sense, there is a huge incentive to switch to a newer and zero-cost residential college experience.
4 years ago.
One semester came, one semester (almost) passed. I saw the call to apply for a seemingly “prestigious” programme called the CTPCLP. I needed a testimonial from a professor who knows me well. The only professor who kind of know me at the personal level was the master of the CAPT, because I was a student of her module. She agreed to help me write a testimonial, only after a visit to her office where she wants to ensure I know what I am signing myself up for.
That was my first time in the Master’s office. It’s like a kid being called in to the principal office. A bit nervous. But at the same time confident and ready to tell her why I want to apply for CTPCLP. She told me that my involvement in the CTPCLP is going to cause me to split my focus between CAPT and the CTPCLP and I may not be able to contribute as much to CAPT anymore. I told her I will manage. I will make sure I commit well to both.
She said okay, and she wrote my testimonial.
3.5 years ago.
I already had some inkling about NOC. I think I had some idea about social entrepreneurship. I was eyeing on NOC India because it had a “social” element to it. Yet I also understand that the 6-months programme meant that it was a LOA and no modules will be clocked during that period.
I started to plan my modules ahead. I took 6 modules in my second university semester. Just in case. Just in case I take an LOA for an experience. I don’t want to graduate late. I don’t want.
A chance came for me to visit India. CAPT’s first-ever STEER India. 2 weeks. I succumbed to food poisoning towards the end of the 2 weeks, which continued upon my return to Sg. The trip was good. It was eye-opening. But I treasure my meat - I don’t like eating pasty and veggie stuffs.
I know I won’t apply for NOC India; that was just two weeks, what will I become in 6 months?
3 years ago.
I took the module, “Social Entrepreneurship”. It was fun. It was experiential. It was mind-opening. I scored a B-. I S/Ued it. But most importantly, I told myself
“If I had an idea, the guts, and the money, I’ll want to try starting up a social enterprise”
The seed was planted.
3 years ago.
I saw an advertisement calling for participants for the “Film For Good” documentary filming course by Skillseed, in one of the IRO’s email. It caught my interest because I want to learn, hands-on, to film a documentary. I asked around if any friends would like to sign up with me because there’s a discount if two persons signed up together.
Weeks passed. No one was keen. My heart tells me to go ahead alone.
“Make new friends”
I signed up. I went for the programme.
That was when I learnt about Skillseed and met Huijia, I learnt about Project Give Pray Love and met Jeanine, I met Anderson, and a group of friends I would never have met if I never followed my heart.
2.5 years ago.
It’s my second semester as the Hub Coordinator for the MC Hub in the CTPCLP. It’s my second year as the head of the photography in CAPT. I took 7 modules - including a capstone project. Just in case - just in case I really take an LOA to do something. I never know.
I applied for summer internships. Psychology-related ones. HPB, Mindef, hometeam, etc. There were no positive replies.
I went for the career fair, hoping to look for internships. There I saw the NOC booth.
“Application extended by one day just for this career fair!!”
I asked them about the programmes, but at the back of my mind I had already known what their programmes are about - because I researched. I asked them if I can do an internship with social enterprises. The spokesperson said I can try, but no guarantees.
I was delighted. I quickly went back to CAPT and submitted my application within a few hours.
Application Essay for ILEAD (now NOCSG):
I had a few encounters with people who are entrepreneurs, especially social entrepreneurs, due to a module and programme I went through last year. I took MNO3330 Social Entrepreneurship, and there were many guest sharing session on the work that these social entrepreneurs do. The major project for this module was to come up with a social entrepreneurship proposal, and I got to experience the ideation process to come up with a business proposal that could impact society. Last December, I took part in a programme organized by Project Skillseed, a social enterprise that organizes courses for youths to learn skills that could impact society, and I enjoyed that programme a lot. Through talking to the founder of Project Skillseed, who is open to sharing her experiences and listening to ideas from the participants of Project Skillseed’s programmes, I got to understand more about their motivation behind setting up the enterprise, and how they leverage on every resources and ideas which their employees and participants of their programmes have.
I told my friends that if I had the guts and the resources, I want to be a social entrepreneur. My entrepreneurial aspiration is to come up with a working business model that could help integrate people who are discriminated or disadvantaged in society, to assimilate into mainstream society. I think that ILEAD will be a good first step for me to take, to experience what it is like to work in a startup. I enjoy experiential learning, and I think ILEAD provides me with that opportunity – I would be able to apply what I learn from the TR modules during the work attachment. It will be a meaningful and enriching experience for me :)
2 years ago.
I’m an intern of Skillseed! Did I tell you that I was making a choice between Bettr Barista and Skillseed? I went for the interview with Skillseed first, and then Bettr Barista. Skillseed needed me to give my reply before Bettr Barista could give me their offer. After some considerations, I chose to go with Skillseed and politely declined Bettr Barista - I never got to know if they had wanted me to be their intern or not.
Through my internship in Skillseed, I got to know many many many awesome people.
Yin Zhou, Geylang Adventures.
Debra and Ryan, Society Staples.
Hannah, Engineering Good.
People from The Impact Hub.
Yee Hui, Xin Er, Pey Ling, Hema - my awesome colleagues and friends.
Teachers and students from a chinese school - participants of my “flagship” course I created for Skillseed, with the theme of “Social Innovation”.
And my awesome boss - Huijia :)
The trip to Silicon Valley was great.
My travel buddy, a long-lost-but-found friend, Jeremy, was a good companion :) well, most of the time.
1.5 years ago.
I packed my luggage and left for Amsterdam.
It’s crazy. The first day I touched down, it was cold. very cold. And then at night it rained. And I was hungry. The Singaporeans, we met up for dinner. A miserable one at best, at the Amsterdam Central.
Here, I learnt to drink coffee. More than that. I appreciated coffee. I observed how people interact with each other through coffee. I liked how mothers bring their kids out to cafes while they chat over coffee. I liked how each and every cafe has their unique feel to them. I took the SCAE barista foundation course.
I was inspired to learn more and share what I’ve experienced.
1.5 years ago.
University of Amsterdam. Emotions class. This was where my thesis’ proposal was born. If not for this class, I would not have the time during summer to craft a proposal.
I had four skype sessions during my whole stay in Amsterdam. Four conversations which were quite important.
1. Okay, this isn’t important.. cuz it was a casual chat with Glen hahah.
2. A meeting with my thesis professor :) she accepted me in as her “last” thesis student. I was thrilled.
3. A meeting with Master of CAPT :) It was to discuss how I can further contribute back to CAPT when I return, and my return to CAPT is based on what I can give back to the college. I was granted a space back in this community :)
4. A meeting, and many more meetings, with Adrian. My interview with UNFRAMED, which began my internship and relationship with another awesome boss in my life so far - Larry.
Skillseed gave me the chance to see how a social enterprise work.
UNFRAMED gave me the chance to see how interconnected and vibrant the social enterprise scene is.
1 year ago.
CAPT Coffee Interest Group was born. I was a mediocre in coffee. What I had was some knowledge but lots of ideas. I needed to execute it. And I followed Nike’s motto
Just do it.
I took the opportunity to get the grant to do a pop-up within NUS, brewing free coffee during the NUS World Food Week. I reached out to Naiise, and we held our first public pop-up during Christmas. I reached out to APSN Tanglin school, and we donated our earnings to them.
I got to know the people behind The Coffee Roaster, The Tiny Roaster, Tionghoe Specialty Coffee, Highlander Coffee, Knockhouse Supply Co., Compound Coffee, A.R.C Coffee, and of course not forgetting - Le’clair.
By participating in a random coffee roasting workshop, I got to know Raymond - the guy behind RRFC, and someone whom I still keep in close contact with :) And then there’s Chris from Bicycle Barista who was open to teach me a few things about doing coffee pop-ups :)
My interest group co-head and I, we went to Yunnan. Met the legendary Tim Heinze, who is heading Hani Coffee, spearheading many coffee research and writing many articles for coffee magazines such as Fresh Cup.
.5 year ago.
Anderson and I pitched in the SMU Social Startup Challenge.
We created our first pitch deck over a sleepless night. We made new friends and gained mentorship from a friend-turned-mentor who wish to see us succeed.
I continued to try coffees from around the world, from different roasters: Perk, Hook, Burlap. Dockyard Coffee - his mistake of mailing it to my billing rather than mailing address was my greatest gain, as he contacted me to apologize via whatsapp, and later he introduced me to a group of other home roasters and home baristas where I learn all the tips and tricks of coffee roasting and brewing and sharing and listening in to very very geeky coffee stuffs.
I’ve not yet met any of them in real life LOL.
Anderson and I pitched, again, in the Young Social Entrepreneur Workshop by SIF. We made more new friends. We refined our business idea. We became more confident and held stronger conviction in what we are doing.
Today
Things are taking off really quickly. Sometimes idea just popped into the mind and I know i need to act on them.
I signed up for a course to teach me how to work with adolescents and adults with special needs in the workplace - I’m waiting for SSI to approve my application.
I wrote in an email to SG Enable to ask them about training grant and possibility of leveraging on their expertise - today I received a call from them and was urged to write in a proposal before their grant call closes.
The APSN teachers were following up on our previous meet up with them and they said the principal gave the go-ahead to conduct classes for their students.
Master of CAPT wrote back to invite us to write in a formal proposal for us to use the college’s empty cafe space for our business use - after a few weeks of discussion and consultation with the student body.
What’s ahead?
I’ve pitched my business idea to many people, but the most important person I’ve perhaps not yet convinced is my dad. Between the two of us, I think we are playing the implicit game of persuasion - me trying to show him my intention of doing a coffee business by inviting him to my pitch (my family supported me during the SMU social startup challenge) and visiting cafes in SG; him trying to tell me how difficult running a business is and sharing with me how he thinks pursuing further education is a wise choice when the job market is bad now.
Deep in my heart I respect my parents. I respect my dad for what he has sacrificed for the family. In fact, I look up to him as an entrepreneur himself, back in the past. And I’m banking on the hope that because he knows what it is like to be an entrepreneur, he will give me that support.
Besides, I’m not just running a coffee business - it is a social business I’m doing. If not for the social impact aspect, I’m better off doing something else. I would work for a social enterprise. I could work for a non-profit. I would seek for a job with purpose because I recognize the privilege I am enjoying and how there’s so much ills in the society to be tackled...
Mr Lee Junior spoke during one of the YSE workshops. His words, ringing in my head. “Parents don’t need you to pay them back their money. What do they want? They want you to make them proud.”
I’m not sure if this is sound advice, but I surely hope to gain the support from my family :)
NUS AY2016/17 Semester One (Modules Review)
It’s been a long time since I wrote anything here, and can I say that I’m glad to know that there are people actually reading what I write, and that these information are beneficial to their module planning? It is my pleasure and motivation to know that such information are beneficial to you. I apologize for not responding to my inbox because I don’t sign in often (as you can observe from the frequency of my posts) and I don’t get any notifications either. If you really wish to get in touch with me, drop an email to [email protected]. Yep, that’s my name =P
As I started on this post, I thought it might be good to write a post on my experience being a year 4 student; I’m writing this module review first, so you can check back later for my thoughts on being a year 4.
In this review, I will be sharing 4 main things: the who (the lecturer), what (the workload), how (to study for exams), and why you should take this module and why should you not.
Modules: PL4235, PL4880P, PL4224
Yep, I only take 3 modules this semester because I’m a Year 4 student doing honours thesis (HT). Each module is worth 5 MCs. As a psychology major, you are required to take at least 40 MCs worth of level 4000 modules to graduate with honours.
1. PL4235 The Psychology of Moral Judgement
I knew I had to take this module when I first saw its module title. I had wanted to take it back in Year 3 Semester 1; back then I was doing iLEAD (aka. NUS Overseas College, Singapore), and the difficulty of juggling a full-time internship and doing a module in NUS does take a toll on me. I thought it was best to just leave it to my honours year, so here it is!
The professor for this module is Dr. Nina Powell, who is also my thesis professor (I’ll share my thesis experience in a separate post). This module is conducted in a blended teaching method, which is a fancy way of saying that students are required to ask questions and discuss issues in class, actively. I was participating actively in class and on the forums for the first 3 seminars - thereafter I’m just overloaded by other modules and non-academic commitments to bother with class participation. Besides, the class size of 48 students is not conducive for student discussion - imagine the diffusion of responsibility in class. I had always thought that honours modules would have fewer than 40 students (or better, fewer than 30 students, and therefore no bell-curve in the grading) and I was looking forward to that.. Unfortunate all of my modules have at least 45 students.
The workload for this module is very heavy. A few friends dropped this module after the first seminar, because they learnt about the multi-components of this module and the amount of preparation needed for each seminar. We are expected to do 2-3 readings per week, watch an e-lecture, and be in class ready to engage in discussions. There was no set textbook for this class, although Dr. Powell recommended us to read The Quest for a Moral Compass as an optional, supplementary text. It is an interesting text to read for leisure, but not to study. I didn’t read it for my exams anyway.
2x mini response papers (15% each, with the possibility to do a third one and the best two will be considered); 6x online mini quizzes (open ended; 5% each, and only the best 3 will be considered - I believe most people get full marks for all quizzes); group presentation (15%); and a finals (40%). Dr. Powell also gives extra credit when you appear for one of her movie nights (yay!) and write a commentary on the movie (or you can choose to watch it yourself and then share your thoughts on IVLE discussion).
There were three seminars set aside for presentations, and in those weeks we don’t have assigned readings. I liked how these presentation sessions are spread apart in alternate weeks, so that the momentum for the module is not lost - imagine having three presentations weeks consecutively and teaching just stopped for those three weeks..?
I also liked how Dr. Powell did recaps for every seminar to reinforce “where we are now” and how things string together in the overall picture. You would really appreciate this, especially when it comes to the final seminar and she did an overall recap, everything made perfect sense and I appreciated how the module covered enough depth and breadth.
It is not difficult to study for the exams since Dr. Powell did recaps and an overall summary for us. It is important to see the overall big picture about morality, and then zoom in to the particular sub-topics, and see how they link with each other. Some big questions that are likely to appear in the exams would include “What is a moral intuition?”, or a question on the Social Intuitionist Model (SIM) by Jonathan Haidt. Dr. Powell always emphasize on our ability to be concise and formulate strong/cogent arguments, rather than going all over the place and not writing a good argument. Depth > Breadth. This applies for the mini response papers and our final exams.
Overall: It feels tough when you are in it, but overall it is worth it, and I will take it again. Participate actively in class so that you get the most out of it - I tried at the first few seminars, but slowly kept quiet in the subsequent seminars... diffusion of responsibility is real.
Take this module if: You have always been interested to learn about the psychology of moral judgement, or just want to be more conscious about yourself - the way you judge people in your every day life.
Don’t take this if: you want a regular lecture kind of seminar where you merely download what the professor tells you. Morality is something we need to talk and discuss and not everything has an absolute answer - sometimes the prof cannot give you a definite answer, but she will give you her perspective and you are free to disagree with it. If you cannot tolerate such argumentative psychology, or the uncertainty in learning something that does not have a definite cause/origin, then don’t do this.
Predicted grade: A-; I am quite confident in my approach taken in finals :)
Final grade: B+
2. PL4880P Psychology of Religion
This is my second-most favourite module this semester. The lecturer was Dr. Reddish Paul, a part-time lecturer. All my life (or for the most part of my life) I’m wondering why people believe in a religion and what kind of psychological role does religion play in people’s life. This module catered to my interest and more.
The workload was very manageable and it is a good module to take to buffer your heavier modules. Similar to PL4235, the module covered sufficient breadth and depth, and each seminar builds on the previous seminar, and you find that with consistent reading and following up on the seminars, you can quickly and easily gain mastery of the module content. There were three consecutive weeks of student presentations, which effectively means that I switched off listening for three weeks, and that was a good time to catch up with my other modules (hehe). There were two assigned readings per week. Classes follow a lecture-class discussion format, where the prof will do his lecture and insert class discussions in between. It helps to do your readings before the lecture so that you understand what the prof is teaching and recap your knowledge during the lecture.
Assessment is straightforward: class participation (5%; I got a 4 out of 5 despite being very quiet in class); short answer mid-terms (15%); group presentation (20%); essay (30% - this is a “follow-up” to your group presentation. You write on a topic covered in your presentation, but in-depth, and insert some original thoughts and arguments to it); finals (30%). Dr. Reddish emphasizes originality in thoughts in our presentations and essays, so it is good to inject some of your perspectives backed up with evidence/examples, to score above average in his assignments.
Also similar to PL4235, I appreciated how this module is well-planned and taught. Everything makes sense at the end of the module, and you gain new insights to why people believe in religion and the role that religion play in our society. We don’t - and I emphasize don’t - try to dispute the existence of God; whether or not God exists is not covered in this module - this is a theological study. We learn about the cognitive mechanisms and evolutionary explanations for why people believe in god/gods. We don’t study any religion in particular, but try to find similarities across all religions. There is a bias towards Abrahamic religions because they are more well-researched.
You may encounter aggressiveness from students studying history or anthropology when discussing the psychology of religion (PoR) with them because they value the distinct history and theology of each religion and how the religions differ from one another, while PoR do not make this distinction. It is perfectly fine, in PoR, to not know in-depth about any religion at all. Studying this module will not make you a less religious person - if you are one, but it makes someone who is irreligious (or an atheist) understand why people are religious at all.
Finals is easy to study and prepare because there already is a mid-term to test us what was taught in the first half of the module. Therefore, I merely needed to study another 4 more seminars in depth and recap what I studied before mid terms to be ready for finals. Be prepared to give examples and write a good argument in your essays!
Overall: I really really enjoyed this module - it feeds my need to understand how religion works on a psychological level. The workload is light, the module covers sufficient depth and breadth.
Take this module if: you are interested to learn why people believe in gods or supernatural agents. This module complements well with PL4235 and I recommend taking them together in the semester :)
Don’t take this if: you are not interested to learn about the psychological aspect of religion; you are expecting to dispute about the existence of gods.
Predicted grade: B+; I’m pretty average throughout the class, and I think I wrote well for the finals.
Final grade: A-
3. PL4224 Child Abnormal Psychology
First I would like to say that this is my worst module for the semester. Through this module, I realize that I am not one who likes to study all the different mental disorders, the treatments, the assessment techniques and stuffs... In fact, after taking PL3257 Introduction to Clinical Psychology, I decided that clinical psychology / abnormal psychology is not the path I want to take (abnormal psychology is also one of my worse core modules).
The lecturer was Dr. Lohsnah Jeevanadam; I didn’t know how to address her by name, so I just called her “Prof”. She’s a good lecturer, and also a private practitioner herself, so she is highly qualified to teach this module. She shares with us case studies based on her clinical experience, and I especially love to hear about her stories.
The workload was heavy because of the textbook. Each chapter is about 40-50 pages long, like how we usually study for our core modules. Each week we go through one topic, or one chapter from the textbook, but some weeks we have two chapters to read. We learn many types of mental disorders that children may face - this module is like abnormal psychology applied to children and adolescents.
The greatest takeaway from this module is appreciating how children can be diagnosed with mental disorders from very young ages, and how symptoms are manifested differently than they would be in adults. For example, symptoms of depression in children may include being easily irritable and throwing tantrums.
Assessments include: mini quiz (10% - 30 MCQs), case study presentation (25%); reflective paper (25%); finals (40%).
Reflective paper... this is my first assignment ever that I did not do citations/references since it says.. reflection right? who do we cite? I’m satisfied for my grades for the reflective paper though - 37.5 out of 50. Not sure how I fare against the rest of the class, but I’m satisfied.
We were required to study almost everything that were taught for the exams, but tested only on very specific topics -.- The case study was a test of application of what we know about the techniques of assessment and simple diagnosis (with justifications). And then we need to write 2 essays that were very topic-specific. For example, I did two essays on Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder, and Depression, respectively. The last question asked what is a “healthy family” - which was briefly discussed in class in one of the seminars, although it is a constant theme throughout the module. The case study was also about ODD/CD/trauma - so in essence, we were tested only on 3 different types of disorders in the exams when we studied for 504938209348 types.
Overall: enjoyed the seminars, but disliked the readings. As heavy as a level 3000 core module - e.g. developmental psychology. I stopped reading the textbook after week 7, and had to catch up on 7 chapters worth of reading in one week for the finals - grueling. Be consistent!
Take this module if: you are on the clinical pathway; you would like to learn how childhood experiences play a role in affecting our psychological growth.
Don’t take this module if: you are sure you want nothing to do with clinical psychology; you don’t like reading textbooks.
Predicted grade: B; I left the examination hall just before the 15 mins mark. I did my best in writing whatever I could (: and I think I’m pretty average in everything I did for this module.
Final grade: B+
Ending words: at this point in time as a year 4 who has his grades hovering securely between 4.0 and 4.5, the priorities in school is not about studying hard to keep push up his grades, but to study smart enough to enjoy what he is studying and maintaining his second-upper honours degree. Therefore, this year 4 is no longer interested in the nitty-gritty grade comparisons, but to look at what he can do beyond studying. This mindset led me to focus much time to share with people what I know about coffee, and learn more about the world of coffee and its industry. Two words can define my second-last semester: social and coffee. “Social” in many senses: the loss of close friends around me, the gain in new friends and acquaintance, and the search for a social goal in life and in business; “coffee” just explains itself =P I’ll share more about my Year 4 life in a later post (:
Check out my other reviews:
AY2014/15 Semester Two (Part II) Review: IEM2201E, PL3283B, PL3232, PL3233
AY2014/15 Semester Two (Part I) Review: SSU2001 College 3 Capstone Experience
AY2014/15 Semester One (Part II) Review: GEM2906, SSU2003, MNO3330
AY2013/14 Semester Two Review: PL3234, PL3236, PH1102E, PH2110, SE1101E, IEM1201T
AY2013/14 Semester One Review: PL1101E, PL2131, EL1101E, PH2111, GEM1906
What is your ethical belief system?
Are you someone who believes that the intention is all that matters? Or perhaps one who believes that the consequences are all that matter?
The former position describes someone who believes in the deontology ethical system, in which “morality is determined by duty or laws”.
“One example would be Kantian ethics, in which the only actions that are moral are those performed out of one's duty to follow the moral law, as opposed to acts performed out of desire. A simpler example of deontological ethics would be Christianity, in which moral acts are those that obey the ten commandments.”
The latter position describes someone who believes in consequentialism - “ this moral philosophy is probably best captured in the aphorism "the ends justify the means." An example of a consequentialism system of ethics would be utilitarianism, in which the most morally desirable situation is that in which people's happiness is maximized.”
**Explanations above are sourced from: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-consequentialism-deontology-and-virtue-ethics
The point of view you take would affect the way you evaluate people’s actions. In the real world, we cannot see intentions, but we see actions and outcomes, or consequences, of intentions.
Take, for example, a man who sees a child drowning in a pond. The man does not know how to swim, but he sees a life buoy nearby which he can use to save the child. He threw the life buoy to the child, but instead of saving the child, it killed the child instead because the life buoy hits the child’s head and upon impact, made the child unconscious. (it sounds ridiculous, but let’s just suppose this happened) The man intended for the child to be saved by his action, but this caused the child’s death. Is the man to be blamed for his action?
If you said no, you probably argue for the fact that the man intended for the child to be saved, and downplay the death of the child caused by his actions. The man is still a good man because he wanted to save a life. If you said yes, you probably argue that the intention doesn’t matter because a child’s life was taken! This is the difference between taking a stand from the deontology point of view (I have to save a life and act on it) vs. the consequentialist point of view (the death of the child does not justify the man’s innocence even if the man intended for the child to be saved).
Before you take a stand, let’s see another situation. Take, for example, the similar situation above, where a child was drowning in a pond. The man harboured evil intention and wished for the child to drown. He knew that there are alligators in the pond, which could be attracted to the surface with some food. He threw in his bag of leftover sandwich from lunch to the child, hoping that the alligators will be attracted and the child would die faster (I apologize for even thinking about this thought experiment). Unfortunately for the man (but fortunately for the child), a dolphin who also lives in the same pond was called upon instead, and the child was safely returned to shore by the dolphin (pretty magical, but let’s suppose this happened). Does this man deserve to be thanked for his actions?
If you said no, then you are arguing that intentions do matter. If you said yes, then you are arguing that consequences are all that matter. Is there a discrepancy between your response in the first thought experiment vs this second thought experiment? i.e. did you favour intention in the first case but consequences in the second?
Let’s bring this discussion to real-life, because in the real-world, situations are more ambiguous and information is not all accessible to the audience. In particular, let’s talk about this in the “art” world.
I had a “squabble” with a friend earlier on the interpretation of a few photographs, in which I thought that the subject was portrayed as being “sad” and “lonely” even though the event called for a “festive” and “joyful” atmosphere and I thought that those pictures did not fit into the theme. Another friend was telling me how she was also confronted with this question all the time in art sector, whether the intention of the artist or the interpretation of the audience mattered more. In my opinion, I feel it is important for interpretation by the audience to be congruent with the intention of the artist, for that action or consequence to be praise- or blameworthy.
Picture above from The Week, by photographer Zacharie Rabehi.
What do you think the photographer is trying to portray and express in the above photo? What do you feel, as an audience of the photo? You see a man in the foreground looking downwards, but it is difficult to make out his facial expression; you see a man at the back smiling; and in the background you see that there were many tents. But what is it that the photographer intend to say?
First and foremost, we have to agree that photographs are interpretations of reality which the photographer wish to express. Let’s give a context to this photograph - it is a refugee camp and this picture describes “A group of migrants playing football in the camp.” Now there are two ways of interpretation which you can take:
“Oh no, the migrants are living in such dire states - the sprawling tents and the poor sanitation in the camp must be horrible. The migrants are probably feeling helpless.. I think the photographer is trying to show how bad the situation is and this is a call for action immediately.”
“The migrant issue is serious - the sprawling tents and poor sanitation in the camp must be horrible. I like how the photographer was able to capture the daily lives of the migrants - playing soccer - and it shows that however bad the situation may be, we are all capable of being resilient to, and cope with, the adversities in life.”
In my opinion, I think the photographer is successful if there is congruence between what he intended (be it making the migrants look helpless or resilient) and what the audience interpret (whether the migrants look helpless or resilient to the audience). The context is important in helping to make things clearer for the audience to make interpretations in line with what the artist intends. For example, the description may write “a group of migrants looking for food in barren lands” and that would immediately change our perspective from a resilient to a helpless situation.
**above: my personal theory of how intention, consequence, and interpretation relates to one another. The dotted line represents the importance for interpretation to be congruent with the intention, and the context (in which intention, action, and consequences occur) is an important information that directly affects how we interpret an action or consequence.
Then again, the beauty of art is that it is open to many interpretations, and sometimes it is difficult to say one interpretation is more correct than another interpretation. However, if your “art” is meant to evoke specific feelings and spread a specific message, then we do wish for our message to get across to our audience as accurately as possible. This is very important in advocacy.
Let’s take this learning back to our daily life. What goes on in your mind when you judge a person’s action? Does the person’s intention matter? Do you have all information about the context before you make this judgement? How will your perspective change when you knew of the person’s intention vs. the consequence that result from his intentions? Many misunderstandings in real-life happened because we do not get all information, or that we have different belief systems underlying how we judge a person.
What do you think?
University of Amsterdam - Module Review (AY2015/16 Semester 2 Block 1)
This is my first time... writing a module review for University of Amsterdam!! I’m not sure if module reviews are a thing in the Netherlands, but this is also a summary of my experience and learning here so far (academic wise) in this foreign land, and would hope that this could help prospective students coming to this beautiful city and university for your exchange :)
It’s the end of my exams for the first block here in Netherlands, and it is apt for me to write a review on my courses taken here, for prospective students who wish to do their exchange programme here in the University of Amsterdam (UvA)!! Before I jump into writing my thoughts and feelings about the courses, perhaps a background on the education system in the Netherlands, or UvA/AUC (Amsterdam University College) will be good.
One semester here in UvA/AUC consists of 20 weeks. In the UvA, it is split into 3 blocks of 8 weeks, 8 weeks, and 4 weeks. In AUC, however, it is split into 2 blocks of 16 weeks and 4 weeks (intensive). I have the opportunity to take courses in both UvA and AUC, and, more specifically, a course in the PPLE (Politics, Psychology, Law, and Economics) College. AUC and PPLE are both subsidiaries of UvA, with courses catering to the specialized programmes which the students are enrolled in. For more information, check them out in Google =P
How about the number of courses, or modules, you have to take? It is recommended that you take 30 ECTs per semester. Most courses are worth 6 ECTs, while some may be 3, 9, or 12, and they differ in terms of their course intensity. Therefore, the recommended workload in UvA is 2 courses per 8-week block, and 1 course for the 4-week block. In AUC, students typically do 4 courses in the 16-week block, and 1 course in the 4-week block. Therefore, when you do your credit transfer (to Singapore, or NUS in particular), 30 ECTs = 20 MCs.
What is the grading system like? You get a grade point from a scale of 1 to 10. A pass is 5.5, it is harder to pass here in the Netherlands than in Singapore. No “bell-curve”, but this “5.5” differs with every course (which you would see later on). “A 10 is for the gods, 9 is for the lecturers, and 8 is excellent” – says the Student Dean. The Dutch do not believe that people are “perfect”, so do not place too high an expectation on yourself. Then again, it is not impossible to score above 8 and into the 9 range. I feel that the marking here is quite liberal (inferred from the grades I am getting for my assignments).
Attendance for lectures are compulsory in UvA, with only 1 absence allowed. In PPLE, I inferred that lectures are not compulsory, but tutorials are. You can only miss 2 tutorials in PPLE. In AUC, my friends told me that they can only miss 5 lessons out of their 2 lessons a week, for 16 weeks. This policy is a lot stricter than what we have in NUS, where we can skip all lectures and attend our biweekly tutorials which allows for 2 absences (out of a total of 5 sessions) before it gets reported to the dean (referring to FASS). It’s quite a lot of responsibility for an exchange student, if you mindset is to come to the Netherlands to play!!
I did a total of 4 courses in this first block, which was twice the workload of the recommended 2 per block. That’s because of the scheduling and my interests in the courses... It is tough, but manageable. It’s also my first time not having a single free day in my university academic life; I always have at least one free day in NUS’ semesters. Sigh.
I did 3 psychology courses and 1 programming course. The courses are called: “Working in Groups” (conducted in UvA), “Introduction to Sports Psychology” (conducted in UvA, a self-study course), “Emotions” (conducted in PPLE), and “Programming Your World” (conducted in AUC). “Programming Your World” is a 16-weeks course, as it is conducted in AUC, while the other three psychology courses were all 8-weeks long. Except for the first meeting conducted in the second (or third) week of the block, sports psychology is all about self-studying and reading the textbook by yourself. As for the other courses, they are pretty intensive…
1. Working in Groups
Tutor: Dr. A.C. (Astrid) Homan
Contact hours per week: 3 hours, weekly lecture + tutorial style
Class size: 70++
Reading materials: a textbook (11 chapters), and 22 journal articles
Assessment: a group project with three sub-assignments (getting to know each other, cooking assignment, and a reflection assignment), and finals (30 MCQs, and 40 marks open-ended questions). To pass, must obtain 19 marks for MCQs, and 22 marks for open-ended (5.5/10)
This course has the largest class size out of all that I took. The lecture seats were not comfortable, and for a person sitting in the middle to get out of the row, everyone else in the row has to first get out of their seats – it is THAT cramped. And even when it is already that cramped, the lecturer still make every lesson interactive, and we have to get out of our seats to do group discussion and activities. This part of the lesson made me feel the worst, because I’m satisfied to just sit and absorb what the lecturer has to say without doing anything. BUT it also shows the ingenuity of the lecturer and commitment to make class as engaging as possible.
We had a guest lecturer who was here for two sessions, an experienced consultant for companies, and she made lessons come alive because we get a glimpse of how social/group psychology is applied in the real world. Our tutor, Dr. Astrid Homan, is also very experienced and well-respected in organizational psychology, as inferred by her number of publications and citations. We do have a number of her articles as part of our assigned readings :)
The group assignment was really interesting: come up with a creative 3-course meal and cook it! The group assignment was broken down into three parts: getting to know one another in our groups (which were assigned), the actual cooking, and an overall reflection. At every stage, we need to write a report and incorporate and exemplify the theories we learnt in our lectures. I find it especially useful, and it was fun to make new friends this way! I was teamed up with Wendy (from USA) and Lucy (from UK), and the three of us formed a pretty competent team. Our grades for each assignment only went up as we got better at writing our reports. We worked pretty well together as well, and were very self-driven to meet deadlines. In fact, we always finish our assignments ahead of time… by at least one day!
It was only during the final revision for this course that I realize how well-designed this course is. Dr. Astrid Homan didn’t stick to the chapters of the textbook when she formulate her powerpoint slides. She did it by the themes. The textbook acts as the foundation of our knowledge, and the articles selected supplemented the textbook really well, by exemplifying how certain theories are tested. My greatest takeaways were the EASI (Emotion as Social Information) model, that diversity training is not always beneficial (it depends on the team’s actual diversity, as well as their diversity beliefs), and the Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) at the group level (which identifies the potential areas where motivation losses occur and how it can be prevented). Group emotions was not part of the textbook, but Dr. Astrid Homan saw the importance of it and added that in. Overall, the whole course was well-designed, well-taught, and well-assessed (yes, the exams tested every single thing that was taught – the more important and salient points).
In summary, I highly recommend for you to take this course, if you haven’t clear this course back in your home university! It is fun, engaging, intellectually stimulating, and the rewards to be reaped are great J
2. Sports Psychology
Tutor: Mr B. (Bob) Zijp MSc
Contact hours per week: zero; self-study couse
Class size: unknown
Reading material: 1 textbook (18 chapters)
Assessment: 30 MCQs of which you must score 20 to get a passing grade (5.5/10)
I did not really study for this course until about 3 weeks before the exam date. By then, I completed only 3 chapters out of 18. Luckily, I quickly formed a study group of 4 students, and we split up the chapters. This is the first time I am conducting a study group where we split the study load, and we teach one another in our study sessions.
How did we do it? We split the chapters and made notes for every chapter, sharing these notes so that we do not read the textbook anymore. During our study session, we took charge of our chapters and went through with everyone. The “teacher” can choose their teaching format – for me, I made powerpoints on the chapters that I was assigned, which condensed the information even further, and focus on only the most important points, organizing them into tables and making comparisons. For the later chapters I did not have the time to do so, and most of us just went through the notes that we made. Questions were raised and we try to solve them together by referring back to the text, and if we still cannot solve them, we compile our questions and sent an email to the prof :)
After that, we still need to do self-study for the exams, because there’s a lot of information to internalize, and that has to be done alone.
This strategy proved to be beneficial. I was pretty confident during the exams, and I scored well above the passing mark (27/30). I was initially very worried about passing because back in NUS, I could perhaps only score 19 out of 30 for a midterm MCQ (that was for developmental psychology, I remember). But this time, there isn’t a bell-curve – everything is absolute. Gotta score.
I don’t recommend taking this course for one main reason – the textbook chosen was a very bad one. It was written badly, with pronouns changing intermittently (sometimes “he” was used, sometimes “she”), and similar sentences would appear one after another in different paragraphs (déjà vu?). These reduces the reading pleasure of the student. In addition, some concepts were not properly explained, and even the tutor couldn’t explain what the author was trying to say when we seek clarification from the tutor.
So, take note of this textbook: Cox: Sport Psychology – Concepts and Applications (7th edition).
Don’t read it.
Other than that, if you are looking for a course that doesn’t add on to your schedule, but still significantly add on to your actual workload, and you think you have the motivation and discipline to do self-study sessions, then please do this course for the exams is a simple 30 MCQs which you could easily score if you have done all your assigned textbook readings :)
3. Emotions
Tutors: Suzanne (lecturer), Allard (lecturer), and Anja (tutorial)
Contact hours per week: 8 hours; 2 lectures, 2 tutorials
Class size: 9
Reading materials: 28 journal articles
Assessment: 1 emotions research proposal (40%), 2x multiple choice questions every lecture (10%), finals consisting of 6 themes, all open-ended questions (50%)
This is my favourite course for the block, despite its intensive study hours and rigour of the course. Perhaps I’m enjoying it the most precisely because of the rigour (cognitive dissonance)! I chose to stick with this course despite have 2 lectures and 2 tutorials a week (and therefore making my whole week taken up by lessons without a free day) because of two main reasons: I’m genuinely interested in the topic of emotions, and I wish to make use of the research proposal assignment to spur me to come up with my honours thesis topic. These were the two motivations.
The class was very small and interactions were intimate. Being the only Asian in the class, as well as being an exchange student, I stood out like a sore thumb, and was culturally shocked as this was my first lesson in Netherlands. The students here are very vocal about their opinions and I feel the pressure to chip in my thoughts as well – something which I am fearful of doing. I would always formulate something in my mind, but couldn’t express it articulately. Nevertheless… as time went by I learnt to take a backseat but prepared to speak up when asked =x not a good thing to do – I urge you guys to be proactive in class!
This is a “pure” emotions course. I like how it crosses paths with so many scientific disciplines, including developmental, cognitive, neuroscience, cultural, morality… and we touched many subtopics about emotions, such as emotion regulation, nonverbal emotional communication, emotions in organizations, positive emotions, etc. Because there is so much to learn, it justifies to have 2 lectures a week to go through this comprehensive list of emotion-related research.
We do many fun things in tutorials. We have class discussions, presentations, debate, and also a pitch for our research proposal (to practice getting grants, should we ever do a real research). Some weeks there will be no tutorial, and we have consultation with Anja, our tutor. I appreciate the one-on-one sessions with Anja, where she would excitedly comment on my research proposal and give me ideas on how to refine my scope and make the research more feasible. It was a pain and a joy (at the same time) doing my research for the research proposal, so that I covered enough grounds to write something decent.
My only “regret” for this course was not interacting enough with my classmates. Each of them come from different backgrounds and have interesting lives (from the bits and pieces I hear from their conversations). They are also very opinionated and intelligent in class.. (and hence I wish to fade into the background...)
In summary, I would also highly recommend for you to take this course. Yes, it is intensive, but this is the nature of all courses in PPLE. I learnt that they have 8 hours of contact time for their courses here, which is 2-3x as much as those in UvA. Besides, you get to experience small group interactions for lectures and tutorials (which I prefer over the large class sizes). The course was very well-designed, and I learnt a great deal about emotions during this course :)
4. Programming Your World
Tutors: Martijn Stegeman, and one more “unknown” guy.
Contact hours per week: 3 hours; 2 lectures (1.5 hours each)
Class size: ~25
Reading materials: none
Assessment: weekly problem sets, a mid-term and a finals.
This course is still ongoing, and I can give a short review on how it has been for the first 7 weeks.
Classes are more of a “work session” than lectures. You do your coding in class, and watch video tutorials at your free time. You ask questions when you are stuck, and the tutor help you to get unstuck. For the first 7 weeks, we followed Harvard’s CS50 course, and learnt the C language of programming. I chose this course over the other programming courses in UvA because I want to learn actual programming languages used, specifically C and Python (which will be covered in the next block). Learning curve is pretty gradual, but the problem sets get increasingly more difficult. We started out with Scratch, and then we do our C programming on a cloud system.. We started out with very simple programmes: conversion of Fahrenheit to Celsius, a calculator, printing a “Mario” pyramid, a Caesar enciphering programme, and then a Vigenere coding programme.
I managed to clear all problem sets except for Vigenere =(
The midterms allows you to bring in a single sheet of A4 paper for your cheats. I scored a 21 out of 33; not very good, but at least I passed!
Nothing much to add on further, and will do a better review of the course at the end of block 2!
Exchange is probably the time of your life for many people – friends have been posting pictures of themselves traveling to different countries and trying new experiences. So have I, as I indulge in things such as the good food, good weather, nice sceneries and what nots >_< No one will tell you how much they actually have to study as well, because of the different education system. Here in the Netherlands, it is true that it is harder to pass, and thus I was worried about even passing my courses if I don’t put in enough effort. Savour this, because studying is also part of my exchange experience xD
As the next block is coming, I am looking forward to learning Python, and another psychology course “Prosocial Behaviour and Volunteerism”. I am also looking forward to my barista course – yes I am gonna learn how to make coffee!! Till then, I’ll continue to post updates on my Facebook and Instagram, heh.
Cheers,
Wei Jie (aka. Jay, in Amsterdam)
The Epic Idea
A few months back, when I was still in the iLEAD programme, a local entrepreneurial internship programme housed under the NUS Enterprise, I was working on an “Epic” idea with a group of friends – to make photography accessible to everyone. That idea was simple, and it stemmed from my personal experience of how people sought me for photography services – both voluntary and paid jobs – and sometimes I had to reject the requests due to my personal schedule. I would then wonder how these people/organizations would go about getting the photography job done. I do hope that they would find someone to cover the job.
I was holding on to the idea, thinking how it would be good if there is some easy way for people to seek photographers, and for photographers to seek jobs – like a marketplace – and to bring offline transactions online, to solve issues like late payments, levelling the bargaining power between photographers and clients, and the myths behind “market rates”.
Being in the entrepreneurial state of mind, I went ahead to assemble a team of 4 people, and worked on a mini proposal and submitted for a grant application that was open to iLEAD/NOC (NUS Overseas College) students. I was granted the opportunity to pitch for my idea, in a panel of important judges from the NUS Enterprise – Dr. Lily Chan, Mr Edmund Yong, Mr Sang, etc. with a total of 7 judges. That was my first “public” statement that I want to work on this idea, and I want to create something that was not yet in the (local) market. A few weeks after this pitch opportunity, I pitched the same idea again during Pitch Night, a N-house event held for people to validate their ideas with the general public (people who attend the event) and get feedback from judges about our pitching skills.
In the above two pitches that I made, the response was lukewarm. The NUS Enterprise panel of judges first scrutinized the team – where is your CTO? Then they scrutinized our plan – so what are you going to do if you were given the grant right now? But you don’t have a CTO, so how are you going to implement your plans? And then they scrutinized the idea itself – how are you going to regulate the marketplace? During Pitch Night, the idea was at best supported by the iLEAD coordinator, Terence, who saw through all of our pitches as he needed to ‘grade’ us on our performance.
At that point in time, I was fervently working on the idea, thinking of how to test the market, coming up with a prototype without a CTO, leveraging on existing platforms, gathering the photographers and clients, looking for opportunities etc. Even when I’m on the overseas trip to Silicon Valley, I shared the idea with friends and the SV peeps. I got many advice, but still I’m clearly lacking strong support.
That was during the whole period of September to December 2015. Although I was hyped up then with my ideas, I knew I couldn’t act on it full time as I am going away for student exchange programme in the next year (Jan 2016) and I still do not yet have that ‘Chief Technical Officer’ – someone who knows programming and can help in building our product. My team had launched a Facebook page and subscribed to an online marketplace platform, inviting several photographers to try it out, but we did not actively manage it properly, and I was also facing difficulties to get people on the platform – the marketplace was one-sided; photographer-heavy.
Above: Hotshoe.io, an online platform targeting photographers and clients in the ASEAN region
Above: Kodakit, Kodak’s initiative to connect professional photographers to clients, complete with mobile apps!
Fast forward two months later. Just last night, a member of my team sent us a news article from Straits Times that talked about Kodakit, an online platform that connects professional photographers with clients; this morning, I saw my Facebook notification and a friend invited me to like a Facebook page that introduced Hotshoe.io, a photography marketplace that targets the ASEAN market. In a short span of two months, and within a day, I see two “competitors” that sprung up into the photography marketplace arena which I was previously told that I need to do more market research into it and validate my idea.
There is no hindsight bias on this – clearly my team and I shared a common vision in trying to create something that was lacking, and this idea was implemented by other people with more resources. Here are some learning points for myself, and for people like myself who hold on to ideas and dare to make them a dream.
1) People are your most important resources.
People, both within and outside of your core team, are your best resources. You need to build a team with a diversity of skills, so that each one complement one another to work on the idea that you have. You need to build relationships with people outside of your team who can provide you with resources, such as networks, opportunities, or even money.
Establish yourself and your team members, because investors don’t only buy the idea, they look at who is in the team. Can these people be trusted? Are they reliable? Do they have what it takes to implement their dream? Ideas are ideas are ideas. There are so many people in the world, and ideas do overlap – what makes you different from the other people that have the same idea?
In the case of my team, we lacked someone with programming skills. I lack the programming skills. We had overlapping soft skills which, in business/startup sense, was detrimental for our own sake. In short, keep your team small but diverse, and if you are in the tech scene, you better get someone who can do programming in your team!
2) Keep at the back of your mind, no matter how “unique” you think your idea is, that someone out there also have the same idea, and that your idea can be easily replicated.
With the above in mind, you would, and should, keep your ideas confidential until you have made enough preparations to go full force. In addition, timing is important - you have to do things fast and well, because you never know when a competitor will come up with something. I say “fast and well”, because usually with speed you compromise quality, something which I experienced in my case.
My team did not have the technical expertise and we decided to go ahead launching a “prototype” based on an existing solution. We spent time to learn that platform, and to compromise the system we had in mind to suit the platform due to constraints. Did that work out? No it didn’t, and it compromised the level of quality we wanted to provide for our clients.
3) Just because you don’t see your idea being implemented out there, doesn’t mean that no one is working on your idea elsewhere.
Which in this case, is very apt. An organized marketplace doesn’t exist for photographers. I was told by an executive from The Hub, that there are other people acting on similar ideas as well, and he told me to be cautious – it is a difficult market. I didn’t feel the urgency to quickly establish something, especially since I don’t depend on this to survive. I am still a student. Nevertheless, this is a reminder about humility – don’t overestimate the uniqueness of your ideas.
4) You have to work towards fame, or be comfortable about being in the center of attention.
In today’s digital age, social media rules. You need to get yourself out there and be public and be known to the world to be successful. I, for one, am not comfortable with the notion of being in the center of attraction. Then that is the antithesis of success: you will be well-known by people when you are successful because people know you for your success.
Putting it in another way, because you want to achieve high impact, you need to be known by as many people as possible. So put yourself out there for all to see.
5) Believe in yourself, and find people who believe in you.
This last point is to encourage yourself to do what you think you are made to do.
Many things that are in existent today did not exist yesterday. Even with the vast amount of information, knowledge, and things that we have now, there are always improvements to be made to make the world a better place. I can still see how Epic can play a role to better serve the photography marketplace.
There’s definitely a lot more for the team to learn and to take this Epic on as a viable business that we want to do, which only time will tell. What I can say about me... is that I see myself contributing towards the social sector, and the development of Epic will be on the shoulders of another team member.
Having a social cause(s) is important to me, and it is of utmost importance for me to act on what I feel. So, I am unashamed to tell people I am an ‘aspiring’ social entrepreneur. I have ideas that I am working on, and friends around me would know. I am keeping the 5 points I have mentioned above in mind, and at the same time taking the steps for the eventual push to make my dream a reality. It is a lofty idea since I do not have the business background, don’t have “certified skills” to do what I want, and I do not (yet) have the money to achieve what I want. These are practical issues that are in my mind when I think about my social entrepreneurship endeavour. I have, on-and-off, spoke about my idea and plans with my family, but I’m not really sure if they think I’m serious or I’m just joking. I like to create systems, build relationships, and organize things. By being an entrepreneur myself, I am able to do all these, and more.
Cheers,
WJ-
Is there a place for adults with autism in Singapore?
What comes to mind when “autism” is mentioned? For most people, autism is associated with children, a lack of social awareness, and perhaps performing very well in specialized subjects such as Mathematics or Science. This impression of a person with autism is further accentuated by the media, which frequently highlighted the achievements of people with Asperger’s Syndrome, the higher-functioning end of the autism spectrum. Have we ever stopped to think about what happens to the children with autism, who eventually grow up to be adults? It is a natural cycle for us to go through the rite of passage from education in school to employment in the larger society. Our parents would care for us when we are young, and we would want to give back and care for our parents when we are able to be independent. What does being “independent” means for an adult with autism? Are they able to assimilate into our society after they have gone through special education? Ultimately, this paper explores the autism landscape in Singapore and hopes to answer the question, “Is there a place for adults with autism in Singapore?”
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of complex brain development disorders characterized by difficulties in social interaction and communication, as well as a restricted and repetitive set of interests and activities (refer to Appendix D and E). Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV), published in 1978, patients could be diagnosed under 4 separate disorders: autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder not-otherwise-specified (Hiller, 2013). In the latest DSM-5 published in 2013, the separate disorders are now collapsed into one diagnosis – ASD, recognizing the fact that it is difficult to categorize patients into subtypes, and it is more accurate to acknowledge that the disorder lies on a wide spectrum, from the lower-functioning to the higher-functioning abilities. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated for every 160 children, about 1 child is diagnosed with ASD, worldwide (refer to Appendix D). There are no national statistics for autism in Singapore, although one article reported that there are about 30,000 people with autism (refer to Appendix C1).
Children with autism are generally well-taken care of by the state and community organizations. Earlier in June, Thye Hua Kuan Moral Charities (THK) opened a new children’s therapy centre in Macpherson (refer to Appendix H). This centre aims to cater to more than 120 children with special needs, such as ASD and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), in Singapore’s eastern region by April next year. Services such as speech and occupation therapy are provided to the children. This is a good initiative by THK, as the centre serves to expand the current capabilities to care for children with special needs. In addition, the centre is located in the heartlands, so that families can easily send their children to the centre before going to work, and pick them up after work. Early intervention for children with special needs is important, as these children are in better position to learn how to socialize with people, and to better manage their behaviours and feelings (Autism Speaks, n.d.).
In terms of education for the young, there are 20 special education (SPED) schools run by voluntary welfare organizations (VWO), as at January 2010 (List of special, 2015). 16 out of these 20 schools cater to children with autism. Earlier this June, it was reported that students in SPED schools will have greater guidance in sexuality education and relationships (Appendix G). This has been a gap that has not been fulfilled properly even in mainstream schools, and it is a bit late, in my opinion, to only introduce this now in SPED schools. Students with special needs require sexual education as much as any other normal-functioning person, as they do face the challenges of growing up, experiencing puberty as a normal development, and gaining interest in the opposite sex. Moreover, it is important for students with special needs to learn how to take care and protect themselves as there have been cases where people with special needs were taken advantage of. In addition, as people with autism lack social awareness, sexuality education is required to teach them what are appropriate behaviours in public, and what are behaviours that should only be done in private.
Another aspect of life, other than education, is the recreational activities that people can engage in. For people with autism, there is a lack of enrichment activities for them to take part. The Purple Symphony, Singapore’s first inclusive orchestra, is one avenue for which people with autism can develop and exhibit their musical talents (refer to Appendix K). 67 of its 83 orchestra members have special needs that ranged from autism to intellectual disabilities, as well as visual or hearing impairment. This debut by the Purple Orchestra celebrates what people with disabilities can do, and it empowers the people with autism by providing them the opportunity to take part in the arts scene in Singapore. It is heartening that there are other groups in Singapore that encourages social inclusion through sports and the arts, such as the social enterprises Society Staples and the Cajon Society (the social arm of BEAT’ABOX). Society Staples organizes teambuilding activities such as dragon-boating, and encourages people with disabilities to take part in these activities; Cajon Society aspires to help discover the untapped gifts in beats and rhythms in people with multiple disabilities, increasing their interaction with mainstream society through public performances.
There is still a lack of public awareness on autism in Singapore, and many agencies are working together to help promote not only about autism, but also the services available surrounding autism. One notable initiative is the Autism Network Singapore (ANS), formed by 4 non-profit autism service providers in Singapore earlier this April. The organizations include Autism Association (Singapore) (AAS), Autism Resource Centre (ARC), Rainbow Centre (RC), and St. Andrew’s Autism Centre (SAAC). The ANS was formed to address the challenges faced by people living with autism and their families (refer to Appendix C1 and C2), especially the lack of employment and lifelong learning opportunities for adults with autism. Ms Denise Phua, president of ARC, said that while the support systems and programmes for children and youth with autism have improved greatly over the past decade, more could be done to help the adults with moderate to severe autism (refer to Appendix E). In this aspect, it takes both the government as well as the people to work together to help bring about a more inclusive society, not only for people with autism, but for people with special needs in general.
A good example of how corporates can play a part is shown in Appendix F; the United Overseas Bank (UOB) had modified its office environment in its Scan Hub, to provide more employment opportunities for people with autism. About one-third of the Scan Hub’s 53 employees are people with autism, and their main job were to scan, classify, and archive credit card application forms. Ms Susan Hwee, head of group technology and operations at the UOB Group, explained that people with autism have the abilities that match the qualities needed for the job in the Scan Hub – a sharp eye for detail and a methodical approach to work. By playing on the strengths of people with autism, the Scan Hub experienced a decreasing staff turnover rate, and higher productivity.
Another example of how people with autism can contribute productively is the autism-friendly cafe based in Manila (refer to Appendix D). Although this is not local news, I still want to mention this as it gives a very good example for which local cafes could adopt. The cafe allows the employees with autism to develop their social interaction skills as they are assimilated into the wider community by actively participating in society – going to school, to home, to therapy, and to work. The cafe’s operations are built around the abilities of the employees with autism by having index cards laid out with pictures to show the steps needed to be taken next, and a script for greeting customers, offering them the menu, serving food, and handing out the bill. Both examples, UOB and the autism cafe in Manila, illustrates how people with autism can contribute actively and productively, if we were able to help change the environment to suit the people. In social work terms, this could be viewed as the person-in-environment approach; by changing the environment in which the people with autism is working in, they are able to function and contribute to society.
In terms of the law, a new scheme was introduced in March to help persons with developmental disabilities during police investigations (refer to Appendix B). This scheme, called the Appropriate Adults will, helps to address the concern that people with special needs may incriminate themselves due to a lack of communication skills, when interrogated by the police. This scheme has been used 41 times in the first six months of this year, and there were 136 support volunteers who were recruited and managed by the Law society (refer to Appendix J). Volunteers play an important role to help persons with developmental disabilities to understand the situation of being called in by the police and to understand what the police is asking. In my opinion, this is a good initiative as interrogation by police may be a stressful event for people, and even so for people with autism. By having a volunteer around to help calm the nerves of the person with autism during such situations, the police may be able to gather more accurate information from the person with autism. This scheme also benefits the society by creating opportunities for people to volunteer for a cause, building the empathy that our society has for people with autism. Lastly, as mentioned by Law Society president, Thio Shen Yi, in the larger macro perspective, the Appropriate Adults scheme shows a shift towards a more impartial and fair criminal justice system for persons with developmental disabilities in Singapore.
There are several upcoming initiatives that would help adults with autism. Earlier in March, it was announced that a new day activity centre for adults with autism will be set up in Clementi later this year, and an existing one in Ubi will be expanded (refer to Appendix A). About 140 places will be added to the current capacity, bringing it to almost 1200. A residential home will also be built in Sengkang for adults in autism, by 2018. St. Andrew’s Autism Centre has been appointed by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) to co-develop and operate this residential facility for adults with autism, a first in Singapore (refer to Appendix L). These initiatives show the commitment that the government has in creating a better environment for adults with autism to live in, and could help to address the question which older parents have for their children with autism – who will take care of them when they pass on?
It is appropriate to discuss the topic of autism in the month of October, as we will be celebrating The Purple Parade at the end of the month in Hong Lim Park (refer to Appendix M). The Purple Parade is a day of carnival and fun, aimed to support social inclusion and celebrate abilities. It first began in 2013, and saw an attendance of 3000 people. The Purple Symphony will be making its second public performance during The Purple Parade. I think such a movement is necessary and important in Singapore, as it makes people with special needs more visible to the public, and this visibility helps to raise the awareness that there are people in our society who are socially excluded because of their disabilities. By increasing visibility, more people will talk about the special needs community in Singapore. Advocacy efforts can help to change the perspectives that the general public hold about people with special needs, and by directing the public purposefully to the various social organizations that promote social inclusion, such as Society Staples and The Cajon Society mentioned above, people build a sense of empathy towards the people with special needs.
Singapore has achieved economic progress in its past 50 years of independence and have grown from a third to a first world country. This, however, is measured in terms of its economic progress, and now that we are mostly rich and wealthy, Singaporeans are gradually having the social conscience to care for the vulnerable and the socially-excluded. People with special needs, or, in particular, people with autism, are one of the marginalized groups in Singapore. They are “marginalized” because they do not gain equal access to the services which mainstream society do, such as access to employment, legal services, recreational activities, and so on. Much have been done for the autistic community, and a lot more can be done. In comparison to what the European Union (EU) has for the autistic community, Singapore is considered to be in its infancy stages. Autism Europe (2015) advocates for the rights of people with autism, and they look into the various needs of the autistic community which are not fulfilled in society. Autism Europe holds conferences, does publications, and look into creating a better life for people with autism, beyond merely the economic aspects.
Tim Oei, Chief Executive Officer of Asian Women's Welfare Association (AWWA), wrote in the forum that “Special education shouldn't focus on just economic independence” (refer to Appendix N). Based on the above points I have shared in this paper, I think that the government has a lot more than just economic independence in mind for the people with special needs. There are new therapy centres dedicated to children with special needs; a more holistic education by including sexuality education; considerations for the legal rights of people with special needs; and also new day-activity centres for adults with autism (refer to Appendix A, B, G, H, J, and L). The focus on economic independence may be most prominent, but I disagree that they are just focusing on that. As the children with autism of today grow up to be adults in the future, I foresee a Singapore where there are a lot more opportunities for them to lead a good life – accepted by society, having recreational activities they can participate in, and also sufficient job opportunities. It takes the many helping hands approach to make this happen, and we are taking the baby steps towards it.
References
Autism Speaks – Early Intervention. (n.d.). Retrieved October 26, 2015, from https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit/early-intervention
Autism Europe - Social Inclusion. (2015). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://www.autismeurope.org/main-fields-of-action/social-inclusion/
BEAT’ABOX Group – Our Company. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://beatabox.com.sg/about-us
Hiller, A. (2013). Autism spectrum disorder fact sheet. Retrieved from http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/Autism%20Spectrum%20Disorder%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf
List of special education schools. (2015). Retrieved October 25, 2015, from http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/special-education/schoollist/
Society Staples. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/SocietyStaples/timeline
Appendices
A: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/more-places-day-activity-centres-adults-autism-disabilities
B: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/new-scheme-to-help-persons-with-developmental-disabilities-during-police
C1: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/four-non-profit-autism/1770524.html
C2: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/new-masterplan-for-people-with-autism-to-be-developed-by-2016
D: http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/manilas-autism-friendly-cafe-its-ok-be-different?singlepage=true
E: http://women.asiaone.com/women/parenting/caring-autistic-adults
F: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/united-overseas-bank-modifies-office-environment-to-give-autistic-employees-more
G: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/sexuality-education-guide-for-sped-schools
H: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/thk-opens-new-children-s/1938110.html
J: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parliament-new-police-scheme-to-help-vulnerable-suspects-sees-41-cases-in-six-months
K: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/inclusive-orchestra-makes-its-debut
L: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapores-first-residential-facility-autistic-adults-works
M: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/mrt-train-to-go-purple-for-a-special-cause
N: http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/special-education-shouldnt-focus-on-just-economic-independence
NUS Overseas College/iLEAD?
Hello there! It’s been some time since my last post here. It’s a great new semester, and the first weeks of school (Week 0 and 1) must have been crazy for some of the freshmen as well as the seniors who participated in the planning and execution of orientation, as well as the student life fair. For me, it’s an extension of my working life over the past 13 weeks in the summer, except for taking one/two modules during the semester.
How is this so? NUS had recently increased the minimum workload from 15MCs to 18MCs, regardless of cohort (source: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/undergrad/toknow/faq.html#workload), making it difficult for students in general to ‘underload’ during a semester. It would then only be possible to take 4 modules in NUS (for a FASS student) if you were taking, say, 2x Lvl4000 modules (5MCs each) with 2x Lvl1000-3000 modules (4MCs each). For myself, I am only taking 2 regular modules in FASS this semester, while my iLEAD programme constitutes the another 20MCs (and it is graded, mind you) which secures my candidature in NUS =P
What is iLEAD?
iLEAD stands for “innovative Local Enterprise Achiever Development”; it is the “local version” of NUS Overseas College (NOC). It is classified as a short programme, together with NOC Israel, as it lasts only for 7 months, as compared to the year-long programme in other countries.
Why iLEAD?
The main reason for me in choosing iLEAD was because I am going for SEP in Y3S2, and when I was deciding to participate in iLEAD, I was already in Y2S2, leaving me with just Y3S1 to do this short entrepreneurial programme. When I was in Year 1, I had already eyed on NOC India (which is no longer running), a 6-months short programme that would require me to take a LOA. Just in case I had wanted to really take it up, I therefore planned to overload my modules in my subsequent semesters.
To the freshmen, do plan your academic roadmap just in case you are thinking of doing NOC/iLEAD without the risk of delaying graduation!
What’s in it for me?
iLEAD consists of 2 modules that make up 20MCs in total.
TR3202 Start-up Internship Programme is worth 12MCs, which you will be graded based on your 2x quarterly internship reports, a weekly logbook which you have to write on your tasks accomplished, achievements, and reflections for the week, and feedback from three persons: the iLEAD programme officers, your internship company, and your assigned consulting professor. In addition, there is also an overseas mission report to do, after your 2-weeks overseas trip to learn about the startup culture of a chosen country/city, which would be held at the end of your 6-months internship programme.
TR3203 Case Study and Analysis is worth 8MCs, which is a more difficult that TR3202 (I feel). You would need to write a business case and analysis and present them to a professor. You need to focus on one key issue and write about it in your case study, and come up with solutions in your analysis. This is based on the issues which your internship company face, and it is exciting (to me haha) because you are writing something real!
*Everything is graded and non-bellcurved. This is one of the largest perks as well. As long as you have your UEs to spare, this is not a bad option to take for a semester!
N-house?
Part of the agreement that comes with enrolment into iLEAD is the stay in N-house, BLK 15 of Prince George’s Park Residence. The rationale for students in iLEAD to stay in N-house is for us to get to know the other students in iLEAD, experience community living, and also as a springboard for entrepreneurial ideas to take place. I have lived in N-house for the first week of school, and I must say that the seniors living in N-house (who returned from their various NOC programmes, including iLEAD) were all very enthusiastic and passionate about start-ups and tech matters. They have lined up a slew of events every Wednesday night at our Venture Lab, that would build the start-up culture here. I look forward to attending them =P
PGP is known for its population of foreigners, especially the People of Republic China (PRCs). Yes, it is inevitable to feel that xenophobia when you walk around PGP... in N-house, the population is different from the rest of PGP. We also have facilities just for us - Venture Lab, Launch Pad, etc. etc. that facilitates discussion and a place for us to chill and study. The room is about the size of a single-room in halls, larger than the rooms in Utown. The toilet, however, is less than half the size of those in Utown, hahaha. That’s probably the only complaint I have, and you would get used to it anyway.
What about NOC?
I have friends going for NOC, as well as friends who are applying for NOC. some of them would rather go for NOC than for SEP, since you will be paid well during your internship overseas - a paid SEP! Do also note that the higher pay is for you to pay for your higher living expenses in the US/Sweden.. NOC Beijing and Shanghai a bit different... (you can ask me about it) I have friends who don’t mind to graduate one/two semesters later because of the experience they can get from NOC. Many seniors who share about their NOC experience would say that the only bad thing about the programme was that they have to come back to Singapore - it’s up to you to believe it! Hahahaha.
Is it difficult to enter the programme?
I would say - just do it. I applied for iLEAD without considering much about my chances, and there was only 1 interview for iLEAD. There would be 2 interviews for NOC, and definitely more challenging than iLEAD’s interview. Nevertheless, the intake per batch is incredibly huge. Afterall, going through the first/two rounds of interview is only a start - the next step is to actually land yourself a job, which is out of control by NOC. You still need to have the necessary skills and qualities that companies are looking for. NOC acts as the headhunter for the companies.
Eligibility?
Year 1s are most welcomed to apply for iLEAD! You can start your internship programme in iLEAD with at least 40MCs completed in NUS at the start of your internship. The year-long programmes would require you to have at least studied 80MCs at the point of departure, and have at least one more semester in NUS when you return, without extension of candidature.
*The website now states that there will be no extension of candidature as NOC internship modules can add up to 36 MCs towards programme requirements in most faculties.. Say you are in FASS, and 28MCs goes to your UEs, you may clock another 8MCs, but where do these modules count towards? You may then need to overload in the remaining semesters upon returning to SG to prevent the extension of candidature, or you could plan ahead and do your overloading in your year 1 and 2.
That’s all from me! ;) University life is more about just studying, so take some time to explore the various programmes which NUS offers, such as the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme (CTPCLP) which I am also currently enrolled in (since Y1S2). View the below links for more information! Cheers!
Links:
NUS Overseas College
Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme (CTPCLP)
My CTPCLP Orientation Experience
Hi! I happened to chance upon this blog while looking for info on PH2111/GEK2048 Effective Reasoning. By chance, can i ask if this module have a lot of essay writings?
Hello! There is no essay writings for this module. When I took it back in AY2013/14, there were 4 online mcq quizzes, mid-term was a take-home test which you can do in grps, and the finals was mcq questions and short answer questions. I heard that the mode of test has changed last year, so do clarify with those who took it in AY2014/15 for a more accurate representation! :) thanks!
Six Paradigms of Human Interaction
From Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. Chapter 4, Think Win/Win.
Covey states that 1) Win/Win is not a technique, but a total philosophy of human interaction. It is just one of six paradigms of interaction, and alternative interactions are: 2) Win/Lose, 3) Lose/Win, 4) Lose/Lose, 5) Win, 6) Win/Win or No Deal.
Win/Win
“Win/Win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions... Win/Win sees life as a cooperative, not a competitive arena. Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of thinking is fundamentally flawed. It’s based on power and position rather than on principle. Win/Win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others.
Win/Win is a belief in the Third alternative. I’s not your way or my way; it’s a better way, a higher way.”
Win/Lose
Win/Lose is the paradigm of the race to Bermuda; it says “if I win, you lose.” In leadership style, this is the authoritarian approach. People who follow this paradigm are prone to use position, power, credentials, possessions, or personality to get their way.
There is a place for Win/Lose thinking in truly competitive and low-trust situations, but most of life is not a competition. “Most of life is an interdependent, not an independent reality. Most results you want depend on cooperation between you and others. And the Win/Lose mentality is dysfunctional to that cooperation.”
Lose/Win
“Lose/Win is worse than Win/Lose because it has no standards - no demands, no expectations, no vision. People who think Lose/Win are usually quick to please or appease. They seek strength from popularity or acceptance. They have little courage to express their own feelings and convictions and are easily intimidated by the ego strength of others.”
“Lose/Win means being a nice guy, even if ‘nice guys finish last’.”
“Win/Lose people love Lose/Win people because they can feed on them. They love their weaknesses - they take advantage of them. Such weaknesses complement their strengths.”
“But the problem is that Lose/Win people bury a lot of feelings. And unexpressed feelings never die: they’re buried alive and come forth later in uglier ways.”
“Both Win/Lose and Lose/Win are weak positions, based in personal insecurities. In the short run, Win/Lose will produce more results because it draws on the often considerable strengths and talents of people at the top. Lose/Win is weak and chaotic from the outset.”
Lose/Lose
“When two Win/Lose people get together the result will be Lose/Lose.”
“I know of a divorce in which the husband was directed by the judge to sell the assets and turn over half the proceeds to his ex-wife. In compliance, he sold a car worth over $10,000 for $50 and gave 425 to the wife. When the wife protested, the court clerk checked on the situation and discovered that the husband was proceeding in the same manner systematically through all of the assets.”
“Lose/Lose is also the philosophy of the highly dependent person without inner direction who is miserable and thinks everyone else should be, too. ‘If nobody ever wins, perhaps being a loser isn’t so bad.’”
Win
“Another common alternative is simply to think win. People with the Win mentality don’t necessarily want someone else to lose. That’s irrelevant. What matters is that they get what they want.”
“..Win is probably the most common approach in everyday negotiation. A person with the Win mentality thinks in terms of securing his won ends - and leaving it to others to secure theirs.”
Win/Win or No Deal
“No Deal basically means that if we can’t find a solution that would benefit us both, we agree to disagree agreeably - No Deal. No expectations have been created, no performance contracts established.”
“When you have No Deal as an option in your mind, you feel liberated because you have no need to manipulate people, to push your own agenda, to drive for what you want. You can be open. you can really try to understand the deeper issues underlying the position”
“Anything less than Win/Win in an interdependent reality is a poor second best that will have impact in the long-term relationship. The cost of that impact needs to be carefully considered. If you can’t reach a true Win/Win, you’re very often better off to go for No Deal.”
NUS AY2014/15 Semester Two (Modules Review Part II)
Continued from my previous post, where I spoke too much on my capstone project, oops!
In this post: IEM2201E, PL3283B, PL3232, PL3233
1. IEM2201E Ethics in Outer Space
Somehow or rather, IEM2 feels much easier than IEM1 (to me). I love this module, because it deals with applied ethics (something philosophical) and we speculate on how things should (or should not be) in outer space.
This module was taught by Dr. Victor Cole, a very nice guy who loves his field of study. He has tons of books in his office regarding philosophy, transhumanism, ethics, etc. etc. I remember one day during consultation, he randomly went off-topic and told me that he watched a really good movie that showed how bad psychological practices were in the past (because he knew I am a psychology major, lol). This module is one of the 5 modules to take to fulfill the requirements for the UTCP. There are many other IEM2s to take, but every IEM2 has the same assessment structure.
Annotated Bibliography (15%), Research Proposal (25%), Research Paper (40%), 2x Presentations (10%), Class attendance and participation (10%)
There are 2x two-hour tutorials per week, and you have to come prepared with your readings (okay, maybe not). I tried to read my readings before each lesson, but after a while I failed. At the first/second tutorial (I don’t remember already) we have to choose a presentation slot. Each tutorial session in the first half of the semester is student presentations. You basically have to read the readings and teach your classmates what the topic is about. At the end of 4 weeks, we basically covered everything we need to cover for the whole of the module: consequentialism, deontological ethics, virtue ethics, principlism, environmental ethics, and social ethics.
The workload is very manageable. You can don’t do the readings, and then do it last minute, or only read those that interest you (what’s the point, you don’t learn.. but it works) Just be on task and produce your deliverables on time, which all builds up to your final product - the research paper. The annotated bibliography requires you to read your required readings and write on how it will be useful towards your research paper (yes, you need to have an idea of what you wish to write, right from the start of the module. best to have an idea of your research topic around week 3/4) By week 10 of the semester, we no longer have formal tutorial sessions, and we merely have to sign up for consultation slots. This takes away 4 hours of lessons from my timetable per week from week 10 onward!! awesome.
There is no examinations, and final submission for your research paper is end of week 13 (I am done with my paper, after one round of consultation, around 4-5 days before submission, and just upload it to turnitin when the submission folder is open). Oh yes, Prof Cole likes to use turnitin for us to submit our essays. I guess other IEMs also do use it to check for plagiarism.. It’s quite cool - you get to see exactly which lines are “plagiarized” and where you plagiarized it from. Prof Cole allowed us to have resubmissions on the turnitin system to check for plagiarism before our final submission =)
Overall: I really enjoyed this module, much easier than the IEM1 that I took last year. A lot of free time for myself in this module, and things will go very smoothly for you if you can come up with a research topic right from the start of the module.
Why you should take this module: because you like philosophy, and would like to learn more about the various ethical approach towards tackling problems in society. In this case, the “problem” is in the context of outer space. If you love issues surrounding space exploration, adapting humans to space environment, bring humans to Mars for permanent settlements etc. then this is the module for you! =)
Do not take this module if: you don’t want to learn philosophy, or you are just generally bad at writing.
Predicted grade: B+ (my individual assignments have never crossed the 80% mark, so I doubt it will reach an A-)
UPDATE: A-! My overall score was a 77%, which is sufficient to constitute as an A-, if there were no bell curve!
2. PL3283B Lab in Development of Communication
This is one of the many psychology laboratory modules to take, to fulfill your graduation requirements for a psychology major. I decided to take a lab module in my year 2, because I do not have the capacity to do so in my year 3 due to other plans (and year 4 would be too late). It cost me 999 bid points. If you are a year 3, you would have gotten it via MPE. Poor me (literally).
Development of communication? This module is taught by A/P Leher Singh, and her research field is very special and specific - infant language development. She has written many papers on how infants process language and develop their vocabulary, etc. This module is all about her research field.
Without discrediting the prof, I proclaim that this is my worst module for this semester. There is no directed learning, and you can easily ignore your weekly 3-hour lab sessions and design an experiment for your research project (without reference to the lab’s content) that constitutes 45% of your grades. 35% comes from a group (of 2) presentation, and 20% from your attendance and participation (she doesn’t even remember names, I think, as she has to go through the nominal roll each time to take attendance, how does she take note of our participation?) I meant to take this lab to do the research project with my friend, but it turns out that she decided to change it to individual research project, and therefore you have to do everything yourself: literature review, data collection, report writing. well well well.. the difficulty level for the research project is extremely difficulty because you have to deal with infants or kids, and I had to frantically ask around my friends for willing participants of aged 2-5 years old for my research study.
The workload, however, is very light, because you can choose to ignore the readings or only read those that you are interested in. What matters most is the article that you need to present. Every lab session is student presentation. On the occasions which Prof Leher teachers, it can be interesting though.. (which quickly becomes boring). By week 10, there were no more formal sessions in class, but consultations have to be made before we can go ahead with our research project. There is no exams, and the final report is due in week 13.
Overall: I highly discourage anyone from taking this module unless you really love kids, have kids ready to be in your participant pool, and you have a topic ready in mind related to kids
Why you should take this module: you want to learn about the development of language in children, or you just want to have a really slack lab module (and probably don’t learn much from it). I think the choice of your lab module is really important if you are planning to take HT in your fourth year, so don’t belittle your choice...
Don’t take this module if: you don’t wanna waste your time learning nothing.
Predicted grade: I don’t know man.. there is zero feedback from the prof for everything: no participation marks shown, no presentation marks shown, and we just submitted our research report in week 13... i sincerely hope I get either a B+/A- though!
UPDATE: A-! Cool :) I would love to get back my research report and read the comments though!
3. PL3232 Biological Psychology
I took this module in this semester just because I want to be taught under A/P Derbyshire, Stuart, because he is known to include philosophical concepts in his lectures. Already in his first lecture, he introduced concepts like subjectivity and objectivity... how could you not love him?! (sarcastically)
Having taken PH2241 Philosophy of Mind, I am really interested to see how a psychology prof will teach philosophy. I am impressed by A/P Derbyshire’s knowledge and interest in his field of study - foetal pain. Consciousness, pain, sentience, qualia... all these big terms are taught towards the last lectures in the semester, but throughout his lectures he always include some philosophy examples, such as Wittgenstein’s Beetle, Descartes’ Dualism, Kant’s philosophy, and Hume’s arguments.. I sincerely enjoyed his lectures and the discussion on how the subjective experience of what it is like can be produced from mere biological processes.
There was not much of a workload, like any other core modules in psychology. Typical 10% for tutorial, 30% for midterms, and a whopping 60% for finals!! I loved and hated how he would set a compulsory question (for both midterms and finals) and give the answer for us to memorize, so that we can learn to apply the same format of answering for the other questions in the exams. How witty. Therefore, everyone would get that 25 marks in their pocket, as long as we devote some time each day to memorize the answer he has given us. Easy huh?
His questions are not that difficult to spot anyway.. based on his past semester paper, it can be observed that he likes to ask questions on “describe” for short answers, and “describe and critique” for long answers. I accurately spotted two questions for finals - “How is schizophrenia diagnosed?” and “Describe the possible functions of sleep”, which me and my friends already did and practised writing out these answers. As for the long answers, I spotted the question “What is the ‘Hard’ problem”, something which I would love to write on, and his beloved topic of pain also came out. No surprises for the exams, just study the topics and themes that he specified =) For our finals, he specified 6 major themes: dualism, subjectivity and objectivity, somatic marker hypothesis, sensory perception, mental health, and neurodevelopment. Prof Stuart’s marking criteria are just to have depth, clarity, and logical.
Overall: it is quite enjoyable, although sometimes mind-wrecking because the philosophical part is difficult to swallow.
Why you should take this module: you are a psychology major and you need to clear your core modules. However, you have the choice of not taking this module under Prof Stuart if you don’t like philosophy.
You should not take this module if: you are not open to learning philosophy while learning psychology.
Predicted grade: A-, as long as I interpreted the essay questions correctly >_<
UPDATE: A! My first “A” in my whole university life >_<
4. PL3233 Cognitive Psychology
Prof Travellia is a very very funny professor who talks alot during her lecture. She can speak very fast and rush through her lecture if she has to. Prof T. likes to ask us “how are you feeling today?” and get us to do a thumbs up, thumbs sideways, or thumbs down to indicate our mood for the day.. and then she will talk about herself (mostly talking about her experience with her 3-year-old son), and give us some “fun facts of the day” regarding the topic that is going to be taught for that lecture. And then finally she starts her lecture proper... cute huh? =D
I have no complaints for Prof T, but the assessment is quite tricky for her module.. She loves to micro-manage (according to the TAs) because she marks our tutorial assignments! We have 3x tutorial assignments that amounts to 25% in total, a mid-terms that is 25%, and finals is 50%. Workload is slightly heavy, for the fact that you have to write a two-page essay at the start of tutorial 2 and 4 (tutorial 3 was e-learning, so she assigned us to do 2 questions from the textbook, and tutorial 5 we need to prepare a typeout as well, which is not graded, but still needs to be done) There is always something to do every tutorial session :)
Prof T. loves to test the most obscure stuffs from the textbook, so do read every experiment, know every psychologists mentioned, and know every theories and definitions. She likes to test “explain the relationship between ____ and ____” which came out during her midterms and finals. it could be the randomest of things, such as “spreading activation and lexical decision task” which you have to refer to specific experiments and models to explain this question well.
Overall: I enjoyed studying cognitive psychology :) it is much easier than I thought it would be! I studied for this module during week 13, didnt manage to touch it for reading week, and revised on the day before the finals... and could still leave the exam hall early.. should be fine for most people :)
Why you should take this module: Prof T is cute, and her questions during exams are manageable.
Do not take this module if: you do not like to read textbook or leave out minor stuffs in the textbook, because that is where she will test how comprehensive your reading is, hahaha. AND.. she likes to set assignments for every tutorial, so get ready for that!
Predicted grade: B+ (examinations are relatively easy, therefore bell curve is easily pushed rightwards, i guess)
UPDATE: Yea, a B+!
Ending words: and so.. that’s the end of my Year 2 (academically). time FLIES. I’m gonna write two more posts as a summary for my 2 years in CAPT, as well as the other things I do in university, because life in university is not all about the grades.. it’s also about making friends, having new experiences, and pushing yourself to the limits.
Cheers =)
Check out my other reviews:
AY2014/15 Semester Two (Part I) Review: SSU2001 College 3 Capstone Experience
AY2014/15 Semester One (Part II) Review: GEM2906, SSU2003, MNO3330
AY2013/14 Semester Two Review: PL3234, PL3236, PH1102E, PH2110, SE1101E, IEM1201T
AY2013/14 Semester One Review: PL1101E, PL2131, EL1101E, PH2111, GEM1906
NUS AY2014/15 Semester Two (Modules Review Part I)
It’s the end of my exams! This semester I only have two papers, and I ended my 2nd (and last paper) this morning =) You will understand why I only have two finals, when I talk about the modules that I took this sem, which, similar to past module reviews, I will share about the who (the lecturer), what (the workload), and how (to study for exams), and two extra questions on why you should take this module and why should you not. Modules: SSU2001, IEM2201E, PL3283B, PL3232, PL3233
1. SSU2001 College 3 Capstone Experience Module
As the title of the module already stated, this is not your typical module, and it can only be taken by students in College of Alice and Peter Tan (CAPT). This is not one of the five modules required to complete the UTown College Programme (UTCP), and not everyone is required to do this module. This module is meant for students who have completed at least 1 senior seminar module or concurrently taking a senior seminar module, and is usually undertaken by seniors in their year 2 or above.
Picture above: photo of me and my team mates, when we first started out, and doing our ‘field visit’ to Queen’s Close estate and its vicinity.
For this module, we plan how we want it to be, we set the pace, and our supervisor, who is chosen by us (and subject to their approval), will guide us along the way and assess our work, which includes several components: 1) Situational Analysis, 2) Presentation, 3) Final Report, 4) Reflection, and 5) Peer Evaluation. I’m really thankful to have Ms. Soon Fen, a residential fellow in CAPT, and also a lecturer in the CELC, to agree to be our supervisor, as she is very patient and kind towards us and giving us alot of tips and suggestions on how we can do our project. My team worked with the Social Service Office (SSO) @ Queenstown, and we took up this project to 1) create a census of the elderly population in Queen’s Close, 2) understand the needs of the residents, and 3) find out the skills, knowledge, and expertise of the residents in Queen’s Close. It is basically a research project that is based on the Assets-Based Community Development (ABCD) Model, with both quantitative surveys and rapid ethnography (qualitative interviews) conducted.
Picture above: photo of me, Brandon, and Ms. Soon Fen with other participants of the community trail in Casa Clementi, conducted by the NUS Community Trails (photo cr: NUS Community Trails)
The workload was basically set by the leader of the project, aka. me, because I have some background knowledge in this kind of research (in theory) and I really hope to be able to apply what I learnt from previous modules (e.g. MNO3330) and my experience in CTPCLP into this project. My team took part in a community trail in Casa Clementi, to learn how rapid ethnography can allow us to understand a community, we approached A/P Albert Teo from USP, to seek his advice on how we should carry our ABCD, we did readings on ABCD and ethnography research, consulted my peers in constructing our survey (from scratch) that suits what we want to find, and we visited our site of study many many times at different times of the day: setting off from CAPT at 630am for the first visit, taking bus 196, train to commonwealth, and walk there.. only to realize that bus 196 takes us directly to Queen’s Close!! omg.
Photo above: Good morning world! Sun is rising!
There are no exams for this module, and assessment is continuous. Despite being a CS/CU module, I dare say every individual in my team put in our best effort to make this project a success, because afterall we are accountable to an external organization - SSO@Queenstown. Do note that for the batch of AY2014/15 onward, this module is taken on a letter-grade basis, and you can S/U if you want (CAPTains take note!)
Photos above: our awesome friends from CAPT who helped us as volunteers for our surveys, during recess week!! (THANKYOU FRIEND!!)
Why should you take this module: because you 1) get to apply what you have learnt in your junior and senior sems, 2) benefit an organization, and perhaps the society, 3) there has to be community engagement element in every capstone, and you make sure it happens, 4) teamwork or team-flop: you decide (team management skills), 5) get to work with an RF closely (up to you, but for us, we got to know our RF better!)
Why you should not take this module: if you are not a disciplined person, because it does not appear on your time table, and you have to coordinate with your team when you guys meet every week, and when you meet up with your supervisor for updates (for us, we either meet really early in the morning, such as 630/730am, or on sunday nights like 8pm, for weekly meetings/visits to our site of study). if you are not willing to go the extra mile; note that you are working with an external organization and you are accountable to give them updates too, you are also likely to execute a ‘key project’ that will require you to get volunteers, prepare logistics, arrange timings etc.. it’s all part and parcel of project management.
Two more must don’ts for this module: don’t take it for grades, because it matters more that you are enriching yourself through this semester of project work, and to benefit an external organization of your choice - these are the greatest rewards. don’t do it thinking that you will get senior retention; let’s just put it out on the table - capstone is not part of the 5 modules for UTCP, nor is it a requirement for senior retention. People get senior retention, and then they do capstone, to fulfill their academic requirement for residency. Other ways of fulfilling residency requirement after completing the 5 modules for UTCP are: ISMs, reading groups, and UROP.
Photo above: The capstone team, “Making a Connection with the Elderly in Queen’s Close”, at the capstone roundup session, with our supervisor, Ms. Soon Fen, and Master of the College (CAPT), A/P Adeline Seow.
I love my team - I really do. When I first go around trying to form my “A-team”, Glen had already lent his support and said that he will do it with me if I want to. He was critical in his words, especially on how the project should be done, at various stages, and while having someone who is not afraid to say “no” in a team may impede the smooth flow of work, but I appreciate having such people around because of their frankness =) Yvonne is a great morale booster to the team because of her bubbliness and eagerness to start on things, and also her outgoing personality helped us alot during field visits and surveys. Brandon is that walking google scholar, providing us with research articles and doing the literature review for our project. He had to move out of his comfort zone working on this project, dealing with team dynamics, elderly, and also language barriers. I’m proud of my team and what we have achieved - we met our objectives and discovered a few isolated cases in the Queen’s Close estate (3-, 4-, and 5-room flats, one may think, “what kind of problems will they have?”) that require referral to the SSO, which we did, and I’m glad that the SSO is also eager to get these information from us for follow-up.
I got carried away reflecting on my capstone module >_< I will continue my review of the remaining four other academic modules in a separate post.
Cheers =)
AY2014/15 Semester Two (Part II) Review: IEM2201E, PL3283B, PL3232, PL3233
AY2014/15 Semester One (Part II) Review: GEM2906, SSU2003, MNO3330
AY2013/14 Semester Two Review: PL3234, PL3236, PH1102E, PH2110, SE1101E, IEM1201T
AY2013/14 Semester One Review: PL1101E, PL2131, EL1101E, PH2111, GEM1906
PH2241 Summary Assignment
Explain one epistemological objection and one logical objection to Smart’s identity theory of the mind. Then explain his responses to these objections.
An epistemological objection raised was the argument from ignorance. Any illiterate person can perfectly describe the after-images he perceives, and how things look or feel to him, without having to know the neurophysiology of his body. Anyone may have false conceptions about processes in the brain, yet have no problem in making true statements about his sensations. The disconnection between the things we can describe (sensations) and the things which we do not know of (processes in the brain) leads to the conclusion that sensations are not brain-processes. This argument is based on our knowledge of things. If two things, X and Y, are identical, then if we know something about X, we know something about Y. If we can know something about X, and not know anything about Y, then X and Y are not the same thing. In this case, although we are able to describe our sensations, we do not know about the brain-processes behind these sensations. Due to this difference in our knowledge of things, the objection posits that brain-processes and sensations are not the same thing.
In Smart’s response to the epistemological objection, he used the expressions “the Morning Star” and “the Evening Star” to illustrate how one thing can be mistakenly thought to be different things, due to the lack of information that the two expressions refer to just one thing (in this case, the planet Venus). Similarly, it could be the case that sensations and brain-processes are referring to the same thing, and we may be lacking the information to allow that conclusion to be made.
Smart goes on to support his argument with the lightning analogy, differentiating between identity and cause. Smart appeals to science, stating that lightning is a kind of electrical discharge caused by ionized water-molecules within clouds. The true nature of lightning, its identity, is an electrical discharge. Lightning is not caused by electrical discharge. In relation to the identity theory, Smart argues that the true nature of sensations are brain-processes. Brain-processes are sensations described scientifically, and therefore any illiterate person is able to describe the after-images he perceives without knowing the neurophysiology of his body. There is no conflict between brain-processes and sensations being the same thing and to know one without knowing the other.
Smart also explains the lightning analogy in terms of event and experience. The publicly observable physical object of lightning is an electrical discharge. The experience of seeing lightning (the sensation), is thought by Smart as a brain state caused by lightning. The physical object lightning occurs as an event, while descriptions of the lightning are experiences. The experience of seeing lightning is both a sensation and a brain-process which happens in the brain, and this is consistent with the claim in the previous paragraph that brain-processes and sensations are the same thing.
Furthermore, the structure of the epistemological objection is such that it has an epistemological premise (how we know about things) leading into an ontological conclusion (things and their relations to each other). This argument form does not work well with the lightning analogy presented by Smart, as it is possible for a person to talk about lightning without knowing that it is an electrical discharge. The validity of the objection has to be considered before we accept the conclusion against the identity theory.
A logical objection raised was the argument from phenomenology. Brain-processes are in a physical space – the brain. After-images do not exist in physical spaces. Therefore, the after-image is not a brain-process, because they do not both exist in the same realm. The objection goes on to elaborate that the yellowy-orange property of the after-image cannot be seen by a surgeon looking into the brain. Since nothing yellowy-orange can be seen in the brain, despite perceiving a yellowy-orange after-image, brain-processes are not the same things as after-images. This objection is built on the logic that if two things, X and Y, are identical, the properties of X can be found in Y, and vice-versa. In this case, we have two things, the after-image and the brain-process. The brain-process exists in a physical space, and this property of existing in physical spaces is not present in the after-image. Moreover, while the after-image is reported as yellowy-orange, the property of being yellowy-orange attributed to the after-image cannot be seen by a surgeon looking into the brain. As the properties found in the brain-process and the after-image are not found in each other, the two things cannot be the same; sensations are not brain-processes.
In response to the logical objection, Smart states that the conclusion of the objection is an irrelevant one and fails to address the issue in question. Smart reinforces that he is not arguing for the after-image as a brain-process, but the experience of having an after-image as a brain-process. Smart appealed to the differences between the property of an experience, and the property in an experience. The property of an experience refers to the characteristics associated with having that experience, while the property in the experience refers to the content within the experience. Reporting that we see something yellowy-orange is a property of the experience of seeing an after-image. We are, however, unsure of the content of the experience of seeing the yellowy-orange after-image (the property in the experience) in the first place. We are able to describe the experience of seeing something yellowy-orange, yet this experience is not a yellowy-orange something. Smart, however, did not specify the properties that are in the experience of seeing an after-image. After all, after-images do not really exist, and they should not be described directly. After-images should be described indirectly through the experience we have when we see them. The experience of what we see, feel, and touch, are sensations caused by the objects which we see, feel, and touch. These experiences, as claimed by Smart, are brain states. We can therefore conclude that sensations are brain-processes, and this claim is not challenged by the objection explained above.
PH2241 Essay Assignment
‘My point...is not that we cannot know what it is like to be a bat.” (Nagel 1974) So what is Nagel’s point? How far does it limit the science of subjectivity?
Nagel stated that the point of his argument is not about the epistemological problem that a person cannot know what it is like to be a bat. Instead, he wants to raise the conceptual problem of how we can know what it is like to be a bat. The sensory perceptions of a bat are dissimilar to any senses which humans have, hence making it difficult for us to imagine what it is like to be a bat, and it is unlikely that we can imagine what it is like to possess the sensory perceptions of a bat. In order for us to know what it is like to be a bat, we have to take up the bat’s point of view. The phenomenon of consciousness is, however, essentially subjective, and it is therefore inevitable that an objective, physical theory will exclude the mental phenomena of consciousness. Nagel argues that current reductionist theories fail to account for the subjective nature of experiences as these physicalist theories are logically compatible without the presence of the mental phenomenon. Moreover, these physicalist theories are extended to include consciousness when no attempt was made to account for consciousness at all. It would be wrong of us, however, to conclude that bats do not have consciousness, just because we cannot experience what it is like to be them, as it would also be wrong for any other alien forms of life to conclude that humans have no consciousness, just because they are unable to form a conception of what it is like to be us. The fact that a creature has conscious experiences would mean that there is something it is like to be that creature, and this is the subjective character of experience. Nagel claims that this subjective character of experience is beyond our ability to conceive, as we are limited by our current knowledge of science, and there may be facts which well exist beyond the reach of human conception.
Physicalism states that all mental phenomenon are indeed physical processes. If subjective experiences can be accounted for by physical processes, then it would be possible to know what it is like to be another creature, by knowing all things physical about that creature. For physicalism to be defended, Nagel argues that phenomenological features must have physical accounts and that mental processes go through certain physical processes. Such physical processes should be independent of any viewpoints and can be comprehended by different perspectives. Nagel thinks that it would be wrong to conclude that physicalism is false, even with the above premises. It would be truer to say, according to Nagel, in a conservative manner, that we are unable to understand physicalism at this present moment as we do not have any conception of how it can be true. The human understanding of how mental phenomena can be explained by physical processes is limited, and this severely challenges the way we understand consciousness.
Nagel raised the conceptual distinction between subjectivity and objectivity in his argument; subjectivity is dependent on perspectives, while objectivity is independent of perspectives. The theoretic notion of perspectives is important in supporting Nagel’s argument that the study of consciousness is challenged by our scientific knowledge. The process of scientific reduction is a move towards greater objectivity, away from a subjective viewpoint. The objective character of the experience of being a bat cannot be easily understood, as the move from a subjective experience to an objective account will have nothing left of what it is like to be a bat, since the viewpoint of the bat is removed. Science seeks to explain phenomena that are essentially objective, and this is achieved by reducing dependence on individual perspectives towards the object in question. Nagel exemplifies this notion by saying that lightning has an objective character not exhausted by its visual appearance. The move from the subjective visual appearance of lightning to its objective characteristics will reveal that lightning is a kind of electrical discharge. The objective characteristics of lightning are not dependent on any viewpoints, and can be understood from different points of view. In the case of experiences, it will be difficult to point out the objective character of them. Experience is essentially tied to a particular point of view, and it seems unlikely that leaving behind the human point of view will allow us to get closer to the real human experience; the shift to greater objectivity of experience actually takes us further away from the subjectivity of phenomenal experience. It is therefore implied that consciousness cannot be objectively understood, and this poses a problem to science.
Facts of experiences are essentially subjective, as phenomenal experiences are necessarily derived from a point of view. Nagel argues that these facts of experiences are accessible not only from one point of view, and can be taken up by other individuals. Furthermore, the subjective perspective of “what it is to be like”, or consciousness, lies on a continuum. The extent to which we can adopt a bat’s perspective determines the extent to which we will know what it is like to be a bat; if we can take it up roughly or partially, then our conception of a bat’s consciousness will also be rough or partial. This continuum applies also when we try to take up the perspective of another person; the understanding of what it is like to be them is only as much as the extent to which we can take up their point of view. According to Nagel, empathy plays an important role for us to ascribe similar experiences to other subjects. If we were given only empathic means of understanding another creature’s point of view, then we will never be able to know the nature of a bat’s experience. If we can only comprehend those sensations which we have experienced, and if the sensations of the bat are unlike anything we have experienced, then we will not be able to know what it is like to be a bat. This limits the ability of us to draw conclusions about the subjective experiences of another creature.
The science of objectification seeks for the verification of truth by having another scientist to observe the phenomena. If two or more scientists are able to make the same observation, then the conclusion made by them can be said to be objective and therefore true. However, this way of doing science implies that there is something inherently false about the private realizations within our minds, as they cannot be validated by the observation of more than one person. This poses a problem to the study of consciousness; if consciousness cannot be objectively measured or observed by two or more scientists, then we cannot conclude that it is true to possess it. Johann Wolfgang Goethe developed another method of science in which he believes that the outer physical world and the inner world of our senses mirror each other, and they are the internal and external views of the same reality. Goethe advocates for deep observation which will lead us to some qualities of what we are observing. Based on Goethe’s way of doing science, when one observes the behaviours of a bat intently and pay attention to the inner responses which the observation generates, a conception of what it is like to be a bat can be formed. This science of subjectivity is in direct opposition to the science of objectification, and it feels intuitively mystical. The science of subjectivity justifies observation as a means of entering another person’s perspective, and allows us to have some insights on what it is like to be a bat.
From Nagel’s paper, it seems that both objective and subjective accounts of experience are equally important in the understanding of consciousness. Objective science is not able to accurately capture the nature of subjective experiences as they are essentially tied to specific viewpoints, and the phenomenon of consciousness will be left out by physicalist theories. On the other hand, a subjective account of consciousness does not lend itself well to the science of objectification. Goethe’s way of doing science seems to support Nagel’s argument, whereby it is believed that an understanding of another creature can be achieved by observation and paying attention to our inner responses to it. However, Nagel claims that there is a constraint on empathy, that one can never know the nature of the experiences of another, if we were only given the empathic means to access another creature’s point of view. It is difficult for us to empathize with bats, as they are very different from us humans. Without the ability to empathize, we cannot conceive what it is like to be another creature. Based on the above points, it can be concluded that Nagel’s argument poses a challenge, to a large extent, to the science of subjectivity; the conceptual problem of knowing what it is like to be a bat cannot be solved by our current knowledge of science.
References
Akins, K. (1996). A bat without qualities. Readings in animal cognition, 345-358.
Carreira, J. (2013, June 14). Goethe's method of doing science. Retrieved from: http://philosophyisnotaluxury.com/2013/06/14/goethes-method-of-doing-science/
Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat?, The philosophical review, 435-450.