What would YOU do?

The Bystander Effect. All of us liketo think that if faced with a dangerous, stressful situation, we would take charge and do something. However, evidence shows this is not the case. In reality, the bystander effect would occur. The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomena that refers to cases where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present. This also goes along with diffusion of responsibility which tends to occur in groups of people when responsibility is not officially assigned. This seems unbelieveable to me. However after talking to my dad about this, he gave me a real life example of both of these concepts.

My dad is a trained EMT at work and one day at work, a man got severely injured and was bleeding heavily. My dad and another man were called to help and when they got to the scene, there were many people standing around, watching the man bleed. In order to help the man, my dad and the other EMT were going to need some assistance. My dad asked "Can someone get me a blanket and the first aid kit?" No one moved. Finally he had to say, "John, can you get a blanket, and Lisa, you get the first aid kit." Then people started to do something. This clearly illustrates the bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility. When my dad addressed the crowd as a whole, no one responded but when he called certain people by name, they acted because they realized people were depending specifically on them, not just the entire group.

This happens quite frequently. I found an interesting article called 10 Notorious Cases of the Bystander Effect. In the article, it discusses multiple cases such as horrific murders and rapes that could have been stopped if someone would have just stepped up. So next time you wonder if you should step in, don't think twice, just act.

DID I do that?

After looking at Kirby's amazingg glog, I learned that DID, also known as multiple personality disorder, is when a person exhibits two or more! personalities. The number of people who have DID is about 1 in 10,000 people. The DSM-IV classifies DID with the following four characteristics: (1) presence of two or more distinct personalities, (2) at least two of the identities come back often and take over control, (3) unable to recall important personal information that can't be explained by normal forgetfulness, and (4) disturbance is not due to a substance or medication. Unfortunately, there is no proven cause of DID, however, it is linked to childhood abuse, multiple tramas in life, and genetics. Some symptoms of DID are blackouts, not remembering how you got somewhere or something, repressing certain memories, being called names not his/her own, hearing voices, feeling more than one person, and original personality denies that the others exist.

In order to treat a patient with DID, the best approach would be to draw from many different types of therapies known as the eclectic approach. Because the disorder could be caused by a tramatic event or childhood memory, psychoanalysis could help to bring out that memory and possibly get to the root of the problem and deal with those original emotions. Similarily, cognitive therapies could look at specific life events to see how the person interpreted them and how they are affecting the personalities. These two therapies could possibly rid the person of the multiple personalites because they are now unneccesary for the original person to deal with their problems. Also, group and family therapies could be utilized in order to confront certain people from the past and how they hurt them which may have led their personalities to form. The therapist could also council their spouse and children in how to more effectively deal with many personalities.

The biomedical therapies would not help a person with DID. There are no medications for this disorder to rid the person of the personalities. I don't think that the mood stabilizers or an of the other drugs would be effective.

When dealing with depression, SSRI's help because they block the reabsorption or breakdown or norepinephrine and serotonin. Both norepinephrine and serotonin are neurotransmitters that enhance mood and arousal. In many depressed patients, they are both found to be lacking in the body. When the SSRI's block the reuptake, the extra serotonin in the synapse will connect again with the receptor. This causes the SSRI's to boost mood and therefore combat depression.

Hypochondriasis Glog!

http://smitsamber.edu.glogster.com/hypochondriasis/

Bipolar Disorder

I thought this week in psych was particularily interesting. Learning about the diseases was intriguing and easy to read about. One of the disorders, bipolar disorder, peaked my interest. As a young child, one of my neighborhood friends had bipolar disorder. (Although I didn't know this until years later, I did pick up on the syptoms, even though I was young.) The way the book describes the disorder as a mix of depression and manic tendencies seems a little extreme, however, it was completely on point for the way my former neighbor acted. When we played together, she would always be super hyper. Normal for a child you say? Well, not her actions, they were over the top. On those days, she would never get tired and was always on the go. Other days when I would ask to play with her, her mom would say she was tired or sleeping. What!? In the middle of the day, in the summer? But these symptoms were not unusual for her because the disorder basically controlled her actions. Coincidentally this week, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones went to treatment for bipolar disorder and kind of put a public face on it. Not that it is great she has the disease of course, but I think this is positive for all the Americans struggling with it day to day. If this successful actress can deal with it and is "normal," this gives others with the disorder hope of living normal, productive lives as well. Also, it takes the stigma away from the disorder and puts it in the limelight, giving clueless Americans a little insight. The article states it perfectly by saying that bipolar disorder is "not a character flaw." Many people get uncomfortable when talking about mental health and various little known disorders so I think it is awesome that she isn't ashamed about her need for treatment because there is no reason she should be. Way to take a stand and give a voice to other Americans with bipolar disorder!

Achievement Motivation

During class when Dubbs asked us to choose which trash can we would aim for before going down to actually try it, in my head I chose C. I chose this because I thought it would be difficult to make the beanbag in, but also, I thought that I would still have a high chance of making it aka of having success. These were my exact thoughts, so when Dubbs discussed the high need for achievement notes in class, a light bulb turned on in my head. I definitely think that I am a person who has a high need for achievement. I wouldn't have chosen E because I don't have that good of aim, but I also wouldn't choose A because it's too easy and no one would have thought it was cool when I made it. I also feel that I am intrinsicly motivated like Dubbs said people with a high need for achievement typically have. The feeling inside feels better for me than winning a trophy or medal does. Although society engrains the opposite in everyone, my parents/family had a large part in me not caring about the material rewards. They taught me that the better reward is inside feeling proud of yourself. Not that I don't have all my trophies displayed in my room :)

Is EQ importance EQual?

Have we stretched the idea of intelligence too far when we apply it to our emotions? I have never thought of it this way but our keys to true success is our EQ. You can be extremely smart and successful but I believe that you will never reach your full potential if you do not have a high EQ. Having a high EQ consists of being able to percieve, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively. To me this translates to being able to know how others are feeling and interact in an appropriate manner in a social setting. It's true that there are many highly intelligent people in the world who lack basic social skills and they are very successful in their profession but are they successful in their personal lives and relationships with others. If someone doesn't have a high EQ, they may not value personal relationships an important or necessary aspect of life. However to me, a person can't have a truly fulfilling life without personal success in their career as well as in their personal life. I believe it is wise to value emotional intelligence highly because it leads to personal connections and feeling included in society.

Learning Language

Dora the Explorer. Go Diego Go. Ni Hao Kai-Lan. These are just three of the plethora of television shows geared towards teaching kids a different language. In each episode, children as young as 2 or 3, learn colors, numbers, and words for everyday objects. Why? Because studies show that learning a new language becomes more difficult with age. Similarly, David Myers in our text said that young children have a readiness to learn language. Although there is not "critical period" to learn a second language, thoses who learned it before age 8 understood the grammar as well as native speakers.

In order to test the validity of these studies, I did a little experiment of my own.. Once again, Alex (age 4) came in handy along with my dad (age 41). I taught them each 10 basic spanish vocabulary words at the same time so the teaching was the same for both. The teaching consisted of showing them the word along with correctly pronouncing it. I also asked them to repeat the word. They both had a little difficulty with this :). 30 minutes later, I separately quizzed each of them by saying the word in English then asking them to translate it to Spanish. While my brother got 7 correct, my dad only got 3 correct... Even though this study may not be very reliable, the results were pretty significant. It definitely displayed to me that learning a second language is best done when young. This is probably why in recent years, many tv shows have popped up claiming to teach a second language. Do they work? No one will know until the children watching the shows grow up and society can see how their language skills have developed compared to previous generations. But it is an interesting topic to think about...