Praktika Autonominiame Barselonos universitete

Each year, month and second is the road of the life. We can choose a lot of different ways how to travel in this life’s road. I would like to introduce the road of my two months’ life. This journey was intensive, creative, productive. It let me go deeper into the science world, to know people and culture of Catalonia and find a new myself.

Let me start from the beginning. I took an internship at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The environment of the University was inspiring for new ideas. The weather during winter was warm enough that you could sit on the grass and learn new things or just take a break from your practice.

The most important goal was to learn new statistical methods and to improve the research skills. What is it to be a researcher? It is not only a knowledge of statistical methods, APA standards or skills of searching information, analysis. To be a researcher is the way of thinking. It is not enough to practice all of those things, it is more important to meet people, who could teach that. I have met professor Josefina Sala Roca. She is a person with a lot of knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, energy, patience. She is the example of the real researcher.

What was my daily practice week? I was going to the university by train. It took about 40 minutes from the center of Barcelona to reach the University. The trains were so comfortable that you could read, work with your PC or just observe other people. During the meetings with my tutor, we discussed about statistical methods, articles, science, emotion development, my tasks. During the break, we discussed about the life in Catalonia, Lithuania, food. Hence, it was a way to understand research and culture of Catalonia. I had the nice workplace with a very friendly team of researchers. During the lunch, we could discuss about science and other things what made my adaptation easier than I could expect. I have written a lot about other people rather than about my activities. I did it because people are the most important in almost all situations. I am a psychologist, I have become a researcher of psychology, and this science is for the people. Thus, I want to say thanks for all people who were around me in this journey: Dainius, Fina, Clara, Andre, Aida, Sara, Maria, Lina, and others.

Also, I am thankful to Erasmus+, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Vytautas Magnus university and Lithuanian confederation of Industrialists for this possibility.

The result of my practice is not only good things for me but also it is useful for individuals who are interested in intervention effectiveness of anger control among adolescents. We wrote the article „Effect of anger control intervention for reducing anger and aggressive behavior among adolescents“. Soon it will be published in a journal and other people will be able to learn about anger management more. Also, I will able to write other articles with useful findings in the future after this program.

Dovile Valiune