The events conducted in the academic year 2019-2020 by the Psychology Club, PERSONA, are given below. Most of the activities were done in the class during the club hour.

1. Case Presentation – Ted Bundy
Date: 29th June 2019
The students of I JPEng B presented a case on Ted Bundy, an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s.

Aditya, Adeline and Haritha spoke about the life, early childhood, upbringing and personality of Bundy and also displayed a video of a surviving victim’s experience. The case study enabled the students to understand that a personality is not always formed based on environment and that various factors are at play that may not seem to be relevant at the time. Some also expressed the need to understand and evaluate a situation correctly “without falling for the looks and charm”.
URL: https://youtu.be/nDUr4mNHPIU

2. Movie Screening and Review
Date: 2nd July 2019
The club organized a screening of a short film named ‘Images’, an award winning psychological short film, directed and edited by Nicolas Suriano. The movie is about a boy named Evan, who hallucinates about his dead brother. The film depicts the mind of Evan and reveals the true emotions of someone who is not all there.

Sajan Abraham presented the movie. A total of 60 students participated in the screening and a few students gave a review of the movie. They were curious and intrigued to learn more about the mind and mental health.
URL: https://youtu.be/gMoW6Ljx5o4

3. Case Study – Tourette’s Syndrome
Date: 9th July 2019
The students of the Psychology club displayed a documentary on Tourette’s syndrome, a case of Bianca Saez, who just at 16 had the worst case of Tourette’s Australian doctors had ever seen. Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive, stereotyped, involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics. The video showed the difficulties faced by her and her family, the treatment options and how she finally was able to manage the disorder with the help of deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Vanya presented the case. The students were empathetic and concerned and some of them were interested to know more about neurological connections that are made by the brain (since they were studying about brain and behavior) and about different treatments available.
URL: https://youtu.be/-yy6UUncUI0

4. Activity / Game
Date: 20th July, 2019
No of participants: 60
Aditya R and Sona Bexon conducted a game called ‘Werewolf’. The game includes some villagers and werewolves. Everyone is asked to sit with their eyes closed and their heads on the table. To choose the werewolves, the moderator(s) will tap a few people on the shoulder, who then should choose whom they will kill. One person will be selected to “die” who sits with his/her head down. All are then asked to open their eyes and spot who the werewolves are. This game helped to understand body language, lying behavior and identifying the liars.

The students were very interested because some of them deceived to be a villager, while another claimed himself to be a werewolf which no one believed until the end.

5. Case study – Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
Date: 23rd July, 2019
Jessica Mayer is a normal, happy 25-year-old woman. But Jess shares her life with four other people, her 'alters', who live inside her mind and body. Melissa Doyle travelled to Wales to meet them all. But Jess shares her mind and body with four other people – four different identities who live inside her. She has a condition known as dissociative identity disorder (DID) and calls the personalities her ‘alters’. All of the identities are male: There’s Jake, a Hollywood actor; Jamie, a doctor; Ollie, a 14-year-old schoolboy; and Ed, a hairdresser.

Dona Jerry presented the case after the class witnessed a documentary made by the Sunday Night Live on 7 (Australia!). This helped the student to put on their thinking hats and made them wonder how each identity could be so different and unique and with no direct relation to the host.

6. Observational / Social Learning activity
Date: 30th July, 2019
The class felt it would be a good time to check how much they have understood each other. Names were written on a paper and students were asked to come forward and imitate the person and the audience had to guess them. This also allowed some people to realize certain mannerisms that they were earlier not aware of.

Pavani and Praveen conducted the activity which was filled with fun and laugh as the audience also had to guess other people in their surrounding other than their friends.

7. Inter personal relationships – video and activity
Date: 27th August, 2019
The students decided to conduct a gratitude exercise that was a much needed release for some of them. Brunda, Mrinalini and Angel came forward and asked a few volunteers to come forward and explain what parents, friends and love meant for them. They then showed a few videos that were heart touching and explained the need to be involved and to communicate with the three types of people in our lives. They also laid out certain tips that they found useful to maintain the IPR between their parents, friends and loved ones. Later, the students were asked to write down what they would like to say to their loved ones (it could be anybody) and wasn’t able to express it. The class witnessed a few tearful letters and a student came up and read what was written.

This exercise in particular helped many students to appreciate their loved ones, the thought which ever occurred to them before.
URL: https://youtu.be/FswW2T56Msk