Category: Psychology

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News Psychology

Two sides to childhood trauma

We talk about stress exclusively in the negative, but languages offers two words: distress and eustress. The former is suffering that beats us down. The latter is struggle that makes us stronger. As with many things in life, not enough is as bad as too much. So, consider these two stories.

In the first story, scientists find distress in childhood leads to further struggles in adulthood. The surprise seems to be that PTSD in soldiers could be triggered by the loss of a support system offered by the military. How terrible must a family be to exceed the experience of war.

In the  second story, Peter Gray offers a view of teasing as a traditional, gentle method of correcting social problems. This is eustress that is communicating a corrective idea and simultaneously reminding the subject–you are safe. This is ever-present goal and challenge of the parent, to help your child find the right path while always reinforcing that your love for that child is unconditional and unlimited. The closer we move towards that ideal, the less chance anyone needs to find comfort amongst fellow soldiers.

Embattled Childhoods May Be the Real Trauma for Soldiers With PTSD – Association for Psychological Science

According to Berntsen and colleages, all of these factors together suggest that army life – despite the fact that it involved combat – offered more in the way of social support and life satisfaction than these particular soldiers had at home. The mental health benefits of being valued and experiencing camaraderie thus diminished when the soldiers had to return to civilian life.

The findings challenge the notion that exposure to combat and other war atrocities is the main cause of PTSD.

“We were surprised that stressful experiences during childhood seemed to play such a central role in discriminating the resilient versus non-resilient groups,” says Berntsen. “These results should make psychologists question prevailing assumptions about PTSD and its development.”

The Educative Value of Teasing | Psychology Today

Teasing gets a bad rap, especially in educational circles, because of its association with bullying.  But not all teasing is bullying.  In fact, in most settings (maybe not in our typical schools), teasing serves positive ends far more often than negative ones. This essay is mostly about the positive uses of teasing.

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Philosophy Psychology

Angry with Facebook but OK with Washington?

Perhaps you are so angry with Facebook and not the government because, as Molyneux has argued, the government is the  parent who can do no wrong and Facebook is the sibling you’re trained to hate.

Why Are People More Scared of Facebook Violating Their Privacy than Washington? – Hit & Run : Reason.com

This grasp of managing outrage is what makes our government’s lack of transparency so insidious. Even though the government has admitted that it has violated the Fourth Amendment at least once in its warrantless wiretapping, the outrage is limited to privacy and civil liberties circles precisely because the secrecy keeps the public from even knowing what these violations actually mean.

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Psychology Science

The APA is not the only solution

The problem might really be that the APA has no real competition. It’s a monopoly held up by the government, who designates the DSM as the bible for mental health when it gives out payments only for approved diagnostic codes. Clinicians ought to continue to develop alternative methods of diagnosis and treatment. Paired with modern data analysis, we can prove that there’s something better than the existing bureaucracy.

Psychiatry is failing those with personality disorders – New Scientist – New Scientist

A workable diagnostic system is needed, because sticking with the status quo is not an option

IF DOCTORS sent patients with angina home with nothing but a prescription for a painkiller to control chest pain, they would be sued for malpractice. Sadly, that is a fitting analogy for what happens all too often to people with personality disorders.

 

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Psychology

Your cognitive dissonance makes you vulnerable

If you are living half-consciously, you can expect that the simple act of explaining an argument might change your mind. The solution, of course is to live in full consciousness. But that will require a possibly painful process of weeding out all sources of cognitive dissonance.

Your Beliefs Are Malleable

Many years ago, while teaching my first college level course in Human Sexuality, I was having a bit of difficulty dealing with two students who seemed to always be at each other’s throats. Each time a controversial topic (e.g., abortion, homosexuality, pornography) was covered, their open disagreements seemed to escalate into full blown arguments. After a few weeks of this I’d had enough, and I executed a plan designed to teach them (and the rest of the class) to expand their horizons and to find common ground. I asked all of the students to write a short paragraph expressing their positions on a list of ten sex-related topics, and to turn it in after they had signed it. They were then instructed to write a research paper in which they attempted to support the opposite of their own opinion on one of the topics in the list. This is an old trick, and I expected a bit of resistance and protest, but I had faith that most would follow through and learn from the experience.

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Psychology Science

Dogs do not naturally distinguish objects by shape

Humans tend to classify objects by shape first and then use other aspects to further specify them and turn them into abstract concepts. Dogs start with size and then rely on texture. You and I see a marble and a basketball as two examples of balls. A dog would consider the marble to be more like a small, smooth coin. It would be hilarious to have a philosophical conversation with a dog with human-level consciousness.

Fetch! First clear evidence that dogs do not naturally distinguish objects by shape

Researchers have provided the first empirical evidence that the way in which dogs relate words to objects is fundamentally different to humans.