AS Standards II: Psychology Revision

I really need to do some multi-tasking because yesterday my Picture of Dorian Gray audiobook sent me to sleep for four hours, and I didn’t get all the work done I need to if I’m going to pass looming exams. So we’re going to revise together!

Subject #1: Psychology

Question: How many links from the syllabus can Francesca make to the film We Need to Talk About Kevin? (There are a few spoilers coming up.)

Answer: at least three.

Kevin and his mother did not appear to bond very well. When a babby is very little, it is generally considered that there is a sensitive period of attachment between the babby and their primary care giver. A bloke named Bowlby came up with this idea. Essentially an infant needs to form a nice secure bond with at least one person in order to form nice secure bonds with other people later in life (this is called the continuity hypothesis). There are a few different types of attachment, however, and Kevin’s does not appear to be secure, but insecure-aviodant or insecure-resistant. Or possibly insecure-disorganised. This can result in aggressive behaviour in later life (mass murder). Incidentally, mothers of insecurely-attached babbies are less responsive to crying (walking through building work to drown out Kevin’s screaming).
Kevin did not seem have a biological abnormality prompting him to resort to mass murder, but Freud’s psychodynamic approach could be on to something – perhaps his id was all “I want mummy’s attention” when his ego and superego were developing, and he projected these feelings toward Eva as a teenager by committing mass murder. Or maybe he learnt mass murder by playing video games with his dad and listening to Eva bitch about fat people.
Kevin did not conform to social norms because he killed lots of people. In fact, he deviated rather strongly. He was pretty highly-functioning, however, like Harold Shipman.

I should add that as I’m not a trained psychologist, and Kevin is fictional, I can’t actually decide what turned him to genocide. I can speculate though… This is fun, we should do it more often. Maybe Jesus Christ Superstar for RS.

Europian Music! Specifically, Caro’s Back!

HMV sent me an email saying it’s out of administration, and it had better stock The Shocking Miss Emerald or it might go back…

Tip: go with the accordion player, Maria, he looks very content.

Actually drafted this post a week ago, and was told later in the day that I look like Caro. Not going to complain; she has very impressive hair.

Political/Musical Reflections

I’ve been trying to work out how to wax poetic on Margaret Thatcher without doing a cheap impersonation of the rest of the British media, so instead I’d like to encourage you to buy this fortnight’s edition of Private Eye. It’s a magazine which is definitely not like the rest of the British media – it’s funny, for one thing, and reports news for another. It’s also edited by Have I Got News for You‘s Ian Hislop (whose wife Victoria, incidentally, writes excellent novels) so if you’ve ever watched that show and laughed, you should be reading Private Eye regularly.

Just noticed that ‘Tim Minchin’ is a category on here. Kind of curious as to what Mrs Thatcher would have thought of this, assuming she was never a Tim fan:

Literally a Filler Post

I’ve got the distinct feeling that somewhere about my person/computer/bedroom there is a very funny picture of something inappropriate but witty, and that said picture wants nothing more than to be Internet-ised.

Only problem is, I can’t for the life of me think what it is I’ve been meaning to post.

Let’s just listen to Dusty Springfield.

You Are About to Experience the Best Website in the World Ever (except this one of course)

http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/

With the sound on.

I love Jesus more every second the tab is open.

Thank you, Ruby!

The Following Was Written Yesterday Before My Laptop Cut Out…

..I can’t remember how it was supposed to end.

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Sometimes something is so big you don’t know what to write, so you don’t and then after a while you just want to write about something else. Especially when other people write their own pieces.

One day, maybe, and in the mean time there are letters to be sent.

I can’t watch the news on 1st April because it’s even less sensical than normal… have Ant and Dec really got to number one? Are people really this horrible? Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Okay that’s enough for now, I had to say it though. Back to the chocolate (creme eggs have egg white in them. Excuse me, but why?) and slightly disjointed episode of Jonathan Creek – not because of the plot but because I keep Googling famous people. It’s actually fun if you don’t mind where you end up.

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Okay in honour of Easter, and Google, and the fact I’m using Tim’s face as part of my RS revision, here is the best thing I ever Googled in a free period. Shout when you see it.