As a faculty member, one of my favorite moments of the year is our Psi Chi induction. Gathered around the flickering flames of candles, our best psychology students recognize each other, celebrate the results of their hard work inside and outside the classroom, and commit to serving each other and the community. Several years ago, a student suggested that new inductees should bring with them a quote that had inspired or enlightened them to share with the group. This year the quotes were so varied and inspiring I wanted to share some of them:
"The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination." - Carl Rogers
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes" - William James
"Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for - which is the story behind the story." - Chris Cleave
"Formerly when religion was strong and science was weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion is weak, men mistake medicine for magic." Thomas Szasz
"Research is formalized curiosity. It's poking and prying with a purpose." - Zora Neale Hurston
"Do not become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin" - Ivan Pavlov
It’s official, smartphone apps can help us accomplish anything. From helping to organize our busy schedules to making shopping quick and easy and with recovery support, the advances that technology has made in regards to mental health are extraordinary.
You may be asking “What is recovery support?” Recovery support is “provided through treatment, services, and community-based programs by behavioral health care providers, peer providers, family members, friends and social networks, the faith community, and people with experience in recovery” (SAMHSA, 2015). Recovery support services help people “enter into and navigate systems of care, remove barriers to recovery, stay engaged in the recovery process, and live full lives in communities of their choice” (SAMHSA, 2015). These services represent a shift from the institutionalized versions of addiction treatment to a peer-based treatment system and bridge the gap between treatment clinics and the community. In recovery support, community members play an active role in the life of the individual seeking recovery.
Between 50–70% of adolescents recovering from addition relapse within the first three months of discharged from treatment clinics (Dennis et al, 2015). Only 18% of adolescents receive aftercare and even fewer use recovery support services. These adolescents are not getting the support they need.
Researchers wanted to test whether monitoring recovery through a smartphone app was feasible. Twenty-nine students recently discharged from addiction treatment were given access to additional recovery services using an app and asked to complete assessments six times a day. Participants were shown how to use the application prior to data collection. Participants completed 89% of the total assessments, stating they found that the app user friendly and not time consuming (Dennis et al., 2015).
The use of smartphone applications to reach a younger audience was successful in this study. Participants completed the daily assessments and they also accessed the resources that the app offered like, recovery support discussion groups, motivational messages, relaxation guides, and the Facebook page for participants to connect with other community members. This approach provides timely and convenient relapse prevention services for adolescents in recovery (Dennis et al., 2015).
Why does this matter? Although it may seem that technology has done little to bring people together and to improve lives, this research shows that there is yet another way that apps can transform our health and reach sectors of society that have not previously been a part of conventional recovery. Maybe it’s time to give apps a chance to help improve our mental health.
Sources
Recovery and recovery support. (2015, October 5). Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.gov/recovery.
Dennis, M. L., Scott, C. K., Funk, R. R., & Nicholson, L. (2015). A pilot study to examine the feasibility and potential effectiveness of using smartphones to provide recovery support for adolescents. Substance abuse, 36(4), 486-492.
Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”. I find this quote to be extremely powerful and quite fitting to our American culture. As young children we are constantly doodling, singing and dancing. However, as we get older we slowly disconnect from our artistic nature. As we transition from preschool to high school, art classes become an elective rather than part of the curriculum. Our culture places math and science at the top of the hierarchy and creative arts are often at the bottom.
I am hopeful that one day our society will regard the arts with the same respect as any other field. This day might be closer than I expected (lets hope I’m not jinxing it). For example, within the past year adult coloring books have become the newest, popular trend. They are almost as popular as Beyoncé, not really… but I bet Beyoncé owns several of these coloring books. These books promote mindfulness, relieving the individual from stress and allowing them to engage in a self-soothing activity. They also help the individual to reconnect with their long lost inner child.
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
Art is therapeutic in nature and it is a natural process we turn to whether we are aware of it or not. We use art as a coping mechanism, whether it’s writing in a journal, drawing, listening or creating music. Art provides a creative outlet for our feelings and emotions that we otherwise tend to hold in. It is a way of communication.
Art therapy is “the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who experience illness, trauma or challenges in living, and by people who seek personal development” according to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA). For example, art therapy is often used with recovering addicts. It allows these individuals who suffer from addiction to open up and share their stories. They “often reveal much more than they realize in a simple picture.” The creative process helps them reconnect with their inner-self and drives their fears and shame away. It is a tool of empowerment that allows them to “turn liabilities into assets, wounds into pearls”. Johnson, L., 1990
“Don’t build a wall around your own suffering or it may devour you from the inside.” – Frida Kahlo
The beauty of art therapy is that your artistic skill does not matter. Instead, your experiences drive your art. So whether you decide to go buy an adult color book after reading this or join an art class, just remember that you’re a natural born artist. All you have to do is dig a little deeper.
“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” ― Vincent van Gogh
Johnson, L. (1990). Creative therapies in the treatment of addictions: The art of transforming shame. The Arts In Psychotherapy, 17(4), 299-308. doi:10.1016/0197-4556(90)90049-V
Hidden is hardly a word that can be used to describe hazing, especially on Franklin and Marshall College’s campus. Whether you were privy to a troupe of streaking men on a jog around their house, walked to class next to someone in a large foam hat or simply have seen the sullen face of a pledge, we have all been witness to hazing. As a society we all can agree that this degrading practice is egregious, so, in the words of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight why is this still a thing? In the spirit of Last Week Tonight if you stick it through to the end you’ll be rewarded with huskies cuddling.
Evidently, people are secretly okay with “a little bit of hazing”. In fact, one study found 84% of people are willing to haze in certain situations. Therein lies one of the most troubling aspects of hazing. While we would like to look upon it with our noses upturned, firmly placing it in the world of deviant behavior, we actually think the opposite. Because of its relative normalness in American and European higher education, it’s seen as an inevitability. In fact, most freshmen reportedly see hazing as a requirement of entering the college realm. Notions such as this normalize this actually divergent behavior and empower transgressors.
To understand why the normalization of hazing culture is detrimental to all, one study conducted by Yvo, Nunes, Mendes, Pinho and Silva (2015) analyzed the observations of many separate studies. This study broke hazing down into three areas.
First, its effect on a member being inducted into an organization. Initial desire to join any organization is relatively simple to understand; we really want to belong to a larger group. With belonging come resources, status and protection. These three areas seem awfully similar to what fraternities claim to provide. And, to some extent they do provide these things. With bait set, and demand to join a fraternity high, hazing rears its ugly head.
Within this first category, three subcategories exist which parse out the intended effect of hazing; induced compliance, effort justification and free choice.
Induced compliance, also known as cognitive dissonance, is fabricated appreciation of an experience in an effort to ignore the truly awful things that actually occurred. A famous study on this phenomenon found people who do a very boring task, and are compensated only $1for their participation, actively lie about how enjoyable the task was to others.
This, like a former pledge telling their friends they really enjoyed being forced to walk around hours in the pitch black and freezing cold looking for golf balls was a good time, is induced compliance. This compliance is brought about by the firm belief that the psychological and physical torture that is the back bone of hazing will result in great awards only legitimate members have access to.
Effort justification is valuing a reward that was more difficult to get. Carving hours out of your second semester freshman year to be at the beck and call of an entire organization is definitely a trying tribulation. Frankly, this is the most difficult part of hazing. Along with the ridiculous and offensive events that occur, that daily life of a pledge, which is akin to that of an indentured servant, is emotionally and physically draining. All while suffering through this, hazers make it abundantly clear you’ll get to reap the rewards as soon as you make it to the other side, perpetually dangling a carrot. That is of course while your “Pledge Educators” are berating you about your performance on an unsolvable test and demanding you, “look at the pipes” as if it’s some laughable metaphor about pledging being the necessary vascular structure of a proper organization.
Unfortunately, being able to wear letters after this difficult lifestyle is an incredibly rewarding experience. This shows the dastardly genius behind hazing, setting up a system to create increasingly grim experiences that will cause a pledge to further justify their effort.
Free choice, or rather, the belief that free choice no longer exists, is the feeling that you cannot remove yourself from the situation. Hazing has the exemplary ability to do just this. Hazees that remove themselves from the experience tend to speak very poorly of their time, however, hazees that don’t often speak positively of their experience. This is very likely the product of Stockholm syndrome.
By removing the element of choice, and claiming their actions are in the benefit of their victims, hazers powerfully enforce compliance and bonding. Then, body by one of the various Greek letters actually becomes an attractive workout regimen, especially when there happens to be some forgotten broken glass on the floor you’re doing planks on.
Secondly, the previously mentioned research looked at hazing’s effect on veteran members. Being the former victims of hazing themselves, veterans have an interesting role in the practice of hazing. Primarily, hazing becomes an observationally learned behavior. Because they themselves were once tortured, veterans now believe their responsibility as senior members is to actively haze themselves. Moreover, any aggression towards their former hazers can now be appropriately directed at pledges, according to hazing norms.
Hazing, and the institutions that use this tool, promote conformity amongst its veteran members. Not just that line looks the same as another line conformity, Stanford Prison Experiment conformity. Rather than these transgressions being the responsibility of a “few bad apples” the problem is the institution itself. Organizations that haze promotes the idea that its members haze and its pledges are to be hazed, and people seriously and blindly adhere to these roles. Sure some members might take this idea to the extreme, but it is the organization that promotes this level of conformity amongst all of its veteran members.
The third point made by the research is that hazing effects the group as a whole. Hazing in fraternities is intended to promote camaraderie and brotherhood amongst its members, ask any of them - that’s the go to answer. However, hazing actually has an adverse effect on the larger group. Often set through precedent and tradition, a particular fraternities hazing is essentially passed down through generations. This sense of tradition becomes increasingly lost like an illegal game of telephone. While once thought to strengthen ideas of brotherhood by peppering in core “values” of the fraternity, hazing has simply become a vehicle to administer torture. Lost meaning of the “values” that a pledge will continually be harassed about while being hit hard enough with eggs to leave noticeable damage, increases the separation from positive organizational ideas.
Also, because of the generational gap in fraternities, senior members have little intent to promote historical and traditional ideas, more focused on their increased workload. Therefore, the focus is on carrying through with the twisted tradition of hazing, rather than building a brotherhood. With this shift in focus, hazing tends to become crueler with time, losing the intended purpose of an initiation ritual.
These three points main points, in clear detail with scientific backing demonstrate the consequences of hazing. Many people look upon their experiences positively, but at what cost?
More research is always necessary on any subject, but hazing takes the keg stand. However, due to its illegal nature, strict whitewashing policies of fraternities and an inability to reproduce hazing in a lab setting, more expansive research doesn’t look likely. However speaking against these practices could help.
Alternatives to organizations that haze exist. More importantly, they promote all of the resources status and protection one could need, while doing activities that are catered towards your interests all while not torturing you. In fact, other institutions of higher education that do not have organizations that haze have an incredibly rich social life and interest clubs that thrive.
So, why is hazing still a thing?
As promised, here is a picture of huskies cuddling in the cold.
Reference
Yvo, B. R. B., Nunes, C. S., Mendes, M., Pinho, B. S., & Silva, O. (2015). About hazing in higher education. European Scientific Journal.
Every coach, parent and athlete are interested in understanding what makes a winner, what distinguishes the great athlete from the good athlete, and what pushes the athlete to pursue success at all levels. Perhaps, the secret lies in motivation. Judging from the abundance of self-improvement books, sport psychology research studies, and motivational movies, you would think that psychologists know all of the ingredients to craft the perfect recipe for ensuring optimal performance and promoting success. But why do many coaches, parents and teachers still struggle with how to influence and encourage those that they mentor? Perhaps, our behaviors are too complex to have one simple basis that can explain everything. Although, psychologists have formulated countless theories to explain motivation, self-determination theory (SDT) seems to be the most well-established and influential one. In fact, SDT became the foundation of many studies on motivation.
There are two distinct forms of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation stems from within. For example, you pursue hobbies, classes and career opportunities that actually interest you. Therefore, the thing you enjoy doing is its own reward. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is what pushes you to do something that you personally do not enjoy doing because you will receive external rewards such as money, grades and fame. SDT, developed about three decades ago by Deci and Ryan (1985), suggests that to maximize an individual’s intrinsic motivation, three innate psychological needs must be satisfied.
These three essential components are autonomy, competence and relatedness. People feel autonomous when they have a sense of freedom or control over their choices and goals. Competence refers to an individual’s self-belief that he/she can successfully carry out a task or activity. Lastly, relatedness is defined as having a sense of belonging and shared experience. Researches using SDT demonstrate that experiencing these three psychological needs is crucial to well-being, personal growth, sport performance and long-term participation in sport. For example, Gymnasts, who positively perceived their parents’ support, tended to adopt more autonomous forms of motivation and experienced high quality of sport participation, this rarely missing any practices (Ryan & Bargmann, 2003). Moreover, long-term involvement in sport depends not only on how well athletes master the tasks, but their affiliation to the team and recognition from others for their success (Allen, 2003).
Now what can parents and coaches do to give players feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness? Parents and coaches can play a facilitative role by listening to players’ concerns, providing advices and allowing players to make their own choices. Coaches and parents can assign a task that is challenging, yet developmentally appropriate to players. It should not be too easy that the task become meaningless or too hard to be unsolvable. Players should also receive positive feedbacks in order to feel competent and improve. Coaches and parents can helps create the training environment that encourages players to be supportive and optimistic, and to respect other’s feelings and perspectives.
Simply understanding SDT or your motivation can give you the insights to create your own pathway to optimal well-being and being the best you can be.
References
Allen, J. B. (2003). Social motivation in youth sport. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 25, 1-17.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum.
Ryan, R. M., & Bargmann, K. (2003). Autonomy support and need satisfaction in the motivation and well-being of gymnasts. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 15, 372-390.
“‘Why did this guy just text me an emoji of pizza?’ ‘Should I go out with this girl even though she listed combos as on of her favorite snacks? Combos?!!’” These are the important questions the comedian Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation, Master of None, Bob’s Burgers, you get the gist) addresses in his debut novel Modern Romance. Aziz takes us through the confusing, anxiety inducing, terrifying experience of love and dating in the millennial age, while making us laugh with every page turn.
Aziz begins the novel with and explanation as to why he decides to write this. Being Indian, his father and mother had an arranged marriage where the minimal criteria and nature of the union confused him. Yet, they have one of the most loving and long lasting relationships. Should we all get arranged marriages? Next moving into the history of American love, and right on in to the advancement of technology and why we are screwed. Okay not screwed, but things are a little more complicated then meeting your future spouse outside the Deli on the corner of your block.
Aziz turns to sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, microbiologists – okay, okay also not microbiologists— to better understand the topic, forging a relationship between comedy and science. With the help of co-author, Eric Klinenberg, we get answers to the important issues like, why its so damn hard for Millennials to make decisions? Why did this person just ghost me? Should I text them back? As Millennials, sometimes the most basic decisions take hours of research. Aziz turns to the example of going out to dinner, there’s always something better. First you have to decide what you want to eat, then you go to Yelp, look at the top five restaurants in that cuisine, look at how expensive it is, distance etc, etc, then you read the reviews. One bad review and that’s settled, you are moving on to the next restaurant.
It’s no wonder why there has been explosion of online dating, albeit not just for Millennials. Aziz and Eric conducted focus groups of hundreds of people across the country and around the world asking them intimate information about their lovelife. Reading text messages, watching them preform on tinder and questioning what is it that we are looking for?
“Everyone of us engages on a journey to find love and companionship. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationship, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection and truly love.”
So, you are one or the 50 million people using Tinder, the 30 million on OkCupid, have been ghosted, or are at all human and in the market for love, Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance is a must read.
*be forewarned this book is great, but try the audio book, listening to Aziz reading aloud will make you crack up. It’s amazing.
My name is Cris Margaret Frias Gonzalez and I am a senior psychology major. As a second semester senior thinking back on her time at Franklin and Marshall I started to realize the lack of involvement I had within the Lancaster community. As a high school senior looking at colleges one of the most important aspects of choosing a school was the range of community services available. Giving back has always been important to me. When I first arrived to the United States my family and I did not know a word of English and my mother worked multiple jobs to provide for us. Positioning myself to become the first college graduate in my family was not easy but I had a lot of help along the way and for that I am eternally grateful. Realizing that I only had a few months left in Lancaster, I felt the pressure of engaging in the opportunities that were available at Franklin and Marshall to help others. When I saw that a Community Based Learning (CBL) 400-level psychology class was being offered I knew that this was my last opportunity to get involved.
I was not sure what an applied psychology course would look like or how I would be helping the community but I was excited for what came my way. On the first day of class 15 psychology seniors were faced with the decision of choosing a project in which we would be applying psychology concepts to help different organizations in the Lancaster community. These ranged from helping a youth soccer team build better communication between athletes, parents and coaches to Asset Mapping. I along with two other women in the class chose the latter. You are probably asking yourself “What is asset mapping?”. This is the same question our group was wondering when we chose the project. While I did not truly understand the concept of Asset Mapping I understood that it could have a great influence on the area of New Holland, the area that we would be mapping. Asset Mapping provides information about the strengths and resources of a community. Through mapping the resources available in an area, solutions for the gaps in medical and health coverage can be uncovered. Depicting assets on a map helps to expand the assets that are needed to improve health in a community.
Kretzmann and McKnight invented the concept of Asset Mapping in 1993. They believed that the most efficient way to create more successful communities was to understand the capacities and assets that existed in that community rather than focusing on that community’s needs and deficiencies (Kretzmann &Mcknight, 1993). Focusing on the assets that exist in a community is a positive way of reconstructing the community to serve the needs of its citizens. Knowing the gaps in health and medical services can help to prompt renovation projects or even construction projects in the community to fill the gaps in coverage. Asset Mapping is unique because unlike many of the methods that existed before to show gaps in community services this method is positive but also easy to follow as it is all depicted on a handy map.
After considering the project I knew that it would be a long process. The first step was creating a boundary for the area that we were going to map. After learning how small the area of New Holland was we decided to expand our radius 10 miles. Our group then needed to map primary care health physicians, OBGYN, pediatricians, hospitals, mental health services, dental health services, social services, exercise facilities, healthy eating options, and bus and walking routes. We are using 2-1-1 United Way of Lancaster and other internet sources to find these assets and their availability. Mapping the assets on a map is going to be one of the greatest difficulties. We will need to learn how to use the Geographical Information System (GIS) which is a computer system that allow us to map the assets according to availability and access to the community. Finding a way to promote these assets to the community is the hardest aspect of the project. How do we communicate the assets that are available? How do we represent them on a map that is easy to follow? There are still many questions that are unanswered but we are hoping that by the end of the project we will have a clear answer.
Once I understood the impact that our work would have in the community I became very excited for what the final product would do for the New Holland community. I knew that this project had the potential to leave a great impact on a community. A lot of the classes I have taken at F&M have taught me about the world but not all have been relevant or prepared me for life after college. I am glad that my last semester here I have the ability and opportunity to change lives. It feels empowering to help out in the community and to give back to a place that has given me so much the past 4 years.
Kretzmann, J.P., and McKnight, J.L. Building Communities from the Inside Out. Evanston, IL: Asset-Based Community Development Institute, Northwestern University, 1993.
Along with being an athlete comes a very unique lifestyle. From the first day a young athlete steps on the competition platform, their life is completely changed. In the next years to come, the experiences that they will receive from competition will shape them into a stronger, more confident individual. Furthermore, identification with a team will inevitably shape a more positive view of the self as well as more positive social relationships, which lead for greater happiness and satisfaction with life (Wann, 2006).
Unfortunately, many coaches, parents, and even young athletes are failing to recognize that there is much more to sports than simply personal accolades, championships, and scholarships. Are these things you want for your athlete? How would you carry out an execution plan to complete such goals? Was it anywhere along the lines or taking your child out of other sports so they can put all focus, effort, and time into the sport of most interest?
Now, let me ask, have you ever heard of burnout? Athlete burnout, or overtraining syndrome, can be defined as, “series of psychological, physiologic, and hormonal changes that result in decreased sports performance. 6 Common manifestations may include chronic muscle or joint pain, personality changes, elevated resting heart rate, and decreased sports performance (Brenner, 2007).” Every year youth athletes compete for scholarships at a younger and younger age. If I’m not mistaken, last week I heard of an 8th grader verbally committing to a college for lacrosse. The problem is when other parents and coaches hear of this, they immediately want their athlete to have a piece of it. In order to give them the best opportunity to succeed in this new format comes more pressure to specialize at a younger age. Sounds good right? –‘Lets have our athletes specialize from the day they can walk and we can produce super humans on the field.’ But lets not jump on board so fast. It has been found that children who specialize at too young of an age can miss out on many physiological benefits of multiple sports (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000). Yes, you’re young athlete can actually get better at sports by playing other sports! Amazing. Think of this in terms of weight training. If I am trying to build an overall fit body, but all I do is bench press, I am only going to get good in that one plane of motion. Common sense would tell us that eventually I will become sick of bench-pressing everyday, and at a certain point I will get injured due to overuse. By playing one sport, say soccer, we predominantly will see athletes performing straight line running. By incorporating other sports, such as basketball, we expose our young athlete to a large amount of jumping and cutting, which will inevitably carry over to greater performance in soccer.
Specialization is also dangerous, especially in critical years of development, as the chance of overuse injury vastly increases (Brenner, 2007). This is why it is so important for young athletes to take proper off-seasons or to perform movement patterns in multiple domains in order for the natural recovery process to take place (Brenner, 2007). While your child may seem like an indestructible energizer bunny at home, they are still prone to small tissue damage due to constant stress in a single plain of motion, no matter what the age.
So when should your athlete specialize? Allowing your athlete to be “a jack of all trades” will turn them into that super-human that you dreamt of. Allowing the athlete to compete in multiple domains will allow them to enter a season feeling mentally refreshed and motivated to perform. Allow your athlete time to develop throughout all plains of motion and you will see that child transform before your eyes.
Brenner, J. S. (2007). Overuse injuries, overtraining, and burnout in child and adolescent athletes. Pediatrics, 119(6), 1242-1245.
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2000). Intensive training and sports specialization in young athletes. Pediatrics,106,154-157.
Wann, D. L. (2006). Understanding the positive social psychological benefits of sport team identification: The team identification-social psychological health model. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 10, 272.
I never had the “birds and the bees” talk with my parents growing up, although I know how the metaphor goes. I received little substantial information about sexual health from my parents. Neither parents nor adolescents truly want to have “the talk.” It can be awkward, short and lacking of much detail, and lead to more questions that may not be addressed later. The thought of my dad approaching me trying to discuss safe sex even today gives me goosebumps.
A common misconception is that sexual health only focuses on the physical act of sex. However, sexual health includes a wide range of topics. Reproductive health, puberty, and sex all fall into the definition but also mental and social well being in relation to sexuality. Adolescents learn abstinence before learning how to have pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of pressure and violence.
With the topic of sexual health encompassing so much important information, it is crucial to consider if adolescents are communicated this information clearly. In a recent 2011 study, Byers focuses on different dyads’ communication about sexual health. The researches concluded that less than 42% of parents and middle school and high school students felt that the quality of the sexual health information they received from their parents was very good or excellent. In other words, youth felt that the communication between parents and adolescents about sexual health could be better, and parents agree with them. The researches then examined the dyad of students and teachers of sex-education. They found that for school-based sexual health education to be effective, teachers must receive training to teach sexual health. However, a majority of teachers of sex-education only somewhat wanted to teach about the topic, and of those teaching, less than 30% were trained.
Students, teachers, and parents are in agreement that both at home and school-based sexual health education are not very good or excellent. Adolescents receive no benefit from basic knowledge and being taught, “abstinence is key.” Although many parents and children shy away from the talk, it is important to remember children may not be receiving a satisfying amount of information from school sex-education programs as well. So parents, sit down with your children, take out the book, and do not be shy to expand on the story of the birds and the bees.
Byers, E. S. (2011). Beyond the birds and the bees and was it good for you?: Thirty years of research on sexual communication. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 52(1), 20-28.
Ever notice how when you’re sick, your behavior changes as well? Having spent the past 2 and a half days in bed, I’ve had a lot of time to think about this phenomenon. You, or in this case, I become mopey, tired, experience a loss in appetite, and lack the motivation to do just about everything aside from laying in bed and watching Netflix. What if this was more than just you feeling lousy? What if your crummy feelings, or sickness behaviors, were actually adaptive? Helping you to actually fight off the infection and get better faster?
In a 1988 journal review (yes I know I might be dating myself a little bit here), the reasons for several of these behaviors are laid out. Lets start with something obvious, sleepiness and lethargy. When we’re sick we become exhausted, and that’s simply because our bodies are devoting all of its resources to healing and fighting off the pathogens. Delving a little deeper, many sick animals (or humans for our purposes) demonstrate a reduction in grooming habits (Hart 1988). Lets be real. When we’re sick, we’re not very worried about how we look, or impressing anyone. But more scientifically speaking, grooming habits, which require movement, result in a loss of heat (Hart, 1988). Your body creates a fever to kill off pathogens and other alien organisms in your body, and reducing your internal temperature, through unnecessary movement, could potentially result in a temperature drop. In turn this could end in the growth of whatever your body is trying to kill off!
Time to get into the nitty gritty. When our bodies get sick, we reduce our plasma concentration. To put it in simple terms, we essentially decrease the production of iron in our bodies. This helps to raise our bodies’ temperatures, and kill off bacteria and other pathogens leading us to the road of recovery. However this can also play into the overall crummy feeling we have as a result of being sick. So our body has a temporary iron deficiency? We’re omnivores right? Eat some protein! Not so fast! When we’re sick, we often lose our appetite. So we need iron, but lack the hunger (and motivation) to seek out our fix. Seems pretty paradoxical right? What if I told you this is also evolutionary? Animals, and our great-great-great-ancestors didn’t have access to fully stocked fridges (then again, neither do college students…), and finding food often required a large amount of energy. Reducing appetite is our bodies’ way of conserving energy in order to dedicate more resources to fighting off infection/bacteria. Furthermore, when our bodies decrease our appetite, we are less likely to seek out nourishment, decreasing movement, and saving both heat and energy (Hart 1988).
So next time your sick, maybe don’t fight it! Your body is purposefully changing your behavior in order to help you recover quicker. Maybe skip that class (I know, none of us want to tarnish our perfect attendance), or take a break from the party scene. Your body is sending you signals, and rather than combating it, it’s time to be sick! Take the time to catch up on sleep, or as I’ve been doing, cross off some of your queued movies on Netflix!
Reference
Hart, B.L., 1988. Biological basis of the behavior of sick animals. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 12, 123–137.
The evolution of human beings has created a species that is not susceptible to the same harm, at least not on a regular basis, as other forms of life. We do not have the need to fear being attacked or eaten by other animals while walking down the street or even in the park. Although these horrific attacks do happen, they are horrific because they are not expected and not a normal part of our lives. We have no evolutionary need to fear many things that less developed animals do. We have a state to enforce human rights and fairness, weapons that have capabilities that transcend our physical abilities; we have a culture based upon a need for safety. The development of fear must also be very biologically based, as it is a repercussion of stimulation to the amygdala, and ever evolving section of the brain. But have our fears evolved as well? Do we still fear the same things, attacks and physical pain, as we did thousands of years ago when we lived in a much more primitive culture? Studies by Steven Reiss in 1985 and Steven Taylor in 1993 gave us insight into what the answer may be.
Our fears can be broken down into two distinct categories, fundamental and common fears. Our common fears, such as the fear of heights or the fear of being alone in the dark, all stem from three fundamental fears. These fundamental fears are anxiety avoidance, illness/injury sensitivity, and negative evaluation sensitivity (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, McNally, 1985). Anxiety avoidance causes us to withdraw from situations that we may find uncomfortable or unknown, a fear that plays a large role in our socialization and preferred environments. Anxiety avoidance commonly results in fearing situations that are unknown. Illness/injury sensitivity is fairly obvious and has many evolutionary benefits. But negative evaluation seems to be a much more “human” fear. Negative evaluation is based upon our fear of shame and our need to be loved and included. It seems as though the fear of negative evaluation is a fear that may be present only in the least primitive of life forms, as it requires the agent or animal to not only desire safety and socialization but to long for a sense of belonging and avoid shame (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, McNally, 1985).
The claim that negative evaluation is a distinctly human fear is not feasible, but it has been proven to be the most prevalent and strongest fear, as opposed to illness/injury sensitivity and anxiety avoidance (Taylor, 1993). Humans have become so socialized and connected that we fear shame more than actual physical harm. Shame cannot kill us; shame decreases our well being by breaking down our character, who we are. This is enlightenment; this is distinctly human. We would rather let ourselves be in physical harm than suffer mental and emotion pain through shame. Perhaps shame will become a fundamental fear; maybe we are hard wiring ourselves to be susceptible to shame and feel it in the same ways that we feel physical harm. Social support systems have proven to diminish the pain associated with electric shock (Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004). In one study, subjects who were given a shock without a social support system presented higher activation in their pain center, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Subjects also showed activation in the same region, the ACC, when experiencing physical pain as well as the pain of exclusion (Eisenberger and Lieberman, 2004).
As humans have progressed, we have actually transcended the limitations of our pain. We are now not only susceptible to physical harm, but we are hurt even more so by socially induced harm and shame. Maybe one day we will feel these sensations in a shockingly similar way, without the ability to distinguish shame from real physical pain. For now, we can use this information as an argument that the human spirit is tangible and manifests itself physically in the ways that we experience pain.
Bibliography
Eisenberger, N., & Lieberman, M. (2004) Why rejection hurts: a common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. Trends in Cognitive Science, 8(7), 294-300.
Reiss, S., Peterson, R., Gursky, D., & McNally, R. (1986) Anxiety sensitivity, anxietyfrequency, and the prediction of fearfulness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24(1), 1-8.
Taylor, S. (1993). The structure of fundamental fears. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychology, 24(4), 289-299.
Show Me Your Friends, and I’ll Tell You Who You Are
By Huyen Do
With the expansion of the Internet, more and more people are using social networking sites (SNS) as a primary means of communication. According to Statista, as of 2012, it was reported that more than 1.4 billion Internet users accessed SNS such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, and these figures are expected to continue growing. Nowadays, people can not only interact with each other virtually, but also learn a lot about a person from his or her online profiles. In fact, people form attitudes towards a person based on what they see online. But what exactly are the factors of an online profile that will influence how you judge people, or how people judge you?
The truth is, anything can contribute to how you see a person online. Previous research showed that from a person’s profile pictures or posts, to even just the number of times you see that person on your Newsfeed, would create different impressions about that person. What’s more, next to the self-generated information, information about his or her friends could also affect how he or she is judged.
Utz (2010) did a series of studies to examine the relationship between one’s online profile and its effect on the perceived popularity, communal orientation and social attractiveness of that person. He recruited 124 participants and let them view the mock profile of the target person. The profile was designed to have either an extroverted or introverted profile picture, either few (less than 100) friends or many (more than 300) friends, and the friends were either extroverted or introverted. Participants were then asked to rate their impression towards the target person, and whether they would befriend with that person.
The findings are interesting but not so surprising. As expected, a person is judged more popular when the profile has an extroverted profile picture, has more friends and the friends are also extroverted. Social attractiveness, on the other hand, was not significantly influenced by that information. This result indicates that popularity on SNS does not necessarily make a person more attractive as a real friend. The biggest limitation of the study is that only screenshots of the profile were used, without additional posts or pictures. However, a study in 2008 by Walther showed that this would not have a significant effect on the result of this study.
There’s an old saying goes, “Show me your friend and I’ll tell you who you are.” This saying is now also true for online friends. With the rise of SNS, as people spend more time online, we start using online cues to draw inferences about others, especially ones that they know little about. So next time you want to make a good impression online, creating a good profile is not enough; you’d better choose your friends wisely, too.
Utz, S. (2010). Show me your friends and I will tell you what type of person you are: How one's profile, number of friends, and type of friends influence impression formation on social network sites. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 15(2), 314-335. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01522.x
Emotions are an important part of social interaction. You gauge people’s emotions to know how they are feeling and how you should proceed in the conversation. Emotion identification comes easily to most of us, however, individuals with Autism have difficulties understanding and identifying emotions. Researchers have been working to find ways to help children with Autism better identify emotions so that they can have better social relationships.
June Katagiri (2009) worked with 12 students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attempted to teach them to identify four basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and fear). The children were tested on their understanding of these four emotions, taught in one of four ways, then tested again. The first teaching method was no-contact in which emotions weren’t taught in any specific way. In the second way, emotions were taught verbally. In the third was, emotions were taught with music that matched the specific emotions in tone and tempo. And the final way children were taught emotions by singing a song about the specific emotion.
All teaching methods showed that children improved in their emotional understanding from their first test to their second. More significant gains were found when music was involved, whether singing or listening to music.
This research shows that children with Autism can be taught to identify emotions. Music can help people with ASD identify and understand emotions that might otherwise be difficult for them. Schools should take this information into account and maybe try to use music to help teach a variety of subjects to children with ASD.
Katagiri, J. (2009). The effect of background music and song texts on the emotional understanding of children with autism. Journal Of Music Therapy, 46 (1), 15-31. doi:10.1093/jmt/46.1.15
The implications of stalking behavior in this new age
By Andreina Batista
Have you innocently stalked or thought about stalking someone in your life? Maybe an ex-best friend or former partner? Stalking behaviors can easily comprise of behaviors like texting or bumping into someone outside of ordinary circumstances.
Unfortunately, popular culture tends to depict stalking as acceptable post break-behavior. Pop culture presents stalking as a normal way to pursue a former relationship, disregarding the severity and harm stalking can inflict. Thus, it diminishes the seriousness of criminal stalking cases. About 20 million people a year become victims of stalking in the United States.
A recent study by Magyarics, Lynch, Golding, and Lippet (2015), showed that perceptions of stalking cases in the courtroom can influence the success of the case. Margyarics et al. found that male and female participants’ differed on whether the defendant should be considered guilty depending on the type of contact (personal or text message) and frequency of the contact (5 or 30 occurrences) in an ex-intimate stalking case. Magyarics et al. also found that male and female participants’ differed on what they perceived to be the victim’s fear and distress level based on the victim’s experience and as well as the defendant’s intent to inflict harm.
Females participants were more likely to decide a guilty verdict and view high frequency of stalking behavior as more dangerous than male participants. Male participants also gave lower ratings for the defendant's intent to inflict harm and perceived low victim’s fear and distress levels regardless of frequency of the contact. In addition, participants perceived personal contact with the victim as a more immediate threat and source of distress for the victim than via text message (Magyarics et al. 2015).
The study demonstrated diverse gender perceptions of the implications of stalking behavior between male and female participants that need to be further analyzed and addressed in society. In addition, while the participants found stalking via text message as less influential on the victim’s emotions and less indicative of the defendant’s intent to harm than personal contact, other forms of contact should not be considered less dangerous. Social media serves as a vast platform that blurs the lines of what is considered stalking behavior and what is not. Although many may joke amongst friends regarding stalking a current crush or old flame as a form of pursuit, there are victims, male and female, that experience high levels of distress from stalking. It is important to steer clear from thought processes that “support the tolerance and acceptance of stalking-related behavior” and instead take on a more active approach that does not encourage such behavior.
Magyarics, C. L., Lynch, K. R., Golding, J. M., & Lippert, A. (2015). The impact of frequency of behavior and type of contact on judgments involving a criminal stalking case. Law and human behavior, 39(6), 602.
Looking for ways to protect your heart against disease? Being that it’s one of the most important organs in your body, I’m pretty sure that answer is “Yes!” Strokes are the fifth leading cause of death in America (1 out of every 20 deaths is attributed to strokes) (CDC, 2015). Leading to long-term disabilities and death, it’s no wonder why stroke prevention has garnered so much attention over past years. This prevention often focuses on physiological symptoms (i.e. high blood pressure). While, there is no arguing that these factors are important (and should at no time be ignored!), research done in the field of Health Psychology has highlighted another way to protect your dear heart.
A recent study conducted by researchers Lambiase, J., Kubzansky, L., and Thurston, R., examined whether or not an individual’s emotional vitality had an effect on their stroke rate. Emotional vitality is another way of saying a person has an overall positive energy in their life. High emotional vitality leads to the ability to regulate emotions & behaviors and allows for proper engagement in daily activities. The researchers obtained their sample from the first National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHEFS), and it is nationally representative of the U.S. population. There was also a follow-up interview where individual's health records were obtained. Emotional vitality was measured through the creation of a sum score for each subject. Which just means that the researchers used questions that they found to be indicative of emotional vitality. Combining the score for each, in turn, creates an overall representation of a person’s emotional vitality.
An important aspect of this study was the controlling of risk factors already associated with stroke incidence. Accomplished by adjusting their analytical model for their participants’ age, sex, race, education, marital status, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, BMI, physical activity, smoking and alcohol use. Also, the researchers adjusted for psychological distress by measuring if individuals had pre-existing conditions that require the use of psychotropic medication. Without these adjustments, these factors would alter the results of the study. By adjusting, the researchers were able to measure more directly the association between emotional vitality and stroke incidence.
After examination, the researchers found an association between emotional vitality and risk of stroke. Of course, this study may seem intuitive. Being that, in the past, studies have linked negative psychological health to a risk for heart disease. However, few studies have looked at ways to protect against heart disease, and that is a new aspect brought to light by this study.
It’s important to remember that this study does not provide a causal relationship. That is to say that these results do not mean that emotional vitality directly caused changes in stroke rate. Rather these findings show an association between the two factors. Associations point to relationships between two variables. In this case, there was a negative correlation, which isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it means that as emotional vitality increases, the occurrence of strokes decreases. While these results call for follow-up research, the study’s strengths lie in the researchers’ adjustment of risk factors and use of a sample that is nationally representative.
This study highlights the importance to remain positive and also provides support to the idea that psychological well-being not only affects mental health but cardiovascular health as well. And while an individual should work to understand their state of mind, it points to the need for psychological risk factors (just like physical ones) to require early screening and intervention in the medical field.
Have you ever felt alone and scared? That no one understands you, despite how many times you try to explain? Have you sought out counseling, medication, or anything that could potentially help make it just a little bit better? If you have answered yes to any of these questions than you are similar to 18.5% of the adult population and 21.4% of the youth population in America (NAMI.org). These statistics represent the number of people who experience mental illness in a given year, and the unfortunate truth is that this number is rising.
As a 21-year-old female college student about to graduate with a job lined up, close family ties, great friends, and a healthy lifestyle I never really took the time to consider personal reflection on my mental well being. It seems that in today’s society people get so wrapped up in the trivial things like money, politics, religion, sports, and the like that we never take the time to be selfish and think about ourselves. This unfortunate problem leads to detrimental consequences such as; that mood disorders, including major depression, dysthymic disorder and bipolar disorder are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for both youth and adults, individuals living with serious mental illness face an increased risk of having chronic medical conditions, and that suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for people age 15–24 (Nami.org).
One area of prominent research connected with suicide is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a neurological disease caused by continuous brain trauma. One common cause, especially in young athletes, is concussions. As the brain slowly deteriorates, many other symptoms can co-occur: memory loss, confusion, paranoia, aggression, and depression (concussion foundation). The severity of CTE has a detrimental underpinning to it – it can only be diagnosed in brain tissue after someone is dead. To date, 87 of 91 former NFL players whose brains were studied at the VA-BU-CLF brain bank have been diagnosed with CTE. (concussion foundation). Recently, researchers at several universities and institutes were awarded a $16 million grant for research to find a way to diagnose CTE while victims are alive.
One reason I am so passionate about this research is that 11 years ago I lost my older brother Kyle to suicide. Kyle was a tremendous student, but even better and well-known football player. He was the type of kid that no matter how many hits he took, he never came out and continued to play. To this day, I have always wondered if maybe Kyle had CTE, an area of research that really came to light the same year he passed. One of my biggest hopes is that one day CTE can be diagnosed prior to the loss of someone people love and care about.
You may be aware that it’s obvious people should seek help if they are feeling alone or depressed. But the truth of the matter is that people are embarrassed or ashamed so that despite its high treatment success rate, nearly two out of three people suffering with depression do not actively seek nor receive proper treatment. (DBSA, 1996). This cannot be the case anymore. Mental health services are easily and readily available, but completely underutilized. If there weren’t so many stigmas attached to having something “wrong” with you, I feel like people would be more open to the idea of seeking help before it’s too late. We, as society, need to let people know it’s okay to not be okay.
Again, what does all of this mean to you as an audience reading my blurb? Well… If you answered yes to any of my questions in the opening paragraph, it may be a good time to personally reflect on your mental well being and begin making changes in your life that will ultimately lead to your best self. Not only can you do this with yourself, but your family and friends around you. I never want people to suffer when intervention and prevention can occur. Unfortunately for my brother, there seemed to be nothing he could do to feel okay. BUT, there is always a way, and there is always a tomorrow. Remember that. Everyone has control of his or her own future, so appreciate it everyday and live it to the fullest!
