Freija the princess

I just have to introduce the newborn princess. Her name is Freija Darwin Jeanette Peterson Gordon. A lot of names for a most lovely princess. Her parents are Line (pronounced Leene) Gordon and Garry Peterson, both of them proud Assistant Professors at Stockholm Resilience Center, Stockholm University.

Responsibility = Responsability

Are you a responsible person? Are you? Sure?
I have met a lot people claiming that they are really very responsible, always feeling and conducting different shapes of responsibility.
But if, and when, I criticize them, for example accusing them for not being enough mature or grown up they mostly just disappear in a cloud of silence. They do not respond in any constructive way at all. The only response is – silence.
I cannot call them responsible. Responsibility is the same as responsability = ability to respond. If you don’t show any ability to respond in a clear, evident way I can’t say that you are responsible.
It is just as simple as that.

Global warnings

No, I am not thinking of global warming. Even though I firmly believe that we, the humanity, stands on the edge of a global warming disaster (which, in fact, already has started; so, what are you going to do about it?).
I am thinking of the peoples’ insatiable hunger for better food, better drinks, better and greater experiences, better (and more expensive) clothing, better cars, even more comfortable flights, even more advanced electronic devices and toys and so on and so on and so on (it will not end). This hunger, in combination with the greed that arises from feelings of envy towards the neigbours, is the basis for The Giant Market, and the adventures of the daring businessmen and businesswomen.
Global market means of course an enormous market. Billions of hungry people, a lot of them greedy. But global market means also an enormous competition among the ones that produce all that enormous stuff that are for sale and will be for sale around the globe. And everything will change. The big companies of today will of course not last forever. Some, a few, small companies will grow. The others will die. The factories will necessarily employ workers that are cheap, strong and willing to endure. The same will be the cases of most airline companies. The golden ages for Flight Crew Captains will gradually turn to something new, which probably will not be any golden days anymore. The worker unions have to adjust. Everything change and the changes that already have arrived will result in a much tougher world.

Grandpa activities

Summer in Sweden. Lots of people on vacation. Sunshine, daily temperatures around 25-27 degrees Centigrades. I am trying to slow down, which is not exactly as being laid back, doing nothing. Activities change. From the office to an early morning kayak tour, cleaning up in the garden, doing some aerobics and, not at least, getting an even more profound relation to my grandchildren.
My grandchild, Herman, is now 8 months. I am happy having earned his trust. We like each other. And during the night until this day, July 25, my next grandchild was born. She has not yet got any name.

The picture shows me, Herman, Herman’s mother Tove with her sister Line’s newborn child in her arms. I hope that she could feel that she is heartily welcome.
Grandchildren – the dessert in life.
Yes!

P as in Psychology or in Pain

You will never be able to act as a very good and a very professional psychologist if you never have felt any pain. No, I don’t mean somatic pain (pain from a wound or a toothache or headache or something like that). I mean pain that comes from within your mind.
OK, every small child has now and then feelings of pain, often connected to separation anxiety or overwhelming impressions – too many people, too loud voices, too little sleep, such things. But I am talking about pain that returns also when you grow up. This pain is accelerating in cases when you are let down and betrayed by friends of yours, or when your lover is gone, or when your relatives suddenly get diseases that will kill them. There are lots of occasions for pain, real pain, hard pain.
Most people try desperately to hide feelings connected to pain. They deny them, they try to repress them. They turn to the sunny side of life, giggling and laughing. Those people will never become skilled psychologists.
I have met several psychologists and behaviour scientists that I would never recommend anyone to visit. And then, there are a few, very good psychologists that I completely trust. One of those is a real friend of mine, living in Norway. I know quite a lot about his pain – and about his skills as a psychologist. Another one is my dear wife. Yes, I do trust her completely. That is why we have been living close to each other during days and nights. We have now been married for 35 years. That is something to celebrate.

Fear of flying

Fear of flying is mostly caused by exactly the same feelings that may occur in your body and in your mind when you are to lay down in the hospital emergency room, where you are totally handed over to the surgeon, who is going to make you fall asleep so he can start his surgery with your body. You have no choices (besides not entering the aircraft – or the hospital). You are in the hands of the others, you have lost control, and if you are not able to completely and fully trust the people that now will take care of you, you will probably start to sweat, feel discomfort, perhaps even anxiety.
The keyword is trust. As a passenger in the aircraft you simply have to trust the pilots, the Air Traffic Controllers, the technicians, the people that have the responsibility for the logistics in the flight systems – all that. If you have even the slightest feeling of mistrust – there are always a lot of space for your worries.
The same goes for you when you apply to a qualified position in The Big Company, where the recruting staff will check you by giving you some psychological tests and conduct some interviews with you. You have simply two choices: either swallow the drug whatever taste it has, or…start worrying, ask questions, appear as a somewhat troublesome person. And if you clearly show your mistrust you will probably not get the job you wanted. It is as simple as that. So you´d better play the game they want you to play, adapting without any sound of distrust, just appearing as the nice, gentle servant they want you to be.
Will this make you happier?
Yes, perhaps. Perhaps. But as long as you have grown even a slight critical mind of yours there will always be this nagging, internal voice in your mind: Who are those people I have turned to? Who are those people flying the aircraft of my own? Who are those people that now are going to make final and very serious decisions about my future life?
There is an old Japanese proverb stating: Do not believe everything that is true!
So, what to do? Well, it is a matter for you to think about. So my only advice is: just think about it! And think twice. And then – the action and the responsibility are yours, all yours.

The use of the title “Professor”

There are professors and there are professors. They do not always have the equivalent background. In some countries, as for example in Sweden, a professor has earned his or her academic title by a special and an official distinction made by a university. Mostly the title professor relates to an eminent scientist, working at a university. Having earned this title means that you have the right to use the professor title for the rest of your life.
But in other countries, for example in Southeast Asia, a professor could mean a learned or specially skilled person that has once graduated from a university (with a B.Sc. exam or equivalent). This kind of “professor” is not necessarily linked to any university by his work. There is not common to use the title “professor” in Europe among this kind of learned people.
If you meet a “professor” you could always ask if he or she has been given his or her title by any university and if he or she is currently linked to any university. If not I suggest that you use the ordinary titles Mr. or Mrs. or Ms..

Matters of change

Am I able to change?
Am I able not to change?
Everything around me changes. Not always dramatically. Mostly I regard my surroundings like a slowly growing tree. It takes years to see it change from the small plant to the powerful big, green biological factory. But the tree will not stand forever. Everything changes.
We, all of us, are parts of the changing life in the changing world.
Yes, I am able to change – in the meaning that I cannot resist the changing processes. These are going on in my body and in my mind. I am a typical representative of the changing human being in the changing life.
But as such a representative I am also in oppposition against this ongoing change. I want to stay young. I want to stay in a position where I thought that my mind was clear and my thoughts were sharp and correct. So, the concept personality, or personality style, is an expression of my attempts to resist the always ongoing change. My personality is my sluggishness or my stubborn resistance against life as a matter of ongoing change.

The challenging problem about predictions of man

If I am going to try to predict another human being’s behaviour and way of manners in a week from now it would not be too difficult. What I have to do is to carefully study his (or her) behaviour and to ask some questions regarding his ideas and how he is feeling, those sort of things. A week is just seven days and it is almost hopless to undergo any substantial change in just a few days. The way you behave today is almost exactly the same that you will perform next week. And, probably also next month. And perhaps also after six months. Perhaps. But not for sure. Things may have happened to you that have forced you to change in some respects. And how about after one year, or after two years? Or after ten years? Or twenty, or even thirty years? Could there be any chance of making predictions for such a long time?
I would say yes. There is a chance. But it requires a lot of fundamental psychological data. It is not enough with some test scores, based upon psychological test instruments made up at present time. And it is not enough with behaviour observations made during quite a short time.
You have to study much more than that, for example basic developmental processes during an early upbringing, present social interaction patterns, thinking habits, basic values concerning the ideas of human life etc.. Then there is a chance. That chance is not to be regarded as 100% safe. Predictions for such a long time are always surrounded by strings of uncertainties. A lot of unexpected happenings during the life path could change a lot.
There is always a challenge to try to make safe enough predictions, and if you are a well educated and well trained psychologist, who regularly work with personality assessments the outcome will probably become quite positive.

How to select selectors – 2

When recruiting new airline pilots or medical doctors, for example surgeons, or police officers or teachers – you´d better start constructing a requirement profile. Exactly what are you going to look for? Experiences from working life and from private life? Basic intellectual capacities? Physical strength? Maturity? Judgement? Social sensitivity and copperation ability? Or what?
And how about recruiting new recruiters, those who are going to perform the selection of other candidates? How about the requirement profile of the selector?
What kind of basic knowledge and previous experiences is neccessary?
What about the capacity level? (And how to measure this?)
What about the personality development and the social interaction capacity?
How to find all these aspects?
And how are then the recruited selectors trained?
According to my experience there are here and there (not at all places) some lacks in the care of recruiting the top quality selectors. So please do not expect that you always will be treated with a true professionalism when you meet those people who perhaps will change your life forever.