this is (not) psychology

"We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally..."

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:41:40 +0200

“We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.”

- George Orwell (1946)

Patients with social phobia whose brains “lit” up the most,...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:12:49 +0100

Patients with social phobia whose brains “lit” up the most, particularly in two regions towards the back of the brain that process what we see, responded the best to psychotherapy. (Source: Gabrieli Lab, MIT)

Brain Imaging Predicts Psychotherapy Success in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder

National Institute of Mental Health

Treatment for social anxiety disorder or social phobia has entered the personalized medicine arena—brain imaging can provide neuromarkers to predict whether traditional options such as cognitive behavioral therapy will work for a particular patient, reported a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded study that was published in the January 2013 issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

Although psychotherapy and drugs, such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines, exist as treatments for SAD, current behavioral measures poorly predict which would work better for individual patients. “Half of social anxiety disorder patients have satisfactory response to treatment. There is little evidence about which patient would benefit from a particular form of treatment,” said John D. Gabrieli, Ph.D., lead author of the study. “Currently, there is no rational basis for prescribing one treatment over the other. Which treatment a patient gets depends on whom they see.”

Enter personalized medicine, the use of genetic or other biological markers to tailor treatments to those who would actually benefit from them, thus sparing the expense and side effects for those who would not. Brain imaging could identify neuromarkers or targeted areas of the brain that could one day optimize treatment for individual patients. Neuromarkers are being used in other areas of mental illness, for instance, to predict the onset of psychosis in schizophrenia and the likelihood of relapse in drug addiction.

Read the article

Pessimism About the Future May Lead to Longer, Healthier Life, Research Finds

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 01:48:37 +0100

Pessimism About the Future May Lead to Longer, Healthier Life, Research Finds:

American Psychological Association
February 27, 2013

Older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade,” said lead author Frieder R. Lang, PhD, of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. “Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions.” The study was published online in the journal Psychology and Aging^®.

(…)

Because a darker outlook on the future is often more realistic, older adults’ predictions of their future satisfaction may be more accurate, according to the study. In contrast, the youngest group had the sunniest outlook while the middle-aged adults made the most accurate predictions, but became more pessimistic over time.

“Unexpectedly, we also found that stable and good health and income were associated with expecting a greater decline compared with those in poor health or with low incomes,” Lang said. “Moreover, we found that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.”

(…)

The findings do not contradict theories that unrealistic optimism about the future can sometimes help people feel better when they are facing inevitable negative outcomes, such as terminal disease, according to the authors. “We argue, though, that the outcomes of optimistic, accurate or pessimistic forecasts may depend on age and available resources,” Lang said. “These findings shed new light on how our perspectives can either help or hinder us in taking actions that can help improve our chances of a long healthy life.”

Read about the study

neurosciencestuff: To Make Mice Smarter, Add A Few Human Brain...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:14:16 +0100

neurosciencestuff:

To Make Mice Smarter, Add A Few Human Brain Cells

For more than a century, neurons have been the superstars of the brain. Their less glamorous partners, glial cells, can’t send electric signals, and so they’ve been mostly ignored.

Now scientists have injected some human glial cells into the brains of newborn mice. When the mice grew up, they were faster learners. The study, published Thursday in Cell Stem Cell, not only introduces a new tool to study the mechanisms of the human brain, it supports the hypothesis that glial cells — and not just neurons — play an important role in learning.

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Photo

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 06:02:00 +0100

Paul Bloom: The Psychology of EverythingWhat Compassion, Racism,...

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:32:52 +0200

Paul Bloom: The Psychology of Everything
What Compassion, Racism, and Sex tell us about Human Nature

Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology, Yale University

Give Paul Bloom one hour, and he’ll teach you “the psychology of everything,” illustrating some of the most fundamental elements of human nature through case studies about compassion, racism, and sex. He discusses some of the biggest questions in the nature versus nurture debate, including “Are we hard-wired to care about others?” Bloom points out why stereotyping can be both detrimental and beneficial, and he even explains what the porn preference of monkeys tells us about our own sexual choosiness, or lack thereof. After the hour is up you’ll understand why Bloom calls psychology, because of its cross-disciplinary nature, “the perfect liberal arts major.”

The Casual Vacancy

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:15:29 +0200

theobsessive-compulsive:

One of this generation’s most prominent author, J.K. Rowling’s new book “The Casual Vacany” has a character that suffers from OCD. The character is one of the main ones as well and Rowling hopes that this will prevent the trivializing of OCD, especially from media outlets.

Rowling said it was based on her own experiences of the illness which she suffered from as well, which consisted of her “checking, double-checking, triple-checking things.”

The Casual Vacancy is Rowling’s first novel apart from the Harry Potter series.

Hi! Would you be able to help my friends and I spread our blog as part of our community awareness project for OCD! Thanks! theobsessive-compulsive(.)tumblr(.)com/

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:12:15 +0200

Of course!

How did you learn to do your tags page?

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:06:16 +0200

I made it using the tag cloud generator by Heather Rivers. For some reason the link doesn’t seem to be working right now…

Mental Illness Affects Job Prospects More Than Physical Disability

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:06:36 +0200

Medical News Today (08 Oct 2012) — The stigma of mental illness often has a greater impact on people’s employment prospects than physical disability or illness, Australian researchers reported today.

The study, commissioned by WISE Employment, a not-for-profit organization aimed at empowering job seekers to find meaningful work, revealed that mental illness, even in today’s supposed period of apparent enlightenment, continues to be a serious obstacle to employment.

The study was commissioned as part of Mental Health Week, which started on Sunday, October 7th, 2012.

The researchers explained that one in every five Australian adults has been affected with some kind of mental illness during the last 12 months.

The main barrier to employing people who have had or have a mental illness is simply ignorance - or lack of understanding, said Matthew Lambelle, from WISE Employment.

Matthew Lambelle emphasized that mental illness is not linked to job performance.

WISE Employment (WISE) says it is dedicated towards the reduction of stigma associated with employing people who have a mental illness. The organization says that people with a mental illness are capable of working, and doing their jobs well; sometimes even being the best person for a position.

WISE explained that most employers with at least five workers most likely already have personnel with some kind of mental illness, many in positions of trust and responsibility.

The organization urges employers who have considered employing somebody who has a mental illness to register a job vacancy online or to call them on 1300 12 WISE.

Matthew Lambelle quoted research that showed that 72% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which took on a person with a mental illness had either a very positive or positive experience.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), USA, stigma is the main reason three-quarters of all people with a mental illness do not seek treatment. Patients fear discrimination, shame, disrespect, or contempt.

Even self-stigma is a problem that affects many people with mental illness. After hearing statements about psychiatric disorders, the individual, whose quality of life would improve considerably with proper treatment, may lose all hope. Experts say that hope is vital for recovery.

Eliminating stigma requires more public awareness about the realities concerning mental illness and the effectiveness of treatments today.

NAMI informs that 1 in every 4 Americans lives with some kind of mental illness during their lifetime. To ensure that patients recover properly, there must be a comprehensive range of health services and support.

Mental illnesses, like other illnesses, are biological disorders. They affect how the person thinks, including their moods and how they relate to things and people around them. Without proper treatment, the person’s ability to perform daily functions may be disrupted. There is no link between mental illness and a person’s willpower, character or intelligence. However, they can be treated effectively with medication, psychosocial treatments and supports, or both.

NAMI explains that up to 90% of people with a mental illness who seek professional help experience considerable reductions in their symptoms and achieve a much better quality of life, compared to those who do not.

Support from friends, household members and family is crucial. Family members usually require support and guidance too for best results.

Sleeping Brain Behaves as If It’s Remembering Something

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:05:05 +0200

thenewenlightenmentage:

ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2012) — UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer’s disease during sleep. They discovered that this part of the brain behaves as if it’s remembering something, even under anesthesia, a finding that counters conventional theories about memory consolidation during sleep.

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Girls With ADHD More Prone to Self-Injury, Suicide as They Enter Adulthood

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 23:29:54 +0200

Girls With ADHD More Prone to Self-Injury, Suicide as They Enter Adulthood :

Girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are significantly more likely to attempt suicide or injure themselves as young adults than girls who do not have ADHD, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

Young women diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as girls, particularly the type with early signs of impulsivity, were three to four times more likely to attempt suicide and two to three times more likely to report injuring themselves than comparable young women in a control group, according to the findings, published online in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

“ADHD can signal future psychological problems for girls as they are entering adulthood,” said the study’s lead author, Stephen Hinshaw, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “Our findings reinforce the idea that ADHD in girls is particularly severe and can have serious public health implications.”

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I have to ask, as it's been bugging me the entire time, but is your title a shout-out to the Evangelion Rebuild series? with the (not) thing. Apologies if this has been asked before or if it irritates you. xD; Love your blog, too.

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 03:10:00 +0200

Oh no, ask away! It’s actually an allusion to this painting. When I made this blog I thought, “The image addresses perception, that has to do with psychology somehow!” And that’s how the title came about.

~~Naming things is a pain in the ass~~

I'm surprised that "science" isn't a tag that is on the majority of your posts and/or reblogs~!

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:28:29 +0200

That’s because I use it mostly to distinguish between psychology posts and posts on other fields of science, not because I don’t think psychology is a science. :)

scinerds: #HisSassyFaceWhenHeSaysItThough

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:09:16 +0200

scinerds:

#HisSassyFaceWhenHeSaysItThough

The Dilemma of Anger: "Let It Out" or "Bottle It Up"?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 02:01:00 +0200

via Invitation to Psychology

What do you do when you feel angry? Do you tend to brood and sulk, collecting your righteous complaints like acorns for the winter, or do you erupt, hurling your wrath upon anyone or anything at hand? Do you discuss your feelings when you have calmed down? Does “letting anger out” get rid of it for you, or does it only make it more intense?

The answers are crucial for how you get along with your family, neighbors, employers, and strangers. Critical thinkers can learn to think carefully about how and when to express anger, and make a calm decision on how to proceed. Chronic feelings of anger and an inability to control anger can be as emotionally devastating and unhealthy as chronic problems with depression or anxiety. Yet in contrast to much pop-psych advice, research shows that expressing anger does not always get it “out of your system”; often people feel worse, physically and mentally, after an angry confrontation. When people brood and ruminate about their anger, talk to others incessantly about how angry they are, or ventilate their feelings in hostile acts, their blood pressure shoots up, they often feel angrier, and they behave even more aggressively later than if they had just let their feelings of anger subside (Bushman et al., 2005; Tavris, 1989). Conversely, when people learn to control their tempers and express anger constructively, they usually feel better, not worse; calmer, not angrier.

When people are feeling angry, they have a choice of doing any number of things, some of which will be more beneficial than others. Some people sulk, expecting everyone else to read their minds, which is hardly a way to communicate clearly. Many post impulsive comments on blogs that have annoyed them or send nasty texts on the spur of the moment. Some scream abuses at their friends or family, or strike out physically. If a particular action soothes their feelings or gets the desired response from others, they are likely to acquire a habit. Soon that habit feels “natural,” as if it could never be changed. Some habits are better than others, though! Baking bread or going for a jog is fine, whereas many people justify their violent tempers by saying, “I couldn’t help myself.” But they can. If you have acquired an abusive or aggressive habit, the research offers practical suggestions for learning constructive ways of managing anger:

Don’t sound off in the heat of anger; let bodily arousal cool down. Whether your arousal comes from background stresses such as heat, crowds, or loud noise or from conflict with another person, take time to relax. Time allows you to decide whether you are really angry or just tired and tense. This is the reason for the sage old advice to count to 10, count to 100, or sleep on it. Other cooling-off strategies include taking a time-out in the middle of an argument, meditating or relaxing, and calming yourself with a distracting activity.
Don’t take it personally. If you feel that you have been insulted, check your perception for its accuracy. Could there be another reason for the behavior you find offensive? People who are quick to feel anger tend to interpret other people’s actions as intentional offenses. People who are slow to anger tend to give others the benefit of the doubt, and they are not as focused on their own injured pride. Empathy (“Poor guy, he’s feeling rotten”) is usually incompatible with anger, so practice seeing the situation from the other person’s perspective.
Beware of road rage—yours and the other person’s. Driving increases everyone’s level of physiological arousal, but not everyone becomes a hotheaded driver. Some drivers make themselves angry by having vengeful and retaliatory thoughts about other drivers (who have the nerve to change lanes or want to park! Who dare to drive at the speed limit in a school zone!). Hotheaded drivers take more risks while driving (rapidly switching lanes in their impatience), behave more aggressively (swearing, giving other drivers the finger or cursing them), and have more accidents (Deffenbacher et al., 2003).

If you decide that expressing anger is appropriate, be sure you use the right verbal and nonverbal language to make yourself understood. Because cultures (and families) have different display rules, be sure the recipient of your anger understands what you are feeling and what complaint you are trying to convey—and whether or not the person thinks your anger is appropriate. For example, a study compared the use of anger by Asian-American and Anglo-American negotiators. Expressing anger was effective for the Anglo teams—it got more concessions from the other side—but was much less effective for the Asian negotiators (Adam, Shirako, & Maddux, 2010).

Think carefully about how to express anger so that you will get the results you want. What do you want your anger to accomplish? Do you just want to make the other person feel bad, or do you want the other person to understand your concerns and make amends? Shouting “You moron! How could you be so stupid!” might accomplish the former goal, but it’s not likely to get the person to apologize, let alone to change his or her behavior. If your goal is to improve a bad situation or achieve justice, learning how to express anger so the other person will listen is essential.

Of course, if you just want to blow off steam, go right ahead; but you risk becoming a hothead.

New generation of virtual humans helping to train psychologists

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:36:44 +0200

ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2012) — New technology has led to the creation of virtual humans who can interact with therapists via a computer screen and realistically mimic the symptoms of a patient with clinical psychological disorders, according to new research presented at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.

“As this technology continues to improve, it will have a significant impact on how clinical training is conducted in psychology and medicine,” said psychologist and virtual reality technology expert Albert “Skip” Rizzo, PhD, who demonstrated recent advancements in virtual reality for use in psychology.

Virtual humans can now be highly interactive, artificially intelligent and capable of carrying on a conversation with real humans, according to Rizzo, a research scientist at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. “This has set the stage for the ‘birth’ of intelligent virtual humans to be used in clinical training settings,” he said.

Rizzo showed videos of clinical psychiatry trainees engaging with virtual patients called “Justin” and “Justina.” Justin is a 16-year-old with a conduct disorder who is being forced by his family to participate in therapy. Justina, the second and more advanced iteration of this technology, is a sexual assault victim who was designed to have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In an initial test, 15 psychiatry residents, of whom six were women, were asked to perform a 15-minute interaction with Justina. Video of one such interaction shows a resident taking an initial history by asking a variety of questions. Programmed with speech recognition software, Justina responds to the questions and the resident is able to make a preliminary diagnosis.

Rizzo’s virtual reality laboratory is working on the next generation of virtual patients using information from this and related user tests, and will further modify the characters for military clinical training, which the U.S. Department of Defense is funding, he said. Some future patients that are in development are virtual veterans with depression and suicidal thoughts, for use in training clinicians and other military personnel how to recognize the risk for suicide or violence.

In the long term, Rizzo said he hopes to create a comprehensive computer training module that has a diverse library of virtual patients with numerous “diagnoses” for use by psychiatric and psychology educators and trainees. Currently, psychology and psychiatry students are trained by role-playing with other students or their supervisors to gain experience to treat patients. They then engage in supervised on-the-job training with real patients to complete their degrees. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of live standardized ‘actor’ patients who are commonly used in medical programs, so we see this technology as offering a credible option for clinical psychology training,” he said. “What’s so useful about this technology is novice clinicians can gain exposure to the presentation of a variety of clinical conditions in a safe and effective environment before interacting with actual patients. In addition, virtual patients are more versatile and can be available anytime, anywhere. All you need is a computer.”

Self-Concept: Independent or Interdependent via David G. Myers -...

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:19:07 +0200

Self-Concept: Independent or Interdependent

via David G. Myers - Social Psychology

Why does music influence how we feel?

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:30:41 +0200

Sometimes we need the right music to get ouf of bed in the morning, to get on with cleaning the house, to hype ourselves up. Soundtracks make movies more dramatic, funny, or scary. And some bittersweet songs about lost love even manage to make us cry.

Does music really influence our emotions? The answer lies in the brain:

Happy music makes you happy because it activates the same cerebral areals as other stimuli that elicit positive feelings.
We knew that pleasant and unpleasant pictures cause different activity patterns in the brain (Davidson et al., 2000). An experiment used EEG data of students (Schmidt & Trainor, 2001) to reveal that “positive” and “negative” music induces the same asymmetrical brain activity.
Ten students were asked to bring music to the laboratory that gave them goosebumps, which the subject group listened to in turns with neutral compositions (Blood & Zatorre, 2001). When listening to the goosebumps-inducing music, both heart rate and respiratory frequency quickened.

Moreover, their brain activity signaled pleasant emotional arousal. The more intense the goosebumps, the more active the brain areals in question.

What makes music happy or sad?

One factor seems to be pace. In another experiment students listened to relatively quick and relatively slow pieces. Again, the brain activity was asymmetrical. Quicker music is generally happier than slow music. (Tsang et al., 2001)

It’s still a small mystery why music makes us feel things. Music uses neuronal emotion and reward mechanisms similar to those of food, sex, and drugs. This is remarkable, given that it is neither essential to biological survival or procreation, nor a pharmacological substance.

Speaking Multiple Languages Can Influence Children's Emotional Development

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 02:16:42 +0200

ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2012)

Switching back and forth between different languages happens all the time in multilingual environments, and often in emotional situations. In a new article in the July issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Stephen Chen and Qing Zhou of the University of California, Berkeley and Morgan Kennedy of Bard College delve deeper into this linguistic phenomenon.

Drawing on research from psychology and linguistics, the researchers seek to better understand how using different languages to discuss and express emotions in a multilingual family might play an important role in children’s emotional development. They propose that the particular language parents choose to use when discussing and expressing emotion can have significant impacts on children’s emotional understanding, experience, and regulation.

“Over the past few years, there’s been a steadily growing interest in the languages multilingual individuals use to express emotions,” says Chen. “We were interested in the potential clinical and developmental implications of emotion-related language shifts, particularly within the context of the family.”

Existing research from psychological science underscores the fact that language plays a key role in emotion because it allows the speakers to articulate, conceal, or discuss feelings. When parents verbally express their emotions, they contribute to their children’s emotional development by providing them a model of how emotions can be articulated and regulated.

When parents discuss emotion, they help their children to accurately label and consequently understand their own emotions. This explicit instruction can further help children to better regulate their emotions.

Additionally, research from linguistics suggests that when bilingual individuals switch languages, the way they experience emotions changes as well. Bilingual parents may use a specific language to express an emotional concept because they feel that language provides a better cultural context for expressing the emotion. For example, a native Finnish speaker may be more likely to use English to tell her children that she loves them because it is uncommon to explicitly express emotions in Finnish.

Thus, the language that a parent chooses to express a particular concept can help to provide cues that reveal his or her emotional state. Language choice may also influence how children experience emotion, such expressions can potentially elicit a greater emotional response when spoken in the child’s native language. Shifting from one language to another may help children to regulate their emotional response by using a less emotional, non-native language as a way to decrease negative arousal, or to help model culture specific emotional regulation.

Overall, the authors argue that research from psychological science and linguistics suggests that a child’s emotional competence is fundamentally shaped by a multilingual environment. These findings may be particularly useful in the development of intervention programs for immigrant families, helping intervention staff to be aware of how the use of different languages in various contexts can have an emotional impact.

“Our aim in writing this review was to highlight what we see as a rich new area of cross-disciplinary research,” says Chen. “We’re especially excited to see how the implications of emotion-related language switching can be explored beyond the parent-child dyad — for example, in marital interactions, or in the context of therapy and other interventions.”