#it’s not all about the social aspects it’s about learning & cognitive function & internal emotions & processing & life skills & interests

[breadbonewitchy]

Ok, I was gonna put this as a comment cause it’s a response to the argument, but the comments don’t let you add photos so here.

I don’t really wanna get involved in this but the shit about ‘no one talked about it before you kids came’ or whatever is blatantly false and just mean (why should someone’s opinion be disregarded due to their age when the question has nothing to do with it?). People have been talking about autistic/aspie house since 2008:

And these are adults talking about it! This was posted while the show was airing on cable tv, no one younger than 16 was watching it without an adult.

“House is autistic” of course “Chase is just like House” yes that’s correct. But “Chase is autistic”? Suddenly you’re getting kicked out of the function.

[rosequartz-propaganda]

What are some common consequences of being neglected as a child? source: r/emotionalneglect

Pete Walker identifies neglect as the "core wound" in complex PTSD. He writes in Complex PTSD: From Surviving To Thriving,

"Growing up emotionally neglected is like nearly dying of thirst outside the fenced off fountain of a parent's warmth and interest. Emotional neglect makes children feel worthless, unlovable and excruciatingly empty. It leaves them with a hunger that gnaws deeply at the center of their being. They starve for human warmth and comfort."

Self esteem that is low, fragile or nearly non-existent: all forms of abuse and neglect make a child feel worthless and despondent and lead to self-blame, because when we are totally dependent on our parents we need to believe they are good in order to feel secure. This belief is upheld at the expense of our own boundaries and internal sense of self.

Pervasive sense of shame: a deeply ingrained sense that "I am bad" due to years of parents and caregivers avoiding closeness with us.

Little or no self-compassion: When we are not treated with compassion, it becomes very difficult to learn to have compassion for ourselves, especially in the midst of our own struggles and shortcomings. A lack of self-compassion leads to punishment and harsh criticism of ourselves along with not taking into account the difficulties caused by circumstances outside of our control.

Anxiety: frequent or constant fear and stress with no obvious outside cause, especially in social situations. Without being adequately shown in our childhoods how we belong in the world or being taught how to soothe ourselves we are left with a persistent sense that we are in danger.

Difficulty setting boundaries: Personal boundaries allow us to not make other people's problems our own, to distance ourselves from unfair criticism, and to assert our own rights and interests. When a child's boundaries are regularly invalidated or violated, they can grow up with a heavy sense of guilt about defending or defining themselves as their own separate beings.

Isolation: this can take the form of social withdrawal, having only superficial relationships, or avoiding emotional closeness with others. A lack of emotional connection, empathy, or trust can reinforce isolation since others may perceive us as being distant, aloof, or unavailable. This can in turn worsen our sense of shame, anxiety or under-development of social skills.

Refusing or avoiding help (counter-dependency): difficulty expressing one's needs and asking others for help and support, a tendency to do things by oneself to a degree that is harmful or limits one's growth, and feeling uncomfortable or 'trapped' in close relationships.

Codependency (the 'fawn' response): excessively relying on other people for approval and a sense of identity. This often takes the form of damaging self-sacrifice for the sake of others, putting others' needs above our own, and ignoring or suppressing our own needs.

Cognitive distortions: irrational beliefs and thought patterns that distort our perception. Emotional neglect often leads to cognitive distortions when a child uses their interactions with the very small but highly influential sample of people—their parents—in order to understand how new situations in life will unfold. As a result they can think in ways that, for example, lead to counterdependency ("If I try to rely on other people, I will be a disappointment / be a burden / get rejected.") Other examples of cognitive distortions include personalization ("this went wrong so something must be wrong with me"), over-generalization ("I'll never manage to do it"), or black and white thinking ("I have to do all of it or the whole thing will be a failure [which makes me a failure]"). Cognitive distortions are reinforced by the confirmation bias, our tendency to disregard information that contradicts our beliefs and instead only consider information that confirms them.

Learned helplessness: the conviction that one is unable and powerless to change one's situation. It causes us to accept situations we are dissatisfied with or harmed by, even though there often could be ways to effect change.

Perfectionism: the unconscious belief that having or showing any flaws will make others reject us. Pete Walker describes how perfectionism develops as a defense against feelings of abandonment that threatened to overwhelm us in childhood: "The child projects his hope for being accepted onto inner demands of self-perfection. ... In this way, the child becomes hyperaware of imperfections and strives to become flawless. Eventually she roots out the ultimate flaw–the mortal sin of wanting or asking for her parents' time or energy."

Difficulty with self-discipline: Neglect can leave us with a lack of impulse control or a weak ability to develop and maintain healthy habits. This often causes problems with completing necessary work or ending addictions, which in turn fuels very cruel self-criticism and digs us deeper into the depressive sense that we are defective or worthless. This consequence of emotional neglect calls for an especially tender and caring approach.

Addictions: to mood-altering substances, foods, or activities like working, watching television, sex or gambling. Gabor Maté, a Canadian physician who writes and speaks about the roots of addiction in childhood trauma, describes all addictions as attempts to get an experience of something like intimate connection in a way that feels safe. Addictions also serve to help us escape the ingrained sense that we are unlovable and to suppress emotional pain.

Numbness or detachment: spending many of our most formative years having to constantly avoid intense feelings because we had little or no help processing them creates internal walls between our conscious awareness and those deeper feelings. This leads to depression, especially after childhood ends and we have to function as independent adults.

Inability to talk about feelings (alexithymia): difficulty in identifying, understanding and communicating one's own feelings and emotional aspects of social interactions. It is sometimes described as a sense of emotional numbness or pervasive feelings of emptiness. It is evidenced by intellectualized or avoidant responses to emotion-related questions, by overly externally oriented thinking and by reduced emotional expression, both verbal and nonverbal.

Emptiness: an impoverished relationship with our internal selves which goes along with a general sense that life is pointless or meaningless.

[nesta-stan]

Why the "Trauma and mental illness isn't an excuse" argument about Nesta doesn't make any sense

I don't hate the state but when some one usually says it the thing being excuse are the

ACTUAL SYMPTOMS OF TRAUMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS

Like you do realize that trauma and mental illness isn't a personality trait or this thing that makes you "sad."

I saw a video once that mentioned that comments like this are actually kinda of ableist. Which I think is true.

It reminds me of when I was labeled a "disturbance" when I would breathe and cough very loudly. I have asthma. I was told to try to "control it".

So what I hear when someone says this is "I acknowledge that you have a disease. I just want you to try really hard to pretend you don't by never outwardly displaying your symptoms because it makes me uncomfortable."

Like do people who say this even KNOW what the D in PTSD stands for

" mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function. A mental illness can make you miserable and can cause problems in your daily life, such as at school or work or in relationships." -Mayo clinic

When someone has a mental illness it can hurt the people they love but their sick. They have a disease. It really isn't their fault. Which is why psychiatrist are considered actual medical doctors who can prescribe medicine.

I did a post with a link how Nsata's "laziness" was linked with depression but here are some more quotes.

Nesta's anger issues as it relates to child abuse

"Physically harmed children (relative to nonphysically harmed children) were significantly less attentive to social cues, more inclined to attribute hostile intent, and less able to manage personal problems. They explain possible cognitive deficits in abused and neglected children by suggesting that physical abuse affects the development of social-information-processing patterns, which in turn lead to chronic aggressive behavior. The experience of severe physical harm is associated with the "acquisition of a set of biased and deficient patterns of processing social provocation information" - the national academies press

Nesta's anger issues as it relates to ptsd

"Anger is also a common response to events that seem unfair or in which you have been made a victim. Research shows that anger can be especially common if you have been betrayed by others. This may be most often seen in cases of trauma that involve exploitation or violence.

The trauma and shock of early childhood abuse often affects how well the survivor learns to control his or her emotions. Problems in this area lead to frequent outbursts of extreme emotions, including anger and rage.

How Can Anger After a Trauma Become a Problem?

In people with PTSD, their response to extreme threat can become "stuck." This may lead to responding to all stress in survival mode. If you have PTSD, you may be more likely to react to any stress with "full activation." You may react as if your life or self were threatened.

This automatic response of irritability and anger in those with PTSD can create serious problems in the workplace and in family life. It can also affect your feelings about yourself and your role in society.

Researchers have broken down posttraumatic anger into three key aspects, discussed below. These three factors can lead someone with PTSD to react with anger, even in situations that do not involve extreme threat:

Arousal

Anger is marked by certain reactions in the body. The systems most closely linked to emotion and survival — heart, circulation, glands, brain — are called into action. Anger is also marked by the muscles becoming tense. If you have PTSD, this higher level of tension and arousal can become your normal state. That means the emotional and physical feelings of anger are more intense.

If you have PTSD, you may often feel on edge, keyed up, or irritable. You may be easily provoked. This high level of arousal may cause you to actually seek out situations that require you to stay alert and ward off danger. On the other hand, you may also be tempted to use alcohol or drugs to reduce the level of tension you're feeling.

Behavior

Often the best response to extreme threat is to act aggressively to protect yourself. Many trauma survivors, especially those who went through trauma at a young age, never learn any other way of handling threat. They tend to become stuck in their ways of reacting when they feel threatened. They may be impulsive, acting before they think.

Aggressive behaviors also include complaining, "backstabbing," being late or doing a poor job on purpose, self-blame, or even self-injury. Many people with PTSD only use aggressive responses to threat. They are not able to use other responses that could be more positive.

Thoughts and beliefs

Everyone has thoughts or beliefs that help them understand and make sense of their surroundings. After trauma, a person with PTSD may think or believe that threat is all around, even when this is not true. He or she may not be fully aware of these thoughts and beliefs.

If you have PTSD, you may not be aware of how your thoughts and beliefs have been affected by trauma. For instance, since the trauma you may feel a greater need to control your surroundings. This may lead you to act inflexibly toward others. Your actions then provoke others into becoming hostile towards you. Their hostile behavior then feeds into and reinforces your beliefs about others." - U.S department of veteran affairs

Nesta's Hypersexuality as it relates to assault

"The survivor of trauma is left with unmetabolized rage which is directed both internally and externally. Simultaneously, the traumatized individual is actively attempting to escape the emotions and the loneliness of their constricted, damaged state. Their sexuality awakens early, without direction, and is often intensely driving them to seek out partners. It is this highly ambivalent state which characterizes sexual compulsivity. Their vandalized love maps (which were previously discussed) are trauma-bonded and therefore predispose them to seek out destructive partners. transactions and sexual interactions. Compulsive behavior is a means to numb-out when beginning to think and feel. This behavior also produces a high which allows the person to know she is still alive and human when feelings of depersonalization, numbness, emptiness and physical and emotional analgesia pervade. Compulsive sexual behavior becomes a solution - a means of feeling something in the dissociative fog, an experience of perceived control when feeling powerless, an illusory sense of safety connection and temporary escape from the aloneness." -U.S department of justice

Nesta's drinking

"Substance abuse and addiction is commonly connected to co-occurring disorders like PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Among people seeking treatment for PTSD are 14 times more likely to also be diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder (SUD). Attempting to self-medicate can be a cause to why many people with PTSD also abuse substance. The thought is that by abusing substances, a person with PTSD, will null or avoid PTSD symptoms. Those with PTSD with a SUD are more likely so abuse alcohol over drugs, such as cocaine. Research has found that service members and veterans that have heavy drinking tendencies are more likely to have PTSD, depression. War veterans with a PTSD diagnosis, who also drink alcohol, tend to be diagnosed with binge drinking...One of the highest risk groups for both PTSD and addiction is the veteran population. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, veterans who seek out treatment for a SUD are often diagnosed with PTSD. This is most likely due to the emotional stress, physical demand, and mental strain of combat.10 Service members that were deployed overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan are at a higher risk of developing PTSD. In addition, PTSD has also been linked to veterans that have been sexually assaulted or harassed during their military service or experience.  Military service trauma can happen to any service member, of any gender, during their military service. Sexual trauma includes sexual assault, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment.About 1 in 5 female veterans have been diagnosed with military sexual trauma by Veteran Affairs (VA)." -American addiction centers

[socially-inept-marketer]

Benefits of Hiring a Life Coach

Maybe you're interested but are not sure of the benefits of life coaching? Or, you may be checking on the business as you find out more about the chance of becoming a life coach.Whatever motivates you personally, we have got something for you in this manual. Below you'll find a listing of 33 attributes and advantages of lifestyle coaching to reply to your questions. Read the numerous points below and discover just how impressed you become!

Let us dive in...What's the objective of a lifestyle coach?

Before we look at the respective advantages of lifestyle coaching, just what does a life coach do? The objective of a life coach will be to work in partnership with the individual to assist them in reaching their potential throughout all aspects of life.As a professional sports participant has a mentor to work on their functionality's technical and mental aspects, regular people should have a structured and disciplined way of personal development and improvement.A licensed life coach plays this function.What are the advantages of life coaching?

Below are 33 examples that reveal why life coaching is now a mainstream market.

Enriched self-confidenceA study from the International Coaching Federation (IFC) found that 80 percent of people who hired a life coach reported an improvement in self-confidence.Another perspectiveWe're frequently consumed by our very own remarks, life experiences, and manner of thinking. A life coach can offer a new and frequently beneficial perspective on matters.Heightened self-awarenessBeing fully conscious of your effect on other people and recognizing your flaws, strengths, and one-of-a-kind personality traits is a very challenging experience. This is the artwork of self-awareness.Self-awareness calls for a powerful capacity for introspection and reflection, something that a life coach can help you work towards. In reality, one study found that 67.6percent of training clients encounter a greater degree of self-awareness.Produce a balanced lifestyleThe idea of life balance differs for everyone. Still, often it refers to a joyful, peaceful, and harmonious relationship between your cognitive and physical being, in addition to the significant regions of life.One of the advantages of a life coach is identifying what equilibrium appears like for you and specifying action steps to attain more balance in your lifetime.

Foster better connections

Relationships are the glue that unites individuals with culture and supplies shared satisfaction in life. From unions to beyond and friendships, strong relationships are a crucial contributor to joy.According to the identical ICF study mentioned before, 73 percent of people who hired a life coach enhanced their relationships.Achieve goalsMost of us have dreams in life. However, not a lot of people crystalize these dreams into tangible goals to accomplish. A significant advantage of lifestyle coaching is defining your lifetime objectives and generating a concrete, viable plan to reach them.

Find joy

True happiness is a bit of a mysterious experience, and for many people, it isn't easy to envision a life that's forever delighted. After the day, joy is inherent; it is a sense that's unique to how you feel inside.

By defining lifestyle targets, creating equilibrium, and committing to a much better version of yourself together with the assistance of a lifestyle coach, you start up the possibility of finding happiness. Helping others find joy is one of the principal reasons people eventually become life coaches.

Discover clarity of function Are you clear on exactly what your goal in life would be? Again, this is an individual and inner fire that burns within. It is your fire, dreams, abilities, and flaws all bundled into one.It is your direction in life. Clarity of purpose is essential if you would like to chase your dreams, a life coach can help you in producing this attention.

Do everything you loveFinding that one thing that you enjoy more than anything else and doing this daily is a massive contributor to joy and gratification. Having clarity of function unlocks insights into what this could be. That is just another one of the numerous advantages of a life coach in your corner.Follow through on responsibilities.Employing a life coach is about more than simply getting guidance and advice; it also generates liability. You'll get an ally that holds you to a word and guarantees those aims become chased and projects are finished.Discover your Very Best selfMany people spend too much time comparing themselves to other people and focussing on what we perceive to be our defects. 

Discovering your very best self is one of those invaluable advantages of life coaching.

Determine your strengths and flawsA life coach will take an impartial view of your weaknesses and strengths, assisting you to know the areas of most incredible opportunity

.Be open-minded

To be open-minded, you have to appreciate various methods of doing things and changing viewpoints on life aside from your own. A life coach can offer the outlook and thinking process necessary to adopt this mindset.

Unlock possible

A lot of people have latent potential that's concealed by bias or closed-mindedness. Life coaches unlock this possibility by opening up you to alternative thinking methods and producing clarity for your direction in life

.Improve communication

According to the IFC analysis mentioned previously, seventy-two percent of people who employ a life coach enhance their communication abilities. That is no surprise that the very best life coaches have licensed NLP practitioners -- the most innovative set of communication abilities ever developed. Successful communication is one of the principal advantages of NLP life coaching. (Find more information about exactly what NLP is.)

Manage productivity and time

Everyone has the identical amount of time daily, but a few people use those 24 hours better than others. Working with a life coach can help you better manage your time, establish priorities, and get more done.

Remove negative thoughts

In addition to studying the positive elements of life, like your goal, goals, and possible, life coaches are equipped with a collection of techniques that could enable you to remove or reduce negative ideas that hold you back.

Conquer your fears

By reducing unwanted ideas and adopting your own strengths, you may start to conquer fears which have been limiting your ability to attain your dreams.

Unearth creativity

You are able to use a life coach to brainstorm ideas and exude imagination that's sitting dormant in the depths of the own subconscious.

Give a different perspective on life

Becoming open-minded, self indulgent, and contemplating a new outlook on life will provide you a more favorable and well-rounded outlook.

Create higher income

The skills you develop while coping with a life coach will concentrate your assets while pursuing career objectives or expanding your business to new heights. This really is one of the vital advantages of training in a business atmosphere.

Remove bad habits

When bad customs are embedded within our daily life, they reduce our capacity to carry out. Working with a impartial third party can help you decide what these customs can be and learn how to eliminate them.

Be Conscious of your worth

Our values are such deeply held principles that affect our behaviour and inspire us to do things both big and small. Given that the sheer influence of lifestyle values on each activity, being mindful of what they are can reevaluate how we live and execute.Alignment of advantages with choices

A strengths-based strategy to personal development concentrates on the positive internal resources of someone make modifications. This is compared to conventional procedures that concentrate on identifying flaws and attempting to improve those regions.

Stay inspired: 

One of the Most Popular benefits of lifestyle coaching

Setbacks and roadblocks can derail the best people. One of the most popular benefits of life coaching is to maintain the subject and maximum effort during hard times. You will probably discover pockets of thirst and inspiration which you never knew existed.

Despite believing that we behave logically, the majority of people make decisions based on emotion or entirely subconscious procedures . Having a deeper knowledge of the way the mind functions, you can reframe the procedure for decision-making so it becomes easier and wiser.

By way of instance, an NLP-trained life trainer will be well-versed from the NLP Decision Making Approach , a concept that integrates visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (touch) perceptions and the way they affect our conclusions.

Show empath

In order empathetic, you have to view and feel that the world through the lens of someone else, place yourself into their shoes, and be conscious of their own situation. Regrettably, not everyone has the exact same capacity to demonstrate compassion towards other people.

A life coach can help you look past your own personal wants and supply in-the-moment methods for displaying compassion.

Learn How to accept criticism

If you have been to a job interview, it is very likely you have been asked just how well you take comments from other people. Although the majority of people would love to believe they are open and eager to accept criticism or feedback, in the warmth of this moment their feelings take over.A psychological reaction may lead to a less than ideal effect on the individual providing the comments, who might only be trying to assist you. Learning how to accept criticism is an effective life ability to develop and one of the advantages of life coaching.

Display more appreciation

Showing gratitude and appreciation is an essential component of boosting relationships. It makes people feel great about the effect they have in your own life -- be it in a corporate environment or even socially.

A life coach knows the significance of admiration and has the resources that will assist you to use it effectively in your daily life.

Build rapport

Rapport is a link between a team that empowers those people to socialize and communicate efficiently. For most of us, rapport is regarded as an uncontrollable force that we have with someone or people do not.

But, creating connections with other people can be an intentional and organized procedure a life coach can help you with.Boost physical well-being

Life coaches can provide more than simply emotional and mental support. They can also work together with you to make and implement a strategy for enhancing your bodily well-being or losing weight. A wholesome body often causes a wholesome head also.Reduce stress

Anxiety is a frequent occurrence for a significant section of the populace. Financial burdens, career-related problems, or personal relationship issues could lead to psychological uncertainty and stress-related wellness issues. Life coaches have access to comfort methods, for example, NLP, which can decrease the psychological habits causing anxiety in your life.#33. Reduced depression and stress

Depression and stress are a society-wide wellness issue with lots of complex components, none of which can be a simple fix. But, obtaining an ally in your corner, that knows your causes could lead to an enhanced means of handling the signs of mental health problems.

Advantages of Edmonton Life Coach -- Decision To be happy is another suggestion for everyone. However, one thing is for sure, if you're clear on your goal, remove negativity from your life, and also possess the resources and methods to construct meaningful connections, happiness and satisfaction are attainable.They're more than viable -- everything you'll need is a frame for discovering your leadership in life and an ally that will assist you in getting there. That is your life coach.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching 

[iriscomplimentarymedicine]

Iris publishers-Online Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine(OJCAM)

Integrative Approach

Authored by Viviana Siddhi*

Each year, Americans spend more than $34 billion on complementary and alternative treatment methods and visit alternative practitioners more often than they see primary care doctors. Complementary therapies are those that are used along with conventional treatments. The most effective is integrative approach. It refers to the combined use of evidence-based proven therapies and complementary therapies. This is the term that many people in the field are using more frequently. Integrative medicine services are becoming part of hospitals across the country and cancer centers.

Holistic medicine focuses on how the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual elements of the body are interconnected to maintain holistic health. When one part of the body is not healthy, it is believed to affect the whole person. Holistic approach concentrates on the whole body rather than focusing only on the disease or part of the body that is not working properly. A person should treat a whole self to reach a higher level of wellness. Patients treat disease by changing diet and behavior, taking botanical supplements, and undergoing various complementary therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic, hypnosis, yoga, massage therapy. These approaches can be used along with conventional medicine such as surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy. By combining these different techniques, a person can take control of the disease and obtain a feeling of total wellness: spiritually, physically, and mentally.

The American Holistic Association says that healthy lifestyle habits will improve a person’s energy and vitality. Those habits include exercising, eating a nutritious diet, learning how to breath properly, yoga, acupuncture, and other alternative methods.

“Some doctors suggest that cancer pain and some side effects of treatment can be managed by incorporating different aspects of holistic medicine that include the physical, psychological, and spiritual factors involved with each individual. Health professionals realize that a person’s health depends on the balance of physical, psychological, social, and cultural forces. Adopting healthy habits related to diet, exercise, and emotional and spiritual well-being are considered important to maintaining good health [1].”

There is no scientific evidence that healthy habits such as humor can cure cancer or any other disease. It can reduce stress, promote health, and enhance the quality of life. Laughter has physiological effects that can stimulate the circulatory system, immune system, and other systems in the body.

Humor therapy is the use of humor or laughter for the relief of physical and emotional difficulties. It is used as a complementary tool to promote health and cope with disease, improve quality of life, provide some pain relief, encourage relaxation, and reduce stress. We have different types of humor. Passive humor is created by observing a comic film or reading a book. Humor production involves creating or finding humor in stressful situations. The physical effects of laughter on the body involve increased breathing, oxygen use, and heart rate, which stimulate the circulatory system. Many hospitals have incorporated special rooms where people with humorous materials, are there to help make people laugh. Laughter has many clinical benefits that include positive physiological changes and an overall sense of well-being.

Research has been done on the effects of humor on pain and stress relief. Laughter stimulates the release of special neurotransmitter substances in the brain that help control pain. Laughter increases stress-related hormones which provides support for the claim that humor can relieve stress.

Also, hypnosis helps to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression; manage pain; lower blood pressure; ease some of the side effects of chemotherapy; and create feelings in being in control.

“Physical exercise acts like a natural wonder drug for the brain; exercising is the single most important thing you can do to enhance brain function. It improves the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the body, which increases blood flow to the brain. That supplies more oxygen, glucose and nutrients to the brain, which improves overall brain function. Research shows that exercise encourages the growth of new brain cells and enhances cognitive ability [2].

If you practice yoga, you will strengthen the immune system. The immune system is not a single, tangible part of the body like the lungs, heart, brain, or stomach. In one sense, the immune system includes all of the body’s parts and systems, being the interaction and union of all these systems. The goal of strengthening the immune system is to keep all the system working together, like working families in a large, healthy village. For example, if our bones are compromised from a break or osteoporosis, we will not be able produce new nourishing blood supply to feed our reproducing cells.

“Chemotherapy and other cancer treatments can compromise the immune system’s efficiency because they disrupt the development and balance of all cells, therefore stressing the body’s systems and increasing the risk of infection or other diseases. Specifically, treatments reduce white cells in the blood that are needed to form leukocytes, a natural immune protection. This is why it is so critical for active cancer patients to keep on “immune system alert”. Because yoga’s goal is to strengthen all body systems, the end product is an improved immune system [3].”

On the molecular level, we find further support that yoga boosts the immune system. Yoga causes an improvement in gene expression within lymphocytes, which are our cancer-fighting cells, often referred to as immune cells, that are being produced in our body all the time. Every yoga movement, position, or patterned breathing technique has one goal: to strengthen the immune system.

Yoga practice seeks to free the mind of negative thoughts and feelings about our bodies. Instead of looking into the mirror and making poor comparisons to magazine cover models, yoga teaches us how to turn the mirror around to find what is hidden on the inside. When we do something every day, even if it is a simple stretch, breathing exercise, or correcting our posture while walking down the street, we develop a healthier, more positive image of ourselves. Unfortunately, not everyone manages stress with the same success related to post-traumatic stress growth that requires self-discipline.

Blood purification is absolutely essential to keep “river of life” flowing and delivering nutrients and oxygen. “What makes ozone so special, in my view, is the way it merely catalyzes the delivery of oxygen, and ultimately energy, into the cells. Ozone stimulates the production of cytokines, or “messenger cells”, that set off a domino effect of positive energy changes throughout the immune system, delivering more oxygen to cells so they can perform the metabolic and detoxifying functions for which they’re designed [4].”

Interesting enough, Neil Schachter, M.D. is mentioning in his book particulate matter. “Doctors are particularly concerned about the very fine particle matter (less than 2.5 microns in diameter) that can be inhaled deeply into the airways. Studies throughout the world have linked “Particular Matter” to a range of serious health problems [5].”

During aerobic exercise, the body needs additional amounts of oxygen. The heart needs to pump more blood with each beat and with exercise it becomes more efficient. Doing this type of exercise allows muscle arteries to dilate so that more blood can be carried to the muscle. This makes it easier for the heart to move blood throughout the body, a change which also lowers blood pressure. All these factors assist the heart, allowing it to work better with less effort. For the lungs the most important benefits of aerobic exercise are that the muscles throughout the body become more efficient at absorbing oxygen from the blood. This means that the lungs do not have to work so hard to supply oxygen. With exercise, muscles can become more efficient and obtain more oxygen because of improved circulation. Increased oxygen levels provide more energy and relieve feelings of fatigue.

Chinese medical practitioner analyzes a patient’s energy, looking for signs of excess or deficiency, for indications that something is blocking energy flow, or for clues that there is an ambulance between the main types of energy in the body: the yin and the yang.

“The main underlying concept of Chinese medicine is qi (pronounced “chee”; also spelled chi). Qi is the fundamental life force that guides and controls all life processes, from breathing and the beating of the heart to digestion and sleep. Qi is produced by the metabolism of food and the intake of breath. Qi serves many functions throughout the body and exists in various types, such as protective qi and food qi. Too much or too little qi can lead to imbalance and illness, as can stagnation or blockage of qi [6].”

Ying and yang represent the primary opposing and counterbalancing forces that operate in the universe and, consequently, within each individual. Yin and yang are not merely opposites, like black and white. Instead, taken together, they represent a complete dynamic equilibrium, a constantly changing balance. Yin and yang are expressed in many ways hot and cold, inner and outer, moist and dry, dark and light, male and female. When there is a balance between the qualities of yin and yang, harmony and good health exist. If either becomes too predominant, then disharmony exists. Illness may result.

One yin quality is moisture. If too much is present, the body may experience edema (swelling) or diarrhea. But if dryness (yang) predominates, a person may experience dry mucous membranes, dry skin, or internal dryness leading to constipation. It isn’t a question which is better, yin or yang. Both are necessary. What’s important for good health is the balance between the two.

“As we move toward “Health, Happiness and Harmony”, we experience a greater sense of freedom in our lives” [7].

Asian body healing originated thousands of years ago in the villages and small communities in and around the countries of India, China, Japan and Korea. The actual techniques used began as instinctive responses to manifestations of imbalance in the body. The only tools they utilized were their senses. Each person they worked with represented a microcosmic manifestation of the macrocosmic world. Everyone was treated individually, even if they displayed the same outward indicators. Many aspects of a person’s lifestyle including diet, climate, exercise, type of work, family relations and ancestral influences were considered relevant in order to ensure successful therapy. For example, if two people suffered from fatigue and one lived in a cold area while the other came from a warmer island home, the methods utilized would have to be different for each of them.

After working with many people over thousands of years, certain observations were collected on how all the elements of the environment harmoniously interviewed and coexisted with each other. Eventually, they were able to describe how the ever-changing forces of nature influenced the human body. This system was based on heaven’s force originating from the constellations, interacting with the forces emanating from the earth: yin and yang.

We can supercharge our immune system to protect our bodies against disease – everything from the common cold to cancer. “Super immunity can be best defined as the body’s immune system working into its fullest potential. Modern science has advanced to the point where we have evidence that the right raw materials and nutritional factors can double or triple the protective power of the immune system. If you learn to fill every cell receptor lock with the right nutrient key and meet the demands of each cell, the body’s defenses take on superhero qualities – and you will hardly ever get sick again. More important, this change from average immunity to Super Immunity can save your life [8].”

Smoothies are the quickest and easiest way to incorporate a variety illness fighting nutrients into your diet. The drinks are rich in phytoestrogens from the soy and contain abundant amounts of antioxidants from the fruits and fruit juices.

Excellent source of beta-carotene and vitamin C are apricots and mangos. Place the banana, mango, orange juice, and soy yogurt in a blender. Blend ingredients until they are smooth. Antioxidant-rich beverage is smoothie made of kiwi, mango, apple juice and silken tofu. Smoothie made of mango, carrots, soy yogurt and orange juice are very rich source of beta-carotene.

“The brain is a beautiful thing. It’s deeply complex and intricate with so many neural pathways that it’s hard to know exactly which electrical impulses are being fired from where. Remember that you are the master of your mind. Know that you can and will accomplish all that you set out to do if you just believe that you can do it [9].”

To read more about this article: https://irispublishers.com/ojcam/fulltext/integrative-approach.ID.000612.php

Indexing List of Iris Publishers: https://medium.com/@irispublishers/what-is-the-indexing-list-of-iris-publishers-4ace353e4eee

Iris publishers google scholar citations:

https://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=irispublishers&btnG=

[thegreatcorpus]

Leyte Normal University

College of Arts and Sciences

Language and Literature Unit

EVALUATION OF MEDIA CONTENT TRHOUGH LANGUAGE USE

A Concept Paper

Submitted by:

FRNZA MAE G. ARCEGA

JOSHUA D. DAGAMI

MARY JANE LABUTAP

BAEL AE2-1

Submitted to:

MR. ROGELIO TICOY, JR.

Instructor, Language and Media

July 15, 2020

DEFINITION OF TERMS

The term “media linguistics” has been formed based on the combination of two key components “media” and “linguistics”, the subject of this new discipline is the study of language functioning in the sphere of mass communication. In other words, media linguistics deals with overall complex research of a particular social field of language usage. (Luginbühl, 2015)

Language registers refer to the levels of formality are used in different situations and scenarios. It is important to be conscious on how we are going to use language appropriately in presenting our messages, when to use a specific register and in what type of media platform it should be used. Topic, audience, purpose and location should be taken into consideration when choosing a register. According to Nordquist (2019), “there are five existing language registers. It includes frozen/static register, formal register, consultative register, casual register and intimate register.

Language style also known as stylistics, is the study of style used in literary, and verbal language and the effect the writer/speaker wishes to communicate to the reader/hearer. It attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language. It strengthens the contact with the reader and heightens their awareness. (Lamichhane, 2017)

Grammar refers to the structural regulations and rules that govern the construction of phrases, sentences and words in any language. This is because they are extremely important for the communication that is desired. Although, some might argue that correct grammar and spelling does not really matter, especially in advertising, like what Paul Suggett (2010, as mentioned in Sommerfield, 2014) statement “A sentence that is structured beautifully, obeying all the laws, and bylaws, of the English language, is not what advertising is all about. In fact, in advertising you don’t even need to use real words, good sentence structure, and proper punctuation, or obey any of the rules that were drummed into you in school.” Indeed, using grammar seems like an uphill battle, but media content without it is a suicide.

Semiotics, also called semiology, is the study of signs and sign-using behavior. The Swiss Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, one of its founders, defined it as the study of “the life signs within the society”. On the other hand, American Philosopher Charles Sandres Pierce defined sign as “something which stands to somebody for something” and contributed its categorization into three namely: icon, index and symbol. He added that a sign can never have a definite meaning, for the meaning must be continuously qualified. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2020)

Pragmatics deals with utterances, by which we will mean specific events, the intentional acts of speakers at times and places, typically involving language. Logic and semantics traditionally deal with properties of types of expressions, and not with properties that differ from token to token, or use to use, or, as we shall say, from utterance to utterance, and vary with the particular properties that differentiate them. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019)

INTRODUCTION

Media is deeply rooted in our lives that it is significant in our personal lives, as well as in business, politics and society. Its importance has grown exponentially. It seems like the world is lifeless without it.

Rapid development of the print and the electronic media, quick growth of virtual communications and the Internet have enormously changed people’s lives, giving stimuli for the development of the whole range of information society theories. (Luginbühl, 2015) It creates an overwhelming feeling which made people to take every information that is served on the table. Oftentimes, it misleads people that is why it is important to critically think and evaluate media content.

Patton (1987) defined evaluation as “a process that critically examines something. It involves collecting and analyzing information which include its activities, characteristics and outcomes. It is done in order to make judgments and to ensure that they are as effective as they can be. It can help us identify media content.

This paper aims to provide criteria that will help media users in evaluating media content of different types of media through language use.

DICUSSION

Media content can be evaluated through representation, audience, institutions, language, ideology, narrative and genre, but we are only going to focus on how language is used in these media types. It is also called as media linguistics.

There are six different types of media: Print Media, Visual Media, Electronic Broadcasting Media, Outdoor Media, Transit Media and Digital Media. Each media type will be evaluated on how language is used, specifically language registers, language style, grammar, semiotics and pragmatics.

PRINT MEDIA

Print media represents the oldest and the most widespread type of mass media published on paper. It includes books, circulars, journals, lithographs, memos, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, and periodicals. (Oxford Reference, 2020)

Evaluating print media content in terms of:

Registers: Papers with an international audience usually use formal register.

Stylistics: It follows formal type of writing. it also uses a hierarchy of information to guide the consumer’s attention towards the most important statement/topic. Claims or statements are supported with evidence either in text or figure. Author’s information is usually detailed to make it easy for prospects to contact them and it holds them accountable for any problems on their published article.

Grammar: In this type of media, correct grammar and spelling should be observed. Based on the study conducted by Appelman & Bolls (2011), grammatical errors can affect the credibility of news stories and the amount of time and effort required to read them. Such errors increases reading difficulty and lower readers’ perception of credibility.

Semiotics: Effective print media design is bold and clear. Fonts should be easy to read and high quality graphics should work together. A few prominent graphics will do a much better job that having numerous elements scattered throughout the page. Contrast is everything. It highlights the most important parts of the message to create some visual appeal. Monotone color palette or tones that are very similar to each other are refrained from using.

Pragmatics: The main function of headlines and titles is to inform the reader briefly about the text that follows. They also signal of the paper’s attitude to the facts reported. Also semantically, the headline can be interpreted due to its literal meaning and inferences that readers reach depending on their cognitive knowledge. In order to demonstrate the meaning in its full efficiency, pragmatic aspects are also helpful in specifying the purpose of the article by making appropriate sense. The writer can use different stylistic devices such as discourse markers and connectors, metaphors, rhetorical questions, and emotive words to facilitate the interpretation of the utterances and attract readers’ attention. (Ismail, 2016)

VISUAL MEDIA

Visual Media as defined by the International Visual Literacy Association is ‘a group of vision competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. (Welsh & Wright, 2010) In addition to this, it is as a set of competencies that ‘enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visual actions, objects, and/or creative use of these competencies, we are able to communicate with others. (Debes, 1969) it includes images, paintings, videos and infographics.

Evaluating visual media content in terms of:

Registers: Papers with an international audience usually use formal or casual register to attract a wider scope of audience. Lasquite (n.d.) stated, that visual communication is a key component in visual content marketing. Every marketer understands the value of sending the right message to consumers.

Stylistics: Content of this type of media is not going to be plain and boring if they are full of interesting characters and places, if they are connected to themes like good vs. evil etc. and if they have engaging prose that the audience can appreciate.

Grammar: Bradley (2010) said that design elements are like letters and words. When we add design principles and apply them to our elements, our words, we form a visual grammar. As we learn to use both we enable ourselves to communicate visually. In life we can communicate through the spoken word or through gestures. In design we’re bound by a visual language. Even the words on the page are made up of characters of type which are abstract shapes. Written language itself is a visual representation of spoken language. Bradley also stated that the  visual grammar, is the context within which we study design principles. When we learn to use girds or better understand typography or color we are doing so in order to communicate more effectively with our audience. The principles are the trees. Visual grammar is the forest.

Semiotics: Parsa (n.d.) stated that in visual semiotics iconic signs look like its object. They are more ‘motivated’ signs. The indexical signs draw attention to the thing to which it refers. The symbol signs, - e.g. a red rose is a symbol of ‘passion’ in Valentine’s Day and means ‘love’– are unmotivated or arbitrary. In a different culture this color of flower may not signify ‘passion’ or ‘love’. Also, any information, if not directly provided, is gained via a process of interpretation. Texts are not always produced recognizable codes in a communicative process. Usage of symbolic narratives, metaphors and metonymy may restrain the comprehension and signification of the text. In other words, in the exploration of the connotations and the associations, one requires to “make interpretations”. It also includes the material used, camera angles and color filters.

Pragmatics: David Lodge, writing in the Paradise News, says that pragmatics gives humans "a fuller, deeper, and generally more reasonable account of human language behavior." Without pragmatics, there is often no understanding of what language actually means, or what a person truly means when she is speaking. The context—the social signs, the image, body language, and tone of voice (the pragmatics)—is what makes utterances clear or unclear to the speaker and her listeners.

ELECTRONIC BROADCASTING MEDIA

Electronic media is the media that one can share on any electronic device for the audiences viewing, internet to transmit facts, skills, understanding, knowledge and appreciation with the aims of to attract general publics in general and marketers in particular. Popular examples of electronic media are television and radio. (Wikipedia, 2020)

Evaluating electronic broadcasting media content in terms of:

Registers: Electronic broadcasting media sometimes use formal register because less rigid but still constrained, where communication is expected to be respectful, uninterrupted, and restrained. Slang is never used and contractions are rare. However, it also uses consultative register. often in conversation when they are speaking with someone who has specialized knowledge or who is offering advice

Stylistics: Electronic broadcasting media is combined with a general negative view against excessive foul language has tempered electronic broadcasting into a much more “family friendly” media form. They use electromechanical energy or electronics for public to access the content. Main resources of electronic media are CD-ROM, online content, slide presentations, audio recordings, video recordings and multimedia presentations. Emotional appeal and repetition is highly observed.

Grammar: Electronic broadcasting media encompasses any form of media that is primarily consumed through listening. The grammars that they used in conveying the information to the audience are appealing and interested in the ears and eyes of the viewer.

Semiotics: Electronic broadcasting media uses connotation since they are designed to generate culturally-significant meanings. Iconic sign is usually used in advertisements of this media type. Advertisers do this, not only through repetition, but also through the combining of symbols, bringing words, images and music together into one meaningful and coherent composition.

Pragmatics: Its language contains plural codes, which interact to create new meanings or messages. Electronic broadcasting media uses the language without any opinion to the audience and convey the information just like they are interacting to the audience.

OUTDOOR MEDIA

Outdoor media is typically consisting of any advertising seen outside of the home, and is primarily grouped into a few specific categories such Billboards, posters and transit to name a few. Outdoor advertisements are the best medium to inform the moving population. Once an advertisement board is installed at a place, it usually remains there for a fairly longer period. What is best in outdoor media is that it can be displayed at a place where best impact can be created. (Nguyen, 2020)

Evaluating outdoor media content in terms of:

Registers: It uses casual register because it is probably use when you consider how you talk with other people, often in a group setting—marketers to be specific. Use of slang, contractions, and vernacular grammar is all common in Outdoor media. Also, Outdoor media uses the static register wherein it contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices.

Stylistics: Outdoor media often uses public notices in advertising to different locations. It also uses figurative languages to make their advertisement more reliable and catchier to the commuters or even to the tourists. Outdoor media uses visual techniques to make the viewers more attentive and languages are more powerful in visualizing their ads for the commuters and tourists to have a desirable view.

Grammar: Just like any advertising and marketing strategy, outdoor advertising requires research and preparation so that their use of grammar may not be mistaken because it can affect their viewer’s insight about their advertisement.

Semiotics: When it comes to branding and advertising, semiotics can provide some amazing insights. In some cases, the sign can be an exact representation of the thing being signified, while in other cases, it may be a symbol associated with it. In outdoor media, they use image to visualize the product being sold. They also use word to convey a message with the same effectiveness as an entire picture. It uses the Rule of Thirds and The Golden Mean.

Pragmatics: Outdoor media uses words and images to advertise their products and the words and pictures that they are using, connects to the understanding of the people. The words and images they used are more attractive, catchy and have a bigger size for their viewers to be more interested in their advertisement.

TRANSIT MEDIA

Transit media refers to advertising placed in, on, or around modes of public transportation: buses, subways, and taxis, as well as at bus, train, and subway stations. Transit media can be a great way to reach a really diverse audience: families traveling to daycares, professionals heading to work, tourists navigating a new town, or even students making their way to a local coffee shop. (Hendricks, 2020)

Evaluating transit media content in terms of:

Registers: Conversational register is often used in this type of media because of its target audience.

Stylistics: Placing a message outside targets a larger audience and is recognized by three quarters of passing individuals. It serves as a last minute reminder or as impulse motivator at pricely a time when real and potential consumers are on the move. Exterior bus posters, displayed on the front, back, and sides of the vehicle, offer advertisers high exposure, particularly in largeurban areas. There are commuters and tourists, or people in cabs, rental cars, and on foot who can see the rolling billboard go by. According to "The Complete Guide to Creative Out-Of-Home Media Forms," bus exteriors are available in 80 to 85 percent of the top 100 markets in the United States on more than 36,500 buses. The bus exteriors provide "mass audience exposures" that are repeated and reinforced as they follow the same routes every day. The more innovative, intriguing and humorous it is, the better.

Grammar: The message should be brief consisting of at least 3-5 words.

Semiotics: It also helps that nearly all transit ads are available at eye level with large graphics and text. The message should be legible. Colors are used to contrast each other. It builds a recognizable format or layout that catches the briefest eyes contact.

Pragmatics: Every transit agency that advertises has guidelines dealing with "objectionable" material. The problem comes in defining what might fall into that category. Seventy percent of the respondents indicated that they had formal, written guidelines addressing ad content. The restrictions differ throughout the transit industry, but generally include some variation of the following prohibited content: illegal, indecent, or immoral ads; political, alcohol, or tobacco ads; libelous, obscene, or profane ads; ads that ridicule individuals or groups of people; advocacy of or opposition to a religion, denomination, tenet, or belief; violent, criminal, or anti-social behavior; false, misleading, or deceptive ads; adult materials and services; explicit sexual material; pornography or businesses that traffic in pornography; and advertising that appears as graffiti, gang signs, or symbols.

DIGITAL MEDIA

Digital media are any media that are encoded in machine-readable formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified and preserved on digital electronics devices. Examples of digital media include software, digital images, digital video, video games, web pages and websites, social media, digital data and databases, digital audio such as MP3, electronic documents and electronic books. (Richard, 2013 as mentioned in Wikepedia, 2020).

Evaluating digital media content in terms of:

Registers: It uses casual register or consultative register because it is probably use when you consider how you talk with other people, often in a group setting—marketers to be specific.

Stylistics: User-generated content raises issues of privacy, credibility, civility and compensation for cultural, intellectual and artistic contributions. The spread of digital media, and the wide range of literacy and communications skills necessary to use it effectively, have deepened the digital divide between those who have access to digital media and those who don't. Each digital media network has its own intended purpose and audience. Understanding this and matching your content and tone to the proper social media outlet is imperative for success..

Grammar: Gumpart & Cathcart examined how new media develop their own grammars, the way individual acquire media literacy, and the effect of media literacy on ways people relate to the world and each other. It concludes that people develop different states of media consciousness based upon the… media grammars, and that particular consciousness produce media gaps which separate people.

Semiotics: When it comes to graphics, it uses color psychology. Photos and videos can boost your social media strategy. Tweets that feature images earn 150 percent more retweets are favorited 89 percent more and lead to 18 percent more clicks. Typing in all capital letters is visually alarming, they also communicate that you’re upset (and yelling) about something. It should be avoided. When used correctly, hashtags will increase your online visibility and followers. When used in excess, it looks spammy and becomes ineffective.

Pragmatics: Its language contains speech acts like constatives (assertive, concessives, suggestive, suppositive, responsive), directives (request, question & requirement), expressives (thank, accept, reject, negative opinion & positive opinion) and attachments (link, code & log).

CONCLUSION

Media has evolved rapidly over the last couple of centuries. These changes brought a lot of convenience in accessing different types of information, from typical newspapers to our smartphones. It provided an ocean of information these days, but “we need to be critical enough not to drown in hoaxes and misinformation.” Hence, it is our duty to be responsible consumers of information, regardless of media type, and to examine every small detail we see and hear on the media. Indeed, “media is a blessing for humans as it plays a vital role in our personal lives and many other walks of our lives.” It lies upon us who decide whether “media is a blessing or a curse.”

REFERENCES:

Gray, J. (2008). How to move into moving media: Transit Media. Journal of Marketing. Retrieved from https://journals.co.za/content/mfsa1/2008/04/EJC74350

Gumpert, G. & Cathcart, R. (2009). Media grammars, generations, and media gaps. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038509360059

Appelman, A. & Bolls, p. (2011). Article Recall, Credibility Lower with Grammar Errors. Newspaper Research Journal. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/073953291103200205

Herrmann, E. (2015). Language Register: What is it and why does it matter in education? Retrieved from https://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/language-register-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter/education

Nordquist, R. (2019). What is Register in Linguistics? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/register-language-style-1692038

Eilders,C. (2016). Print Media. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc193#accessDenialLayout

Wikipedia (2020). Digital Media. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/digital_media

Wikipedia (2020). Electronic Media. Retrieved fromhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_media

Oaks, D. (2011). Rethinking the role of grammar in advertising and marketing curriculum. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/073953291103200205?journalCode=nrja#:~:text=It%20was%20observed%20that%20grammar,retention%20and%20low%20perceived%20credibility.

Nguyen, G. (2020). Types of Outdoor Media. Retrieved from https://penji.co/types-of-outdoor-advertising/

Oxford Reference (2020). Print media. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100346392

Lewis, J. (2020). Semiotics in Advertising. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-semiotics-advertising-38593.html#:~:text=Semiotics%20are%20frequently%20used%20in,symbol%20that%20signifies%20something%20else.

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2020). Semiotics. Retrieved from https://encyclopaediabritannica./semiotics

Authors:

Frenza Mae G. Arcega

Joshua D. Dagami

Mary Jane Labutap

[d-p-d-r]

Intro

Feels like every topic-based blog deserves an intro, so here is one.

I have had a lot of diagnostic as well as non-diagnostic / general life-experience labels placed on me throughout my life. In general, unlike many others here I am not eager to describe my self-identity using a plethora of labels, and the ones I do actively embrace are done in a very intentional way after a long period of reflection.

Here I will explain the particular labels that are relevant to the creation of this blog, and what they specifically mean for me.

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Depersonalisation-derealisation disorder About a half year ago, during a period of intense emotional, spiritual and physical stress, I suddenly woke up one morning feeling very dizzy, brain-fogged, and like that there was a veil between my entire being and the outside world which made it seem unreal. I also slowly began to notice the classic physical symptoms of a flu, which soon grow into the most debilitating flu I have ever the memory of experiencing. All the flu symptoms dissipated in due time, but the cognitive dissociative symptoms did not. They have stayed, waxing and waning, and there is a sense that something will “never be the same” inside of myself again. I am still very early into learning most of the nuances around sustainable coping, management and what my triggers are. 

I often say to people, that I feel “constantly dizzy”, because all of the symptoms of dp/dr can be described as “dizzying”. Visual depth perception is especially difficult and as such I frequently feel unsteady when standing or walking, sometimes even sitting, which has so far been the most visibly disruptive aspect of the condition.

Depersonalisation is an experience that I have quite a bit of prior life experience managing, but derealisation has been a totally new one, and the particular type of depersonalisation that accompanies this seems to be qualitatively different than anything I’ve known before.

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Autism spectrum disorder I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome back when that was still the correct term, but I embrace the rationale behind the introduction of the new label, feel that it more closely resembles my own experience anyway, even though in daily life I am more likely to still say “aspergers” for the sake of keeping things simple to those who are likely less aware of the nuanced distinctions.

There are times when I have felt more or less impacted by my inborn differences, it has almost exclusively been correlated with how “autism-friendly” the people, situations, and structures in my daily life is at any given time. I am also learning, with every new type of situation and life experience, what my physiological limits are - in this period of my life, there has been a very large amount of limit discovery and negotiation - and slowly but surely, also learning to practice limit acceptance. In short, I have accidentally got myself into a set of circumstances that are very draining and harmful to the autistic being without realising that it would be such. My work now consists of learning the lessons it has to teach, and very slowly moving towards some kind of sustainable internal and external configuration. I feel often that I am walking a thin line that is dangerously close to a collapse so great that I would never be able to recover from. But I am already here, and as such trying to walk faster or take apparent shortcuts seems that it would be even more dangerous.

Sensory processing sensitivity is the aspect of the autistic experience that affects me the most, as well as that which I tend to attribute every other aspect to as the foundation - in my own experience only of course, as it is a spectrum and all. This interacts in an interesting (more likely: harmful and aggravating) way with dp/dr which primarily (again, only speaking for myself) is experienced as a distortion of sensory perceptions.

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Chronically ill / having chronic illness Despite all the diagnoses I have received throughout my life, I have almost always been able to pass as healthy to the average casual observer. This of course has always been a conscious decision with consciously executed strategies, which has always worked... until now. Suddenly but not surprisingly, at the “pinnacle of outward success” in my life I have started to have visible trouble functioning at work, in many daily life situations that has never been a problem before, and becoming forced to admit that I am far from being the healthy person that appears from afar. This is really the point of this blog I guess - to help me process and navigate this strange new reality, because there is no one I can talk to in my regular life about any of these things besides medical professionals. And so much of healing requires processing and understanding, it is work that I need to do not just inside of a therapy appointment - and I hope that I would feel comfortable to do that work in this space.

It would also be nice to share and exchange experiences with others, and support each other somehow - but as with all human social things, it’s difficult for me to actively want or expect it. I will just say that I hope it happens, too.

I prefer to say chronically ill rather than “mentally ill” or even “chronically mentally ill” because even though my primary conditions belong in the realm of “mental health” I see the mind and body as part of one continuum that really cannot be separated, also because almost all of my symptoms of illness are experienced as primarily physical, affecting my ability to navigate the world inside of my body much more so than inside of my mind (example: I almost always feel totally fine when lying down). It is part of my slow learning to realise that thoughts and feelings have contributed to all of these horrible ongoing physical experiences, as well as that thoughts and feelings hold the power to shift them to a certain degree such that they are no longer a significant impairment to functioning.

I’m also still open to receiving or discovering diagnostic labels that belong to the realm of “physical health” as the primary “owner” of any number of symptoms, but it hasn’t happened yet. Looking at you, crushing fatigue and crushing headaches. 

[hcsmca]

Q&A with Camila Ventura, Zika Family Caregiver

Camila Ventura is a Brazilian retina specialist who is dedicated to understanding and fighting Congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). Camila’s work with Zika began during the 2015 outbreak in Brazil, when she first reported the ocular findings of three babies affected by the virus during pregnancy. We caught up with Camila to find out more about her past and current efforts to help babies and families affected by CZS. Camila spoke at TEDMED 2017, and you can watch her Talk here.

TEDMED: There has been considerable improvement in our understanding and treatment of Congenital Zika syndrome since the outbreak, especially thanks to the hard work of teams like yours. What are the biggest challenges communities affected by Zika face today?

Camila Ventura: We have certainly made progress not only in understanding the pathophysiology of this new disease and developing vaccines and tests to diagnose the Zika infection, but also learning how to care for children with Congenital Zika syndrome. As I mention in my Talk, it is impossible to care for a child with CZS without an engaged and interactive multidisciplinary team. We have learned that communication between different professionals is essential to plan interventions and potentialize therapies. We have also learned that CZS has a broad spectrum and that there is not a “one recipe” treatment for these children. In other words, treatment cannot be generalized.

We still face many challenges indeed. Our biggest challenge nowadays is getting these families to reach our rehab center at the Altino Ventura Foundation located in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco state. Most of the children are instructed to come weekly for therapies, but because many live in the countryside, dropouts are one of our biggest challenges.

Another important concern is the late complications that some of the children develop. We had at least 15 children who developed hydrocephaly and required a shunt. Despite the fact that the shunt surgery normalized the brain pressure, some of them progressed with vision loss. We also have children with different levels of dysphagia (some requiring gastrostomy). The biggest concern with regard to dysphagia is the risk of aspirating food into the lungs and developing pneumonia. We had 5 cases that died from pneumonia. The last, but not less important, challenge is the uncontrolled and severe seizures that some children present. Seizures bring a lot of concern not only to doctors, but also to families that many times feel impotent and helpless. However, despite all the complications and challenges we are facing, we are very proud of our work with these kids and their families. We now have three of them walking!

TM: What projects and research have you been involved in since you spoke at TEDMED 2017?

CV: Since TEDMED, we received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant and started a collaborative research study with the RTI International, a well-known and respected research non-profit organization. The main goal of this study is to follow 200 children with congenital Zika syndrome and their families for a period of 5 years. By assessing each child, we are trying to understand important outcomes such as neurodevelopment (motor skills and cognition), functional skills (activity of daily living, feeding, and sleeping), social and language skills, temperament, and behavior. Another aim of this study is to understand how families have coped with this new challenge and adapted to disability by assessing stress level, family dynamics, and social support. We hope that this study will enable us to provide an optimized habilitation treatment once we identify specific delays in the child’s development and at the same time, provide caregivers with psychological and social support by understanding their specific needs.

P.S.: I gave an interview at RetinaLink after TEDMED and the NIH Grant.

TM: Your team is composed of a multidisciplinary group of specialists, each skilled at addressing one of the many systems affected in babies with Congenital Zika syndrome. What were some of the challenges in bringing doctors of different backgrounds together? Were there any surprising or unexpected outcomes that came as a result of the collaboration?

CV: To answer your question, I need to explain about our history. The Altino Ventura Foundation is a non-profit organization that started in 1986 as an eye center for the low-income population. In 2004, we opened our Rehabilitation Center that used to be run in a small rented house and we were only accredited to perform visual and motor rehabilitations. However, in 2014, we finally moved to a 3-story building owned by us, and that was when we became fully accredited to rehabilitate patients with multiple disabilities in all four domains (visual, hearing, motor, and intellectual).

By then, we already had the different physicians and therapists working at the same place working for the same goals. Also, at the FAV we have always valued teamwork and interaction between our professionals. However, with the advent of Zika, the interaction was intensified, which brought more unity to our work. Thanks to this strong connection, we have been able to see how it has positively affected our children’s outcomes.

Another important aspect that Zika brought to our institution was the possibility of developing our own protocols for Zika. Since we have the oldest patients with Zika, we did not get to learn from others how to treat our patients. Zika empowered us to develop our own protocols that are used today to treat our children. The visual impairment assessment protocol, for example, was developed by our team and published in the Journal of the American Association of Pediatrics (JAAPOS) in 2016 with the intent of sharing with the world what we have learned so far about the visual aspect of CZS. In addition, the FAV has been a hive for other professionals from other states in Brazil and from the US to visit and to be trained for CZS habilitation treatment.

TM: You work closely with the families of babies affected by Congenital Zika syndrome, and you mention in your Talk that you consider mothers and caregivers to be your best allies in the treatment of their children. When a family is empowered to be involved in treatment, what sorts of positive results do you see?

CV: I truly believe that families make a difference in the child’s outcome not only for children with Zika, but for every child that needs close assistance. In 2016, we realized just how slow the response to our early intervention therapy was—children were coming once every week to the FAV Rehab Center, and we had to think of different strategies since we could not provide as many assessments as we would have liked due to Brazil’s economic and financial situation. We basically had to work with what he had. Despite teaching mothers/caregivers how to stimulate their child at home, we knew they weren’t able to purchase the toys or equipment that were necessary to do so. We then came up with the idea of handcrafting a multi-sensory kit with the mothers/caregivers. They have been using the multi-sensory kit since then and we have filmed a tutorial of how to use the kit and uploaded the series to YouTube so other families can learn and benefit from this idea as well. Here are our tutorials divided into parts 1, 2, and 3. We also provided mothers/caregivers with constant workshops to empower them because we know now that committed parents/caregivers can change a child’s overall outcome.

TM: What was the TEDMED experience like for you?

CV: Absolutely surreal! It was the most thrilling, exciting, scary, nerve-wracking, and challenging experience I ever lived. Having to memorize my 15-minute talk in English and deliver it with emotion with all the tension that was going on inside me was not easy. But after succeeding and looking back at the entire preparation process, I can only thank the amazing professionals I got the chance to work with since day one. I appreciate the sweetness and patience of Lucy Barry, the great suggestions from the straight-to-the-point Marcus Webb, and the amazing support I received from Shirley Bergin. I could not ask for a better team! And if I can add, now that I have stepped in the TEDMED shoes, I value even more each and every speaker that gets on stage to share their personal and/or professional experience – we all have walked an extra mile! Thank you TEDMED for such an amazing experience!

The post Q&A with Camila Ventura, Zika Family Caregiver appeared first on TEDMED Blog.

Read more from TEDMED https://blog.tedmed.com/qa-with-camila-ventura-zika-family-caregiver/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

[scriptautistic]

OK so I might be wrong but I recall one of the admins here saying they're French (or that they got diagnosed in France ???)...if I'm not mistaken, could they say more about the diagnosis process & how autistic people are treated in France (do you have accomodations, is there a lot of ableism, etc) ? I'm writing a French autistic character and I'm lacking a lot of information because most of the info about autism in France is in French, and I haven't learned the language.

Hi! You’re remembering correctly, I am indeed French, and I can answer that question.

Autism Diagnosis in France

French healthcare is set up with a primary care system with general healthcare providers(such as general practitioners or family doctors), and then you’ve got specialists, and you’ve got to go through primary care to be able to access the specialists and be reimbursed properly. It works like this for all kind of healthcare specialists, and it’s also the case for autism.

I don’t know the age of your character when they’re getting diagnosed, so I’ll cover different situations. Basically, there are three different times in your life where you can get adressed to a specialized team for diagnosis:

As a young child: It is possible the parents noticed that there was something “wrong” with their child and brought it up with the pediatrician. It is also possible that the pediatrician noticed some developmental delays or tell-tale signs of autism during one of the developmental checkups that are (theoretically) scheduled regularly during the child’s first years.

As a school-age child or as a teenager: difficulties (of an academic or social nature) at school can trigger questions from teachers or parents. Typically, the child would then meet the school psychologist who would do a first screening/evaluation. If the school psychologist thought there was ground for a diagnosis, they’d refer the child to a child psychiatrist.

As a teenager or an adult: Self-diagnosis can lead the character to seek an official diagnosis, they’d then go to a psychiatrist (people younger than 26 can go see a psychiatrist directly, people 26 and older need to be refered by their G.P. if they want to be reimbursed) to talk about it. Another possibility is the character seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist for mental health problems, and the professionnal bringing up the possibility of an autism diagnosis. If it was a psychologist who brought it up, the character would need to go and see a psychiatrist anyway, because only doctors can make official referals to specialists.

In any case, the character would end up seeing a general healthcare provider, who would ask them (or their parents) a lot of question about autistic traits, their impact on daily life and on professional/academic life, etc. If what the doctor hears lets them think that there is ground for a diagnosis, they’d then write a letter to a specialized team, with all the information to justify their demand.

Specialized teams can be composed of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psycho-motor therapists… There is at least one “official” team per admisitrative region in France (so that means 8 total), in what is called a Centre Ressource Autisme or C.R.A. (which means Autism Resource Center). There can also be teams in other places such as in CAMSPs (Center for Early Medico-Social Action, for children younger than 6), CMPPs (Medico-Psycho-Pedagogical Center, for children up to 18 yo), child psychiatry or pediatry services in hospitals, special evaluation units, or coordinated independant practices.

Your character can probably count a couple of months before being refered to one of these teams. It’s going to be quicker for a young child than for an adult, because it’s considered as more of a priority. For me it took 6 months but that’s because they lost my contact info, I think one-two months is more representative.

As for what the actual autism evaluation would look like, I am going to describe mine, but it’s slightly different from place to place and from team to team. It probably would also be slightly different with a child, i went through the evaluation process as an adult.

First I had a preliminary interview with a psychiatrist, it was a general discussion of my autistic traits and of the things that made me suspect being autistic. I also showed him my health report and my school report. After that he said he’d recommand me for a full evaluation and he told me to wait for them to contact me. I had the full evaluation two months later. It consisted in:

A full cognitive assessment, they used the WAIS-IV

 A language (and more) assessment, which included a spelling test, a reading speed test, a thing where I had to come up with as many words as I could in two minutes, a theory of mind test, a test in which I had to identify and then imitate intonation, a test in which I had to identify emotions on faces, give definitions or synonyms for words, and maybe more stuff that I can’t remember.

What they called a “functional assessment” which consisted in them asking questions about my daily life, about how I manage activities of daily living, how studying and working is going for me, and so on. I think they had a booklet they took questions from. They also made me do some things like telling the story from a picture and from a picture book, telling a story with objects, playing a kind of pretend game… I was filmed during all of this. They also left the room for a few minutes while leaving me with distractions (a big basket of books and stimmy things), they said they needed to talk but I think they wanted to film how I’d react while alone.

An interview with my girlfriend about my daily life, how I manage activities of daily living and whether I put myself in danger and whether I know how to manage money and stuff. Basically assessing my level of independence I guess.

There was supposed to be an interview with my mom to ask about my early development but she couldn’t come, so they gave her a paper form with questions to answer.

 After that, there is one more appointment with the psychiatrist to give me the results.

That’s about all I can say about diagnosis. The whole process took about a year for me but it’s supposed to be shorter, it would have been if they hadn’t lost my contact information. It didn’t cost me anything. It all took place in my local hospital, in a special evaluation unit for adult autism diagnosis. If you have any more questions I’d be happy to answer them.

Attitudes towards autism in France

First I’d say autism is not as well-known in France as it can be in English-speaking countries. If you ask the general population what autism is, chances are you’ll be met with faint memories of Rain Man and not much else. There’s also a certain awareness of rocking with one’s hands over one’s ears as an autistic thing, and it sometimes is used for ableist jokes and mockery. Mostly, if your character were to try and explain they are autistic to people, they’d probably have to explain everything from the beginning because people don’t really have a working definition of autism.

There’s a lot of ableism towards autism among professionnals, even though most specialists I’ve encountered were well-meaning. Asperger’s is still a very commonly-used diagnostic term here, and chances are your character would have to talk about Asperger’s rather than autism to be understood and taken seriously by professionals. If they don’t have contact with an international community, that’s also probably how they’d identify. All French communities of autistic people I’ve found centered around this word. There are not a lot of these communities, and I’m not aware of any big organization run by and for autistic people. Your character may feel isolated and have trouble finding people like them. Some hospitals or autism centers run discussion groups and meetings for autistic teens, I think.

Regarding autism, things that are well-established in the U.S. are often seen as the Brand Great New thing in France. Basically I think you can say we are about 10 years late in that regard. For instance, I’ve met a lot of professionnals who were excited to work with me because they were very interested in how autism presents in girls, they’ve read there are some differences, and so on. This is not a new researc subject in the U.S., but it is here. Another, less pleasant example of this phenomenon is that here, ABA is seen as the Great New Thing, a new efficient treatment that’s commonly used overseas but barely even known here! We’ve got to train specialists and to develop it! That’s one aspect for which I wish we wouldn’t be making progress.

Most non-specialist mental health and medical professionnals know very little about autism. Once I tried to talk about it to a psychiatrist, and he confused it with schizophrenia and schooled me on why I wasn’t psychotic. I had to teach more than one therapist about it. There are still very backwards “treatments” of autism that are sometimes in use, such as psychoanalysis (on nonverbal 5 year olds...). But as a psychology student I can say we’re mostly getting up-to-date information about autism, so hopefully this should get better in coming years.

As to accomodations, I’ve never had to ask for any so I’m not best placed to answer this question. It is law that people with disabilities (I’m pretty sure you have to have an official diagnosis for this) have to get the accomodations they need in the workplace, in school and in higher education, but I’m not sure how easy it is to get them or how well the laws are respected. I’ve seen a few disabled fellow students who got accomodations, one of whom was autistic (he had someone else take his notes for him and was allowed to record lectures). I can tell you a bit more about how to get accomodations in university; if that’s relevant for you to know you can shoot us another ask once the askbox is open again.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, if you have follow-up questions I’d be happy to answer them.

-Mod Cat   

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[juniperpublishers-ttsr]

Perceived Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement among Jordanian Students

Abstract

The current study aimed at exploring the relationship between perceived self-efficacy and academic achievement among a sample of Jordanian secondary stage students through identifying the levels of perceived self-efficacy among students and identifying the effect of gender and academic achievement on self-efficacy. To achieve the study aims, the researchers applied the perceived self-efficacy scale on (356) secondary stage students and collected information on students’ gender and academic achievement. The results of the study showed that the majority of students hold a moderate level of perceived self-efficacy in terms of the total score and in all domains scores of the scale. Also, the results showed a significant effect of academic achievement on perceived self-efficacy in favor of higher achievement students. In addition, the results showed no significant effect for gender or the interaction of academic achievement and gender on perceived self-efficacy. The results were discussed in terms of developmental and social aspects of the sample.

Keywords: Self-efficacy, Educators, Positive social interaction, Social reinforcement, Psychological processes

    Introduction

Awareness of one’s self dictates behavior, beliefs about abilities, task achievements and anticipation of success or failure. Bandura [1] has originally believed that self-efficacy mediate the relationship between an individual belief in terms of success or failure and actual behavior when performing a particular task. Self-efficacy is defined as the beliefs about individuals’ capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events or tasks that affect their lives [2]. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how someone feels, thinks, and behave. Educators often note how strong sense of efficacy may affect students’ accomplishment and personal well-being. Students with high levels of self-efficacy are more likely to be certain about their capabilities when encountered by difficult tasks because they see that as a challenge rather than a way to avoid such difficult situations.

However, perceived self-efficacy can either enhance students’ capabilities or decrease them. Those who have strong perceived self-efficacy will be able to analyze their problems and reach better solutions while those with low perceived self-efficacy will have doubts about their abilities and avoid initiating successful solutions especially in difficult situations [3]. This concept implies that self-efficacy is learned and can develop over age through positive social interaction and proper social reinforcement [4-5]. Bandura [6] stated that most of the research conducted showed that self-beliefs of efficacy affect human functioning on four major psychological processes. First, most human behavior is regulated by forethought embodying valued goals because personal goals are influenced by self-appraisal of capabilities. Second, self-efficacy plays a major role in the self-regulation of motivation because most human motivation is cognitively generated and forms beliefs about what they think they can do. Third, highly perceived self-efficacy affect people’s beliefs in their coping capabilities and how much stress or anxiety they experience in threatening or difficult situations. Finally, highly perceived self-efficacy enables individuals to create beneficial environments and choose the individuals whom they can exercise some control during social interaction. Therefore, beliefs of personal efficacy can shape the course of social interaction and the types of activities and environments people choose.

Bandura [2] also identified several sources of self-efficacy. The first and strongest source stems from mastery experiences since successes build a robust belief in one’s personal efficacy and failures undermine it. The second source stems from modeling since seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises one’s beliefs that one also has similar capabilities and can succeed; similarly, observing others fail regardless of high effort lowers one’s judgments of their own efficacy and undermines their efforts. Social persuasion is a third source of strengthening people’s beliefs that they have what it takes to succeed. Students normally will do better if they are persuaded verbally that they possess certain capabilities in a particular task and are likely to perform better than students who have self doubt and focus on their personal deficiencies when facing a new task. The last source of successful efficacy comes from individuals’ positive appraisals and self-improvement because those who have positive selfefficacy can structure situations that bring success and avoid placing themselves in situations where they may fail. Schunk [7,8] found that self-efficacy research is viewed in domains relevant to education and several studies have addressed cognitive skills, social skills, motor skills, and career choices and have shown that self-efficacy is an important construct that helps to explain students’ learning and performance of academic achievement. Such studies also have identified variables that are associated with educational contexts and that signal to students how well they are achieving or making progress in learning.

Marat [9] indicated that self-efficacy is viewed as a multidimensional construct that shares a reciprocal relationship with various determinants of learning and academic achievement. These determinants included motivation, strategies, cognitive strategies, resource management, self-regulated learning, meeting others’ expectations, and self-assertiveness. Several studies revealed that students with highly self-efficacy capabilities showed better abilities in solving difficult tasks, more initiatives, less risk taking, more persistent, ambition and more emotional or social stabilities [9-12]. Other studies have shown a positive relationship between students’ self-efficacy capabilities and academic achievements among school and university students; those who have higher perceived self-efficacy usually have better academic achievement [13-16]. Few studies showed that there was no significant relationship between perceived self-efficacy and academic achievement [4,17-19].

The present problem

Students with high self-efficacy capabilities are considered better in solving problems, work harder on difficult tasks, face more initiatives, take less risk, and show signs of persistent emotional and social stabilities. Most of the previous research has shown that perceived self-efficacy is an important factor that helps to explain students’ learning and performance of academic achievement in Western cultures. Furthermore, academic achievement could be a determinant of self-efficacy, therefore, the present study aim at exploring the effect of academic achievement and students’ gender on perceived selfefficacy among a sample of Jordanian secondary stage students. Also, the present study will attempt to identify the levels of perceived self-efficacy among students. In other words, the present study will answer the following questions:

a. What is the level of perceived self-efficacy among a sample of Jordanian secondary stage students?

b. What is the effect of academic achievement and student’s gender on perceived self-efficacy scores among a sample of Jordanian secondary stage students?”

Significance of the study

The significance of present study stems from the fact that it explores the relationship between self-efficacy capabilities and students learning and academic achievement. It brings more attention to the self-efficacy as a construct which shares a reciprocal relationship with various determinants of learning and academic achievement. Regardless of the many international studies on the topic, the authors have not found any direct studies on the relationship between perceived selfefficacy and academic achievement among school students at the Jordanian or Arabic regional level. Some local studies have attempted to study the impact of perceived self-efficacy on various factors such as depression and anxiety [20], moral development [21], need for achievement and adjustment [22], and locus of control and adjustment strategies [23]. Therefore, the present study will explore this relationship among a Jordanian sample and put some recommendations to teachers based on the results.

Operational definition of terms

Perceived Self-Efficacy: Students’ estimation of their expectation towards abilities as measured by the perceived self-efficacy scale.

Academic Achievement: Students’ CGPA at the End of the previous year based on school records.

    Method

Population and sample

The population consisted of all secondary stage students enrolling in the 1st Irbid directorates of education in Jordan that were estimated at 7968 students (4090 males and 3878 females). The sample consisted of 356 students (210 males and 155 females) and was chosen randomly using sections in various schools as a unit of assignment.

Study instrument

To achieve the present study goals, the researchers adopted A Jordanian version of Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Al-Saqer in 2005 [21]. The scale consisted of 70 items distributed among nine domains (emotional, social, behavioral, self-confidence, confidence among others, persistent, cognitive, academic, and moral). Students rated each item using a 4-point Likert type scale ranging from 4-1 where (4) represents a high perceived self-efficacy and (1) represents a low perceived selfefficacy.

Validity of the scale: The original Jordanian scale was validated through construct and content validity procedures. To re-ensure the validity of scale, the researchers presented the original scales to 10 psychologists in Jordan. Proper changes were made to ensure good content validity based on agreements of 80% of judges.

Reliability of the scale: The original Jordanian scale was tested to be reliable through testretest method. However, the present researchers have ensured more reliability measures by distributing the scale to an independent sample of students (35 students) from the same population. Alpha score was (.91) for the whole scale, and scores ranged from .82 to .90 to all nine domains of the scale.

Study procedures

the sample in groups, where each section chosen was treated as a group and each group ranged from 25-30 students. The researcher explained the purpose of the study and gave them instructions in how to rate each item in the scale. The researcher also gave one example on the blackboard in order to help the students understand their task. The researcher answered any questions raised by the students and collected the scales from the students allowing an average of 35 minutes to complete the task. Students General CGPA for the year 2007- 2008 was collected from school records. Gender of the students was decided in advance since all schools used were not mixed gender schools.

    Results

The results of this study are presented according to the study questions.

First

To answer the first question regarding “What is the level of perceived self-efficacy among a sample of Jordanian secondary stage students?”, frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations for students’ ratings on the perceived selfefficacy scale are shown in (Table 1). Table 1 shows an overall mean of (2.71) and means for scale domains ranged from (2.42) to (2.81), which suggests a moderate level of perceived selfefficacy among the sample for the total score and among all domains of the scale. Frequencies and percentages showed that (346) out (356), with a percentage of (97.2%), have scores on the total sore of the perceived self-efficacy scale in the moderate level. Percentages of the moderate levels for all domains scores of perceived self-efficacy scale ranged from (73-89%). Results also showed that the highest scores on perceived self-efficacy came from the social domain with a means of (2.81) and least scores came from the cognitive domain with a means of (2.42).

Second

To answer the second question regarding “What is the effect of academic achievement and student’s gender on perceived self-efficacy scores among a sample of Jordanian secondary stage students?”, means and standard deviations for total scores of perceived self-efficacy scale based on achievement and gender were observed as in (Table 2). The results in Table 2 showed that females means (2.72) were slightly higher on perceived self-efficacy than males (2.70), and high achievement students (2.73) have higher means than average achievement students (2.71) and low achievement students (2.67). Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for statistical significant differences in perceived self-efficacy due to variation in academic achievement levels and students gender as in (Table 3).

Using analysis of variance Table 3 showed that academic achievement has a significant effect on perceived self-efficacy F, (2, 374),= 4.41 p<0.05, while gender had no significant effect on perceived self-efficacy (F, 1, 374, =.1,18 p

    Discussion

Results of the first question revealed that secondary stage students achieved a moderate level of perceived selfefficacy scores on the total scale and all domains of the scale. These findings are consistent with student age and stage of development, and development theories would suggest that students should be at a moderate level of beliefs about their capabilities since more experiences and practices are still yet to be achieved before the majority of them can reach high levels of self-efficacy. Consistent with these findings, students at this age face lots of social and emotional problems, which may reflect on their thinking processes, and concentration levels, which in turn affect their self awareness of such capabilities of self-efficacy. Furthermore, some social and cultural factors regarding the strict socialization processes and limitations emerging from traditional Muslim society could contribute to explanation of these moderate levels of perceived self-efficacy during this stage of student’s lives. Previous findings in similar contexts showed similar results. Al-Saqer [21] in a study on the relationship between self-efficacy and moral development and Al-Muhsin [22] on a study on the relationship between self-efficacy and need for achievement and adjustment showed moderate levels of self-efficacy among college students.

Results also showed a significant effect of academic achievement on self-efficacy among a sample of secondary stage Jordanian students. This result means that high academic achievement is an important factor in explaining perceived self-efficacy. Thus, it is logical to assume that high achievers produce better beliefs about their capabilities and ability to perform various tasks. High achievement obviously helps students in terms of how they feel, think, and behave in various life situations which in turn reflect positively on perceived selfefficacy. Most learning theories would support the previous findings because previous success experiences in academic achievement are expected to influence the way students feel about themselves and consequently they develop a sense of self confidence. It also help students positively evaluate various events in t heir lives and avoid negative effects due to difficult or failing experiences and eventually would increase their perceived self-efficacy. The previous finding on the effect of academic achievement on students’ self-efficacy capabilities is consistent with the majority of the previous research on secondary and college stage students [13-16]. Results also showed no significant effect of gender and the interaction between gender and academic achievement on perceived selfefficacy. This suggests that self-efficacy capabilities or beliefs are possibly more influenced by strict social and emotional socialization processes for both males and females. This issue needs further investigation since there is some disagreement on the nature of the differences in perceived self-efficacy due to gender [22,24].

Teachers are recommended to pay more attention to students’ perceived self-efficacy and should recognize the relationship between self-efficacy and academic achievement. Perceived self-efficacy is an important construct that helps to explain students’ learning and performance in general, and to recognize that both variables are associated with enhancing educational success [25-27]. The present findings require teachers to give more attention to lower achievers in order to avoid lower perceived self-efficacy or negative self evolution due to failure or expected difficulties in various academic tasks and to provide students with proper successful experiences that would enable students to avoid developing low selfefficacy. Teachers should also take advantage of students’ high achievement or various experiences of mere success by directing and guiding them toward producing better beliefs about their capabilities and developing a high sense of efficacy toward themselves as a result of such successful experiences. Small successful experiences can be useful in strengthening students’ attitudes and beliefs about themselves and their capabilities.

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[spiritualdirections]

“I want to begin with a declaration of humility in the face of the sheer amount of data that the contemplatives are bringing to modern psychology.”

Buddhist “mindfulness” training entered the mainstream consciousness a few years ago when a study showed that 8 out of ten people with ADHD showed an improvement in their symptoms with two months of training in this practice. That meant scientists had to start taking it seriously.

I had similar results with a spiritual directee with ADHD who committed to an intense prayer regime, including trying to live three hours of silence (no music, no TV, no social media, and, as much as possible, no phone calls or collaborative work projects) each afternoon. Her doctors were surprised that she was able to go off her meds as a result of this. They shouldn’t have been: As contemplatives have known for centuries, our attention is a muscle, that can get stronger or weaker with training. Attention is related to the will, which is also like a muscle, both in that it is a limited resource and that it can get stronger with training.

The Catholic tradition knows this through its experience with contemplative prayer and the contemplative and ascetical life in general. Buddhism likewise has a long tradition of ascetical and contemplative practices (with a different goal--indifference to the world rather than love for it--but with similar methods). Both traditions have a complex and rich vocabulary to talk about interior states of the soul, which have some of the analytic power of Western science despite not meeting the scientific criteria of third-party verifiability. There’s a fascinating conversation between a Buddhist monk (albeit a Western convert) and a neuroscientist about this over at The Atlantic:

What guarantees that the introspective technique for the dissection of mental phenomena is reliable? If it is the consensus among those who consider themselves experts, how can you compare and validate subjective mental states? There is nothing another person can look at and judge as valid; the observers can only rely on the verbal testimony of subjective states.

It is the same with scientific knowledge. You first have to rely on the credible testimony of a number of scientists, but later you can train in the subject and verify the findings firsthand. This is quite similar to contemplative science. You first need to refine the telescope of your mind and the methods of investigations for years to find out for yourself what other contemplatives have found and all agreed on. The state of pure consciousness without content, which might seem puzzling at first sight, is something that all contemplatives have experienced. So it is not just some sort of Buddhist dogmatic theory. Anyone who takes the trouble to stabilize and clarify his or her mind will be able to experience it. Regarding cross-checking interpersonal experience, both contemplatives and the texts dealing with the various experiences a meditator might encounter are quite precise in their descriptions. When a student reports on his inner states of mind to an experienced meditation master, the descriptions are not just vague and poetic. The master will ask precise questions and the student replies, and it is quite clear that they are speaking about something that is well defined and mutually understood.

Neuroscience seems to assume that the mind is identical to the brain, that is, that there is no immaterial part of the human person. That’s fine as a simplifying assumption--it’s okay to have a research project that simply explores the role of the brain in human life--but there’s little reason to think that such reductionism is actually true. It would be unfortunate if we lost the benefits of spiritual training (which are real and measurable) simply because they can’t be studied by neuroscience! 

Perhaps the most fascinating--and frustrating-- part of the conversation in the article is the attempt by the neuroscientist to translate the Buddhist’s contemplative language into brain-speak:

However, in the end, what really matters is the way the person gradually changes. If, over months and years, someone becomes less impatient, less prone to anger, and less torn apart by hopes and fears, then the method he or she has been using is a valid one...

How do you do this? What are the tools?

This process requires perseverance. You need to train again and again. You can’t learn to play tennis by holding a racket for a few minutes every few months. With meditation, the effort is aimed at developing not a physical skill but an inner enrichment. In extreme cases, you could be in a simple hermitage in which nothing changes or sitting alone always facing the same scene day after day. So the outer enrichment is almost nil, but the inner enrichment is maximal. You are training your mind all day long with little outer stimulation. Furthermore, such enrichment is not passive, but voluntary, and methodically directed. When you engage for eight or more hours a day in cultivating certain mental states that you have decided to cultivate and that you have learned to cultivate, you reprogram the brain.

In a sense, you make your brain the object of a sophisticated cognitive process that is turned inward rather than outward toward the world around you. You apply the cognitive abilities of the brain to studying its own organization and functioning, and you do so in an intentional and focused way, similar to when you attend to events in the outer world and when you organize sensory signals into coherent percepts. You assign value to certain states and you try to increase their prevalence, which probably goes along with a change in synaptic connectivity in much the same way as it occurs with learning processes resulting from interactions with the outer world.

...Trained meditators indicate that they have the faculty to generate clean, powerful, well-defined states of mind, and this faculty is associated with some specific brain patterns. Mental training enables one to generate those states at will and to modulate their intensity, even when confronted with disturbing circumstances, such as strong positive or negative emotional stimuli. Thus, one acquires the faculty to maintain an overall emotional balance that favors inner strength and peace.

So you have to use your cognitive abilities to identify more clearly and delineate more sharply the various emotional states, and to train your control systems, probably located in the frontal lobe, to increase or decrease selectively the activity of subsystems responsible for the generation of the various emotions. An analogy for this process of refinement could be the improved differentiation of objects of perception, which is known to depend on learning. With just a little experience, you are able to recognize an animal as a dog. With more experience, you can sharpen your eye and become able to distinguish with greater and greater precision dogs that look similar. Likewise, mental training might allow you to sharpen your inner eye for the distinction of emotional states.In the naïve state, you are able to distinguish good and bad feelings only in a global way. With practice, these distinctions would become increasingly refined until you could distinguish more and more nuances. The taxonomy of mental states should thus become more differentiated. If this is the case, then cultures exploiting mental training as a source of knowledge should have a richer vocabulary for mental states than cultures that are more interested in investigating phenomena of the outer world.

Buddhist taxonomy describes 58 main mental events and various subdivisions thereof. It is quite true that by conducting an in-depth investigation of mental events, one becomes able to distinguish increasingly more subtle nuances.Take anger, for instance. Often anger can have a malevolent component, but it can also be rightful indignation in the face of injustice. Anger can be a reaction that allows us to rapidly overcome an obstacle preventing us from achieving something worthwhile or remove an obstacle threatening us. However, it could also reflect a tendency to be short-tempered. If you look carefully at anger, you will see that it contains aspects of clarity, focus, and effectiveness that are not harmful in and of themselves. So if you are able to recognize those aspects that are not yet negative and let your mind remain in them, without drifting into the destructive aspects, then you will not be troubled and confused by these emotions. 

As I read this, I kept thinking, there’s more to life, especially to our interior lives, than science can measure. Which is one more reason to remember that science is a great human tool, but that it is not the only or even always the best way to explore our reality:

It does not suffice to ponder how the human psyche works and elaborate complex theories about it, as, for instance, Freud did. Such intellectual constructs cannot replace two millennia of direct investigation of the workings of mind through penetrating introspection conducted with trained minds that have become both stable and clear.

[ashleyenst1000]

Environmental Ethics (9/23/20)

Ashley Morales

This week’s readings focused on environmental ethics, justice, and our relationships with nature. The textbook chapter discusses environmental worldviews, education, and sustainability. Environmental worldviews diverge into two major branches: human centered and earth centered. Human centered focuses on humans as either dominant creatures that can exact our will, or as dominant protectors of the environment. Either way, according to this view, our needs come first, and the environment serves us. The earth centered worldviews or life centered worldviews as they are sometimes called, claim that all forms of life have value, even if that value is not particularly useful to humans, and that they deserve to exist just as much as we do. How we view ourselves in relation to the environment is important in determining our actions to either benefit or harm it.

Another major tenet of our readings was the idea of environmental justice. Environmental justice is the intersection between social justice and environmentalism. It realizes that there is inequality in environmental quality and environmental benefits/burdens between communities, and that those inequalities are influenced by race and socioeconomic status. For example, toxic waste sites and landfills tend to be placed in lower income and/or minority neighborhoods and can have harmful effects on residents. Once the issue is identified, if local government even listens to community concerns at all, response time is embarrassingly poor: there are “dramatic differences between white communities and people of color communities in the time it took to mitigate hazardous sites; there were also marked disparities in compensation measures, the penal-ties against polluters and violators of pollution-law, and the stringency of cleanup solutions” (Figueroa, 2009). These neighborhoods have less representation in decision making processes and less total political power than richer whiter neighborhoods, and thus have to receive the consequences of decisions they had no say in. 

As a society, we can barely acknowledge and protect the rights of our fellow citizens now. But an interesting philosophical/ethical dilemma is our responsibility to future generations. This idea interrogates one main question: does the present generation have an obligation to forfeit some convenience now for the security of generations in the future? This brings up a few issues. First, if these theoretical people do not exist yet, how can we negotiate what is best for them and us. It is argued that promises are reciprocal agreements, and future generations cannot reciprocate. They also cannot reward or punish us for our actions because when they are around and feel the effects of our actions, we will be gone. But it would have been very helpful for our current environmental situation if our parents’ and grandparents’ generations had taken us into account when making decisions about energy, pollution, and resource use. Additionally, sustainable consumption would be better for our immediate wellbeing as well as establishing better-functioning systems for the future. In terms of systematic change, it is good to frame these issues in person-person terms, even if it slightly devalues nature. This is because it sells reform and change better, especially in politics.

It seems to be easy to devalue and reject nature, especially since we are moving more towards urban living and distancing ourselves from the natural environment. We could take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach. However, we do rely on nature, not only for resources, but for our own happiness due to our evolutionary relationship with nature. Biophilia is an “innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms” and has two main components. The innate aspect means that this is part of human genes and evolution, while the emotional aspect means that it can be pleasing and/or motivate action driven by an emotional response. Additionally, we rely on nature for its health benefits. We actually physically benefit from time outside: “In addition to the emotional and physiological benefits from nature contact, there is some evidence of a linkage to cognitive functioning” (Heerwagen, 2009). It really makes very little sense that we continue to pollute and devalue nature, even though it has been proven to be a lifeline for us, not only in its usefulness for our lifestyles, but in its benefits for us internally. A lack of contact with nature is referred to as “nature-deficit disorder” and can point to a variety of issues such as anxiety or attention-deficit disorders (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). This is why urban areas are desperately in need of greenspace such as parks and trees and gardens. Not only would it benefit us physically, but it would help us feel more empathy for the environment because we’d be surrounded by it, and maybe would help some disparities in environmental quality between communities. 

Image showing the health benefits of nature.

Being around nature and being educated both about it and by it can help solve a lot of our current environmental issues. We actively threaten our own species existence with our action, and part of it stems from the fact that not enough people are educated about the environment, or how it works. Those who make policy allowing oil drilling for example would benefit from formal environmental education in order to see the issues with that decision.  Additionally, many people could benefit from the aforementioned contact with the environment. A lack of intimate connection with the environment can reduce our perceived responsibility to the environment and to others (Miller and Spoolman, 2021). The best way to approach and solve issues is with education. This can be seen within the current Black Lives Matter movement, where many non-black allies are educating themselves in order to better address and combat racism within themselves and their own communities. Being open to learning, especially in the issues of racism and the environment, where the facts seem to be clear, is the first step towards change. Issues of racism and ignorance can stem from bigotry, and it is possible to change. Environmental injustices towards people of color does not need to be part of our reality. It exists because of systemic injustices based on prejudices that can be unlearned. What is harder to change is self interest. After learning about racial discrimination in environmental hazards, will people who are unaffected by these issues be willing to take on some of the burden to soften the blow for the oppressed? After learning about the benefits of nature, or even experiencing them, will fossil fuel companies change their tactics and values for the common good of society?

Blog Question: 

Why is it so hard for humans to give up convenience for the wellbeing of others? We see this now during coronavirus with mask-wearing, and with the arguments against intergenerational responsibility and even just in the presence of environmental injustice. It’s a very “why should I care about them mentality”. How  can we evolve from that, especially on a large scale?

Word count: 1123

Bibliography:

Courtney Cameron, “5 Health Benefits of Spending Time in Nature,” Natural Wellness Academy, October 7, 2019,

https://www.naturalwellnessacademy.org/2019/10/07/5-health-benefits-of-spending-time-in-nature/

Figueroa, Robert Melchior. 2009. “Environmental Justice.” In Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, edited by J. Baird Callicott, 341-348.

Heerwagen, Judith. 2009. “Biophilia.” In Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, edited by J. Baird Callicott, 109-113.

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. 2021. Living in the Environment.

[margdarsanme]

NCERT Class 11 Psychology Chapter 3 The Bases of Human Behaviour

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 Psychology Chapter 3 The Bases of Human Behaviour

NCERT TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS SOLVED

Question 1. How does the evolutionary perspective explain the biological basis of behaviour?Answer:

Evolution refers to gradual and orderly biological changes that result in a species from their pre-existing forms in response to their changing adaptation demands of their environment.

Physiological and biological changes that take place as a result of evolutionary processes are so slow that they become visible after hundreds of generations.

Three important features of modem human beings include:

A trigger and developed brain with increased capacity for cognitive behaviours (like perception, memory, thinking, reasoning, etc).

Ability to walk upright on two legs and

Free hands with a workable opposing thumb.

The environmental demands had to biological and behavioral changes over a long period of time. In the human brain, the earliest to the most recent structures in the process of evolution are: Limbic system, brain stem and cerebellum are the oldest; and cerebral cortex is the latest developed.

Question 2.Describe how neurons transmit information.Answer:  Neuron is the basic unit of our nervous system. Neurons are specialized cells which convert various forms of stimuli into electrical impulses. They receive information from sense organs or from adjacent neurons, carry them to the central nervous system and bring motor information from the central nervous system to motor organs. Neurons transmit information with the help of dendrites, soma, axon and terminal buttons by converting stimuli into electrical impulses. This is done by the following method:  Dendrites —> soma —> axon —> terminal buttons

Dendrites receive the informing neural impulses from adjacent neurons or directly from sense organs.

The nerve impulse is then passed on the main body of the neuron i.e. soma.

From soma the impulse is passed on to the axon.

The axon transmits the information/impulse along its length to terminal buttons.

 The terminal buttons transmit the information to another neuron, gland or muscle.

Question 3. Name the four lobes of the cerebral cortex. What functions do they perform?Answer : Four lobes of the cerebral cortex are:(1) Frontal lobe (3) Temporal lobe(2) Parietal lobe (4) Occipital lobeFunctions of these four lobes are following:

Frontal lobe:

Frontal lobe is mainly concerned with cognitive functions, such as attention,thinking, memory, learning, and reasoning.

It also exerts inhibitory effects on autonomic and emotional responses.

Parietal lobe: The Parietal lobe is mainly concerned with cutaneous sensations and their coordination with visual and auditory sensations.

Temporal lobe:

Temporal lobe is primarily concerned with the processing of auditory information.

Memory for symbolic sounds and words resides here.

Understanding of speech and written languages depends on this lobe.

Occipital lobe:

Occipital lobe is mainly concerned with visual information.

It is believed that interpretation of visual impulses, memory for visual stimuli and colour visual orientation is performed by this lobe.

Question 4. Name the various endocrine glands and the hormones secreted by them. How does the endocrine system affect our behaviour?Answer: Name and functions of the endocrine glands are following:

The chemical substances secreted from the endocrine are known as HORMONES. These hormones influence the functions of the body and the course of its development and in the growth of personality.

Endocrine glands also control and regulate the individual’s behaviour, for instance, when there is extra-supply of sugar in the blood-stream, certain ductless glands secrete insulin which reduces the sugar level in the blood to normal state.

Endocrine glands play role in co-ordinating the body activities. Like in sudden , fear or danger, secretion from the endocrine system is mixed with blood which brings widely diverse activities to help us face this situation.

The different endocrine glands work intimately to maintain equilibrium and coordinate body functions. For instance, if one gland is secreting more than optimum, the other gland may secrete a hormone to reduce the excess hormone and maintain equilibrium.

Question 5. How does the autonomic nervous system help us in dealing with an emergency situation?Answer:  The autonomic nervous system helps in dealing with emergency situations with the help of its two divisions : Sympathetic division and Parasympathetic division.

Sympathetic division deals with emergencies when the action must be quick and powerful, such as in situations of fight or flight. During this period, the digestion stops, blood flows from internal organs to the muscles and breathing rate, oxygen.supply, etc. increases.

Parasympathetic division is mainly concerned with the conservation of energy. It monitors the routine functions of the internal system of the body. When the emergency is over the sympathetic activation calms down the individual to a normal condition. As a result, all body functions like breathing rate, oxygen supply, etc. return to their normal level.

Question 6.Explain the meaning of culture and describe its important features.Answer: 

Culture: Culture refers to widely shared customs, believes, values, norms, institutions and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generation.

Culture refers to “the man-made part of the environment.”

It comprises diverse products of the behaviour of many people, including ourselves. These products can be material objects (e.g. tools, sculptures), ideas (e.g. categories, norms) or social institutions (e.g. family, school).

Culture may be defined as a shared way of life of a group of socially interacting people and is transmitted from generation through socialization and related processes.

Important features of culture are following:

Culture includes behavioural products of others who preceded us. It indicates both substantial and abstract particulars that have prior existence in one form or another.

It contains values that will be expressed and a language in which to express them.

Culture characterized by sharing reflects presence and experience of cultural attributes psychologically.

Cultural involves transmission of learned behaviour from one generation to the other within a community.

Question 7. Do you agree with the statement that ‘biology plays an enabling role, while specific aspects of behaviour are related to cultural factors’? Give reasons in support of your answer.Answer:  No doubt those biological factors do play enabling in determinants human behaviour. Biological factors basically set the limits but our behaviour is more complex then the behaviour of animal.

Major reason for the complexity is the role of culture to regulate human behaviour.

We can explain the concept with the help of two example hunger is a basic need of human beings as well as of animals but the way this need is gratified by human beings is extremely complex.

Different people in different cultures eat different things in a different manner e.g. directly with hand or with the help of spoons, forks and knives.

Sexual behaviour can be taken as another example sex is a physiological need. The structure and functioning is determinant by biological mechanism but it expression is different in different culture.

At the human level, we find evidence for a dual inheritance theory. Biological inheritance takes place through genes, while cultural inheritance takes place through memes.

The former takes place in a “top-down” manner (i.e. from parents to children)., while the latter many also take place in a “bottom-up” manner (i.e. from children to parents). Dual inheritance theory also shows that although biological and cultural forces may involve different processes, they work as parallel forces, and interact with each other in offering explanation of an individuals behaviour.

Question 8. Describe the main agents of socialisation.Answer:  Socialization is a process of social learning through which a child acquires the norms, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that are acceptable in his/her culture.Main agents of socialization are following:

Parents:

Parents have the most direct and significant impact on children’s development.

Parents encourage certain behaviours by rewarding them verbally (e.g. praising).

They also discourage certain behaviours through non-approving behaviours.

The conditions of life in which parents live (poverty, illness, job stress, nature of family) also influence the styles they adopt in socializing children.

 School:

In schools children learn not only cognitive skills (e.g. reading, writing, doing mathematics) but also many social skills (e.g. way of behaving with elders and age mates, accepting roles, fulfilling responsibilities).

Several other positive qualities such as self-initiative, self-control responsibility, and creativity are encouraged in schools.

 Peer-Groups:

Friendship provides children not only with a good opportunity to be in company of others, but also for organizing various activities (e.g. play) collectively with the member of their own age.

Qualities like sharing, trust, mutual understanding, role acceptance and fulfillment develop on interaction with peers.

Development of self-identity is greatly facilitated by the peer groups.

 Media-Influences:

The exposure to violence on television enhances aggressive behaviour among children.

In recent years media has also acquired the property of a socializing agent therefore children learn about many things from newspapers, television, books and cinema.

Question 9. How can we distinguish between enculturation and socialisation ? Explain.Answer:  Enculturation refers to all learning that takes place without direct, deliberate teaching.

It refers to all learning that occurs in human life because of its availability in our socio-cultural context.

Observation is the key element of enculturation

The contents are culturally shaped by our preceding generations. A major part of our behaviour is the product of enculturation.

Socialisation is a process by which individuals acquire knowledge, skills and dispositions, which enable them to participate as effective members of groups and society.

It is a process that continues over the entire life-span, and through which one learns and develops ways of effective functioning at any stage of development. Socialisation forms the basis of social and cultural transmission from one generation to the next.

Question 10. What is meant by acculturation? Is acculturation a smooth process? Discuss.Answer:  Acculturation refers to cultural and psychological changes resulting from contact with . other cultures. Contact may be direct (e.g. when one moves and settles in a new culture) or indirect (e.g. through media or other means). It may be voluntary (e.g. when one goes abroad for higher studies, training, job, or trade) or involuntary (e.g. through colonial experience, invasion, political refuge).

Changes due to acculturation may be examined at subjective and objective levels.

At the subjective level, changes are often reflected in people’s attitude towards change. They are referred to as acculturation attitudes.

At the subjective level, changes are often reflected in people’s day to day behaviours and activities. These are referred to as acculturation strategies.

Question 11. Discuss the acculturative strategies adopted by individuals during the course of acculturation.Answer:  The following four acculturative strategies have been derived:

Integration: It refers to an attitude in which there is an interest in both, maintaining one’s original culture and identity, while staying in daily interaction with other cultural groups.

Assimilation: It refers to an attitude, which people do not wish to maintain their cultural identity, and they move to become an integral part of the other culture.

Separation: It refers to an attitude in which people seem to place a value on holding on to their original culture, and wish to avoid interaction with other cultural groups.

Marginalization: It refers to an attitude in which there is little possibility or interest or interest in one’s cultural maintenance, and little interest in having relations with other cultural groups.

from Blogger http://www.margdarsan.com/2020/09/ncert-class-11-psychology-chapter-3.html

[sdupsychologyportfolio]

𝐅𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘

There is a wide map of avenues of psychology that exist, within which they each hold their own importance and significance in understanding the complexity of the human mind and correlated behaviour.

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A puzzle as complex as the human mind simply cannot be understood by one branch of science, thus the network of specializations that exist to break down its mysteries into known valid facts that help better human lives.

What is PSYCHOLOGY?

It is the scientific study of the human mind, and it's complex functions and workings (APS, n.d.). it delves into the inner workings of the brain, and provides explanation for certain behaviour and phenomena observed from human nature. furthermore, it breaks down the complexity of the human mind into simpler, factual and understandable pieces of information.

(𝖶𝗂𝗄𝗂𝖤𝖽𝗎𝖼𝖺𝗍𝗈𝗋, 2014)

1. S⃨o⃨c⃨i⃨a⃨l⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

This branch of psychology specifically focuses on studying the correlation between social influences and human behaviour. How a person thinks, feels, decides, acts within different social contexts — social psychologists take this into observation and scrutiny to have a "better understanding of people's attitudes, willingness to conform to a group, and social decision-making (King University, 2019)." Since then, this specialization has helped in making people understand their own peers better.

2. A⃨b⃨n⃨o⃨r⃨m⃨a⃨l⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

This branch, as stated in the name itself, is dedicated to studying patients with apparent abnormal patterns of behaviour and thinking (King University, 2019). Anything unusual or what is considered to be a mental disorder is filed under this field of psychology, and according to Ronald Comer (1992), this is somewhat the most popular face of psychology known in mainstream.

3. C⃨o⃨g⃨n⃨i⃨t⃨i⃨v⃨e⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

This is the more generalized and wide-scoped specialization as it scrutinizes the internal processes involved — which is the root of all things psychology. From decision-making, to memory retention, and to speaking a language, cognitive psychologists looks at how people "think, perceive, communicate, remember and learn." (Brazier, 2018) On a more summarized statement, this focuses on how people acquire and process information.

4. S⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨o⃨l⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

School is the basic ground of growth and development of immature and young minds. Thus, in this specialization, it combines the principles of other branches such as educational and behaviour psychology in order to create the most efficient and relevant learning environment for the children's behavioural growth (APA, 2005). This takes account the different ways of thinking and behaving of children, while adapting to all of that in order to attain the healthiest school atmosphere for everyone involved.

5. S⃨p⃨o⃨r⃨t⃨s⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

In this specific field, athletes are the focal point of concern. Sports psychologists help these athletes attain the best and most optimal performance they could attain on their field of sports. Taking note of athleticism, leadership and mental health, this study compiles all of the sport factors that affects the human psychology and vice versa (King University, 2019).

6. E⃨d⃨u⃨c⃨a⃨t⃨i⃨o⃨n⃨a⃨l⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

In collaboration with School and Cognitive psychologists, this field hones in on learning methods and information absorption (King University, 2019). Individual differences equates to differing capacities in memorizing and familiarizing concepts, so the psychologists who focus on this field gather those differences in order to further improve how the educational system works for every single student.

7. N⃨e⃨u⃨r⃨o⃨p⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

This specialization focuses on the workings of the nervous system, more so the brain, and how it affects behaviour and cognitive activities (Wikipedia, n.d.). Accounted under this study is the researches on injuries and mental illnesses, and how it affects bodily function and processes.

8. D⃨e⃨v⃨e⃨l⃨o⃨p⃨m⃨e⃨n⃨t⃨a⃨l⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

This field, more often than not, collaborates with the principles of School, Educational, Cognitive and Environmental Psychology as they link together in explaining how or why changes occur within a person's life span (Shaffer, 1985). This theorizes on the reasons and factors affecting how a person decides to change his or her way of life, and why they choose to do so.

9. C⃨o⃨u⃨n⃨s⃨e⃨l⃨i⃨n⃨g⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

According to the American Psychological Association (2008), this field takes proven theories and researches into application in real life — more so, professional psychology that actually deals with communication and problem-solving with a patient. Psychologists with this specialization resolve patients' physical, mental and emotional distress through assessment and discussion of all parts of the problem at hand.

10. H⃨e⃨a⃨l⃨t⃨h⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

This specialization, more oftenly, is the goal field of most medical students as this tackles on behavioural medicine and/or the medical aspect of psychology (Brazier, 2018). Studies under this specialization focuses on observation of "behaviour, biology and social context" in order to assess its influence on illness and health alike in an individual or in a controlled community.

11. C⃨l⃨i⃨n⃨i⃨c⃨a⃨l⃨ P⃨s⃨y⃨c⃨h⃨o⃨l⃨o⃨g⃨y⃨

Last on the list, but definitely not the least appreciated nor the last of the vast scope of psychology specializations, is the field that e⃨n⃨c⃨o⃨m⃨p⃨a⃨s⃨s⃨e⃨s⃨ on actual psychological assessment and psychotherapy. According to Yvette Brazier (2018), this field "integrates science, theory, and practice in order to understand, predict and relieve problems with adjustment, disability, and discomfort." Furthermore, it hones in on the several sides of human life such as intellectual, social, emotional, psychological and biological aspects in throughout a person's lifetime in order to provide a cohesive and immersive plan to relieve or solve a psychologically-caused distress. This is another popular face of psychology that's more commonly known to the general public.

The root of all knowledge regarding human behaviour and movement traces back to the scientific study of psychology, and all of its affiliated specializations. The fields aren't limited to the aforementioned eleven (11) branches, and there is still a lot of other specific studies that are just as important and relevant.

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Moreover, each of these play a huge role in today's understanding and improvement of human life. Patterns of behaviour and thinking are taken note of, inner-working activities contributing to human wellbeing is continuously being studied, and societal adjustments are being made accordingly to fit each and every human being's mold.

FOOTNOTE: Mental health issues and psychologically-caused distress are as real as physical illnesses despite the intangibility. And an individual's mental state should be taken care of and observed in order to create the most optimal way of life there could possibly be. From the recently discussed scopes of psychology, it all has the common denominator of going back to the inner workings of the human mind in order to understand humanity — the people — and life as it is in a better way.

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𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒

American Psychological Association. (2005). School psychology. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/school

American Psychological Association. (2008). Counseling Psychology. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/counseling

Australian Psychological Society. (n.d.). What is psychology? Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.psychology.org.au/for-the-public/about-psychology/What-is-psychology

Brazier, Y. (2018, February 1). Psychology: Definitions, branches, history, and how to become one. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154874

Comer, R. J. (2005). Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology (4th ed.). New York: Worth.

King University. (2019, March 8). The Major Branches of Psychology. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://online.king.edu/news/major-branches-of-psychology-guide/

Shaffer, D. R. (1985). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Weinburg College of Arts and Sciences. (n.d.). Areas of Specialization. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.psychology.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/graduate-studies/areas-of-specialization/

Wikipedia. (2020, July 06). School psychology. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_psychology

[mariebenz]

Machine Learning Allows Empathy To Be Predicted in Resting Brain

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Christov-Moore Leonardo Christov-Moore, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Scholar Brain and Creativity Institute University of Southern California MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We've known for some time that empathy has both bottom-up, affective, somatomotor components, that let us quickly feel and internally simulate other peoples' internal states, and more cognitive, top-down components through which we make conscious inferences about others' beliefs, intentions and internal states. And there is interesting work suggesting that in many cases, these components work together. In our work, we took this idea further to propose that they exist in constant interaction, with the bottom-up systems  providing information that informs the top-down processes (aiding in our inference), which in turn provide modulation and control to the bottom-up processes (modulating the extent to which we "resonate" with others based on context, affiliation, etc.). Specifically, we found that you could predict many aspects of prosocial decision-making ( a top-down task) from bottom-up and top-down systems' interaction during simple bottom-up empathy tasks (passively observing someone experience emotion or pain). This led us to hypothesize that peoples' levels of empathic concern for others are dictated by stable patterns of interaction between these systems. In the current study, we made a strong test of this hypothesis: if these empathy-predicting patterns of interaction are stable across task demands, we should be able to observe them (and predict empathic concern from them) even when the brain is not doing anything ostensibly related to empathy! So that's what we did. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Is empathy centered in a particular brain locus or set of neurons? Response: We found that you could use machine learning (which is able to make predictions based on subtle patterns in data) to predict subjects' levels of empathic concern for others, just from patterns of interaction between sensorimotor and emotional brain areas, and more cognitive, prefrontal/temporal "control" areas, in the resting brain. This suggests that empathy relies on complex interactions between many brain systems that are constantly dynamically interacting, rather than a single group or type of neurons. It's a network level phenomenon.  MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? 1) That empathy arises from many systems in interaction, that aren't cleanly separable. There isn't an "empathy brain area". This may  be why so many different psychiatric and neurological disorders exhibit deficits in empathy and social cognition. It's a complex process that requires the brain to work in coordination. 2) That in time we may be able predict aspects of daily behavior and personality without having to use conventional self-reports or other measures. This makes it possible to diagnose and assess brain function in people who may (for other reasons) be unable to perform these tasks or fill out the questionnaires.  MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?  Response: We should continue exploring the diagnostic potential of the brain at rest, and we should study how cognitive processes emerge from brain organization, rather than start with psychological constructs and work our way down to brain architecture. MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Response: Empathy isn't just a key to compassion and ethical behavior, it's also important for mental health! Citation: Leonardo Christov-Moore, Nicco Reggente, Pamela K. Douglas, Jamie D. Feusner, Marco Iacoboni. Predicting Empathy From Resting State Brain Connectivity: A Multivariate Approach. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 2020; 14 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2020.00003 The information on MedicalResearch.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website.   Read the full article

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The MBTI Enneagram overlap

It is important to remember that MBTI and the Enneagram are two different systems explaining two different aspects of our thought processes and behavioral tendencies. For the most part, MBTI is trying to explain information orientation and communication through cognitive functions, while the Enneagram is trying to explain the underlying dynamics that motivates us towards our desires, and away from our fears. To grossly simplify, Enneagram steers us towards our wants and needs, while MBTI gives us the tools to orientate and communicate said wants and needs, both to ourselves and to other people.

However, there are some strong correlations between MBTI and the Enneagram, which has led to some unfortunate stereotypes and misunderstandings that might alienate a lot of people reading about any of the systems. To put it this way: based on what I want to call the MBTI Enneagram overlap, we try to explain too much of our desires through MBTI, and too much of our expression and communication style through the Enneagram. If you are one of the people with a not-so-common MBTI and Enneagram pairing, you might feel like neither of the systems explains you well, because we emphasize the stereotypes the high correlations imply way too much.

Enneagram 1: This Enneagram type seems to be high correlated with both Ni and Si, as well as partially Te. However, the MBTI type most typically associated with Enneagram 1 seems to be ISTJ. This can explain some stereotypes that has arisen from the overlapping behavior. Si perceives information about what already is out there and what is already working, while Te processes information through the systems existing “outside” in the world. They perceive these systems, being laws or morals or any other system, as applying to all of us. Combined with the 1’s desire to be right causes a stereotype that is very much concerned with what “ought to be” based on rules and norms, and with a very sharp tongue for correcting what they perceive as behavior “out of the system.” You get a very principally oriented overlap, which may cause a lot of people to believe that 1s are out to get them and correct everything they see as wrong in others. Not only is this stereotype centered around somewhat unhealthy behavior, but also, if the type 1 uses other functions (such as Fe and Ti), their “critical voice” is usually much more directed towards their own behavior than external systems.

Enneagram 2: 2s seems to be extremely highly correlated with Fe, to the point where it is hard not to explain Fe-behavior without pointing to the desires of Enneagram 2. However, many authors of the Enneagram acknowledge that this Enneagram typing might be caused by learned behavior, especially in females. If you are a female Fe-dom type 2, you might want to give the other eight types a second glance, to check whether some other (secret) desires might explain some of your behaviors. Here, a lot of the behavior of the Enneagram type 2 and Extroverted Feeling seems to go hand in hand – 2s find their own needs to be selfish, and suppresses them as they seek to help others, while their Fe helps orientate towards the emotional needs of their surroundings. However, types such as ESFP (Se-Fi) also tend to type as Enneagram type 2, so the desire to suppress their own needs for the sake of others can be explained through a lot of different cognitive functions. ESFP type 2s, for instance, might genuinely love to help people as it makes they themselves feel good, instead of doing so as a selfless act the way Fe-doms do. ESFP type 2 might for this reason seem very ESFJ-like.

Enneagram 3: This type is somewhat of an oddball in this discussion, because it does not seem to correlate extremely with just one (set) of the cognitive functions. Instead, it seems to correlate with both Ne and Ni, as well as Te and Fe. Because of this, ENTJs, (male) ENFJs and ENTPs seems to commonly be typed as Enneagram 3, although ENTJs are miles ahead of the rest. Not a lot of introverts seems to correlate with Enneagram type 3, which might explain why so many descriptions of 3s seems to emphasize their extroverted behavior. Enneagram 3 is motivated by a desire to be admired, which in both ENTJ’s and ENFJ’s case might cause them to adapt their behavior and personality to fit the room. ENTJ does this by learned behavior (Te-drive), while the ENFJ does this by “reading” the room and changing accordingly (Fe-drive). In some instances, separating ENFJ and ENTJ type 3 behavior might be difficult. This explains while a lot of the Enneagram 3 descriptions points out that they often adapt their “presentation” of themselves based on the perceiving audience. It might also explain why a lot of ENFJs are describes as “social chameleons”, while ENTJs try to be impressive through memorized pick-up lines and cool stories.

Enneagram 4: As with Enneagram type 2, this type is strongly correlated with just one function, in this case Fi. This has caused some extreme misunderstandings of the type. Ironically, Enneagram 4 – the type which feels the most misunderstood – might also be the most misunderstood type among us. Enneagram 4 is fueled by a need to understand themselves; they constantly feel something is missing within their minds and emotions. They tend to idealize some sort of non-existing reality, which might be the future, an alternative reality or a past that went in another direction. Because of the strong correlation with Fi, 4s are often seen as types who wear their emotions “on the sleeves”, as Fi channels information through their internal, emotional experience, and they might feel inclined to express whatever makes them feel separated from others. They do so to understand better who they are in contrast to others, but this is where the “need to be special”-stereotype comes from, as well as the “emo”-stereotype. On the other hand, Fe-users might create extreme separations between their own internal world of emotions and the external world of the emotions of others. For these people, their internal emotions might be defended by extreme privacy, and Fe 4s might always steer the conversations away from themselves without other people noticing. Fe-users with 4 might experience their emotions as extremely lonely processes as they refuse to let other people in. Also, intellectual 4s might mistype as 5s, since the description of 4s are very emotionally based. I might be tempted to make another post on these misunderstandings entirely, as they are so vast.

Enneagram 5: There does seem to be some misunderstandings of this type based on the correlated MBTI-types; Enneagram type 5 is correlated with the most extreme introverted MBTI types: INTP and INTJ. Introverted, intuitive thinking type seems to be the ongoing stereotype of the Enneagram 5, which might explain why they are also portrayed as eccentric and strange (remember, this is terms of expression, something MBTI explains better than the Enneagram). A common mistyping amongst 5s is actually Enneagram 4, as many 5s experience a strong, inner emotional life, and when they read the descriptions of 5s as unemotional sponges, they do not relate at all. What drives the 5 is the desire to understand the world, and they usually sit back and observe while other people do the work. Both Ni and Ti are cognitive functions at work here (making male INFJs a common typing as well), but this does not mean that all Enneagram 5s neglect to use other cognitive functions as tools, or that they cannot be extroverted or refuse to participate themselves.

Enneagram 6: This type is usually correlated with Si, as it is mostly common in ISTJs or ISFJs. Type 6 is driven by their fear of the external world for the most part, and Si might orientate around information they have stored about the dangers of the world, creating a lot of “what if…?”-scenarios. (“What if someone breaks into my house while I sleep? This is, after all, the neighborhood in town with most burglary”.) Of course, Te is going to play a part in this as well, looking for external systems to confirm suspicions. Type 6 is going to drive Si to seek out and store as much information as possible, which might cause the stereotype of 6s to be people craving external guidance. It should be pointed out, however, that information gathering is usually the way most 6s seek support, but based on the cognitive functions in motion, this does not have to be reading article after article about surviving a tornado. 6s can also seek support through alliances such as their families and friends, through a skill they teach themselves, or other elements they find useful in an otherwise dangerous world.

Enneagram 7: 7s are extremely highly correlated with Ne-doms and Se-doms, to the point where a lot of 7-behavior is explained almost singlehandedly through these functions. Luckily, we all have either Ne or Se, so a lot of the 7 descriptions can be explained through our use of these functions, but there seem to be some stereotypes still floating about – stereotypes which seem to be the exact opposite of many of the 5s overlapping stereotypes. 7s seems to be depicted as very extroverted – the most extroverted of the Enneagram types, as it turns out. This is, however, not given. 7s are driven by the desire for fun and external fulfillment; they often tend to feel that the grass is greener on the other side, and true happiness is somewhere out there, where they haven’t been yet. Still, some 7s (usually introverted MBTI-types), might prefer the solitude of this adventure-seeking, and therefore, like to travel alone instead of in the company of others. Remember that “fun” is a subjective experience, and while a lot of 7s might find partying fun (something typically associated with the type), some introverted 7s might feel suffocated in these social settings as they find the people and atmosphere unappealing. Their fun-seeking might be what extroverted 7s call boring. On the other hand, Fe can also be the driving factor of some 7s, seeking the joys and pleasure of the company of others. This is usually in orientation with tert Se/Ne, though, and might cause unhealthy loops if not controlled for. ESFJ 7s might seem very ESFP-like.

Enneagram 8: Not surprisingly highly correlated with Te-doms: ENTJs and ESTJs. The 8′s desire to be self-reliant combined with Te-dom’s way of processing information around external systems, causes a stereotype who is very much focused on what they need to control outside of themselves to be at peace. As with 2 and Fe, 8 and Te seems to go hand in hand – 8s see what works and does not work, what needs to be fixed and how it should be done, and they just do so, without fuzzing around the emotional part of it. This is because Te does not orientate around people’s emotional state the way for instance Fe-doms do, which causes a stereotype of 8s as being direct, rude and self-centered. On the other hand, 8s with the Fe/Ti-combination might emphasize control of their own behavior and their own independence to a larger extent, as well as acting on justice and heroism. They can very much be the type who stands up for the “small people”, and who (in both healthy and unhealthy ways) sacrifice themselves in order to protect others. Here we see more of the overcaring-big-brother-looking-after-the-little-sister-stereotype, rather than the CEO-efficient stereotype.

Enneagram 9: Enneagram type 9 does not seem to have a strong one-on-one correlation with any of the cognitive functions. However, 9 seems to moderately correlate with all the introverted cognitive functions: Ni, Si, Fi and Ti. This can explain why most of the introverted MBTI types correlate with this enneagram to some extent. 9s desire for “inner stability” and peace of mind, as well as their driving cognitive functions’ tendencies to internalize, and then act through internalized information, might explain why 9s often are considered introverted. However, given the lack of a clear correlation with any MBTI types, a lot of atypical 9 behaviors can usually be explained by a wing (8 or 1), or some other element of the tritype. With the enneagram type 9, there does not seem to be as much of an overlap as with many other highly correlated Enneagram and MBTI-type pairings.