Okay Fuck It If This Post Reaches 666k Notes By The End Of 2023 I’ll Practise Basic Self Care

I’m not girlfriend material. I’m not even sure I can feel those kinds of emotions towards one person. I’ve never been in love before. Sometimes I’m like ‘Why can’t I develop feelings for someone? Is there something wrong with me?’ I love being by myself, I’m confident and independent so in my opinion you don’t need a boyfriend to be happy: I like being single. But, you know, sometimes I think about my future, about love and I don’t know… I don’t see myself with someone. I’m complicated. It seems like I’m not able to find that one person who can understand me. Maybe I’m too deep and our generation doesn’t wanna be deep. Girls wanna have fun and lots of them are shallow, boys wanna be young and wild… I’m not like that. Yes, I have friends that truly love their partners but I can’t see myself in their shoes. I would suffocate. I know this girl who is in love with her boyfriend but when she starts to explain their typical days or things like his hobby (football) and her likings (clubbing) to me, I start to feel anxious. Am I weird because of this? It’s like I want something more, I can’t be happy with someone who loves me but at the same time isn’t a creative person or doesn’t wonder about life, death, dreams… I hate small talks. They just seem tiring and pointless. I wanna meet someone who loves talking about everything out there, in this world. Or in the universe. I wanna meet someone who is not afraid to be himself, who can be odd and doesn’t give a fuck about that. Someone who would gladly show me how his brain works. A person with a curious mind and a deep heart. People come and go and the one commonality they always leave behind is the comment that I have a cold heart. They can’t understand me because I don’t give them the chance to see my true colors. They can’t find what they are looking for and they run away from me. Because I’m too complicated. Too difficult. So I lock my heart from the rest of the world. Because I’m so fucking scared. Because when I care, I care a lot. I’m too deep, I think too much, I’m scared of getting hurt… this is my Achilles’ heel.

(via irisviel9)

“My heart’s not yours to hold. You hear me? Not. Yours.”

“I think you should consider it a miracle I’ve stuck around this long. It’s so creepy here.”

“Chasing the adventure is only half the fun. Look at all the friends we’ve made.”

“We might have to lower our expectations.”

“Fantastic, you’ve enchanted the bones to life. Dare I ask what’s next?”

“Dare I even try to ask for forgiveness? Do I deserve it?”

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We received our report cards for the first semester today. Most of my grades remained the same from the midterms all through out finals. One subject decreased drastically, but there were few marks that increased. I'm happy with the results, but I know that I can do better than that. Second sem will definitely be better, I will make it better. Let's do our best! :--))

nothing wrong with being easy to please! give all the books you read five stars. watch that movie again after people tell you that it wasn’t that great. play that band’s new album on repeat, even though it’s not supposed to be as good as their old stuff. refuse to say anything critical about something you thought was cool. be bold in telling grumpy people “actually i liked it a lot!”

HOW TO WRITE A HIGH-GRADE RESEARCH PAPER

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The first time I had to write a research paper for university was one of the most stressful experiences I’d ever had - it was so different to anything I’d ever done before and caused me so much anxiety! It turned out that I’m pretty damn good at writing research reports and I’m now looking to pursue a career in psychological research. 

I have never received less than a First (or 4.0 GPA for you American studiers) in my research papers so I thought I’d share my top tips on how to write a kick-ass, high-grade research paper.

*disclaimer: I am a psychology student, my tips are based on my personal experience of writing up psychological research (quantitative and qualitative); therefore, they may require some adaptation in order to be applied to your field of study/research*

These tips will be split up into the different sections a research paper should consist of: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion.

ABSTRACT

The aim of an abstract is to summarise your whole paper - it should be concise, include key-words, highlight the key points of your paper and be written last.

When I say concise, I mean concise! The abstract is what other students and researchers will read in order to decide whether your research is relevant their own work and essentially determines whether or not they’ll read on - they want to know the key details and don’t want to be overwhelmed with information.

I always aim to keep my abstracts under 250 words. I set myself this limit to stop myself waffling and dwelling on unimportant points, it helps me to be really selective of what I include and ensures I’m gripping the reader from the start.

Your abstract should discuss the research rationale, the methods and designs used, your results and the general conclusion(s) drawn. One or two sentences on each of these topics is enough.

Make sure you’re using key-words throughout your abstract as this will also help the reader decide whether your work is relevant to theirs. You can make key-words super obvious by highlighting them in a key at the bottom of your abstract (see below) or just used jargon consistently. Using key-words is also important if you’re looking to get your work published, these words will help people find your work using search engines.

Finally, write your abstract last! An abstract is a summary of your whole research paper which makes it practically impossible to write well first. After writing the rest of your paper, you will know your research inside and out and already have an idea of what key things you need to highlight in your abstract.

INTRODUCTION

For me, the introduction section is always the most intimidating to write because it’s like painting on a blank canvas - massively daunting and leaving you terrified to make a mistake!

The aim of an introduction is to provide the rationale for your research and justify why your work is essential in the field. In general, your introduction should start very broad and narrow down until you arrive at the niche that is your research question or hypothesis.

To start, you need to provide the reader with some background information and context. You should discuss the general principle of your paper and include some key pieces of research (or theoretical frameworks if relevant) that helps your reader get up to speed with the research field and where understanding currently lies. This section can be pretty lengthy, especially in psychological research, so make sure all of the information you’re including is vital as it can be pretty easy to get carried away.

This background should lead you onto the rationale. If you’ve never written a research paper before, the rationale is essentially the reason behind your own research. This could be building on previous findings so our understanding remains up to date, it could be picking up on weaknesses of other research and rectifying these issues or it could be delving into an unexplored aspect of the field! You should clearly state your rationale and this helps lead into the next section.

You should end your introduction by briefly discussing your current research. You need to state your research question or hypothesis, how you plan on investigating the question/hypothesis, the sample you plan on using and the analysis you plan to carry out. You should also mention any limitations you anticipate to crop up so you can address these in your discussion.

In psychology, references are huge in research introductions so it is important to use an accurate (and modern as possible) reference for each statement you are making. You can then use these same references in your discussion to show where your research fits into the current understanding of the topic!

METHODS

Your methods section should make use of subheadings and tables where necessary and should be written in past tense. This can make the (potentially) lengthy section easier to navigate for the reader. I usually use the following headings: participants, materials, design, procedure.

The participants section should describe the sample that took part in your research. Age, gender, nationality and other relevant demographic information should be provided as well as the sampling technique. Personally, I use a table (see below) alongside my continuous prose as an alternative way of viewing my sample population. Please note, if you’re using a table make sure it adheres to your university guidelines.

The materials section of your methods should include any equipment, resources (i.e. images, books, diagrams) or any other materials used in your data collection. You should also reference the program that helped you conduct your analysis. For example, if you are writing a qualitative research paper, you may want to include Microsoft Word in your materials if you use the program to transcribe interviews.

You should then describe the design used in your research. All variables should be identified in this paragraph, if relevant. You should also discuss whether your research is within-groups or between-groups, again only if relevant.

Last is your procedure section - the most important one! You must write this section with enough detail so that anybody could pick it up, read it and conduct the same experiment with ease. You should describe what participants were required to do, how data was collected and it should be written in chronological order! While it’s important to provide enough information, try not to overwhelm the reader with lengthy sentences and unnecessary information.

RESULTS

Your results section’s sole purpose is to provide the reader with the data from your study. It should be the second shortest section (abstract being first) in your research paper and should stick to the relevant guidelines in regards to reporting figures, tables and diagrams. Your goal is to relay results in the most objective and concise way possible.

Your results section serves to act as evidence for the claims you’ll go on to make during your discussion but you must not be biased in the results you report. You should report enough data to sufficiently justify your conclusions but must also include data that doesn’t support your original hypothesis or research question. 

Reporting data is most easily done through tables and figures as they’re easy to look at and select relevant information. If you’re using tables and figures you should always make sure you’re stating effect sizes and p values and to a consistent decimal place. Illustrative tables and figures should always be followed by supporting summary text consisting of a couple of sentences relaying the key statistical findings in continuous prose.

DISCUSSION

The discussion section should take the opposite approach to your introduction! You should start discussing your own research and broaden the discussion until you’re talking about the general research field.

You should start by stating the major findings of your study and relating them back to your hypothesis or research questions. You must must must explicitly state whether you reject or accept your experimental hypothesis, if you have one. After stating your key findings you should explain the meaning, why they’re important and where they fit into the existing literature. It’s here that you should bring back the research you discussed in your introduction, you should relate your findings to the current understanding and state the new insight your research provides.

You should then state the clinical relevance of your research. Think about how your findings could be applied to real-life situations and discuss one or two practical applications.

After this, discuss the limitations of your research. Limitations could include sample size and general sample population and how this effects generalisability of findings, it could include methodological problems or research bias! These limitations will allow you to discuss how further research should be conducted. Suggest ways in which these limitations could be rectified in future research and also discuss the implications this could have on findings and conclusions drawn.

Finally, you need to give the reader a take-home message. A sentence or two to justify (again) the need for your research and how it contributes to current understanding in the field. This is the last thing your audience will read so make it punchy!

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That’s it folks! My tips for writing a kick-ass, high-grade research paper based on my personal experience. If you have any questions regarding things I’ve missed or didn’t provide enough detail of, then please just send me an ask!

Also, if any of you would like to read any of my past research papers I would be more than happy to provide you with them :-))

Sometimes you need to get real with yourself. Don’t pretend those tabs of youtube videos and fanfiction take precedence over that maths homework you need to get done. Don’t tell yourself you’ll get up early and do it, because chances are, your alarms will go off and you’ll snooze it automatically. Then right before the dreaded fourth period you will be stressed to no end and you’ll feel the feeling. You know, the feeling. When you can genuinely feel the list of tasks and responsibilities build up on your shoulders. That stationery will do nothing to save your grades if you don’t actually use it to make your revision materials. Don’t click onto youtube as a study break and find that 3 hours and only 4 pages of reading later, the glare of the screen gets a little blurry when you look at the time and look at your to do list with your priorities highlighted. I don’t care how much self control you think you have, or how much discipline you think you’ve honed, because when you make the decision to put of work that needs to get done and you’re relying on this new found immense self discipline that future you will just suddenly obtain, you know you’ve already lost. And it’s a double loss because not only have you lost to laziness and short term ‘happiness’, future you has lost to stress and possibly even not getting the grades or the qualifications you could’ve gotten that would’ve led you to take the path you’ve wanted to take. So please, for the love of your future self, get it done now. 

Spotify gifs (tumblr edit large)  part 1

hello :(

i feel like i'm burning up with fever, but i'm actually not sure (since we don't have any thermometers around. lol) but today should be good. i can feel that today would be good, just not to me. 😂 just kidding, i need to go now!

please take care, dress warmly, and don't get sick! 💖

April Watercolour Phone Wallpapers

Here are some monthly phone wallpapers with matching desktop wallpapers. I created versions starting on Monday and Sunday so you can pick the one you use more often!

To download:

mobile: for the best quality, click on the link to the version you would like below, wait for it to load and then simply hold down on the image you would like, press ‘save image’, head to your settings, change wallpaper and select it from your photos.

forest monday / forest sunday

mountains monday / mountains sunday

water monday / water sunday

laptop: right click, save image, add image to a phone folder that syncs from your laptop to phone or use airdrop on iPhone.

I hope you enjoy using these and if so, I’d love to see them in action!  Feel free to tag me #emmastudies in any photos you upload on Tumblr, Instagram or Twitter. If there are any problems or errors, please let me know via my inbox.

Disclaimer: These backgrounds are for personal use only. 

Other downloads | Printables | Instagram | Youtube | Pinterest | Twitter | Etsy Printables Shop

College Chats: Staying True to Yourself

If you’re going to college or university in the fall, you might be thinking this is your chance to reinvent yourself. However, I found during that time I learned to understand myself and be comfortable with who I am! You will go through changes and grow, but more importantly you’ll figure out who you honestly are at the core!

The first week is an ice cream swirl of emotions, you’ll have the joy of adult freedom and you’ll be overwhelmed by adult responsibilities. You’ll also be meeting a lot of new people during orientation week and figuring out where you belong. The best advice for that week: be friendly but cautious of who you trust. Whether it’s a relationship or friendship, a person needs to earn your respect before you disclose intimate information. Especially during frosh week, everyone can seem like your new best friend. However, after the high of that week goes away, you’ll get to know who makes a good friend and who’s only good for a party. 

Another reason to be honest about yourself, people easily can tell when someone’s being fake. For example, you might think being cynical and sarcastic all the time will make people think you’re cool. But if that’s not you, most will not respond to a persona you put on. Those that do, are probably not genuine people themselves. You’ve got to discover what feels natural to your personality and not force yourself to be a completely different person. 

Another way to stay true to yourself  is if the decisions you’re making are for you! If you’re scared of losing friends or a relationship by not always doing what others want you to, you need to let go of those people! Your happiness can only be fulfilled by you and should never depend on those around you!

Being honest about yourself, also means recognizing when you do need to make improvements! No matter the personal issue, you need to create small steps you can commit to in order to make a big change! Don’t be afraid to ask for help and those that care about you will support you wanting to grow!

Speaking of support, an easy way to tell if a relationship is good for you is how the other person makes you feel about yourself. If a friend or significant other encourages you to want to be better and still like yourself at the same time, it’s a healthy relationship! We all deserve to relax and take a break once in awhile, but you don’t want to surround yourself with people that don’t encourage you to achieve your goals!

I hope this gives you some refreshed perspective on yourself and please check out the blogs I used gifs from! :)