psicóloga

in some ways, i'm every asian parents' worst nightmare: i majored in the social sciences.

even, dare i say it, something as fluffy as psychology.

but i still like to think that what initially drew me to psychology was something science-based. in fact, i remember thinking that i liked how research in psychology was so painstakingly perfectionistic on top of an already well-designed RCT: trying to tie together all the loose ends and extra noise that comes from something as erratic as human behavior. besides, it's so complicated (everything is a factor effecting human behavior); yet still so applicable in life--after all, what problem doesn't involve human behavior?*

this was a problem i wanted to challenge. the problems related to humans. and their behavior.

besides, when has true science ever won? politics and the whims of the world and its people seem to have more say about science than the data ever did. kuhn was right, after all.

anyway these days, reading the news, i'm starting to realize that all i ever needed to know about the rest of the world i did, in fact, learn in psychology 101. perhaps my education has not been in vain after all.

-economics is essentially behavioral psychology (reinforcement + stimulus control) on a macro scale.

-politics is analogous to systems theory with its constant need to scapegoat somebody. or, if you want to dig deeper into the recesses of history, perhaps even somewhat freudian with its sense of maintaining some equilibrium amongst various conflicts and power control.

one could even argue that CBT is akin to obama's policies (at least as promised when he first stepped into office; i'm not clear about the details of the stimulus plan): problem-centered, rational, evidence-based, optimistic and yet, reality steps in and...all is to be continued, as relapse reveals that it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks and we continue in our old ways. still, there are times of actual change and those times, i believe, are worth all the effort in the end.

oh well. i don't think that's enough to assuage the asian moms and pops. but at the very least, i can tack on a quantitative/statistcs minor, flash the "I CAN DO MATH" card, and...maybe they'll be satisfied with that.

:]

*i'm attaching a footnote onto this entry. i don't mean to say psychology is or isn't a "soft science." in many ways, i find these delineations kind of pointless. i think the identification of "hard" or "soft" actually depends more on individuals. some so-called hard scientists do shoddy and careless research yet publish prolifically. meanwhile, some so-called soft scientists are extremely rigorous in their empiricism, often pain-stakingly so, and get waved off as a soft scientist. plus i've met some people who try to impose empirical methods on fields where it doesn't really make a lot of sense to (at least to me) and it strikes me as a child playing with one of those big plastic balls and trying to force the circle-shaped block down the hole that was meant for the square. (that analogy made a lot of sense to me.)

my thought is that in the end, if you believe that waving your data, tables and published journal article makes a difference in people's lives, then that's an awfully simplistic and idealistic notion. i think the problem any research faces is that of translation--turning findings into something real and practical that does its part to alleviate some problem, some pain and some suffering somewhere.

ok, whew. that's enough.

poema

in the scurry of databases impatiently awaiting my analysis and carpal muscles screaming after banging at a computer all day, a moment of repose, con un poema:

cuando me vuelvo atrás a ver los años
que han nevado la edad florida mía,
cuando miro las redes, los engaños
donde me vi algún día,
más me alegro de verme fuera dellos
que un tiempo me pesó padecellos.


when i turn back to look at the years
that have dropped snow on the flowers of my youth,
when i look at the nets
the deceits where i once found myself
my joy at seeing myself free of them is greater
than the suffering they formerly caused me.


-francisco de quevedo, salmo IX

* * *

i don't understand why "poema" is masculine in spanish.

"la mano" (the hand) is understandable.
"el problema" (the problem) makes enough sense :]

but of all the gender-discordant spanish words, this one strikes the strangest chord in me.

ah well. anyway after four years of studying the language and one year in ba, at long last, i believe i can finally speak some semblance of spanish.

hooray !


now. if only i could speak english again.

febrero

oh my. what a sad blog. it's become nothing more than a virtual notebook for random quotes.

anyway, an appropriate response would be...another quote.

in many ways, this captures a certain mentality here in buenos aires, for better or for worse:

there will always be, in emerging nations, an enduring attraction to the ways of the colonizer--i myself was not immune to it. --nelson mandela, long walk to freedom