UMM's Faculty of Psychology Appoints New Professors, Studies Irrationality to Children's Mental Health

Author : Humas | Friday, December 15, 2023 08:35 WIB
Prof. Dr. Tulus Winarsunu, M.Si. and Prof. Dr. Iswinarti, M.Si. (Photo: Special).

The Faculty of Psychology, University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), recently appointed new professors on December 16. They are Prof. Dr. Tulus Winarsunu, M.Si. and Prof. Dr. Iswinarti, M.Si. Each of them has conducted research related to the irrational aspects of human thinking in decision-making and the promotion of children's mental health through traditional games.

Tulus explained that decision-making is a fundamental activity in daily life. Humans are constantly faced with situations that require choosing actions from various alternatives. According to him, important elements in decision-making include various factors. 

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"To achieve optimal results in making decisions, rationality is needed to help create a more directed, efficient, and responsive environment for change. However, rationality is not always perfect and can lead to irrationality," he added.

In his academic speech, he stated that this is due to factors such as information limitations, limitations in information processing, group pressure, and cognitive biases. He pointed out that humans are vulnerable to cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and availability bias. The occurrence of irrationality in decision-making is caused by being influenced by the way information is presented. The way information is conveyed can affect a person's decision-making. 

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"People tend to react differently to information presented in different ways, even if the substance is the same. This concept is known as the framing effect or information framing," he emphasized.

On the other hand, regarding her focus of study, Iswinarti stated that building children's mental health can be achieved through games using the BERLIAN method. This method stands for Bermain-ExpeRiential-LearnIng-Anak (Playing-Experiential-Learning-Children). According to her, mental health is a universal human right that every individual is entitled to. 

"Building mental health can start early by implementing various play activities. The play contains values that can support the formation of mental health in children. Traditional games contain good values and can be used as an intervention model to build children's mental health," she said.

She mentioned that several traditional games have proven to be a medium for building children's characters. In her research, she proved that traditional games like 'bekelan,' 'congklak lidi,' and 'selentikan' can improve problem-solving abilities in elementary school children. The traditional game 'engklek' can also enhance problem-solving skills and self-control.

"We hope that parents, educators, students, and child advocates can become facilitators in the BERLIAN method, particularly in the application of traditional games, so that children's mental health can be developed earlier," she concluded. (wil/fajr)

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