Recently in Emotion Category

I was looking online for information about adolescent girls and self-esteem, when I stumbled across some information about depression in adolescent girls.  Although I have looked into this information, I still find the statistics shocking.  A statistic I cannot get over is that almost 1 in 6 adolescents are diagnosed with major depression, girls being diagnosed twice as much as boys.  Not only is that depressing, but also almost 1-4% of teenage girls have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.  Adolescent boys and girls are at the greatest vulnerability for the onset of eating disorders and depression.  I found these statistics from a journal article by Boes, McCormick, Coryell, & Nopoulos, 2008.

Adolescent kids are struggling with their changing body and raging hormones and are trying to discover themselves.  They want to be accepted by their peers and want to fit into society.  Adolescents have a high need for relatedness and autonomy in their lives.  According to Reeve, "behaviors, emotions, and ways of thinking originate not only within the self but also within the social context and society" (Reeve, pg. 283, 2009).  Teenagers want to have some control within their lives but also seek approval from their peers and society.  When adolescents do not feel good about themselves, they may withdrawal from their surroundings and suffer in silence. 

Especially in American society, where we are surrounded by beautiful, thin people.  It is sad to admit that we are engrained to think only tall and thin people can be considered beautiful.  We need to continue to emphasize in schools and at home that we must embrace our differences.  However, this view will not be accepted until our society changes the requirements for models, actors/actresses, and so on. 

Do you think classes talking about the negative side effects of eating disorders in classes and/or the importance for accepting yourself would improve these statistics or cause adolescents to hide their insecurities even more?  Would a requirement of being involved in a program outside of school help decrease insecurities?  These programs could involve art, sports, theater, whatever students are interested in.

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_specter_the_danger_of_science_denial.html

I figured I would make my last post from ted.com, since I have really come to enjoy this site over the course of this semester. This video is of Michael Specter discussing the recent denial of scientific advances. Michael briefly discusses the progression of lifespans in his family from generation to generation. He mentioned that each generation has lived a decade longer than the last, and he plans to live till 90. Through the course of this video he discusses the ways in which we are able to engineer foods to make them more nutritious. We, as a community, have decided that foods that are not 100% natural should be shunned from our diet. However, we are willing to take pill after pill in hopes that it will help us feel better. We have virtually wiped out the threat of small pox in our country, so we no longer get the vaccine. What if small pox is reintroduced? We will all be susceptible once again. The discussion of what problems vaccines can cause has been brought down to the ground by science every time that it is brought up. Yet, people still believe that they are doing their children a favor by neglecting to give them their vaccinations. However, if an unvaccinated individual travels the world and contracts a disease outside of the protective bubble of the United States, not only would they run into a problem for themselves, but they could bring a problem for the rest of us.

What is it that motivates people to take such risky behaviors, but claim them to be safer? Is it the need for power? Reeve describes this as the need to be in control of situations. Could it be that people feel as though they have more control over situations if they eat food that is not genetically engineered or if they avoid vaccinations?

How did this video make you feel? Personally, it really got me thinking about what I felt to be health conscious. I always believed that vaccinations were necessary, and that it was rather ignorant to over look the research that has been done to prove it. This video just reiterated that point for me.

 

Kathleen Bogart, pictured above, has a rare congenital condition called Moebious syndrome.  Moebious syndrome is a neurological disorder that primarily affects the 6th and 7th cranial nerves, leaving those with the condition unable to move their faces. The facial paralysis causes those with the disorder to be unable to smile, frown, suck, grimace, or even blink their eyes.  In addition, their eyes only move laterally, making sideways glances and eye rolling out of the picture as well.  (To learn more about Moebious Syndrome, go to the Moebious Syndrome Foundation). 

Reeve (2009) spent quiet a bit of time throughout the book discussing how important facial expressions are to emotion.  The facial feedback hypothesis, introduced in Chapter 12, states that emotion is the awareness of feedback from our own facial expressions.  Facial expressions are also important in social interactions.  Facial expressions allow us to ascertain the emotion & mood of the people around us and allow the people around us to ascertain out emotional state & mood.  Reeve states that emotions are intrinsic to interpersonal relationships, and they play a role in creating, maintaining, and dissolving interpersonal relationships.  We often automatically mimic other people's emotions during interactions.  By mimicking facial expressions facial feedback hypothesis would state that we are then able to understand the other person's emotional state.

Obviously emotions play a large role in our social interactions, whether it is by how we are feeling or understanding and mimicking the emotions of someone else.  Then by conjecture the inability to express emotions via facial expression, like those suffering from Moebious syndrome, can cause a variety of problems with social interaction.  Some researchers assumed that because those with Moebious cannot mimic facial expressions they would not be able to read other people's emotions as well as those of us who do not have Moebious syndrome.  However, recent research has shown that people who are suffering from Moebious syndrome are able to read facial expression just as well as the rest of us can.  This suggests that the brain uses more than just facial mimicry to evaluate emotions. 

While those who suffer from Moebious syndrome can read others facial expressions just as well as the rest of us, they have to use other methods to display their own emotions.  Most individuals with Moebious develop other nonverbal cues to express emotions.  In the same way that those who are blind have better developed senses of smell, hearing, and touch, those with Moebious syndrome have developed better vocal cues, gestures, and body positions.  This development may also aid those with Moebious in reading other's emotions outside of facial expressions.  In fact it was found that by mimicking one's conversation partner, it is more difficult to determine if they are lying or even uncomfortable. 

While, many of these individuals are able to develop such skills, that still does not make social interaction easy.  Many people are uncomfortable when interacting with someone who does not mimic their facial expressions.  I had never thought about how lucky I am to be able to express my emotions on my face - mostly because many times people are able to read me really easily because I don't control my facial expressions - but I interacting with others is made so much easier by having that ability.

To learn more about some of the research being conducted concerning facial expressions, Moebious syndrome, and Kathleen Bogart read this recent NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06mind.html?pagewanted=1&sq=emotions&st=cse&scp=4

My friend was actually the one who gave me the idea for this post, she told me (and subsequently gave me the link) about a documentary discussing the psychology of Batman and told me I had to watch it. This show, "Batman Unmasked", talks about many different types of motivation of Bruce Wayne and the villains of Batman; in the first ten minutes the commentators (usually psychologists) talked about fear and perceived choice. Wayne, as a child, was very fearful of bats which acted as a motivator for him, he wanted to avoid situations where bats or what he perceived as bats were involved. When Wayne was an adult he used a technique often used by psychologists, exposure, to overcome his fear. He stood in a room full of bats until he no longer felt fear and anxiety.

 

Another really interesting concept talked about was about identity. There is an argument about who is the real person: Bruce Wayne or Batman. Some believe that Batman is the real identity and Wayne is the identity used around others as a mask. Others believe that Batman is the true mask while Wayne is the true identity. Although the argument is not extremely relevant, it helps to show what Reeves talks about with roles in the textbook. Reeve states that a person holds many different roles and what role is chosen by a person is dependent upon the situation (p. 280). That is clearly seen with Wayne/Batman. While out in public Wayne acts a certain way, as a playboy and spoiled heir. When in his own house or around people who know the real him, Bruce acts very differently than he does in his public role. When in the role of Batman he is a protector and fighter, something that also very different from both his public and personal roles.

 

Other topics discussed included Jung and the unconscious/conscious mind, hero complex, anger, power, narcissism, and choice among many others. For me, the most interesting part was the discussion about the enemies of Batman, especially Harvey Dent or Two-Face. If you have about 45 minutes I strongly encourage you to watch the entire documentary, it is really fascinating. This is a link to the first part of the show (just ignore the subtitles): Batman Unmasked

 

http://www.healthyplace.com/anxiety-panic/main/can-kids-blame-their-parents-for-social-phobias/menu-id-1059/

The study I've chosen to post here is related to something we discussed in class.(The idea that spending one's life blaming parents provides no relief for your troubles, it just makes life worse, and your time would be better spent focusing on bettering your situation).
The article starts out by stating that "Social phobia, a paralyzing fear of social situations, may be brought on by a combination of genetics and child-rearing methods." Of course, there's nothing we can currently do to change our genetics, but some researchers found that parents who are overprotective of or show rejection towards their children may be putting them at greater risk of developing social phobias.

Another interesting point was that the research team " found no link at all between family functioning and teenage social phobia." Contrary to what the title of my article (also a lyric in West Side Story) may indicate, growing up in a dysfunctional family does not appear to make one destined to failure, socially or otherwise.

I think these findings  (at least the latter one) would be very welcome to individuals who have grown up in very poor situations - these results can provide hope, encouragement, and perhaps even  a form of verbal persuasion (to help them believe they can succeed, personally and professionally).Bad things happen, but life goes on. I also think it is incredibly important for there to be motivational speakers who have overcome their tremendous obstacles and achieved success, such speakers may be thought to provide a type of vicarious modeling as well as indirect verbal persuasion.

As some of you may have heard, there's a woman coming to campus on the 20th who actually survived a saline abortion. Although I think her talk will partly focus on how young, pregnant women aren't given enough support, from a motivation/emotion standpoint I think her story is incredible. I cannot imagine the feelings one would experience knowing that you have been given the ultimate form of rejection - having people try to kill you. I think another motivation/emotion question that may merit attention in that situation is the impact that an abortion has on the mother. Here I am not just talking about the loss of the baby's life, but (as we have discussed in class) an expectant mother's body undergoes hormonal changes to prepare for the baby. When the changes have been made and there is no longer a baby, this can an even greater sense of loss. To tie this back into material in Reeve's Chapter 12, it could be said that women in this situation are facing both cognitive and biological bases for their conditions and need help that will address both of these bases.

 
Getting back to the main topic, I think one of the major take away points from the main article is that each person has their own unique set of problems. As discussed in class, it is not desirable to be happy and positive all the time, it is natural to have negative emotions and moods. Negative events provide contrast to positive ones, they have the potential to make people appreciate the "good things" more. Facing serious challenges in one's development might actually make a person stronger and better adjusted to the world, at least for some individuals (and if the challenges are not too overwhelming). This last point most directly relates to goal setting theory in Reeve's Chapter 8.  

Http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_gupta.html

Another TED Video. Love This Site!

Music is medicine, music is sanity. This statement is just part of Robert Gupta's talk about Nathaniel Ayers, a schizophrenic American musician, who has been the subject of many newspaper articles written by Steve Lopez along with a 2009 film adaptation based on these columns called The Soloist which starred Jamie Fox and Robert Downey Jr. Though I have not seen the film, this lecture as a musician interested me and was very inspiring. The story has two very interesting points from a psychological perspective, the Ayers and his relationship with schizophrenia, along with his relationship to music.

Gupta talks about his first encounter with Ayers, who upon first meeting him definitely recognized his symptoms of schizophrenia he referred to it as jumbled, but in a gregarious, jovial way, relating baseball to Beethoven's 4^th symphony. He then had a normal civil conversation about music. Gupta points out that Ayers has refused treatment because of his previous experience with shock therapy, thorazine and handcuffs. These methods have left a lasting terrible impression on Ayers mind. Ayer's is prone to many schizophrenic episodes, wandering the streets while his own mind torments him. After accepting the request for lessons from Ayer's, upon arrival Gupta felt very threatened. Reeve attributes this fear Gupta felt was a result of him anticipating a harmful event like Ayer's schizophrenia taking over and him exploding. Yet he still was motivated to maintain this relationship. Why would Gupta be motivated to do such a thing, even under adverse conditions? I believe it was a combination of a genuinely high expectancy and outcome expectations along with a need for intimacy and achievement, especially when these needs can be met in the field of his passion.

Not having seen the movie, and being a musician myself I am perplexed and in awe at the amazing level of change the music makes in his cognitive processes. When giving the lesson, instead of talking scales and theory, Gupta just began playing. The more he played, the more Ayer's manic rage transformed into an advanced understanding, curiosity and grace, the music being the catalyst of this incredible almost invisible pharmaceutical. His mind changed and he spoke about music with a transformed sense of insight. He was then again the brilliant Juliard student who related on a personal level, playing many of his favorite pieces by ear. Reeve says that emotions energize and direct behavior, this sea of emotions that musicians feel may have a very large role in this transformation. Gupta says through the artistic lens that is a musician's creativity, that music changes us. For Ayer's specifically music is medicine, it is his sanity, it also helped Ayers feel affiliation again, the deficit of no social-relationships could not have contributed positively to his condition in any way.

The emotional level of Ayer's love and appreciation for music helped him find his mind. While I do not know how his story ends, I am certainly inspired and reminded of why I play myself. It truly reaches down to a person's core. This brings so many questions about the emotional significance of music. Does it directly satisfy a need? What is its purpose? Why does it make people feel such intense emotions? There are many theories out there, but none of them have quite explained the creativity aspect. Why is it that when a musician writes a song  or plays a song that is significant to them it makes them feel complete? It is a feeling like no other feeling in the world. This is definitely something I will be looking into further, especially the relationship between music, emotion and moods.

So as I was reading chapter twelve, one section that caught my interest was affective computing.  What exactly is affective computing?  Affective computing is the result of persuasive evidence that exists for distinctive autonomic nervous system activity associated with fear, anger, disgust, and sadness. For example, with anger, there is increased heart rate and increased skin temperature which facilitate strong, assertive (adaptive) behavior.  With fear, heart rate increased while skin temperature decreased.  With disgust, both heart rate and skin temperature decreased.  With sadness, heart rate increased while skin temperature was stable. These four emotions, however, are among the few emotions with distinct autonomic nervous system reactions.  As Reeve states, "If no specific pattern of behavior has survival value for an emotion (like jealousy), there is little reason for the development of a specific pattern of autonomic nervous system activity." In other words, for jealousy and other emotions which don't fit distinct patterns, there is no universally appropriate bodily response because it depends on the situation more than it does on the emotion itself.  Thus, it is very unlikely that in the future humans will ever develop and evolve a single pattern of ANS activity for those emotions. 

STILL, for those emotions that show an ANS specific pattern (found through various studies) which I mentioned above (anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and additionally joy), there are future technological implications.  Essentially, it is possible that in the future we are going to be able to build machines that read our emotions.  As Reeve states, "Imagine electronic sensors built into steering wheels, mobile telephones, handles of bicycles, pilot simulators, computer joysticks, and golf clubs which constantly monitor its user's ANS (autonomic nervous system) arousal.  This would be the field of affective computing!  While these sensors would be limited in measuring only those basic emotions, additional technology like a digital camera or video camera could capture and analyze facial expressions and monitor movements of the user's face like the following features:  the user's frontalis, corrugators, orbiculris oculi, zygomaticus, nasalis, depressors, etc.  There is a great picture demonstrating faces of interest in our text after Tiger Woods hits a tee shot on page 341.  Computers already using technology analyzing user's facial muscles are actually already in existence, and are able to score facial movements just as accurate and actually faster than people. 

Here is a link which discusses affective computing and past, present, and future research projects regarding the technology:

http://affect.media.mit.edu/

Here is quick excerpt from the link:

Affective Computing is computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion or other affective phenomena.

Emotion is fundamental to human experience, influencing cognition, perception, and everyday tasks such as learning, communication, and even rational decision-making. However, technologists have largely ignored emotion and created an often frustrating experience for people, in part because affect has been misunderstood and hard to measure. Our research develops new technologies and theories that advance basic understanding of affect and its role in human experience. We aim to restore a proper balance between emotion and cognition in the design of technologies for addressing human needs.

Our research has contributed to: (1) Designing new ways for people to communicate affective-cognitive states, especially through creation of novel wearable sensors and new machine learning algorithms that jointly analyze multimodal channels of information; (2) Creating new techniques to assess frustration, stress, and mood indirectly, through natural interaction and conversation; (3) Showing how computers can be more emotionally intelligent, especially responding to a person's frustration in a way that reduces negative feelings; (4) Inventing personal technologies for improving self-awareness of affective state and its selective communication to others; (5) Increasing understanding of how affect influences personal health; and (6) Pioneering studies examining ethical issues in affective computing.

 

Will these technologies actually come into play in the near future?  Who knows, but if they do, they will revolutionize seemingly every field of business, sport, and life.  Would this necessarily be a progressive adaptation within our culture? Definitely an interesting topic to consider...  

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/teen-abortion-high-school/story?id=10189694

This article was unreal to me when i read it. How could a high school let a student get an abortion in the first place and second without the mothers knowledge?!? The article states that the school and it's health clinic did not break any Washington laws, which was surprising to me also.  To me this is just teaching the students that their actions have no consequence and that if they have a problem they do not even have to discuss it with their parents. I do not know how the school could even possibly think this was okay. To me the health center at this school is just helping teens to do things without the consent of their parents.

What do you think about this article? Should the school have the right to let students get abortions, even without consent of a parent?

I was curious about the last part of our assignment: how self-efficacy, mastery beliefs, and hope relate.

After watching Manic yesterday I couldn't help but think about how controlling one's environment and actions is so crucial to leading a functional life. And, since the movie revolved around the lives of a couple suicidal manic depressives, I decided to look up some more information on that. I stumbled upon this article via Psychology Today discussing the illusions of control and suicide. Ira Rosofsky, PhD, has had years of experience working with the elderly (nursing homes/assisted living), and his article talks about systemic policies that address this issue with suicide, control and the elderly. Rosofsky first highlights some normal thought processes of suicidal individuals, and how committing suicide is the last successful and controllable act in which one can engage. He writes, "If I were to develop a theory of self-esteem, I'd put control or mastery on the top of the list." Exerting control over any situation determines that individual has gained some sense self-esteem, because that controlled behavior encourages high self-efficacy.

In the article, Rosofsky describes a piece of legislature that the state of Oregon enacted back in 1997: the Death with Dignity Act. Basically, this law gives physicians the legal rights to prescribe a patient with a lethal dose of medication to be taken privately in his or her home. This law, however, is only limited to those who are terminally ill. With the indirect assistance of a physician, terminally ill individuals have a choice to commit suicide if they so choose. Fortunately, people aren't necessarily abusing this "privilege". From when the law passed in 1997 up until 2009 - when this article was published - 292 patients have jumped on the assisted suicide bandwagon. Roughly 24 people each year have taken that route. According to U.S. suicide statistics from suicide.org, a grand total of 30,622 individuals committed suicide in 2001 alone. Among that total, 5,393 of those suicides were from the elderly (65+ years old). That 292-suicide rate over a 12-year period pales in comparison to that one-year statistic of over 5,000 elderly suicides. What's even more paradoxically reassuring is that those who decided upon the physician assisted suicide died in a stable, controlled environment, many times with their loved ones around and aware of the situation.

Rosofsky later posits, "People like the reassurance of knowing they can do it, even if they never pull the trigger." For many terminally ill patients, their living conditions are much less than comfortable and satisfactory (in terms of constant pain), so being dead is the next successive step toward happiness. I know that sounds incredibly morbid, but the large corpora of suicide research suggests that notion. Finally, Reeve (2009, p. 242) states, "Mastery beliefs reflect the extent of perceived control one has over attaining desirable outcomes and preventing aversive ones." In the case of terminally ill or irreparably depressed persons, suicide is his or her desired outcome, and living such a painful life is clearly the aversive one.

I am going to pull a question directly from the article that Rosofsky poses as food for thought: "People who have had every treatment imaginable - pills, psychotherapy, electric shock therapy - and want to end their suffering. Who am I to say no to them? To request them to spend some weeks, months, years talking to me instead?"

With the economy the way that it is and many of us graduating this May and hopefully finding jobs, it may be tought to get the job you want.  I found an article that talks about keeping your chin up when the time of losing a job and needing to find another one turns into weeks and then into months.  I believe we can apply the same concepts when the struggles of finding a job can take a tole on us.  People who have lost a job or are just trying to find a job need to stay positive and not just dwell on "I cannot find a job"  There are many things you can do according to this article that I never thought of doing that would help with getting your mind out of the dumps and do something else in the off time of finding a job.  Going out with friends, taking some time for yourself, or even learn a new skill that could eventually help you with your job.  Maybe take up some extra college classes to amp up that resume.  Another thing that would be good and rewarding for someone would be to volunteer.  It not only looks good on a resume, but after having yet no luck in the job search, volunteering might be a good way to cope with things and make someone feel good about themselves.

It is very stressful to find a job after losing a job or just finding one out of college, especially in the economy that we are in now.  It is no wonder why an article like this could help someone out.  I wouldn't have thought of volunteering as a way to help with the stress of finding a job, but it could definitely be rewarding.

 

article: http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/jobloss/a/chin_up.htm

This post is dedicated to Ali and UNI for upsetting Kansas.  Ali has become nationally known for his two clutch shots at the end of the games of UNLV and especially Kansas.  Blogs and analysts are all amazed at this guy's incredible guts and confidence in himself to take a shot like he did at the end of the Kansas game with so much on the line. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTMmBCHwqOM&feature=related

 In my chapter nine analysis, I looked at UNI's team self-efficacy:

"First, self-efficacy is the generative capacity in which an individual organizes his or her skills to cope with the demands and circumstances that arise. Thus, it's an important aspect of competent functioning as situations arise, especially within sporting events, which are stressful, ambiguous, and unpredictable. As the environment changes, one's self-efficacy is put to the test.

For UNI in their 2nd round game vs. Kansas, their team self-efficacy (belief whether or not they would advance in the tournament) was a judgment formed through multiple sources, specifically the following: personal history trying to execute that particular behavior, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological state.

First, their personal history affected their belief they could win. While this season they had won many games, UNI had never defeated the #1 team in the nation in the past and had never even advanced to the sweet sixteen. Next, vicarious experience; UNI has watched other teams defeat Kansas, yet they have also seen Kansas be victorious a great number of times. Also, past history of the NCAA tourney shows that 2nd round upsets of the #1 seed are possible, yet few and far in between. Also, the team could have looked at UNI's 1990 team which also pulled off a shocker against Mizzou in a 3 vs. 14 matchup. Verbal persuasion; Ben Jacobsen and the team knew they had a shot at knocking them off, yet much of the media had been telling them they had no shot at even competing with the best team in the nation. I think the coach's and individual's verbal persuasion on the team definitely outweighed the media's, providing them an efficacy boost, generating motivation. This led to a solid physiological state in which there appeared to be an absence of tension, fear, and anxiety about playing Kansas.

Overall, it seemed UNI had positive self-efficacy beliefs through their speech and their actions on the court as they shocked the nation defeating Kansas!"

 

In the video below, the sport psychologist describes self-confidence as the strength of your belief in your ability to execute.  He talks about a global self-confidence, which is the perceptive belief in your ability to win and your team can win.  Also, there is task specific confidence, the belief in which you can shoot the ball into the basket.  This confidence is fluid depending on the task and course of the game. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIIqxYJX_I4

Confidence is controllable, yet it can be destroyed from allowing outside sources like the media or within the course of the game, the opposing team.  In the UNI/Kansas game, Ali had a stable, longlasting confidence which many athletes desire.  While he started the game off hot, he was 0-6 in the second half before the 3-pointer in the final minute.  Kansas was making their big run, UNI was turning the ball over, and Ali was cold shooting the ball.  Yet, Ali knew his teammates had confidence in him and he maintained confidence in himself, giving him the guts to shoot the shot many players would not have taken.  This confidence, individually and as a team, gave UNI a strong outcome expectation, which is a judgment that a given action (playing the game), once performed, will cause a particular outcome (winning the game).  For Ali, his efficacy expecations (his judgment of his capacity to make the 3-pointer) were strong enough to allow him initiate his behavior of shooting the basketball during such a crucial point of the ballgame. Now on the sweet sixteen!!

 

 

 

How can it be that plus size women want to idealize themselves as perfect, when perfect is different to many people? Culturally as a nation we see "perfect" now a day's as being skinny, because you can be a beautiful plus size model, but still be overlooked by a skinner version. So how can we evaluate perfect? But this article only makes sense on two levels to me.

 http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/do-plus-size-models-make-women-feel-bad-about-themselves-1173186/#poll-BD54121832B011DFBA43F0FC7608A6B2

First off, right now our country is on a skinny health trip, which means, if you look skinny you are perceived healthier than those of a heavy weight or size. Which can change soon with the new focus on being actively healthy because of "skinny fat".

Secondly, plus size women only have lower self-esteem because they are constantly told that they are not as pretty as thinner women. Society creates this self-esteem issue, because look at some of the really dangerously thin women and ask them why they don't shop or enjoy the way they look. Plus, if they made clothing that was pretty for plus size women things could be different as well.

What do you think, can plus size models hinder you from buying clothing, shoes, watches or anything? Do you think that seeing plus size models make it more diverse when it comes to adds, because not everyone can be this size 0-4 frame?

 

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/03/11/hundreds-of-students-rally-lawmakers-save-our-schools/

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100309/Activity-in-lateral-prefrontal-cortex-may-improve-emotion-regulation-in-day-to-day-life.aspx

 

I found this to be a rather interesting article. I think it directly relates to the material we studied in Chapter 3 (dealing with the emotional brain). One of the main reasons I found it interesting is because it seems to go against common sense, or at least against conventional wisdom. Many of us have undoubtedly heard others tell us not to go to bed angry, but this study suggests that "brain activity (specifically in the lateral prefrontal cortex) is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner." Generally those who had high activity in this area had a better mood than those who had low activity in this area. I believe what helps set this recent study apart is that it did not take place entirely in a laboratory, but also involved real situations/relationships. In other words, one can probably be more confident of its external validity.

 

In our textbook (starting on p. 61 in Chapter 3), Reeve writes about the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and affect. Here it mentions that, "the limbic system receives incoming sensory stimulation (that) activate rather automatic emotional reactions... stimulation of the cortex can generate emotional states." Reeve also makes the point that one must make a distinction between the left and right side of the prefrontal cortex because each is qualitatively different from the other. Reeve also makes reference to the Behavioral Inhibition System, which includes the two dimensions of personality, one of which is "how sensitive versus stable a person is to threats, punishments, and the experience of negative emotion (Reeve 2009, p.61)."

 

 I was actually rather impressed with the physiological measures used - researchers used an fMRI, recorded facial expressions, and tested cognitive skills. As I mentioned before, the researcher (Hooker) found that  the level of activity in their lateral prefrontal cortex may be a significant factor in predicting a person's experiences, ability to bounce back, etc.

 

The main reason why I chose this article and wanted to share it with others is because I am rather fascinated by the unconscious activity that takes place in the brain. As others probably have heard, there have been studies that suggest people actually have a tendency to make better decisions having slept on it - I think I heard about this in Social Psychology. I believe I also heard data that supports this in my BioPsychology course. While sleeping, our brain continues to process information. It's very interesting to think of the possibility that being angry while we go to sleep may actually help us better deal with our problems, confront them face on with our subconscious attention. This may be drifting a little bit from Motivation and Emotion, but I find it very interesting how I have often woken up with solutions to some of my problems that I had never thought of before - I believe my mental activity throughout the night has sometimes helped me come up with effective solutions.

 

In any case, this study  does provide insight and understanding into physiological activities, such as the activation of certain brain structures and subsequent impact on emotional states. For the reasons I have mentioned, I actually believe this type of research is very important and may lead to more effective interventions for people facing certain problems, such as depression.

 

The article ends with the following...

  

While Hooker acknowledges that more work must be done to develop clinical applications for the research, it may be that lateral prefrontal cortex function provides information about a person's vulnerability to develop mood problems after a stressful event. This raises the question as to whether increasing lateral prefrontal cortex function will improve emotion regulation capacity.

 

Recently, a conversation that I was in brought up technology and although it has done so much for us, people have become so unappreciative of the fact that we are so blessed to have a lot of the things that we do today, in the first place. I started searching on the web and found an interesting article that related to this topic. The article was found on http://life.icrontic.com/article/technology-and-emotion-why-do-we-act-as-we-do/ and was called Technology and Emotion: Why we act as we do.

The article basically discusses how although technology is amazing and we have come a long way over the years in the development of new things, people may have been affected more greatly than they think.  Technology affects people in so many different ways.  It opens them up to so many more new and exciting things. For example, the internet.  Any question we may have, having a conversation with someone, or having an important business meeting with someone across the world, can all be done with the click of a mouse. Although this is true, people take it for granted and get frustrated when the internet is down for a few minutes or their cell phone isnt picking up a signal.  They forget that we are blessed to have the internet in the first place. 

Also, the article made a good point of talking about television and how much more people are watching television than they used to.  It has come to a point where people do not even get emotional about seeing war on television or starving children in a foreign country.  People watch so much TV that that the important issues going on in the world do not even phase them. They become numb to feeling about things they should be showing emotion for, because of overexposure.

Finally, another issue the article brought up was all the harm that can be done to people through social networking and messaging with others online.  The majority of young students/children these days are members to these sites and bullying that use to happen at school is now being brought to the chat rooms and social networking sites.  Even some parents get involved in the online fighting, and it's hard to tell who's who with screen names and such.  It's even gotten to the point where this can lead to children committing suicide because of the way they are made feel about themselves.

Overall, the article is a little lengthy but really interesting. It brings up a lot of good points on technology and how although amazing, it can have a lot of downsides and negative affects on people and the emotions it creates.

My roommates love watching horror/suspense movies. It almost seems like every time we have a movie night, a horror flick is on the list to watch. For my roommates, their top favorites include the Saw movies, the recent hit Paranormal Activity, and the Haunting in Connecticut. Myself on the other hand, I'm not a super huge fan like my roommates. I would actually prefer a comedy over a horror flick, yet I still enjoy watching horror movies sometimes. I'm the wuss that covers my face though when something too scary comes on the screen. Thinking about all this, I was wondering what would motivate people to endure the feelings of fear and suspense, especially for the very popular horror flicks. I came across several different theories on reasons why people enjoy feeling fear and suspense.

On Psychology Today, Why are there Horror Movies?, this article talked about the reason behind it is the fact that because it is fiction we are able to enjoy it rather than it being reality where we have to make a choice. This article didn't satisfy me however, so I kept searching.

On ScienceDaily.com, Why do People Love Horror Movies?, it argued that people enjoy being scared because they feel both negative and positive emotions at the same time. The sense of relief is not the only positive of the outcome of watching a scary movie, its more the the happiness of being scared.

On Live Science, Horror Movies: Why People Love Them., it talks about severaly different topics. First it talks about how people don't watch movies just like the Saw movies for the blood and gore, but because they experience a thrill of assessing threat levels. Next it talks about how people have the ability to control what effects their emotions and what does not while watching horror films. Lastly it talks about fear being more than just an emotion, and that it is a biological factor that starts with our amygdala.

As far as these three articles go, I'm not sure if my question was answered as to why people enjoy fear while watching horror/suspense films. Why do you like or dislike these types of movies? What are other factors that could be involved in developing the liking of horror films?

Have you wondered why sometimes when you are in a room you mood changes? Is it the climate or the lack of plants, what about the color?

I found this site when looking for colors to paint my house back home. I found that greens and dark purples seem to motivate me the most. I haven't used orange yet, which helps you get going with exercising. If you pay attention to the setting you are in and the mood you are in, could it be the color on the walls?

 http://freshome.com/2007/04/17/room-color-and-how-it-affects-your-mood/

After checking this out, which colors do you think would help in class rooms? I would prefer the walls in my dorms to be more than this off white or cream color and maybe I would do more than sulk in there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/day-of-action-update-rowd_n_486276.html

Lately I have noticed I have become more irritable by people and little situations.  Normally, I like to think, I am outgoing and most situations do not annoy me.  However, the last couple of daysI am feeling spring-fever, I want the snow gone and warm weather to arrive.  Because of my current negative mood, I decided to research and find ways to improve my current frame of mind.  I found this article...

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/depression/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100253964

According to Dawn LaFrance, Psy.D., associate director of the Counseling Center at Colgate University, it is actually common to get down in a "winter funk".  However, it is important to know the difference between a winter funk and a more serious version, seasonal affective disorder.  The difference of course is the winter blues usually last a couple of days and then you find some pleasurable stimulus in your life.  Whereas, seasonal affective disorder is much more severe and characterized by clinical depression, anxiety, and changes in weight.  This article provided 6 ways to beat the winter blues and help the readers find something positive in their lives. 

The first option was Pinpoint What is Getting You Down.  Once you realize what is bothering you, it is easier to cope and/or improve your situation.  The second choice was Don't Let Your Mood Dictate Your Plans.  It is important to keep in contact with your friends, relatedness is a key factor in deciding if you have had a good or a bad day.  The third alternative was Watch Your Diet.  It is easier to slack and eat unhealthy foods in the winter months, which could result in weight gain and a more serious form of depression.  The fourth suggestion was Work Out.  Exercise will keep you motivated and help you avoid the winter blues.  The fifth option focused on Getting More Light in Your Life.  Light gives you health benefits and light therapy is actually used to treat seasonal affective disorder and some mild depressions.  The sixth choice was Don't Make Life-Changing Decisions.  You do not want to make any rushed life-changing decisions when you are not feeling your best.

Another reason I thought this article was interesting was because in class, we recently discussed aspects that must be met to fulfill your psychological nutrients needed for a good day, positive well-being, and vitality.  These aspects included daily autonomy, daily relatedness, and daily competence.  If you do not feel in control in some aspects of your life, it may begin a snowball affect.  I know this is definitely true for my room mate and myself.  Currently, we are applying to grad. schools and are both freaking out because our future plans are in the hands of committees deciding if we would make a good addition to their program.

Color is something that is constantly in our lives that is not really consciously thought about. When watching a professor give a lecture, do you really take the time to think about what color the background of the powerpoints are, or the color of the text? Color is all around us and we cannot escape from it. It has always interested me that people with synethesia (crossing of the senses) can associate colors with emotions, moods, and even sounds. Often these associations are very similar across individuals (within a culture). Is there a reason your favorite color is blue? Why does blue mean sad? Why did you buy a green guitar? Is color culturally specific? I have always been interested in questions like these.

http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/index.html

This is a rather extensive international survey about color including information about associations, preferences, education, and even preferences for online activities. This is a study published in the form of a webpage as opposed to a traditional journal article, which is in view, easier to both view, find pertinent information, and navigate. Color is the hue, lightness, and saturation of any object. Isaac Newton was the first person who laid a scientific foundation about color by showing that a prism could break up normal light into a full range of colors which he dubbed the "spectrum". The spectrum was continuous, but decided to use seven color names by analogy with the seven notes of our musical scale. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Indigo, and Violet)

Color is actually much more complicated than I had previously thought; it has complicated mathematical ways to measure it. Light and the creation of colors are also very intricate. After detailing all you need to know about colors, it lays out the methods using clear precise tables and graphs. A number of things were laid out and people were asked to choose what color represented what to them. The first item trust was curious to me, most people said blue at 34% then white at 21%, I definitely would have said white. This was interesting to me because I thought blue represented sadness. Regardless of my take, blue dominated all positive characteristics, and was virtually nonexistent on negative. It is no wonder that blue is by far people's favorite color. Another interesting point was that red dominated fear and terror but also courage and bravery.

Peoples favorite colors weighed in at

Blue 42%

Purple 14%

Green 14%

Red 8%

Black 7%

Orange 5%

Yellow 3%

Brown 3%

Grey 2%

White 2%

A lot of good information is contained within this research, though it didn't have as much emotion/personality connection as the link advertised, it was still an interesting and useful site.

Earlier in the semester we talked about the brain and how certain hormones influence or are activated due to emotions. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and endorphins are just a few that have been shown to influence mood and emotion. What we did not go in detail about was the parts of the brain that make contribute to moods, emotions, and behaviors. I found an article that discuss' this very topic.
Arousal is a process that involves cortical, behavioral, and autonomic mechanisms (Reeve, 2009, p. 374) This article talks about the cortical (activity of the brain) part of being aroused and the emotional reactions that can evolve from being aroused. Reeve (2009) lists four principles to explain arousal's contribution to motivation. There are two that relate to the study explained below:
1) A person's arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is.
2) People engage in behavior to increase or decrease their level of arousal.
A new study was done to test if the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) was a region of the brain that could help people control emotional reactions such as negative moods, rumination (not being able to get something off your mind), and substance abuse. After having several people in stable, healthy relationships journal daily and have brain scans done while viewing positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions of their partner, it was found that LPFC activity did predict how one would react to an interpersonal conflict. When there was a day of no interpersonal conflict, the LPFC activity was not related to the next day's mood or behavior. On the contrast, when there was a day when interpersonal conflict did occur LPFC did predict mood and behavior the next day. Low levels of LPFC activity was related for high levels of negative moods, rumination, and substance abuse.
This study is helpful when talking about coping with stress. To avoid bad coping strategies like over-eating or substance abuse, people can become aware and learn to introduce positive strategies such as counting to 10. If you are a person who has low LPFC function, it is possible you may become more susceptible to such behaviors.
Link:
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/03/03/howto-control-emotional-outbursts-in-front-of-yourpartner.html

I know a lot of people especially girls want to get married someday, and want to find their true love so I researched what motivates us to find true love and found this article which I found very interesting.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/love-sex/how-to-find-true-love-2051038.html

Helen Fisher the women who dedicates most of her life on How to find true love believes there are four personality types.

"all of us conform to one of four personality types, which are controlled by different chemicals in the brain. These chemicals mould us, and cause us to be attracted to people who complement our personality types (see panel). There is the Explorer, a sensation seeker ruled by dopamine; the Builder, a respecter of authority driven by serotonin; the Director, analytical and ruled by testosterone; and the Negotiator, intuitive and fired by oestrogen. Negotiators need to connect with others on a deeply personal level, are very trusting and good at talking."

What personality type are you? and if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend are they compatible with you according to Helen Fisher?

How do images and music create intense feelings in people? You've probably received an email forward that had an automated powerpoint presentation with incredible photos and either uplifting or tear jerking music. Well this website, Moodstream, allows you to control basic affect elements and then will show images and play music that matches the specific 'mood' you've specified. Try it. What do you think? Did you feel differently given the different settings you tried? What real (ie, scientific) aspects of mood and emotion is it tapping into? The main webpage says that these different mood streams can affect behavior in terms of brainstorming and creativity. What do you think?

http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/usa/?isource=direct-entry

Chapter 6 talks about relatedness and how relationships that are caring, accepting, and valuing satisfy the need for relatedness. Loneliness is used as an example of a characteristic of someone who has not fulfilled the need of relatedness. Having close, personal, and intimate relationships will help satisfy this need. Any social bond such as a sibling, spouse, or friend has the potential of being an intimate relationship. But even people who have siblings, spouses, and friends are not gaurunteed to have their need for relatedness satisfied. There are many marriages, as the text suggests, that may not satisfy one or both of the partners emotionally. The texts stresses the importance of fulfilling the need of relatedness because it has been shown that neglecting such needs can lead to loneliness and depression. Here is a website that explains how to start the process of trying to beat depression related to loneliness. It focuses on the importance of getting out of isolation and meeting new people. This should be done in hopes of finding someone that you could eventually develop a social bond, and thus, fulfilling the need of relatedness. I think this site has a good message behind it, but makes it sound a little easier than it probably is for depressed people. The textbook supports the need for meeting new people as a way of lessening depression and loneliness though.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5517599_beat-depression-related-loneliness.html

      In a study done on stress in the workplace and how it affect our productivity the outcomes was interesting. It seems to be that merely having the ability to control the source of ones stress is beneficial in coping with the situation. A study broke people up into two groups. Both groups had to write/journal about anything the desired. In the middle of the writing there would be a big annoying sound that started to interrupt their thought. One group was told that if the large noise came they could not make it stop. The other group was told that when the large noise happens they had a choice to stop the distraction. Interestingly enough, those individuals who were not able to control the situation showed a lack of emotion in their writing. They had not excitability, creativity or motive to write at all. Whereas the group which could stop the disruptive sound had an increased amount of emotion, creativity, and motive in their writing AND not one of the people in that group asked someone to stop the disruptive noise (Even though they had the CONTROL to do so). Therefore, it appears that its not the disruptive aspects of our lives that are stressing us out, it's the uncontrollable disruptive aspects of our life that produce the most stress to individuals.

 

http://www.humannatureatwork.com/Workplace-Stress-2.htm

One more TED video.
http://www.ted.com/talks/oliver_sacks_what_hallucination_reveals_about_our_minds.html
Oliver Sacks has dealt with many visual and auditory hallucinations, most due to hearing or vision loss. This video speaks primariliy of visual but imagine for a moment your brain having an internal I-Pod, access to all kinds of music at a moments notice with no disturbance to anyone around you. A plethora of songs in your head sounds like it would be a great thing, until you take away all of the controls. Random bits and pieces of songs, at loud volume levels in your head all day every day! This is the world of someone who sufferers from auditory hallucinations (sometimes called musical ear syndrome).  It is very normal to have a song stuck in your head for a brief period, but the brain is bombarded by all kinds of stimuli and often the song is soon forgotten. This is not the case with musical hallucinations. Music hallucinations occur when a set of neurons in the brain begin to misfire and those who suffer from them feel like they are always hearing music, even though there is actually nothing playing. There is no other symptom of music hallucination and studies have shown that music hallucination tends to be the only psychosis present in patients.

Dr. Sacks spends most of the time in this video describing a 90 year old patient of his in the video and painting the picture of what it is like to have visual hallucinations accompanied by no auditory ones. Bringing up many interesting points about parts of the brain involved, and the relation of these hallucinations to our past memories and emotions. He also points out the fact that many people who experience these problems don't come forward. Why is there no motivation to let primary caregivers know about these conditions? He also differentiates between Charles Bonnet syndrome and these hallucinations. There are many interesting aspects of sensory deprecation, these hallucinations can have considerable impact on some people's emotional state. He also brings up at the end geometrical hallucinations, and the parts of the brain all of these interact with. I would definitely like to know more.

I was recently reading an article abaout an olympian ice skater that still performed her routine after losing her mother to a heart attack only a few days prior. The mother had died of an unexpected heart attack two days before her daughter was scheduled to perform her much practiced short performance routine in front of 14, 000 people. The skater went on and preformed very well, getting the highest score of the short performances. Even though she was visablly upset, as anyone would be, she still decided that it was for the best to continue with her skating. I wondered if sometimes, a person's motivation can outweigh their emotions. I've tried to think of times when something terrible has happened to me and how I reacted. Usually I drop everything and focus all my energy and emotions on the bad event. I couldn't image doing something like ice skating when my mom had just passed away. But I think it was the fact that this girl had trained so hard for so long all for this day, that she didn't want it all to be for nothing. I think she thought her mother would have felt the same way. So I was wondering if her drive for achivement and recognition for her hard work and persistence at skating could help her overcome her sad emotions enough for her to go out there and skate. This is not to say that she wanted to compete more than she was sad for her mother's death, but just to ask the question, If you are highly motivated to do soemthing, can it temporarly overcome your emotions, enough to get the job done? Other situations could be that you really want to go out with your friends on a Thursday night, but you have a big test the next day you have to do well on so you skip the fun and study instead. It's not exactly the same, but you are still choosing your motivation over your emotions.

What do you guys think? Can you think of any circumstances that you have really wanted something even though your emotions were saying something different? If one is stronger, what usually makes you do something, your motivation or your emotions?

Here is the link...http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/24/olympics.rochette/index.html?hpt=C1

Yesterday I was at Subcity and I overheard two employees (man and women) discussing why women were more emotional than men.  They both seemed to agree that women did show more emotions than men, but they had different view points.  The male thought it was due to biological differences in that men and women had different hormones which caused different levels of emotions.  The women employee felt it was more environmental as she said "women are more emotional because they can be," most likely implying that society accepts emotional behaviors in women more than in men.  I feel that both biology and the environment both contribute to the differences in emotions. 

http://people.howstuffworks.com/women1.htm

I found a website that talks about why women are more emotional, and it appears that both the environment and hormones can both be held responsible.  The article says that women become more emotional starting in puberty when their body begins to produce high levels of prolactin, a hormone present in tears and blood.  It also mentions that men and women's tear ducts are shaped differently, which could be either the cause of the effect of more crying. 

http://people.howstuffworks.com/women2.htm

This artcile dicusses how women are more physiologically prone to stress.  The evidence for this is that in males the amygdala communicates with organs that process visual stimulus while women's amygdala communicates more with hormones and digestion.  Also women's bodies produce more stress hormones than do men's, explaining why women are exposed to stressful events they tend to stay more worked up about the event for a longer time than do men. 

I always thought that women were more emotional, but I never knew why.  I thought the stuff about women having different shaped tear ducts and having a somewhat different function for the amygdala were pretty interesting.  Did any of this surprise you?  Do you think these differences alone cause differences in emotions?  What about the environment; did the environment cause these changes over time, or did the changes come first, and society adapted to the differences?