Clipmarks | Mohir's 'psychology' clips

Water in Dreams

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:46:19 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Now, you choose, whether to believe it or not

Clip Source: www.ponderabout.com

in dreams, water often represents emotion

both water and emotion can: nourish or overwhelm;

flow or be contained; change and transform

in dreams, stormy seas may reflect the emotional turmoil

that the dreamer experiences in waking life

dreams of calm seas may come during times of

relative peace

snow and ice may reflect emotional numbness,
a sense that feelings have been suppressed or

“frozen”

water that is contained may represent emotions

that are blocked

an oncoming flood or tidal wave may signal emotions that

are breaking loose and threatening to overwhelm

Tags: dreams, psychology, water

7 Myths of Crowd Psychology

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:07:08 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.spring.org.uk

"The mass, whether it be a crowd or an army, is vile"

~Benito Mussolini

Here are the seven myths about crowds that Schweingruber and Wohlstein identify, in order of how frequently they appear in introductory sociology textbooks.

1. Crowds are spontaneous

The most common myth about crowds is that they are spontaneous, or worse, that they are hotbeds of violence, with complete chaos only a few ill-judged jostles away.

Research into crowd violence does not support this.

2. Crowds are suggestible

The idea that people in crowds have heightened suggestibility is also a relatively common myth. People are said to copy each other, looking for a leader, being open to others' suggestion about how they should behave, perhaps resulting from a lack of social structure.

3. Crowds are irrational

4. Crowds increase anonymity

5. Crowds are emotional

6. Crowds are unanimous

7. Crowds are destructive

Tags: psychology, mass, crowd, behavior

The Way We Were: 10 Crucial Child Psychology Studies

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:56:33 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: and the last one:
Jean Piaget's Four-Stage Theory: How Children Acquire Knowledge

Clip Source: www.spring.org.uk

Child psychology - or, more broadly, developmental psychology - is not just the study of children, it is the study of you and me and how we came to be this way. Just as discovering your history can teach you about the future, so child psychology shows us what we once were and even what we will become.

Here are 10 classic studies that have illuminated crucial areas of childhood development. Each one is a piece in the jigsaw puzzle that is ourselves, and each one reminds us, through examining just one piece, how aspects of experience we now take for granted were once so complex.

Infant Memory Works From Very Early

When the Self Emerges: Is That Me in the Mirror?

How Children Learn the Earth Isn't Flat

The 'Strange Situation': Window on a Child's Past and Future

Infants Imitate Others When Only Weeks Old

When Children Begin to Simulate Other Minds

Infants are Intuitive Physicists: Object Permanence

How Infants Start the Journey to Their First Word

6 Types of Play: How We Learn to Work Together

Tags: children, childhood, psychology

the defense mechanism of “Undoing”

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:15:51 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.ponderabout.com

Defense Mechanisms are psychological processes
that protect the conscious mind from threatening
impulses, thoughts and feelings

they do so by denying or distorting reality, and
they are largely unconscious

defense mechanisms are normal and, if used in
moderation, they can be helpful -

helpful in that they can give us time to recognize
our discomfort, identify its source and find ways
to consciously deal with it

however, the extensive and prolonged use of
defense mechanisms can be problematic in that
underlying difficulties remain, energy is wasted
and stress builds

Sigmund Freud first used “defense” as a psycho-
analytic term in 1894; and it was his daughter,
Anna Freud, who refined and expanded his theories
in the 1930s

the defense mechanism referred to as undoing
is an unconscious attempt to take back, nullify or
“un-do” a thought or action that had resulted in
guilt or anxiety

Tags: psychology, defense mechanism, mind

It's Okay To Keep Those Feelings Inside, New Study Suggests

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:19:39 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Contrary to popular notions about what is normal or healthy, new research has found that it is okay not to express one's thoughts and feelings after experiencing a collective trauma, such as a school shooting or terrorist attack.

In fact, people who choose not to express their feelings after such an event may be better off than those who do talk about their feelings, according to University at Buffalo psychologist Mark Seery, Ph.D., lead author of a study to appear in the June issue of Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

The findings have important implications for expectations of how people should respond in the face of a collective trauma affecting a whole community or even an entire nation, says Seery, an assistant professor of psychology.

Tags: psychology

How to Unleash Your Creativity

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:51:11 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: This clip is only the intro,
and interesting read,
please see at source.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Experts discuss tips and tricks to let loose your inner ingenuity

In a discussion with Scientific American Mind executive editor Mariette DiChristina, three noted experts on creativity, each with a very different perspective and background, reveal powerful ways to unleash your creative self.

John Houtz is a psychologist and professor at Fordham University. His most recent book is The Educational Psychology of Creativity (Hamptom Press, 2002).

Julia Cameron is an award-winning poet, playwright and filmmaker. Her book The Artist's Way (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002) has sold more than three million copies worldwide. Her latest book is The Writing Diet.

Robert Epstein is a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego. Contributing editors for Scientific American Mind and former editor in chief of Psychology Today, Epstein has written several books on creativity, including The Big Book of Creativity Games (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Tags: mind, creativity

Emotions Can Be Unconsciously And Subliminally Evoked

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:50:02 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Most people agree that emotions can be caused by a specific event and that the person experiencing it is aware of the cause, such as a child’s excitement at the sound of an ice cream truck. But recent research suggests emotions also can be unconsciously evoked and manipulated.

Psychologists Kirsten Ruys and Diedrick Stapel of the Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economics Research at Tillburg University in The Netherlands have uncovered the first empirical evidence to suggest humans do not need to be aware of the event that caused their mood or feelings in order to be affected by it. The scientists hypothesized that, since humans have evolved to respond quickly and unconsciously to stimuli, they should be able to react to an emotional event without full awareness: “You are likely to live longer if you immediately stop moving at the sight of a growling grizzly bear and do not need full awareness for such a response to be instigated,” explained Ruys and Stapel.

Tags: emotion, psychology

Brain reacts to fairness as it does to money and chocolate

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:42:29 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

The human brain responds to being treated fairly the same way it responds to winning money and eating chocolate, UCLA scientists report. Being treated fairly turns on the brain's reward circuitry.

"We may be hard-wired to treat fairness as a reward," said study co-author Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience.

"Receiving a fair offer activates the same brain circuitry as when we eat craved food, win money or see a beautiful face," said Golnaz Tabibnia, a postdoctoral scholar at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and lead author of the study, which appears in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science.

"Fairness is activating the same part of the brain that responds to food in rats," she said. This is consistent with the notion that being treated fairly satisfies a basic need, she added.

Tags: brain, fairness

Brain rewards aggression much like it does sex, food, drugs

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:08:56 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: For the experiments, a pair of mice — one male, one female — was kept in one cage and five "intruder" mice were kept in a separate cage. The female mouse was temporarily removed, and an intruder mouse was introduced in its place, triggering an aggressive response by the 'home' male mouse. Aggressive behavior included tail rattle, an aggressive sideways stance, boxing and biting.

The home mouse was then trained to poke a target with its nose to get the intruder to return, at which point it again behaved aggressively toward it. The home mouse consistently poked the trigger, which was presented once a day, indicating it experienced the aggressive encounter with the intruder as a reward.

The same "home" mice were then treated with a drug that suppressed their dopamine receptors. After this treatment, they decreased the frequency with which they instigated the intruder's entry.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

New research from Vanderbilt University shows for the first time that the brain processes aggression as a reward—much like sex, food and drugs—offering insights into our propensity to fight and our fascination with violent sports like boxing and football.

"Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food," Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics, said. "We have found that the 'reward pathway' in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved."

"It is well known that dopamine is produced in response to rewarding stimuli such as food, sex and drugs of abuse," Maria Couppis, who conducted the study as her doctoral thesis at Vanderbilt, said. "What we have now found is that it also serves as positive reinforcement for aggression."

Tags: brain, aggresion, psychology

10 Weird Psychology Studies

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:40:48 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Details about each study on the site

Clip Source: www.spring.org.uk

Psychologists are skilled at inventing unusual tests of human thought and behaviour, but some research is pretty weird. Over the past few months I've been examining some of the weirdest studies around. There's research into psychic dogs, invasions from Mars, the antidepressant properties of semen, pigeon-guided missiles and men's urination.

1. Don't Stand So Close to Me

Middlemist, Knowles and Matter (1976) designed an experiment to test how the speed and flow of men's urination in a public lavatory was affected by invasions of personal space.

2. Empathy Causes Facial Similarity Between Couples to Increase Over Time

3. Neuroscientist Studies His Own Stroke

4. Superstitious Pigeon-Guided Missiles

5. A Psychic Dog?

6. Are We Programmed to Laugh When Tickled?

7. Invasion From Mars: The Anatomy of Panic

8. Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties?

9. Stop Staring at Me!

10. Human-Dog Psychology

Now vote for your favourite

Which is the weirdest study? Vote now!

Tags: psychology

Self-sabotage: Why Some People Can't Handle Success

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:51:37 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Self-sabotage: Why Some People Can't Handle Success

ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2007) — New research shows that how people view their abilities in the workplace impacts how they respond to success. Dr. Jason Plaks, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto and Kristin Stecher, a research scientist at the University of Washington, found that those who thought of their capabilities as fixed were more likely to become anxious and disoriented when faced with dramatic success, causing their subsequent performance to plummet, compared to those who thought of their abilities as changeable.

"People are driven to feel that they can predict and control their outcomes. So when their performance turns out to violate their predictions, this can be unnerving -- even if the outcome is, objectively speaking, good news,"

He points out that the notion that people often sacrifice their success in the name of greater certainty has some intuitive appeal but it has never been put to a rigorous test.

Tags: psychology, success

Schizophrenia: The Curse That's Almost a Blessing

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:57:25 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: A recent study may have found what kind of process goes awry in schizophrenic brains. Researchers found that DISC1 regulates the migration of new neurons in the adult brain. When the levels of DISC1 were reduced in mice during adult neurogenesis, the newborn neurons sped up and overshot their intended targets within the hippocampus, When the neurons finally reached their destinations, they forged an unusual number of connections with neighboring cells, a series of events that might give rise to the abnormal—and quite crippling—brain functions associated with schizophrenia, according to Hongjun Song, a Johns Hopkins neurologist who also worked on the study. It is possible, Song says, that further research will lead to a drug that treats schizophrenia by restoring normal neurogenesis.

So what evolutionary advantage could schizophrenia-related genes bring to people who have some of the genes but not the disease? For now, this remains one of the many open questions.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Schizophrenia: The Curse That's Almost a Blessing

The disease may be the twisted flipside of an evolutionary boost.

For years, scientists struggled to identify an adaptive advantage that might explain schizophrenia’s persistence. Researchers from various disciplines volleyed ideas back and forth. Some argued that the genes implicated in the disease promoted creativity; others believed that schizophrenics were frustrated cult leaders—unorthodox thinkers constitutionally “engineered” to lead segments of humanity to break off from the herd, but who lacked the charisma to effect much change. None of the theories gained much traction.

Tags: psychology, brain, schizophrenia, evolution

Ten Minutes Of Talking Improves Memory And Test Performance

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:33:02 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: good excuse to keep on talking

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Ten Minutes Of Talking Improves Memory And Test Performance

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2007) — Spending just 10 minutes talking to another person can help improve your memory and your performance on tests, according to a University of Michigan study to be published in the February 2008 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"In our study, socializing was just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," said Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and a lead author of the study with ISR psychologist Eugene Burnstein and psychologist Piotr Winkielman from the University of California, San Diego.

In the article, Ybarra, Burnstein and colleagues report on findings from two types of studies they conducted on the relationship between social interactions and mental functioning.

the findings suggest that visiting with a friend or neighbor may be just as helpful in staying sharp

Tags: memory, brain

Looking presidential may give you the edge

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:37:06 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Looking presidential may give you the edge

Talk about looking presidential. To predict who will win next year's race for the White House, or any other election for that matter, you need look no further than the candidates' physical attributes.

That's the message from a survey of voter reactions to candidates for US elections that took place in 2006. CharlesBallew and Alexander Todorov of Princeton University showed 64 students pictures of candidates for 35 gubernatorial races and 29 Senate races, and asked them to judge who was the more competent. Given just a tenth of a second to view each picture, the students picked the future winner in about 70 per cent of the races (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0705435104).

Tags: psychology, politics, elections

How schizophrenia develops: Major clues discovered

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:42:00 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

How schizophrenia develops: Major clues discovered

Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue. The researchers found that the gene is turned on at increasingly high rates during normal development of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in higher functions like thinking and decision-making – but that this normal increase may not occur in people with schizophrenia.

The gene, GAD1, makes an enzyme essential for production of the chemical messenger, called GABA. The more the gene is turned on, the more GABA synthesis can occur, under normal circumstances. GABA helps regulate the flow of electrical traffic that enables brain cells to communicate with each other. It is among the major neurotransmitters in the brain.

Tags: schizophrenia, health, psychology, mental health