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Last week one of my friend asked me, “If Linux is really that good, why people keep using Windows?” It’s really a good question and I think a lot of people out there have the same question. In this post I don’t want to list how Linux is better in a lot of areas compared to Windows because it will be such a long post. Just take a glimpse at http://www.whyLinuxisbetter.net/, this site summarized some reasons for you to try Linux. Instead, we will discuss why changing behaviour (and keeping them) is difficult for lots of people. We will discuss this with NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) approach and with more specific example on the difficulty to move from Windows to Linux.

This post is not an attempt of attacking Windows. Because I think Windows (still) has certain point over Linux. And I am also still using Windows for some working-related issue. So my point is I am not against Windows!

First I would like to take you to NLP environment. What is NLP exactly? You can find the global description about NLP here . One of underlying principle of NLP is the map is not the territory and people react based on the map - not the reality.

This epistemology by Alfred Korzybski prostulate that there is no such thing as objective experience. People do not really react or behave according to the reality, but in fact they react based on beliefs they have built over time about reality. Just one example: 1 hour felt like just 15 minutes when you enjoy something. But with the same time it might felt like 2 or 3 hours or even forever when you are in a boring class with a boring topics and boring professor . See my point? The time is the territory, it’s the same for everyone but how each people react to it is varies. Each people react by the map on their prior belief. So how can we take this to further application?

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Hi there! Some of my friends said that my blog is… well… how should I say this.. Not expressive, not personal enough, too heavy. They said that I should put more pictures, tell something more about my self, a little bit show off or something .
I don’t know why, I just can not write like any other blog out there. I can not open my self too big in this blog, it’s just too scary for me ha3.. I guess it’s just not me. However, today I want to share one good news with you all.

It started with a comment in this post from Carmen. She informed me about ICP (International Congress of Psychology). Then I just search for my old paper and without any consideration (about the quality of my paper ) I sent them away. I already forgot it when suddenly last week there was this email from ICP that said it is accepted as a poster for the congress. Yay!!!
A little bit sad though.. not accepted as oral presentation, but I think it’s good enough for now . And after I think about it, with poster there will be more people have access to my paper compared to oral presentation.

Thank you to ICP committee for embracing this paper. Thank you for my parent, Mom I love you so much! Thank you for my producer, my song writer and most of all, thank you to the people all around the world who have been touched by my song… Wait… wait… WAKE UP! This is not Grammy Award!!!

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This article is basically ripped off from Field’s Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows with some minor subjective interpretation from me. So if you have access to the book just read it instead of this article. It is really a good book for you who want to learn SPSS and statistics. Highly recommended book !

Factor analysis was first used in 1904 by Charles Spearman, a Psychologist
from United Kingdom. Spearman used factor analysis in his models of human
intelligence. With factor analysis he developed theory that variety of cognitive test
could all be explained by one single factor which called g factor. Later on Raymond
Cattell, psychologist from US, used factor analysis in most of his research on
intelligence which lead to the development of his theory on Fluid and Crystallized
Intelligence. 16 Personality Factor (16PF) test is also one of Raymond Cattell’s
research results based on factor analysis.

Factor analysis is quiet different to other statistical analysis method. Many
statistical analysis methods are used to investigate the relation between
independent and dependent variables. In contrast, factor analysis is used to study
the patterns of relationship among many dependent variables, with the goal of
discovering something about the nature of independent variables that affect them.
The tricky part is that those independent variables were not measure directly. Thus
answers obtained by factor analysis are necessarily more hypothetical and tentative
than is true when independent variables are observed directly (Darlington, 1997).

Factor analysis in psychology is most often associated with intelligence
research. Nevertheless, the use of factor analysis can be observed in other domain
of psychology such as personality, attitudes, etc. The trait theorists in psychology
have been used factor analysis to measure personality traits. The Extraversion-
Introversion and the Neuroticism traits by Eysenck and 16 Personality Factor
questionnaires (16 PF) by Cattell are some of the examples of implementation of
Factor Analysis (Field, 2000). Furthermore, factor analysis is used widely in other
social sciences, education, business fields, biological science, etc.

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Sending students to studying abroad has been the most prevalent approach in internationalisation of higher education. Having international experience is considered as beneficially for students and graduates by many researchers in higher education. Most of them agreed that studying abroad have a positive impact on student life. The benefit of study abroad usually analysed in five spheres: academic achievement, foreign language proficiency, cultural enrichment, personal development and professional impact.

Foreign Language Proficiency
One of the leading motivations to study abroad is to have better foreign language proficiency. The improvement of language proficiency generally assumed to be the main consequence of studying abroad. Student reported that upon return they felt enhancement in language proficiency of the host country, in everyday context as well as in academic context. Obviously the language of the host country and the language use in the instruction must be taking in to account. For example: If you study in German but the language of instruction is in English, obviously your German proficiency will not improve much.

Cultural Enrichment
Study abroad provides direct opportunity to learn other culture. The most obvious impact for this is a better understanding of the conditions in other countries. This experience will stimulates some reflection about ones own culture and even reconsideration of values in general. Improved understanding of political rationales and tolerance for different views is just some of the examples of the result. Ones also will have more experience in comparing their own countries and the host country where they study. They will learn how to be proud of their home country and in the same time learn to accept the deficiency of their home country compared to the host country.

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