Results :)

So...

I got a First in my degree apparently! That in itself was a huge surprise - I was just hoping for a 2.1 overall, but it averaged out as a First overall, mainly due to getting a First on my Final Year Project (which was worth quite a large percentage of my final marks).

The second major surprise was that I got home from Essex on Thursday night, checked my uni e-mails and received an e-mail saying that I have been awarded the Board of Examiners' 2011 prize for Final Year performance!

I haven't got a clue why: I've looked at my transcript and can't see anything amazing at all - I got 81% overall in Forensic Psychology and 71% overall for my project, but those were the only really good marks I got and they're nothing particularly special! But I'm not complaining, I'm so proud of myself at the moment.

If nothing else, I'm just glad we're at this point and that things are still ok at the moment. With the year we've had even just completing the exams was a huge achievement, let alone anything else. And I'm definitely considering future research now!

Procrastination and burnout!

How does exam revision suddenly seem so demotivating the day before the exam? I've kept detailed notes for each lecture with relevant readings throughout the year, I've done hours and hours of revision every day since April to shorten my notes done (in lots of different colours and everything, very important!), and the exams so far (4/5 completed) have gone ok (I think! Let's hope I don't regret saying that! Although is it just me who always comes out of exams feeling like I haven't written enough? I see people writing pages and pages and pages, and each of my essays today was only 1.5 pages long!)

...And then for the last two or three days, I have lost all motivation! Everything seems more appealing than revision: I've taken all my posters off the wall, packed up as much of my things as I can (moving out of my flat after exam tomorrow to go back home again!), I've put some of the boxes in my car, I've made some ice cubes, read some forums, looked up postgraduate degrees and ideas for research (seriously, I can manage to look up and be interested by research that I don't need to remember and write about tomorrow, I just don't have the enthusiasm for what I do need to write about!) I got back from my exam at about 12:05pm today, it's now 3:38pm and since I got in so far I have done precisely...nothing.

I think it's just complete mental exhaustion. I've worked so hard and stressed so much that I think my brain's just decided it needs a rest! I want to wake up in the morning and not feel like I should be revising, I want to watch rubbish TV all night, to browse pointless things on the internet, to plan things to do all summer, to go training and enjoy the freedom of being there and knowing I don't have to go home and revise.

Ah well...20 hours from now and it's over! And then freedom begins. :)

The words used in children's advertising. And we wonder why boys like blue and girls like pink!

Ok, oversimplified maybe. But it does say a lot about the role of expectations and stereotypes in children's gender identity. Boys are expected to like guns and battle games, rough-and-tumble. Girls are expected to like dolls and magic, pink sparkly things!

And children absorb these expectations. In 1994, Parke said that parents' reactions to emotional displays help a child to develop their sense of self. And these get internalised - boys learn that they should be 'strong', for girls it is far more acceptable to be emotional. Boys' self-descriptions have been found to change depending on if they're alone or in front of a group of other boys (Banjeree & Lintern, 2000).

Children learn to describe themselves and their gender from a very early age (by age 3, 90% are correct at identifying their gender!). Not long after this they begin to segregate - girls play with girls, boys play with boys (well, until we reach the teenage years...another story!)

In one study on gender roles, mothers played with a baby who was dressed up as either a boy or a girl. The researchers found out that when the baby was believed to be a girl, the mothers offered the baby a doll. When they believed it was a boy, they offered a train. So even as very young infants the expectations of adults have an influence on our lives - clothes, behaviour, toys, emotions, everything!

I just find this quite interesting. :)