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 :)