What is Today

Problems

The pressure of having to solve a problem may be overwhelming. Because we must search for a solution to a problem we have solved before. This search is far from random; it proceeds with constant reference to two anchors: the current situation on the one hand, and the goal on the other hand. Consider a taxi driver who is trying to choose the best route to the airport. His thoughts are guided both by his current location and by thoughts about his destination. Perhaps the taxi is close to the freeway, but this isn’t enough to direct the driver toward the highway’s on ramp. Instead, he is likely to ask ‘’ will this path bring me where I want to go? If the highway heads in the wrong direction, or if the driver remembers some road construction along that route, he is likely to seek an alternative path. This process of checking current options against one’s goal is a central part of problem solving. In fact, some researchers argue that a crucial strategy for problem solving is a means-end analysis in which one ask over and over as the problem solving proceeds, ‘’how can I use the means now available to me to get closer to my goals?

Hierarchical Organization

Problem solving is not merely goal directed, it is also hierarchical: the effort to solve one problem often creates sub problems, so that one needs to reach certain subgoals on the way towards achieving the main goal, and here too, means-end analysis is helpful:

For example: I want to get to the store. What is the difference between my current state and my goal? One of distance. What changes distance? My auto, my auto won’t work. What is needed to make it work? A new battery…….. In this case, the initial problem (getting to the store) is replaced by a series of sub problems (e.g. getting the car to work). By solving these, one at a time, the large problem gets dealt with.

Working Backward

One useful method for solving problem is to work backward, starting with the goal or final state and seeking a path toward the starting pint.

Finding An Appropriate Analogy

Another suggestion for solving difficult problems is to work by analogy, since many problems are similar to each other. For example: a school counselor is likely to find that the problem he hears about today reminds him of one he heard a few months back, and his experience with the first can help with the second.

Creative thinking

The restructuring of a problem also plays an important role in those special discoveries we consider creative. In general, scholars call the solution to a problem creative if that solution is both new and valuable or useful. Creative is of course evidence in the scientific of Marie Curie, the artistic innovation of Martha Graham, or the literary achievements of Toni Morrison. What leads to those creative achievements? Many factors contribute, but one pattern figure prominently in reports by the creators themselves when they describe how their insight or discoveries arose. In case after case, these accounts indicate that critical insights arrive rather abruptly, typically at unexpected times and place. Often, the thinker has been working steadily on the problem for some tie but making relatively little progress. She then set the problem aside in order to rest or to engage in some other activity. It is during this other activity that the insight emerges. This pattern has often been attributed to a process of incubation. The idea here is that the thinker believes she has set the problem aside but is actually continuing to think about it unconsciously. Some authors have suggested that this unconscious incubation is usually more creative and less constrained than conscious thought, and this is why solution to vexing problems so often appears during the periods when, on the surface, the thinker is paying attention to some altogether different matter.

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Problem Of Obesity And Its Treatment

The seriousness of the problem has led to several attempts at remedying it. No year goes by without some faddist dietary regime topping the bestseller list recommending the adoption of eccentric eating habit. However, there are some psychological intervention that have successfully helped the weight management of the obese, although, the drawback of the psychological interventions is that obese people do not maintain their reduction regime.

Interventions are recommended when a person has a serious BMI statistic and a risk of developing ill health. For people with a BMI of below 27kg/m2, clinicians recommend an increase in physical activity and a decrease in fact and sugar intake, coupled self-directed efforts to maintain weight loss and the taking of a doctor’s advice. For people with higher BMIs, the same intervention may be implemented but if this does not work, more dramatic measures may be adopted such as drugs or, for those with a BMI in excess of 40kg/m2, surgery ( this is called bariatric surgery). The side affects of surgery are considerable, but weight loss is produced more efficiently.



Initial success at weight loss depends on the goals of the person losing weight. First, people need to be motivated to lose weight. Secondly, they need to realise that weight reduction programs are designed for health rather than aesthetic reasons. For example, until recently, interventions were guided towards helping people achieve their ideal weight ( rather than a weight which would reduce the risk of ill health), current emphasis, however, is on reducing health complication and so a loss of 5-15% can be effective in producing this reduction, even though the patient/client may not be happy with having lost so little weight and expect a weight loss of 20-35%. One study which reported that weight reduction of 7kg/m2 combined with 150 minutes exercise a week reduced the likelihood of developing diabetes by 58%.

Psychological interventions

Obese people clearly have difficult in restricting their food intake. This difficulty is decreased during holiday periods which the overweight regard as high risk period because of family celebrations or national holiday celebrations. One way in which this difficulty could be relieved is by self monitoring, the act of closely observing what is eaten and when and in which contexts. Boutelle et.al (1999) examined the effect of self monitoring during this high risk holiday period in group of overweight individuals on a weight loss program. Forty-nine obese people who had been on the program for at least a month, were know to self monitor rarely and who were willing to be contacted in a two eek holiday period (Xmas and New Year) took part in the study. Self monitoring took form of examining food intake and taking weight measurements daily.



Two groups (intervention group and non intervention group) were observed and both groups were encouraged to do this basic level of self monitoring. However, the intervention group also received daily mailing from the researchers as well as one or two phone calls in each week in two week period reminding them to self monitor. Those in the intervention group not only self monitored more frequently but also managed their weight more effectively than did those in the non intervention group. Both group had difficult in managing their weight. However, those in the self monitoring group lost more weight and there was a strong associate between self monitoring and weight loss. The difficulty is maintaining weight loss is one of the most serious problems obese people face. Studies of 20 week intervention programs, such as the one described, have found that people can lose up to 9kg( around 9% of body weight) but when the intervention stops, people can regain as much one third of their weight in the following 12 months.

Clinicians, therefore, have focused their attention on how to achieve the maintenance of weight loss. This can be done by creative detailed behavioural plan for the client to follow, as well as by controlling the portions of food that client eats. Replacing normal meals and snacks with portion controlled meals, for example, can lead 8% reduction in weight over a sustained period of dietary regime control. The longer the intervention, the greater the weight loss, but most of the loss is seen in the first six month. The greater predictor of whether people maintain their loss is their ability to engage in physical activity. Those who do, tend to maintain their weight loss programs. Those who exercise at home are more successful at maintenance that is those who attend gyms or leisure center.

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Behavior does not occur in a vacuum. Sometimes a response will have certain consequences; sometimes it will not. Our daily behavior is guided by many different kinds of discriminative stimuli, which indicate that behavior will have certain consequences and thus set the occasion for responding.

For example, consider answering the telephone. The phone rings, you pick it up and say hello into the receiver. Most of the time, someone on the other end of the line begins to speak.

Have you ever picked up a telephone when it was not ringing and said ‘’hallo’’? Doing so would be absurd, because there would be no one on the other end of the line. We answer the phone (make response) only when the phone rings (the preceding event) because, in the past, someone with whom we enjoy talking has been at the other end of the line (the following event). Skinner referred formally to the relationship among these three items: the preceding event, the response, and the following event.

The preceding event, the discriminative stimulus sets the occasion for respond for responding because, in the past, when that stimulus occurred, the response was followed by certain consequences. If the phone rings we are likely to answer it because we have learned that doing so has particular (and generally favourable) consequences. The response we make in this case, ‘’picking up the phone when the phone ring and saying hallo’’ is called an operant behavior. The following event- the voice on the other end of the line is the consequence of the operant behavior


Operant behavior, therefore, occurs in the presence of discriminative stimuli and is followed by certain consequences. These consequences are contingent upon behavior that is they are produced by that behavior. In the presence of discriminative stimuli, a consequence will occur if and only if an operant behavior occurs. In the absence of a discriminative stimulus, the operant behavior will have no effect. Once an aperant behavior is established, it tends to persist whenever the discriminative stimulus occurs, even if other aspects of the environment change. Of course, motivational factors can affect a response. For example, you might not bother to answer the telephone if you are doing something you do not want to interrupt.

Normally, we learn about the consequences of our behavior or about stimuli that direct affect us. We can also learn by a less direct method: observing the behavior of others. Evidence suggests that imitation does seem to be an innate tendency. Classically conditioned behavior, as well as operantly conditioned behaviors, can be acquired through observation, suppose that a young girl sees her mother show sign of fear whenever she encounters a dog. The girl herself will likely develop a fear of dogs, even if she never sees another one. In fact, Bandura and Menlove (1968) reported that children who were afraid of animals, in this case dogs could not remember having had unpleasant direct experiences with them. We tend to imitate, and feel the emotional responses of people we observe. In fact, there is strong evidence that imitating the behavior of other people may be reinforcing itself.

Let’s take another example bullies

We know that bullies are aware of the power of manipulation, because in the past he bullied someone and go response (power against his victim) usually repeated act against their victims.

As a nation

Do we encourage bullies? Yes or No

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Avoid & Love?

Understand the nature of attachment between infants and carers

Normally, the first adults with whom infants interact are their parents. In most cases, one parent serves as the primary carer. As many studies have shown, a close relationship called attachment is important for infant’s social development. Attachment is a social and emotional bond between infant and carer that spans both time and space. It involves both the warm feelings that the parent and child have for each other and the comfort and support they provide for each other, which becomes especially important during times of fear or stress. This interaction must work both ways, with each participant fulfilling certain needs of each other. Formation of a strong and durable bond depends on the behavior of both people in the relationship. According to theorist John Bowlby(1969), attachment is a part of many organisms’ native endowment. He and Mary Ainsworth have developed an approach that has succeeded in discovering some of the variables that influence attachment in humans.

Infant attachment

Newborn infants rely completely on their parents (or other carers) to supply them with nourishment, keep them warm and clean, and protect them from harm. To most parents, the role of primary carer is much more than a duty; it is a source of joy and satisfaction. Nearly all parents anticipate the birth of their children with expectation that they will love and cherish them. And when a child born, most of them do exactly that. As time goes on, and as parent and child interact, they become strongly attached to each other. What factors cause this attachment to occur? Evidence suggested that human infants are innately able to produce special behaviors that shape and control the behavior of their carers. As Bowlby( 1969) noted, the most important of these behaviors are sucking, cuddling, looking and crying.

Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety

For an infant, the world can be a frightening place. The presence of a primary caregiver provides a baby with considerable reassurance when they first become able to explore the environment. Although the unfamiliar environment produces fear, the caregiver provides a secure base that the infant can leave from time to time to see what the world is like.




Babies are born prepared to become attached to their primary caregiver, who is most cases is their mother. Attachment appears to be a behavior pattern that is necessary for normal development. However, although attachment appears to be an inherited disposition, infants do not have a natural inclination to become attached to any one specific adult. Rather, the person to whom the baby becomes attached is determined through learning; the individual who serves as the infant’s primary caregiver. Attachment partially reveals itself in two specific forms of infant behavior: stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.

Stranger anxiety, which is usually appears in infants between the ages 6 and 12 months, consists of wariness and sometimes fearful responses, such as crying and clinging to their carers, that infants exhibit in the presence of strangers. Male strangers generate the most anxiety in infants. Child strangers generate the least anxiety in infants, while female strangers generate an intermediate amount of anxiety. Stranger anxiety can be reduce and even eliminated under certain conditions. For example, if the infant is in familiar surroundings with its mother, and the mother acts in friendly manners towards the stranger, the infant is likely to be less anxious in the presence of the stranger than it would if the surroundings were unfamiliar or if the mother was unfriendly towards the strangers.

Separation anxiety is set of fearful responses, such as crying, arousal and clinging to the carer, which an infant exhibits when the carer attempts to leave the infant. Separation anxiety differs from stranger anxiety in two ways: time of emergence and the conditions under which the fear response occur. It first appears in infants when they are about 6 months old and generally peaks at about 15 months, a finding consistent among many cultures. Like stranger anxiety, separation anxiety can occur under different conditions with different degrees of intensity. For example, if an infant is used to being left in a certain environment, say a day-care centre, it may show little or no separation anxiety. The same holds true for situations in which the infant is left with sibling or other familiar person. However, if the same infant is left in an unfamiliar setting, it shows signs of distress. Some infants show ‘’disorganised’’ attachment behavior, that is they show conflicting behavior towards the carer. They may rush to the sounds of an opening door when hearing the carer about to enters a room and then run away when the carer enters; they may also adopt a ‘’frozen’’ or still posture when the carer is in the room. A longitudinal study of disorganized attachment behavior in 157 children ( studied from 24 months to 19 years), found that disorganized behavioral correlated with insensitive caring, living alone with infant, neglect, physical and psychological neglect and an intrusive caring lifestyle.

One measure of separation anxiety was devised by Ainsworth and her colleagues. They developed a test of attachment called the strange situation that consists of a series of eight episodes, during which baby is exposed of a various events that might cause some distress. The episodes involve the experimenter introducing the infant and the parent to a playroom and then leaving, the parent leaving and being reunited with the infant, or a stranger entering the playroom with and without the parent present. Each episode lasts for approximately three minutes. The strange situation test is based on the idea that if the attachment process has been successful, an infant should use its mother as a secure base from which to explore an unfamiliar environment. By noting the infant’s reactions to the stranger situation. Researchers can evaluate the nature of the attachment. The use of the stranger situation test has led Ainsworth and her colleagues to identify three patterns of attachment.

Secure attachment us the idea pattern: infant show a distinct preference for their mothers over strangers. Infants may cry when their carers leave, but stop as soon as they return.

Babies may also form two type of insecure attachment, which are resistance attachment and avoidance attachment

Resistance attachment shows tension in their relations with their carers. Infants stay close to their mother before the mother leaves but show both approach and avoidance behavior when the mother returns. Infants continue to cry for a while after their mother returns and may even push her away.

Infants also display avoidance attachment generally do not cry when they are left alone. When their mother returns, the infant are likely to avoid or ignore them. Those infants tend not to cling or cuddle when they are picked up.



Although infant’s personalities certainly affect the nature of their carers and hence the nature of their attachment, mother’s behavior appears to be the most important factor in establishing a secure or insecure attachment.

Mothers of securely attached infants tend to be those who respond promptly to their crying and who are adept at handling them and responding to their needs. The babies apparently learn that their mothers can be trusted to react sensitively and appropriately.

Mothers who do not modulate their responses according to their infant’s own behavior, who appear insensitive to their infant’s changing needs are most likely to foster avoidance attachment.

Mothers who are impatient with their infants and who seem more interested in their own activities than in interacting with their offspring tend to foster resistant attachment.

The nature of attachment between infants and carers appears to be related to children’s later social behavior. For example, Walter et al (1979) found that children who were securely attached at 15 months were among the most popular and the most sociable children in their nursery school 3 and half year of age. In contrast, insecure attached infants had difficulties with social adjustment later in childhood; they had poor social skills and tended to be hostile, impulsive and withdrawn

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Attention: To all future parents

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Autism

Exploring Contemporary Psychology: Autism

Many psychologists have argued that young children must develop a "theory of mind," a set of interrelated concepts and beliefs that the child employs in order to make sense of her own behavior and that of others. This set of beliefs allows the child to understand the behavior of other people, and, to some extent, to predict how they'll act in the future.

What would happen, though, if a child failed to develop a theory of mind? Given the functions attributed to this theory, one might expect severe disruption in the child's capacity to communicate with others, to develop friendships, to respond appropriately to others' actions. This line of thinking leads directly to a prominent hypothesis about the nature of autism.

The specific symptoms of autism vary from case to case, but someone with autism will typically have difficulties in their social relations, their ability to communicate, and their pattern of imagination and play. In the social sphere, autistic children show a diverse array of difficulties, but it is common for a child with autism to seem entirely oblivious to others. In some cases, an autistic child actively seeks to avoid social contact. If they notice others at all, they seem completely disinterested in what those others might be doing or thinking.

Some autistic children are completely mute. Others speak, but in a flat monotone, with no accompanying gestures. Some simply echo what others say.

Children with autism also seem to have problems in imagination. They often show an inability to engage in pretend play — and so there are no dolls, no pretend parties, no stories. If an autistic child plays with toys at all, the play is often repetitive and unconventional — simply spinning one of the wheels on a toy car, for example, rather than driving it around the room.

Autism is also associated with mental retardation. Most individuals with autism have IQ scores below 80, but 25 percent have near-normal intelligence, and a small percentage actually seems gifted in specific areas.

In explanation of these symptoms, one proposal is that autistic children suffer from a particular form of brain damage, the result of which is that they do not develop the set of beliefs that we call a theory of mind. This leads directly to their inability to relate to others — since, without a theory of mind, they find the behavior of other people to be inexplicable, unpredictable, and constantly bewildering. This produces enormous difficulties in interacting with others, and the frustration that results may be what leads many autistic individuals simply to withdraw from the social world. In addition, with no capacity to understand others, it is unsurprising that the autistic individual has communication problems — and, with few interactions, little opportunity to develop language skills. Likewise, the imagination difficulties may also derive from the inability of children with autism to think about the thoughts or feelings of others — this is why they can't project thoughts onto a doll, as part of the normal process of pretend play.

Debate continues over whether this is the full account of autism. Autistic children do have severe difficulties with tasks specifically designed to assess the child's theory of mind, but further evidence suggests these children may have other problems as well. Hence we cannot regard the theory of mind explanation as a firmly-established claim. In the meantime, though, this account provides us with a powerful reminder of what can go wrong if a child lacks an adequate theory of mind, and with that, just how important a theory of mind is.

Early signs of the disorder include a failure to maintain eye-to-eye contact, to reach out the familiar persons, and to imitate. There are checklists available which enable parents to determined whether their child is exhibiting autistic tendencies and such checklist include Baron-Cohen checklist for autism in Toddlers (CHAT)


The CHAT
Checklist for parents to determine their child is exhibiting autism during the 18-month developmental check-up. Also consulate your General Practitioners or Health Visitors

Section A: Ask Yourself:

1. Does your child enjoy being swung, bounced on your knee, etc?
YES/NO

2. Does your child take an interest in other children?
YES/NO

3. Does your child like climbing on things, such as up stairs?
YES/NO

4. Does your child enjoy playing peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek?
YES/NO

5. Does your child ever PRETEND, for example, to make a cup of tea using a toy cup and teapot, or pretend other things?
YES/NO

6. Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to ASK for something?
YES/NO

7. Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to indicate INTEREST in something?
YES/NO

8. Can your child play properly with small toys (egg cars or bricks) without just mouthing, fiddling or dropping them?
YES/NO

9. Does your child ever bring objects over to you (parent) to SHOW you something?
YES/NO

Section B: GP or HV Observation:
I. During the appointment, has the child made eye contact with you?
YES/NO

ii. Get child's attention, then point across the room at an interesting object and say 'Oh look! There's a (name of toy!)' Watch child's face. Does the child look across to see what you are pointing at?
YES/NO*

iii. Get the child's attention, then give child a miniature toy cup and teapot and say 'Can you make a cup of tea? 'Does the child pretend to pour out tea, drink it, etc.?
YES/NO**

iv. Say to the child 'Where's the light?', or 'Show me the light'. Does the child point with his/her index finger at the light?
YES/NO***

v. Can the child build a tower of bricks? (If so how many?)
(Number of bricks:.............)
YES/NO

* (To record YES on this item, ensure the child has not simply looked at your hand, but has actually looked at the object you are pointing at.)

** (If you can elicit an example of pretending in some other game, score a YES on this item.)

*** (Repeat this with 'Where's the teddy?' or some other unreachable object, if child does not understand the word 'light'. To record YES on this item, the child must have looked up at your face around the time of pointing.) Copyright of MRC/SBC 1995


This test is is aim to identify those at risk of developing the disorder. Some researchers have also suggested that autism may be an inherited disorder because there is a high incidence of fragile X disorder in autistic children. Twin studies suggested higher concordance rate in identical than fraternal twins. Currently, however, there is no evidence that autism is a simple inherited disorder and there is no clear cut evidence. The outcome for autism is varied, some individuals develop little language whereas others are able to go on to full time education, get married and start family. The most important therapeutic intervention appears to involve intensive education aimed at changing the behavioural and communication problems. As such, most interventions are designed for use by parents and teachers who have greatest contact with
children. Medical interventions have also developed but these appears to be more effective in improving attention than eliminating all the characteristic of the disorder.

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How to diet: Help for dieters

Dieting isn't easy. You need some help? We're here to help you with your weight loss. One reason that many people have so much difficulty losing weight is that metabolic factors appear to play an important role in obesity. In fact, a good case can be made that obesity is most often not an eating disorder but rather a metabolic disorder. Metabolism refers to the physiological process, including the production of energy from nutrients that take place within an organism. Just as cars differ in their fuel efficiency, so do people. Rose and William studied pairs of people who were matched for weight, height, age and activity. Some of these matched pairs differed by a factor of two in the number of calories they eat each day. People with an efficient metabolism have calories left over to deposit in the long term nutrient reservoir; thus, they have difficulty keeping the reservoir from growing. In contract, people with an inefficient metabolism can eat large meals without getting fat. Thus, a fuel efficient automobile is desirable; a fuel efficient body runs the risk of becoming obese.

Many people don’t know how to diet, they diet and then they relapse, thus undergoing large changes in body weight. Some investigators have suggested that starvation causes the body’s metabolism to become more efficient. For example:

Browel research on how to diet

He fed rats a diet that made them become obese and then restricted their food intake until their body weights returned to normal. Then they made the rats fat again and reduced their intake again. The second time, the rats become fat much faster and lost their weight much more slowly. Clearly, the experience of gaining and losing large amounts of body weight altered the animal’s metabolic efficiency. They also obtained evidence that the same phenomenon (called the yo-yo effect) take place in human. They measure the resting metabolic rate in two groups of adolescent wrestlers: those who fasted just before a competition and binged afterwards and those who did not. The investigators found that wrestlers who fasted and binged developed more efficient metabolism. Possibly, those people will have difficulty maintaining body weight as they get older

Gaol setting

Goal setting theories argue that goals ( e.g losing weight) must be specific, challenging and attainable. These are the most probable results that you will get if you will start to pursue a weight loss program. So, can you lose 10 pounds in a week’s time? Chances are, you won’t be able to … at least not in a healthy way. Do you think you can shed 3 pounds in a matter of 7 days? Commit most of your day to weight loss activities and this is very much possible.

Most weight loss programs can guarantee this much of a result. However, we’re talking about sustainable weight loss not quick fixes to the problem of being overweight. Very difficult or impossible tasks have demotivating affects, even when the reward is high. For example; Most quick loss diets will promise up to 10lb in the first week, which is more often that not merely loss of fluid rather than fat. But then next week will be losing 0.8kg per week. Indeed, excessive rewards may over arouse individuals, increasing their sense of responsibility and making them choke under pressure.

Intergrating expectancy and goals theories, social cognitve approaches to motivation, such as Dweck have examined the self fulfilling and self defeating effects of overconfident or under confident cognitions in educational setting. For example, believing that intelligent is fixed or entity will lead to lower motivation and efforts, whereas believing it is malleable or incremental have motivating effects, and in turn improve performance, same applies to losing weight

Long-term steady weight loss is safer, and likely to be more permanent. It has been found that an average of 2lb or 0.8kg per week is the optimum weight loss that will encourage changes in metabolic rate that, crucial, can be sustained. And don’t forget losing large amount of body weight alter the metabolic efficiency.

Suggested weight loss program

For almost a month I was looking for a better weight loss program until I come across ‘’ better health and fitness’’ I was investigating the better health for 1 month, and I loved it some much that I suggested to friends and family. What I loved this program for what they offered me, customized exercise programs, dietary education, I loved this the most of all. Dieting didn’t felt like a chore, more like natural enjoyment. Lose weight safely and naturaly, no supplements, no pills, boost your ant-aging enzymes, secret to staying motivated, training and aerobic workout samples, how to avoid excess pounds, body fat percentage tabulator, tips, tricks and techniques, nutrition and healthy lifestyle practices, live 24/7 technical support. For everyone who want to lose weight safely and permanently, I would suggest the better health & fitness programs

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Csikszentmihalyi electronic beepers sound research

Relations with parents Philip Larkin, in his poem ‘’this be the verse’’, one famously remarked, ‘’they fuck you up your mum and dad/ they mean to but they do/they fill you with faults they had/ And add some extra just for you’’. The relationship between adolescents and their parents can appear fractious. As adolescents and their begin to define their new roles and to assert them, they almost inevitably come into conflict with their parents. Adolescents and their parents tend to have similar values and attitudes towards important issues. Unless serious problems occur, family conflicts tend to be provoked by minor issues, such as messy rooms, loud music, clothes, curfews and household chores. These problems tend to Begin around the time of puberty; if puberty occurs particularly early or late, so does the conflicts.

Adolescence is said to be a time of turmoil, a period characterised by unhappiness, stress and confusion. Whereas a few adolescents are unhappy most of the time( and most are unhappy some of the time), studies have found that the vast majority of teenagers generally feel happy and self confident. But mood states do seem to be more variable during the teenage years that during other times of life. Csikszentmihalyi electronic beepers sound research randomly sampled the mood states of a group of teenage students. They gave them electronic beepers that sounded at random intervals that were, on average, two hours apart. Each time the beepers sounded, the students stopped what they were doing and filled out a questionnaire that asked what they were doing, how they felt, what they were thinking about, and so on. The investigators found that the students moods could swing from high to low and back again in the course of a few hours. The questionnaires also revealed conflicts between the participants and other family members. Although the subjects of the conflicts were usually trivial, they nevertheless concerned the teenagers deeply. As the authors noted:

Asking a boy who has spent many days practising a song on the guitar ‘ why are you playing that trash?’ might not mean much to the father, but it can be a great blow to the son. The so-called ‘growth pains’ of adolescence are no less real just because their causes appear to be without much substance to adults. In fact, this is exactly what the conflict is all about: what is to be taking seriously?

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When Karen Phillips daughter nearly died in hospital from Anorexia-Bulimia she was absolutely determined to find a cure for this dreadful disease. Now a few years later she is completely healthy - physically and emotionally

Understanding school violence: The relationship between the bully and the victim of a bully

Until relatively recent, the topic of bullying of school children by other school children featured briefly, if at all, social or developmental psychology. Aggression by children has always been a topic mined by psychology, but within time the context of schooling it was largely ignored. In part of Europe, however, there has been considerable research on bullying in the workplace: why bullies do it and how they get away with it. This research promoted others to explore the incidence, cause and prevention of bullying in school and an extensive research now exists in countries such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the USA.

How common is bullying?

The evidence of bullying in secondary schools is high and is regarded by children themselves as a common problem. According to nicolaides et.al(2002), bullying is a form of aggressive behavior that causes injury or distress to the individual to whom it is directed. This aggression can be physical ( actual bodily violence), verbal or psychological ( such as social exclusion). The relationship between the bully and the victim of a bully is also unequal: perceived power tends to reside with the bully and bullies usually repeated act against their victims. The victim of a bully, therefore, is likely to be bullied on more than one occasion.

In a survey of bullying in English schools, Whitney and smith (1993) reported the general incidence of bullying, who does the bullying and who become the victim. The study found that :

• 10-27% of children reported being the victim of bullying at some time during the school time

• 6-12% reported taking part in bullying at least once

• Self reports of bullying and being bullied declined as the children grew older (from 8 to 16)

• Boys were twice, and sometimes three, times as likely to be bullied as were girls.

• 35 % of bullies were spoken to by their teachers about their conduct

• 30-35 % of victim spoke to teachers about their being bullied

• 60% of children reported disliked bullying

• 20% of children indicated that they would be willing to join in with bullying

Transitional life events, social dominance and bullying
Some psychologist have suggested that bullying becomes more prevalent during early adolescence and during transitional periods in the children’s lives, for specific reasons. For example, aggression in early adolescence is viewed more positively by children’s peer than it is later in adolescent. According to Pellegrinin and long( 2002), certain factors promote an increase in aggression at this time. They point to the obvious physical changes that occur, especially in boys. Hormonal changes lead to body size increase, the beginning of a sexual interest in the opposite sex and the visible expression of secondary sexual characteristics which mark the onset of young adulthood,

The increase in body size, some researchers argue, leads to boys reviewing their position in their social group. One way of expressing this dominance is to use aggression, usually with the approval of peers. Also note that, in addiction to establishing social dominance, young adolescents also undergo a physical transition in their lives: moving school, this move appears to coincide with an increase in antisocial behaviour. In primary school, children are taught in well established, close, friendly group. The move to secondary school usually leads to the break-up of this close group and the child has to find new friends in a much bigger environment. Pellegrini and Long argue that if bullying is a way of establishing social dominance, the aggression should increase during this transition from primary to secondary school. Once the social group are established, the incidence of bullying should decrease.

To see if the patterns of bullying did change during this transition, the researchers followed 129 North American boys and girls from the final year in primary to the second year in secondary school. The researcher asked them about their bullying experiences, experiences of being the victim of bullying, and asked them to keep daily dairies in which they would record any example of bullying/being bullied. The teachers measured the degree of dominance and aggression they absorbed in the children and the children were also asked to record instances of bullying and cooperation they observe in their peers. Measures were taken at three points: the final year of primary and the first and second years of secondary school.

Bullying and aggression increased in the initial period but then decreased. Boys were more likely than girls to be bullied and more likely to view bullying and aggression positively in the early stage of adolescence. After the transition to middle school, aggression decreased and dominance in social groups increased, providing some indirect evidence for the hypothesis that aggression is used to establish dominance but once dominance is established aggression is unnecessary.


What makes a bully?

Are there personality characteristics that are specific to bullies? In an early study of teacher’s views of bullies and victims, the personalities of victims were well described but the characters of bullies less well described. The school bully is likely to cold, manipulative and very social adept. This is one reason why they are able to convince others to condone, endorse or join in with the bullying. To test whether bullies are sensitive to emotional and social events, Sutton et.al (1999) first administered a questionnaire to 193 English school children aged between 7 and 11 years to determined who were bullies, followers, defenders of the victim, victims, and who did not get involved in bullying. The children then participated in an experience in which they were read elven short stories and asked questions about these stories and asked question about these stories which relied on an awareness of social cognition and manipulation. For example, in one of the studies. Mike has stomach ache but knows that if his mother sees him in pain, he will not be allowed out to play. He asked his mother if he can. The participants were shown four pictures of mike’s face and asked:

1) which facial expression represents how he really feels ( the control question)


2) which facial expression he shows to his mother when he asked her if he can go out ( the experimental question)

The researchers found that bullies who initiated aggression were more accurate in answering social manipulation questions than were bullies who helped or supported the ringleader bullies, the victim, or the defenders. This finding suggests that the bully is not a social inept individual but one who is aware of the power of manipulation.

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Pro anorexic

Pro anorexic

Eating disorders, which include pro anorexic and bulimia nervosa, are a common psychological illness characterized by exacerbated worry about food, body shape, and weight, and related physical symptoms. More that any other illness, pro anorexia is related to culture, economic, and social factors, being much more common in western industrialized countries that others. This is probably due to the current western stereotype of beauty. Which encourage women (and increasingly also men) to stay thin. Thus gender differences in eating disorders, a mental illness symptoms traditionally associated with women, have been reduced in the past 50 years or so.

The three major characteristic of pro anorexic are:

1) A serious and permanent concern about one’s body shape, weight, and thinness.

2) An active pursuit and maintenance (through vomiting, dieting, or laxatives) of low body weight

3) The absence of menstrual periods in females, indicating a disturbance of hormonal status.

Most pro anorexic individual started by dieting and can be objectively overweight initially, though their dieting efforts will persist after they have lost weight. Another common aspect is the experience low self-esteem. For instance after being bullied at school or breaking up with partners. In later phases of the illness, negative effects on relationships are typical, mostly driven by arguments about not eating.

Like anxiety disorders, pro anorexic may be associated with the experience of anxiety, in particular when pro anorexic individual fail to stop themselves from eating. Conversely, excessive concerns with food that successfully lead to a reduction of food intake will generate personal satisfaction and reduce anxiety. Pro anorexic individuals have been described as quiet, unassertive, anxious, and sexually inexperienced. They also tend to be ambitious and achievement-oriented, but have low self-estem. In any case this mere combination of personality attributes is not enough to predict illness.

Approximately 25% of pro anorexic individual will have long term difficulties, whilst the rest normally recover after one year of treatment. Long term symptoms may range from menstruation disorders in woman to infertility, starvation, and even suicide. It is also not uncommon for anorexic individual to develop bulimia nervosa before fully recovering. Unlike anorexia, bulimia is not associated with actual weight loss and abnormal body weight, but bulimic individuals are significantly more likely than the average person to indulge alcohol and drugs consumption. Again, a combination of both psychotherapy and psychopharmacological drugs constitutes the best treatment for eating disorders

Anorexia - Bulimia Home Treatment Program

The best way to treat Anorexia - Bulimia is at home with an individual program. This gives people a chance to control their behavior by themselves and not be dependent on a group or a therapist. When we realized this fact, pro anorexic individual start to improve.

Group therapy gives people a dependency on being in the group. They feel OK while they are in the group but loose all sense of self-control when they are at home.

Group therapy provides sufferers with a lot of friends who are also anorexic or bulimic. They get to understand each other very well and develop a "team spirit" attitude. If they get better they need to leave the group and stay on their own. Often they don't want to leave their friends so they stay the same.

Being in the group patients get too many negative ideas from each other. If a young woman has never heard of drinking ipecac to induce vomiting and learns this technique in group therapy, she may try the technique out herself, leaving the group leader or member feeling responsible.

In the group patients often deliberately get worse or engage in more symptoms just to get extra attention from each other or the therapist. This kind of competition always exists in eating disorder groups but on many different levels. Sometimes it can get out of control and cause a lot of harm to some members of the group, the most venerable ones.

Parents of sufferers often think that the doctors or the therapist know the best way to help. But the truth is that parents should be the first and most important people who can really truly help.

Get Your Anorexia - Bulimia Home Treatment Program

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Bowlby Attachment
According to Bowlby attachment earliest research on adult attachment involved studying the association between individual differences in adult attachment and the way people think about their relationships and their memories for what their relationships with their parents are like.

Stereotype:How parent explain science to boys more than they do to girls

Where do children learn stereotype? Although a child’s peer group and teachers are important, parents play an especially important role in the development of sex stereotypes. For example, parent tend to encourage and reward their sons for playing with ‘’masculine’’ toys such as cars ans strucks and objects such as baseballs and footballs. Parents encourage boys to generate gross motor activity whereas they are more soothing and calming with baby girls.

Parents also tend to encourage and reward their daughters for engaging in ‘’feminine’’ activities that promote dependence, warmth and sensitive, such as playing house or hosting a make believe tea party. Parents who do not encourage or reward these kinds of stereotypical activity tend to have children whose attitudes and behaviour reflect fewer sex stereotypes

In supposedly ‘’ masculine’’ academic subjects, girls are perceived as performing less well than boys. Many reasons have been suggested for the discrepancy but one of the most frequently cited is socialization: that is, parents and teachers are more likely to engage boys in science and scientific explanations than they are girls.

In an ingenious experiment to test this hypothesis, Crowley et.al(2001) sought the permission of parents visiting a Californian children’s museum to film and record their interactions with their children as they made their way around the exhibitions. Data were collected from 298 interactions between mothers and fathers and their daughters and sons on 26 days over 30 months period. Conversations were rated according to whether they involved explanations, descriptions of or directions for exhibitions.

The researchers found that parents were more likely to explain exhibits to their sons than to their daughters. If the behavior of parents helps shape the behavior of their children, the researchers suggest that this disparity could have a significant effect on the child’s interest in and knowledge of science

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Self Actualized Part 3

Self actualization means realizing one’s full potential.


The three key to self- actualization are: self and identity(part 1), self awareness( part 2) and self motives (part 3)

C) Self motives

What motivates the different ways that we may want to conceptualise ourselves? Research suggested that there are three general classes of motivations.

• One motive is self-assessment

a desire to find out the truth about ourselves however disappointing or unfavourable the truth may be.

• Another motive is self- verification

a desire to confirm what we already know about our self, by looking for self-consistent information.

• The third motive us self-enhancement

a desire to find our favorable things about ourselves.

Between all of those general classes of motivations self- enhancement is the most important. Why? Because people have a formidable repertoire of strategies and techniques to construct or maintain a favourable self-concept.

• * For example, they take credit for success but denial blame for failure,

• * They forget failure feedback more readily than success feedback,

• * They accept praise uncritically but receive criticism sceptically and dismiss it as being based on prejudice.

REMEMBER

• * Most of the thoughts, feeling, and motives underlying behavior are unconscious or unknown to the individual. This means people are rarely aware of the true reasons they choose to behave as they do, and that there is often no choice at all. Instead, people are ''fooled'' by apparent motives.

• * Unconscious and conscious motives operate in parallel, so that, in the same situation, an individual can be consciously motivated to do X( e.g hate, hit,remember) but unconsciously motivated to do Y (e.g love, kiss, forget)

• * Individual, just like opening flower, have a naturall tendency toward personal improvement and self-actualization or self-realization.

• * Actualization is the capacity to enhance the organism, gain autonomy and be self-sufficient. In simple term, to actualize oneself means to grow.

• * If individual are unaware of their potential for self-actualization or find obstacles that stop them from unleashing this potential, psychologists can guide them and help them overcome obstacles.

• * Self- actualized people tend to enjoy life and be happy, whereas failure to unleash one's potential for growth can lead to mental health problems

• *Failure to self-actualize may also lead to state of reactance, which is the feeling that our freedom of choice has been taken away.

• * Self-actualize leads to congruence between one's ideal self and one's actual self. Conversely, incongruity between one's aspirations and reality cause anxiety

Once we stop believing in our self, and become afraid of every circumstances. Then every affliction become a self fulfilling prophecy. The sooner you understand this concept and the self-discrepany theory concept. The closer you get to your way to better self improvement.

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