Going for Interviews? Read these Important Things

Hello Readers,

Group discussion is one of the most important part of the selection procedures, followed by top companies for job applicants as well as top colleges for taking admission. It is important because it gives information about ones overall personality, team work and attitude.

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Therefore, it is very important that the applicants keep certain things in mind and adopt them while being a part of group discussion. These things are carefully seen and noted by the moderator. 

In a group discussion, while you go in as an individual don't act as an individual, act like how you would act in your group of friends. In a group of friends there are arguments, facts being stated, a stance being taken; the same has to be done in a group discussion as well. But, also keep in mind that there is certain level of dignity being maintained, don't turn the G.D. into a fish market. 

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While sitting on the chair, be comfortably seated, don't sit in a posture you are not comfortable with. Some people tend to sit with a very straight-stiff back, avoid that if you are uncomfortable. You may sit the way you like, as long as the people sitting next to you are not affected by it.

While you are stating a point in the G.D. always look at the person who is weak ,that is the person who has not spoken much and your words should be directed towards the strongest person, that is the person who is speaking a lot of valid points. What this does is, if the weaker person starts speaking because of this, you get extra marks, also if you keep eyes on the strongest person then the moderator will always know who is stating the best points and thus the strongest person will benefit. Please don't state invalid points, neither state repetitive points, you can re-frame your points.

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There are certain dos and don'ts that I would like to mention, if you are allowed then do carry a pen and paper to jot down yours as well as other's points as they would be very essential when you are required to give a summary at the end of the G.D. ; avoid carrying a very fancy pen, carry a simple pen; while presenting a point don't wave hands way to high that they obstruct other people in the group; your attire should be a formal one; shoes should be polished and also don't try to intervene when someone is stating a valid and non repetitive but do intervene when someone is stating an invalid point.

If I am to define an ideal person for G.D. he will be Lord Ganesha. One should try to behave like him in a Group Discussion. Ganesha has long ears which signifies a will to listen patiently and attentively to other people around. He has big eyes which signifies a will to keep an eye on everyone present in the group discussion. He has a stomach which signifies a will to absorb in all the knowledge and arguments shared by other people. 

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Finally, if you are stuck and don't have any idea about the topic that has been given for the group discussion then think about the topic from these angles, the social angle, the political angle, the technological angle, the legal angle and the economic angle. You would certainly find some good points about the topic when you start to analyse the topic keeping these angles in mind.

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Psychology Update: The Lollapalooza Effect

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Written by : Radhika Bhattacharyya

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In common parlance,  Lollapalooza means extraordinary.

However the term, "Lollapalooza effect", coined by Charlie Munger throws light on the psychological phenomena, in which multiple human biases or tendencies synchronize and go hand in hand in creating a larger than life effect . Charlie Munger is an American investor and business man, more famously known for his involvement with Mr. Warren Buffet, as his business partner.

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Imagine a beautiful girl by the name of Sheetal, who is also humble, compassionate, and ethical. Her virtues, in addition to her beauty, all add up in making her irresistible. (Lollapalooza effect).

In a typical real life situation, imagine an inactive student named Ravi, in the Physical Training (P. T.) class. Not only is he lazy,  but he also dislikes his fastidious P. T. teacher, who in a bid to make the lazy student more active, makes him run 10 rounds of the field. Say on his 3rd round of the field, Ravi faints in the heat and his class mates end up mocking him. Embarrassed, Ravi vows to miss all his P. T. sessions. Here we see, multiple human biases acting in the same direction and at the same time, in making Ravi want to miss further P. T. sessions.

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The 'Lollapalooza effect' was coined by Munger in his 1995 Harvard speech, in which he reviewed serious instances of human misjudgment.

The 2008 sub-prime crisis is another example of the Lollapalooza effect, on a massive scale. Bankers decided to give prime loans to sub-prime lenders(high rated borrowers) at low interest rates in order to sell off more housing loans with a view to increase their business volumes. The sub-prime lenders started selling off home loans(sub-prime loans) to sub-prime borrowers (unrated borrowers) at higher interest rates, with a view of selling higher volumes of business and receiving higher commissions, without checking into the financial capability of the borrowers. And ultimately the sub-prime borrowers gained the maximum, in being able to fulfill their dreams of buying a home, without giving a thought as to their capacity of repayment of the loan. In a series of chain reactions, what occurred next, as we all know, was the sub-prime crisis. 

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Here the mechanism of 'herd-mentality' and the different human tendencies and biases acting together in a synchronized manner, created the massive mortgage crisis leading to the eventual breakdown of the US economy, resulting in large-scale unemployment and recession.

Not a single player thought about the long term consequences(large dose of human misjudgment) leading to an overwhelming mortgage crisis.

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Mission white bear

White bear, is a term used to describe a problem in which the person deliberately tries to forget and repress certain kind of thoughts but instead results in those thoughts appearing in the mind more and more. The efforts put in suppressing the thoughts all go in vein as the thoughts occupy more prominent place in the mind.

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The reason why this problem is termed as white bear is; in the initial days of the discovery of the problem, it was a very difficult task to not think of white bear when asked to not think about it.

For example, when I say to you to not think about a pink elephant; okay please don't think about a pink elephant. Does your mind listens to you? or does it start to think about a pink elephant even after saying that it shouldn't. This problem is also termed as ironic process theory.

This problem is widely used by psychologists in the treatment of Anxiety and Depression. How? Think of it this way that, when a person is under stress and is distressed then he would keep thinking and trying to suppress his anxiety and depression but, he would actually be increasing it many times by doing this, it may even result in the person doing things completely out of his character and what is expected out of him.

This problem can also be related to memorization, and the level of control a person has on his mental power and abilities. If someone can intentionally control his thought process and make his mind think and work according to his desires and not against it, then the person has a control over the white bear syndrome.

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Here are some ways to overcome white bear, these have been tried and test in various experiments by psychologists.
Try focus on other things; in order to distract the mind from things that are not to be thought of, the person can start to think of other things. Example- Instead of thinking of white bear start thinking of a pink lion.
Meditation; this is a very effective way to have a control over your body and mind. During the work of the whole day, we tend to not breathe properly in the way required by the body; simple deep breathing can bring in a lot change as well.
Relaxation; by simply relaxing and letting the body come out of stress and depression is another way to overcome the white bear.

I hope you good relate to the post.

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What is Exactly Going Wrong?

Hello readers, I recently came across a news from the Noida City of Uttar Pradesh state of India; where a boy precisely a teenager of the age 16 years killed his mother and sister with the help of pizza cutter, scissor and a bat. 

This news made be really think what is this happening, a boy who probably should have been more concerned with his school examinations has killed the closest people in his life , I was even more shocked when I came to know the reason for his act. He did all this because his mother stopped him from watching television and asked him to study.

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Now, seeing this news being featured in the newspapers and news channels, many mothers and sisters would feel very insecure when addressing or scolding their sons or brothers. While, on the other hand what this does to the psychology of another male teenager is, killing your mother or sister is the way out of homework and studying and scoldings of the parents, I might be sounding really very harsh but, this has happened in the past as well. When the teenagers see another teenager come out a similar situation that they also are dealing with, they find the solution easy to adopt and relate with.

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I think the media houses need to be very careful, when such a news is thrown up on the television screens. The media houses should either consider not showing up such news or showing up at night time when the teenagers are asleep. The news that teenagers see on the screen or read in the newspapers tend to have a very deep impact on their minds, they actually relate to the news as their own.
The news can even cause can epidemic where multiple such incidents start to happen. And this has happened in the past as well. I am quoting here an incident from the past; in the 1960's there was a teenage epidemic  in Micronesia, where the suicide rates among the teenagers took a sharp rise. The teenagers were following each other for committing suicide and even though their reasons for the suicide were very lame, they committed suicide because as they heard about other teenagers doing it as an easy way to get out of their problems.

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Apart from this, parents should give special attention to the behavior of the children, the kind of movies they watch, the kind of online games they play or the kind of things they talk about. If the parents see some adverse changes in their children, consultation with a psychologist needs to be done.
There should always be a free flow of information between the teenagers and the adults specially their parents.
Share your views in the comments

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Psychology Update - The Munchausen Syndrome

The Munchausen syndrome is kind of a mental disorder in which the person who is perfectly alright tries to show or depict that he is not well, and is feeling sick and needs attention. The reason why the person behaves this way is because he is suffering from depression or anxiety or emotional difficulties or lack of motivation or abuse in the past

So, the person who is suffering from this syndrome is basically trying to fake an illness; The identification of this syndrome can be difficult as the person is faking, being dishonest and is trying to make us believe that he needs diagnosis and attention, and rightly so, we as humans have the tendency to show sympathy towards a person's suffering. 

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When the doctor gets to notice that a person is suffering from such a disorder, he will initiate treatment by the talking therapy. The doctor during the treatment tries to bring in a change in the behavior and thought process of the person.

When we find any person in our relation, suffering from this disorder, we should try to encourage them to fight it out, we should allow them to talk to us, we should make them more comfortable, we should try to get them rid of depression and anxiety issues. We should never abandon or ostracize the people who are suffering from this disorder as they can be cured only by love, care and motivation to lead a better life.

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Why Saying and Being Positive is Important

We always hear people around us, asking us to stay positive, wish good and positive things; and be optimistic. Ever gave it a thought why is that so? Or consider this, there will be certain kind of people around you who will say negative, demotivating and pessimistic things to us. Ever gave it a thought why is that so?

Okay, lets roll in. Our mind is very strong yet tinder element of our body. Strong because it actually controls every other element in the body. Tinder because it can easily be contaminated with undesirable thoughts which can be devastating. So, when someone else feeds his/her thoughts in your mind, it can either be catastrophic or fruitful. Why just some one else, when you yourself feed messages to your mind it can work the same way. 

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Getting a little deeper, there is something called as a conscious mind and other thing called as the subconscious mind. Yes, I have been influenced by Dr. Joseph Murphy's novel " The power of your subconscious mind". I will present before you some more light on this subject and let us see how psychology influences us.

So, yes, Conscious mind helps us to do every activity that we want to do, like a shake of our hands, legs or speaking or reading. On the other hand subconscious mind is the one which controls activities like our heart beats or blood pumping by heart or eye balls shrinking or enlarging according to light.

The subconscious mind is the one which gets affected by the thoughts that are poured on it by either our own self or some other people. When the thoughts that enter the subconscious mind are good and positive then, our the subconscious mind works along with the conscious mind to get those positive thoughts to be accomplished. Similarly if, the thought entering the subconscious mind are negative and demotivating the conscious mind will get you more closer to your negative thoughts and situation.

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So, what to do? Always stay aware of people who try to influence your subconscious mind by their negative thoughts, try nullifying their thoughts and activities by, yourself giving positive thoughts to self. When you yourself start to feel down and pessimistic thoughts try to invade your subconscious mind, then give yourself a dozen of positive messages and thoughts by speaking to your own self and telling yourself that everything is good and give yourself the confidence, that is required to tackle the situation.

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In psychological terms, when you yourself give good, positive thoughts to your subconscious mind and try to lift yourself up, it is termed as Auto Suggestion. When it is done by other person to your subconscious mind then it is called Hetero Suggestion.

I hope you could related to me. Share your views in the comments.

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