For this assignment please find a topic that relates to this class and find three good sources of information about your topic. These can be books, internet sites, or journal articles.
Next:
State your topic.
State why this is an interesting topic and why it interests you.
State how the topic relates to the class.
List source one and briefly discuss why it is a good source and what you learned about your topic from that source.
List source two and briefly discuss why it is a good source and what you learned about your topic from that source.
List source three and briefly discuss why it is a good source and what you learned about your topic from that source.
At the bottom of your post provide links or reference for the three sources.
List the terms and concepts you used in this post.
Let me know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
Topic: Intelligence
Why: I find intelligence a very ambiguous and subjective term and am curious on what people consider "intelligence."
Relates to class: Relates to class in that we have learned an entire chapter on intelligence testing.
Source 1: Psych today article: "If you are Creative, are you also Intelligent?"
I learned that creativity and intelligence actually go hand in hand instead of being completely separate entities like previously thought. America teaches in a very creative way while Eastern countries promote rote teaching. One would think that the rote is less effective, and that Eastern countries have less creativity, but like Bill Gates says, "Japan makes the most creative video games."
Source 2: Many Heads Can Be Better Than One, If They Belong to Women
This study talked about teamwork and how well a teams overall intelligence was at solving skills. Teams with more socially sensitive people were shown to have higher collective intelligence and the teams with more women overall also showed higher collective intelligence. Alternatively, those with 1 person taking control and dominating a team had lower collective intelligence.
Source 3: Is your intelligence genetically based?
This study talked about if intelligence is innate and how it affects our self-worth and ability to perform. The researchers gave a math test to 4 groups of Asians. The groups were told that either: 1. The stereotypes of Asians being superior at math was true and its innate. 2. The stereotypes were true but performance was effort based. 3. Stereotypes were false but performance innate. 4. Stereotypes were false and performance not innate. The results? Those who believed they were superior in a certain subject performed significantly better than the rest of the participants. This simple belief in having genetic superiority affects performance massively and shows how much a belief can affect our performance.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201104/if-you-are-creative-are-you-also-intelligent
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-science-success/201104/many-heads-can-be-better-one-if-they-belong-women
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/are-we-born-racist/201104/is-your-intelligence-genetically-based
Topic: Ablation
Why: Ablation is a method for studying the brain even when areas have been destroyed. It is important because it helped psychologists/scientists today understand the areas and certain functions of the brain.
Relates: Ablation was mentioned in chapter three and it relates to phrenology and experimental psychology. It was the beginning on discovering areas of the brain and the beginning to clinical psychology to studying human brain function.
Source #1
This study talks about ablation today: laser ablation. Laser ablation is very important today which targets small areas in the brain with techniques of ablation used to treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease to even curing brain tumors.It is very safe and is lead by MRI images which can target specific areas of the brain, leaving healthy surrounding tissue unharmed. Recovery can last from one day for a couple, and it requires no radiation towards the brain. This is interesting because it has helped patients cure diseases and also has helped cured those with brain tumors.
Source #2
Not only can ablation be used in the brain and certain areas of the brain, but it can also be used for an individuals heart, also known as cardiac ablation. There can be non-surgical ablations in which a machine is put into an area of the heart and can help control the hearts rhythm. There can also be surgical ablation in which open heart surgery is required in which the doctor makes small cuts into certain areas of the heart for whichever purpose. I think this is interesting because not only can we figure out how the brain works because of ablation, but we can also figure out how a hearts rhythm based on cardiac ablation.
Source #3
Another interesting article about ablation is endometrial ablation which destroys the uterine lining in women. This procedure is usually done to prevent uterine bleeding. By doing this, one can have laser ablation in which laser surgery is used, thermal ablation in which heat is used to destroy the uterine walls, electric ablation in which uses elecrodes, or freezing of the uterine walls. So not only has Flouren's made ablation helpful today, he has made it helpful for different areas of our body. Ablation can be useful for discovering new ways to curing other diseases and maybe even cancers in the future.
http://www.rwjuh.edu/laser-ablation-for-brain-tumor-treatment/
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/treating-arrhythmias-ablation
http://women.webmd.com/endometrial-ablation-16200
I decided to do functionalism for my topical. I did a previous topical on structuralism, so I know a lot about that and I figured it would be a good idea to have an equally good understanding of it’s counterpart. It is the theory of how all of the parts of our mind work together and function to make up our mental processes and how they relate to our behavior. It relates to the history of psychology because it was a major theory that was followed when our psychological forefathers were trying to figure out just how our minds and brains work.
Source one: This source was about how Charles Darwin had an influential impact on the theory of functionalism. His theories were that the environment played a large role on impacting how our bodies and minds change and evolve, and how these different processes function in changing us and passing down these charateristics to our offspring. It also criticized Wundt’s structuralist approach by noting that functionalism is much more fluid and made more sense. James also became interested in pragmatism and how it related to functionalism. This was a good source because it underscored how functionalism came to be and it's early roots and applications.
Source two: This source talked about many different aspects of functionalism. It went into detail about it’s roots, like in source one, but also into other applications. Functionalists were more focused on individual differences and the individualized self, rather than how everyone has the same type of processes and structures—like structuralists did. It talked about how functionalism had a big impact on the behaviorism movement and intelligent testing, because they were focused on the understanding and adapting to one’s individual mind, and realizing that different people have different strengths and weaknesses.
Source 3: This source talked a lot about the different people who were influenced and lived by functional perspectives. Munsterburg, Calkins, and Hall were some of the first ones. John Dewey, who had a big impact on behaviorism was also a functionalist. He came up with the reflex arc by explaining how our different processes work together to create a larger one like our reflex. Thorndike was another behaviorist who was also a functionalist. He worked with many animals to study how their mental processes functioned together to allow them to learn new skills and behaviors, leading him to discover his notable laws.
http://cas.buffalo.edu/classes/psy/segal/6112001/Functionalism.htm
http://research-education-edu.blogspot.com/2009/01/theory-of-functionalism-in-education.html
http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2004/functionalism.htm
terms: functionalism, structuralism, Darwin, thorndike, behaviorism, consciousness, dewey, reflex arc
I decided to explore the topic of the Hawthorne Effect. The Hawthorne Effect is when workers remained productive because they believed they were a special group and the focus of attention. This topic is interesting to me because I feel that it is associated to me. I can relate to this because I have noticed that when I know someone is watching me I will behave better or perform better. I have a feeling as a society we really care about what others think and see about us.
“The Hawthorne Effect - Mayo Studies in Employee Motivation”-this article helped to give more information about the experiments that were conducted to understand the Hawthorne Effect. Elton Mayo performed an experiment to study the motivation of workers. He selected some females off an assembly line. Mayo placed the women always under the eye of a supervisor and that supervisor always informed the women of changed that they would create in their work environment. Elton would change certain aspects of their work conditions and recorded their productivity after the changes.
“Hawthorne Effect”-this article helped to understand and describe the results of the experiment. After each change in the environment, the productivity was measured. The measurements showed that they productivity always increased or stayed almost the same. There was never a decrease in the productivity due to good or bad changes in the environment. The results helped to create the conclusion that the women’s productivity was more based on the attention they were getting then the improvements in conditions. The workers enjoyed that they were singled out from the others and worked harder due to that reason.
“The Hawthorne Effect; the Psychology Behind the Employee Productivity.”- this article talks about how the Hawthorne Effect can be related to modern businesses today. Managers can use the understandings form the Hawthorne Effect to get the most out of their workers’ productivity. Managers or employers need to show the workers the importance and good of their work. They should acknowledge and make it known to them that they are watching them and noting down their good work. This is make the worker feel good about themselves and know that they are important and that their working productivity is important.
http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Hawthorne_Effect.html
http://www.experiment-resources.com/hawthorne-effect.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2706235/the_hawthorne_effect_the_psychology_pg2.html?cat=3
Terms: Hawthorne Effect
Topic: Intelligence and Genetics
Why: The study on the Kallikaks family is so amazing to me that they can just determine what is "feebleminded" and how that spreads through family.
Relates to class:The study of Intelligence testing and Genetics goes hand in hand. The different tests of intelligence testing is something that comes in and out in waves.
Source 1: extreme intellect.com: The story of the Kallikak family goes through many generations of family and which ones were feebleminded or not. The easiest thing to read and realate too were the charts. With each couple and then the decendents it is clear there is a direct correlation of once there is a Feebleminded person in the chain then the rest is more likely to carry that gene. In the good branch of the Kallikak family there were no criminals. There were not many in the other side, but there were some, and, had their environment been different, no one who is familiar with feeble-minded persons, their characteristics and tendencies, would doubt that a large percentage of them might have become criminal
Source 2: Role of Genetics and IQ: Basically this article states that because we are created primarily of our parents genes that their genes will basicallly become ours. Parents with high IQ's tend to have children with hight IQ's as well. Research shoes that both nature and nurture, the environment that childrens intellect developts demonstrates that a stimulating environment can dramtically increase IQ. Basically each person is born with a certain set of genes but then what they practice, and are raised in develop each individules IQ differently.
Source 3: Intelligence: Nature or Nurture: this information lays out that our memory and central processing unit , our cerebral cotex, depends on the gentic material passed on by our ancestors. Secondly our genetic inheritance and environment can affect our intelligence. Our genes determine the quality of our intelligence, our ability to integrate and process information. The level of our intelligence determines how well we cope with changes in our environment.n the past, considerable conflict existed regarding the proportional importance of hereditary factors versus environmental factors, in determining the level of intelligence displayed by individuals or population groups. From the 1960s to the 1990s, a trend prevailed among sociologists in the United States to attribute 80% or even 100% of measured intelligence to environmental determinants, with negligible ascription to heredity
http://www.extremeintellect.com/ei2007/IQ/TheKallikakFamilystudy/kallikakfamilystudybygoddard.html
http://iq-test.learninginfo.org/iq03.htm
http://www.rationality.net/intelligence.htm
terms: Kallikaks, IQ testing, intelligence, hereditiy, Nature, Nurture
I chose to research the topic of eugenics. I think this is interesting because it was a started through psychology, but it developed into something big.
Eugenics began when people started to believe that intelligence was heritable. This concept came around with Binet and Galton’s intelligence testing, although Binet was against it. If intelligence was heritable, then only “smart” people should be breeding. This was selective breeding, or eugenics.
The first article I read was from the Sunday Times and was titled “IQ Will Put You In Your Place” by Charles Murray. It discussed the results of his experiment. In his experiment, he examined the differences between children who were deemed “normal” by IQ testing, “bright”, and “dull”. He examined their earnings in later life. He found that “bright” children earned double the average earnings of “dull” children. “Normal” children earned in between the other two groups. He also found that 16.3% of the dull children were below the poverty line. This was higher than America’s average. Because he only chose children from families with similar socioeconomic status, he claims that these differences cannot be due to differences in opportunity. He suggests that some people are genetically predisposed to being intelligent, but because he acknowledges that there are differences in IQ between the siblings, I do not believe he can say that it is heritable.
The next source I read was an article from the The Occidental Quaterly titled “Eugenics in a Nutshell” by Marian Van Court. This article explained how natural selection in much of the world has ceased to exist, but evolution is still taking place because it is rooted in our DNA. But she claims that since unintelligent people are breeding at a faster pace than intelligent people, we are evolving backwards. She discussed Bouchard’s twins studies and how he found that genetics was highly heritable. She also offered the study that two brothers who are ranked high in intelligence will move up the socioeconomic ladder past their fathers.
The last source I used discussed how eugenics in America was funded by big corporate enterprises. Some of these enterprises included the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Harriman Railroad fortune. The eugenics board also worked with the American Agriculture board to work eugenics classes into programs such as 4H. Eugenics began in Britain as “positive eugenics”. This supported the superior race in breeding, but did not limit other races from breeding. America adopted eugenics laws which supported “negative eugenics”. Negative eugenics looked to improve society by limiting the breeding of those less superior. America legalized sterilization for people they deemed “unfit”. I learned in another class that Iowa participated in this and sterilized approximately 2,000 people with the most recent sterilizations occurring in 1960 before it became illegal in the 1970’s. These laws caught the attention of the Nazis and they adopted their own form of eugenics. Their form of racial cleansing included the killing of races they did not want in their society.
Although the first two sources I used came from a eugenics website and are probably biased, I think you can learn a lot when you look at a different perspective. The first two sources were pro-eugenics and therefore a different perspective than what’s offered in the book or in my other psychology courses.
TERMS: eugenics, Binet, Galton, intelligence testing, IQ, evolution, selective breeding, positive eugenics, negative eugenics
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/murray.html
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/caseforeugenics.html
http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/
Topic: Lobotomies
Why is this an interesting topic: I have always found the idea of lobotomies to oddly interesting; the idea that sticking a metal pick into someone’s eyes or through the side of their head and swirling their brains around is disgusting, but at the same time fascinating to me. I do not however think it is an effective treatment, but I was compelled to do research on it and find out some more of the facts as well as maybe some opinions.
Relates to class: In our textbook there is a section that talks about lobotomies and there is also a boxed reading about them. Also, in our past class discussion we watched video footage of two kinds of lobotomies (frontal and transorbital) being performed. It was also, and is still by some, to be an effective method for treating mental illness which was also discussed in a couple chapters in our textbook.
Source 1: “My Lobotomy”: Howard Dully’s Journey
This article was really interesting to read. It was about a man who, as a 6 year old child, had received a lobotomy from Freeman. He was given the procedure because his step mother claimed that the child was unbearable to live with and that he was horrible to her. Before going to Freeman, other doctors told her that it was an issue of the step mother, not the child, but she did not agree with that. When Freeman prescribed a lobotomy for Howard, his stepmother, as well as Freeman, persuaded his father that it was the only thing to do. Ever since then Howard has felt something was missing in his life. This article really brings the controversy over lobotomies to light and showing that Freeman really was out for fame. There was nothing wrong with Howard Dully, but after the procedure he was different. The procedure was supposed to turn him into a zombie rather than ‘cure’ his ‘mental illness’ his stepmother claimed he had. This goes to show that lobotomies really can mess people up rather than help them.
Source 2: A Brief History of the Lobotomy
This source went through a briefly explained how lobotomies came about even a little before Freeman and Moniz. It started out with the idea of brain surgery to improve mental health in the late 1800’s. The studies that were done showed that some people would become calmer but other variations showed hardly any differences. There was an experiment done at Yale in the 1930’s that showed that lobotomies could in fact calm chimpanzees down, and they wanted to form another process called “experimental neurosis” but the chimpanzees that underwent this process showed no signs of change. After this is when Moniz put lobotomies on the map and I think his intentions were more pure than those of Freeman’s. Moniz took the time and actually studied what exactly it was that he was doing and which connections he was severing, compared to Freeman that wanted a much quicker method so that he could become more popular. As mentioned above I think this article is important because it tells where the ideas came from and sets apart those who were in it to win it and those who actually had legit intensions of helping people and taking the time to understand what was going on.
Source 3: For the Incurable Insane (part 1 of 3)
This video series talks about how the mentally ill were once treated. In the first part this a section where lobotomies are discussed. The man giving the information is obviously not in favor of lobotomies, but his ideas reflect many of those who were suspicious back in the day when more lobotomies were actually performed. He states that they didn’t really cure anything, they just completely changed a person. I liked the metaphor he used when comparing a patient with heart problems to a person who was mentally ill; he said something along the lines of when you have heart problems you go get medicine and treatment to hopefully get better, but with a lobotomy you aren’t going to come back as yourself, your whole personality and who you are is going to change. I think that this was a good source because it touched on the issue that it wasn’t really a treatment or a cure, it was an alteration method.
Terms: lobotomy, Freeman, Moniz, frontal, transorbital, mentall illness, treatment, experimental neruosis
Sources:
1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080
2. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/lobotomy.html
3. http://www.psychologicalscience.com/history/2011/04/topical-blog-week-13-due-friday.html
The topic I researched was hysteria. I read about it in the chapter and while I’ve heard of ‘hysterics’ I’ve never heard of hysteria as a mental disorder.
My first source was an article from Psychology Today. It talks about how disorders are a type of disorder that is more an example of the power of suggestion. It talks about a number of grade school students who fell ill to hysteria at the same time. In cases like this typically once a large group has felt the illness it goes away. It’s more of a psychological disorder than anything. I thought it was an interesting look at the topic, but my other sources were much more informative.
My second source was from Ayusheveda.com. it said that hysterias medical name is hysteria neurosis. It is a mental disorder dating back two millennia. It is an extreme psychological condition in which a person reacts out of proportion to stimuli. Reactions can be extreme feelings of hatred, fear, frustration, depression or other feelings. There are many forms hysteria can take and many levels through which it can manifest itself. It’s a pretty broad topic so basically it’s any reaction that is not warranted. People who suffer from hysteria complain of symptoms that cannot be backed up medically. One example was that a person can be complaining of liver failure, when there is none.
There are several causes of hysteria, including a child’s parents not being able to affectively deal with their emotional issues, sexual repression in their youth (this, I suspect is mostly Freud.) Suddenly meeting and undesirable relative or friend, the death of a loved one, unexpected failure or loss in business, false allegations made or severe trauma.
Symptoms of hysteria include respiratory problems, difficulty maintaining posture (weird), rapid heartbeat, violent outbursts, inability to speak, spasms, redness of eyes, extreme salivation, and clenching teeth. There are three major complications that can happen which are heart failure, strokes and paralysis. The funny part about this was that it said one can prevent this by not being obese. Especially for obese people, they shouldn’t be lazy, eat dry foods or consume caffeinated products. I thought that was such a weird thing, and discredited a lot of what I had read already.
My last source was from Britannica online encyclopedia. It called hysteria the conversion disorder. It said that anxiety was converted to physical symptoms. It defined hysteria as a mental disorder in which a wide variety of sensory motor or psychic disturbances occur. Hysteria comes from a Greek word meaning uterus, because it was used to be believed that only women could have this disorder. Psychic symptoms of hysteria are varied and classified under dissassociative reactions like sleep walking or in extreme cases, multiple personality disorder. The treatment for this is psychotherapy.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280225/conversion-disorder
www.ayusheveda.com/health/hysteria.htm
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-bootcamp/201009/mass-hysteria-can-strike-anywhere-anytime
Topic: Mental Illness
Why this is an interesting topic and why it interests me: Mental illness is an interesting topic because there is not an exact cause or diagnosis. There are many reasons why people develop mental illnesses and in many cases, it is difficult to pin-point one exact event that led to ones development. I find mental illness interesting because of how treatments have developed over time. When mental illnesses were first being discovered, those suffering from them were viewed as evil and possessed by the devil. Early treatments were terribly inhumane. Over time treatment improved and is still being modified to this day.
How this topic relates to class: Chapter 12 is all about the early treatment of mental illness.
Source 1: This source was a detailed timeline over the history of mental health. The first hospital that opened up for treatment of the mentally ill was in 1773 and located in Williamsburg, Virginia. By 1840 there were still only eight insane asylums in the United States. I was surprised to see that so many years had passed from the first hospital opening and there were only eight more establishments. This is a good source because it gives a visual representation of how new the treatment of mental illness is and how it is still a growing topic today.
Source 2: This video provided pictures from mental illness institutions which provided me with a better idea of how terrible patients were treated. I learned that Clifford Beers had a very big impact on the improved treatment that the mentally ill received. He believed recovery was possible and that they should be treated kind and with respect, as if they weren’t different from the “normal”.
Source 3: This website had very thorough information and a lot of it. It provided a series of graphs that illustrated annual prevalence of mental/addictive disorders in children. Consumers wrote their definitions of recovery. I enjoyed reading these because it shows that it is possible to want to get better and have a better life while struggling with a mental illness. Dorothea Dix and Horace Mann were two of the first reformers that believed removing patients from the asylum and relocating them to a controlled environment characterized by moral sensibilities was helpful for recovery.
Source 1: http://www.mnpsychsoc.org/history%20appendix.pdf
Source 2: http://www.nmha.org/go/history
Source 3: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter2/sec7.html
Terms: mental illness, diagnosis, asylums, mental health, mental institutions, Clifford Beers, Dorothea Dix, Horace Mann, controlled environment, moral sensibilities.
The topic I chose to research in more detail is Progressive relaxation. According to our text, progressive relaxation is a technique of gradually and systematically relaxing major muscle groups. It was invented by Edmund Jacobson as well as used in Wolpe's of systematic desensitization. This topic is interesting to me because I have never heard much about it before. It seems like a good way to help a person cope with life. It is related to psychology because it is used as a therapy for many patients. It involves reducing stress and anxiety which are huge psychological issues concerning today's society.
My three sources are all websites that discuss the technique of progressive relaxation in great detail. The first website is Wikipedia. This source had much to offer. It mentioned that because muscle tension accompanies anxiety, one can reduce anxiety by learning how to relax this muscular tension. This type of relaxation includes both a physical and mental component. The physical part is the actual tension being relieved in the muscles of the legs, abdomen, chest, arms, and even the face. This is done by having the patient close their eyes and concentrate on ridding the tension as well as remaining relaxed. Eventually, the patient will reach a point where they are able to relax much easier. Jacobson found that this technique helped to reduce anxiety symptoms as well as ulcers, insomnia, hypertension, and may even assist in reducing acute anxiety in people with Schizophrenia. This source provided a great amount of information about what types of things that progressive relaxation can help to improve as well as providing an overview of the technique.
The second source I found is from hypnos.co.uk. This source mentions that Jacobson had a book called Progressive Relaxation and that it included about 200 different muscle relaxation exercises. This has been more recently narrowed down to 15-20 basic exercises which are just as effective when practiced regularly. This website also mentions that those with anxiety problems like tension headaches, backaches, tightness in jaw, tightness around eyes, muscle spasms, high blood pressure, and insomnia benefit from this procedure. It also states that relaxing your muscles tends to help slow the mind which will help with anxiety. This site also includes a list of benefits: a decrease in generalized anxiety, a decrease in anticipatory anxiety related to phobias, reduction in the frequency and duration of panic attacks, improved ability to face phobic situations through graded exposure, improved concentration, an increased sense of control over moods, increased self-esteem, and increased spontaneity and creativity. This source also goes on to show an example of an actual muscle relaxation program and the rules that should be followed as well.
The third and final source I found was from cas.umkc.edu. This website included a lot of detailed information as well. According to this site, progressive relaxation is a deep muscle relaxation technique developed and published by Edmond Jacobson in 1929. Deep muscle relaxation reduces physiological tension, reduces pulse rate and blood pressure as well as decreasing perspiration and respiration rates. This source adds a few other issues that this technique can help including depression, fatigue, irritable bowel, and stuttering. It also mentions that visualization may be used in assistance to progressive relaxation. Visualization is a technique that helps the person sense actual experiences so that they are as real as possible. Soft music in the background may also be used to help. This site also includes a description of an actual progressive relaxation technique. Parts of it include: lie on your back with your eyes closed, feet slightly apart, arms slightly away from sides, and palms upward; Allow your breath to slow down and put your entire attention on the breath as it moves in and out; tense the muscles of your feet; tense the muscles of your calves.... This continues on for many muscles in the body.
Each of these sources provided similar information but each one sort of elaborated on the other a bit. Each contained a little bit different information that helped to expand my knowledge on the topic. Overall, it was interesting learning more about progressive relaxation. There is a lot more involved that one might think by simply reading the definition in the book.
Terms used: progressive relaxation, systematic desensitization, Edmund Jacobson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_muscle_relaxation
http://www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag/jacobson.htm
http://cas.umkc.edu/casww/relaxatn.htm
My topic of choice for this assignment is the effects of war on mental health. I am interested in this topic for many reasons. It all started when, in chapter 13, the book referred to the drastic changes that took place in the mental health field after WWII. The health field was flooded and couldn’t hope to keep up, which eventually led to the creation of the revised APA and the foundations of clinical psychology. All this in turn led to better health care available for our veterans. Currently we are involved in 2 ½ wars; Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. With all of these high stress situations occurring all over the place then it is no wonder that soldiers and their families are suffering high stress situations and a lot of mental illness is raising its head. When taking a look back at history it is interesting to see that we haven’t had symptoms like PTSD in past wars. Some argue that the urban battlefields contribute to this while others argue that it is the multiple deployments that cause this to be such an issue. I’m sure it is a combination of these. Anyway, mental health should be considered in all lines of work, especially the military. If WWII gave us Clinical Psychology imagine what the Middle Eastern Wars will provide us with. Sadly, all of these possible advances in the field of psychology come at great cost to our brave men and women serving overseas. This is one of the many horrible effects of war. Just like General William Tecumseh Sherman said, “War is hell” and sadly mental illnesses prevailing long after the battles are done is one of the results of this hell. As psychologists we should seek to give these brave, selfless individuals the best care we possibly can and should seek to learn from our pasts.
The first source I found was The Hill, a journal that had an article dealing with a new form of mental health training that veterans are receiving when they return home from Afghanistan and Iraq. From what I read in the journal it seems very reliable and unbiased in its approach and I saw no bad reviews of it. This journal spoke of this new mental training was called Resilience and has recently been picked up by the military to assist with reducing suicide rates and PTSD in our veterans. The excellent example that Officer Boccieri gave was, “It’s like…an athletic competition…bring you’re A-game, fight it out on the football field and when you come off the football field, you’re not running up and tackling people you view as your adversary.” The training gets people who are depressed or paranoid to get out of their rut of thinking so negatively. It teaches them to avoid the mind traps that are out there that cause individuals to spiral downward. It teaches them a sense of realistic optimism. One success story of this included Lt. Col. Talmachoff said that he was coming home one night after class on a dimly lit street and he heard a man behind him start singing. He immediately sprung to defensive thoughts in his mind wondering who this ‘weirdo’ was and what if it’s a mugger. He then used what he had learned through Resilience to imagine a more positive scenario. Maybe this man was happy. He then told the man, “You sing beautifully”, the man smiled and they parted ways.
The second source I found belonged to BMC Psychiatry, yet another journal that looks into prevention, diagnosis, and management of psychiatric disorders. If you ask me, that sounds like a pretty reliable journal. This particular study that was published looked at post war mental disorders in the UK and did some comparisons to US soldiers. The findings said that alcohol abuse and depressive disorders were the highest disorders that can be battled by educational and preventative measures. They also found that individuals that ‘revisited’ or were redeployed to the Middle Eastern wars were at a much higher risk of developing mental injuries. Their last finding showed evidence against a belief held by many that US soldiers suffered higher rates of suicide and PTSD. This study showed that between UK and US soldiers there was no significant difference.
The third and final source I had was the American Journal of Public Health, which showed numerical data about PTSD, depression, suicide, and other mental illnesses and their prevalence among soldiers. The data here seemed to show that mental illnesses were more prevalent among soldiers who went on multiple tours of duty. It looked specifically at veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Their numerical data was really interesting, showing dramatic increases in PTSD and depression. It does make me wonder about certain factors, like what if this was just a factor in our Middle East conflicts? What is it about this generation that shows such high rates of this. A whole lot more to explore.
1) http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?action=interpret&type=retrieve&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=A210920895&prodId=AONE&source=null&version=1.0&userGroupName=uni_rodit&finalAuth=true
2) http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?action=interpret&source=null&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=uni_rodit&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=A211566897&type=retrieve&version=1.0
3) http://content.epnet.com/pdf23_24/pdf/2009/APH/01Sep09/47135449.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=47135449&EbscoContent=dGJyMNHX8kS
Topic: Humanism
Interest: because my best friend claims to have humanistic views after taking a couple psychology courses, and it was only briefly covered in the book. It is also something that is quickly covered in most classes I've taken.
Class related: because we were required to read it, and it is still very new. Psychology is new a whole, but humanistic views don't really fall into behaviorism which most people believe to be the whole basis of Psychology.
Source 1: Wikipedia
Humanistic psychology evolved from existentialism and is considered a "holistic" view. It is sometimes considered the "third force" of psychology (behaviorism, psychoanalysis and humanistic). Humanistic views have their own journal and organization- AHP.Officially recognized by APA in 1971. Carl Rogers, Maslow, and Rollo May are considered it's pioneers. "Humanistic psychology tends to look beyond the medical model of psychology in order to open up a nonpathologizing view of the person.[8] This usually implies that the therapist downplays the pathological aspects of a person's life in favour of the healthy aspects."
It is all about self actualization and realizing ones full potential
Source 2: Britannica
"a movement in psychology supporting the belief that humans, as individuals, are unique beings and should be recognized and treated as such by psychologists and psychiatrists".
Became popular in 20th century. Humanistic views believe that people perceive according to their own experiences. Their experiences affect their personality and lead them to change their behavior to satisfy the self.
Gestalt therapy is another form of humanistic- positive view of human beings and their ability to experience/achieve real joy
Source 3: Some website I found geared towards students in a psych class
"Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that emphasizes thestudy of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at human behavior notonly through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person doingthe behaving. Humanistic psychologists believe that an individual's behavior isconnected to his inner feelings and self-image."
Criticisms: too vague, one an experience for one individual will not be the same for another, research is considered unreliable because it is based off experience alone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanistic_psychology
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276011/humanistic-psychology
http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/human/menu.html
terms: maslow, rogers, humanistic, may, self actualization, gestalt therapy, behaviorism, psychoanalysis, AHP,
Topic: Clinical Psychology
I find clinical psychology isteresting because it is what you think about when you think about psychology. You vision the couch, and the expression of one's feelings being let out.
The topic relates to the class because we have studied how clinical psychology has developed overtime and how it is used today.
Source 1: About.com
This source presented some background information to waht clinical psychology is and how it is implemented. It states that in the United States clinical psychologists usually have a doctorate degree. Most clinical psychogists spend about 4 to 6 years in graduate school after getting their bachelors. There are Ph. D. and Psy. D degrees for clinical psychology, the Ph. D. is more towards research and the Psy. D. is more the actual practice of clinical psychology
Source 2: Wikipedia
This source presented all the information about clinical psychology but I focused on the information about how the US had a major demand for clinical psychologists after WWII to help treat the veterans that were coming back that might have post traumatic disorder. Because of this demand, at the start of WWII there was no implementation of clinical psychology in universities but after WWII half of all Ph. D.'s were in clinical psychology. A very demanding and reliable job for the era.
Source 3: Clinical Psychology by Timothy J. Trull
This source was a book filled with everything there is to know about clinical psychology. The section I like was the current issues in clinical psychology. Particularlly the section about what all clinical psychologists must know. They must know; new and evolving health care delivery systems, sensitivity to ethical issues, experience in multidisiplinary environments, clinical skills, expertise in applied research, management and business skills, and up to date technology such as computers, internet tools, etc.
http://psychology.about.com/od/clinicalpsychology/f/clinical-psychology.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_psychology
http://books.google.com/books?id=27fTKDDZzvUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=clinical+psychology&source=bll&ots=EuwZyHI-ll&sig=i_Ii5bA6zvDyAKA2pyw1Ol22bQQ&hl=en&ei=W0bATfOeIsS5tged7pXIBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CJ4BEOgBMAs#v=onepage&q&f=false
terms; clinical psychology, Ph. D., Psy. D., post traumatic stress disorder, (all things clinical psychologists must know above)
Topic: Client centered therapy
Why it interested me: This topic was interesting to me because I was a social work major last semester and I learned a lot about this process. I find some of its methods to be unnatural and so I decided to look into it.
How it relates to class: This topic relates to class because Carl Rodgers started using this technique during this time period. Some criticized it but it caught on nonetheless.
Source 1: Gave a good definition of what client centered therapists do. It identified that they mostly listen to the client and allow them to tell their story with no judgments. They no not point out contradictions offer any advice or include any of their own opinions. This site talks about how there are very few client-centered therapists, and there are many critics who question the effectiveness of client-centered therapy.
Source 2: Provided great background on Rodger’s history. He apparently started out studying ministry. He even went to Beijing to study this, but later changed his mind and got his PhD in Psychology. While working in Chicago he wrote a book that outlined his new theory of client-centered therapy. One thing I really liked and learned about on this website was the difference between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard. This is the concept that if you eat your vegetables you get something sweet, if you do your homework you will be smart. This website really goes into the nitty gritty of Client centered therapy. Some of the things I found myself agreeing with but only to a certain point. Some of it didn’t agree with, because I feel like it is letting a person off easy. I think that individuals should be held accountable for actions not necessarily brutally in a therapy session but sometimes I feel like client centered therapy lets individuals live in denial. It doesn’t allow them to really face their problems in a way that is consistent with reality. I think that people sometimes only look at things from their point of view and client centered therapy doesn’t allow them to look at it from someone else’s point of view.
Now… not saying this process isn’t right for ANYONE. Just saying I do not feel it is effective for EVERYONE.
Source 3- A video of Carl Rogers explaining his theory. He hits on key qualities in a client centered therapist. I think these can be effective in some atmospheres but some are questionable I feel. He talks about being genuine and being congruent. This means what you are saying should be consistent with what you are doing. I think that is very important. Genuineness is very important in order for the client to open up. He also talks about transparency. I think this quality is questionable. He says the client should be able to see and be aware of the therapist’s feelings. I do not think that all feelings or the therapist’s values should come into play when dealing with a client. I think sometimes that can allow for the client to feel judged. He talks about acceptance and sensitivity of client. I definitely think that is important. Empathy is a must. I feel like these things would be applicable in some therapy settings, but transparency really must be used with discression.
TERMS: Carl Rogers, Client Centered therapy, genuine, congruent, transparency, conditional positive regard, unconditional positive regard,
http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/client_centered_therapy
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/rogers.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjTpEL8acfo
Topic: Client centered therapy
Why it interested me: This topic was interesting to me because I was a social work major last semester and I learned a lot about this process. I find some of its methods to be unnatural and so I decided to look into it.
How it relates to class: This topic relates to class because Carl Rodgers started using this technique during this time period. Some criticized it but it caught on nonetheless.
Source 1: Gave a good definition of what client centered therapists do. It identified that they mostly listen to the client and allow them to tell their story with no judgments. They no not point out contradictions offer any advice or include any of their own opinions. This site talks about how there are very few client-centered therapists, and there are many critics who question the effectiveness of client-centered therapy.
Source 2: Provided great background on Rodger’s history. He apparently started out studying ministry. He even went to Beijing to study this, but later changed his mind and got his PhD in Psychology. While working in Chicago he wrote a book that outlined his new theory of client-centered therapy. One thing I really liked and learned about on this website was the difference between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard. This is the concept that if you eat your vegetables you get something sweet, if you do your homework you will be smart. This website really goes into the nitty gritty of Client centered therapy. Some of the things I found myself agreeing with but only to a certain point. Some of it didn’t agree with, because I feel like it is letting a person off easy. I think that individuals should be held accountable for actions not necessarily brutally in a therapy session but sometimes I feel like client centered therapy lets individuals live in denial. It doesn’t allow them to really face their problems in a way that is consistent with reality. I think that people sometimes only look at things from their point of view and client centered therapy doesn’t allow them to look at it from someone else’s point of view.
Now… not saying this process isn’t right for ANYONE. Just saying I do not feel it is effective for EVERYONE.
Source 3- A video of Carl Rogers explaining his theory. He hits on key qualities in a client centered therapist. I think these can be effective in some atmospheres but some are questionable I feel. He talks about being genuine and being congruent. This means what you are saying should be consistent with what you are doing. I think that is very important. Genuineness is very important in order for the client to open up. He also talks about transparency. I think this quality is questionable. He says the client should be able to see and be aware of the therapist’s feelings. I do not think that all feelings or the therapist’s values should come into play when dealing with a client. I think sometimes that can allow for the client to feel judged. He talks about acceptance and sensitivity of client. I definitely think that is important. Empathy is a must. I feel like these things would be applicable in some therapy settings, but transparency really must be used with discression.
TERMS: Carl Rogers, Client Centered therapy, genuine, congruent, transparency, conditional positive regard, unconditional positive regard,
http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/client_centered_therapy
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/rogers.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjTpEL8acfo