Crime and Psychopathology Seminar with 3-MT Competition – Psychology Seminar 2019

So…… Catch me if you can?

The Forensic Psychology including Criminology is one of the major branches in the contemporary Psychology field. It is the scientific study of people mental processes and criminal behaviours that are related to the justice system. I believe that there are numbers of you would have interests in this field, probably the American drama series Criminal Minds was just too fancy for watching? But the question is – does the crime happens in reality, are just the same as what we watch on the TV?

This question will be answered in our second psychology seminar – Crime and Psychopathology Seminar with 3-MT Competition! Since last year, the Psychology Department of UCSI University is determined to organise the psychology seminar that will indeed benefit and give impact to the students. With Health and Positive Psychology as the theme of psychology seminar 2018, this year, the Department decided to set “Crime and Psychopathology” as the theme of the seminar. This seminar took place in LeQuadri Ballroom, UCSI College on 27 July 2019.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, I reached the scene by 7.30am for rehearsal – yes, I was the emcee for this seminar! This was my second time to become an emcee for a grand event, I was nervous, but I believed with my co-emcee, both of us can do well.

The seminar started at 8.00am sharp with the participants’ registration and breakfast. The Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, Professor Dr. Shameem Begum Binti Mohd Rafik Khan @ Shameem Rafik-Galea, has attended this event. Meanwhile, the other lecturers from the Psychology Department are involved in the organising job. On that day, we were glad to invite 3 honourable speakers to share their knowledge and experiences in the criminal and forensic field. They were Mrs. Kogilavaani Elawarisse from Polis Diraja Malaysia (PRDM), Dr. Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin from UKM and Dr. Amy Mardhatillah from Universitas Mercu Buana, Indonesia. 

The Crime and Psychopathology Seminar then began with the singing of the national anthem, followed by the welcoming speech by the Dean of FOSSLA, Professor Dr. Shameem. She welcomed all participants gratefully and hoped that students can benefit from this seminar.

Then, the first plenary speaker, Mrs. Kogilavaani Elawarisse came on stage to give the first speech. She works as a Psychology Officer in S41 Seksyen, Wanita dan Kanak-Kanak (D11) Criminal Investigation Department, Bukit Aman since 2014. She is also a registered counsellor of Malaysian Counsellor Board since 2016. After that, she has served as a Child Therapist at the Early Autism Project Centre for 5 years where during that time, she received the Cluster Reference Panel Certificate Security Psychology from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Mrs. Kogilavanni also involved in profiling Ministry of Home Affairs development in 2016 as well as a committee on the co-ordination of psychometric level test nationality 2/2019. She has been conducting counselling sessions and negotiations over 250 different cases which involved children under 18 years of age. In the seminar, Mrs. Kogilavaani talked about the victim care job scope of the victim care officers and the psychological support system that they have been providing. She has shown some pictures of her works which they gave the participants an insight into the daily work of victim care officers. Her sharing lasted for an hour and ended with a brief Q & A session. 

After that, Dr. Mohammad Rahim Kamaluddin came on stage as the second speaker of the seminar. He is the only criminologist in the nation and also a senior lecturer at Human and Societal Well-Being Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in UKM. His Ph.D. research probed into profiles of incarcerated male murderers in Malaysia (a first national study). And due to his research, he had interviewed approximately 100 convicted murderers from 10 prisons to unravel their psychological traits and murderous acts. Besides, Dr. Rahim has exceptional performance in the area of Criminology. He has published 8 books related to crime and criminology and more than 50 journal articles up to date, as well as his involvement in media about criminology consultation and being the guest lecturer to various local and overseas universities. Therefore, it was such an honour to have Dr. Rahim to provide us the in-depth knowledge of crime and psychological profiles of the criminals. His sharing session was interesting, and he was well-engaged with the floor that made the situation very much interactive. As the previous sharing session, Dr. Rahim’s talk also ended up with a Q & A session.

After the talk, the seminar went to a short break followed by the token of appreciations presenting ceremony. Professor Dr. Shameem presented the token of appreciations to all the invited speakers. A group photo session has been taken place as well. Then, it was the lunchtime where the lunch box is provided to the participants. 

It was also the time where I can get a temporary break to relax my tired feet after wearing high heels for hours. I had to finish my lunch earlier and made amendments to the rest of the scripts with on the spot arrangement with my co-emcee. 

The seminar resumes at 1.30pm with the last sharing session on the day. The speaker was Dr. Amy Mardhatillah from Indonesia. She is currently a business psychologist and educator from Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Mercu Buana, Indonesia. Dr. Amy has been involved in providing different training programs designed to her clients. Besides, she also obtained well achievements in publishing various books and journals related to business, employment, and psychology. Not only that, Dr. Amy has Hypnotherapy certificate from the Indonesian Board of Hypnotherapy, Assessor certificate and she is a certified behaviour analyst from DISC Institute of Singapore. In the seminar, she shared insights about promoting organisation behaviour change in preventing crime at work. Personally, her speech was interesting to me as I currently attending the Industrial and Organisational Psychology class, which her sharing was very relative to the subject that I learned. One hour later, her sharing session also ended with the Q & A session. 

Next, the seminar continued with its second highlight – the 3 Minutes Thesis Competition! As the name says, this competition required participants to present their theses in only 3 minutes. In which, this was quite challenging for the participants to perform their best in a very limited time. The honourable judges for this competition were the guest speakers, Mrs. Kogilavaani and Dr. Amy, as well as Ms. Crendy Tan Yen Teng from the Psychology Department. There was a total of 7 participants in this competition, including 3 guest students from Indonesia that came along with Dr. Amy. The competition was indeed in pace – in which it was so nervous to both the participants and the audience. In the end, the champion of the 3 Minutes Thesis Competition was Tommy Chan and the first runner-up went to Sammi Cheng. Both the winners are Third Year Psychology students at UCSI University.

The Crime and Psychopathology Seminar and 3 MT Competition has come to an end with the prize-giving ceremony and tea time. It marked a success which I can see the fruitful expressions from most of the participants. Finally, I have done my job as the emcee and I think I have performed well with my co-emcee on that day. I am grateful to participate in this seminar with a very different position, I have learned a lot for being an emcee as well as gaining knowledge from the speakers’ sharing sessions.

Next year, I hope I am no more the emcee for this annual seminar but the participant in the 3 Minutes Thesis Competition! I hope I can challenge myself to achieve the self-enhancement. Haha, wish me luck!