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Moral development

Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. The theory states that morality develops across the lifespan in a variety of ways. Morality is influenced by an individual's experiences, behavior, and when they are faced with moral issues through different periods of physical and cognitive development. Morality concerns an individual's reforming sense of what is right and wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgment and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness." It also refers to a specific code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion, or personal philosophy that guides one's actions, behaviors, and thoughts. Some of the earliest known moral development theories came from philosophers like Confucius, Aristotle and Rousseau, who took a more humanist perspective and focused on the development of a sense of conscience and virtue. In the modern-day, empirical research has explored morality through a moral psychology lens by theorists like Sigmund Freud and its relation to cognitive development by theorists like Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, B. F. Skinner, Carol Gilligan, and Judith Smetana. Moral development often emphasizes these four fundamentals: Feeling or emotion aspect: these theories emphasize the affective aspect of moral development and include several altruism theories. Behavioural aspect: these theories mainly deal with moral behaviour. Cognitive aspect: these theories focus on moral judgment and moral reasoning. Integrated perspectives: several theorists have also attempted to propose theories which integrate two or three of the affective, behavioural, and cognitive aspects of morality. Background Morality refers to “the ability to distinguish right from wrong, to act on this distinction and to experience pride when we do the right things and guilt or shame when we do not.” Both Piaget and Kohlberg made significant contributions to this area of study. Experts in developmental psychology have categorized morality into three key facets: the emotional aspect, the cognitive aspect, and the action-oriented aspect. The emotional aspect encapsulates the feelings accompanying decisions that may be considered morally right or wrong, like guilt or empathy. The cognitive aspect delves into the mental mechanisms people employ to judge whether actions are morally acceptable or not. For instance, a child aged eight might be told by a trusted adult not to eat cookies from a jar, yet the temptation to disobey may arise when they're alone. However, this urge is weighed against their understanding that they could face repercussions for doing so. The action-oriented aspect concerns how individuals conduct themselves in situations tempting dishonesty or when they are presented with the opportunity to aid someone in need. Moral affect Moral affect is “emotion related to matters of right and wrong”. Such emotion includes shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride; shame is correlated with the disapproval by one's peers, guilt is correlated with the disapproval of oneself, embarrassment is feeling disgraced while in the public eye, and pride is a feeling generally brought about by a positive opinion of oneself when admired by one's peers. Empathy is also tied in with moral affect and is an emotional unfolding that allows you to be able to understand how another person feels. If an empathetic person sees someone crying, then they may understand their sadness. If the empathetic person sees someone that has just accomplished a lifelong goal, they may understand their happiness. Empathy falls under the affective component of morality and is the main reasoning behind selflessness. According to theorist Martin Hoffman, empathy plays a key role in the progression of morality. Empathy causes people to be more prominent in prosocial behavior as discussed earlier. Without empathy, there would be no humanity. Moral reasoning Moral reasoning is the thinking process involved in deciding whether an act is right or wrong. This allows the development of social cognition, which is required for experiencing other people's distress. These skills also enable the construction of a concept of reciprocity and fairness, allowing people to go beyond mere egocentrism. According to Piaget and Kohlberg, moral reasoning progresses through a constant sequence, a fixed and universal order of stages, each of which contains a consistent way of thinking about moral issues that are all distinct from one another. Social Learning Theory Based on the observing of others and modelling behaviours, emotions and attitudes of others. This theory is derived from the concept of perspective behaviourism but has elements of cognitive learning as well. The theory says that people especially children learn from observing others and the environment around them. It also says that imitation modelling has a major role in the learning and development of the person and their beliefs or morals. Albert Bandura was a major contributor to the theory of social learning and made many contributions to the field with social experiments and research. The social learning theory says that children learn and develop morals from observing what is around them and having role models that they imitate the behaviour and learn. Role models guide children in indirectly developing morals and morality. By watching the responses of others and society around them, children learn what is acceptable and what is not acceptable and try to act similarly to what is deemed acceptable by the society around them. For example, a child's older sibling tends to serve as one of their first role models, especially because they share the same surroundings and authority figures. When the older child misbehaves or does something unacceptable the younger child takes the older one as an example and acts like him or her. However, if the parent punishes the older child or there is a consequence to their behavior, the younger child often does not act like the older one because they were able to observe that that behavior was “unacceptable” by the “society” surrounding them, meaning their family. This example coincides with the fact that children know that stealing, killing, and lying is bad, and honesty, kindness, and being polite is good. Evolutionary Theory The Evolutionary Theory of Morality tries to explain morality and its development in terms of evolution and how it may at first seem contradictory for humans to have morals and morality in the evolutionary opinion. Evolution has many beliefs and parts to it but as most commonly seen, it is the survival of the fittest. This behavior is driven from the desire to pass on your genes. Whether that means being selfish or caring for your young just to make sure that your genes survive. That may seem to conflict with morality and having morals, however e argue that that may be related and having morality and morals might actually be a factor that contributes to the theory of evolution. Additionally, humans have developed communities and a social lifestyle which makes it necessary to develop morals. In an evolutionary view, a human being that acts immorally will suffer consequences, such as paying a fine, going to prison, or being an outcast. Whatever it is, there is a loss to that human. Therefore, that individual eventually learns that to be accepted in society, it is necessary to develop morals and act on them. Historical background and foundational theories Freud: Morality and the Superego Sigmund Freud, a prominent psychologist who is best known as the founder of psychoanalysis, proposed the existence of a tension between the needs of society and the individual. According to Freud's theory, moral development occurs when an individual's selfish desires are repressed and replaced by the values of critical socializing agents in one's life (for instance, one's parents). In Freud's theory, this process involves the improvement of the ego in balancing the needs and tensions between the id (selfish desires and impulses) and the super-ego (one's internal sense of cultural needs and norms). B.F. Skinner's Behavioral Theory A proponent of behaviorism, B.F. Skinner similarly focused on socialization as the primary force behind moral development. In contrast to Freud's notion of a struggle between internal and external forces, Skinner focused on the power of external forces (reinforcement contingencies) in shaping an individual's development. Behaviorism is founded on the belief that people learn from the consequences of their behavior. He called his theory "operant conditioning" when a specific stimulus is reinforced for one to act. Essentially, Skinner believed that all morals were learned behaviors based on the punishments and rewards (either explicit or implicit) that the person had experienced during their life, in the form of trial-and-error behavioral patterns. Piaget's Theory of Moral Development Jean Piaget was the first psychologist to suggest a theory of moral development. According to Piaget, development only emerges with action, and a person constructs and reconstructs his knowledge of the world as the result of new interactions with his environment. Piaget said that people pass through three different stages of moral reasoning: premoral period, heteronomous morality, and autonomous morality. During the premoral stage (occurring during the preschool years), children show very little awareness or understanding of rules and cannot be considered moral beings. The heteronomous stage (occurring between the ages of 6 and 10) is defined as "under the rule of another": during this stage, the child takes rules more seriously, believing that they are handed down by authority figures and are sacred and never to be altered; regardless of whether the intentions were good or bad, any violator to these passed-down rules will be judged as wrongdoing. In the last stage, autonomous morality (occurring between the ages of 10 and 11), children begin to appreciate that rules are agreements between individuals. While both Freud and Skinner focused on the external forces that bear on morality (parents in the case of Freud, and behavioral contingencies in the case of Skinner), Jean Piaget (1965) focused on the individual's construction, construal, and interpretation of morality from a socio-cognitive and socio-emotional perspective. As the first to suggest such a theory on moral development, Piaget strove to understand adult morality through the morality of a child and the factors that contribute to the emergence of central moral concepts such as welfare, justice, and rights. In interviewing children using the Clinical Interview Method, Piaget (1965) found that young children were focused on authority mandates and that with age, children become autonomous, evaluating actions from a set of independent principles of morality. Piaget characterizes children's morality development through observing children while playing games to see if rules are followed. He took these observations and organized three stages of development that people pass through within childhood, these stages being; premoral period, heteronomous morality, and autonomous morality. The premoral stage is the earliest of the three, starting in the earliest years of a child’s life, the time they enter preschool. It is characterized by the children’s general ignorance of morals or rules in general, as it is called the “premoral” stage. During the elementary school years children enter the heteronomous morality stage. This is the stage where children are trusting those who are older than them and the knowledge of the world they have. Any rules they receive are perfect and need to be followed unconditionally. Lastly, in the autonomous morality stage, children become more knowledgeable about how rules really work and what they are. They can then start to choose to follow them or to disobey autonomously. Kohlberg: Moral Reasoning Influenced by Piaget's work, Kohlberg created an influential cognitive development theory of moral development. Like Piaget, Kohlberg formulated that moral growth occurs in a very universal and consistent sequence of three moral levels, but for him the stages in the sequence are connected with one another, and grows out of the preceding stage. Kohlberg's view represents a more complex way of thinking about moral issues. Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a highly influential theory of moral development which was inspired by the works of Jean Piaget and John Dewey. Unlike the previously mentioned psychologists, Kohlberg viewed these stages in a more continual way. Rather than having completely separate stages, he proposed that the following steps were interconnected in that each will lead to the other as the person grows. Kohlberg was able to demonstrate through research that humans improved their moral reasoning in 6 specific steps. These stages, which fall into categories of pre-conventional (punishment avoidance and self-interest), conventional (social norms and authority figures), and post-conventional (universal principles), progress from childhood and throughout adult life. In his research, Kohlberg was more interested in the reasoning behind a person’s answer to a moral dilemma than the given answer itself. Judgement-Action Gap Over forty years, the biggest dilemma that has arisen regarding moral theory is the judgment-action gap. This is also known as the competence performance gap, or the moral-action gap. Kohlberg's theory focused on the stages of moral reasoning by basing it on the competence of an individual working through a moral dilemma. The reason this gap form is due to an error in hypotheticals. When creating a hypothetical dilemma, individuals neglect to include the contingencies of real life constraints. The opposite occurs when an individual is applying their reasoning to a real-life moral dilemma. In this situation instead of leaving out the constraints during their thought process one will include every constraint. Due to this occurrence, a gap forms as a result of creating a position and defending it in a rational manner in response to a situation that requires moral action. Stages of moral reasoning The first level of Kohlberg's moral reasoning is called preconventional morality. In this stage, children obey rules more externally. This means the children are more likely to conform to rules authority sets for them, to avoid punishment or to receive personal rewards. There are two stages within preconventional morality. The first is punishment and obedience orientation. During this stage, the child determines how wrong his action was according to the punishment they receive. If he does not get scolded for his bad act, they will believe he did nothing wrong. The second stage of preconventional morality is called instrumental hedonism. The main principle for this stage is quid pro quo. A person in the second stage conforms to rules for personal gain. There is a hint of understanding the ruler's perspective, although, the main objective is to gain the benefit in return. The next level is conventional morality. At this level, many moral values have been internalized by the individual. they work to obey rules set by authority and to seek approval. The points of views of others are now clearly recognized and taken into serious consideration. The first stage to this level is labeled “good boy” or “good girl” morality. The following stage captures the golden rule “treat others the way you want to be treated.” The emphasis in this stage consists of being nice and meaning well. What is seen as “good” is now what pleases and helps others. The last stage of this level is “Authority and social order- maintaining morality.” This is conforming to set rules created by legitimate authorities that benefits society as a whole. The basis of reciprocation is growing more complex. The purpose of conforming is no longer based on the fear of punishment, but on the value people place on respecting the law and doing one's duty to society. The final level of moral reasoning is postconventional morality. The individual determines what the moral ideal for society is. The individual will begin to distinguish between what is morally acceptable and what is legal. He or she will recognize some laws violate basic moral principles. He or she will go beyond perspectives of social groups or authorities and will start to accept the perspectives of all points of view around the world. In the first stage of postconventional, called “morality of contract, individual rights and democratic accepted law”, all people willingly work towards benefitting everyone. They understand all social groups within a society have different values but believe all intellectuals would agree on two points.The first point being freedom of liberty and life. Second, they would agree to having a democratic vote for changing unfair laws and improving their society. The final stage of the final level of Kohlberg's moral reasoning is “morality of individual principles of conscience”, At this highest stage of moral reasoning, Kohlberg defines his stage 6 subjects as having a clear and broad concept of universal principles. The stage 6 thinker does not create the basis for morality. Instead, they explore, through self-evaluation, complex principles of respect for all individuals and for their rights that all religions or moral authorities would view as moral. Kohlberg stopped using stage 6 in his scoring manual, saying it was a “theoretical stage”. He began to score postconventional responses only up to stage 5. Social Domain Theory Elliot Turiel argued for a social domain approach to social cognition, delineating how individuals differentiate moral (fairness, equality, justice), societal (conventions, group functioning, traditions), and psychological (personal, individual prerogative) concepts from early in development throughout the lifespan. Over the past 40 years, research findings have supported this model, demonstrating how children, adolescents, and adults differentiate moral rules from conventional rules, identify the personal domain as a non regulated domain, and evaluate multifaceted (or complex) situations that involve more than one domain. This research has been conducted in a wide range of countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Nigeria, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, U.K., U.S., Virgin Islands) and with rural and urban children, for low and high income communities, and traditional and modern cultures. Turiel's social domain theory showed that children were actually younger in developing moral standards than past psychologists predicted. Contemporary developments For the past 20 years, researchers have expanded the field of moral development, applying moral judgment, reasoning, and emotion attribution to topics such as prejudice, aggression, theory of mind, emotions, empathy, peer relationships, and parent-child interactions. The Handbook of Moral Development (2006), edited by Melanie Killen and Judith Smetana, provides a wide range of information about these topics covered in moral development today. One of the main objectives was to provide a sense of the current state of the field of moral development. Cognition and intentionality A hallmark of moral understanding is intentionality, which can be defined as "an attribution of the target's intentions towards another," or a sense of purpose or directedness towards a certain result. According to researchers Malle, Moses, and Baldwin (2001), five components make up people's concept of intentionality: an action is considered intentional if a personal has (a) a desire for an outcome, (b) a belief that the action will lead to the outcome, (c) an intention to perform the action, (d) skill to perform the action, and (e) awareness while performing it. Recent research on children's theory of mind (ToM) has focused on when children understand others' intentions The moral concept of one's intentionality develops with experience in the world. Yuill (1984) presented evidence that comprehension of one's intentions plays a role in moral judgment, even in young children. Killen, Mulvey, Richardson, Jampol, and Woodward (2011) present evidence that with developing false belief competence (ToM), children are capable of using information about one's intentions when making moral judgments about the acceptability of acts and punishments, recognizing that accidental transgressors, who do not hold hostile intentions, should not be held accountable for adverse outcomes. In this study, children who lacked false belief competence were more likely to attribute blame to an accidental transgressor than children with demonstrated false belief competence. In addition to evidence from a social cognitive perspective, behavioral evidence suggests that even three-year-olds can take into account a person's intention and apply this information when responding to situations. Vaish, Carpenter, and Tomasello (2010), for instance, presented evidence that three-year-olds are more willing to help a neutral or helpful person than a harmful person. Beyond identifying one's intentionality, mental state understanding plays a crucial role in identifying victimization. While obvious distress cues (e.g., crying) allow even three-year-olds to identify victims of harm, it is not until around six years of age that children can appreciate that a person may be an unwilling victim of harm even in the absence of obvious distress. In their study, Shaw and Wainryb (2006) discovered that children older than six interpret compliance, resistance, and subversion to illegitimate requests (e.g., clean my locker) from a victim's perspective. That is, they judge that victims who resist illegitimate requests will feel better than victims who comply. Emotions Moral questions tend to be emotionally charged issues that evoke strong affective responses. Consequently, emotions likely play an important role in moral development. However, there is currently little consensus among theorists on how emotions influence moral development. Psychoanalytic theory, founded by Freud, emphasizes the role of guilt in repressing primal drives. Research on prosocial behavior has focused on how emotions motivate individuals to engage in moral or altruistic acts. Social-cognitive development theories have recently begun to examine how emotions influence moral judgments. Intuitionist theorists assert that moral judgments can be reduced to immediate, instinctive emotional responses elicited by moral dilemmas. Research on socioemotional development and prosocial development has identified several "moral emotions" which are believed to motivate moral behavior and influence moral development. These moral emotions are said to be linked to moral development because they are evidence and reflective of an individual's set of moral values, which must have undergone through the process of internalization in the first place. The manifestation of these moral emotions can occur at two separate timings: either before or after the execution of a moral or immoral act. A moral emotion that precedes an action is referred to as an anticipatory emotion, and a moral emotion that follows an action is referred to as a powerful emotion. The primary emotions consistently linked with moral development are guilt, shame, empathy, and sympathy. Guilt has been defined as "an agitation-based emotion or painful feeling of regret that is aroused when the actor causes, anticipates causing, or is associated with an aversive event". Shame is often used synonymously with guilt, but implies a more passive and dejected response to a perceived wrong. Guilt and shame are considered "self-conscious" emotions because they are of primary importance to an individual's self-evaluation. Moreover, there exists a bigger difference between guilt and shame that goes beyond the type of feelings that they may provoke within an individual. This difference lies in the fact that these two moral emotions do not weigh the same in terms of their impact on moral behaviors. Studies on the effects of guilt and shame on moral behaviors have shown that guilt has a larger ability to dissuade an individual from making immoral choices, whereas shame did not seem to have any deterring effect on immoral behaviors. However, different types of behaviors in different types of populations, under different circumstances, might not generate the same outcomes. In contrast to guilt and shame, empathy and sympathy are considered other-oriented moral emotions. Empathy is commonly defined as an affective response produced by the apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state, which mirrors the other's affective state. Similarly, sympathy is defined as an emotional response produced by the apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state which does not mirror the other's effect but instead causes one to express concern or sorrow for the other. The relation between moral action and moral emotions has been extensively researched. Very young children have been found to express feelings of care, and empathy towards others, showing concerns for others' well-being. Research has consistently demonstrated that when empathy is induced in an individual, he or she is more likely to engage in subsequent prosocial behavior. Additionally, other research has examined emotions of shame and guilt concerning children's empathic and prosocial behavior. While emotions serve as information for children in their interpretations about moral consequences of acts, the role of emotions in children's moral judgments has only recently been investigated. Some approaches to studying emotions in moral judgments come from the perspective that emotions are automatic intuitions that define morality. Other approaches emphasize the role of emotions as evaluative feedback that help children interpret acts and consequences. Research has shown children attribute different emotional outcomes to actors involved in moral transgressions than those involved in conventional transgressions( Arsenio & Fleiss, 1996). Emotions may help individuals prioritize among different information and possibilities and reduce information processing demands in order to narrow the scope of the reasoning process (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000). In addition, Malti, Gummerum, Keller, & Buchmann, (2009) found individual differences in how children attribute emotions to victims and victimizers. Throughout the lifespan Infant Infants, as they are newly entering the world, are not aware of morality or rules in general. This puts them at a stage of life where they are focusing on learning about the world around them through the people they are around. They are able to pick up on social connections and kindness, even if they are not explicitly aware of social cues or rules. An infant is not held accountable for wrongdoings because an infant is considered to be amoral. Infants do not have the ability to understand morality at this stage of their life. Infancy ranges from birth to the age of two. It is during this time that infants learn how to be prosocial and empathetic by observing those around them. Early moral training An example of early moral training is given by Roger Burton. Roger Burton observed his 1-year-old daughter Ursula take her sister's Halloween candy. The older sister quickly scolded the infant for doing so. After a week had passed the infant went and stole candy again but was confronted by her mother this time. Yet again the infant stole her sister's candy, so Burton approached his daughter himself. As Burton was about to say something to Ursula, she spoke and said, “No this is Maria's, not Ursula's.” This specific example given by Burton shows how the infant grows and imputes morality slowly but surely. Over time infants start to understand that their behavior can cause repercussions. The infants learn by observing their surrounding environment. A 1-year-old may cease to commit a certain action because of feelings of apprehension due to past experiences of criticism. Both disapproval and reward are key factors in furthering the infants' development. If a baby is especially close to his mom, her disapproval and reward are that much more impactful in this process than it would be for a baby who was unattached to his mom. Infants are excellent at reading the emotions of others which in turn directs them in knowing what is good and what is bad. A strong attachment between parent and infant is the key to having success with the infants' socialization. If the relationship between the two is not stable by 15 months, at 4 the child will show animosity and troublesome behavior. At 5 the child is likely to show signs of destructive behavior. In order to ensure this does not happen, a mutually responsive orientation among the parent and offspring is necessary. Meaning, “A close emotionally positive and cooperative relationship in which child and care giver cares about each other and are sensitive to each other's needs.” With this bond, parents can help their child's conscience grow. Empathy and Prosocial Behavior Empathy and Prosocial Behavior: Unlike what Freud, Kohlberg, and Piaget said about infants being focused solely on themselves, Krebs's has a different take on the infant. Krebs's outlook on infants is that they can and do express signs of empathy and prosocial behavior. After being born, newborns show empathy in a primitive way by showing signs of agony when hearing other babies cry. Although it is not certain whether these babies can tell the difference between their own cry and another infants, Martin Hoffman explains that between the age of 1 and 2 infants are more able to perform real moral acts. Hoffman observed a 2-year-old's reaction to another child in distress. The 2-year-old offered his own teddy bear to his peer. This simple act shows that the 2-year-old was putting himself in the shoes of his peer Another study was done by Carolyn Zahn-Waxler and her team on this topic. Waxler found that over half of the infants involved took part in at least one act of prosocial behavior Hoffman feels that as children mature empathy in turn becomes less about oneself and more about cognitive development. Childhood One of the main contributors in the understanding of childhood morality, as mentioned above, was Kohlberg. While in these younger ages, children see rules as immovable forces that cannot not be changed. These tend to be implemented by those who they see as being in authority. Kohlberg also said that moral development does not just stop or is complete at a certain time or stage but instead that it is continuous and happens throughout a person's lifetime. Kohlberg used stories that are known as Heinz dilemmas which are controversial stories to see what people felt was morally acceptable and what was not. From that he developed his theory with his six stages of moral development which are: obedience, self-interest, conformity, law and order, human rights, and universal human ethics. Weighing Intentions As mentioned before, Kohlberg believed that moral development was an ongoing thing and that through experiences it develops and adapts. Moreover, in children's moral thinking there comes a time where morality and moral decisions are made based on consequences, that is to say that they start weighing intentions in order to decide and learn whether something is morally okay or not. An example of this can be seen in identifying the intentions of specific behaviors. We as a society also operate in that way because the same outcome or behavior can be considered acceptable had the intentions for it been good versus another time where the intentions were bad and in that case it would be unacceptable. In a situation where a child is trying to help their parent clean and misplaces something accidentally, it is easily forgiven and is considered morally acceptable because his/her intentions were good. However, if the child purposely hid the object so their parent would not find it, it is morally unacceptable because the intentions were bad. Ultimately, it is the same situation and same outcome but the intentions are different. At the age of 10–11 years children realize this concept and start justifying their actions and behaviors by weighing their intentions. Understanding Rules In Kohlberg's theory of moral development there are six definite stages. The first stage is called obedience and punishment orientation. And this stage is governed by the concept of having rules, laws, and things that one must follow. In children there is a set of rules set down by their authority figures, often being their parents. At this stage of moral development, morality is defined by these rules and laws that they think are set in stone and can never change. To a child, these rules are ones that can never be wrong and that define good and bad and show the difference between them. Later on however, these rules become more like guidelines and can change based on the situation they are presented in. Another aspect of these rules is the concept of punishment and reinforcement and that's how children realize what is considered morally okay or not. An example of this is in the dilemmas used by Kohlberg, when he asked children to justify or judge the situation and their answer was always justified by something similar to “this is not fair” or “this is wrong because lying is bad” etc. This shows that at this particular stage children are not yet contributing members in terms of moral development. Applying Theory of Mind The theory of mind tells us that children need to develop a sense of self in order to develop morality and moral concepts. As the child develops, s/he needs to experience and observe in order to realize how they fit into society and eventually become part of it thereby establishing a sense of self-identity. This sense of self-identity depends on many things and it is important to develop and learn from those stages in order to fully develop understand good from bad. Moral Socialization Moral socialization talks about how morality is passed on. This perspective says that adults or parents pass down and teach their children the acceptable behavior through techniques and teaching as well as punishments and reinforcements. This then shows that children who learn and develop morality have good listening and are more compliant and it is because of that that they are morally developed. Therefore, if a parent fails to teach that to their child, the child then would not develop morality. Moral socialization also has studies that show that parents who use techniques that are not violent or aggressive and unconditional raise children with more conscience. Therefore, these children have more of a sense of morality and are more morally developed. Adolescence As an individual matures, they move from a strict and clear moral understanding that is based on those they view as having authority to being able to think for themselves and learning about what they think themselves. They are in the stage of life where they are gaining more independence from their parents and figuring out who they are, and in doing so, this can cause initial confusion when it comes to such topics like morality. Changes in moral reasoning The teen years are a significant period for moral growth. The moral reasoning percentage range displays that the preconventional reasoning (stage one and two) decrease rapidly as they reach teen years. During adolescence, conventional reasoning (stage three and four) become the centralized mode of moral thinking. Early year teens reflect stage 2 (instrumental hedonism) - “treat others how you would like to be treated”- or stage 3 (good boy or good girl) which involves earning approval and being polite. Almost half the percent of 16- to 18-year-olds display stage 3 reasoning and only a fifth were scored as stage 4 (authority and social order-maintaining morality) arguments. As adolescents start to age more they begin to take a broad societal perspective and act in ways to benefit the social system. The main developmental trend in moral reasoning occurs during the shift from preconventional to conventional reasoning. During the shift, individuals carry out moral standards that have been passed down by authority. Many teens characterize a moral person as caring fair, and honest. Adolescents who display these aspects tend to advance their moral reasoning. Antisocial behavior The adolescents who do not internalize society's moral standards, are more likely to be involved in antisocial conduct such as, muggings, rapes, armed robberies, etc. Most antisocial adults start their bad behavior in childhood and continue on into adolescence. Misbehavior seen in childhood increases, resulting in juvenile delinquency as adolescents. Actions such as leaving school early, having difficulty maintaining a job, and later participating in law-breaking as adults. Children who are involved in these risky activities are diagnosed as having conduct disorder and will later develop antisocial personality disorder. There are at least two outcomes of antisocial youths. First, a noticeable group of children who are involved in animal cruelty, and violence amongst their peers which then consistently progresses throughout their entire lifespan. The second group consists of the larger population of adolescents who misbehave primarily due to peer pressure but outgrow this behavior when they reach adulthood. Juveniles are most likely to depend on preconventional moral reasoning. Some offenders lack a well-developed sense of right and wrong. A majority of delinquents are able to reason conventionally but commit illegal acts anyway. Dodge's social information processing model Kenneth Dodge progressed on the understanding of aggressive/aggression behavior with creating his social information processing model. He believed that people's retaliation to frustration, anger or provocation do not depend so much on social cues in the situation as on the ways which they process and interpret this information. An individual who is provoked goes through a six step progress of processing information. According to dodge the individual will encode and interpret cues, then clarify goals. Following this, he will respond search and decision, thinking of possible actions to achieve goal to then weigh pros and cons of alternative options. Finally, he will perform behavioral enactment, or take action. People do not go through these steps in the exact order in all cases, they may take two and work on them simultaneously or repeat the steps. Also, an individual may come up with information from not only the current situation, but also from a previous similar social experience and work off of that. The six steps in social information processing advance as one ages. Patterson's coercive family environments Gerald Patterson observed that highly antisocial children and adolescents tend to be raised in coercive family environments in which family members try to control the others through negative, coercive tactics. The parental guidance in these households realize they are able to control their children temporarily with threatening them and providing negative reinforcement. The child also learns to use negative reinforcement to get what they want by ignoring, whining and throwing tantrums. Eventually, both sides (parents and children) lose all power of the situation and nothing is resolved. It becomes evident of how a child is raised on how they will become very hostile or present aggressiveness to resolve all their disputes. Patterson discusses how growing up in a coercive family environment creates an antisocial adolescent due to the fact they are already unpleasant to be around they begin to perform poorly in school and are rejected to all their peers. With no alternative option, they turn to the low-achieving, antisocial youths who encourage bad behavior. Dodge's theory is well supported by many cases of ineffective parenting contributing to the child's behavior problems, association with antisocial groups, resulting in antisocial behavior in adolescence. Nature and nurture The next theory that may contribute to antisocial behavior is between genetic predisposition and social learning experiences. Aggression is seen more in the evolutionary aspect. An example being, males are more aggressive than females and are involved in triple the amount of crime. Aggression has been present in males for centuries due to male dependence on dominance to compete for mates and pass genes to further generations. Most individuals are born with temperaments, impulsive tendencies, and other characteristics that relate to a delinquent. Although predisposed aspects have a great effect on the adolescent's behavior, if the child grows up in a dysfunctional family and receive poor parenting or is involved in an abusive environment that will increase the chances immensely for antisocial behaviors to appear. Changes in Moral Reasoning Lawrence Kohlberg has led most of the studies based on moral development in adults. In Kohlberg's studies, the subjects are ranked accordingly at one of the six stages. Stage 1 is called the Obedience and Punishment Orientation. Stage 1 is preconventional morality because the subject sees morality in an egocentric way. Stage 2 is also considered to be preconventional morality and is labeled as Individualism and Exchange. At this stage, the individual is still concentrated on the self and his surrounding environment. Stages 3 and 4 are at level 2, Conventional Morality. Stage 3 is called Interpersonal Relationships and is the point where the individual realizes that people should behave in good ways not only for the benefit of themselves but the family and community as well. Stage 4, Maintaining the Social Order, the individual is more concentrated on society as a whole. Stage 5 and 6 are both at level 3, post-conventional Morality. Stage 5 is the social contract and Individual Rights. At this stage people are contemplating what makes a good society rather than just what makes a society run smoothly. Stage 6, Universal Principles is the last stage which interprets the foundation of justice Kohlberg completed a 20-year study and found that most 30-year-old adults were at stage 3 and 4, the conventional level. According to this study there is still room for moral development in adulthood. Kohlberg's Theory in Perspective Kohlberg's theory of moral development greatly influenced the scientific body of knowledge. That being said, it is now being evaluated and researchers are looking for a more thorough explanation of moral development. Kohlberg stated that there is no variation to his stages of development. Despite this, modern research explains that children are more morally mature than Kohlberg had noted. On top of that, there is no strong evidence to suggest that people go from conventional to postconventional. Lastly, it is now known that Kohlberg's theory is biased against numerous people. New Approaches to Morality The main focus of developmentalists now is how important emotion is in terms of morality. Developmental researchers are examining the emotions of children and adults when exhibiting good and bad behavior. The importance of innate feelings and hunches in regards to morality are also being contemplated by doctors. Researchers have also come up with dual-process models of morality. This process examines Kohlberg's rational deliberation as well as the more recent study of innate feelings and emotions. Joshua Green is one scholar who backs the dual-process models of morality and feels that there are different situations that call for each view. All in all, there are many factors that come into play in deciding whether a person will behave in a certain fashion when dealing with a moral decision. Role of interpersonal, intergroup, and cultural influences Children's interactions and experiences with caregivers and peers have been shown to influence their development of moral understanding and behavior Researchers have addressed the influence of interpersonal interactions on children's moral development from two primary perspectives: Socialization/Internalization) and social domain theory. Research from the social domain theory perspective focuses on how children actively distinguish moral from conventional behavior based in part on the responses of parents, teachers, and peers. Social domain suggests that there are different areas of reasoning co-existing in development those include societal (concerns about conventions and grouping), moral (fairness, justice and rights) and psychological (concerns with personal goals and identity). Adults tend to respond to children's moral transgressions (e.g., hitting or stealing) by drawing the child's attention to the effect of his or her action on others, and doing so consistently across various contexts. In contrast, adults are more likely to respond to children's conventional misdeeds (e.g., wearing a hat in the classroom, eating spaghetti with fingers) by reminding children about specific rules and doing so only in certain contexts (e.g., at school but not at home). Peers respond mainly to moral but not conventional transgressions and demonstrate emotional distress (e.g., crying or yelling) when they are the victim of moral but unconventional transgressions. Research from a socialization/internalization perspective focuses on how adults pass down standards or rules of behavior to children through parenting techniques and why children do or do not internalize those values. From this perspective, moral development involves children's increasing compliance with and internalization of adult rules, requests, and standards of behavior. Using these definitions, researchers find that parenting behaviors vary in the extent to which they encourage children's internalization of values and that these effects depend partially on a child's attributes, such as age and temperament. For instance, Kochanska (1997) showed that gentle parental discipline best promotes conscience development in temperamentally fearful children but that parental responsiveness and a mutually responsive parent-child orientation best promote conscience development in temperamentally fearless children. These parental influences exert their effects through multiple pathways, including increasing children's experience of moral emotions (e.g., guilt, empathy) and their self-identification as moral individuals. Development can be divided up to multiple stages however the first few years of development is usually seen to be formed by 5 years of age. According to Freud's research, relationships between a child and parents early on usually provides the basis for personality development as well as the formation of morality. Researchers interested in intergroup attitudes and behavior related to one moral development have approached the study of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination in children and adolescents from several theoretical perspectives. Some, however not limited to are of these theoretical frameworks: Cognitive Development Theory; Social Domain Theory; Social Identity Development Theory Developmental Intergroup Theory Subjective Group Dynamics Implicit Theories and Intergroup-contact Theory. The plethora of research approaches is not surprising given the multitude of variables, (e.g., group identity, group status, group threat, group norms, intergroup contact, individual beliefs, and context) that need to be considered when assessing children's intergroup attitudes. While most of this research has investigated two-dimensional relationships between each of the three components: stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (e.g., the role of stereotypes in intergroup prejudice, use of stereotypes to reason about intergroup discrimination, how prejudices manifest into discrimination), very few have addressed all three aspects of intergroup attitudes and behaviors together. In developmental intergroup research, stereotypes are defined as judgments made about an individual's attributes based on group membership. Stereotypes are more complex than regular judgments because they require one to recognize and understand which group an individual belongs to in order to be treated differently deliberately due to their group association. These groups may be defined by gender, race, religion, culture, nationality, and ethnicity. Social psychologists focus on stereotypes as a cognitive component influencing intergroup behaviors and tend to define them as being fixed concepts associated with a category. Prejudice, on the other hand, is defined in terms of negative attitudes or affective expressions toward a whole group or members of a group. Negative stereotypes and prejudices can manifest into discrimination towards an outgroup, and for children and adolescents, this may come in the form of exclusion from peer groups and the wider community (Killen & Rutland, 2011). Such actions can negatively impact a child in the long term in the sense of weakening one's confidence, self-esteem, and personal identity. One explicit manner in which societies can socialize individuals is through moral education. Solomon and colleagues (1988) present evidence from a study that integrated direct instruction and guided reflection approaches to moral development, with evidence for resultant increases in spontaneous prosocial behavior. Culture can also be a key contributor toward differences in morality within society. Prosocial behavior, which benefits others, is much more likely in societies with concrete social goals than societies that emphasize the individual. For example, children being raised in China eventually adopt the collective communist ideals of their society. Children learn to lie and deny responsibility for accomplishing something good instead of seeking recognition for their actions. Early indications of prosocial behavior include sharing toys and comforting distressed friends, and these characteristics can be seen in an individual's behavior as young as infancy and toddlerhood. Starting in preschool, sharing, helping, and other prosocial behaviors become more common, particularly in females, although the gender differences in prosocial behavior are not evident in all social contexts. Moral relativism Moral relativism, also called "cultural relativism," suggests that morality is relative to each culture. One cannot rightly pass moral judgment on members of other cultures except by their cultural standards when actions violate a moral principle, which may differ from one's own. Shweder, Mahapatra, and Miller (1987) argued for the notion that different cultures defined the boundaries of morality differently. The term is also different from moral subjectivism, which means that moral truth is relative to the individual. Moral relativism can be identified as a form of moral skepticism and is often misidentified as moral pluralism. It opposes the attitude of moral superiority and ethnocentrism found in moral absolutism and the views of moral universalism. Turiel and Perkins (2004) argued for the universality of morality, focusing mainly on evidence throughout the history of resistance movements that fight for justice by affirming individual self-determination rights. Miller (2006) proposes cultural variability in the priority given to moral considerations (e.g., the importance of prosocial helping). Rather than variability in what individuals consider moral (fairness, justice, rights). Wainryb (2006), in contrast, demonstrates that children in diverse cultures such as the U.S., India, China, Turkey, and Brazil share a pervasive view about upholding fairness and the wrongfulness of inflicting, among others. Cultures vary in conventions and customs, but not principles of fairness, which appear to emerge very early in development before socialization influences. Wainryb (1991; 1993) shows that many apparent cultural differences in moral judgments are due to different informational assumptions or beliefs about how the world works. When people hold different beliefs about the effects of actions or the status of different groups, their judgments about the harmfulness or fairness of behaviors often differ, even when they apply the same moral principles. Religion The role of religion in culture may influence a child's moral development and sense of moral identity. Values are transmitted through religion, which is for many inextricably linked to cultural identity. Religious development often goes along with the moral development of the children as it shapes the child's concepts of right and wrong. Intrinsic aspects of religion may have a positive impact on the internalization and the symbolism of moral identity. The child may internalize the parents' morals if a religion is a family activity or the religious social group's morals to which the child belongs. Religious development mirrors the cognitive and moral developmental stages of children. Nucci and Turiel (1993), on the other hand, proposed that the development of morality is distinct from the understanding of religious rules when assessing individuals' reactions to whether moral and nonmoral religious rules was contingent on God's word and whether a harmful act could be justified as morally correct based on God's commands. Children form their understanding of how they see the world, themselves, or others and can understand that not all religious rules are applied to morality, social structures, or different religions. Moral development in Western and Eastern cultures Morality is understood differently across cultures, and this has produced significant disagreement between researchers. According to Jia and Krettenauer, Western concepts of morality can often be considered universal by western researchers, however it is important to consider other viewpoints because such concepts are context-dependent; social expectations vary widely across the globe and even have different understandings of what constitutes as good or just. Some researchers have theorized that a person’s moral motivations originate in their “moral identity,” or the extent to which they perceive themselves as moral individuals. However, other researchers believe that this view is limited because it does not account for more collectivistic cultures than individualistic in their societal values. Additionally, “concepts of justice, fairness, and harm to individuals” are emphasized as core elements of morality in Western cultures, whereas “concepts of interdependence, social harmony, and the role of cultural socialization” are emphasized as core elements of morality in Eastern cultures. Studies show that people in Taiwan focused on ethics of community, where people in the United States focused on ethics of autonomy. Additionally, in an analysis on moral development in adolescents, Hart and Carlo mention that a study found that most (nearly ¾) American Adults held negative views of adolescents. This study mentions that the terms used by these adults “suggested moral shortcomings”, and that only 15% of the adults described adolescents positively. Additionally, the survey results show that the adults believe that adolescent’s biggest problem is the failure to learn and incorporate moral values in life. Although this perceived shortcoming and the implications on society are inaccurate, the perception has made research on moral development more common. Another study in the analysis suggests that those engaging in prosocial behavior as adults were more likely to have engaged in the same behaviors in adolescence. This analysis suggests that one notable aspect found in western cultures is the impact peers have on moral development in adolescence, compared to childhood. Additionally, adolescents tend to experience a lot of outside influence to their moral development compared to in childhood, when parental figures make up the majority of moral exemplars. However, adolescence and childhood lack a distinct separation in stages of moral development, rather adolescence is when moral skills learned in childhood fully develop and become more refined than previously seen. Cross-cultural ethical principles Some researchers have developed three categories for understanding ethical principles found cross-culturally: ethics of autonomy, ethics of community, and ethics of divinity. Ethics of autonomy (rights, freedom, justice), which are usually emphasized in individualistic/Western cultures, are centered on protecting and promoting individuals’ ability to make decisions based on their personal preferences. Ethics of community (duty, interdependence, and roles), which are usually more emphasized by collectivistic/Eastern cultures (and often corporations), aim to protect the integrity of a given group, such as a family or community. Ethics of divinity (natural order, tradition, purity) aim to protect a person's dignity, character, and spiritual aspects. These three dimensions of understanding form a research tool for studying moral development across cultures that can aid in determining possible universal traits in the lifespan of individuals. Storytelling in Indigenous American communities In Indigenous American communities, morality is often taught to children through storytelling. It can provide children with guidelines for understanding the core values of their community, the significance of life, and ideologies of moral character from past generations. Storytelling shapes the minds of young children in these communities and forms the dominant means for understanding and the essential foundation for learning and teaching. Storytelling in everyday life is used as an indirect form of teaching. Stories embedded with lessons of morals, ideals, and ethics are told alongside daily household chores. Most children in Indigenous American communities develop a sense of keen attention to the details of a story to learn from them and understanding why people do the things they do. The understanding gained from a child's observation of morality and ethics taught through storytelling allows them to participate within their community appropriately. Specific animals are used as characters to symbolize specific values and views of the culture in the storytelling, where listeners are taught through the actions of these characters. In the Lakota tribe, coyotes are often portrayed as a trickster characters, demonstrating negative behaviors like greed, recklessness, and arrogance while bears and foxes are usually viewed as wise, noble, and morally upright characters from which children learn to model. In these stories, trickster characters often get into trouble, thus teaching children to avoid exhibiting similar negative behaviors. The reuse of characters calls for a more predictable outcome that children can more easily understand. Social exclusion Intergroup exclusion context provides an appropriate platform to investigate the interplay of these three dimensions of intergroup attitudes and behaviors: prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. Developmental scientists working from a Social Domain-Theory perspective have focused on methods that measure children's reasoning about exclusion scenarios. This approach has helped distinguish which concerns children attend to when presented with a situation where exclusion occurs. Exclusion from a peer group could raise concerns about moral issues (e.g., fairness and empathy towards excluded), social-conventional issues (e.g., traditions and social norms set by institutions and groups), and personal issues (e.g., autonomy, individual preferences related to friendships), and these can coexist depending on the context in which the exclusion occurs. In intergroup as well as intergroup contexts, children need to draw on knowledge and attitudes related to their own social identities, other social categories, the social norms associated with these categories as well as moral principles about the welfare of the excluded, and fair treatment, to make judgments about social exclusion. The importance of morality arises when the evaluation process of social exclusion requires one to deal with not only the predisposed tendencies of discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and bias but also the internal judgments about justice equality and individual rights, which may prove to be a very complex task since it often evokes conflicts and dilemmas coming from the fact that the components of the first often challenge the components of the latter. Findings from a Social Domain Theory perspective show that children are sensitive to the context of exclusion and pay attention to different variables when judging or evaluating exclusion. These variables include social categories, the stereotypes associated with them, children's qualifications as defined by prior experience with an activity, personality and behavioral traits that might be disruptive for group functioning, and conformity to conventions as defined by group identity or social consensus. In the absence of information, stereotypes can be used to justify the exclusion of a member of an out-group. One's personality traits and whether he or she conforms to socially accepted behaviors related to identity also provide further criteria for social acceptance and inclusion by peers. Also, research has documented the presence of a transition occurring at the reasoning level behind the criteria of inclusion and exclusion from childhood to adolescence.  Children get older, they become more attuned to issues of group functioning and conventions and weigh them in congruence with issues of fairness and morality. Allocation of resources Resource allocation is a critical part of the decision-making process for individuals in public responsibility and authority (e.g., health care providers). When resources become scarce, such as in rural communities experiencing situations when there is not enough food to feed everyone, authorities in a position to make decisions that affect this community can create conflicts on various levels (e.g., personally, financially, socially, etc.). The moral conflict that arises from these decisions can be divided into a focus of conflict and a focus of moral conflict. The locus, or the place where conflict occurs, can develop from multiple sources, which include “any combination of personal, professional, organizational, and community values. The focus of conflict occurs from competing values held by stakeholders and financial investors. As K. C. Calman stated in regards to the reallocation of resources in a medical setting, resources must be thought of as money and in the form of skills, time, and faculties. The healthcare system has many examples where morality and resource allocation has ongoing conflicts. Concerns of morality arise when the initiation, continuation, and withdrawal of intensive care affect a patient well being due to medical decision making. Sox, Higgins, & Owens (2013) offer guidelines and questions for medical practitioners to consider, such as: “How should I interpret new diagnostic information? How do I select the appropriate diagnostic test? How do I choose among several risky treatments?” Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment in the United States have had a moral consensus that there are no differences between these two therapies. However, even though a political decision offers support for medical practitioner's decision making, there continues to be difficulty withdrawing life-sustaining treatments. See also Character education Happy victimizing Hero Justice Just war doctrine Moral identity Religion Science of morality Social cognitive theory of morality Triune ethics theory Values education References External links Moral Development article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Developmental psychology Life skills Moral psychology

Simulation

A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in which simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the simulation represents the evolution of the model over time. Another way to distinguish between the terms is to define simulation as experimentation with the help of a model. This definition includes time-independent simulations. Often, computers are used to execute the simulation. Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for performance tuning or optimizing, safety engineering, testing, training, education, and video games. Simulation is also used with scientific modelling of natural systems or human systems to gain insight into their functioning, as in economics. Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist. Key issues in modeling and simulation include the acquisition of valid sources of information about the relevant selection of key characteristics and behaviors used to build the model, the use of simplifying approximations and assumptions within the model, and fidelity and validity of the simulation outcomes. Procedures and protocols for model verification and validation are an ongoing field of academic study, refinement, research and development in simulations technology or practice, particularly in the work of computer simulation. Classification and terminology Historically, simulations used in different fields developed largely independently, but 20th-century studies of systems theory and cybernetics combined with spreading use of computers across all those fields have led to some unification and a more systematic view of the concept. Physical simulation refers to simulation in which physical objects are substituted for the real thing (some circles use the term for computer simulations modelling selected laws of physics, but this article does not). These physical objects are often chosen because they are smaller or cheaper than the actual object or system. Interactive simulation is a special kind of physical simulation, often referred to as a human-in-the-loop simulation, in which physical simulations include human operators, such as in a flight simulator, sailing simulator, or driving simulator. Continuous simulation is a simulation based on continuous-time rather than discrete-time steps, using numerical integration of differential equations. Discrete-event simulation studies systems whose states change their values only at discrete times. For example, a simulation of an epidemic could change the number of infected people at time instants when susceptible individuals get infected or when infected individuals recover. Stochastic simulation is a simulation where some variable or process is subject to random variations and is projected using Monte Carlo techniques using pseudo-random numbers. Thus replicated runs with the same boundary conditions will each produce different results within a specific confidence band. Deterministic simulation is a simulation which is not stochastic: thus the variables are regulated by deterministic algorithms. So replicated runs from the same boundary conditions always produce identical results. Hybrid simulation (or combined simulation) corresponds to a mix between continuous and discrete event simulation and results in integrating numerically the differential equations between two sequential events to reduce the number of discontinuities. A stand-alone simulation is a simulation running on a single workstation by itself. A is one which uses more than one computer simultaneously, to guarantee access from/to different resources (e.g. multi-users operating different systems, or distributed data sets); a classical example is Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS). Parallel simulation speeds up a simulation's execution by concurrently distributing its workload over multiple processors, as in High-Performance Computing. Interoperable simulation is where multiple models, simulators (often defined as federates) interoperate locally, distributed over a network; a classical example is High-Level Architecture. Modeling and simulation as a service is where simulation is accessed as a service over the web. Modeling, interoperable simulation and serious games is where serious game approaches (e.g. game engines and engagement methods) are integrated with interoperable simulation. Simulation fidelity is used to describe the accuracy of a simulation and how closely it imitates the real-life counterpart. Fidelity is broadly classified as one of three categories: low, medium, and high. Specific descriptions of fidelity levels are subject to interpretation, but the following generalizations can be made: Low – the minimum simulation required for a system to respond to accept inputs and provide outputs Medium – responds automatically to stimuli, with limited accuracy High – nearly indistinguishable or as close as possible to the real system A synthetic environment is a computer simulation that can be included in human-in-the-loop simulations. Simulation in failure analysis refers to simulation in which we create environment/conditions to identify the cause of equipment failure. This can be the best and fastest method to identify the failure cause. Computer simulation A computer simulation (or "sim") is an attempt to model a real-life or hypothetical situation on a computer so that it can be studied to see how the system works. By changing variables in the simulation, predictions may be made about the behaviour of the system. It is a tool to virtually investigate the behaviour of the system under study. Computer simulation has become a useful part of modeling many natural systems in physics, chemistry and biology, and human systems in economics and social science (e.g., computational sociology) as well as in engineering to gain insight into the operation of those systems. A good example of the usefulness of using computers to simulate can be found in the field of network traffic simulation. In such simulations, the model behaviour will change each simulation according to the set of initial parameters assumed for the environment. Traditionally, the formal modeling of systems has been via a mathematical model, which attempts to find analytical solutions enabling the prediction of the behaviour of the system from a set of parameters and initial conditions. Computer simulation is often used as an adjunct to, or substitution for, modeling systems for which simple closed form analytic solutions are not possible. There are many different types of computer simulation, the common feature they all share is the attempt to generate a sample of representative scenarios for a model in which a complete enumeration of all possible states would be prohibitive or impossible. Several software packages exist for running computer-based simulation modeling (e.g. Monte Carlo simulation, stochastic modeling, multimethod modeling) that makes all the modeling almost effortless. Modern usage of the term "computer simulation" may encompass virtually any computer-based representation. Computer science In computer science, simulation has some specialized meanings: Alan Turing used the term simulation to refer to what happens when a universal machine executes a state transition table (in modern terminology, a computer runs a program) that describes the state transitions, inputs and outputs of a subject discrete-state machine. The computer simulates the subject machine. Accordingly, in theoretical computer science the term simulation is a relation between state transition systems, useful in the study of operational semantics. Less theoretically, an interesting application of computer simulation is to simulate computers using computers. In computer architecture, a type of simulator, typically called an emulator, is often used to execute a program that has to run on some inconvenient type of computer (for example, a newly designed computer that has not yet been built or an obsolete computer that is no longer available), or in a tightly controlled testing environment (see Computer architecture simulator and Platform virtualization). For example, simulators have been used to debug a microprogram or sometimes commercial application programs, before the program is downloaded to the target machine. Since the operation of the computer is simulated, all of the information about the computer's operation is directly available to the programmer, and the speed and execution of the simulation can be varied at will. Simulators may also be used to interpret fault trees, or test VLSI logic designs before they are constructed. Symbolic simulation uses variables to stand for unknown values. In the field of optimization, simulations of physical processes are often used in conjunction with evolutionary computation to optimize control strategies. Simulation in education and training Simulation is extensively used for educational purposes. It is used for cases where it is prohibitively expensive or simply too dangerous to allow trainees to use the real equipment in the real world. In such situations they will spend time learning valuable lessons in a "safe" virtual environment yet living a lifelike experience (or at least it is the goal). Often the convenience is to permit mistakes during training for a safety-critical system. Simulations in education are somewhat like training simulations. They focus on specific tasks. The term 'microworld' is used to refer to educational simulations which model some abstract concept rather than simulating a realistic object or environment, or in some cases model a real-world environment in a simplistic way so as to help a learner develop an understanding of the key concepts. Normally, a user can create some sort of construction within the microworld that will behave in a way consistent with the concepts being modeled. Seymour Papert was one of the first to advocate the value of microworlds, and the Logo programming environment developed by Papert is one of the most well-known microworlds. Project management simulation is increasingly used to train students and professionals in the art and science of project management. Using simulation for project management training improves learning retention and enhances the learning process. Social simulations may be used in social science classrooms to illustrate social and political processes in anthropology, economics, history, political science, or sociology courses, typically at the high school or university level. These may, for example, take the form of civics simulations, in which participants assume roles in a simulated society, or international relations simulations in which participants engage in negotiations, alliance formation, trade, diplomacy, and the use of force. Such simulations might be based on fictitious political systems, or be based on current or historical events. An example of the latter would be Barnard College's Reacting to the Past series of historical educational games. The National Science Foundation has also supported the creation of reacting games that address science and math education. In social media simulations, participants train communication with critics and other stakeholders in a private environment. In recent years, there has been increasing use of social simulations for staff training in aid and development agencies. The Carana simulation, for example, was first developed by the United Nations Development Programme, and is now used in a very revised form by the World Bank for training staff to deal with fragile and conflict-affected countries. Military uses for simulation often involve aircraft or armoured fighting vehicles, but can also target small arms and other weapon systems training. Specifically, virtual firearms ranges have become the norm in most military training processes and there is a significant amount of data to suggest this is a useful tool for armed professionals. Virtual simulation A virtual simulation is a category of simulation that uses simulation equipment to create a simulated world for the user. Virtual simulations allow users to interact with a virtual world. Virtual worlds operate on platforms of integrated software and hardware components. In this manner, the system can accept input from the user (e.g., body tracking, voice/sound recognition, physical controllers) and produce output to the user (e.g., visual display, aural display, haptic display) . Virtual simulations use the aforementioned modes of interaction to produce a sense of immersion for the user. Virtual simulation input hardware There is a wide variety of input hardware available to accept user input for virtual simulations. The following list briefly describes several of them: Body tracking: The motion capture method is often used to record the user's movements and translate the captured data into inputs for the virtual simulation. For example, if a user physically turns their head, the motion would be captured by the simulation hardware in some way and translated to a corresponding shift in view within the simulation. Capture suits and/or gloves may be used to capture movements of users body parts. The systems may have sensors incorporated inside them to sense movements of different body parts (e.g., fingers). Alternatively, these systems may have exterior tracking devices or marks that can be detected by external ultrasound, optical receivers or electromagnetic sensors. Internal inertial sensors are also available on some systems. The units may transmit data either wirelessly or through cables. Eye trackers can also be used to detect eye movements so that the system can determine precisely where a user is looking at any given instant. Physical controllers: Physical controllers provide input to the simulation only through direct manipulation by the user. In virtual simulations, tactile feedback from physical controllers is highly desirable in a number of simulation environments. Omnidirectional treadmills can be used to capture the users locomotion as they walk or run. High fidelity instrumentation such as instrument panels in virtual aircraft cockpits provides users with actual controls to raise the level of immersion. For example, pilots can use the actual global positioning system controls from the real device in a simulated cockpit to help them practice procedures with the actual device in the context of the integrated cockpit system. Voice/sound recognition: This form of interaction may be used either to interact with agents within the simulation (e.g., virtual people) or to manipulate objects in the simulation (e.g., information). Voice interaction presumably increases the level of immersion for the user. Users may use headsets with boom microphones, lapel microphones or the room may be equipped with strategically located microphones. Current research into user input systems Research in future input systems holds a great deal of promise for virtual simulations. Systems such as brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) offer the ability to further increase the level of immersion for virtual simulation users. Lee, Keinrath, Scherer, Bischof, Pfurtscheller proved that naïve subjects could be trained to use a BCI to navigate a virtual apartment with relative ease. Using the BCI, the authors found that subjects were able to freely navigate the virtual environment with relatively minimal effort. It is possible that these types of systems will become standard input modalities in future virtual simulation systems. Virtual simulation output hardware There is a wide variety of output hardware available to deliver a stimulus to users in virtual simulations. The following list briefly describes several of them: Visual display: Visual displays provide the visual stimulus to the user. Stationary displays can vary from a conventional desktop display to 360-degree wrap-around screens to stereo three-dimensional screens. Conventional desktop displays can vary in size from . Wrap around screens is typically used in what is known as a cave automatic virtual environment (CAVE). Stereo three-dimensional screens produce three-dimensional images either with or without special glasses—depending on the design. Head-mounted displays (HMDs) have small displays that are mounted on headgear worn by the user. These systems are connected directly into the virtual simulation to provide the user with a more immersive experience. Weight, update rates and field of view are some of the key variables that differentiate HMDs. Naturally, heavier HMDs are undesirable as they cause fatigue over time. If the update rate is too slow, the system is unable to update the displays fast enough to correspond with a quick head turn by the user. Slower update rates tend to cause simulation sickness and disrupt the sense of immersion. Field of view or the angular extent of the world that is seen at a given moment field of view can vary from system to system and has been found to affect the user's sense of immersion. Aural display: Several different types of audio systems exist to help the user hear and localize sounds spatially. Special software can be used to produce 3D audio effects 3D audio to create the illusion that sound sources are placed within a defined three-dimensional space around the user. Stationary conventional speaker systems may be used to provide dual or multi-channel surround sound. However, external speakers are not as effective as headphones in producing 3D audio effects. Conventional headphones offer a portable alternative to stationary speakers. They also have the added advantages of masking real-world noise and facilitate more effective 3D audio sound effects. Haptic display: These displays provide a sense of touch to the user (haptic technology). This type of output is sometimes referred to as force feedback. Tactile tile displays use different types of actuators such as inflatable bladders, vibrators, low-frequency sub-woofers, pin actuators and/or thermo-actuators to produce sensations for the user. End effector displays can respond to users inputs with resistance and force. These systems are often used in medical applications for remote surgeries that employ robotic instruments. Vestibular display: These displays provide a sense of motion to the user (motion simulator). They often manifest as motion bases for virtual vehicle simulation such as driving simulators or flight simulators. Motion bases are fixed in place but use actuators to move the simulator in ways that can produce the sensations pitching, yawing or rolling. The simulators can also move in such a way as to produce a sense of acceleration on all axes (e.g., the motion base can produce the sensation of falling). Clinical healthcare simulators Clinical healthcare simulators are increasingly being developed and deployed to teach therapeutic and diagnostic procedures as well as medical concepts and decision making to personnel in the health professions. Simulators have been developed for training procedures ranging from the basics such as blood draw, to laparoscopic surgery and trauma care. They are also important to help on prototyping new devices for biomedical engineering problems. Currently, simulators are applied to research and develop tools for new therapies, treatments and early diagnosis in medicine. Many medical simulators involve a computer connected to a plastic simulation of the relevant anatomy. Sophisticated simulators of this type employ a life-size mannequin that responds to injected drugs and can be programmed to create simulations of life-threatening emergencies. In other simulations, visual components of the procedure are reproduced by computer graphics techniques, while touch-based components are reproduced by haptic feedback devices combined with physical simulation routines computed in response to the user's actions. Medical simulations of this sort will often use 3D CT or MRI scans of patient data to enhance realism. Some medical simulations are developed to be widely distributed (such as web-enabled simulations and procedural simulations that can be viewed via standard web browsers) and can be interacted with using standard computer interfaces, such as the keyboard and mouse. Placebo An important medical application of a simulator—although, perhaps, denoting a slightly different meaning of simulator—is the use of a placebo drug, a formulation that simulates the active drug in trials of drug efficacy. Improving patient safety Patient safety is a concern in the medical industry. Patients have been known to suffer injuries and even death due to management error, and lack of using best standards of care and training. According to Building a National Agenda for Simulation-Based Medical Education (Eder-Van Hook, Jackie, 2004), "a health care provider's ability to react prudently in an unexpected situation is one of the most critical factors in creating a positive outcome in medical emergency, regardless of whether it occurs on the battlefield, freeway, or hospital emergency room." Eder-Van Hook (2004) also noted that medical errors kill up to 98,000 with an estimated cost between $37 and $50 million and $17 to $29 billion for preventable adverse events dollars per year. Simulation is being used to study patient safety, as well as train medical professionals. Studying patient safety and safety interventions in healthcare is challenging, because there is a lack of experimental control (i.e., patient complexity, system/process variances) to see if an intervention made a meaningful difference (Groves & Manges, 2017). An example of innovative simulation to study patient safety is from nursing research. Groves et al. (2016) used a high-fidelity simulation to examine nursing safety-oriented behaviors during times such as change-of-shift report. However, the value of simulation interventions to translating to clinical practice are is still debatable. As Nishisaki states, "there is good evidence that simulation training improves provider and team self-efficacy and competence on manikins. There is also good evidence that procedural simulation improves actual operational performance in clinical settings." However, there is a need to have improved evidence to show that crew resource management training through simulation. One of the largest challenges is showing that team simulation improves team operational performance at the bedside. Although evidence that simulation-based training actually improves patient outcome has been slow to accrue, today the ability of simulation to provide hands-on experience that translates to the operating room is no longer in doubt. One of the largest factors that might impact the ability to have training impact the work of practitioners at the bedside is the ability to empower frontline staff (Stewart, Manges, Ward, 2015). Another example of an attempt to improve patient safety through the use of simulations training is patient care to deliver just-in-time service or/and just-in-place. This training consists of 20  minutes of simulated training just before workers report to shift. One study found that just in time training improved the transition to the bedside. The conclusion as reported in Nishisaki (2008) work, was that the simulation training improved resident participation in real cases; but did not sacrifice the quality of service. It could be therefore hypothesized that by increasing the number of highly trained residents through the use of simulation training, that the simulation training does, in fact, increase patient safety. History of simulation in healthcare The first medical simulators were simple models of human patients. Since antiquity, these representations in clay and stone were used to demonstrate clinical features of disease states and their effects on humans. Models have been found in many cultures and continents. These models have been used in some cultures (e.g., Chinese culture) as a "diagnostic" instrument, allowing women to consult male physicians while maintaining social laws of modesty. Models are used today to help students learn the anatomy of the musculoskeletal system and organ systems. In 2002, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) was formed to become a leader in international interprofessional advances the application of medical simulation in healthcare The need for a "uniform mechanism to educate, evaluate, and certify simulation instructors for the health care profession" was recognized by McGaghie et al. in their critical review of simulation-based medical education research. In 2012 the SSH piloted two new certifications to provide recognition to educators in an effort to meet this need. Type of models Active models Active models that attempt to reproduce living anatomy or physiology are recent developments. The famous "Harvey" mannequin was developed at the University of Miami and is able to recreate many of the physical findings of the cardiology examination, including palpation, auscultation, and electrocardiography. Interactive models More recently, interactive models have been developed that respond to actions taken by a student or physician. Until recently, these simulations were two dimensional computer programs that acted more like a textbook than a patient. Computer simulations have the advantage of allowing a student to make judgments, and also to make errors. The process of iterative learning through assessment, evaluation, decision making, and error correction creates a much stronger learning environment than passive instruction. Computer simulators Simulators have been proposed as an ideal tool for assessment of students for clinical skills. For patients, "cybertherapy" can be used for sessions simulating traumatic experiences, from fear of heights to social anxiety. Programmed patients and simulated clinical situations, including mock disaster drills, have been used extensively for education and evaluation. These "lifelike" simulations are expensive, and lack reproducibility. A fully functional "3Di" simulator would be the most specific tool available for teaching and measurement of clinical skills. Gaming platforms have been applied to create these virtual medical environments to create an interactive method for learning and application of information in a clinical context. Immersive disease state simulations allow a doctor or HCP to experience what a disease actually feels like. Using sensors and transducers symptomatic effects can be delivered to a participant allowing them to experience the patients disease state. Such a simulator meets the goals of an objective and standardized examination for clinical competence. This system is superior to examinations that use "standard patients" because it permits the quantitative measurement of competence, as well as reproducing the same objective findings. Simulation in entertainment Simulation in entertainment encompasses many large and popular industries such as film, television, video games (including serious games) and rides in theme parks. Although modern simulation is thought to have its roots in training and the military, in the 20th century it also became a conduit for enterprises which were more hedonistic in nature. History of visual simulation in film and games Early history (1940s and 1950s) The first simulation game may have been created as early as 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. This was a straightforward game that simulated a missile being fired at a target. The curve of the missile and its speed could be adjusted using several knobs. In 1958, a computer game called Tennis for Two was created by Willy Higginbotham which simulated a tennis game between two players who could both play at the same time using hand controls and was displayed on an oscilloscope. This was one of the first electronic video games to use a graphical display. 1970s and early 1980s Computer-generated imagery was used in the film to simulate objects as early as 1972 in A Computer Animated Hand, parts of which were shown on the big screen in the 1976 film Futureworld. This was followed by the "targeting computer" that young Skywalker turns off in the 1977 film Star Wars. The film Tron (1982) was the first film to use computer-generated imagery for more than a couple of minutes. Advances in technology in the 1980s caused 3D simulation to become more widely used and it began to appear in movies and in computer-based games such as Atari's Battlezone (1980) and Acornsoft's Elite (1984), one of the first wire-frame 3D graphics games for home computers. Pre-virtual cinematography era (early 1980s to 1990s) Advances in technology in the 1980s made the computer more affordable and more capable than they were in previous decades, which facilitated the rise of computer such as the Xbox gaming. The first video game consoles released in the 1970s and early 1980s fell prey to the industry crash in 1983, but in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which became one of the best selling consoles in video game history. In the 1990s, computer games became widely popular with the release of such game as The Sims and Command & Conquer and the still increasing power of desktop computers. Today, computer simulation games such as World of Warcraft are played by millions of people around the world. In 1993, the film Jurassic Park became the first popular film to use computer-generated graphics extensively, integrating the simulated dinosaurs almost seamlessly into live action scenes. This event transformed the film industry; in 1995, the film Toy Story was the first film to use only computer-generated images and by the new millennium computer generated graphics were the leading choice for special effects in films. Virtual cinematography (early 2000s–present) The advent of virtual cinematography in the early 2000s has led to an explosion of movies that would have been impossible to shoot without it. Classic examples are the digital look-alikes of Neo, Smith and other characters in the Matrix sequels and the extensive use of physically impossible camera runs in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The terminal in the Pan Am (TV series) no longer existed during the filming of this 2011–2012 aired series, which was no problem as they created it in virtual cinematography using automated viewpoint finding and matching in conjunction with compositing real and simulated footage, which has been the bread and butter of the movie artist in and around film studios since the early 2000s. Computer-generated imagery is "the application of the field of 3D computer graphics to special effects". This technology is used for visual effects because they are high in quality, controllable, and can create effects that would not be feasible using any other technology either because of cost, resources or safety. Computer-generated graphics can be seen in many live-action movies today, especially those of the action genre. Further, computer-generated imagery has almost completely supplanted hand-drawn animation in children's movies which are increasingly computer-generated only. Examples of movies that use computer-generated imagery include Finding Nemo, 300 and Iron Man. Examples of non-film entertainment simulation Simulation games Simulation games, as opposed to other genres of video and computer games, represent or simulate an environment accurately. Moreover, they represent the interactions between the playable characters and the environment realistically. These kinds of games are usually more complex in terms of gameplay. Simulation games have become incredibly popular among people of all ages. Popular simulation games include SimCity and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. There are also flight simulator and driving simulator games. Theme park rides Simulators have been used for entertainment since the Link Trainer in the 1930s. The first modern simulator ride to open at a theme park was Disney's Star Tours in 1987 soon followed by Universal's The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera in 1990 which was the first ride to be done entirely with computer graphics. Simulator rides are the progeny of military training simulators and commercial simulators, but they are different in a fundamental way. While military training simulators react realistically to the input of the trainee in real time, ride simulators only feel like they move realistically and move according to prerecorded motion scripts. One of the first simulator rides, Star Tours, which cost $32 million, used a hydraulic motion based cabin. The movement was programmed by a joystick. Today's simulator rides, such as The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man include elements to increase the amount of immersion experienced by the riders such as: 3D imagery, physical effects (spraying water or producing scents), and movement through an environment. Simulation and manufacturing Manufacturing simulation represents one of the most important applications of simulation. This technique represents a valuable tool used by engineers when evaluating the effect of capital investment in equipment and physical facilities like factory plants, warehouses, and distribution centers. Simulation can be used to predict the performance of an existing or planned system and to compare alternative solutions for a particular design problem. Another important goal of simulation in manufacturing systems is to quantify system performance. Common measures of system performance include the following: Throughput under average and peak loads System cycle time (how long it takes to produce one part) Use of resource, labor, and machines Bottlenecks and choke points Queuing at work locations Queuing and delays caused by material-handling devices and systems WIP storages needs Staffing requirements Effectiveness of scheduling systems Effectiveness of control systems More examples of simulation Automobiles An automobile simulator provides an opportunity to reproduce the characteristics of real vehicles in a virtual environment. It replicates the external factors and conditions with which a vehicle interacts enabling a driver to feel as if they are sitting in the cab of their own vehicle. Scenarios and events are replicated with sufficient reality to ensure that drivers become fully immersed in the experience rather than simply viewing it as an educational experience. The simulator provides a constructive experience for the novice driver and enables more complex exercises to be undertaken by the more mature driver. For novice drivers, truck simulators provide an opportunity to begin their career by applying best practice. For mature drivers, simulation provides the ability to enhance good driving or to detect poor practice and to suggest the necessary steps for remedial action. For companies, it provides an opportunity to educate staff in the driving skills that achieve reduced maintenance costs, improved productivity and, most importantly, to ensure the safety of their actions in all possible situations. Biomechanics A biomechanics simulator is a simulation platform for creating dynamic mechanical models built from combinations of rigid and deformable bodies, joints, constraints, and various force actuators. It is specialized for creating biomechanical models of human anatomical structures, with the intention to study their function and eventually assist in the design and planning of medical treatment. A biomechanics simulator is used to analyze walking dynamics, study sports performance, simulate surgical procedures, analyze joint loads, design medical devices, and animate human and animal movement. A neuromechanical simulator that combines biomechanical and biologically realistic neural network simulation. It allows the user to test hypotheses on the neural basis of behavior in a physically accurate 3-D virtual environment. City and urban A city simulator can be a city-building game but can also be a tool used by urban planners to understand how cities are likely to evolve in response to various policy decisions. AnyLogic is an example of modern, large-scale urban simulators designed for use by urban planners. City simulators are generally agent-based simulations with explicit representations for land use and transportation. UrbanSim and LEAM are examples of large-scale urban simulation models that are used by metropolitan planning agencies and military bases for land use and transportation planning. Christmas Several Christmas-themed simulations exist, many of which are centred around Santa Claus. An example of these simulations are websites which claim to allow the user to track Santa Claus. Due to the fact that Santa is a legendary character and not a real, living person, it is impossible to provide actual information on his location, and services such as NORAD Tracks Santa and the Google Santa Tracker (the former of which claims to use radar and other technologies to track Santa) display fake, predetermined location information to users. Another example of these simulations are websites that claim to allow the user to email or send messages to Santa Claus. Websites such as emailSanta.com or Santa's former page on the now-defunct Windows Live Spaces by Microsoft use automated programs or scripts to generate personalized replies claimed to be from Santa himself based on user input. Classroom of the future The classroom of the future will probably contain several kinds of simulators, in addition to textual and visual learning tools. This will allow students to enter the clinical years better prepared, and with a higher skill level. The advanced student or postgraduate will have a more concise and comprehensive method of retraining—or of incorporating new clinical procedures into their skill set—and regulatory bodies and medical institutions will find it easier to assess the proficiency and competency of individuals. The classroom of the future will also form the basis of a clinical skills unit for continuing education of medical personnel; and in the same way that the use of periodic flight training assists airline pilots, this technology will assist practitioners throughout their career. The simulator will be more than a "living" textbook, it will become an integral a part of the practice of medicine. The simulator environment will also provide a standard platform for curriculum development in institutions of medical education. Communication satellites Modern satellite communications systems (SATCOM) are often large and complex with many interacting parts and elements. In addition, the need for broadband connectivity on a moving vehicle has increased dramatically in the past few years for both commercial and military applications. To accurately predict and deliver high quality of service, SATCOM system designers have to factor in terrain as well as atmospheric and meteorological conditions in their planning. To deal with such complexity, system designers and operators increasingly turn towards computer models of their systems to simulate real-world operating conditions and gain insights into usability and requirements prior to final product sign-off. Modeling improves the understanding of the system by enabling the SATCOM system designer or planner to simulate real-world performance by injecting the models with multiple hypothetical atmospheric and environmental conditions. Simulation is often used in the training of civilian and military personnel. This usually occurs when it is prohibitively expensive or simply too dangerous to allow trainees to use the real equipment in the real world. In such situations, they will spend time learning valuable lessons in a "safe" virtual environment yet living a lifelike experience (or at least it is the goal). Often the convenience is to permit mistakes during training for a safety-critical system. Digital lifecycle Simulation solutions are being increasingly integrated with computer-aided solutions and processes (computer-aided design or CAD, computer-aided manufacturing or CAM, computer-aided engineering or CAE, etc.). The use of simulation throughout the product lifecycle, especially at the earlier concept and design stages, has the potential of providing substantial benefits. These benefits range from direct cost issues such as reduced prototyping and shorter time-to-market to better performing products and higher margins. However, for some companies, simulation has not provided the expected benefits. The successful use of simulation, early in the lifecycle, has been largely driven by increased integration of simulation tools with the entire set of CAD, CAM and product-lifecycle management solutions. Simulation solutions can now function across the extended enterprise in a multi-CAD environment, and include solutions for managing simulation data and processes and ensuring that simulation results are made part of the product lifecycle history. Disaster preparedness Simulation training has become a method for preparing people for disasters. Simulations can replicate emergency situations and track how learners respond thanks to a lifelike experience. Disaster preparedness simulations can involve training on how to handle terrorism attacks, natural disasters, pandemic outbreaks, or other life-threatening emergencies. One organization that has used simulation training for disaster preparedness is CADE (Center for Advancement of Distance Education). CADE has used a video game to prepare emergency workers for multiple types of attacks. As reported by News-Medical.Net, "The video game is the first in a series of simulations to address bioterrorism, pandemic flu, smallpox, and other disasters that emergency personnel must prepare for." Developed by a team from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the game allows learners to practice their emergency skills in a safe, controlled environment. The Emergency Simulation Program (ESP) at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is another example of an organization that uses simulation to train for emergency situations. ESP uses simulation to train on the following situations: forest fire fighting, oil or chemical spill response, earthquake response, law enforcement, municipal firefighting, hazardous material handling, military training, and response to terrorist attack One feature of the simulation system is the implementation of "Dynamic Run-Time Clock," which allows simulations to run a 'simulated' time frame, "'speeding up' or 'slowing down' time as desired" Additionally, the system allows session recordings, picture-icon based navigation, file storage of individual simulations, multimedia components, and launch external applications. At the University of Québec in Chicoutimi, a research team at the outdoor research and expertise laboratory (Laboratoire d'Expertise et de Recherche en Plein Air – LERPA) specializes in using wilderness backcountry accident simulations to verify emergency response coordination. Instructionally, the benefits of emergency training through simulations are that learner performance can be tracked through the system. This allows the developer to make adjustments as necessary or alert the educator on topics that may require additional attention. Other advantages are that the learner can be guided or trained on how to respond appropriately before continuing to the next emergency segment—this is an aspect that may not be available in the live environment. Some emergency training simulators also allow for immediate feedback, while other simulations may provide a summary and instruct the learner to engage in the learning topic again. In a live-emergency situation, emergency responders do not have time to waste. Simulation-training in this environment provides an opportunity for learners to gather as much information as they can and practice their knowledge in a safe environment. They can make mistakes without risk of endangering lives and be given the opportunity to correct their errors to prepare for the real-life emergency. Economics Simulations in economics and especially in macroeconomics, judge the desirability of the effects of proposed policy actions, such as fiscal policy changes or monetary policy changes. A mathematical model of the economy, having been fitted to historical economic data, is used as a proxy for the actual economy; proposed values of government spending, taxation, open market operations, etc. are used as inputs to the simulation of the model, and various variables of interest such as the inflation rate, the unemployment rate, the balance of trade deficit, the government budget deficit, etc. are the outputs of the simulation. The simulated values of these variables of interest are compared for different proposed policy inputs to determine which set of outcomes is most desirable. Engineering, technology, and processes Simulation is an important feature in engineering systems or any system that involves many processes. For example, in electrical engineering, delay lines may be used to simulate propagation delay and phase shift caused by an actual transmission line. Similarly, dummy loads may be used to simulate impedance without simulating propagation and is used in situations where propagation is unwanted. A simulator may imitate only a few of the operations and functions of the unit it simulates. Contrast with: emulate. Most engineering simulations entail mathematical modeling and computer-assisted investigation. There are many cases, however, where mathematical modeling is not reliable. Simulation of fluid dynamics problems often require both mathematical and physical simulations. In these cases the physical models require dynamic similitude. Physical and chemical simulations have also direct realistic uses, rather than research uses; in chemical engineering, for example, process simulations are used to give the process parameters immediately used for operating chemical plants, such as oil refineries. Simulators are also used for plant operator training. It is called Operator Training Simulator (OTS) and has been widely adopted by many industries from chemical to oil&gas and to the power industry. This created a safe and realistic virtual environment to train board operators and engineers. Mimic is capable of providing high fidelity dynamic models of nearly all chemical plants for operator training and control system testing. Ergonomics Ergonomic simulation involves the analysis of virtual products or manual tasks within a virtual environment. In the engineering process, the aim of ergonomics is to develop and to improve the design of products and work environments. Ergonomic simulation utilizes an anthropometric virtual representation of the human, commonly referenced as a mannequin or Digital Human Models (DHMs), to mimic the postures, mechanical loads, and performance of a human operator in a simulated environment such as an airplane, automobile, or manufacturing facility. DHMs are recognized as evolving and valuable tool for performing proactive ergonomics analysis and design. The simulations employ 3D-graphics and physics-based models to animate the virtual humans. Ergonomics software uses inverse kinematics (IK) capability for posing the DHMs. Software tools typically calculate biomechanical properties including individual muscle forces, joint forces and moments. Most of these tools employ standard ergonomic evaluation methods such as the NIOSH lifting equation and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA). Some simulations also analyze physiological measures including metabolism, energy expenditure, and fatigue limits Cycle time studies, design and process validation, user comfort, reachability, and line of sight are other human-factors that may be examined in ergonomic simulation packages. Modeling and simulation of a task can be performed by manually manipulating the virtual human in the simulated environment. Some ergonomics simulation software permits interactive, real-time simulation and evaluation through actual human input via motion capture technologies. However, motion capture for ergonomics requires expensive equipment and the creation of props to represent the environment or product. Some applications of ergonomic simulation in include analysis of solid waste collection, disaster management tasks, interactive gaming, automotive assembly line, virtual prototyping of rehabilitation aids, and aerospace product design. Ford engineers use ergonomics simulation software to perform virtual product design reviews. Using engineering data, the simulations assist evaluation of assembly ergonomics. The company uses Siemen's Jack and Jill ergonomics simulation software in improving worker safety and efficiency, without the need to build expensive prototypes. Finance In finance, computer simulations are often used for scenario planning. Risk-adjusted net present value, for example, is computed from well-defined but not always known (or fixed) inputs. By imitating the performance of the project under evaluation, simulation can provide a distribution of NPV over a range of discount rates and other variables. Simulations are also often used to test a financial theory or the ability of a financial model. Simulations are frequently used in financial training to engage participants in experiencing various historical as well as fictional situations. There are stock market simulations, portfolio simulations, risk management simulations or models and forex simulations. Such simulations are typically based on stochastic asset models. Using these simulations in a training program allows for the application of theory into a something akin to real life. As with other industries, the use of simulations can be technology or case-study driven. Flight Flight simulation is mainly used to train pilots outside of the aircraft. In comparison to training in flight, simulation-based training allows for practicing maneuvers or situations that may be impractical (or even dangerous) to perform in the aircraft while keeping the pilot and instructor in a relatively low-risk environment on the ground. For example, electrical system failures, instrument failures, hydraulic system failures, and even flight control failures can be simulated without risk to the crew or equipment. Instructors can also provide students with a higher concentration of training tasks in a given period of time than is usually possible in the aircraft. For example, conducting multiple instrument approaches in the actual aircraft may require significant time spent repositioning the aircraft, while in a simulation, as soon as one approach has been completed, the instructor can immediately reposition the simulated aircraft to a location from which the next approach can be begun. Flight simulation also provides an economic advantage over training in an actual aircraft. Once fuel, maintenance, and insurance costs are taken into account, the operating costs of an FSTD are usually substantially lower than the operating costs of the simulated aircraft. For some large transport category airplanes, the operating costs may be several times lower for the FSTD than the actual aircraft. Another advantage is reduced environmental impact, as simulators don't contribute directly to carbon or noise emissions. There also exist "engineering flight simulators" which are a key element of the aircraft design process. Many benefits that come from a lower number of test flights like cost and safety improvements are described above, but there are some unique advantages. Having a simulator available allows for faster design iteration cycle or using more test equipment than could be fit into a real aircraft. Marine Bearing resemblance to flight simulators, a marine simulator is meant for training of ship personnel. The most common marine simulators include: Ship's bridge simulators Engine room simulators Cargo handling simulators Communication / GMDSS simulators ROV simulators Simulators like these are mostly used within maritime colleges, training institutions, and navies. They often consist of a replication of a ships' bridge, with the operating console(s), and a number of screens on which the virtual surroundings are projected. Military Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are models in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities. They exist in many different forms, with varying degrees of realism. In recent times, their scope has widened to include not only military but also political and social factors (for example, the Nationlab series of strategic exercises in Latin America). While many governments make use of simulation, both individually and collaboratively, little is known about the model's specifics outside professional circles. Network and distributed systems Network and distributed systems have been extensively simulated in other to understand the impact of new protocols and algorithms before their deployment in the actual systems. The simulation can focus on different levels (physical layer, network layer, application layer), and evaluate different metrics (network bandwidth, resource consumption, service time, dropped packets, system availability). Examples of simulation scenarios of network and distributed systems are: Content delivery networks Smart cities Internet of things Payment and securities settlement system Simulation techniques have also been applied to payment and securities settlement systems. Among the main users are central banks who are generally responsible for the oversight of market infrastructure and entitled to contribute to the smooth functioning of the payment systems. Central banks have been using payment system simulations to evaluate things such as the adequacy or sufficiency of liquidity available ( in the form of account balances and intraday credit limits) to participants (mainly banks) to allow efficient settlement of payments. The need for liquidity is also dependent on the availability and the type of netting procedures in the systems, thus some of the studies have a focus on system comparisons. Another application is to evaluate risks related to events such as communication network breakdowns or the inability of participants to send payments (e.g. in case of possible bank failure). This kind of analysis falls under the concepts of stress testing or scenario analysis. A common way to conduct these simulations is to replicate the settlement logics of the real payment or securities settlement systems under analysis and then use real observed payment data. In case of system comparison or system development, naturally, also the other settlement logics need to be implemented. To perform stress testing and scenario analysis, the observed data needs to be altered, e.g. some payments delayed or removed. To analyze the levels of liquidity, initial liquidity levels are varied. System comparisons (benchmarking) or evaluations of new netting algorithms or rules are performed by running simulations with a fixed set of data and varying only the system setups. An inference is usually done by comparing the benchmark simulation results to the results of altered simulation setups by comparing indicators such as unsettled transactions or settlement delays. Power systems Project management Project management simulation is simulation used for project management training and analysis. It is often used as a training simulation for project managers. In other cases, it is used for what-if analysis and for supporting decision-making in real projects. Frequently the simulation is conducted using software tools. Robotics A robotics simulator is used to create embedded applications for a specific (or not) robot without being dependent on the 'real' robot. In some cases, these applications can be transferred to the real robot (or rebuilt) without modifications. Robotics simulators allow reproducing situations that cannot be 'created' in the real world because of cost, time, or the 'uniqueness' of a resource. A simulator also allows fast robot prototyping. Many robot simulators feature physics engines to simulate a robot's dynamics. Production Simulation of production systems is used mainly to examine the effect of improvements or investments in a production system. Most often this is done using a static spreadsheet with process times and transportation times. For more sophisticated simulations Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is used with the advantages to simulate dynamics in the production system. A production system is very much dynamic depending on variations in manufacturing processes, assembly times, machine set-ups, breaks, breakdowns and small stoppages. There is much software commonly used for discrete event simulation. They differ in usability and markets but do often share the same foundation. Sales process Simulations are useful in modeling the flow of transactions through business processes, such as in the field of sales process engineering, to study and improve the flow of customer orders through various stages of completion (say, from an initial proposal for providing goods/services through order acceptance and installation). Such simulations can help predict the impact of how improvements in methods might impact variability, cost, labor time, and the number of transactions at various stages in the process. A full-featured computerized process simulator can be used to depict such models, as can simpler educational demonstrations using spreadsheet software, pennies being transferred between cups based on the roll of a die, or dipping into a tub of colored beads with a scoop. Sports In sports, computer simulations are often done to predict the outcome of events and the performance of individual sportspeople. They attempt to recreate the event through models built from statistics. The increase in technology has allowed anyone with knowledge of programming the ability to run simulations of their models. The simulations are built from a series of mathematical algorithms, or models, and can vary with accuracy. Accuscore, which is licensed by companies such as ESPN, is a well-known simulation program for all major sports. It offers a detailed analysis of games through simulated betting lines, projected point totals and overall probabilities. With the increased interest in fantasy sports simulation models that predict individual player performance have gained popularity. Companies like What If Sports and StatFox specialize in not only using their simulations for predicting game results but how well individual players will do as well. Many people use models to determine whom to start in their fantasy leagues. Another way simulations are helping the sports field is in the use of biomechanics. Models are derived and simulations are run from data received from sensors attached to athletes and video equipment. Sports biomechanics aided by simulation models answer questions regarding training techniques such as the effect of fatigue on throwing performance (height of throw) and biomechanical factors of the upper limbs (reactive strength index; hand contact time). Computer simulations allow their users to take models which before were too complex to run, and give them answers. Simulations have proven to be some of the best insights into both play performance and team predictability. Space shuttle countdown Simulation was used at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to train and certify Space Shuttle engineers during simulated launch countdown operations. The Space Shuttle engineering community would participate in a launch countdown integrated simulation before each Shuttle flight. This simulation is a virtual simulation where real people interact with simulated Space Shuttle vehicle and Ground Support Equipment (GSE) hardware. The Shuttle Final Countdown Phase Simulation, also known as S0044, involved countdown processes that would integrate many of the Space Shuttle vehicle and GSE systems. Some of the Shuttle systems integrated in the simulation are the main propulsion system, RS-25, solid rocket boosters, ground liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, external tank, flight controls, navigation, and avionics. The high-level objectives of the Shuttle Final Countdown Phase Simulation are: To demonstrate firing room final countdown phase operations. To provide training for system engineers in recognizing, reporting and evaluating system problems in a time critical environment. To exercise the launch team's ability to evaluate, prioritize and respond to problems in an integrated manner within a time critical environment. To provide procedures to be used in performing failure/recovery testing of the operations performed in the final countdown phase. The Shuttle Final Countdown Phase Simulation took place at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Control Center firing rooms. The firing room used during the simulation is the same control room where real launch countdown operations are executed. As a result, equipment used for real launch countdown operations is engaged. Command and control computers, application software, engineering plotting and trending tools, launch countdown procedure documents, launch commit criteria documents, hardware requirement documents, and any other items used by the engineering launch countdown teams during real launch countdown operations are used during the simulation. The Space Shuttle vehicle hardware and related GSE hardware is simulated by mathematical models (written in Shuttle Ground Operations Simulator (SGOS) modeling language) that behave and react like real hardware. During the Shuttle Final Countdown Phase Simulation, engineers command and control hardware via real application software executing in the control consoles – just as if they were commanding real vehicle hardware. However, these real software applications do not interface with real Shuttle hardware during simulations. Instead, the applications interface with mathematical model representations of the vehicle and GSE hardware. Consequently, the simulations bypass sensitive and even dangerous mechanisms while providing engineering measurements detailing how the hardware would have reacted. Since these math models interact with the command and control application software, models and simulations are also used to debug and verify the functionality of application software. Satellite navigation The only true way to test GNSS receivers (commonly known as Sat-Nav's in the commercial world) is by using an RF Constellation Simulator. A receiver that may, for example, be used on an aircraft, can be tested under dynamic conditions without the need to take it on a real flight. The test conditions can be repeated exactly, and there is full control over all the test parameters. this is not possible in the 'real-world' using the actual signals. For testing receivers that will use the new Galileo (satellite navigation) there is no alternative, as the real signals do not yet exist. Trains Weather Predicting weather conditions by extrapolating/interpolating previous data is one of the real use of simulation. Most of the weather forecasts use this information published by Weather bureaus. This kind of simulations helps in predicting and forewarning about extreme weather conditions like the path of an active hurricane/cyclone. Numerical weather prediction for forecasting involves complicated numeric computer models to predict weather accurately by taking many parameters into account. Simulation games Strategy games—both traditional and modern—may be viewed as simulations of abstracted decision-making for the purpose of training military and political leaders (see History of Go for an example of such a tradition, or Kriegsspiel for a more recent example). Many other video games are simulators of some kind. Such games can simulate various aspects of reality, from business, to government, to construction, to piloting vehicles (see above). Historical usage Historically, the word had negative connotations: However, the connection between simulation and dissembling later faded out and is now only of linguistic interest. See also Computer experiment Grey box model In silico List of computer simulation software List of discrete event simulation software Merger simulation Microarchitecture simulation Mining simulator Monte Carlo algorithm Network simulation Pharmacokinetics simulation Roleplay simulation Rule-based modeling Simulated reality Simulation language Training simulation Web-based simulation Virtual reality Simulation hypothesis Fields of study Computational astrophysics Computational chemistry Computational fluid dynamics Computational physics Futures studies Molecular dynamics System identification Specific examples & literature Illustris project Planet Simulator UltraHLE Simulacra and Simulation References External links Bibliographies containing more references to be found on the website of the journal Simulation & Gaming. Mathematical and quantitative methods (economics)

Phoresis

Phoresis or phoresy is a temporary commensalistic relationship when an organism (a phoront or phoretic) attaches itself to a host organism solely for travel. It has been seen in ticks and mites since the 18th century, and in fossils 320 million years old. It is not restricted to arthropods or animals; plants with seeds that disperse by attaching themselves to animals are also considered to be phoretic. Phoresis is rooted in the Greek words phoras (bearing) and phor (thief). The term, originally defined in 1896 as a relationship in which the host acts as a vehicle for its passenger, clashed with other terminology being developed at the time, so constraints on the length of time, feeding, and ontogeny are now considered. Phoresis is used as a strategy for dispersal, seasonal migration, transport to new host/habitat, escaping ephemeral habitats, and reducing inbreeding depression. In addition to the benefits afforded to individuals and species, its presence can add to the ecological diversity and complexity of an ecosystem. Mutualism, parasitism, and predation The strict definition of phoresis excludes cases in which the relationship is permanent (e.g. that of a barnacle surviving on a whale), or those in which the phoront gains any kind of advantage from the host organism (e.g. remoras attaching to sharks for transportation and food). Phoresis is a commensal relationship, and deviations result in mutualistic or parasitic relationships. Phoretic relationships can become parasitic if a cost is inflicted upon the host, such as if the number of mites on a host begins impeding its movement. Parasitic relationships could also be selected from phoretic ones if the phoront gains a fitness advantage from the death of a host (e.g. nutrition). Mutualistic relationships could also develop if the phoront begins to confer a benefit to the host (e.g. predator defense). The evolutionary plasticity of phoretic relationships allow them to potentially add to the complexity and diversity of ecosystems. Cases in which the phoront parasitizes or preys upon the host organism after travel are still considered phoresis, as long as the travel behaviour and the feeding or parasitizing behaviour are separate. Similarly, some pseudoscorpions prey upon the same species that act as their phoretic host. The behaviours are completely separate however, since the pseudoscorpion utilizes anatomical features used specifically for predation when treating the host as prey, but employs anatomical features used for phoresis when travelling. Examples of phoretic relationships Examples may be found in the arthropods associated with sloths. Coprophagous sloth moths, such as Bradipodicola hahneli and Cryptoses choloepi, are unusual in that they exclusively inhabit the fur of sloths, mammals found in central and South America. The sloth provides transport for the moths, the females of which oviposit in the droppings of sloths, which the larvae feed on, and the newly hatched moths move into the forest canopy in search of a new sloth host. Larvae of the blister beetle (Meloe franciscanus) need to find the nests of their host, the solitary bee (Habropoda pallida), to continue their life cycle. The larvae gather in colonies, and emit chemicals that mimic the pheromones of the female solitary bee. Larvae attach to the attracted males when they visit the false source of pheromones, and then subsequently to any female the male mates with. The blister beetle larvae then infest and parasitize the female bee’s nest. Some species of Bromeliad treefrog (Scinax littoreus and Scinax perpusillus) carry ostracods (Elpidium sp.), which in turn carry ciliates (Lagenophrys sp.) from one bromeliad plant to another. The plants act as ecological islands to the ostracods, and phoresis allows them to disperse over a wider area than would be available to them otherwise. The term for a phoretic organism riding on another phoretic organism is hyperphoresis. Some mites in the clade Astigmatina have a stage of their life cycle (the deutonymph or hypopus) that is modified specifically for phoresis. This stage has reduced mouthparts, a well-sclerotised body that resists desiccation, and usually a posteroventral organ for attaching to the host animal (which may be an invertebrate or a vertebrate). Astigmatans often live in patchy and ephemeral habitats such as fungal fruiting bodies, dung, carrion, animal nests, tree sap flows and decaying wood. Phoresis allows these mites to quickly leave a depleted habitat and travel to a new one. A specific example is deutonymphs of Lardoglyphus dispersing on beetles in the genus Dermestes to reach new habitats (both phoront and host feed on animal materials). A specialist mite (Parasitellus fucorum) that parasitizes bumble bees (Bombus spp.) avoids inbreeding depression in a single hive, and remains genetically independent of any specific host lineage by travelling to a new hive. This is accomplished by travelling on a foraging bee to a flower and detaching, and waiting for and attaching to another bee which may be from another hive, and infesting the new hive. These mites can survive on flowers for up to 24 hours, and have shown a preference for opened flowers, where they would be most likely to find a host. Dung and carrion are ephemeral habitats that are frequently visited by beetles (dung beetles, burying beetles). Phoretic nematodes (Rhabditoides) and mites (e.g. genera Macrocheles, Poecilochirus, Uroobovella) use the beetles to reach these rich resources, where they themselves reproduce. The pseudoscorpion Cordylochernes scorpioides is frequently found riding harlequin beetles (Acrocinus longimanus). Initially, there were a number of alternate hypothesis for why the pseudoscorpions were found on the beetles: by accident, to forage for mites inhabiting the beetle, or as an obligate parasite. Evidence suggested, however, that the pseudoscorpions were using beetles to travel from tree to tree, where they preyed upon other beetle larvae. If their host dies, lice can opportunistically use phoresis to hitch a ride on a fly, and attempt to find a new host. The largest mammalian example of phoresis is human beings directly riding on horses or other animals, or using them to pull vehicles with humans in them. See also References External links Symbiosis Animal locomotion

Depressive personality disorder

Depressive personality disorder (also known as melancholic personality disorder) is a psychiatric diagnosis that denotes a personality disorder with depressive features. Originally included in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-II, depressive personality disorder was removed from the DSM-III and DSM-III-R. The latest description of depressive personality disorder is described in Appendix B in the DSM-IV-TR. Although no longer listed as a personality disorder in the DSM-5, the diagnosis of subclinical Other Specified Personality Disorder and Unspecified Personality Disorder can be used to classify an equivalent of depressive personality disorder. In the DSM-5, it has been reconsidered for reinstatement as a diagnosis in an alternative approach to personality disorders in the form of "general criteria for personality disorder" which primarily assesses "impairments in personality functioning". While depressive personality disorder shares some similarities with mood disorders such as dysthymia, it also shares many similarities with other personality disorders including avoidant personality disorder. Some researchers argue that depressive personality disorder is sufficiently distinct from these other conditions so as to warrant a separate diagnosis. Characteristics The DSM-IV defines depressive personality disorder as "a pervasive pattern of depressive cognitions and behaviors beginning by early adulthood and occurring in a variety of contexts." Depressive personality disorder occurs independently of major depressive episodes, making it a distinct diagnosis not included in the definition of either major depressive episodes or dysthymic disorder. Five or more of the following criteria must be present: usual mood is dominated by dejection, gloominess, cheerlessness, joylessness and unhappiness self-concept centres on beliefs of inadequacy, worthlessness and low self-esteem is critical, blaming and derogatory towards self is brooding and given to worry is negativistic, critical and judgmental toward others is pessimistic is prone to feeling guilty or remorseful Studies in 2000-2002 have found more of a correlation between depressive personality disorder and dysthymia than a comparable group of people without depressive personality disorder. Millon's subtypes Theodore Millon identified five subtypes of depression. Any individual depressive may exhibit none, or one or more of the following: Not all patients with a depressive disorder fall into a subtype. These subtypes are multidimensional in that patients usually experience multiple subtypes, instead of being limited to fitting into one subtype category. Currently, this set of subtypes is associated with melancholic personality disorders. All depression spectrum personality disorders are melancholic and can be looked at in terms of these subtypes. DSM-5 Similarities to dysthymic disorder Much of the controversy surrounding the potential inclusion of depressive personality disorder in the DSM-5 stems from its apparent similarities to dysthymic disorder, a diagnosis already included in the DSM-IV. Dysthymic disorder is characterized by a variety of depressive symptoms, such as hypersomnia or fatigue, low self-esteem, poor appetite, or difficulty making decisions, for over two years, with symptoms never numerous or severe enough to qualify as major depressive disorder. Patients with dysthymic disorder may experience social withdrawal, pessimism, and feelings of inadequacy at higher rates than other depression spectrum patients. Early-onset dysthymia is the diagnosis most closely related to depressive personality disorder. The key difference between dysthymic disorder and depressive personality disorder is the focus of the symptoms used to diagnose. Dysthymic disorder is diagnosed by looking at the somatic senses, the more tangible senses. Depressive personality disorder is diagnosed by looking at the cognitive and intrapsychic symptoms. The symptoms of dysthymic disorder and depressive personality disorder may look similar at first glance, but the way these symptoms are considered distinguish the two diagnoses. Comorbidity with other disorders Many researchers believe that depressive personality disorder is so highly comorbid with other depressive disorders, manic-depressive episodes and dysthymic disorder, that it is redundant to include it as a distinct diagnosis. Recent studies however, have found that dysthymic disorder and depressive personality disorder are not as comorbid as previously thought. It was found that almost two thirds of the test subjects with depressive personality disorder did not have dysthymic disorder, and 83% did not have early-onset dysthymia. The comorbidity with Axis I depressive disorders is not as high as had been assumed. An experiment conducted by American psychologists showed that depressive personality disorder shows a high comorbidity rate with major depression experienced at some point in a lifetime and with any mood disorders experienced at any point in a lifetime. A high comorbidity rate with these disorders is expected of many diagnoses. As for the extremely high comorbidity rate with mood disorders, it has been found that essentially all mood disorders are comorbid with at least one other, especially when looking at a lifetime sample size. References Further reading Finnerty, Todd (2009). Depressive Personality Disorder: Understanding Current Trends in Research and Practice. Columbus, OH: WorldWideMentalHealth.com. Huprich, Steven K. (2009). What Should Become of Depressive Personality Disorder in DSM-V? Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 17:1,41-59. Millon, Theodore; Davis; Roger; Millon, Carrie (1997). MCMI-III Manual, 2nd edition. Minneapolis, MN: National Computer Systems. Personality disorders Mood disorders

Criticism of evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology seeks to identify and understand human psychological traits that have evolved in much the same way as biological traits, through adaptation to environmental cues. Furthermore, it tends toward viewing the vast majority of psychological traits, certainly the most important ones, as the result of past adaptions, which has generated significant controversy and criticism from competing fields. These criticisms include disputes about the testability of evolutionary hypotheses, cognitive assumptions such as massive modularity, vagueness stemming from assumptions about the environment that leads to evolutionary adaptation, the importance of non-genetic and non-adaptive explanations, as well as political and ethical issues in the field itself. Evolutionary psychologists contend that many of the criticisms against it are straw men, based on an incorrect nature versus nurture dichotomy, and/or based on misunderstandings of the discipline. In addition, some defenders of evolutionary psychology assert that critics of the discipline base their criticisms on a priori political assumptions, such as those associated with Marxism. Examples of critics and defenders The history of the debate from a critic's perspective is detailed by Gannon (2002). Critics of evolutionary psychology include the philosophers of science David Buller (author of Adapting Minds), Robert C. Richardson (author of Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology), and Brendan Wallace (author of Getting Darwin Wrong: Why Evolutionary Psychology Won't Work). Other critics include neurobiologists like Steven Rose (who edited Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments against Evolutionary Psychology), biological anthropologists like Jonathan Marks, and social anthropologists like Tim Ingold and Marshall Sahlins. Responses defending evolutionary psychology against critics have been published in books including Segerstråle's Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond (2000), Barkow's Missing the Revolution: Darwinism for Social Scientists (2005), and Alcock's The Triumph of Sociobiology (2001). Other responses to critics include Confer et al. (2010), Tooby and Cosmides (2005), and Hagen (2005). Criticism of key assumptions Massive modularity Evolutionary psychologists have postulated that the mind is composed of cognitive modules specialized to perform specific tasks. Evolutionary psychologists have theorized that these specialized modules enabled our ancestors to react quickly and effectively to environmental challenges. As a result, domain-specific modules would have been selected for, whereas broad general-purpose cognitive mechanisms that worked more slowly would have been eliminated in the course of evolution. A number of cognitive scientists have criticized the modularity hypothesis, citing neurological evidence of brain plasticity and changes in neural networks in response to environmental stimuli and personal experiences. Steven Quartz and Terry Sejnowski, for example, have argued that the view of the brain as a collection of specialized circuits, each chosen by natural selection and built according to a "genetic blueprint", is contradicted by evidence that cortical development is flexible and that areas of the brain can take on different functions. Neurobiological research does not support the assumption by evolutionary psychologists that higher-level systems in the neocortex responsible for complex functions are massively modular. Peters (2013) cites neurological research showing that higher-order neocortical areas can become functionally specialized by way of synaptic plasticity and the experience-dependent changes that take place at the synapse during learning and memory. As a result of experience and learning processes the developed brain can look modular although it is not necessarily innately modular. However, Klasios (2014) responds to Peters' critique. Another criticism is that there is little empirical support in favor of the domain-specific theory. Leading evolutionary psychologists Leda Cosmides and John Tooby have found that performance on the selection task is content-dependent: People find it easier to detect violations of "if-then" rules when the rules can be interpreted as cheating on a social contract. From this Cosmides and Tooby and other evolutionary psychologists concluded that the mind consisted of domain-specific, context-sensitive modules (including a cheater-detection module). Critics have suggested that Cosmides and Tooby use untested evolutionary assumptions to eliminate rival reasoning theories and that their conclusions contain inferential errors. Davies et al., for example, have argued that Cosmides and Tooby did not succeed in eliminating the general-purpose theory because the adapted Wason selection task they used tested only one specific aspect of deductive reasoning and failed to examine other general-purpose reasoning mechanisms (e.g., reasoning based on syllogistic logic, predicate logic, modal logic, and inductive logic etc.). Furthermore, Cosmides and Tooby use rules that incorrectly represent genuine social exchange situations. Specifically, they posit that someone who received a benefit and does not pay the cost is cheating. However, in real-life social exchange situations people can benefit and not pay without cheating (as in the case of receiving gifts or benefiting from charity). Some critics have suggested that our genes cannot hold the information to encode the brain and all its assumed modules. Humans share a significant portion of their genome with other species and have corresponding DNA sequences so that the remaining genes must contain instructions for building specialized circuits that are absent in other mammals. One controversy concerns the particular modularity of mind theory used in evolutionary psychology (massive modularity). Critics argue in favor of other theories. Environment of evolutionary adaptedness One method employed by evolutionary psychologists is using knowledge of the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) to generate hypotheses regarding possible psychological adaptations. Part of the critique of the scientific basis of evolutionary psychology is that it often assumes that human evolution occurred in a uniform environment, whereas critics suggest that we know so little about the environment (or probably multiple environments) in which Homo sapiens evolve, that explaining specific traits as an adaption to that environment becomes highly speculative. The evolutionary psychologists John Tooby and Leda Cosmides state that research is confined to certainties about the past, such as pregnancies only occurring in women, and that humans lived in groups. They argue that there are many environmental features that are known regarding our species' evolutionary history. They argue that our hunter-gatherer ancestors dealt with predators and prey, food acquisition and sharing, mate choice, child rearing, interpersonal aggression, interpersonal assistance, diseases and a host of other fairly predictable challenges that constituted significant selection pressures. Knowledge also include things such as nomadic, kin-based lifestyle in small groups, long life for mammals, low fertility for mammals, long female pregnancy and lactation, cooperative hunting and aggression, tool use, and sexual division of labor. Tooby and Cosmides thus argue that enough can be known about the EEA to make hypotheses and predictions. David Buss also argued that the EEA could be sufficiently known to make predictions in evolutionary psychology. Buss argued that aspects of the environment are known - the Earth's gravity was the same, as was its atmosphere. Dinosaurs and giant Carboniferous insects were extinct and humans still lived in groups, while there were two sexes. Groups consisted of old and young members, healthy and sick, varying degrees of relatedness and so on. Buss notes that while some critics agree that the general environment is known, the specific selection pressures might never be understood due to being highly context sensitive. David Buller used an analogy including birds, observing that while all male birds must attract all female birds, they do so in different ways; Buller alleges that the evidence is simply not available to be able to determine which the specific mate-attraction problems for humans. However, Buss argues that this can be solved by proposing different evolutionary psychology hypotheses and uses data, confirmation strategies and discovery heuristics to determine which ones can be advanced. Furthermore, Buss argues this criticism is selectively sceptical - Buss notes that Buller had no problem writing confidently about the evolved mate functions of bird species, of whom there is even less knowledge about selective pressures, so it is not clear why Buller is willing to infer the mating strategies of ancestral birds by analysing living ones yet is unwilling to infer the mating strategies of ancient humans by analysing living humans. John Alcock argues that the fact that many traits in humans are presently adaptive is suggestive that they originally developed as adaptions. This is because if an organism diverges too much from its original environment, it is unlikely that its traits will be adaptive to the new, changed environment and it is at risk of going extinct. Thus evolutionary psychologists doubt that the modern world is largely novel compared to that of the EEA. Steven Pinker argues that there is enough evidence available about the historical environments humans evolved in for evolutionary psychologists to make inferences and predictions from. Pinker argues that the evidence indicates that the ancestral environment lacked "agriculture, contraception, high-tech medicine, mass media, mass-produced goods, money, police, armies, communities of strangers, and other modern features", which Pinker argues all have profound implications for minds that evolved in such an environment. Testability of hypotheses A frequent criticism of evolutionary psychology is that its hypotheses are difficult or impossible to test, challenging its status as an empirical science. As an example, critics point out that many current traits likely evolved to serve different functions from those they do now, confounding attempts to make backward inferences into history. Evolutionary psychologists acknowledge the difficulty of testing their hypotheses but assert it is nevertheless possible. Critics argue that many hypotheses put forward to explain the adaptive nature of human behavioural traits are "just-so stories"; neat adaptive explanations for the evolution of given traits that do not rest on any evidence beyond their own internal logic. They allege that evolutionary psychology can predict many, or even all, behaviours for a given situation, including contradictory ones. Therefore, many human behaviours will always fit some hypotheses. Noam Chomsky argued: "You find that people cooperate, you say, 'Yeah, that contributes to their genes' perpetuating.' You find that they fight, you say, ‘Sure, that's obvious, because it means that their genes perpetuate and not somebody else's. In fact, just about anything you find, you can make up some story for it." Leda Cosmides argued in an interview: "Those who have a professional knowledge of evolutionary biology know that it is not possible to cook up after the fact explanations of just any trait. There are important constraints on evolutionary explanation. More to the point, every decent evolutionary explanation has testable predictions about the design of the trait. For example, the hypothesis that pregnancy sickness is a byproduct of prenatal hormones predicts different patterns of food aversions than the hypothesis that it is an adaptation that evolved to protect the fetus from pathogens and plant toxins in food at the point in embryogenesis when the fetus is most vulnerable – during the first trimester. Evolutionary hypotheses – whether generated to discover a new trait or to explain one that is already known – carry predictions about the nature of that trait. The alternative – having no hypothesis about adaptive function – carries no predictions whatsoever. So which is the more constrained and sober scientific approach?" A 2010 review article by evolutionary psychologists describes how an evolutionary theory may be empirically tested. A hypothesis is made about the evolutionary cause of a psychological phenomenon or phenomena. Then the researcher makes predictions that can be tested. This involves predicting that the evolutionary cause will have caused other effects than the ones already discovered and known. Then these predictions are tested. The authors argue numerous evolutionary theories have been tested in this way and confirmed or falsified. Buller (2005) makes the point that the entire field of evolutionary psychology is never confirmed or falsified; only specific hypotheses, motivated by the general assumptions of evolutionary psychology, are testable. Accordingly, he views evolutionary psychology as a paradigm rather than a theory, and attributes this view to prominent evolutionary psychologists including Cosmides, Tooby, Buss, and Pinker. In his review article "Discovery and Confirmation in Evolutionary Psychology" (in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology) Edouard Machery concludes: "Evolutionary psychology remains a very controversial approach in psychology, maybe because skeptics sometimes have little first-hand knowledge of this field, maybe because the research done by evolutionary psychologists is of uneven quality. However, there is little reason to endorse a principled skepticism toward evolutionary psychology: Although clearly fallible, the discovery heuristics and the strategies of confirmation used by evolutionary psychologists are on a firm grounding." Steve Stewart-Williams argues, in response to claims that evolutionary psychology hypotheses are unfalsifiable, that such claims are logically incoherent. Stewart-Williams argues that if evolutionary psychology hypotheses can't be falsified, then neither could competing explanations, because if alternative explanations (e.g. sociocultural hypotheses) were proven true, this would automatically falsify the competing evolutionary psychology hypothesis, so for competing explanations to be true, then evolutionary psychology hypothesis must be false and thus falsifiable. Edward Hagen observes that critics of evolutionary psychology often argue that because a trait could have evolved as an adaptation or a by-product, it is impossible to determine which it is since it evolved in a past environment and thus evolutionary psychology hypotheses about a traits origin are untestable. According to Hagen, critics using this argument have a flawed understanding of science; Hagen argues that science is fundamentally an abductivist methodology e.g. inference to the best explanation. Hagen argues that hypotheses compete to provide the best explanation of a phenomenon, where "best" is measured via criteria like predicting new and surprising observations, parsimony, coherence and so on. Abduction does not require scientist to provide direct evidence for every single prediction. Evolutionary psychology hypotheses make predictions and thus compete with other hypotheses to explain traits. Hagen further argues that while some critics conclude that evolutionary psychology explanations for mental traits cannot be true because they can't be tested for the above reasons, this is a false conclusion to draw; even if evolutionary psychology hypotheses could not be tested, this does not mean they are false, it just means the evidence for them could not be acquired, not that traits don't exist because of evolutionary reasons. Dominic Murphy explains that one of the most common objections to evolutionary psychology is the "time machine" argument. This is the argument that while evolutionary psychology can make predictions about things we should see in the modern world if the evolutionary psychology hypothesis is true, there are too many alternate explanations for the origin of a trait which would also predict this phenomenon e.g. a trait evolving as a by-product could predict the same evidence as the same trait evolving as an adaptation. Therefore, a potentially infinite number of alternative historical explanations are possible. Thus without a time machine, it is impossible to determine which possible explanation for the evidence seen in the modern day is correct. Murphy argues this argument is flawed on multiple grounds. Firstly, if an explanation for a trait is forwarded and a prediction for what we would see in the modern day is made based on that explanation, then one cannot just propose alternative explanations. Instead, these alternative explanations require testable predictions of their own to be forwarded, preferably multiple different predictions. In addition, not all explanations may predict the same evidence, thus Murphy argues that if one explanation predicts a great deal of evidence for modern day observations and alternative explanations struggle to explain this, then it is reasonable to have confidence in the former explanation. In addition, Murphy argues that if the "time machine" argument was applied to other sciences, it would lead to absurd results - Murphy observes that cosmologists have confirmed predictions about the Big Bang by studying available astronomical evidence and current understanding of particle physics, with no need for a time machine to travel back to the beginning of the universe. Similarly, geologists and physicists investigating the hypothesis that it was an asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs did so by looking for modern day evidence. Murphy thus concludes that the onus is on the sceptics to prove why evolutionary psychology is allegedly untestable on "time machine" grounds if other historical sciences are not, as "methods should be judged across the board, not singled out for ridicule in one context." A similar argument was made by Andrew Goldfinch, who argued that this entire criticism is due to the issue of underdetermination - many rival explanations can potentially accommodate a phenomenon, making it difficult to discern which explanation is the correct one. Furthermore, one can also challenge the interpretation of an experiment's results, revise an explanation to accommodate a novel fact or even question the reliability of the experiments conducted. However, Goldfinch argues that this is a ubiquitous problem in all of science and not unique to evolutionary psychology, so it is not clear why this is seen as a criticism of the field if it would be dismissed elsewhere. Lastly, Goldfinch argues that one way to distinguish between competing explanations is to make a distinction between programmes that makes new predictions and discovers novel facts and those programmes that simply accommodate the fresh discoveries of other programmes. Those programmes which are actually making and testing predictions should be favoured over those simply accommodating the discoveries of others. Alleged disregard for alternate explanations Environmental explanations Critics assert that evolutionary psychology has trouble developing research that can distinguish between environmental and cultural explanations on the one hand and adaptive evolutionary explanations on the other. Some studies have been criticized for their tendency to attribute to evolutionary processes elements of human cognition that may be attributable to social processes (e.g. preference for particular physical features in mates), cultural artifacts (e.g. patriarchy and the roles of women in society), or dialectical considerations (e.g. behaviours in which biology interacts with society, as when a biologically determined skin colour determines how one is treated). Evolutionary psychologists are frequently criticized for ignoring the vast bodies of literature in psychology, anthropology, sociology, archaeology, linguistics, philosophy, history, and the natural sciences. Both sides of the debate stress that statements such as "biology vs. environment" and "genes vs. culture" amount to false dichotomies, and outspoken critics of sociobiology such as Richard Lewontin, Steven Rose and Leon Kamin helped to popularise a "dialectical" approach to questions of human behaviour, where biology and environment interact in complex ways to produce what we see. Evolutionary psychologists Confer et al. argue that evolutionary psychology fully accepts nature-nurture interactionism, and that it is possible to test the theories in order to distinguish between different explanations. Other evolutionary mechanisms Critics point out that within evolutionary biology there are many other non-adaptive pathways along which evolution can move to produce the behaviors seen in humans today. Natural selection is not the only evolutionary process that can change gene frequencies and produce novel traits. Genetic drift is caused by chance variation in the genes, environment, or development. Evolutionary by-products are traits that were not specially designed for an adaptive function, although they may also be species-typical and may also confer benefits on the organism. A "spandrel" is a term coined by Gould and Lewontin (1979a) for traits which confer no adaptive advantage to an organism, but are 'carried along' by an adaptive trait. Gould advocates the hypothesis that cognition in humans came about as a spandrel: "Natural selection made the human brain big, but most of our mental properties and potentials may be spandrels – that is, nonadaptive side consequences of building a device with such structural complexity". Once a trait acquired by some other mechanism confers an adaptive advantage, it may be open to further selection as an "exaptation". Gould argues that one cannot mistake the utility of a trait in the current environment for its adaptive origin. On the other hand, evolutionary psychologists suggest that critics misrepresent their field, and that empirical research in evolutionary psychology is designed to help identify which psychological traits are prone to adaptations, but also which are not. Edward Hagen argued evolutionary psychology's reliance on adaptive explanations is grounded in the fact that the existence and survival of life is highly improbable. Hagen argues that most organisms do not survive to reproduce and that is only through adaptations that organisms can hope to do so; alternate explanations like genetic drift are only relevant if an organism can survive and reproduce in the first place and it is the fact that organisms do manage survive and reproduce, despite the odds against such a thing occurring, that evolutionary psychologists are interested in. Similarly, Steven Pinker argues that complex organs like eyes require many precise parts in exacting arrangements, which indicates they evolved via selective pressure, as it would be extremely improbable for such an arrangement to arise fortuitously out of genetic drift or as a byproduct of another trait. Hagen also argues that a way to distinguish spandrels from adaptations is that adaptations have evidence of design (that is to say they did not simply arise by pure chance but were selected for). While Hagen agrees that one can risk over-attributing adaptation, he observes that one can also risk under-attributing it as well. Hagen argues that tonsils can become infected and it needs to be known whether or not it is safe to remove them. Insisting that tonsils could just be spandrels is not helpful, whereas hypothesising that they may be adaptations allows one to make predictions about them to see if they do have a function and thus whether or not it is safe to remove them. Conversely, Steve Stewart-Williams argues that it is not true that evolutionary psychologists do not consider non-adaptive explanations, arguing that evolutionary psychologists have suggested alternate explanations such as byproducts, observing that the hypothesis that obesity is caused by a mismatch between ancestral and modern environments is one of the most famous cases of a byproduct explanation in evolutionary psychology. Pinker makes a similar argument, arguing that evolutionary psychology has long held the view that things such as art, music, science, religion and dreams are probably byproducts or spandrels of other mental traits. Laith Al-Shawaf argues that evolutionary psychologists use adaptations as a starting point for research - if the evidence in favour of the adaptation hypothesis fails to materialise, evolutionary psychologists will abandon it, so it is untrue to claim that evolutionary psychologists do not consider alternate hypotheses. Sven Walter observes that while critics of adaptationist hypotheses argue that alternative evolutionary explanations could exist, what these alternative explanations are and how they lead to the kind of traits evolutionary psychologists study is not always elaborated upon (for example, if a trait is proposed to be a byproduct rather than an adaptation, it is not always clear what it is supposed to be a byproduct of). Thus Walter argues that if there is no reasonably plausible alternative hypothesis, if the adaptationist hypotheses is logically plausible and if empirical evidence exists to support it, then there is thus reasonable support for the evolutionary psychologist's adaptationist hypothesis. Steven Gangstead argues that demonstrating that a trait is beneficial is not sufficient to prove it is an adaptation. Rather, to show something is an adaptation it must be shown that it exhibits special design. Special design is when a trait performs a function (function meaning it increases the reproductive fitness of the organism) effectively and it is difficult to conceive of an alternative scenario where the trait would have evolved. Gangstead observes that the eye is an extreme example, as it is highly effective at the function of seeing, yet it is difficult to conceive of a scenario through which it would have evolved other than one where it was selected for its optical properties and thereby its function of sight. Evolutionary psychologists have also argued that a lack of special design is evidence of a trait being a byproduct rather than an adaptation; for example, it has been found that men find women's scent more attractive when they are fertile phase than their infertile luteal phase. While men finding this scent more attractive may be an adaptation, there is no evidence that women possess the adaptation to smell better when fertile, instead it is likely a byproduct of changing hormone levels, which men have been selected to detect and differently evaluate. Evolutionary psychologists consider evidence that a trait is an adaptation if it has many features that are improbably well suited to solving an ancestral adaptive problem, that the phenotypic properties are unlikely to have arisen by chance alone and that the trait is not better explained as a byproduct or the consequence of some other adaptive problem. To show a trait is a byproduct, it must be shown that something else is an adaptation and then that the trait in question is a side effect of that adaptation. Co-opted exaptationist and spandrel hypotheses have an additional evidentiary burden compared to adaptationist hypotheses, as they must identify both the later co-opted functionality and the original adaptational functionality, as well as what caused the trait to be co-opted to their new function; it is not sufficient simply to propose an alternative exaptationist or spandrel hypotheses to the adaptationist one, rather these evidentiary burdens must be met. Leda Cosmides argues that raising the objection that a trait could be a spandrel is meaningless because an organism contains a potentially infinite number of spandrels. Instead, one must demonstrate what the trait is a spandrel of, rather than simply just suggesting it could be a spandrel. Berry et al. argue that critics of adaptationist hypotheses are often guilty of uncritically accepting any alternative explanation provided it is not the adaptationist one. Furthermore, the authors argue that while critics insist that "adapative function" refer only to original adaptive function the trait evolved for, they argue that this is a nonsensical requirement. This is because if an adaptation was then used for a new, different, adaptive function, then this makes the trait an adaptation because it remains in the population because it helps organisms with this new function. Thus the trait's original purpose is irrelevant because it has been co-opted for a new purpose and maintains itself within the species because it increases reproductive success of members of the species who have it (versus those who may have lost it for some reason); nature is blind to the original "intended" function of the trait. Durrant et al. agree that alternative explanations to adaptation have to be considered. The authors argue that an issue with adaptationist explanations is underdetermination. A theory is underdetermined when the evidence used to support it could be equally used to support one or more other competing theories. Underdetermination is an issue in science due to the problem of induction; in the great majority of cases, the truth of the data does not deductively entail the truth of the hypothesis. While this is an issue in general in science, sciences which deal with unobserved entities and processes, which evolutionary psychology does, are particularly vulnerable. Even if the theory can make predictions, these predictions do not necessarily confirm the hypothesis, as competing theory could also predict it; the authors argue that the prediction of novel facts does not necessarily mean acceptance of the theory, historically speaking, observing that while Einstein's theory of general relativity is famously held as being accepted because it predicted light would bend around black holes (which was unknown at the time), neither Einstein nor many of his contemporaries regarded it as a strong confirmation of his theory. Durrant et al. thus propose that the problem of underdetermination can be solved by judging competing theories on a range of criteria to determine which one best explains phenomena by having the best explanatory coherence; criteria suggested include explanatory breadth (which theory explains the great range of facts), simplicity (which theory requires the fewest special assumptions) and analogy (the theory is supported by analogy to theories scientists already find credible). Thus any criticism of adaptationist theories must demonstrate that an alternative theory offers greater explanatory coherence than the adaptationist one. Other overall areas of criticism Alleged ethnocentrism One aspect of evolutionary psychology is finding traits that have been shown to be universal in humans. Many critics have pointed out that many traits considered universal at some stage by evolutionary psychologists often turn out to be dependent on cultural and particular historical circumstances. Critics allege that evolutionary psychologists tend to assume that their own current cultural context represents a universal human nature. For example, anthropologist Susan McKinnon argues that evolutionary theories of kinship rest on ethnocentric presuppositions. Evolutionary psychologists assert that the degree of genetic relatedness determines the extent of kinship (e.g., solidarity, nurturance, and altruism) because in order to maximize their own reproductive success, people "invest" only in their own genetic children or closely related kin. Steven Pinker, for instance, stated "You're either someone's mother or you aren't". McKinnon argues that such biologically centered constructions of relatedness result from a specific cultural context: the kinship category "mother" is relatively self-evident in Anglo-American cultures where biology is privileged but not in other societies where rank and marital status, not biology, determine who counts as a mother or where mother's sisters are also considered mothers and one's mother's brother is understood as the "male mother". However, evolutionary psychologists point out that their research actually focuses on commonalities between people of different cultures to help to identify "human psychological nature" and cultural universals. It is not a focus on local behavioral variation (which may sometimes be considered ethnocentric) that interests evolutionary psychologists; rather their focus is to find underlying psychological commonalities between people from various cultures. Alleged reductionism and determinism Some critics view evolutionary psychology as influenced by genetic determinism and reductionism. Evolutionary psychology is based on the theory that human physiology and psychology are influenced by genes. Evolutionary psychologists assume that genes contain instructions for building and operating an organism and that these instructions are passed from one generation to the next via genes. Lickliter and Honeycutt (2003) have argued that evolutionary psychology is a predeterministic and preformationistic approach that assumes that physical and psychological traits are predetermined and programmed while virtually ignoring non-genetic factors involved in human development. Even when evolutionary psychologists acknowledge the influence of the environment, they reduce its role to that of an activator or trigger of the predetermined developmental instructions presumed to be encoded in a person's genes. Lickliter and Honeycutt have stated that the assumption of genetic determinism is most evident in the theory that learning and reasoning are governed by innate, domain-specific modules. Evolutionary psychologists assume that modules preexist individual development and lie dormant in the structure of the organism, awaiting activation by some (usually unspecified) experiential events. Lickliter and Honeycutt have opposed this view and suggested that it is the entire developmental system, including the specific features of the environment a person actually encounters and interacts with (and not the environments of distant ancestors) that brings about any modularity of cognitive function. Critics argue that a reductionist analysis of the relationship between genes and behavior results in a flawed research program and a restricted interpretation of the evidence, creating problems for the creation of models attempting to explain behavior. Lewontin, Rose, and Kamin instead advocate a dialectical interpretation of behavior in which "it is not just that wholes are more than the sum of their parts, it is that parts become qualitatively new by being parts of the whole". They argue that reductionist explanations such as the hierarchical reductionism proposed by Richard Dawkins will cause the researcher to miss dialectical ones. Similarly, Hilary Rose criticizes evolutionary psychologists' explanations of child abuse as excessively reductionist. As an example she cites Martin Daly and Margot Wilson's theory that stepfathers are more abusive because they lack the nurturing instinct of natural parents and can increase their reproductive success in this way. According to Rose this does not explain why most stepfathers do not abuse their children and why some biological fathers do. She also argues that cultural pressures can override the genetic predisposition to nurture as in the case of sex-selective infanticide prevalent in some cultures where male offspring are favored over female offspring. Evolutionary psychologists Workman and Reader reply that while reductionism may be a "dirty word" to some it is actually an important scientific principle. They argue it is at the root of discoveries such as the world being made up of atoms and complex life being the result of evolution. At the same time they emphasize that it is important to look at all "levels" of explanations, e.g. both psychologists looking at environmental causes of depression and neuroscientists looking the brain contribute to different aspects of our knowledge of depression. Workman and Reader also deny the accusation of genetic determinism, asserting that genes usually do not cause behaviors absolutely but predispose to certain behaviors that are affected by factors such as culture and an individual's life history. Steven Pinker argues that the charge of reductionism is a straw man and that evolutionary psychologists are aware that organisms develop due to complex interactions between genes and the environment. Pinker argues that Lewontin, Rose and Kamin misrepresented Dawkins in this regard. Pinker argues that when evolutionary psychologists talk about genes "causing" behaviour, they mean that said gene increases the probability of a behaviour occurring compared to other genes, which is averaged out of the organism's evolutionary timescale and the environments it has lived in. Pinker argues that this is a nonreductionist and nondeterminist view of genes, which is common in evolutionary biology. Disjunction and grain problems Some have argued that even if the theoretical assumptions of evolutionary psychology turned out to be true, it would nonetheless lead to methodological problems that would compromise its practice. The disjunction and grain problems are argued to create methodological challenges related to the indeterminacy of evolutionary psychology's adaptive functions. That is, the inability to correctly choose, from a number of possible answers to the question: "what is the function of a given mechanism?" The disjunction problem occurs when a mechanism appears to respond to one thing (F), but is also correlated with another (G). Whenever F is present, G is also present, and the mechanism seems to respond to both F and G. The difficulty thus involves deciding whether to characterize the mechanism's adaptive function as being related to F, G, or both. "For example, a frogs pre-catching mechanism responds to flies, bees, food pellets, etc.; so is its adaptation attuned to flies, bees, fleebees, pellets, all of these, or just some?" The grain problem refers to the challenge in knowing what kind of environmental 'problem' an adaptive mental mechanism might have solved. As summarized by Sterenly & Griffiths (1999): "What are the problems 'out there' in the environment? Is the problem of mate choice a single problem or a mosaic of many distinct problems? These problems might include: When should I be unfaithful to my usual partner? When should I desert my old partner? When should I help my sibs find a partner? When and how should I punish infidelity?" The grain problem therefore refers to the possibility that an adaptive problem may actually involve a set of nested 'sub-problems' "which may themselves relate to different input domains or situations. Franks states that "if both adaptive problems and adaptive solutions are indeterminate, what chance is there for evolutionary psychology?" Franks also states that "The arguments in no sense count against a general evolutionary explanation of psychology" and that by relaxing assumptions the problems may be avoided, although this may reduce the ability to make detailed models. Neglect of individual genetic differences A common critique is that evolutionary psychology does not address the complexity of individual development and experience and fails to explain the influence of genes on behavior in individual cases. Evolutionary psychologists respond that their discipline is not primarily concerned with explaining the behavior of specific individuals, but rather broad categories of human behaviors across societies and cultures. It is the search for species-wide psychological adaptations (or "human nature") that distinguishes evolutionary psychology from purely cultural or social explanations. These psychological adaptations include cognitive decision rules that respond to different environmental, cultural, and social circumstances in ways that are (on average) adaptive. Specific areas of controversy Rape and attraction to aggression Smith et al. (2001) criticized Thornhill and Palmer's hypothesis that a predisposition to rape in certain circumstances might be an evolved sexually dimorphic psychological adaptation. They developed a fitness cost/benefit mathematical model and populated it with estimates of certain parameters (some parameter estimates were based on studies of the Aché in Paraguay). Their model suggested that, on average, the costs of rape for a typical 25-year-old male outweigh benefits by a factor of ten to one. On the basis of their model and parameter estimates, they suggested that this would make it unlikely that rape generally would have net fitness benefits for most men. They also find that rape from raiding other tribes has lower costs but does not offer net fitness benefits, making it also unlikely that was an adaptation. Beckerman et al. (2009) disputed explanations of male aggression as a reproductive strategy. In a study of the Waorani tribes, the most aggressive warriors had the fewest descendants. Waist-to-hip ratios Others have criticized the assertion that men universally preferred women with a waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) of 0.7 or the "hourglass" figure. Studies of peoples in Peru and Tanzania found that men preferred ratios of 0.9. Cashdan (2008), investigating why the average WHR among women was higher than 0.7, wrote that a higher WHR was associated with higher levels of cortisol and androgens, and argued that these hormones caused better stress response, and higher assertiveness and competitiveness, respectively. She argued that these effects were also adaptive and counteracted the mate-attracting and fecundity effects of lower WHR, and that women's WHR was higher where they are more dependent on their own hard work or where the environment is difficult, and lower in societies where they gain resources by attracting a mate, with male preferences shifting accordingly. A 2019 review of numerous hypotheses concluded that researchers should focus on differentiating the conclusions of different analyses of these hypotheses, considering a lot of the contradictions within the data and the vague definitions of "mate-value". Recent studies utilizing stimuli that match what is found in the local culture show that men display a cross-cultural consensus in preferring a low waist-to-hip ratio (i.e., hourglass-like figure), with some fluctuation depending on whether the local ecology is nutritionally-stressed. Congenitally-blind men also display a preference for hourglass figures in women. Behaviors that reduce reproductive success "Maladaptive" behaviors such as homosexuality and suicide seem to reduce reproductive success and pose a challenge for evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychologists have proposed explanations, such that there may be higher fertility rates for the female relatives of homosexual men, thus progressing a potential homosexual gene, or that they may be byproducts of adaptive behaviors that usually increase reproductive success. However, a review by Confer et al. states that they "remain at least somewhat inexplicable on the basis of current evolutionary psychological accounts". Debate over implications Ethical Many critics have argued that evolutionary psychology and sociobiology justify existing social hierarchies and reactionary policies. Evolutionary psychologists have been accused of conflating "is" and "ought", and evolutionary psychology has been used to argue against social change (because the way things are now has been evolved and adapted) and against social justice (e.g. the argument that the rich are only rich because they've inherited greater abilities, so programs to raise the standards of the poor are doomed to fail). It has also been suggested by critics that evolutionary psychologists' theories and interpretations of empirical data rely heavily on ideological assumptions about race and gender. Halford Fairchild, for example, argues that J. Philippe Rushton's work on race and intelligence was influenced by preconceived notions about race and was "cloaked in the nomenclature, language and 'objectivity'" of evolutionary psychology, sociobiology and population genetics. Moreover, evolutionary psychology has been criticized for its ethical implications. Richardon (2007) and Wilson et al. (2003) have cited the theories in A Natural History of Rape where rape is described as a form of mate choice that enhances male fitness as examples. Critics have expressed concern over the moral consequences of such evolutionary theories and some critics have understood them to justify rape. However, a 2011 study found that after reading an article on evolutionary psychology theories, men did not judge male criminal sexual behaviour significantly differently to a control group, while those exposed to an article on sociocultural theory judged criminal sexual behaviour much more harshly than both the control and evolutionary psychology groups; the authors speculate that the study participants had a native bias towards the evolutionary psychology theory that was temporarily trumped by exposure to the alternative theory, while acknowledging that this short-term study does not reflect larger-scale and longer-term impacts of theory on behaviour. Evolutionary psychologists caution against committing the naturalistic fallacy – the idea that "ought can be derived from is" and that "what is natural" is necessarily a moral good. In the book The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker contends that critics have committed two logical fallacies: The naturalistic fallacy is the idea that what is found in nature is good. It was the basis for Social Darwinism, the belief that helping the poor and sick would get in the way of evolution, which depends on the survival of the fittest. Today, biologists denounce the Naturalistic Fallacy because they want to describe the natural world honestly, without people deriving morals about how we ought to behave -- as in: If birds and beasts engage in adultery, infanticide, cannibalism, it must be OK. The moralistic fallacy is that what is good is found in nature. It lies behind the bad science in nature-documentary voiceovers: lions are mercy-killers of the weak and sick, mice feel no pain when cats eat them, dung beetles recycle dung to benefit the ecosystem and so on. It also lies behind the romantic belief that humans cannot harbor desires to kill, rape, lie, or steal because that would be too depressing or reactionary. Similarly, the authors of A Natural History of Rape, Thornhill and Palmer, as well as McKibbin et al. respond to allegations that evolutionary psychologists legitimizes rape by arguing that their critics' reasoning is a naturalistic fallacy in the same way it would be a fallacy to accuse the scientists doing research on the causes of cancer of justifying cancer. Instead, they argue that understanding the causes of rape may help create preventive measures. Political Part of the controversy has consisted in each side accusing the other of holding or supporting extreme political viewpoints: evolutionary psychology has often been accused of supporting right-wing politics, whereas critics have been accused of being motivated by Marxist view points. Linguist and activist Noam Chomsky has said that evolutionary psychologists often ignore evidence that might harm the political status quo: Chomsky has also said that not enough is known about human nature to point to any political conclusions. In a review of Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate, which draws partially on evolutionary psychology, Louis Menand wrote: Evolutionary psychologist Glenn Wilson argues that "promoting recognition of the true power and role of instincts is not the same as advocating the total abandonment of social restraint". Left-wing philosopher Peter Singer in his book A Darwinian Left has argued that the view of human nature provided by evolution is compatible with and should be incorporated into the ideological framework of the Left. Researchers conducted a 2007 study investigating the views of a sample of 168 United States PhD psychology students. The authors concluded that those who self-identified as adaptationists were much less conservative than the general population average. They also found no differences compared to non-adaptationist students and found non-adaptationists to express a preference for less strict and quantitative scientific methodology than adaptationists. A 2012 study found that evolutionary anthropology students were largely of a left-liberal political stance and differed little in political opinions from those of other psychology students. See also Biopsychiatry controversy References Further reading Books and book chapters Alcock, John (2001). The Triumph of Sociobiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Barkow, Jerome (Ed.). (2006) Missing the Revolution: Darwinism for Social Scientists. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buller, David. (2005) Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. Buss, David, ed. (2005) The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. . Degler, C. N. (1991). In search of human nature: The decline and revival of Darwinism in American social thought. New York: Oxford University Press. Ehrlich, P. & Ehrlich, A. (2008). The dominant animal: Human evolution and the environment. Washington, DC: Island Press. Fodor, J. (2000). The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology Fodor, J. & Piattelli-Palmarini, M. (2011). What Darwin got wrong. Gillette, Aaron. (2007) Eugenics and the Nature-Nurture Debate in the Twentieth Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Gould, S.J. (2002) The Structure of Evolutionary Theory Joseph, J. (2004). The Gene Illusion: Genetic Research in Psychiatry and Psychology Under the Microscope. New York: Algora. (2003 United Kingdom Edition by PCCS Books) Joseph, J. (2006). The Missing Gene: Psychiatry, Heredity, and the Fruitless Search for Genes. New York: Algora. Kitcher, Philip. (1985). Vaulting Ambitions: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature. London:Cambridge. Kohn, A. (1990) The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life Leger, D. W., Kamil, A. C., & French, J. A. (2001). Introduction: Fear and loathing of evolutionary psychology in the social sciences. In J. A. French, A. C. Kamil, & D. W. Leger (Eds.), The Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Vol. 47: Evolutionary psychology and motivation, (pp. ix-xxiii). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press Lewis, Jeff (2015) Media, Culture and Human Violence: From Savage Lovers to Violent Complexity, Rowman and Littlefield, London/Lanham. Lewontin, R.C., Rose, S. & Kamin, L. (1984) Biology, Ideology and Human Nature: Not In Our Genes Malik, K. (2002). Man, beast, and zombie: What science can and cannot tell us about human nature McKinnon, S. (2006) Neo-liberal Genetics: The Myths and Moral Tales of Evolutionary Psychology Rose, H. and Rose, S. (eds.)(2000) Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology New York: Harmony Books Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. New York: Viking. Richards, Janet Radcliffe (2000). Human Nature After Darwin: A Philosophical Introduction. London: Routledge. Sahlins, Marshall. (1976) The Use and Abuse of Biology: An Anthropological Critique of Sociobiology Segerstrale, Ullica (2000). Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wallace, B. (2010). Getting Darwin Wrong: Why Evolutionary Psychology Won't Work Articles Lewontin, R.C. (1998) ‘The evolution of cognition: questions we will never answer’, in D. Scarborough and S. Sternberg (eds), An Invitation to Cognitive Science. Vol. 4: Methods, Models and Conceptual Issues. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 107–32. McKinnon, S. (2005). On Kinship and Marriage: A Critique of the Genetic and Gender Calculus of Evolutionary Psychology. In: Complexities: Beyond Nature & Nurture, McKinnon, S. & Silverman, S. (Eds); pp. 106–131. Smith, E.A., Borgerhoff Mulder, M. & Hill, K. (2000). Evolutionary analyses of human behaviour: a commentary on Daly & Wilson. Animal Behaviour, 60, F21-F26. Other documents Stephen Jay Gould."Darwinian Fundamentalism", New York Review of Books, Volume 44, Number 10 · June 12, 1997 David Buller. "Evolution of the Mind: 4 Fallacies of Psychology" Scientific American. December 19, 2008. David Buller. "Sex, Jealousy & Violence. A Skeptical Look at Evolutionary Psychology". Skeptic. "Paul Ehrlich challenges Evolutionary Psychology" John Klasios. "The evolutionary psychology of human mating: A response to Buller's critique". Malik, Kenan. 1998. "Darwinian Fallacies". Prospects. Alas Poor Evolutionary Psychology: Unfairly Accused, Unjustly Condemned. Robert Kurzban's review of the book Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology. Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2005). Conceptual foundations of evolutionary psychology. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (pp. 5–67). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Full text Tooby, J., Cosmides, L. & Barrett, H. C. (2005). Resolving the debate on innate ideas: Learnability constraints and the evolved interpenetration of motivational and conceptual functions. In Carruthers, P., Laurence, S. & Stich, S. (Eds.), The Innate Mind: Structure and Content. NY: Oxford University Press. Controversies surrounding evolutionary psychology by Edward H. Hagen, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Berlin. In D. M. Buss (Ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (pp. 5–67). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Why do some people hate evolutionary psychology? by Edward H. Hagen, Institute for Theoretical Biology, Berlin. (See also: his Evolutionary Psychology FAQ which responds to criticisms of evolutionary psychology.) Geher, G. (2006). Evolutionary psychology is not evil! ... and here's why ... Psihologijske Teme (Psychological Topics); Special Issue on Evolutionary Psychology, 15, 181–202. The Never-Ending Misconceptions About Evolutionary Psychology: Persistent Falsehoods About Evolutionary Psychology by Gad Saad Evolutionary Psychology Under Attack by Dan Sperber Online videos TED talk by Steven Pinker about his book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature Margaret Mead and Samoa. Review of the nature vs. nurture debate triggered by Mead's book "Coming of Age in Samoa." Secrets of the Tribe Documents the conflicts between cultural and evolutionary anthropologists who have studied the Yanomamo tribes. Criticisms Criticism Psychology controversies

Psychological first aid

Psychological first aid (PFA) is a technique designed to reduce the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder. It was developed by the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (NC-PTSD), a section of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2006. It has been endorsed and used by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the American Psychological Association (APA) and many others. It was developed in a two-day intensive collaboration, involving more than 25 disaster mental health researchers, an online survey of the first cohort that used PFA and repeated reviews of the draft. Definition According to the NC-PTSD, psychological first aid is an evidence-informed modular approach for assisting people in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism to reduce initial distress and to foster short and long-term adaptive functioning. It was used by non-mental health experts, such as responders and volunteers. Other characteristics include non-intrusive pragmatic care and assessing needs. PFA does not necessarily involve discussion of the traumatic event and avoids any activity associated with "debriefing" as that technique has been associated with increased rates of PTSD. Components Protecting from further harm Opportunity to talk without pressure Active listening Compassion Addressing and acknowledging concerns Discussing coping strategies Social support Offer to return to talk Referral Steps Contact and engagement Safety and comfort Stabilization Information gathering Practical assistance Connection with social supports Coping information Linkage with services History Before PFA, there was a procedure known as debriefing. Debriefing was a necessary step in a commercially available training intended to reduce PTSD called "Critical Incident Stress Management" (CISM) . It was intended to reduce the incidence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a major disaster. PTSD is now widely known to be debilitating; sufferers experience avoidance, flashbacks, hyper-vigilance, and numbness. Debriefing procedures were made a requirement after a disaster, with a desire to prevent people from developing PTSD. The idea behind it was to promote emotional processing by encouraging recollection of the event. Debriefing has origins with the military, where sessions were intended to boost morale and reduce distress after a mission, however the US Department of Defense discontinued the practice in 2002 due to evidence indicating that the practice increased PTSD rates. Debriefing was done in a single session with seven stages: introduction, facts, thoughts and impressions, emotional reactions, normalization, planning for future, and disengagement. Debriefing was found to be at best, ineffective, and at worst, harmful with some studies finding that PTSD rates actually increased as a result of debriefing. There are several theories as to why debriefing increased incidence of PTSD. First, those who were likely to develop PTSD were not helped by a single session. Second, being re-exposed too soon to the trauma could lead to retraumatization. Exposure therapy in cognitive behavioral therapy allows the person to adjust to the stimuli before slowly increasing severity. Debriefing did not allow for this. Also, normal distress was seen to be pathological after a debriefing and those who had been through a trauma thought they had a mental disorder because they were upset. Debriefing assumes that everyone reacts the same way to a trauma, and anyone who deviates from that path, is pathological. But there are many ways to cope with a trauma, especially so soon after it happens. Effectiveness PFA seems to address many of the issues in debriefing. It is not compulsory and can be done in multiple sessions and links those who need more help to services. It deals with practical issues which are often more pressing and create stress. It also improves self-efficacy by letting people cope their own way. PFA has attempted to be culturally sensitive, but whether it is or not has not been shown. However, a drawback is the lack of empirical evidence. While it is based on research, it is not proven by research. A 2024 integrative review concluded that the substantial variation in PFA protocols limits the ability to reach scientific conclusions. Like the debriefing method, PFA has become widely popular without testing, however debriefing is linked to harmful outcomes whereas PFA specifically avoids debriefing. Notes References Uhernik & Husson. 2009. PFA: "Evidence Informed Approach for Acute Disaster Behavioral Health Response". Compelling Counseling Interventions. 271–280. Preventive medicine Emergency mental health services

Prenatal and perinatal psychology

Prenatal psychology can be seen as a part of developmental psychology, although historically it was developed in the heterogenous field of psychoanalysis. Its scope is the description and explanation of experience and behaviour of the individual before birth and postnatal consequences as well. In so far as the actual birth process is involved one can consider this perinatal psychology. Pre- and perinatal aspects are often discussed together. Prenatal and perinatal psychology explores the psychological and psychophysiological effects and implications of the earliest experiences of the individual, before birth (prenatal), as well as during and immediately after childbirth (perinatal). Although there are various perspectives on the topic, a common thread is the importance of prenatal and perinatal experiences in the shaping the future psychological development. There is a debate among scientists regarding the extent to which newborn infants are capable of forming memories, the effects of any such memories on their personality, and the possibility of recovering them from an unconscious mind, which itself is the subject of argument in the field. A widespread assumption concerning the prenatal phase was that the fetus is almost completely shielded from outside stimuli. Thus, perception and consciousness would develop after birth. Meanwhile, there is a great number of scientific studies which show clearly that behaviour, perception and learning is already developed before birth. This also holds for nonhuman species, as for rat fetuses acoustic conditioning can be demonstrated. Psycho-physiological aspects of the prenatal phase The physiological development while in the prenatal phase – especially that of the brain – is of particular importance for prenatal psychology. In the first eight weeks after insemination, the developing child is called an embryo. After the inner organs have developed (from the ninth week on) it is called a fetus. Prenatal development of the brain The basis of perception, experience, and behaviour is the brain. While in gestation, a giant neuronal net is developing, delivering the condition for any mental process. About half of the developing neurons become destroyed again during the development of the brain because of the "programmed cell death" (apoptosis). At birth the infantile brain contains 100 billion neurons – as many as in the brain of an adult. At birth, every cortical neuron is connected with about 2500 neurons; after a year, with about 15 000. Synapses develop, and are destroyed, over the whole life span – a process called neuroplasticity. Motor development In the 1930s the physiologist Davenport Hooker examined reflexes or reactions, respectively of aborted fetuses extrauterine. Nowadays, the motor skills of embryo and fetus can be examined with ultrasound techniques quite easily. From the eighth week on the embryo moves the rump, shortly after that his extremities. With the means of sonography one could demonstrate that these were not simple reflexes, but also endogenously provoked movements. According to Alessandra Piontelli the fetus shows all patterns of movement, which later can be found in the newborn. Breath movements can be seen from the 19th week on, with the fetus taking amniotic fluid into his lungs. Eye movements are shown to exist from the 18th week on, from the 23rd week on there are rapid-eye-movements (REM-phases). These are connected with sleeping patterns and dreaming. Fetuses drink amniotic fluid and urinate into it. Development of perception and prenatal learning The sense modalities of the fetus develop prenatally and are functioning very well at birth. The examination of such abilities is connected with experimental examination of behaviour, provoked by stimuli. Ray examined vibro-acoustic conditioning of human fetuses. According to Hepper it rested uncertain, if such conditioning was successful. Hepper claims to have repeat such conditioning experiments successfully, with the earliest vibro-acoustic conditioning in the 32nd week of gestation. Prenatal learning often is examined by using the habituation paradigm. The fetus gets exposed to a stimulus, e.g. an acoustic one. Afterwards the experimenter watches the extinction of the reaction while repeating the same stimulus again and again. This procedure becomes completed by the use of a new stimulus and the recording of the according reaction. When the new stimulus is identified by the fetus as different from the old one, it releases a new pattern of reaction, e.g. accelerated frequency of the heart. If this does not happen, the new stimulus cannot be distinguished from the old focal stimulus. In 1991 a study demonstrated the acoustic habituation by recording the heart frequency of foetuses in the 29th week of gestation. Such studies can be used for examining memory. Fetuses older than 34 weeks of gestation can reproduce learned content over a period of 4 weeks. The earliest vibro-acoustic conditioning is successful at 22-week-old fetuses. Maybe habituation to taste is possible even earlier. Such habituation was also demonstrated in fetal rats. Babies remember musical patterns they once heard in the womb, as W. Ernest Freud – a grandson of Sigmund Freud – could demonstrate. The empirical proof used the registration of heart frequency and motorical activity. Also the development of speech is based on prenatal learning, as the study of DeCasper and Fifer from 1980 seems to demonstrate. This study used operant conditioning as a paradigm. Several empirical studies demonstrated that prenatal learning exists. Historical development of psychoanalytical and depth psychological theories concerning prenatal life Most psychoanalytical theories assume that the development of objects, the self and even consciousness begins after birth. Nevertheless, some psychoanalysts explicitly write that pre- and perinatal aspects are responsible for certain symptom formations, among them Otto Rank, Nandor Fodor, Francis J. Mott, Donald Winnicott, Gustav Hans Graber and Ludwig Janus. They think that the structuring of the unconscious psyche starts in the prenatal phase. The fetus already has early, emotionally relevant experiences. They assume the existence of perception in several sense modaliaties, states of asphyxia, fears and stress, which are stored and can be remembered after birth under certain circumstances. In psychoanalysis pre- and perinatal topics usually are seen as fantasies. The manifest prenatal content of dreaming or fantasizing of swimming under water while breathing, being inside of a cave, fighting with underwater monsters – are interpreted as re-projections in time onto the early phase. Janus assumes that in many psychoanalytical approaches there can be found contentual and phenomenological aspects close to prenatal psychology – but without explicit references. Janus wrote of the "hidden attendance of the prenatal existence" in the works of psychoanalysts such as Sandor Ferenczi, Carl Gustav Jung, Melanie Klein, Bela Grunberger, Françoise Dolto and others. In 1924 Otto Rank (1884–1939), one of Sigmund Freud's disciples, published his book The Trauma of Birth (German: Das Trauma der Geburt und seine Bedeutung für die Psychoanalyse). There he stated that the emotional shock of being born is an individual's first source of anxiety. Because of this book the friendship between Freud and Rank came to an end. Rank was of the opinion that birth is connected with an overwhelming experience of fear of the fetus. He also presumed that this trauma was the cause of later anxieties. He also claimed that aspects of the later prenatal phase can be remembered. So already Rank himself had developed the outlines of a true prenatal psychology. In the light of such assumptions he interpreted cultural aspects, e.g. he understood Christian fantasies of the hell as being based on aversive intrauterine situations. In his book, he treated the interpretation of symbols, art and myths by using pre- and perinatal assumptions. Rank believed that a "primal fixation" with the prenatal state is the root of all neuroses and character disorders and developed a process of psychoanalysis based on birth experiences. Donald Winnicott (1896–1971) tried to understand very early forms of symbol formation. He described in several case studies the reenactment of perinatal experiences in psychotherapies, especially of children. A five-year-old boy climbed into Winnicott's jacket and then slit down the pants onto the ground. He repeated this again and again. Winnicott interpreted this game as a regression and a repeating of birth. He presumed that some babies developed a paranoid attitude by having problems at birth, e.g. in the case of asphyxia. Also psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, breast- and breathing problems and feelings of getting choked) were interpreted as possible consequences of birth experiences by Winnicott. Nevertheless, he rejected the assumption of a universal birth trauma. In his book The Search for the Beloved: A Clinical Investigation of the Trauma of Birth and Prenatal Condition of 1949 the British-American psychoanalyst Nandor Fodor (1895–1964) traced certain forms of anxiety back to unprocessed and repressed birth experiences following Rank's assumptions, who had been his psychoanalyst. Fodor interpreted dreams, experiencing the lack of oxygen, claustrophobia and sexual disorders and their etiology, which he explained by assuming specific pre- and perinatal experiences. Francis John Mott (1901–1980) was a disciple of Fodor and the first author who concentrated on the placenta as the first object of the fetus. He wrote, that the fetus fears his placenta as a "blood sucker" or experience it as a "feeder" or "life-giver". His work an prenatal aspects is connected with his speculative assumptions on a quasi-religious design of the universe. Material emerging from sessions of psychedelic psychotherapy using LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs was the foundation for research into the enduring effects of pre- and perinatal experiences in adult life conducted by Frank Lake, Athanasios Kafkalides (1919–1989) and Stanislav Grof. Grof went on to formulate an extensive theoretical framework for the analysis of pre- and perinatal experiences, based on the four constructs he called Basic Perinatal Matrices. Lake and Grof independently developed breathing techniques, following Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) as an alternative to the use of psychedelic drugs, which was subject to considerable legal difficulty from the mid-1960s onwards. A related technique called Rebirthing was developed by psychotherapist Leonard Orr in the 1970s, and Core Process psychotherapy trainees relive presumed birth trauma as part of their training. The US-American social scientist Lloyd deMause (born 1931) compiled in his essay from 1981 the psychoanalytic approaches to prenatal mental life as well as the physiological findings of the human ontogenesis concerning fetal development. He took several assumptions from the works of Grof and Mott, but left away their metaphysical implications completely. In his own approach he assumes, that the placenta becomes the first object of the fetus, namely in two split versions: a positive and a negative one, he called the "nurturing" and the "poisonous placenta". DeMause presumed that in every gestation – especially at the end of this period – there are problems of supply with oxygen for the fetus. Because of physiological conditions the placenta would not be able anymore to supply the growing fetus with enough oxygen. This would give rise to states of pain and deprivation. Pre- and perinatal experiences lead to a mental script, a kind of pattern, to which later experiences would be connected with and internalized. He calls the experience of successive good and painful states the "fetal drama", long precursing the well known "oedipal drama" sensu Freud. Besides these theories about prenatal psychology deMause also developed approaches in the field of psychohistory – a system of cultural psychological assumptions, which explain historical processes and phenomenons by using psychological theories. Especially aspects of childhood history and prenatal psychology play an important role. In 1992 the Italian child neuropsychiatrist Alessandra Piontelli (born 1945) published a study in her book From Fetus to Child: An Observational and Psychoanalytic Study (1992). Using sonography she examined the behaviour of 11 fetuses. The fetuses showed a very complex behavioural repertoire and were quite different concerning their forms of activities. They reacted to stimuli in complex ways. Piontelli's study suggested that certain prenatal experiences determined later mental life. Psychological traits, e.g. enhanced oral activity, were recognizable in the prenatal phase, and also after birth. Piontelli interpreted her observations in psychoanalytical terms. Piontelli saw a remarkable continuity between pre- and postnatal mental development. Her study is important, because it combines the assessment of empirical data with the observation of single case studies in the postnatal phase and also in infancy. Her study use equally the methods of academic psychology together with the hermeneutics of psychoanalysis, what makes it unique in the scientific landscape. See also Prenatal development Prenatal memory References Further reading DeMause, Lloyd (1982). The fetal origins of history, (p. 244–332). In: Fodor, Nandor (1949). The Search for the Beloved: A Clinical Investigation of the Trauma of Birth and Prenatal Condition, New Hyde Park, NY: University Books Hepper, P. G. (1991). An examination of fetal learning before and after birth. In: Irish Journal of Psychology, 12, S. 95–107 Hepper, P. G. (1994). The beginnings of the mind: evidence from the behaviour of the fetus. In: Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 12, S. 143–154. Janus, Ludwig (1997). The Enduring Effects of Prenatal Experience. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1997, 277 pages. (Originally published in German in 1991 by Hoffmann und Campe, Verlag, Hamburg.) . Kafkalides, Athanassios MD (2005). The Knowledge of the womb – Autopsychognosia with psychedelic drugs, Authorhouse, USA Kafkalides, Zephyros and Kafkalides, Constantine MD (2017). Studies on Prenatal Psychology & Psychedelic Science, TRP Piontelli, Alessandra (1992). From Fetus to Child: An Observational and Psychoanalytic Study, London 1992 Rank, Otto (1952). The Trauma of Birth, New York: Richard Brunner Verny, Thomas (1981). The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, Dell 1982 reprint: , see also the professional organization founded by Verny to train professionals, the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, APPPAH, at www.birthpsychology.com. Developmental psychology Child development

Self-consciousness

Self-consciousness is a heightened sense of awareness of oneself. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. Historically, "self-consciousness" was synonymous with "self-awareness", referring to a state of awareness that one exists and that one has consciousness. While "self-conscious" and "self-aware" are still sometimes used interchangeably, particularly in philosophy, "self-consciousness" has commonly come to refer to a preoccupation with oneself, especially with how others might perceive one's appearance or one's actions. An unpleasant feeling of self-consciousness may occur when one realizes that one is being watched or observed, the feeling that "everyone is looking" at oneself. Some people are habitually more self-conscious than others. Unpleasant feelings of self-consciousness sometimes become associated with shyness or paranoia. Notable opponents of self-consciousness include Thomas Carlyle. Impairment When feeling self-conscious, one becomes aware of even the smallest of one's own actions. Such awareness can impair one's ability to perform complex actions. Adolescence is believed to be a time of heightened self-consciousness. A person with a chronic tendency toward self-consciousness may be shy or introverted. Psychology Unlike self-awareness, which in a philosophical context is being conscious of oneself as an individual, self-consciousness – being excessively conscious of one's appearance or manner – can be a problem at times. Self-consciousness is often associated with shyness and embarrassment, in which case a lack of pride and low self-esteem can result. In a positive context, self-consciousness may affect the development of identity, for it is during periods of high self-consciousness that people come the closest to knowing themselves objectively. Self-consciousness affects people in varying degrees, as some people are constantly self-monitoring or self-involved, while others are completely oblivious about themselves. Psychologists frequently distinguish between two kinds of self-consciousness, private and public. Private self-consciousness is a tendency to introspect and examine one's inner self and feelings. Public self-consciousness is an awareness of the self as it is viewed by others. This kind of self-consciousness can result in self-monitoring and social anxiety. Both private and public self-consciousness are viewed as personality traits that are relatively stable over time, but they are not correlated. Just because an individual is high on one dimension does not mean that he or she is high on the other. Different levels of self-consciousness affect behavior, as it is common for people to act differently when they "lose themselves in a crowd". Being in a crowd, being in a dark room, or wearing a disguise creates anonymity and temporarily decreases self-consciousness (see deindividuation). This can lead to uninhibited, sometimes destructive behavior. Emotions See also Alterity Introspection Looking glass self Personal identity Self-awareness Self-concept Self-knowledge (psychology) Shyness Surveillance References Laing, R.D. (1960) The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. Harmondsworth: Penguin (this book has a chapter explaining self-consciousness). External links "Self-Consciousness" by Md. Uriah Kriegel, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Conceptions of self Consciousness Shyness

Genital stage

The genital stage in psychoanalysis is the term used by Sigmund Freud to describe the final stage of human psychosexual development. The individual develops a strong sexual interest in people outside of the family. In Freud and later thinkers The notion of the genital stage was added to the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), by Sigmund Freud in 1915. In order, these stages of psychosexual development are the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and the genital stage. This stage begins around the time that puberty starts, and ends at death. According to Freud, this stage reappears along with the Oedipus complex. The genital stage coincides with the phallic stage, in that its main concern is the genitalia; however, this concern is now conscious. The genital stage appears when the sexual and aggressive drives have returned. The source of sexual pleasure expands outside of the mother and father. If during the phallic stage, the child was unconsciously attracted to the same-sex parent, then homosexual relationships can occur during this stage. However, this interpretation of the phallic stage, from the following viewpoint, is incongruous with what the primarily understood phallic stage entails. The Oedipus complex, which is one of the most significant components of the phallic stage, can be explained as the need to have the utmost of a response from the parental figure that is the main object of the libido. It must be clarified that it is more often the mother who is giving the gratification in response to a discharge and or manifestation of libido and is therefore the object of the infantile libido—not the father. It is less likely that the subject will have any unconscious sexual attraction to the father because the father is the source of the subject's incapability to possessing the mother: the subject is still focused on receiving attention from the mother. Furthermore, all sexual attraction during the phallic stage is purely unconscious. During the genital stage, the ego and superego have become more developed. This allows the individual to have more realistic ways of thinking and establish an assortment of social relations apart from the family. The genital stage is the latest stage and is considered the highest level of maturity. In this stage, the adult becomes capable of the two signs of maturation, work and love. The stage is initiated at puberty, but may not be completed until well into the adult years. Otto Fenichel considered genital primacy was the precondition for overcoming ambivalence and for whole-object love. In 1960, Robert W. White extended Freud's genital stage to not only include instinctual needs but effectance. His stage extension included one beginning to decide what role one will play in society and dating for social and sexual satisfaction. Prognoses The degree to which an individual has reached the genital level was seen by Freudians as inversely correlated with susceptibility to neurosis; conversely, fixation on earlier psychosexual levels will hamper the development of normal sexual relationships. It is important to note that although oral, anal, and genital are all distinct stages they can occur simultaneously and indefinitely. Freud argued that an individual could become stuck in any of these stages if overindulgence or underindulgence occurs. If the adult did not successfully complete a stage, fixation may occur later in life. Criticism While the normal genital character was theoretically recognised as an ideal construct, in practice the concept of the genital level could be fetishized into an addictive goal or commodity, not an experiential reality. Jacques Lacan wrote of "this absurd hymn to the harmony of the genital" in vulgar Freudianism. See also Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Life Against Death Regression Vaginal versus clitoral orgasms Wilhelm Reich References Further reading Karl Abraham, 'Character Formation on the Genital Level of Libidinal Development', in Selected Papers (1927) Laplanche, Jean; Pontalis, Jean-Bertrand (1973). "Genital Stage or Organisation (pp. 186-7)". The Language of Psycho-analysis. London: Karnac Books. ; . Freud's Psychosexual Stages. External links Freud's Psychosexual Stages. Freudian psychology

Heterodox economics

Heterodox economics refers to attempts at treating the subject of economics that reject the standard tools and methodologies of mainstream economics, which constitute the scientific method as applied to the field of economics. These tools include include: An emphasis on making deductively valid arguments by explicitly formalizing assumptions into mathematical models; The application of decision and game theory or cognitive science (by behavioral economists) to predict human behavior; and The practice of empirically testing economic theories using either experimental or econometric data. Groups typically classed as heterodox include the Austrian, ecological, Marxist-historical, post-autistic, and modern monetary approaches. Heterodox economics tends to be identified, both by heterodox and mainstream economists, as a branch of the humanities, rather than the behavioral sciences, with many heterodox economists rejecting the possibility of applying the scientific method to the study of society. Four frames of analysis have been highlighted for their importance to heterodox thought: history, natural systems, uncertainty, and power. History In the mid-19th century, such thinkers as Auguste Comte, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin and Karl Marx made early critiques of orthodox economy. A number of heterodox schools of economic thought challenged the dominance of neoclassical economics after the neoclassical revolution of the 1870s. In addition to socialist critics of capitalism, heterodox schools in this period included advocates of various forms of mercantilism, such as the American School dissenters from neoclassical methodology such as the historical school, and advocates of unorthodox monetary theories such as social credit. Physical scientists and biologists were the first individuals to use energy flows to explain social and economic development. Joseph Henry, an American physicist and first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, remarked that the "fundamental principle of political economy is that the physical labor of man can only be ameliorated by… the transformation of matter from a crude state to an artificial condition...by expending what is called power or energy." The rise, and absorption into the mainstream of Keynesian economics, which appeared to provide a more coherent policy response to unemployment than unorthodox monetary or trade policies, contributed to the decline of interest in these schools. After 1945, the neoclassical synthesis of Keynesian and neoclassical economics resulted in a clearly defined mainstream position based on a division of the field into microeconomics (generally neoclassical but with a newly developed theory of market failure) and macroeconomics (divided between Keynesian and monetarist views on such issues as the role of monetary policy). Austrians and post-Keynesians who dissented from this synthesis emerged as clearly defined heterodox schools. In addition, the Marxist and institutionalist schools remained active but with limited acceptance or credibility. Up to 1980 the most notable themes of heterodox economics in its various forms included: rejection of the atomistic individual conception in favor of a socially embedded individual conception; emphasis on time as an irreversible historical process; reasoning in terms of mutual influences between individuals and social structures. From approximately 1980 mainstream economics has been significantly influenced by a number of new research programs, including behavioral economics, complexity economics, evolutionary economics, experimental economics, and neuroeconomics. One key development has been an epistemic turn away from theory towards an empirically driven approach focused centrally on questions of causal inference. As a consequence, some heterodox economists, such as John B. Davis, proposed that the definition of heterodox economics has to be adapted to this new, more complex reality: ...heterodox economics post-1980 is a complex structure, being composed out of two broadly different kinds of heterodox work, each internally differentiated with a number of research programs having different historical origins and orientations: the traditional left heterodoxy familiar to most and the 'new heterodoxy' resulting from other science imports. Rejection of neoclassical economics There is no single "heterodox economic theory"; there are many different "heterodox theories" in existence. What they all share, however, is a rejection of the neoclassical orthodoxy as representing the appropriate tool for understanding the workings of economic and social life. The reasons for this rejection may vary. Some of the elements commonly found in heterodox critiques are listed below. Criticism of the neoclassical model of individual behavior One of the most broadly accepted principles of neoclassical economics is the assumption of the "rationality of economic agents". Indeed, for a number of economists, the notion of rational maximizing behavior is taken to be synonymous with economic behavior (Hirshleifer 1984). When some economists' studies do not embrace the rationality assumption, they are seen as placing the analyses outside the boundaries of the Neoclassical economics discipline (Landsberg 1989, 596). Neoclassical economics begins with the a priori assumptions that agents are rational and that they seek to maximize their individual utility (or profits) subject to environmental constraints. These assumptions provide the backbone for rational choice theory. Many heterodox schools are critical of the homo economicus model of human behavior used in the standard neoclassical model. A typical version of the critique is that of Satya Gabriel: Neoclassical economic theory is grounded in a particular conception of human psychology, agency or decision-making. It is assumed that all human beings make economic decisions so as to maximize pleasure or utility. Some heterodox theories reject this basic assumption of neoclassical theory, arguing for alternative understandings of how economic decisions are made and/or how human psychology works. It is possible to accept the notion that humans are pleasure seeking machines, yet reject the idea that economic decisions are governed by such pleasure seeking. Human beings may, for example, be unable to make choices consistent with pleasure maximization due to social constraints and/or coercion. Humans may also be unable to correctly assess the choice points that are most likely to lead to maximum pleasure, even if they are unconstrained (except in budgetary terms) in making such choices. And it is also possible that the notion of pleasure seeking is itself a meaningless assumption because it is either impossible to test or too general to refute. Economic theories that reject the basic assumption of economic decisions as the outcome of pleasure maximization are heterodox. Shiozawa emphasizes that economic agents act in a complex world and therefore impossible for them to attain maximal utility point. They instead behave as if there are a repertories of many ready made rules, one of which they chose according to relevant situation. Criticism of the neoclassical model of market equilibrium In microeconomic theory, cost-minimization by consumers and by firms implies the existence of supply and demand correspondences for which market clearing equilibrium prices exist, if there are large numbers of consumers and producers. Under convexity assumptions or under some marginal-cost pricing rules, each equilibrium will be Pareto efficient: In large economies, non-convexity also leads to quasi-equilibria that are nearly efficient. However, the concept of market equilibrium has been criticized by Austrians, post-Keynesians and others, who object to applications of microeconomic theory to real-world markets, when such markets are not usefully approximated by microeconomic models. Heterodox economists assert that micro-economic models rarely capture reality. Mainstream microeconomics may be defined in terms of optimization and equilibrium, following the approaches of Paul Samuelson and Hal Varian. On the other hand, heterodox economics may be labeled as falling into the nexus of institutions, history, and social structure. Most recent developments Over the past two decades, the intellectual agendas of heterodox economists have taken a decidedly pluralist turn. Leading heterodox thinkers have moved beyond the established paradigms of Austrian, Feminist, Institutional-Evolutionary, Marxian, Post Keynesian, Radical, Social, and Sraffian economics—opening up new lines of analysis, criticism, and dialogue among dissenting schools of thought. This cross-fertilization of ideas is creating a new generation of scholarship in which novel combinations of heterodox ideas are being brought to bear on important contemporary and historical problems, such as socially grounded reconstructions of the individual in economic theory; the goals and tools of economic measurement and professional ethics; the complexities of policymaking in today's global political economy; and innovative connections among formerly separate theoretical traditions (Marxian, Austrian, feminist, ecological, Sraffian, institutionalist, and post-Keynesian) (for a review of post-Keynesian economics, see Lavoie (1992); Rochon (1999)). David Colander, an advocate of complexity economics, argues that the ideas of heterodox economists are now being discussed in the mainstream without mention of the heterodox economists, because the tools to analyze institutions, uncertainty, and other factors have now been developed by the mainstream. He suggests that heterodox economists should embrace rigorous mathematics and attempt to work from within the mainstream, rather than treating it as an enemy. Some schools of heterodox economic thought have also taken a transdisciplinary approach. Thermoeconomics is based on the claim that human economic processes are governed by the second law of thermodynamics. The posited relationship between economic theory, energy and entropy, has been extended further by systems scientists to explain the role of energy in biological evolution in terms of such economic criteria as productivity, efficiency, and especially the costs and benefits of the various mechanisms for capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work. Various student movements have emerged in response to the exclusion of heterodox economics in the curricula of most economics degrees. The International Student Initiative for Pluralist Economics was set up as an umbrella network for various smaller university groups such as Rethinking Economics to promote pluralism in economics, including more heterodox approaches. Fields of heterodox economic thought American Institutionalist School Austrian economics # Binary economics Bioeconomics Buddhist economics Complexity economics Co-operative economics Distributism Ecological economics § Evolutionary economics # § (partly within mainstream economics) Econophysics Feminist economics # § Georgism Gift-based economics Green Economics Humanistic economics Innovation Economics Institutional economics # § Islamic economics Marxian economics # Mutualism Neuroeconomics Participatory economics Political Economy Post-Keynesian economics § including Modern Monetary Theory and Circuitism Post scarcity Pluralism in economics Resource-based economics – not to be confused with a resource-based economy Real-world economics Sharing economics Socialist economics # Social economics (partially heterodox usage) Sraffian economics # Technocracy (Energy Accounting) Thermoeconomics Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les Sciences Sociales # Listed in Journal of Economic Literature codes scrolled to at JEL: B5 – Current Heterodox Approaches. § Listed in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Some schools in the social sciences aim to promote certain perspectives: classical and modern political economy; economic sociology and anthropology; gender and racial issues in economics; and so on. Notable heterodox economists Alfred Eichner Alice Amsden Aníbal Pinto Anwar Shaikh Bernard Lonergan Bill Mitchell Bryan Caplan Carlota Perez Carolina Alves Celso Furtado Dani Rodrik David Harvey Duncan Foley E. F. Schumacher Edward Nell Esther Dweck F.A. Hayek Frank Stilwell Franklin Serrano Frederic S. Lee Frederick Soddy G.L.S. Shackle Hans Singer Ha-Joon Chang Heinz Kurz Henry George Herman Daly Hyman Minsky Jack Amariglio Jeremy Rifkin Joan Robinson John Bellamy Foster John Komlos Joseph Schumpeter Karl Marx Kate Raworth Lance Taylor Ludwig Lachmann Ludwig von Mises Lyndon Larouche Maria da Conceição Tavares Mariana Mazzucato Mason Gaffney Michael Albert Michael Hudson Michael Perelman Michał Kalecki Murray Rothbard Mushtaq Khan Nelson Barbosa Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen Nicolaus Tideman Paul A. Baran Paul Cockshott Paul Sweezy Peter Navarro Piero Sraffa Rania Antonopoulos Raúl Prebisch Richard D. Wolff Robin Hahnel Ruy Mauro Marini Simon Zadek Stephanie Kelton Stephen Resnick Theotônio dos Santos Thorstein Veblen Tony Lawson Yanis Varoufakis Yusif Sayigh See also Association for Evolutionary Economics Chinese economic reform Degrowth EAEPE Foundations of Real-World Economics Happiness economics Humanistic economics Kinetic exchange models of markets Pluralism in economics Post-autistic economics Post-growth Real-world economics review Real-world economics Notes References Further reading Articles Books Jo, Tae-Hee, Chester, Lynne, and D'Ippoliti. eds. 2017. The Routledge Handbook of Heterodox Economics. London and New York: Routledge. . Gerber, Julien-Francois and Steppacher, Rolf, ed., 2012. Towards an Integrated Paradigm in Heterodox Economics: Alternative Approaches to the Current Eco-Social Crises. Palgrave Macmillan. Lee, Frederic S. 2009. A History of Heterodox Economics Challenging the Mainstream in the Twentieth Century. London and New York: Routledge. 2009 Harvey, John T. and Garnett Jr., Robert F., ed., 2007. Future Directions for Heterodox Economics, Series Advances in Heterodox Economics, The University of Michigan Press. What Every Economics Student Needs to Know.. Routledge 2014. McDermott, John, 2003. Economics in Real Time: A Theoretical Reconstruction, Series Advances in Heterodox Economics, The University of Michigan Press. Rochon, Louis-Philippe and Rossi, Sergio, editors, 2003. Modern Theories of Money: The Nature and Role of Money in Capitalist Economies. Edward Elgar Publishing. {{cite news|title=The Wide, Wide World Of Wealth (The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'''. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman. Four volumes. 4,103 pp. New York: Stockton Press.)|last=Solow|first=Robert M.|author-link=Robert M. Solow|date=20 March 1988|journal=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/20/books/the-wide-wide-world-of-wealth.html?scp=1}} Stilwell, Frank., 2011. Political Economy: The Contest of Economic Ideas. Oxford University Press. Foundations of Real-World Economics: What Every Economics Student Needs to Know, 2nd edition, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge: 2019. Articles, conferences, papers Lavoie, Marc, 2006. Do Heterodox Theories Have Anything in Common? A Post-Keynesian Point of View. Lawson, Tony, 2006. "The Nature of Heterodox Economics," Cambridge Journal of Economics, 30(4), pp. 483–505. Pre-publication copy. Journals Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review Journal of Institutional Economics'' Cambridge Journal of Economics Real-world economics review International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education Review of Radical Political Economy External links Association for Heterodox Economics Heterodox Economics Newsletter Heterodox Economics Directory (Graduate and Undergraduate Programs, Journals, Publishers and Book Series, Associations, Blogs, and Institutions and Other Web Sites) Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE) Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) Association for Social Economics (ASE) Post-Keynesian Economics Study Group (PKSG) ^ ^ Political economy

Human givens

This is about psychotherapy. See Human condition for the general topic. Human Givens is the name of a theory in psychotherapy formulated in the United Kingdom, first outlined by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell in the late 1990s, and amplified in the 2003 book Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking. The human givens organising ideas proffer a description of the nature of human beings, the 'givens' of human genetic heritage and what humans need in order to be happy and healthy based on the research literature. Human Givens therapy draws on several psycho therapeutic models, such as motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoeducation, interpersonal therapy, imaginal exposure therapy and NLP such as the Rewind Technique, while seeking to use a client's strengths to enable them to get emotional needs met. Historical background Abraham Maslow is credited with the first prominent theory which laid out a hierarchy of needs. The precise nature of the hierarchy and the needs have subsequently been refined by modern neuroscientific and psychological research. Since Maslow's work in the middle of the twentieth century, a significant body of research has been undertaken to clarify what human beings need to be happy and healthy. The UK has contributed significantly to the international effort, through the ground breaking Whitehall Study led by Sir Michael Marmot, which tracked the lifestyles and outcomes for large groups of British civil servants. This identified effects on mental and physical health from emotional needs being met - for instance, it showed that those with less autonomy and control over their lives, or less social support, have worse health outcomes. In the United States, the work of Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania has been influential. Seligman has summarised the research to date in terms of what makes humans happy; again, this demonstrates themes about universal emotional needs which must be met for people to lead fulfilling lives. At the University of Rochester, contemporaries of Seligman Edward Deci and Richard Ryan have conducted original research and gathered existing evidence to develop a framework of human needs which they call self-determination theory. This states that human beings are born with innate motivations, developed from our evolutionary past. They gather these motivational forces into three groups - autonomy, competence and relatedness. The human givens approach uses a framework of nine needs, which map onto these three groups. Innate needs The human givens model proposes that human beings come into the world with a given set of innate needs, together with innate resources to support them to get those needs met. Physical needs for nutritious food, clean water, air and sleep are obvious, and well understood, because when they are not met people die. However, the emotional needs, which the human givens approach seeks to bring to wider attention, are less obvious, and less well understood, but just as important to human health. Decades of social and health psychology research now support this. The human givens approach defines nine emotional needs: Security: A sense of safety and security; safe territory; an environment in which people can live without experiencing excessive fear so that they can develop healthily. Autonomy and control: A sense of autonomy and control over what happens around and to us. Status: A sense of status - being accepted and valued in the various social groups we belong to. Privacy: Time and space enough to reflect on and consolidate our experiences. Attention: Receiving attention from others, but also giving it; a form of essential nutrition that fuels the development of each individual, family and culture. Connection to the wider community: Interaction with a larger group of people and a sense of being part of the group. Intimacy: Emotional connection to other people - friendship, love, intimacy, fun. Competence and achievement: A sense of our own competence and achievements, that we have what it takes to meet life's demands. Meaning and purpose: Being stretched, aiming for meaningful goals, having a sense of a higher calling or serving others creates meaning and purpose. These needs map more or less well to tendencies and motivations described by other psychological evidence, especially that compiled by Deci and Ryan at the University of Rochester. The exact categorisation of these needs, however, is not considered important. Needs can be interlinked and have fuzzy boundaries, as Maslow noted. What matters is a broad understanding of the scope and nature of human emotional needs and why they are so important to our physical and mental health. Humans are a physically vulnerable species that have enjoyed amazing evolutionary success due in large part to their ability to form relationships and communities. Getting the right social and emotional input from others was, in our evolutionary past, literally a matter of life or death. Thus, Human Givens theory states, people are genetically programmed only to be happy and healthy when these needs are met. There is evidence that these needs are consistent across cultures, and therefore represent innate human requirements. Innate resources The Human Givens model also consists of a set of 'resources' (abilities and capabilities) that all human beings are born with, which are used to get the innate needs met. These constitute what is termed an 'inner guidance system'. Learning how to use these resources well is seen as being key to achieving, and sustaining, robust bio-psycho-social health as individuals and as groups (families, communities, societies, cultures etc.). The given resources include: Memory: The ability to develop complex long-term memory, which enables people to add to their innate (instinctive) knowledge and learn; Rapport: The ability to build rapport, empathise and connect with others; Imagination: Which enables people to focus attention away from the emotions and problem solve more creatively and objectively (a 'reality simulator'); Instincts and emotions: A set of basic responses and 'propulsion' for behaviours; A rational mind: A conscious, rational mind that can check out emotions, question, analyse and plan; A metaphorical mind: The ability to 'know', to understand the world unconsciously through metaphorical pattern matching ('this thing is like that thing'); An observing self: That part of us which can step back, be more objective and recognise itself as a unique centre of awareness apart from intellect, emotion and conditioning; A dreaming brain: According to the expectation fulfilment theory of dreaming, this preserves the integrity of our genetic inheritance every night by metaphorically defusing emotionally arousing expectations not acted out during the previous day. Three reasons for mental illness A further organising idea proffered by the human givens approach is to suggest that there are three main reasons why individuals may not be getting their needs met and thus why they may become mentally ill: Environment: something in our environment is interfering with our ability to get our needs met. Our environment is 'toxic' (e.g. a bullying boss, antisocial neighbours) or simply lacks what we need (e.g. community); Damage: something is wrong with our 'resources' -- our 'hardware' (brain/body) or 'software' (missing or incomplete instincts and/or unhelpful conditioning such as posttraumatic stress disorder) is damaged; Knowledge: we may not know what we need; or we may not have been taught, or may have failed to learn, the coping skills necessary for getting our needs met (for example, how to use the imagination for problem solving rather than worrying, or how to make and sustain friendships). When dealing with mental illness or distress this framework provides a checklist that guides both diagnosis and treatment. Within this framework Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell developed models for several forms of mental illness based on their own research and insights. Depression - proposing expectation fulfilment theory of dreaming as the key to understanding the cycle of depression: how depression develops, is maintained and can be successfully treated. Addiction Autistic spectrum disorder - proposing caetextia as underlying mechanism Psychosis - described as waking reality processed through the REM state/dreaming brain Human givens therapy Psychotherapy based on the Human Givens theory follows the APET model, following the order in which the brain processes information and offers supportive strategies for each phase. Activating agent - a stimulus Pattern match - a past event Emotions Thoughts Sessions are structured by the RIGAAR model. Rapport building Information gathering Goal setting (new, positive expectations related to the fulfillment of innate needs) Accessing resources Agreeing on strategies for change (for achieving the needs-related goals) Rehearsing success Human Givens therapy is a solution-focused brief therapy, an approach that is aligned with solution-focused coaching and wellness coaching, and thus the Human Givens approach is used by psychotherapists as well as life coaches and therapeutic coaches. Efficacy and criticisms In 2008, a systematic review of the literature on the Human Givens approach concluded that the evidence was limited and of low quality. They called for rigorously designed studies. They did find 2 studies of higher quality evidence supporting the rewind technique but attributed the rewind technique rather than the Human Givens approach. The authors called on mainstream journals to provide space for healthy debate. In 2012 a retrospective review of 3,885 cases found Human Givens Therapy to be clinically equivalent to a benchmark for relief from psychological distress. A controlled study found that treating people with mild to moderate depressed mood (measured using HADS) with human givens therapy had quicker results than the treatment provided to people in a control group, but suffered problems reaching an adequately sized control group. A five-year evaluation of the Human Givens therapy using a practice research network found success with relieving psychological distress. In 2019 a retrospective study found that a Human Givens based therapy provided by PTSD Resolution for the Armed Forces Community was to be an acceptable alternative for IAPT treatment. The therapy offered by PTSD Resolution is based on the rewind technique as adopted by Human Givens. See also Maslow's hierarchy of needs Manfred Max-Neef's Fundamental human needs Ivan Tyrrell References External links The Human Givens Institute The Human Givens Foundation Human Givens College Caetextia (context blindness) 1998 introductions Psychotherapeutical theories

The Myth of Mental Illness

The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct is a 1961 book by the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, in which the author criticizes psychiatry and argues against the concept of mental illness. It received much publicity, and has become a classic, well known as an argument that "mentally ill" is a label which psychiatrists have used against people "disabled by living" rather than truly having a disease. Background Szasz writes that he became interested in writing The Myth of Mental Illness in approximately 1950, when, having become established as a psychiatrist, he became convinced that the concept of mental illness was vague and unsatisfactory. He began work on the book in 1954, when he was relieved of the burdens of a full-time psychiatric practice by being called to active duty in the navy. Later in the 1950s, it was rejected by the first publisher to whom Szasz submitted the manuscript. Szasz next sent the manuscript to Paul Hoeber, director of the medical division of Harper & Brothers, who arranged for it to be published. Summary Szasz argues that it does not make sense to classify psychological problems as diseases or illnesses, and that speaking of "mental illness" involves a logical or conceptual error. In his view, the term "mental illness" is an inappropriate metaphor and there are no true illnesses of the mind. His position has been characterized as involving a rigid distinction between the physical and the mental. The legitimacy of psychiatry is questioned by Szasz, who compares it to alchemy and astrology, and argues that it offends the values of autonomy and liberty. Szasz believes that the concept of mental illness is not only logically absurd but has harmful consequences: instead of treating cases of ethical or legal deviation as occasions when a person should be taught personal responsibility, attempts are made to "cure" the deviants, for example by giving them tranquilizers. Psychotherapy is regarded by Szasz as useful not to help people recover from illnesses, but to help them "learn about themselves, others, and life." Discussing Jean-Martin Charcot and hysteria, Szasz argues that hysteria is an emotional problem and that Charcot's patients were not really ill. Reception The Myth of Mental Illness received much publicity, quickly became a classic, and made Szasz a prominent figure. The book was reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Psychosomatic Medicine, Archives of General Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology Review, and Psychologies. Published at a vulnerable moment for psychiatry, when Freudian theorizing was just beginning to fall out of favor and the field was trying to become more medically oriented and empirically based, the book provided an intellectual foundation for mental patient advocates and anti-psychiatry activists. It became well known in the mental health professions and was favorably received by those skeptical of modern psychiatry, but placed Szasz in conflict with many doctors. Soon after The Myth of Mental Illness was published, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene demanded, in a letter citing the book, that Szasz be dismissed from his university position because he did not accept the concept of mental illness. The philosopher Karl Popper, in a 1961 letter to Szasz, called the book admirable and fascinating, adding that, "It is a most important book, and it marks a real revolution." The psychiatrist David Cooper wrote that The Myth of Mental Illness, like the psychiatrist R. D. Laing's The Divided Self (1960), "proved stimulating in the development of [anti-psychiatry]", though he noted that neither book is itself an anti-psychiatric work. He described Szasz's work as "a decisive, carefully documented demystification of psychiatric diagnostic labelling in general." Socialist author Peter Sedgwick, writing in 1982, commented that in The Myth of Mental Illness, Szasz expounded a "game-playing model of social interaction" which is "zestful and insightful" but "neither particularly uncommon nor particularly iconoclastic by the standards of recent social-psychological theorising." Sedgwick argued that many of Szasz's observations are valuable regardless of the validity of Szasz's rejection of the concept of mental illness, and could easily be accepted by psychotherapists. Although agreeing with Szasz that the assignation of mental illness could undermine individual responsibility, he noted that this did not constitute an objection to the concept itself. The philosopher Michael Ruse called Szasz the most forceful proponent of the thesis that mental illness is a myth. However, while sympathetic to Szasz, he considered his case over-stated. Ruse criticized Szasz's arguments on several grounds, maintaining that while the concepts of disease and illness were originally applied only to the physiological realm, they can properly be extended to the mind, and there is no logical absurdity involved in doing so. Kenneth Lewes wrote that The Myth of Mental Illness is the most notable example of the "critique of the institutions of psychiatry and psychoanalysis" that occurred as part of the "general upheaval of values in the 1960s", though he saw the work as less profound than Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization (1961). The psychiatrist Peter Breggin called The Myth of Mental Illness a seminal work. The author Richard Webster described the book as a well known argument against the tendency of psychiatrists to label people who are "disabled by living" as mentally ill. He observed that while some of Szasz's arguments are similar to his, he disagreed with Szasz's view that hysteria was an emotional problem and that Charcot's patients were not genuinely mentally ill. The lawyer Linda Hirshman wrote that while few psychiatrists adopted the views Szasz expounded in The Myth of Mental Illness, the book helped to encourage a revision of their diagnostic and therapeutic claims. The historian Lillian Faderman called the book the most notable attack on psychiatry published in the 1960s, adding that "Szasz's insights and critiques would prove invaluable to the homophile movement." See also Game theory — for Szasz, mental illness is best understood through the lens of game theory Neurodiversity — A belief of promoting the acceptance of numerous different brain types typically considered to be mental disorders or illnesses by the scientific community References External links Text of the original paper The Myth of Mental Illness 1961 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Anti-psychiatry books Books by Thomas Szasz English-language books Harper & Row books

Psychological evaluation

Psychological evaluation is a method to assess an individual's behavior, personality, cognitive abilities, and several other domains. A common reason for a psychological evaluation is to identify psychological factors that may be inhibiting a person's ability to think, behave, or regulate emotion functionally or constructively. It is the mental equivalent of physical examination. Other psychological evaluations seek to better understand the individual's unique characteristics or personality to predict things like workplace performance or customer relationship management. History Modern psychological evaluation has been around for roughly 200 years, with roots that stem as far back as 2200 B.C. It started in China, and many psychologists throughout Europe worked to develop methods of testing into the 1900s. The first tests focused on aptitude. Eventually scientists tried to gauge mental processes in patients with brain damage, then children with special needs. Ancient psychological evaluation Earliest accounts of evaluation are seen as far back as 2200 B.C. when Chinese emperors were assessed to determine their fitness for office. These rudimentary tests were developed over time until 1370 A.D. when an understanding of classical Confucianism was introduced as a testing mechanism. As a preliminary evaluation for anyone seeking public office, candidates were required to spend one day and one night in a small space composing essays and writing poetry over assigned topics. Only the top 1% to 7% were selected for higher evaluations, which required three separate session of three days and three nights performing the same tasks. This process continued for one more round until a final group emerged, comprising less than 1% of the original group, became eligible for public office. The Chinese failure to validate their selection procedures, along with widespread discontent over such grueling processes, resulted in the eventual abolishment of the practice by royal decree. Development of psychological evaluation in 1800-1900-s In the 1800s, Hubert von Grashey developed a battery to determine the abilities of brain-damaged patients. This test was also not favorable, as it took over 100 hours to administer. However, this influenced Wilhelm Wundt, who had the first psychological laboratory in Germany. His tests were shorter, but used similar techniques. Wundt also measured mental processes and acknowledged the fact that there are individual differences between people. Francis Galton established the first tests in London for measuring IQ. He tested thousands of people, examining their physical characteristics as a basis for his results and many of the records remain today. James Cattell studied with him, and eventually worked on his own with brass instruments for evaluation. His studies led to his paper "Mental Tests and Measurements", one of the most famous writings on psychological evaluation. He also coined the term "mental test" in this paper. As the 1900s began, Alfred Binet was also studying evaluation. However, he was more interested in distinguishing children with special needs from their peers after he could not prove in his other research that magnets could cure hysteria. He did his research in France, with the help of Theodore Simon. They created a list of questions that were used to determine if children would receive regular instruction, or would participate in special education programs. Their battery was continually revised and developed, until 1911 when the Binet-Simon questionnaire was finalized for different age levels. After Binet's death, intelligence testing was further studied by Charles Spearman. He theorized that intelligence was made up of several different subcategories, which were all interrelated. He combined all the factors together to form a general intelligence, which he abbreviated as "g". This led to William Stern's idea of an intelligence quotient. He believed that children of different ages should be compared to their peers to determine their mental age in relation to their chronological age. Lewis Terman combined the Binet-Simon questionnaire with the intelligence quotient and the result was the standard test we use today, with an average score of 100. The large influx of non-English speaking immigrants into the US brought about a change in psychological testing that relied heavily on verbal skills for subjects that were not literate in English, or had speech/hearing difficulties. In 1913, R.H. Sylvester standardized the first non-verbal psychological test. In this particular test, participants fit different shaped blocks into their respective slots on a Seguin form board. From this test, Knox developed a series of non-verbal psychological tests that he used while working at the Ellis Island immigrant station in 1914. In his tests, were a simple wooden puzzle as well as digit-symbol substitution test where each participant saw digits paired up with a particular symbol, they were then shown the digits and had to write in the symbol that was associated with it. When the United States moved into World War I, Robert M. Yerkes convinced the government that they should be testing all of the recruits they were receiving into the Army. The results of the tests could be used to make sure that the "mentally incompetent" and "mentally exceptional" were assigned to appropriate jobs. Yerkes and his colleagues developed the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests to use on all new recruits. These tests set a precedent for the development of psychological testing for the next several decades. After seeing the success of the Army standardized tests, college administration quickly picked up on the idea of group testing to decide entrance into their institutions. The College Entrance Examination Board was created to test applicants to colleges across the nation. In 1925, they developed tests that were no longer essay tests that were very open to interpretation, but now were objective tests that were also the first to be scored by machine. These early tests evolved into modern day College Board tests, like the Scholastic Assessment Test, Graduate Record Examination, and the Law School Admissions Test. Formal and informal evaluation Formal psychological evaluation consists of standardized batteries of tests and highly structured clinician-run interviews, while informal evaluation takes on a completely different tone. In informal evaluation, assessments are based on unstructured, free-flowing interviews or observations that allow both the patient and the clinician to guide the content. Both of these methods have their pros and cons. A highly unstructured interview and informal observations provide key findings about the patient that are both efficient and effective. A potential issue with an unstructured, informal approach is the clinician may overlook certain areas of functioning or not notice them at all. Or they might focus too much on presenting complaints. The highly structured interview, although very precise, can cause the clinician to make the mistake of focusing a specific answer to a specific question without considering the response in terms of a broader scope or life context. They may fail to recognize how the patient's answers all fit together. There are many ways that the issues associated with the interview process can be mitigated. The benefits to more formal standardized evaluation types such as batteries and tests are many. First, they measure a large number of characteristics simultaneously. These include personality, cognitive, or neuropsychological characteristics. Second, these tests provide empirically quantified information. The obvious benefit to this is that we can more precisely measure patient characteristics as compared to any kind of structured or unstructured interview. Third, all of these tests have a standardized way of being scored and being administered. Each patient is presented a standardized stimulus that serves as a benchmark that can be used to determine their characteristics. These types of tests eliminate any possibility of bias and produce results that could be harmful to the patient and cause legal and ethical issues. Fourth, tests are normed. This means that patients can be assessed not only based on their comparison to a "normal" individual, but how they compare to the rest of their peers who may have the same psychological issues that they face. Normed tests allow the clinician to make a more individualized assessment of the patient. Fifth, standardized tests that we commonly use today are both valid and reliable. We know what specific scores mean, how reliable they are, and how the results will affect the patient. Most clinicians agree that a balanced battery of tests is the most effective way of helping patients. Clinicians should not become victims of blind adherence to any one particular method. A balanced battery of tests allows there to be a mix of formal testing processes that allow the clinician to start making their assessment, while conducting more informal, unstructured interviews with the same patient may help the clinician to make more individualized evaluations and help piece together what could potentially be a very complex, unique-to-the-individual kind of issue or problem . Modern uses Psychological assessment is most often used in the psychiatric, medical, legal, educational, or psychological clinic settings. The types of assessments and the purposes for them differ among these settings. In the psychiatric setting, the common needs for assessment are to determine risks, whether a person should be admitted or discharged, the location the patients should be held, as well as what therapy the patient should be receiving. Within this setting, the psychologists need to be aware of the legal responsibilities that what they can legally do in each situation. Within a medical setting, psychological assessment is used to find a possible underlying psychological disorder, emotional factors that may be associated with medical complaints, assessment for neuropsychological deficit, psychological treatment for chronic pain, and the treatment of chemical dependency. There has been greater importance placed on the patient's neuropsychological status as neuropsychologists are becoming more concerned with the functioning of the brain. Psychological assessment also has a role in the legal setting. Psychologists might be asked to assess the reliability of a witness, the quality of the testimony a witness gives, the competency of an accused person, or determine what might have happened during a crime. They also may help support a plea of insanity or to discount a plea. Judges may use the psychologist's report to change the sentence of a convicted person, and parole officers work with psychologists to create a program for the rehabilitation of a parolee. Problematic areas for psychologists include predicting how dangerous a person will be. The predictive accuracy of these assessments is debated; however, there is often a need for this prediction to prevent dangerous people from returning to society. Psychologists may also be called on to assess a variety of things within an education setting. They may be asked to assess strengths and weaknesses of children who are having difficulty in the school systems, assess behavioral difficulties, assess a child's responsiveness to an intervention, or to help create an educational plan for a child. The assessment of children also allows for the psychologists to determine if the child will be willing to use the resources that may be provided. In a psychological clinic setting, psychological assessment can be used to determine characteristics of the client that can be useful for developing a treatment plan. Within this setting, psychologists often are working with clients who may have medical or legal problems or sometimes students who were referred to this setting from their school psychologist. Some psychological assessments have been validated for use when administered via computer or the Internet. However, caution must be applied to these test results, as it is possible to fake in electronically mediated assessment. Many electronic assessments do not truly measure what is claimed, such as the Meyers-Briggs personality test. Although one of the most well known personality assessments, it has been found both invalid and unreliable by many psychological researches, and should be used with caution. Within clinical psychology, the "clinical method" is an approach to understanding and treating mental disorders that begins with a particular individual's personal history and is designed around that individual's psychological needs. It is sometimes posed as an alternative approach to the experimental method which focuses on the importance of conducting experiments in learning how to treat mental disorders, and the differential method which sorts patients by class (gender, race, income, age, etc.) and designs treatment plans based around broad social categories. Taking a personal history along with clinical examination allow the health practitioners to fully establish a clinical diagnosis. A medical history of a patient provides insights into diagnostic possibilities as well as the patient's experiences with illnesses. The patients will be asked about current illness and the history of it, past medical history and family history, other drugs or dietary supplements being taken, lifestyle, and allergies. The inquiry includes obtaining information about relevant diseases or conditions of other people in their family. Self-reporting methods may be used, including questionnaires, structured interviews and rating scales. Personality Assessment Personality traits are an individual's enduring manner of perceiving, feeling, evaluating, reacting, and interacting with other people specifically, and with their environment more generally. Because reliable and valid personality inventories give a relatively accurate representation of a person's characteristics, they are beneficial in the clinical setting as supplementary material to standard initial assessment procedures such as a clinical interview; review of collateral information, e.g., reports from family members; and review of psychological and medical treatment records. MMPI History Developed by Starke R. Hathaway, PhD, and J. C. McKinley, MD, The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a personality inventory used to investigate not only personality, but also psychopathology. The MMPI was developed using an empirical, atheoretical approach. This means that it was not developed using any of the frequently changing theories about psychodynamics at the time. There are two variations of the MMPI administered to adults, the MMPI-2 and the MMPI-2-RF, and two variations administered to teenagers, the MMPI-A and MMPI-A-RF. This inventory's validity has been confirmed by Hiller, Rosenthal, Bornstein, and Berry in their 1999 meta-analysis. Throughout history the MMPI in its various forms has been routinely administered in hospitals, clinical settings, prisons, and military settings. MMPI-2 The MMPI-2 consists of 567 true or false questions aimed at measuring the reporting person's psychological wellbeing. The MMPI-2 is commonly used in clinical settings and occupational health settings. There is a revised version of the MMPI-2 called the MMPI-2-RF (MMPI-2 Restructured Form). The MMPI-2-RF is not intended to be a replacement for the MMPI-2, but is used to assess patients using the most current models of psychopathology and personality. MMPI-A The MMPI-A was published in 1992 and consists of 478 true or false questions. This version of the MMPI is similar to the MMPI-2 but used for adolescents (age 14–18) rather than for adults. The restructured form of the MMPI-A, the MMPI-A-RF, was published in 2016 and consists of 241 true or false questions that can understood with a sixth grade reading level. Both the MMPI-A and MMPI-A-RF are used to assess adolescents for personality and psychological disorders, as well as to evaluate cognitive processes. NEO Personality Inventory The NEO Personality Inventory was developed by Paul Costa Jr. and Robert R. McCrae in 1978. When initially created, it only measured three of the Big Five personality traits: Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Extroversion. The inventory was then renamed as the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Inventory (NEO-I). It was not until 1985 that Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were added to the personality assessment. With all Big Five personality traits being assessed, it was then renamed as the NEO Personality Inventory. Research for the NEO-PI continued over the next few years until a revised manual with six facets for each Big Five trait was published in 1992. In the 1990s, now called the NEO PI-R, issues were found with the personality inventory. The developers of the assessment found it to be too difficult for younger people, and another revision was done to create the NEO PI-3. The NEO Personality Inventory is administered in two forms: self-report and observer report. It consists of 240 personality items and a validity item. It can be administered in roughly 35–45 minutes. Every item is answered on a Likert scale, widely known as a scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. If more than 40 items are missing or more than 150 responses or less than 50 responses are Strongly Agree/Disagree, the assessment should be viewed with great caution and has the potential to be invalid. In the NEO report, each trait's T score is recorded along with the percentile they rank on compared to all data recorded for the assessment. Then, each trait is broken up into their six facets along with raw score, individual T-scores, and percentile. The next page goes on to list what each score means in words as well as what each facet entails. The exact responses to questions are given in a list as well as the validity response and amount of missing responses. When an individual is given their NEO report, it is important to understand specifically what the facets are and what the corresponding scores mean. Neuroticism Anxiety High scores suggest nervousness, tenseness, and fearfulness. Low scores suggest feeling relaxed and calm. Angry Hostility High scores suggest feeling anger and frustration often. Low scores suggest being easy-going. Depression High scores suggest feeling guilty, sad, hopeless, and lonely. Low scores suggest less feeling of that of someone who scores highly, but not necessarily being light-hearted and cheerful. Self-consciousness High scores suggest shame, embarrassment, and sensitivity. Low scores suggest being less affected by others' opinions, but not necessarily having good social skills or poise. Impulsiveness High scores suggest the inability to control cravings and urges. Low scores suggest easy resistance to such urges. Vulnerability High scores suggest inability to cope with stress, being dependent, and feeling panicked in high stress situations. Low scores suggest capability to handle stressful situations. Extraversion Warmth High scores suggest friendliness and affectionate behavior. Low scores suggest being more formal, reserved, and distant. A low score does not necessarily mean being hostile or lacking compassion. Gregariousness High scores suggest wanting the company of others. Low scores tend to be from those who avoid social stimulation. Assertiveness High scores suggest a forceful and dominant person who lacks hesitation. Low scores suggest are more passive and try not to stand out in a crowd. Activity High scores suggest a more energetic and upbeat personality and lead a quicker paced lifestyle. Low scores suggest the person is more leisurely, but does not imply being lazy or slow. Excitement-Seeking High scores suggest a person who seeks and craves excitement and is similar to those with high sensation seeking. Low scores seek a less exciting lifestyle and come off more boring. Positive Emotions High scores suggest the tendency to feel happier, laugh more, and are optimistic. Low scorers are not necessarily unhappy, but more so are less high-spirited and are more pessimistic. Openness to Experience Fantasy Those who score high in fantasy have a more creative imagination and daydream frequently. Low scores suggest a person who lives more in the moment. Aesthetics High scores suggest a love and appreciation for art and physical beauty. These people are more emotionally attached to music, artwork, and poetry. Low scorers have a lack of interest in the arts. Feelings High scorers have a deeper ability to experience emotion and see their emotions as more important than those who score low on this facet. Low scorers are less expressive. Actions High scores suggest a more open-mindedness to traveling and experiencing new things. These people prefer novelty over a routine life. Low scorers prefer a scheduled life and dislike change. Ideas Active pursuit of knowledge, high curiosity, and the enjoyment of brain teasers and philosophical are common of those who score high on this facet. Those who score lower are not necessarily less intelligent, nor does a high score imply high intelligence. However, those who score lower are more narrow in their interests and have low curiosity. Values High scorers are more investigative of political, social, and religious values. Those who score lower and more accepting of authority and honor more traditional values. High scorers are more typically liberal while lower scorers are more typically conservative. Agreeableness Trust High scores are more trusting of others and believe others are honest and have good intentions. Low scorers are more skeptical, cynical, and assumes others are dishonest and/or dangerous. Straightforwardness Those who score high in this facet are more sincere and frank. Low scorers are more deceitful and more willing to manipulate others, but this does not mean they should be labeled as a dishonest or manipulative person. Altruism High scores suggest a person concerned with the well-being of others and show it through generosity, willingness to help others, and volunteering for those less fortunate. Low scores suggest a more self-centered person who is less willing to go out of their way to help others. Compliance High scorers are more inclined to avoid conflict and tend to forgive easily. Low scores suggest a more aggressive personality and a love for competition. Modesty High scorers are more humble, but not necessarily lacking in self-esteem or confidence. Low scorers believe they're more superior than others and may come off as more conceited. Tender-Mindedness This facet scales one's concern for others and their ability to empathize. High scorers are more moved by others' emotions, while low scorers are more hardheaded and typically consider themselves realists. Conscientiousness Competence High scores suggest one is capable, sensible, prudent, effective, and are well-prepared to deal with whatever happens in life. Low scores suggest a potential lower self-esteem and are often unprepared. Order High scorers are more neat and tidy, while low scorers lack organization and are unmethodical. Dutifulness Those who score highly in this facet are more strict about their ethical principles and are more dependable. Low scorers are less reliable and are more casual about their morals. Achievement Striving Those who score highly in this facet have higher aspirations and work harder to achieve their goals. However, they may be too invested in their work and become a workaholic. Low scorers are much less ambitious and perhaps even lazy. They are often content with their lack of goal-seeking. Self-Discipline High scorers complete whatever task is assigned to them and are self-motivated. Low scorers often procrastinate and are easily discouraged. Deliberation High scorers tend to think more than low scorers before acting. High scorers are more cautious and deliberate while low scorers are more hasty and act without considering the consequences. HEXACO-PI The HEXACO-PI, developed by Lee and Ashton in the early 2000s, is a personality inventory used to measure six different dimensions of personality which have been found in lexical studies across various cultures. There are two versions of the HEXACO: the HEXACO-PI and the HEXACO-PI-R which are examined with either self reports or observer reports. The HEXACO-PI-R has forms of three lengths: 200 items, 100 items, and 60 items. Items from each form are grouped to measure scales of more narrow personality traits, which are them grouped into broad scales of the six dimensions: honesty & humility (H), emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C), and openness to experience (O).The HEXACO-PI-R includes various traits associated with neuroticism and can be used to help identify trait tendencies. One table which give examples of typically high loaded adjectives on the six factors of HEXACO can be found in Ashton's book "Individual Differences and Personality" One benefit of using the HEXACO is that of the facet of neuroticism within the factor of emotionality: trait neuroticism has been shown to have a moderate positive correlation with people with anxiety and depression. The identification of trait neuroticism on a scale, paired with anxiety, and/or depression is beneficial in a clinical setting for introductory screenings some personality disorders. Because the HEXACO has facets which help identify traits of neuroticism, it is also a helpful indicator of the dark triad. Temperament Assessment In contrast to personality, i.e. the concept that relates to culturally- and socially-influenced behaviour and cognition, the concept of temperament' refers to biologically and neurochemically-based individual differences in behaviour. Unlike personality, temperament is relatively independent of learning, system of values, national, religious and gender identity and attitudes. There are multiple tests for evaluation of temperament traits (reviewed, for example, in, majority of which were developed arbitrarily from opinions of early psychologists and psychiatrists but not from biological sciences. There are only two temperament tests that were based on neurochemical hypotheses: The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Trofimova’s Structure of Temperament Questionnaire-Compact (STQ-77). The STQ-77 is based on the neurochemical framework Functional Ensemble of Temperament that summarizes the contribution of main neurochemical (neurotransmitter, hormonal and opioid) systems to behavioural regulation. The STQ-77 assesses 12 temperament traits linked to the neurochemical components of the FET. The STQ-77 is freely available for non-commercial use in 24 languages for testing in adults and several language versions for testing children Pseudopsychology (pop psychology) in assessment Although there have been many great advancements in the field of psychological evaluation, some issues have also developed. One of the main problems in the field is pseudopsychology, also called pop psychology. Psychological evaluation is one of the biggest aspects in pop psychology. In a clinical setting, patients are not aware that they are not receiving correct psychological treatment, and that belief is one of the main foundations of pseudopsychology. It is largely based upon the testimonies of previous patients, the avoidance of peer review (a critical aspect of any science), and poorly set up tests, which can include confusing language or conditions that are left up to interpretation. Pseudopsychology can also occur when people claim to be psychologists, but lack qualifications. A prime example of this is found in quizzes that can lead to a variety of false conclusions. These can be found in magazines, online, or just about anywhere accessible to the public. They usually consist of a small number of questions designed to tell the participant things about themselves. These often have no research or evidence to back up any claims made by the quizzes. Ethics Concerns about privacy, cultural biases, tests that have not been validated, and inappropriate contexts have led groups such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the American Psychological Association (APA) to publish guidelines for examiners in regards to assessment. The American Psychological Association states that a client must give permission to release any of the information that may come from a psychologist. The only exceptions to this are in the case of minors, when the clients are a danger to themselves or others, or if they are applying for a job that requires this information. Also, the issue of privacy occurs during the assessment itself. The client has the right to say as much or little as they would like, however they may feel the need to say more than they want or even may accidentally reveal information they would like to keep private. Guidelines have been put in place to ensure the psychologist giving the assessments maintains a professional relationship with the client since their relationship can impact the outcomes of the assessment. The examiner's expectations may also influence the client's performance in the assessments. The validity and reliability of the tests being used also can affect the outcomes of the assessments being used. When psychologists are choosing which assessments they are going to use, they should pick one that will be most effective for what they are looking at. Also, it is important for the psychologists are aware of the possibility of the client, either consciously or unconsciously, faking answers and consider use of tests that have validity scales within them. See also Corresponding evaluations in related fields Neuropsychological assessment Neurological examination in neurology Mental state examination in psychiatry Physical examination in medicine Therapeutic assessment Notes References Further reading Psychiatric assessment Psychological testing

Foresight (psychology)

Foresight is the ability to predict, or the action of predicting, what will happen or what is needed in the future. Studies suggest that much of human thought is directed towards potential future events. Because of this, the nature and evolution of foresight is an important topic in psychology. Thinking about the future is studied under the label prospection. Neuroscientific, developmental, and cognitive studies have identified many similarities to the human ability to recall past episodes. Science magazine selected evidence for such similarities as one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2007. However, fundamental differences separate mentally travelling through time into the future (i.e., foresight) versus mentally travelling through time into the past (i.e., episodic memory). Uses Foresight has been classified as a behaviour (covert and/or overt) in management. Review, analysis, and synthesis of past definitions and usages of the foresight concept attempted to establish a generic definition, in order to make the concept measurable. Specifically, foresight has been defined as: "Degree of analyzing present contingencies and degree of moving the analysis of present contingencies across time, and degree of analyzing a desired future state or states a degree ahead in time with regard to contingencies under control, as well as degree of analyzing courses of action a degree ahead in time to arrive at the desired future state." Prediction markets Prediction markets are exchange-traded markets created for the purpose of trading on the possible outcomes of events. This information-revealing mechanism is credited to economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Prediction markets allow people to aggregate information and make predictions. See also References Cognitive psychology Management Prediction

Landmark Worldwide

Landmark Worldwide (known as Landmark Education before 2013), or simply Landmark, is an American employee-owned for-profit company that offers personal-development programs, with their most-known being the Landmark Forum. It is one of several Large Group Awareness Training programs. Several sociologists and scholars of religion have classified Landmark as a "new religious movement" (NRM), while others have called it a "self-religion," a "corporate religion," and a "religio-spiritual corporation". Landmark has sometimes been described a cult. Some religious experts dispute this claim, pointing out that Landmark does not meet some characteristics of cults, including being a religious organization, or having a central leader. Landmark has been criticized for the stress they put on participants while they try to convert them a new worldview and for its recruitment tactics: Landmark does not use advertising, but instead pressures participants during courses to recruit relatives and friends as new customers. As part of the Human Potential Movement, which was centered in San Francisco, Werner Erhard created and ran the est (Erhard Seminars Training) system from 1971 to 1984, which promoted the idea that individuals are empowered when they take personal responsibility for all events in their lives, both good and bad. In 1985, Erhard modified est to be gentler and more business oriented and renamed it the Landmark Forum. In 1991, he sold the company and its concepts to some of his employees, who incorporated it as Landmark Education Corporation, which was restructured into Landmark Education LLC in 2003, and then renamed Landmark Worldwide LLC in 2013. Its subsidiary, the Vanto Group, markets and delivers training and consulting to organizations. == History == In 1985, Werner Erhard (creator of the est training which ran from 1971 to 1984) renamed est to the Landmark Forum, and changed the content to be gentler and somewhat more business oriented. He promoted the idea that all events (good and bad) of an individual's life were their own making, and that individuals would be empowered when they take personal responsibility for all events in their lives, an idea based in the Human Potential Movement. Many individuals liked this belief, whether or not it is true, or simply works as a placebo. The Landmark Forum's niche was for people who did not have major psychological problems, but were nonetheless seeking self-improvement; these people constituted a very large part of society and were not served by the medical psychological establishment, which concentrated on those with mental illness. In 1991, Erhard sold the intellectual property rights associated with the Forum's concepts to some of his employees, (including his brother Harry Rosenberg who became CEO) who incorporated into "Landmark Education Corporation." Landmark paid Erhard $3 million as an initial licensing fee, with additional payments over the next 18 years not to exceed $15 million. The new company offered similar courses and employed many of the same staff. The Forum was reduced in length from four days to three, and its price is about 50% of the cost of the est courses. In 2001, Rosenberg stated that Landmark had completely purchased the licenses to all of Erhard's concepts and all divisions of the company. In 2003, Landmark Education Corporation was re-structured into Landmark Education LLC, and in 2013 it was renamed Landmark Worldwide LLC. Landmark Worldwide states that it operates as a for-profit company, whose employees own all the shares of the corporation. The company states that it invests its surpluses "into making its programs, initiatives, and services more widely available." The company reported in 2019 that more than 2.4 million people had participated in its programs since 1991. Landmark holds seminars in approximately 125 locations in more than 21 countries. Landmark's revenue surpassed $100 million in 2018, with profits of about $5 million. The organization has 500 employees, and about 7,500 volunteers, an unusually large number of volunteers for a for-profit company. Their use of volunteers prompted three separate investigations by the United States Department of Labor, which concluded without requiring Landmark to make any changes to their practices. Business consulting In 1993 Landmark started a subsidiary named Landmark Education Business Development (LEBD), (later renamed to the Vanto Group) which uses the Landmark methodology to provide consulting services to businesses and other organizations. LEBD became the Vanto Group in 2008. Controversial marketing practices Landmark does not use advertising to reach potential customers, but instead repeatedly pressures participants during their courses to recruit relatives, friends, and acquaintances as new clients. This complete reliance on word-of-mouth advertising to market its programs has been described by reporters variously as: "evangelical", having "a Ponzi taste," "a quasi-pyramid scheme," and including a "hard, hard sell." Accusations of being a cult Landmark has faced accusations of being a cult. Several commentators unrelated to Landmark have stated that because it has no single central leader, is a secular (non-religious) organization, and it tries to unite (and re-unite) participants with their family and friends (rather than isolate them) that it does not meet many of the characteristics of a cult. Landmark has threatened and pursued lawsuits against people who have called or labeled it such, including individuals (clinical psychology professor Margaret Singer), magazines (Elle, Self, and Now,) and organizations (Cult Awareness Network). After Singer wrote a book, Cults in Our Midst, in which she mentioned Landmark as a controversial New Age training course, Landmark sued Singer. The suit was resolved when Singer agreed to provide a sworn statement that Landmark is not a cult or sect. Singer stated that she would not recommend the group to anyone, and would not comment on whether Landmark used coercive persuasion for fear of legal recrimination from Landmark. In 1997, Landmark sued Cult Awareness Network (CAN) after they made statements alleging or implying that Landmark was a cult. That suit was resolved when CAN stated that it has no evidence that Landmark is a cult. In 2004, it was revealed that Landmark had paid French anti-cult expert Jean-Marie Abgrall to "audit" them. Landmark had been listed as a cult by the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France 1995 list of cults; displeased by their designation, they contacted Abgrall to have them removed from the list. Abgrall wrote a report on the organization arguing that they were not a cult, arguing that they were a "harmless organization", though did conclude by recognizing that the group may have had some warning signs. Following his report they were removed from the list, and Abgrall was paid by Landmark from the period of 2001 to 2002. Abgrall complained in 2004 when interviewed by Le Parisien that this had only been revealed to block his involvement in the ongoing Order of the Solar Temple cult trial, and that he had no conflict of interest as he "wrote an unfavorable report and paid my taxes." In June 2004, Landmark filed a 1 million dollar lawsuit against Rick Alan Ross's Cult Education Institute, alleging that postings on the institute's websites which characterized Landmark as a cultish organization that brainwashed their clients damaged Landmark's product. In December 2005, Landmark filed to dismiss its own lawsuit with prejudice, purportedly on the grounds of a material change in case law after the publication of an opinion in another case, Donato v. Moldow, regarding the Communications Decency Act of 1996, even though Ross wanted to continue the case in order to further investigate Landmark's educational materials and history of suing critics. Ross stated that he does not see Landmark as a cult because they have no individual leader, but he considers them harmful because subjects are harassed and intimidated, causing potentially unsafe levels of stress. Courses Many large companies and government agencies have paid for and encouraged their employees to take Landmark's classes. Andrew Cherng, the founder and co-CEO of Panda Express, has said that Landmark aided his company's success. He has strongly encouraged his employees and all managers to take Landmark's classes. Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon Athletica, is a follower of Landmark's principles, and has directed his companies to pay for employees to attend Landmark's classes. Some of Landmark's courses require participants to start a community project. Landmark Forum Landmark's entry course, the Landmark Forum, is the default first course for new participants and provides the foundation of all Landmark's other programs. The Landmark Forum takes place over three consecutive days plus an evening session (generally Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday evening.) The Forum is attended in a group varying in size between 75 and 250 people. Landmark arranges the course as a dialogue in which the Forum leader presents a series of proposals and encourages participants to take the floor to relate how those ideas apply to their own individual lives. Course leaders set up rules at the beginning of the program and Landmark strongly encourages participants not to miss any part of the program. Attendees are also urged to be "coachable" (open minded to the course's concepts) and not just be observers during the course. Various ideas are proposed for consideration and explored during the course. These include: There can be a big difference between the facts and events in a person's life and the meaning, interpretation, and significance the person gives to or makes up about those events. The course proposes that people frequently conflate facts with their own interpretations of what occurred and, as a result, create self-inflicted suffering and a loss of effectiveness in their lives. Meaning is a function of language, something people make up, rather than something intrinsic to life or occurrences. By articulating differently in a given context, people can alter the meaning they create and experience a greater degree of effectiveness in how they deal with events. In learning to perceive self-created meaning, people begin to see that assumptions they have made about who they are in life are actually shaped by limitations they have made up in response to past circumstances or events. This realization allows participants to articulate new meanings that are free of self-imposed constraints. The Forum goes on to train participants in actualizing these new possible meanings by sharing them with people in their lives. This creates a supportive social environment for achieving one's dreams and goals. The term "new possibilities" means something different from the common definition as something that may happen. Rather, the term refers to a here-and-now opportunity to be differently or take new action, free of constraints from the past. A person's behavior is often governed by a perceived need to look good and be right, and people are often unaware of how their behaviors are shaped by these needs. When people have persistent complaints that are accompanied by unproductive fixed ways of being and acting, During the course, participants are encouraged to call friends and family members with whom they feel they have unresolved tensions, and to take responsibility for their own behavior. The evening session follows closely on the three consecutive days of the course and completes the Landmark Forum. During this final session, the participants share information about their results and bring guests to learn about the Forum. A 2011 Time article stated that "Landmark has been criticized for delving into the traumas of largely unscreened participants without having mental-health professionals on hand." Reception Scholars Sociologist Eileen Barker and sociologist of religion James A. Beckford both classified Landmark and its predecessor organization est as a "new religious movement" (NRM). Some scholars have categorized Landmark or its predecessor organizations as a "self religion" or a (broadly defined) new religious movement (NRM). Others question some aspects of these characterizations. Renee Lockwood, a sociology of religion researcher at The University of Sydney described Landmark as a "corporate religion" and a "religio-spiritual corporation" because of its emphasis on teaching techniques for improvement in personal and employee productivity, which is marketed to businesses as well as government agencies. Sociologist of religion Thomas Robbins says that Landmark could be considered an NRM. George Chryssides, a researcher on NRMs and cults said: "est and Landmark may have some of the attributes typically associated with religion, but it is doubtful whether they should be accorded full status as religious organizations." Stephen A. Kent, professor of Sociology and an expert in new religious movements, stated in 2014 that Landmark's business is "to teach people that the values they have held up until now have held them back; that indeed they need a new set of values and this group [Landmark] can provide those new sets of values ... I don't know of any academic research that verifies that kind of perspective" and while some individuals feel "cleansed" or "invigorated" by Landmark's training, others may feel violated by the pressure put on them to reveal their innermost secrets to strangers during Landmark's training sessions. Landmark maintains that it is an educational foundation and denies being a religious movement. Large Group Awareness Training study In 1985, a group of psychology researchers studied participants of the Forum, (a Large Group Awareness Training course) and compared their outcomes to a control group of non attendees. They published their results in the book Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training. They found that participants had a short-term increase in internal locus of control (the belief that one can control their life), but found no long-term positive or negative effects on individuals' self-perception. Reporters In his review of the Landmark Forum, New York Times humorist Henry Alford wrote that he "resented the pressure" placed on him during a session, but sardonically noted that "two months after the Forum, I'd rate my success at 84 percent." Time reporter Nathan Thornburgh, in his review of The Landmark Forum, said "At its heart, the course was a withering series of scripted reality checks meant to show us how we have created nearly everything we see as a problem" and "I benefited tremendously from the uncomfortable mirror the course had put in front of me." Amber Allinson, writing in The Mayfair Magazine describes Landmark's instructors as "enthusiastic and inspiring". Her review says that after doing The Landmark Forum, "Work worries, relationship dramas all seem more manageable", and that she "let go of almost three decades of hurt, anger and feelings of betrayal" towards her father. Journalist Amelia Hill with The Observer witnessed a Landmark Forum and concluded that, in her view, it is not religious or a cult. Hill wrote, "It is ... simple common sense delivered in an environment of startling intensity." Reporter Laura McClure with Mother Jones attended a three and a half-day forum, which she described as "My lost weekend with the trademark happy, bathroom-break hating, slightly spooky inheritors of est." Heidi Beedle, writing for the Colorado Springs Independent in 2019 said that "The tangible benefits of Landmark's courses may seem hard to pin down" though community projects do seem to be one, and "One thing is certain: Landmark is a program that is incredibly successful at making people feel good about Landmark." France 3 documentary In 2004, the French channel France 3 aired a television documentary on Landmark in their investigative series Pièces à Conviction. The episode, called "Voyage Au Pays des Nouveaux Gourous" ("Journey to the land of the new gurus") was highly critical of its subject. Shot in large part with a hidden camera, it showed attendance at a Landmark course and a visit to Landmark offices. In addition, the program included interviews with former course participants, anti-cultists, and commentators. Landmark left France following the airing of the episode and a subsequent site visit by labor inspectors that noted the activities of volunteers, and sued Jean-Pierre Brard in 2004 following his appearance in the documentary. The episode was uploaded to a variety of websites, and in October 2006 Landmark issued subpoenas pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Google Video, YouTube, and the Internet Archive demanding details of the identity of the person(s) who had uploaded those copies. These organizations challenged the subpoenas and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) became involved, planning to file a motion to quash Landmark's DMCA subpoena to Google Video. Landmark eventually withdrew its subpoenas. In popular culture In "The Plan," the third episode of the second season of the American drama television series Six Feet Under, est and The Forum are parodied. See also Applied Ontology List of large-group awareness training organizations Lifespring Mind Dynamics Footnotes References Books * Journals Web sources News articles * Further reading Logan, David C. (1998). Transforming the Network of Conversations in BHP New Zealand Steel: Landmark Education Business Development's New Paradigm for Organizational Change (Case 1984-01). USC Marshall School of Business. External links 1991 establishments in California Companies based in San Francisco Education companies established in 1991 Employee-owned companies of the United States Werner Erhard Large-group awareness training Self religions Training companies of the United States

Affordance

In psychology, affordance is what the environment offers the individual. In design, affordance has a narrower meaning; it refers to possible actions that an actor can readily perceive. American psychologist James J. Gibson coined the term in his 1966 book, The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems, and it occurs in many of his earlier essays. His best-known definition is from his 1979 book, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception: The word is used in a variety of fields: perceptual psychology; cognitive psychology; environmental psychology; criminology; industrial design; human–computer interaction (HCI); interaction design; user-centered design; communication studies; instructional design; science, technology, and society (STS); sports science; and artificial intelligence. Original development Gibson developed the concept of affordance over many years, culminating in his final book, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception in 1979. He defined an affordance as what the environment provides or furnishes the animal. Notably, Gibson compares an affordance with an ecological niche emphasizing the way niches characterize how an animal lives in its environment. The key to understanding affordance is that it is relational and characterizes the suitability of the environment to the observer, and so, depends on their current intentions and their capabilities. For instance, a set of steps which rises high does not afford climbing to the crawling infant, yet might provide rest to a tired adult or the opportunity to move to another floor for an adult who wished to reach an alternative destination. This notion of intention/needs is critical to an understanding of affordance, as it explains how the same aspect of the environment can provide different affordances to different people, and even to the same individual at another point in time. As Gibson puts it, “Needs control the perception of affordances (selective attention) and also initiate acts.” Affordances were further studied by Eleanor J. Gibson, wife of James J. Gibson, who created her theory of perceptual learning around this concept. Her book, An Ecological Approach to Perceptual Learning and Development, explores affordances further. Gibson's is the prevalent definition in cognitive psychology. According to Gibson, humans tend to alter and modify their environment so as to change its affordances to better suit them. In his view, humans change the environment to make it easier to live in (even if making it harder for other animals to live in it): to keep warm, to see at night, to rear children, and to move around. This tendency to change the environment is natural to humans, and Gibson argues that it is a mistake to treat the social world apart from the material world or the tools apart from the natural environment. He points out that manufacturing was originally done by hand as a kind of manipulation. Gibson argues that learning to perceive an affordance is an essential part of socialization. The theory of affordances introduces a "value-rich ecological object". Affordances cannot be described within the value-neutral language of physics, but rather introduces notions of benefits and injuries to someone. An affordance captures this beneficial/injurious aspect of objects and relates them to the animal for whom they are well/ill-suited. During childhood development, a child learns to perceive not only the affordances for the self, but also how those same objects furnish similar affordances to another. A child can be introduced to the conventional meaning of an object by manipulating which objects command attention and demonstrating how to use the object through performing its central function. By learning how to use an artifact, a child “enters into the shared practices of society” as when they learn to use a toilet or brush their teeth. And so, by learning the affordances, or conventional meaning of an artifact, children learn the artifact's social world and further, become a member of that world. Anderson, Yamagishi and Karavia (2002) found that merely looking at an object primes the human brain to perform the action the object affords. As perceived action possibilities In 1988, Donald Norman appropriated the term affordances in the context of Human–Computer Interaction to refer to just those action possibilities that are readily perceivable by an actor. This new definition of "action possibilities" has now become synonymous with Gibson's work, although Gibson himself never made any reference to action possibilities in any of his writing. Through Norman's book The Design of Everyday Things, this interpretation was popularized within the fields of HCI, interaction design, and user-centered design. It makes the concept dependent not only on the physical capabilities of an actor, but also on their goals, beliefs, and past experiences. If an actor steps into a room containing an armchair and a softball, Gibson's original definition of affordances allows that the actor may throw the chair and sit on the ball, because this is objectively possible. Norman's definition of (perceived) affordances captures the likelihood that the actor will sit on the armchair and throw the softball. Effectively, Norman's affordances "suggest" how an object may be interacted with. For example, the size, shape, and weight of a softball make it perfect for throwing by humans, and it matches their past experience with similar objects, as does the shape and perceptible function of an armchair for sitting. The focus on perceived affordances is much more pertinent to practical design problems , which may explain its widespread adoption. Norman later explained that this restriction of the term's meaning had been unintended, and in his 2013 update of The Design of Everyday Things, he added the concept "signifiers". In the digital age, designers were learning how to indicate what actions were possible on a smartphone's touchscreen, which didn't have the physical properties that Norman intended to describe when he used the word "affordances". However, the definition from his original book has been widely adopted in HCI and interaction design, and both meanings are now commonly used in these fields. Following Norman's adaptation of the concept, affordance has seen a further shift in meaning where it is used as an uncountable noun, referring to the easy discoverability of an object or system's action possibilities, as in "this button has good affordance". This in turn has given rise to use of the verb afford – from which Gibson's original term was derived – that is not consistent with its dictionary definition (to provide or make available): designers and those in the field of HCI often use afford as meaning "to suggest" or "to invite". The different interpretations of affordances, although closely related, can be a source of confusion in writing and conversation if the intended meaning is not made explicit and if the word is not used consistently. Even authoritative textbooks can be inconsistent in their use of the term. When affordances are used to describe information and communications technology (ICT) an analogy is created with everyday objects with their attendant features and functions. Yet, ICT's features and functions derive from the product classifications of its developers and designers. This approach emphasizes an artifact’s convention to be wholly located in how it was designed to be used. In contrast, affordance theory draws attention to the fit of the technology to the activity of the user and so lends itself to studying how ICTs may be appropriated by users or even misused. One meta-analysis reviewed the evidence from a number of surveys about the extent to which the Internet is transforming or enhancing community. The studies showed that the internet is used for connectivity locally as well as globally, although the nature of its use varies in different countries. It found that internet use is adding on to other forms of communication, rather than replacing them. Mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances Jenny L. Davis introduced the mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances in a 2016 article and 2020 book. The mechanisms and conditions framework shifts the orienting question from what technologies afford to how technologies afford, for whom and under what circumstances? This framework deals with the problem of binary application and presumed universal subjects in affordance analyses. The mechanisms of affordance indicate that technologies can variously request, demand, encourage, discourage, refuse, and allow social action, conditioned on users' perception, dexterity, and cultural and institutional legitimacy in relation to the technological object. This framework adds specificity to affordances, focuses attention on relationality, and centralizes the role of values, politics, and power in affordance theory. The mechanisms and conditions framework is a tool of both socio-technical analysis and socially aware design. Three categories William Gaver divided affordances into three categories: perceptible, hidden, and false. A false affordance is an apparent affordance that does not have any real function, meaning that the actor perceives possibilities for action that are nonexistent. A good example of a false affordance is a placebo button. Affordance is said to be hidden when there are possibilities for action, but these are not perceived by the actor. For example, it is not apparent from looking at a shoe that it could be used to open a wine bottle, but such a feat is possible by placing the bottle into the shoe and tapping it repeatedly against a wall until the cork starts to be pushed out. Affordance is said to be perceptible when there is information available such that the actor perceives and can then act upon the existing affordance. This means that, when affordances are perceptible, they offer a direct link between perception and action, and, when affordances are hidden or false, they can lead to mistakes and misunderstandings. Affordance in robotics Problems in robotics indicate that affordance is not only a theoretical concept from psychology. In object grasping and manipulation, robots need to learn the affordance of objects in the environment, i.e., to learn from visual perception and experience (a) whether objects can be manipulated, (b) to learn how to grasp an object, and (c) to learn how to manipulate objects to reach a particular goal. As an example, the hammer can be grasped, in principle, with many hand poses and approach strategies, but there is a limited set of effective contact points and their associated optimal grip for performing the goal. Fire safety In the context of fire safety, affordances are the perceived and actual properties of objects and spaces that suggest how they can be used during an emergency. For instance, well-designed signage, clear pathways, and accessible exits afford quick evacuation. By understanding and applying affordance principles, designers can create environments that intuitively guide occupants towards safety, reduce evacuation time, and minimize the risk of injury during a fire. Incorporating affordance-based design in building layouts, emergency equipment placement, and evacuation procedures ensures that users can effectively interact with their surroundings under stressful conditions, ultimately improving overall fire safety. This theory has been applied to select best design for several evacuation systems using data from physical experiments and virtual reality experiments. Affordances in language education Based on Gibson’s conceptualization of affordances as both the good and bad that the environment offers animals, affordances in language learning are both the opportunities and challenges that learners perceive of their environment when learning a language. Affordances, which are both learning opportunities or inhibitions, arise from the semiotic budget of the learning environment, which allows language to evolve. Positive affordances, or learning opportunities, are only effective in developing learner's language when they perceive and actively interact with their surroundings. Negative affordances, on the other hand, are crucial in exposing the learners’ weaknesses for teachers, and the learners themselves, to address their moment-to-moment needs in their learning process. See also Action-specific perception Activity theory Adaptive unconscious Ambient optic array Default effect Embodied cognition Enactivism Form follows function Phenomenology Postcognitivism Usability References Further reading External links A series of slides concerning theories of vision and (incidentally) the role of affordances and some interesting optical illusions concerning affordances Action (philosophy) Perception Psychological theories

Scholarly method

The scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars and academics to make their claims about their subjects of expertise as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public. It comprises the methods that systemically advance the teaching, research, and practice of a scholarly or academic field of study through rigorous inquiry. Scholarship is creative, can be documented, can be replicated or elaborated, and can be and is peer reviewed through various methods. The scholarly method includes the subcategories of the scientific method, with which scientists bolster their claims, and the historical method, with which historians verify their claims. Methods The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians research primary sources and other evidence, and then write history. The question of the nature, and indeed the possibility, of sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history, as a question of epistemology. History guidelines commonly used by historians in their work require external criticism, internal criticism, and synthesis. The empirical method is generally taken to mean the collection of data on which to base a hypothesis or derive a conclusion in science. It is part of the scientific method, but is often mistakenly assumed to be synonymous with other methods. The empirical method is not sharply defined and is often contrasted with the precision of experiments, where data emerges from the systematic manipulation of variables. The experimental method investigates causal relationships among variables. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences. An experiment can be used to help solve practical problems and to support or negate theoretical assumptions. The scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. See also Academia Academic authorship Academic publishing Discipline (academia) Doctor (title) Ethics Historical revisionism History of scholarship Manual of style Professor Source criticism Urtext edition Wissenschaft References Academia Methodology

Heterogeneous condition

A medical condition is termed heterogeneous, or a heterogeneous disease, if it has several etiologies (root causes); as opposed to homogeneous conditions, which have the same root cause for all patients in a given group. Examples of heterogeneous conditions are hepatitis and diabetes. Heterogeneity is not unusual, as medical conditions are usually defined pathologically (i.e. based on the state of the patient), as in "liver inflammation", or clinically (i.e. based on the apparent symptoms of the patient), as in "excessive urination", rather than etiologically (i.e. based on the underlying cause of the symptoms). Heterogeneous conditions are often divided into endotypes based on etiology. Where necessary to determine appropriate treatment differential diagnosis procedures are employed. Endotype An endotype is a subtype of a condition, which is defined by a distinct functional or pathobiological mechanism. This is distinct from a phenotype, which is any observable characteristic or trait of a disease, such as morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, or behavior, without any implication of a mechanism. It is envisaged that patients with a specific endotype present themselves within phenotypic clusters of diseases. One example is asthma, which is considered to be a syndrome, consisting of a series of endotypes. This is related to the concept of disease entity Heterogeneity in medical conditions The term medical condition is a nosological broad term that includes all diseases, disorders, injuries and syndromes, and it is specially suitable in the last case, in which it is not possible to speak about a single disease associated to the clinical course of the patient. While the term medical condition generally includes mental illnesses, in some contexts the term is used specifically to denote any illness, injury, or disease except for mental illnesses. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the widely used psychiatric manual that defines all mental disorders, uses the term general medical condition to refer to all diseases, illnesses, and injuries except for mental disorders. This usage is also commonly seen in the psychiatric literature. Some health insurance policies also define a medical condition as any illness, injury, or disease except for psychiatric illnesses. As it is more value-neutral than terms like disease, the term medical condition is sometimes preferred by people with health issues that they do not consider deleterious. It is also preferred when etiology is not unique, because the word disease is normally associated to the cause of the clinical problems. On the other hand, by emphasizing the medical nature of the condition, this term is sometimes rejected, such as by proponents of the autism rights movement. The term is also used in specialized areas of medicine. A genetic or allelic heterogeneous condition is one where the same disease or condition can be caused, or contributed to, by varying different genes or alleles. In clinical trials and statistics the concepts of homogeneous and heterogeneous populations is important. The same applies for epidemiology See also Endotype, each one of the etiological subclasses of a given heterogeneous condition. References Diseases and disorders

Three Principles Psychology

Three Principles Psychology (TPP), previously known as Health Realization (HR), is a resiliency approach to personal and community psychology first developed in the 1980s by Roger C. Mills and George Pransky, who were influenced by the teachings of philosopher and author Sydney Banks. The approach first gained recognition for its application in economically and socially marginalized communities experiencing high levels of stress. (see Community Applications below). The foundational concepts of TPP are the Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, which were originally articulated by Sydney Banks in the early 1970s. Banks, a Scottish welder with a ninth-grade education who lived in British Columbia, Canada, provided the philosophical basis for TPP, emphasizing how these principles underlie all human psychological experiences. The core of TPP lies in the understanding that an individual's psychological experience is shaped by their thought processes. TPP teaches that by recognizing the role of Thought in shaping one's experience, individuals can transform their responses to situations. This transformation is achieved by accessing what TPP refers to as "innate health" and "inner wisdom." TPP is also known by other names, including Psychology of Mind, Neo-cognitive Psychology, Innate Health, the Inside-Out Understanding and colloquially, the 3Ps. Discovery of the Three Principles According to verbal accounts provided by Banks in his recorded lectures, he realised the Three Principles during a marriage seminar on Cortes Island, British Columbia, Canada in 1973. As they were preparing to depart, Banks engaged in a conversation with a therapist who was also attending the seminar. At the time, Banks described himself as "an insecure mess" and began listing the various ways in which he felt insecure. The therapist responded, "I've never heard such nonsense in all my life. You're not insecure, Syd; you just think you are." This statement profoundly impacted Banks. He realized that insecurity was not a real, inherent condition but merely a product of his thoughts. Reflecting on the experience, Banks described it as a revelatory moment: What I heard was: there's no such thing as insecurity, it's only Thought. All my insecurity was only my own thoughts! It was like a bomb going off in my head … It was so enlightening! It was unbelievable … [And after that,] there was such beauty coming into my life. The specific terms "Mind," "Consciousness," and "Thought" were not immediately clear to Banks during this initial experience. Over time, through his talks and lectures, these terms became more clearly defined, and Banks referred to them collectively as the "psychological trinity." Banks, who passed away from metastatic cancer in May 2009, challenged many traditional notions and practices of psychotherapy. He asserted that mental well-being does not require processing the past or analyzing the content of personal thought systems. Everyone in mental institutions is sitting in the middle of mental health and they don't know it. Banks was also against using techniques or developing concepts to convey his understanding to others. Three Principles Psychology model In Three Principles Psychology (TPP), all psychological phenomena—from severe disorders to optimal mental health—are understood as manifestations of three operative "principles" first articulated by Sydney Banks as the basis of human experience and feeling states.: Mind - The energy and intelligence that animates all life, both in its physical form and in the formless. The Universal Mind, often referred to as "wisdom" or the "impersonal" mind, is constant and unchanging, acting as the source of innate health and well-being. In contrast, the personal mind is in a continuous state of flux. Consciousness - The capacity to be aware of one's life and experiences. Consciousness is the gift of awareness that enables the recognition of form, with form being an expression of Thought. Thought - The ability to think, which allows individuals to create their personal experience of reality. Thought is a divine gift, not self-created, that is present from birth. It serves as the creative agent through which individuals navigate and direct their lives. In the TPP model, "Mind" is often compared to the electricity powering a movie projector, while "Thought" is likened to the images on the film. "Consciousness" is analogous to the light from the projector that casts the images onto the screen, making them appear real. According to TPP, individuals experience reality and their circumstances through the continual filter of their thoughts. Consciousness gives this filtered reality the appearance of being "the way it really is," leading people to react to it as if it were absolute truth. However, when their thinking changes, their perception of reality shifts, and their reactions change accordingly. Thus, TPP posits that people are constantly creating their own experience of reality through their thoughts. Also according to TPP, people tend to perceive their reality as stressful when they are engaged in insecure or negative thoughts. However, TPP suggests that these thoughts do not need to be taken seriously. By choosing to take such thoughts more lightly, the mind can quiet down, allowing positive feelings to emerge naturally. TPP teaches that everyone has an inherent capacity for health and well-being, referred to as "innate health," which surfaces when troubled thinking subsides. When this occurs, individuals also gain access to common sense and can tap into a universal capacity for creative problem-solving, known as "inner wisdom." Both peer-reviewed and anecdotal evidence indicates that when someone deeply understands the principles behind TPP, they may experience a profound sense of emotional freedom and well-being. Three Principles Psychology as therapy In contrast to psychotherapies that focus on the content of the clients' dysfunctional thinking, TPP focuses on "innate health" and the role of "Mind, Consciousness and Thought" in creating the clients' experience of life. The TPP counselor does not suggest to clients that they attempt to change their thoughts, "think positive", or "reframe" negative thoughts to positive ones. According to TPP, one's ability to control one's thoughts is limited and the effort to do so can itself be a source of stress. Instead, clients are encouraged to consider that their "minds are using thought continuously to determine their subjective, personal reality in each moment." In the TPP model, feelings and emotions are seen as indicators of the quality of one's thinking. Unpleasant or stressful emotions, suggest that an individual's thinking is influenced by insecurity, negative beliefs, conditioning, or learned patterns that may be irrelevant to, and thereby distort, the present moment. These emotions also indicate a temporary lapse in recognizing one's role in shaping their own experience. Conversely, pleasant emotions—such as well-being, gratitude, compassion, or peace—indicate that one's thinking is aligned with what TPP considers optimal for the current situation. TPP holds that the therapeutic "working through" of personal issues from the past to achieve wholeness is unnecessary. According to the TPP model, people are already whole and healthy. The traumas of the past are only important to the extent that the individual lets them influence his or her thoughts in the present. According to TPP, one's "issues" and memories are simply thoughts, and the individual can react to them or not. The more clients recognize that they are creating their own painful feelings through their "power of Thought," the less these feelings tend to bother them.. Sedgeman compares this to making scary faces in the mirror: because we know it's just us, it's impossible to scare ourselves that way. Thus TPP addresses personal insecurities and dysfunctional patterns en masse, aiming for an understanding of the "key role of thought", an understanding that ideally allows the individual to step free at once from a large number of different patterns all connected by insecure thinking. With this approach, it is rare for the practitioner to delve into specific content When specific thoughts are recognized as limiting or based on insecurity or conditioning, they often come with an uncomfortable feeling. The counselor points out that this understanding activates the body's homeostatic system, which naturally prefers feeling good over feeling bad. As a result, the individual has the capacity to let go of these thoughts if they choose to. Relationships From the perspective of TPP, relationship problems stem from a low awareness of each partner's role in creating their own experience through thought and consciousness. Partners who embrace TPP reportedly stop blaming and recriminating, leading to a different way of interacting. TPP counselors encourage couples to recognize that their feelings are not determined by their partner, and that most issues that previously disrupted their relationship were based on insecure, negative, and conditioned thinking. Counselors also emphasize that everyone experiences emotional ups and downs, and that thinking during a "down" mood is likely to be distorted. TPP teaches that it is generally counterproductive to "talk through" relationship problems when partners are in a bad mood. Instead, TPP suggests waiting until both have calmed down and can discuss things from a place of inner comfort and security. Chemical dependency and addiction TPP views chemical dependency and related behaviors as a response to a lack of self-efficacy, rather than the result of disease.According to TPP, individuals who are "unaware" of their own "innate health" and their role in creating stress through their thoughts may turn to alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behaviors in an attempt to quell their stressful feelings and regain a temporary sense of control. TPP seeks to provide deeper relief by demonstrating that negative and stressful feelings are self-generated and can be self-quieted, offering a pathway to well-being that does not rely on external circumstances or substances. Application Over the past forty years, Sydney Banks' "insight" has been applied in a wide range of settings, including hospitals, correctional institutions, social services, individual and couples therapy, community housing, drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programmes, schools and multi-national corporations. The Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought have gained global recognition and are now implemented in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Israel, Czech Republic, Russia, Scotland, England, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. Community applications The Three Principles Psychology (TPP) model has been applied in a variety of challenging settings. An early project, which garnered national publicity under the leadership of Roger Mills, introduced TPP (then known as Health Realization (HR) to residents of two low-income housing developments in Miami known as Modello and Homestead Gardens. After three years, there were major documented reductions in crime, illegal drug trade, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, child neglect, school absenteeism, unemployment, and families on public assistance. Jack Pransky has chronicled the transformations that unfolded in his book Modello, A Story of Hope for the Inner City and Beyond. Later projects in some of the most violence-affected housing developments in New York, Minnesota, and California, as well as in other communities in California, Hawaii, and Colorado, expanded on the foundational work done in Modello and Homestead Gardens. The Coliseum Gardens housing complex in Oakland, California, once had the fourth highest homicide rate among similar complexes in the U.S. However, after the introduction of HR classes, the homicide rate began to decrease significantly. Gang warfare and ethnic clashes between Cambodian and African-American youth ceased. In 1997, Sargeant Jerry Williams was awarded the California Wellness Foundation Peace Prize on behalf of the Health Realization Community Empowerment Project at Coliseum Gardens. By the year 2006, there had been no homicides in the Complex for nine straight years. The TPP model has also found application in police departments, prisons, mental health clinics, community health clinics and nursing, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, services for the homeless, schools, and a variety of state and local government programs. The County of Santa Clara, California, for example, has established a Health Realization Services Division which provides HR training to County employees and the public. The Services Division "seeks to enhance the life of the individual by teaching the understanding of the psychological principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought, and how these principles function to create our life experience... enabling them to live healthier and more productive lives so that the community becomes a model of health and wellness." The Department of Alcohol and Drug Services introduced HR in Santa Clara County in 1994. The Health Realization Services Division has an approved budget of over $800,000 (gross expenditure) for FY 2008, a 41% increase over 2007, at a time when a number of programs within the Alcohol and Drug Services Department have sustained budget cuts. HR (TPP) community projects have received grant funding from a variety of sources. For example, grant partners for the Visitacion Valley Community Resiliency Project, a five-year, multimillion-dollar community revitalization project, have included Wells Fargo Bank, Charles Schwab Corporation Foundation, Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Isabel Allende Foundation, Pottruck Family Foundation, McKesson Foundation, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, S.H. Cowell Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, Milagro Foundation, and Dresdner RCM Global Investors. Other projects based upon the HR (TPP) approach have been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the California Wellness Foundation, and the Shinnyo-en Foundation. Ongoing community projects organized by the Center for Sustainable Change, a non-profit organization founded by Dr. Roger Mills and Ami Chen Mills-Naim, are funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Center for Sustainable Change works in partnership with grassroots organizations in Des Moines, Iowa; Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Mississippi Delta to bring Three Principles training to at-risk communities under the umbrella of the National Community Resiliency Project. The center also works with schools, agencies and corporations. Organizational applications In the course of their exposure to Health Realization (HR), or the foundational concept referred to as Three Principles Psychology, individuals within the business realm have incorporated these principles into their respective professional domains. This assimilation has manifested as a discernible trend wherein practitioners, having grasped the core tenets, integrate and apply these ideas within their organizational contexts. The approach has been introduced to people in medicine, law, investment and financial services, technology, marketing, manufacturing, publishing, and a variety of other commercial and financial roles. It has been reported anecdotally to have had significant impact in the areas of individual performance and development, teamwork, leadership, change and diversity. According to HR/Three Principles adherents, these results flow naturally as the individuals exposed to the ideas learn how their thoughts have been creating barriers to others and barriers to their own innate creativity, common sense, and well-being. As people learn how to access their full potential more consistently, HR adherents say, they get better results with less effort and less stress in less time. Two peer-reviewed articles on effectiveness with leadership development were published in professional journals in 2008 (ADHR) and 2009 (ODJ). See "Organizations and Business" section below (Polsfuss & Ardichvili). Philosophical context The Three Principles rests on the non-academic philosophy of Sydney Banks, which Mr. Banks has expounded upon in several books. Mr. Banks was a day laborer with no education beyond ninth grade (age 14) in Scotland who, in 1973, reportedly had a profound insight into the nature of human experience. Mr. Banks does not particularly attempt to position his ideas within the larger traditions of philosophy or religion; he is neither academically trained nor well read. His philosophy focuses on the illusory, thought-created nature of reality, the Three Principles of "Mind", "Thought", and "Consciousness", the potential relief of human suffering that can come from a fundamental shift in personal awareness and understanding and the importance of a direct, experiential grasp of these matters, as opposed to a mere intellectual comprehension or analysis. Mr. Banks suggests that his philosophy is best understood not intellectually but by "listening for a positive feeling;" and a grasp of the Three Principles is said to come through a series of "insights," that is, shifts in experiential understanding. Teaching of The Three Principles Three Principles Psychology (TPP), much like Sydney Banks's philosophy, is not presented as a collection of 'techniques.' Instead, it's an experiential 'understanding' that transcends the mere transfer of information. There are no steps, no uniformly appropriate internal attitudes, and no techniques within it. The "health of the helper" is considered crucial; that is, trainers or counselors ideally will "live in the understanding that allows them to enjoy life," and thereby continuously model their understanding of TPP by staying calm and relaxed, not taking things personally, assuming the potential in others, displaying common sense, and listening respectfully to all. Facilitators ideally teach in the moment, from "what they know" (e.g. their own experience), trusting that they will find the right words to say and the right approach to use in the immediate situation to stimulate the students' understanding of the "Three Principles". Rapport with students and a positive mood in the session or class are more important than the specific content of the facilitator's presentation. Evaluations of Health Realization A 2007 peer-reviewed article evaluating the effectiveness of HR suggests that the results of residential substance abuse treatment structured around the teaching of HR are equivalent to those of treatment structured around 12-step programs. The authors note that "these results are consistent with the general findings in the substance abuse literature, which suggests that treatment generally yields benefits, irrespective of approach." A small peer-reviewed study in preparation for a planned larger study evaluated the teaching of HR/Innate Health via a one-and-a-half-day seminar, as a stress and anxiety reduction intervention for HIV-positive patients. All but one of the eight volunteer participants in the study showed improved scores on the Brief Symptom Inventory after the seminar, and those participants who scored in the "psychiatric outpatient" range at the beginning of the seminar all showed improvement that was sustained upon follow-up one month later. The study's authors concluded that "The HR/IH psychoeducational approach deserves further study as a brief intervention for stress-reduction in HIV-positive patients." A 2007 pilot study funded by the National Institutes of Health evaluated HR in lowering stress among Somali and Oromo refugee women who had experienced violence and torture in their homelands, but for whom Western-style psychotherapeutic treatment of trauma was not culturally appropriate. The pilot study showed that "the use of HR with refugee trauma survivors was feasible, culturally acceptable, and relevant to the participants." In a post-intervention focus group, "many women reported using new strategies to calm down, quiet their minds and make healthier decisions." Co-investigator Cheryl Robertson, Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota, was quoted as saying, "This is a promising intervention that doesn't involve the use of highly trained personnel. And it can be done in the community." The Visitacion Valley Community Resiliency Project (VVCRP) was reviewed by an independent evaluator hired by the Pottruck Foundation. Her final report notes that "Early program evaluation...found that the VVCRP was successful in reducing individuals’ feelings of depression and isolation, and increasing their sense of happiness and self-control. The cumulative evaluation research conducted on the VVCRP and the HR model in general concludes that HR is a powerful tool for changing individuals’ beliefs and behaviors." In the Summary of Case Studies, the report goes on to state, "The VVCRP was effective over a period of five years of sustained involvement in two major neighborhood institutions... at influencing not just individuals, but also organizational policies, practices, and culture. This level of organizational influence is impressive when the relatively modest level of VVCRP staff time and resources invested into making these changes is taken into account. The pivotal levers of change at each organization were individual leaders who were moved by the HR principles to make major changes in their own beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, and then took the initiative to inspire, enable, and mandate similar changes within their organizations. This method of reaching "critical mass" of HR awareness within these organizations appears to be both efficient and effective when the leadership conditions are right. However, this pathway to change is vulnerable to the loss of the key individual leader." Research efforts on effectiveness Pransky has reviewed the research on HR (through 2001) in relation to its results for prevention and education, citing 20 manuscripts, most of which were conference papers, and none peer-reviewed journal articles, although two were unpublished doctoral dissertations. (Kelley (2003) cites two more unpublished doctoral dissertations.) Pransky concludes, "Every study of Health Realization and its various incarnations, however weak or strong the design, has shown a decrease in problem behaviors and internally experienced problems. This approach appears to reduce problem behaviors and to improve mental health and well-being. At the very least, this suggests the field of prevention should further examine the efficacy of this... approach by conducting independent, rigorous, controlled, longitudinal studies." Practitioners of the Three Principles believe that feeling states (and all experience) are created (through mental activity i.e., thought). Scientific research by Lisa Feldman Barrett supports this notion that mental states (i.e. emotions) are indeed constructed from within the human mind. Practitioners believe that beyond each person's limited, conscious, and personal thought system lies a vast reservoir of wisdom, insight and spiritual intelligence. No one person has greater access to wisdom than any other. Mental health is the resting state, or "default" setting of the mind, which brings with it non-contingent feelings of love, compassion, resilience, creativity and unity, both with others and with life itself. Research by George Bonnano, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University, supports this notion that resilience, not recovery, is a common response to difficult life events such as trauma and loss. Criticism In a criticism of the philosophy of Sydney Banks and, by implication, the HR approach, Bonelle Strickling, a psychotherapist and Professor of Philosophy, is quoted in an article in the Vancouver Sun as objecting that "it makes it appear as if people can, through straightforward positive thinking, 'choose' to transcend their troubled upbringings and begin leading a contented life." She goes on to say that, "it can be depressing for people to hear it's supposed to be that easy. It hasn't been my experience that people can simply choose not to be negatively influenced by their past." Referring to Banks's own experience, she says, "Most people are not blessed with such a life-changing experience.... When most people change, it usually happens in a much more gradual way." The West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health (at West Virginia University Health Sciences Center), which promotes HR/Innate Health and the philosophy of Sydney Banks through teaching, writing, and research, was the center of controversy soon after its inception in 2000 as the Sydney Banks Institute for Innate Health. Initiated by Robert M. D'Alessandri, the Dean of the medical school there, the institute was reportedly criticized as pushing "junk science," and Banks's philosophy was characterized as "a kind of bastardized Buddhism" and "New Age." William Post, an orthopedic surgeon who quit the medical school because of the institute, was reported, along with other unnamed professors, to have accused the Sydney Banks Institute of promoting religion in a state-funded institution. Harvey Silvergate, a civil-liberties lawyer, was quoted as agreeing that "essentially [the institute] seems like a cover for a religious-type belief system which has been prettified in order to be secular and even scientific.” A Dr. Blaha, who resigned as chairman of Orthopedics at WVU, was quoted as criticizing the institute as being part of a culture at the Health Sciences Center that, in his view, places too much emphasis on agreement, consensus, and getting along. Other professors reportedly supported the institute. In contrast, Anthony DiBartolomeo, chief of the rheumatology section, was quoted as calling it, "a valuable addition" to the health-sciences center, saying its greatest value was in helping students, residents, and patients deal with stress. Reportedly in response to the controversy, the WVIIH changed its name from The Sydney Banks Institute to the West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health, although its mission remains unchanged. Support for specific tenets of TPP from other philosophies and approaches Some of the tenets of TPP are consistent with the theories of philosophers, authors and researchers independently developing other approaches to change and psychotherapy. A large body of peer-reviewed case literature in psychotherapy by Milton Erickson, M.D., founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and others working in the field of Ericksonian psychotherapy, supports the notion that lasting change in psychotherapy can occur rapidly without directly addressing clients' past problematic experiences. Many case examples, and a modest body of controlled outcome research in solution focused brief therapy (SFBT), have likewise supported the notion that change in psychotherapy can occur rapidly, without delving into the clients' past negative experiences. Proponents of SFBT suggest that such change often occurs when the therapist assists clients to step out of their usual problem-oriented thinking. The philosophy of social constructionism, which is echoed in SFBT, asserts that reality is reproduced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. (Likewise, TPP asserts that our experience of the world is shaped by thought.) A major body of peer-reviewed research on "focusing", a change process developed by philosopher Eugene Gendlin, supports the theory that progress in psychotherapy is dependent on something clients do inside themselves during pauses in the therapy process, and that a particular internal activity "focusing" can be taught to help clients improve their progress. The first step of the six-step process used to teach focusing involves setting aside one's current worries and concerns to create a "cleared space" for effective inner reflection. Gendlin has called this first step by itself "a superior stress-reduction method". (Correspondingly, TPP emphasizes the importance of quieting one's insecure and negative thinking to reduce stress and gain access to "inner wisdom," "common sense," and well-being.) Positive psychology emphasizes the human capacity for health and well-being, asserts the poor correlation between social circumstances and individual happiness, and insists on the importance of one's thinking in determining one's feelings. Work by Herbert Benson argues that humans have an innate 'breakout principle' providing creative solutions and peak experiences, which allow the restoration of a 'new-normal' state of higher functioning. This breakout principle is activated by severing connections with current circular or repetitive thinking. This is heavily reminiscent of Health Realization discussion of the Principle of Mind and how it is activated. Finally, resilience research, such as that by Emmy Werner, has demonstrated that many high-risk children display resilience and develop into normal, happy adults despite problematic developmental histories. See also National Resilience Resource Center LLC additional discussion of resilience research and complementary science found on the Research page at http://www.nationalresilienceresource.com . See also Psychoneuroimmunology References Further reading Community applications S.G. Wartel, A Strengths-Based Practice Model: Psychology of Mind and Health Realization, Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, pp. 185 – 191, 84(2) 2003; Center for Sustainable Change, Awakening the Beloved Community: Report on Year 2 of the National Community Resiliency Project, 2010. Available online PDF version C. L. Robertson, L. Halcon, S. J. Hoffman, N. Osman, A. Mohamed, E. Areba, K. Savik, & M. A. Mathiason. Health Realization Community Coping Intervention for Somali Refugee Women. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 21, 2019, pp. 1077–1084. L. L. Halcón, C. L. Robertson, K. A. Monson, & C. C. Claypatch A Theoretical Framework for Using Health Realization to Reduce Stress and Improve Coping in Refugee Communities. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 25(3), 2007, pp. 186–194. R.C. Mills and E. Spittle, The Health Realization Primer, Lone Pine Publishing. 2003. , J. Pransky, Modello: A Story of Hope for the Inner City and Beyond: An Inside-Out Model of Prevention and Resiliency in Action through Health Realization, NEHRI Publications 1998. , Thomas M. Kelley, William F. Pettit Jr., Judith A. Sedgeman & Jack B. Pransky (2021), Psychiatry's pursuit of euthymia: another wild goose chase or an opportunity for principle-based facilitation?, International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 25:4, 333–335, Books S. Banks, Dear Liza, Lone Pine Publishing 2004. , S. Banks, The Enlightened Gardener, Lone Pine Publishing 2001. , S. Banks, The Enlightened Gardener Revisited, Lone Pine Publishing 2006. , S. Banks, In Quest of the Pearl, Duvall-Bibb Publishing 1989. , S. Banks, The Missing Link: Reflections on Philosophy and Spirit, Lone Pine Publishing 1998. , S. Banks, Second Chance, Duvall-Bibb Publishing 1983. , M. Neill, The Inside-Out Revolution, Hay House Inc, 2013, , J. Bailey, Slowing Down to the Speed of Love, McGraw-Hill, 2004. , R. Carlson, You Can be Happy No Matter What, 2nd ed., New World Library 1997. , R. Carlson and J. Bailey, Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, HarperSanFrancisco 1998. , T.M. Kelley, Falling in Love with Life, Bookman 2004. , R.C. Mills, Realizing Mental Health: Toward a new Psychology of Resiliency, Sulberger & Graham Publishing, Ltd. 1995. R.C. Mills and E. Spittle, The Wisdom Within, Lone Pine Publishing. 2001. , J. Pransky, Somebody Should Have Told Us, Airleaf Publishing 2006. , E. Spittle, Wisdom for Life, Lone Pine Publishing. 2005. , Organizations and business R.C. Kausen, We've Got to Start Meeting Like This, Life Education 2003. , R.C. Kausen, Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed, Life Education 1989. , C.L. Polsfuss & A.Ardichvili, "Three Principles Psychology: Applications in Leadership Development & Coaching", Advances in Developing Human Resources Journal, 2008; 10; 671 . Online article at: http://adh.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/5/671. C.L. Polsfuss & A.Ardichvili, "State of Mind as the Master Competency for High-Performance Leadership", Organizational Development Journal, Volume 27, Number 3, Fall 2009. Parenting J. Pransky, Parenting from the Heart: A Guide to the Essence of Parenting, Authorhouse 2001 , Prevention J. Pransky, Prevention from the Inside Out, Authorhouse 2003. , J. Pransky and L. Carpenos, Healthy Feeling/Thinking/Doing from the Inside Out: A Middle School Curriculum and Guide for the Prevention of Violence and Other Problem Behaviors, SaferSocietyPress 2000. , K. Marshall, Resilience in our Schools: Discovering Mental Health and Hope from the Inside-Out. in Persistently Safe Schools 2005: The National Conference of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence. Retrieved on October 31, 2007. Recovery/substance abuse J. Bailey, The Serenity Principle: Finding Inner Peace in Recovery, HarperSanFrancisco, 1990. , Relationships G. Pransky, The Relationship Handbook, Pransky and Associates, 2001. , Youth A. Chen Mills-Naim, The Spark Inside: A Special Book for Youth, Lone Pine Publishing. 2005. , T.M.Kelley, A critique of social bonding and control theory of delinquency using the principles of psychology, Adolescence Vol. 31 Issue 122, 1996, pp. 321–38. T. M. Kelley, Health Realization: A Principle-Based Psychology of Positive Youth Development, Child & Youth Care Forum, Vol. 32, Issue 1, 2003, pp. 47–72. T.M. Kelley, Positive Psychology and Adolescent Mental Health: False Promise or True Breakthrough? Adolescence, June 22, 2004 T.M. Kelley, & S.A. Stack, Thought Recognition, Locus of Control, and Adolescent Well-being, Adolescence, Vol. 35 Issue 139, 2000, pp. 531–51. Audio Attitude! — CD Great Spirit, The — CD & Audio Cassette Hawaii Lectures - 2-CD set In Quest of the Pearl — CD Long Beach Lectures - 2-CD set One Thought Away — CD (CD-Audio) Second Chance — CD & Audio Cassette Washington Lectures - CD What is Truth? — CD & Audio Cassette Video Hawaii Lecture #1 - Secret to the Mind — DVD Hawaii Lecture #2 - Oneness of Life — DVD & VHS Hawaii Lecture #3 - The Power of Thought — DVD & VHS Hawaii Lecture #4 - Going Home — DVD & VHS Long Beach Lecture #1 - The Great Illusion — DVD Long Beach Lecture #2 - Truth Lies Within — DVD & VHS Long Beach Lecture #3 - The Experience — DVD & VHS Long Beach Lecture #4 - Jumping the Boundaries of Time — DVD & VHS Long Beach Lectures - 4 video set — VHS External links Sydney Banks Orchestrating Your Thoughts Coaching from the Inside Out Michael Neill George Pransky Center for Sustainable Change One Thought Psychology

Gross anatomy

Gross anatomy is the study of anatomy at the visible or macroscopic level. The counterpart to gross anatomy is the field of histology, which studies microscopic anatomy. Gross anatomy of the human body or other animals seeks to understand the relationship between components of an organism in order to gain a greater appreciation of the roles of those components and their relationships in maintaining the functions of life. The study of gross anatomy can be performed on deceased organisms using dissection or on living organisms using medical imaging. Education in the gross anatomy of humans is included training for most health professionals. Techniques of study Gross anatomy is studied using both invasive and noninvasive methods with the goal of obtaining information about the macroscopic structure and organisation of organs and organ systems. Among the most common methods of study is dissection, in which the corpse of an animal or a human cadaver is surgically opened and its organs studied. Endoscopy, in which a video camera-equipped instrument is inserted through a small incision in the subject, may be used to explore the internal organs and other structures of living animals. The anatomy of the circulatory system in a living animal may be studied noninvasively via angiography, a technique in which blood vessels are visualised after being injected with an opaque dye. Other means of study include radiological techniques of imaging, such as X-ray and MRI. In medical and healthcare professional education Most health profession schools, such as medical, physician assistant, and dental schools, require that students complete a practical (dissection) course in gross human anatomy. Such courses aim to educate students in basic human anatomy and seek to establish anatomical landmarks that may later be used to aid medical diagnosis. Many schools provide students with cadavers for investigation by dissection, aided by dissection manuals, as well as cadaveric atlases (e.g. Netter's, Rohen's). Working intimately with a cadaver during a gross anatomy course has been shown to capture the essence of the patient-provider relationship. However, the expense of maintaining cadaveric dissection facilities has limited the time and resources available for gross anatomy teaching in many medical schools, with some adopting alternative prosection-based or simulated teaching. This, coupled with decreasing time dedicated to gross anatomical courses within the growing greater medical school curriculum, has caused controversy surrounding the sufficiency of anatomical teaching with nearly half of newly qualified doctors believing they received insufficient anatomy teaching. Medical schools have implemented on-screen anatomical lessons and tutorials to teach students surgical procedures. The use of technological visual aids and gross dissection are more effective together than either approach alone. Recently, online flashcards and quizzes have been used as well. See also Anatomy Histology Human anatomy References Anatomy

Implicit stereotype

An implicit bias or implicit stereotype is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Implicit stereotypes are thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned associations between particular qualities and social categories, including race and/or gender. Individuals' perceptions and behaviors can be influenced by the implicit stereotypes they hold, even if they are sometimes unaware they hold such stereotypes. Implicit bias is an aspect of implicit social cognition: the phenomenon that perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes can operate prior to conscious intention or endorsement. The existence of implicit bias is supported by a variety of scientific articles in psychological literature. Implicit stereotype was first defined by psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald in 1995. Explicit stereotypes, by contrast, are consciously endorsed, intentional, and sometimes controllable thoughts and beliefs. Implicit biases, however, are thought to be the product of associations learned through past experiences. Implicit biases can be activated by the environment and operate prior to a person's intentional, conscious endorsement. Implicit bias can persist even when an individual rejects the bias explicitly. Bias, attitude, stereotype and prejudice Attitudes, stereotypes, prejudices, and bias are all examples of psychological constructs. Psychological constructs are mental associations that can influence a person's behavior and feelings toward an individual or group. If the person is unaware of these mental associations the stereotypes, prejudices, or bias is said to be implicit. Bias is defined as prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Bias can be seen as the overarching definition of stereotype and prejudice, because it is how we associate traits (usually negative) to a specific group of people. Our “implicit attitudes reflect constant exposure to stereotypical portrayals of members of, and items in, all kinds of different categories: racial groups, professions, women, nationalities, members of the LGBTQ community, disabilities, moral and political values, etc.” An attitude is an evaluative judgment of an object, a person, or a social group. An attitude is held by or characterizes a person. Implicit attitudes are evaluations that occur without conscious awareness towards an attitude object or the self. A stereotype is the association of a person or a social group with a consistent set of traits. This may include both positive and negative traits, such as African Americans are great at sports or African Americans are more violent than any other race in the United States. There are many types of stereotypes that exists: racial, cultural, gender, group (i.e. college students), all being very explicit in the lives of many people. Prejudice is defined as unfair negative attitude toward a social group or a member of that group. Prejudices can stem from many of the things that people observe in a different social group that include, but are not limited to, gender, sex, race/ethnicity, or religion. This is pertinent to stereotypes because a stereotype can influence the way people feel toward another group, hence prejudice. Methods for investigation There is a clear challenge in measuring the degree to which someone is biased. There are two different forms of bias: implicit and explicit. The two forms of bias are, however, connected. “Explicit bias encompasses our conscious attitudes which can be measured by self-report, but pose the potential of individuals falsely endorsing more socially desirable attitudes. Although implicit biases have been considered unconscious and involuntary attitudes which lie below the surface of consciousness, some people seem to be aware of their influence on their behavior and cognitive processes. The implicit-association test (IAT) is one validated tool used to measure implicit bias. The IAT requires participants to rapidly pair two social groups with either positive or negative attributes.” Implicit-association test The implicit-association test (IAT) alleges to predict prejudice an individual has toward different social groups. The test claims to do this by capturing the differences in the time it takes respondent to choose between two unassociated but related topics. Respondents are instructed to click one of two computer keys to categorize stimuli into associated categories. When the categories appear consistent to the respondent, the time taken to categorize the stimuli will be less than when the categories seem inconsistent. An implicit association is said to exist when respondents take longer to respond to a category-inconsistent pairing than a category-consistent pairing. The implicit-association test is used in psychology for a wide array of topics. These fields include gender, race, science, career, weight, sexuality, and disability. While acclaimed and highly influential, the implicit-association test falls short of a strong scientific consensus. Critics of the implicit-association test cite studies that counterintuitively link biased test scores with less discriminatory behavior. Studies have also asserted that the implicit-association test fails to measure unconscious thought. Go/no-go association task (GNAT) The GNAT is similar to the implicit-association test. Although the IAT reveals differential associations of two target concepts (e.g. male-female and weak-strong), the GNAT reveals associations within one concept (for example, whether female is associated more strongly with weak or strong). Participants are presented with word pairs among distractors. Participants are instructed to indicate "go" if the words are target pairs, or "no-go" if they are not. For example, participants may be instructed to indicate "go" if the word pairs are female names and words that are related to strength. Then, participants are instructed to indicate "go" if the word pairs are female names and words that are related to weakness. This method relies on signal detection theory; participants' accuracy rates reveal endorsement of the implicit stereotype. For example, if participants are more accurate for female-weak pairs than for female-strong pairs, this suggests the subject more strongly associates weakness with females than strength. Semantic priming and lexical decision task Semantic priming measures the association between two concepts. In a lexical decision task, subjects are presented with pair of words, and asked to indicate whether the pair are words (for example, "butter") or non-words (for example, "tubter"). The theory behind semantic priming is that subjects are quicker to respond to a word if preceded by a word related to it in meaning (e.g. bread-butter vs. bread-dog). In other words, the word "bread" primes other words related in meaning, including butter. Psychologists utilize semantic priming to reveal implicit associations between stereotypic-congruent words. For instance, participants may be asked to indicate whether pronouns are male or female. These pronouns are either preceded by professions that are predominantly female ("secretary, nurse"), or male ("mechanic, doctor"). Reaction times reveal strength of association between professions and gender. Sentence completion In a sentence completion task, subjects may be presented with sentences that contain stereotypic black and white names (Jerome, Adam), positive and negative stereotypic black behaviors (easily made the team, blasted loud music in his car) and counter-stereotypic behaviors (got a job at Microsoft, refused to dance). Subjects are asked to add to the end of a sentence in any way that is grammatical, e.g. "Jerome got an A on his test..." could be completed with "because it was easy" (stereotypic-congruent) or "because he studied for months" (stereotypic-incongruent) or "and then he went out to celebrate" (non-explanatory). This task is used to measure stereotypic explanatory bias (SEB): participants have a larger SEB if they give more explanations for stereotype-congruent sentences than stereotype–incongruent sentences, and if they give more stereotypic-congruent explanations. Differences between measures The Implicit Association Test (IAT), sequential priming, and other implicit bias tests, are mechanisms for determining how susceptible we are to stereotypes. They are widely used in Social Psychology, although measuring response time to a question as a good measure of implicit biases is still up for debate. “Some theorists do question the interpretation of the scores from tests such as the IAT, but the debate is still going on and responses to the criticisms are certainly widespread.” In qualitative market research, researchers have described a framework called bias testing to mitigate researcher bias when designing survey questions. It involves empirically testing the survey questions with real-life respondents using interviewer moderated or technology-enabled unmoderated techniques. Findings Gender bias Gender biases are the stereotypical attitudes or prejudices that we have towards specific genders. "The concept of gender also refers to the constantly ongoing social construction of what is considered 'feminine' and 'masculine' and is based on power and sociocultural norms about women and men." Gender biases are the ways in which we judge men and women based on their hegemonically feminine and masculine assigned traits. The category of male has been found to be associated with traits of strength and achievement. Both male and female subjects associate male category members more strongly than female category members with words like bold, mighty, and power. The strength of this association is not predicted by explicit beliefs, such as responses on a gender stereotype questionnaire (for example, one question asked if subjects endorsed the word feminist). In a test to reveal the false fame effect, non famous male names are more likely to be falsely identified as famous than non famous female names; this is evidence for an implicit stereotype of male achievement. Females are more associated with weakness. This is true for both male and female subjects, but female subjects only show this association when the weak words are positive, such as fine, flower and gentle; female subjects do not show this pattern when the weak words are negative, such as feeble, frail, and scrawny. Particular professions are implicitly associated with genders. Elementary school teachers are implicitly stereotyped to be female, and engineers are stereotyped to be male. Gender bias in science and engineering Implicit-association tests reveal an implicit association for male with science and math, and females with arts and language. Girls as young as nine years old have been found to hold an implicit male-math stereotype and an implicit preference for language over math. Women have stronger negative associations with math than men do, and the stronger females associate with a female gender identity, the more implicit negativity they have towards math. For both men and women, the strength of these implicit stereotypes predicts both implicit and explicit math attitudes, belief in one's math ability, and SAT performance. The strength of these implicit stereotypes in elementary-aged girls predicts academic self-concepts, academic achievement, and enrollment preferences, even more than do explicit measures. Women with a stronger implicit gender-math stereotype were less likely to pursue a math-related career, regardless of their actual math ability or explicit gender-math stereotypes. This may be because women with stronger implicit gender-math stereotypes are more at risk for stereotype threat. Thus, women with strong implicit stereotypes perform much worse on a math test when primed with gender than women who have weak implicit stereotypes. Though the number of women pursuing and earning degrees in engineering has increased in the last 20 years, women are below men at all degree levels in all fields of engineering. These implicit gender stereotypes are robust; in a study of more than 500,000 respondents from 34 nations, more than 70% of individuals held this implicit stereotype. The national strength of the implicit stereotype is related to national sex differences among 8th graders on the International TIMSS, a worldwide math &science standardized achievement exam. This effect is present even after statistically controlling for gender inequality in general. Additionally, for women across cultures, studies have shown individual differences in strength of this implicit stereotype is associated with interest, participation and performance in sciences. Extending to the professional world, implicit biases and subsequent explicit attitudes toward women can "negatively affect the education, hiring, promotion, and retention of women in STEM". The effects of such implicit biases can be seen in across multiple studies including: Parents rate the math abilities of their daughters lower than parents with sons who perform identically well in school College faculty are less likely to respond to inquiries about research opportunities if the email appears to be from a woman as opposed to an identical email from a man Science faculty are less likely to hire or mentor students they believe are women as opposed to men An interagency report from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Personnel Management has investigated systemic barriers including implicit biases that have traditionally inhibited particularly women and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and makes recommendations for reducing the impact of bias. Research has shown that implicit bias training may improve attitudes towards women in STEM. Racial bias Racial bias can be used synonymously with "stereotyping and prejudice" because "it allows for the inclusion of both positive and negative evaluations related to perceptions of race." We begin to create racial biases towards other groups of people starting as young as age 3, creating an ingroup and outgroup view on members of various races, usually starting with skin color. In lexical decision tasks, after subjects are subliminally primed with the word BLACK, they are quicker to react to words consistent with black stereotypes, such as athletic, musical, poor and promiscuous. When subjects are subliminally primed with WHITE, they are quicker to react to white stereotypes, such as intelligent, ambitious, uptight and greedy. These tendencies are sometimes, but not always, associated with explicit stereotypes. People may also hold an implicit stereotype that associates black category members as violent. People primed with words like ghetto, slavery and jazz were more likely to interpret a character in a vignette as hostile. However, this finding is controversial; because the character's race was not specified, it is suggested that the procedure primed the race-unspecified concept of hostility, and did not necessarily represent stereotypes. An implicit stereotype of violent black men may associate black men with weapons. In a video game where subjects were supposed to shoot men with weapons and not shoot men with ordinary objects, subjects were more likely to shoot a black man with an ordinary object than a white man with an ordinary object. This tendency was related to subjects' implicit attitudes toward black people. Similar results were found in a priming task; subjects who saw a black face immediately before either a weapon or an ordinary object more quickly and accurately identified the image as a weapon than when it was preceded by a white face. Implicit race stereotypes affect behaviors and perceptions. When choosing between pairs of questions to ask a black interviewee, one of which is congruent with racial stereotype, people with a high stereotypic explanatory bias (SEB) are more likely to ask the racially congruent stereotype question. In a related study, subjects with a high SEB rated a black individual more negatively in an unstructured laboratory interaction. In-group and out-group bias Group prototypes define social groups through a collection of attributes that define both what representative group members have in common and what distinguishes the ingroup from relevant outgroups. In-group favoritism, sometimes known as in-group–out-group bias, in-group bias, or intergroup bias, is a pattern of favoring members of one's in-group over out-group members. This can be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways. Implicit in-group preferences emerge very early in life, even in children as young as six years old. In-group bias wherein people who are 'one of us' (i.e., our ingroup) are favored compared to those in the outgroup, meaning those who differ from ourselves. Ingroup favoritism is associated with feelings of trust and positive regard for ingroup members and surfaces often on measures of implicit bias. This categorization (ingroup vs. outgroup) is often automatic and pre-conscious. The reasons for having in-group and out-group bias could be explained by ethnocentrism, social categorization, oxytocin, etc. A research paper done by Carsten De Dreu reviewed that oxytocin enables the development of trust, specifically towards individuals with similar characteristics—categorized as 'in-group' members—promoting cooperation with and favoritism towards such individuals. People who report that they have strong needs for simplifying their environments also show more ingroup favoritism. The tendency to categorize into ingroups and outgroups and resulting ingroup favoritism is likely a universal aspect of human beings. We generally tend to hold implicit biases that favor our own ingroup, though research has shown that we can still hold implicit biases against our ingroup. The most prominent example of negative affect towards an ingroup was recorded in 1939 by Kenneth and Mamie Clark using their now famous “Dolls Test”. In this test, African American children were asked to pick their favorite doll from a choice of otherwise identical black and white dolls. A high percentage of these African American children indicated a preference for the white dolls. Social identity theory and Freudian theorists explain in-group derogation as the result of a negative self-image, which they believe is then extended to the group. Other stereotypes Research on implicit stereotypes primarily focuses on gender and race. However, other topics, such as age, weight, and profession, have been investigated. IATs have revealed implicit stereotypes reflecting explicit stereotypes about adolescents. The results from these tests claim that adolescents are more likely to be associated with words like trendy and defiant than adults. In addition, one IAT study revealed that older adults had a higher preference for younger adults compared to older adults; and younger adults had a lower implicit preference for younger adults compared to older adults. The study also found that women and participants with more education had lower implicit preference for younger adults. IATs have also revealed implicit stereotypes on the relationship between obese individuals and low work performance. Words like lazy and incompetent are more associated with images of obese individuals than images of thin ones. This association is stronger for thin subjects than overweight ones. Like explicit stereotypes, implicit stereotypes may contain both positive and negative traits. This can be seen in examples of occupational implicit stereotypes where people perceive preschool teachers as both warm and incompetent, while lawyers are judged as both cold and competent. Activation of implicit stereotypes Implicit stereotypes are activated by environmental and situational factors. These associations develop over the course of a lifetime beginning at a very early age through exposure to direct and indirect messages. In addition to early life experiences, the media and news programming are often-cited origins of implicit associations. In the laboratory, implicit stereotypes are activated by priming. When subjects are primed with dependence by unscrambling words such as dependent, cooperative, and passive, they judge a target female as more dependent. When subjects are primed with aggression with words like aggressive, confident, argumentative, they judge a target male as more aggressive. The fact that females and words such as dependent, cooperative, and passive and males and words like aggressive, confident, argumentative are thought to be associated together suggest an implicit gender stereotype. Stereotypes are also activated by a subliminal prime. To exemplify, white subjects exposed to subliminal words that consist of a black stereotype (ghetto, slavery, jazz) interpret a target male as more hostile, consistent with the implicit stereotype of hostile black man. However, this finding is controversial because the character's race is not specified. Instead, it is suggested that the procedure primed the race-unspecified concept of hostility, and did not necessarily represent stereotypes. By getting to know people who differ from oneself on a real, personal level, one can begin to build new associations about the groups those individuals represent and break down existing implicit associations. Malleability of implicit stereotypes Implicit stereotypes can, at least temporarily, be reduced or increased. Most methods have been found to reduce implicit bias temporarily, and are largely based on context. Some evidence suggests that implicit bias can be reduced long-term, but it may require education and consistent effort. Some implicit bias training techniques designed to counteract implicit bias are stereotype replacement, counter-stereotypic imaging, individuation, perspective taking, and increasing opportunities for contact. Stereotype replacement is when one replaces a stereotypical response with a non-stereotypical response. Counter-stereotypic imagining is when one imagines others in a positive light and replace stereotypes with positive examples. Individuation is when one focuses on specific details of a certain member of a group to avoid over-generalizing. Perspective taking is when one takes the perspective of a member of a marginalized group. Increasing opportunities for contact is when one actively seeks out opportunities to engage in interactions with members of marginalized groups. Self and social motives The activation of implicit stereotypes may be decreased when the individual is motivated to promote a positive self-image, either to oneself or to others in a social setting. There are two parts to this: internal and external motivation. Internal motivation is when an individual wants to be careful of what they say, and external motivation is when an individual has a desire to respond in a politically correct way. Positive feedback from a black person decreases stereotypic sentence completion, while negative feedback from a black person increases it. Subjects also reveal lesser strength of race stereotypes when they feel others disagree with the stereotypes. Motivated self-regulation does not immediately reduce implicit bias. It raises awareness of discrepancies when biases stand in the way of personal beliefs. Promote counterstereotypes Implicit stereotypes can be reduced by exposure to counterstereotypes. Reading biographies of females in leadership roles (such as Meg Whitman, the CEO of eBay) increases females' associations between female names and words like leader, determined, and ambitious in a gender stereotype IAT. Attending a women's college (where students are presumably more often exposed to women in leadership positions) reduces associations between leadership and males after one year of schooling. Merely imagining a strong woman reduces implicit association between females and weakness, and imagining storybook princesses increases the implicit association between females and weakness. Focus of attention Diverting a participant's focus of attention can reduce implicit stereotypes. Generally, female primes facilitate reaction time to stereotypical female traits when participants are instructed to indicate whether the prime is animate. When participants instead are instructed to indicate whether a white dot is present on the prime, this diverts their focus of attention from the primes' feminine features. This successfully weakens the strength of the prime and thus weakening the strength of gender stereotypes. Configuration of stimulus cues Whether stereotypes are activated depends on the context. When presented with an image of a Chinese woman, Chinese stereotypes were stronger after seeing her use chopsticks, and female stereotypes were stronger after seeing her put on makeup. Characteristics of individual category members Stereotype activation may be stronger for some category members than for others. People express weaker gender stereotypes with unfamiliar than familiar names. Judgments and gut reactions that go along with implicit biases are based on how familiar something is. Criticism Some social psychology research has indicated that individuating information (giving someone any information about an individual group member other than category information) may eliminate the effects of stereotype bias. Meta-analyses Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Harvard, and the University of Virginia examined 426 studies over 20 years involving 72,063 participants that used the IAT and other similar tests. They concluded two things: The correlation between implicit bias and discriminatory behavior appears weaker than previously thought. There is little evidence that changes in implicit bias correlate with changes in a person's behavior. In a 2013 meta-analysis, Hart, Blanton, et al. declared that, despite its frequent misrepresentation as a proxy for the unconscious, "the IAT provides little insight into who will discriminate against whom, and provides no more insight than explicit measures of bias." News outlets Heather Mac Donald, writing in The Wall Street Journal, noted that: Few academic ideas have been as eagerly absorbed into public discourse lately as “implicit bias.” Embraced by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and most of the press, implicit bias has spawned a multimillion-dollar consulting industry, along with a movement to remove the concept of individual agency from the law. Yet its scientific basis is crumbling. Mac Donald suggests there is still a political and economic drive to use the implicit bias paradigm as a political lever and to profit off entities that want to avoid litigation. Psychometric concerns Edouard Machery has argued that “the use of [indirect measures like the implicit association test] is deeply problematic” because the tests do not exhibit the psychometric properties we would expect from measures of "attitudes". However, many have already admitted that these indirect tests "assess behavior" rather than attitudes. This is an example of how the debate about implicit bias can involve "talking past one another" based on "different expectations of indirect measures", views of (what) implicit bias (is), assumptions about which evidence is relevant, thresholds for scientific significance, psychometric standards, and even norms of science communication. So evaluating debates about tests of implicit bias requires one to pay careful attention to debators' background assumptions and whether (or how well) debators' justify those assumptions. Statement by original authors Where previously Greenwald and Banaji asserted in their book BlindSpot (2013). Given the relatively small proportion of people who are overtly prejudiced and how clearly it is established that automatic race preference predicts discrimination, it is reasonable to conclude not only that implicit bias is a cause of Black disadvantage but also that it plausibly plays a greater role than does explicit bias. The evidence presented by their peer researchers led them to concede in correspondence that: The IAT does not predict biased behaviour(in laboratory settings) It is "problematic to use [the IAT] to classify persons as likely to engage in discrimination". However, they also stated, "Regardless of inclusion policy, both meta-analyses estimated aggregate correlational effect sizes that were large enough to explain discriminatory impacts that are societally significant either because they can affect many people simultaneously or because they can repeatedly affect single persons." See also Stereotypes Implicit cognition Stereotype threat Implicit attitude Alief (mental state) Unconscious bias training Systemic bias Cognitive bias Intergroup relations References External links Project implicit Take Implicit Association Tests to reveal your own implicit attitudes and stereotypes, as well as contribute to the research as a participant. Li Chen, Shuyu Zeng, Rui He; Negative Emotions Can Interfere with the Inhibitory Effect of Proactive Control on Implicit Stereotypes North American Academic Research, 4(4)53-69, April 2021 Cognitive biases Stereotypes Ethnic and racial stereotypes Gender-related stereotypes Unconscious

Theories about religion

Sociological, psychological, and anthropological theories about religion generally attempt to explain the origin and function of religion. These theories define what they present as universal characteristics of religious belief and practice. History From presocratic times, ancient authors advanced prescientific theories about religion. Herodotus (484–425 BCE) saw the gods of Greece as the same as the gods of Egypt. Euhemerus (about 330–264 BCE) regarded gods as excellent historical persons whom admirers eventually came to worship. Scientific theories, inferred and tested by the comparative method, emerged after data from tribes and peoples all over the world became available in the 18th and 19th centuries. Max Müller (1823–1900) has the reputation of having founded the scientific study of religion; he advocated a comparative method that developed into comparative religion. Subsequently, Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) and others questioned the validity of abstracting a general theory of all religions. Classification Theories of religion can be classified into: Substantive (or essentialist) theories that focus on the contents of religions and the meaning the contents have for people. This approach asserts that people have faith because beliefs make sense insofar as they hold value and are comprehensible. The theories by Tylor and Frazer (focusing on the explanatory value of religion for its adherents), by Rudolf Otto (focusing on the importance of religious experience, more specifically experiences that are both fascinating and terrifying) and by Mircea Eliade (focusing on the longing for otherworldly perfection, the quest for meaning, and the search for patterns in mythology in various religions) offer examples of substantive theories. Functional theories that focus on the social or psychological functions that religion has for a group or a person. In simple terms, the functional approach sees religion as "performing certain functions for society" Theories by Karl Marx (role of religion in capitalist and pre-capitalist societies), Sigmund Freud (psychological origin of religious beliefs), Émile Durkheim (social function of religions), and the theory by Stark and Bainbridge exemplify functional theories. This approach tends to be static, with the exception of Marx' theory, and unlike e.g. Weber's approach, which treats of the interaction and dynamic processes between religions and the rest of societies. Social relational theories of religion that focus on the nature or social form of the beliefs and practices. Here, Charles Taylor's book The Secular Age is exemplary, as is the work of Clifford Geertz. The approach is expressed in Paul James's argument that religion is a "relatively bounded system of beliefs, symbols and practices that addresses the nature of existence through communion with others and Otherness, lived as both taking in and spiritually transcending socially grounded ontologies of time, space, embodiment and knowing". This avoids the dichotomy between the immanent and transcendental. Other dichotomies according to which theories or descriptions of religions can be classified include: "insider" versus "outsider" perspectives (roughly corresponding to emic versus etic descriptions) individualist versus social views evolutionist versus relativist views Methodologies Early essentialists, such as Tylor and Frazer, looked for similar beliefs and practices in all societies, especially the more primitive ones, more or less regardless of time and place. They relied heavily on reports made by missionaries, discoverers, and colonial civil servants. These were all investigators who had a religious background themselves, thus they looked at religion from the inside. Typically they did not practice investigative field work, but used the accidental reports of others. This method left them open to criticism for lack of universality, which many freely admitted. The theories could be updated, however, by considering new reports, which Robert Ranulph Marett (1866–1943) did for Tylor's theory of the evolution of religion. Field workers deliberately sent out by universities and other institutions to collect specific cultural data made available a much greater database than random reports. For example, the anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1902–1973) preferred detailed ethnographical study of tribal religion as more reliable. He criticised the work of his predecessors, Müller, Tylor, and Durkheim, as untestable speculation. He called them "armchair anthropologists". A second methodology, functionalism, seeks explanations of religion that are outside of religion; i.e., the theorists are generally (but not necessarily) atheists or agnostics themselves. As did the essentialists, the functionalists proceeded from reports to investigative studies. Their fundamental assumptions, however, are quite different; notably, they apply methodological naturalism. When explaining religion they reject divine or supernatural explanations for the status or origins of religions because they are not scientifically testable. In fact, theorists such as Marett (an Anglican) excluded scientific results altogether, defining religion as the domain of the unpredictable and unexplainable; that is, comparative religion is the rational (and scientific) study of the irrational. The dichotomy between the two classifications is not bridgeable, even though they have the same methods, because each excludes the data of the other. The functionalists and some of the later essentialists (among others E. E. Evans-Pritchard) have criticized the substantive view as neglecting social aspects of religion. Such critics go so far as to brand Tylor's and Frazer's views on the origin of religion as unverifiable speculation. The view of monotheism as more evolved than polytheism represents a mere preconception, they assert. There is evidence that monotheism is more prevalent in hunter societies than in agricultural societies. The view of a uniform progression in folkways is criticized as unverifiable, as the writer Andrew Lang (1844–1912) and E. E. Evans-Pritchard assert. The latter criticism presumes that the evolutionary views of the early cultural anthropologists envisaged a uniform cultural evolution. Another criticism supposes that Tylor and Frazer were individualists (unscientific). However, some support that supposed approach as worthwhile, among others the anthropologist Robin Horton. The dichotomy between the two fundamental presumptions - and the question of what data can be considered valid - continues. Substantive theories Evolutionary theories Evolutionary theories view religion as either an adaptation or a byproduct. Adaptationist theories view religion as being of adaptive value to the survival of Pleistocene humans. Byproduct theories view religion as a spandrel. Edward Burnett Tylor The anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917) defined religion as belief in spiritual beings and stated that this belief originated as explanations of natural phenomena. Belief in spirits grew out of attempts to explain life and death. Primitive people used human dreams in which spirits seemed to appear as an indication that the human mind could exist independent of a body. They used this by extension to explain life and death, and belief in the after life. Myths and deities to explain natural phenomena originated by analogy and an extension of these explanations. His theory assumed that the psyches of all peoples of all times are more or less the same and that explanations in cultures and religions tend to grow more sophisticated via monotheist religions, such as Christianity and eventually to science. Tylor saw practices and beliefs in modern societies that were similar to those of primitive societies as survivals, but he did not explain why they survived. James George Frazer James George Frazer (1854–1941) followed Tylor's theories to a great extent in his book The Golden Bough, but he distinguished between magic and religion. Magic is used to influence the natural world in the primitive man's struggle for survival. He asserted that magic relied on an uncritical belief of primitive people in contact and imitation. For example, precipitation may be invoked by the primitive man by sprinkling water on the ground. He asserted that according to them magic worked through laws. In contrast religion is faith that the natural world is ruled by one or more deities with personal characteristics with whom can be pleaded, not by laws. Rudolf Otto The theologian Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) focused on religious experience, more specifically moments that he called numinous which means "Wholly Other". He described it as mysterium tremendum (terrifying mystery) and mysterium fascinans (awe inspiring, fascinating mystery). He saw religion as emerging from these experiences. He asserted that these experiences arise from a special, non-rational faculty of the human mind, largely unrelated to other faculties, so religion cannot be reduced to culture or society. Some of his views, among others that the experience of the numinous was caused by a transcendental reality, are untestable and hence unscientific. His ideas strongly influenced phenomenologists and Mircea Eliade. Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade's (1907–1986) approach grew out of the phenomenology of religion. Like Otto, he saw religion as something special and autonomous, that cannot be reduced to the social, economical or psychological alone. Like Durkheim, he saw the sacred as central to religion, but differing from Durkheim, he views the sacred as often dealing with the supernatural, not with the clan or society. The daily life of an ordinary person is connected to the sacred by the appearance of the sacred, called hierophany. Theophany (an appearance of a god) is a special case of it. In The Myth of the Eternal Return Eliade wrote that archaic men wish to participate in the sacred, and that they long to return to lost paradise outside the historic time to escape meaninglessness. The primitive man could not endure that his struggle to survive had no meaning. According to Eliade, man had a nostalgia (longing) for an otherworldly perfection. Archaic man wishes to escape the terror of time and saw time as cyclic. Historical religions like Christianity and Judaism revolted against this older concept of cyclic time. They provided meaning and contact with the sacred in history through the god of Israel. Eliade sought and found patterns in myth in various cultures, e.g. sky gods such as Zeus. Eliade's methodology was studying comparative religion of various cultures and societies more or less regardless of other aspects of these societies, often relying on second hand reports. He also used some personal knowledge of other societies and cultures for his theories, among others his knowledge of Hindu folk religion. He has been criticized for vagueness in defining his key concepts. Like Frazer and Tylor he has also been accused of out-of-context comparisons of religious beliefs of very different societies and cultures. He has also been accused of having a pro-religious bias (Christian and Hindu), though this bias does not seem essential for his theory. E. E. Evans-Pritchard The anthropologist Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902–1973) did extensive ethnographic studies among the Azande and Nuer peoples who were considered "primitive" by society and earlier scholars. Evans-Pritchard saw these people as different, but not primitive. Unlike the previous scholars, Evans-Pritchard did not propose a grand universal theory and he did extensive long-term fieldwork among "primitive" peoples, studying their culture and religion, among other among the Azande. Not just passing contact, like Eliade. He argued that the religion of the Azande (witchcraft and oracles) can not be understood without the social context and its social function. Witchcraft and oracles played a great role in solving disputes among the Azande. In this respect he agreed with Durkheim, though he acknowledged that Frazer and Tylor were right that their religion also had an intellectual explanatory aspect. The Azande's faith in witchcraft and oracles was quite logical and consistent once some fundamental tenets were accepted. Loss of faith in the fundamental tenets could not be endured because of its social importance and hence they had an elaborate system of explanations (or excuses) against disproving evidence. Besides an alternative system of terms or school of thought did not exist. He was heavily critical about earlier theorists of primitive religion with the exception of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, asserting that they made statements about primitive people without having enough inside knowledge to make more than a guess. In spite of his praise of Bruhl's works, Evans-Pritchard disagreed with Bruhl's statement that a member of a "primitive" tribe saying "I am the moon" is prelogical, but that this statement makes perfect sense within their culture if understood metaphorically. Apart from the Azande, Evans-Pritchard, also studied the neighbouring, but very different Nuer people. The Nuer had had an abstract monotheistic faith, somewhat similar to Christianity and Judaism, though it included lesser spirits. They had also totemism, but this was a minor aspect of their religion and hence a corrective to Durkheim's generalizations should be made. Evans-Pritchard did not propose a theory of religions, but only a theory of the Nuer religion. Clifford Geertz The anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) made several studies in Javanese villages. He avoided the subjective and vague concept of group attitude as used by Ruth Benedict by using the analysis of society as proposed by Talcott Parsons who in turn had adapted it from Max Weber. Parsons' adaptation distinguished all human groups on three levels i.e. 1. an individual level that is controlled by 2. a social system that is in turn controlled by 3. a cultural system. Geertz followed Weber when he wrote that "man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning". Geertz held the view that mere explanations to describe religions and cultures are not sufficient: interpretations are needed too. He advocated what he called thick descriptions to interpret symbols by observing them in use, and for this work, he was known as a founder of symbolic anthropology. Geertz saw religion as one of the cultural systems of a society. He defined religion as: (1) a system of symbols (2) which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men (3) by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. With symbols Geertz meant a carrier that embodies a conception, because he saw religion and culture as systems of communication. This definition emphasizes the mutual reinforcement between world view and ethos. Though he used more or less the same methodology as Evans-Pritchard, he did not share Evans-Pritchard's hope that a theory of religion could ever be found. Geertz proposed methodology was not the scientific method of the natural science, but the method of historians studying history. Functional theories Karl Marx The social philosopher Karl Marx (1818–1883) held a materialist worldview. According to Marx, the dynamics of society were determined by the relations of production, that is, the relations that its members needed to enter into to produce their means of survival. Developing on the ideas of Ludwig Feuerbach, he saw religion as a product of alienation that was functional to relieving people's immediate suffering, and as an ideology that masked the real nature of social relations. He deemed it a contingent part of human culture, that would have disappeared after the abolition of class society. These claims were limited, however, to his analysis of the historical relationship between European cultures, political institutions, and their Christian religious traditions. Marxist views strongly influenced individuals' comprehension and conclusions about society, among others the anthropological school of cultural materialism. Marx' explanations for all religions, always, in all forms, and everywhere have never been taken seriously by many experts in the field, though a substantial fraction accept that Marx' views possibly explain some aspects of religions. Some recent work has suggested that, while the standard account of Marx's analysis of religion is true, it is also only one side of a dialectical account, which takes seriously the disruptive, as well as the pacifying moments of religion Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) saw religion as an illusion, a belief that people very much wanted to be true. Unlike Tylor and Frazer, Freud attempted to explain why religion persists in spite of the lack of evidence for its tenets. Freud asserted that religion is a largely unconscious neurotic response to repression. By repression Freud meant that civilized society demands that we not fulfill all our desires immediately, but that they have to be repressed. Rational arguments to a person holding a religious conviction will not change the neurotic response of a person. This is in contrast to Tylor and Frazer, who saw religion as a rational and conscious, though primitive and mistaken, attempt to explain the natural world. In his 1913 book Totem and Taboo he developed a speculative story about how all monotheist religions originated and developed. In the book he asserted that monotheistic religions grew out of a homicide in a clan of a father by his sons. This incident was subconsciously remembered in human societies. In Moses and Monotheism, Freud proposed that Moses had been a priest of Akhenaten who fled Egypt after the pharaoh's death and perpetuated monotheism through a different religion. Freud's view on religion was embedded in his larger theory of psychoanalysis, which has been criticized as unscientific. Although Freud's attempt to explain the historical origins of religions have not been accepted, his generalized view that all religions originate from unfulfilled psychological needs is still seen as offering a credible explanation in some cases. Émile Durkheim Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) saw the concept of the sacred as the defining characteristic of religion, not faith in the supernatural. He saw religion as a reflection of the concern for society. He based his view on recent research regarding totemism among the Australian aboriginals. With totemism he meant that each of the many clans had a different object, plant, or animal that they held sacred and that symbolizes the clan. Durkheim saw totemism as the original and simplest form of religion. According to Durkheim, the analysis of this simple form of religion could provide the building blocks for more complex religions. He asserted that moralism cannot be separated from religion. The sacred i.e. religion reinforces group interest that clash very often with individual interests. Durkheim held the view that the function of religion is group cohesion often performed by collectively attended rituals. He asserted that these group meeting provided a special kind of energy, which he called effervescence, that made group members lose their individuality and to feel united with the gods and thus with the group. Differing from Tylor and Frazer, he saw magic not as religious, but as an individual instrument to achieve something. Durkheim's proposed method for progress and refinement is first to carefully study religion in its simplest form in one contemporary society and then the same in another society and compare the religions then and only between societies that are the same. The empirical basis for Durkheim's view has been severely criticized when more detailed studies of the Australian aboriginals surfaced. More specifically, the definition of religion as dealing with the sacred only, regardless of the supernatural, is not supported by studies of these aboriginals. The view that religion has a social aspect, at the very least, introduced in a generalized very strong form by Durkheim has become influential and uncontested. Durkheim's approach gave rise to functionalist school in sociology and anthropology. Functionalism is a sociological paradigm that originally attempted to explain social institutions as collective means to fill individual biological needs, focusing on the ways in which social institutions fill social needs, especially social stability. Thus because Durkheim viewed society as an "organismic analogy of the body, wherein all the parts work together to maintain the equilibrium of the whole, religion was understood to be the glue that held society together.". Bronisław Malinowski The anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski (1884–1942) was strongly influenced by the functionalist school and argued that religion originated from coping with death. He saw science as practical knowledge that every society needs abundantly to survive and magic as related to this practical knowledge, but generally dealing with phenomena that humans cannot control. Max Weber Max Weber (1864–1920) thought that the truth claims of religious movement were irrelevant for the scientific study of the movements. He portrayed each religion as rational and consistent in their respective societies. Weber acknowledged that religion had a strong social component, but diverged from Durkheim by arguing, for example in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that religion can be a force of change in society. In the book Weber wrote that modern capitalism spread quickly partially due to the Protestant worldly ascetic morale. Weber's main focus was not on developing a theory of religion but on the interaction between society and religion, while introducing concepts that are still widely used in the sociology of religion. These concept include Church sect typology, Weber distinguished between sects and churches by stating that membership of a sect is a personal choice and church membership is determined by birth. The typology later developed more extensively by his friend Ernst Troeltsch and others. According to the typology, churches, ecclesia, denomination, and sects form a continuum with decreasing influence on society. Sects are protest break away groups and tend to be in tension with society. Ideal type, a hypothetical "pure" or "clear" form, used in typologies Charismatic authority Weber saw charisma as a volatile form or authority that depends on the acceptance of unique quality of a person by this person's followers. Charisma can be a revolutionary force and the authority can either be routinized (change into other forms of authority) or disappear upon the death of the charismatic person. Somewhat differing from Marx, Weber dealt with status groups, not with class. In status groups the primary motivation is prestige and social cohesion. Status groups have differing levels of access to power and prestige and indirectly to economic resources. In his 1920 treatment of the religion in China he saw Confucianism as helping a certain status group, i.e. the educated elite to maintain access to prestige and power. He asserted that Confucianism opposition against both extravagance and thrift made it unlikely that capitalism could have originated in China. He used the concept of Verstehen (German for "understanding") to describe his method of interpretation of the intention and context of human action. Rational choice theory The rational choice theory has been applied to religions, among others by the sociologists Rodney Stark (1934–2022) and William Sims Bainbridge (born 1940). They see religions as systems of "compensators", and view human beings as "rational actors, making choices that she or he thinks best, calculating costs and benefits". Compensators are a body of language and practices that compensate for some physical lack or frustrated goal. They can be divided into specific compensators (compensators for the failure to achieve specific goals), and general compensators (compensators for failure to achieve any goal). They define religion as a system of compensation that relies on the supernatural. The main reasoning behind this theory is that the compensation is what controls the choice, or in other words the choices which the "rational actors" make are "rational in the sense that they are centered on the satisfaction of wants". It has been observed that social or political movements that fail to achieve their goals will often transform into religions. As it becomes clear that the goals of the movement will not be achieved by natural means (at least within their lifetimes), members of the movement will look to the supernatural to achieve what cannot be achieved naturally. The new religious beliefs are compensators for the failure to achieve the original goals. Examples of this include the counterculture movement in America: the early counterculture movement was intent on changing society and removing its injustice and boredom; but as members of the movement proved unable to achieve these goals they turned to Eastern and new religions as compensators. Most religions start out their lives as cults or sects, i.e. groups in high tension with the surrounding society, containing different views and beliefs contrary to the societal norm. Over time, they tend to either die out, or become more established, mainstream and in less tension with society. Cults are new groups with a new novel theology, while sects are attempts to return mainstream religions to (what the sect views as) their original purity. Mainstream established groups are called denominations. The comments below about cult formation apply equally well to sect formation. There are four models of cult formation: the Psychopathological Model, the Entrepreneurial Model, the Social Model and the Normal Revelations model. Psychopathological model: religions are founded during a period of severe stress in the life of the founder. The founder suffers from psychological problems, which they resolve through the founding of the religion. (The development of the religion is for them a form of self-therapy, or self-medication.) Entrepreneurial model: founders of religions act like entrepreneurs, developing new products (religions) to sell to consumers (to convert people to). According to this model, most founders of new religions already have experience in several religious groups before they begin their own. They take ideas from the pre-existing religions, and try to improve on them to make them more popular. Social model: religions are founded by means of social implosions. Members of the religious group spend less and less time with people outside the group, and more and more time with each other within it. The level of affection and emotional bonding between members of a group increases, and their emotional bonds to members outside the group diminish. According to the social model, when a social implosion occurs, the group will naturally develop a new theology and rituals to accompany it. Normal revelations: religions are founded when the founder interprets ordinary natural phenomena as supernatural; for instance, ascribing his or her own creativity in inventing the religion to that of the deity. Some religions are better described by one model than another, though all apply to differing degrees to all religions. Once a cult or sect has been founded, the next problem for the founder is to convert new members to it. Prime candidates for religious conversion are those with an openness to religion, but who do not belong or fit well in any existing religious group. Those with no religion or no interest in religion are difficult to convert, especially since the cult and sect beliefs are so extreme by the standards of the surrounding society. But those already happy members of a religious group are difficult to convert as well, since they have strong social links to their preexisting religion and are unlikely to want to sever them in order to join a new one. The best candidates for religious conversion are those who are members of or have been associated with religious groups (thereby showing an interest or openness to religion), yet exist on the fringe of these groups, without strong social ties to prevent them from joining a new group. Potential converts vary in their level of social connection. New religions best spread through pre-existing friendship networks. Converts who are marginal with few friends are easy to convert, but having few friends to convert they cannot add much to the further growth of the organization. Converts with a large social network are harder to convert, since they tend to have more invested in mainstream society; but once converted they yield many new followers through their friendship network. Cults initially can have quite high growth rates; but as the social networks that initially feed them are exhausted, their growth rate falls quickly. On the other hand, the rate of growth is exponential (ignoring the limited supply of potential converts): the more converts you have, the more missionaries you can have out looking for new converts. But nonetheless it can take a very long time for religions to grow to a large size by natural growth. This often leads to cult leaders giving up after several decades, and withdrawing the cult from the world. It is difficult for cults and sects to maintain their initial enthusiasm for more than about a generation. As children are born into the cult or sect, members begin to demand a more stable life. When this happens, cults tend to lose or de-emphasise many of their more radical beliefs, and become more open to the surrounding society; they then become denominations. The theory of religious economy sees different religious organizations competing for followers in a religious economy, much like the way businesses compete for consumers in a commercial economy. Theorists assert that a true religious economy is the result of religious pluralism, giving the population a wider variety of choices in religion. According to the theory, the more religions there are, the more likely the population is to be religious and hereby contradicting the secularization thesis. See also Notes References Further reading External links Anthropology of religion Sociology of religion Religious studies

Character education

Character education is an umbrella term loosely used to describe the teaching of children and adults in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant or socially acceptable beings. Concepts that now and in the past have fallen under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning and cognitive development, life skills education, health education, violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation. Many of these are now considered failed programs, i.e. "religious education", "moral development", "values clarification". Today, there are dozens of character education programs in, and vying for adoption by, schools and businesses. Some are commercial, some non-profit and many are uniquely devised by states, districts and schools, themselves. A common approach of these programs is to provide a list of principles, pillars, values or virtues, which are memorized or around which themed activities are planned. It is commonly claimed that the values included in any particular list are universally recognized. However, there is no agreement among the competing programs on core values (e.g., honesty, stewardship, kindness, generosity, courage, freedom, justice, equality, and respect) or even how many to list. There is also no common or standard means for assessing, implementing or evaluating programs. Terminology "Character" is one of those overarching concepts that is the subject of disciplines from philosophy to theology, from psychology to sociology—with many competing and conflicting theories. Thomas Lickona defines character education as "the deliberate effort to develop virtues that are good for the individual and good for society." More recently, psychologist Robert McGrath has proposed that character education is less focused on social skill acquisition and more on constructing a moral identity within a life narrative. Character as it relates to character education most often refers to how 'good' a person is. In other words, a person who exhibits personal qualities like those a society considers desirable might be considered to have good character—and developing such personal qualities is often seen as a purpose of education. However, the various proponents of character education are far from agreement as to what "good" is, or what qualities are desirable. Compounding this problem is that there is no scientific definition of character. Because such a concept blends personality and behavioral components, scientists have long since abandoned use of the term "character" and, instead, use the term psychological motivators to measure the behavioral predispositions of individuals. With no clinically defined meaning, there is virtually no way to measure if an individual has a deficit of character, or if a school program can improve it. The various terms in the lists of values that character education programs propose—even those few found in common among some programs—suffer from vague definitions. This makes the need and effectiveness of character education problematic to measure. In-school programs There is no common practice in schools in relation to the formation of pupils' character or values education. This is partly due to the many competing programs and the lack of standards in character education, but also because of how and by whom the programs are executed. Programs are generally of four varieties: cheerleading, praise and reward, define and drill, and forced formality. They may be used alone or in combination. 1) Cheerleading involves multicolored posters, banners, and bulletin boards featuring a value or virtue of the month; lively morning public-address announcements; occasional motivational assemblies; and possibly a high-profile event such as a fund-raiser for a good cause. 2) Praise-and-reward approach seeks to make virtue into habit using "positive reinforcement". Elements include "catching students being good" and praising them or giving them chits that can be exchanged for privileges or prizes. In this approach, all too often, the real significance of the students' actions is lost, as the reward or award becomes the primary focus. 3) Define-and-drill calls on students to memorize a list of values and the definition of each. Students' simple memorization of definitions seems to be equated with their development of the far more complex capacity for making moral decisions. 4) Forced-formality focuses on strict, uniform compliance with specific rules of conduct, (i.e., walking in lines, arms at one's sides), or formal forms of address ("yes sir," "no ma'am"), or other procedures deemed to promote order or respect of adults. "These four approaches aim for quick behavioral results, rather than helping students better understand and commit to the values that are core to our society, or helping them develop the skills for putting those values into action in life's complex situations." Generally, the most common practitioners of character education in the United States are school counselors, although there is a growing tendency to include other professionals in schools and the wider community. Depending on the program, the means of implementation may be by teachers and/or any other adults (faculty, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, maintenance staff, etc.); by storytelling, which can be through books and media; or by embedding into the classroom curriculum. There are many theories about means, but no comparative data and no consensus in the industry as to what, if any, approach may be effective. History It has been said that, "character education is as old as education itself". Indeed, the attempt to understand and develop character extends into prehistory. Understanding character Psychic arts Since very early times, people have tried to access or "read" the pre-disposition (character) of self and others. Being able to predict and even manipulate human behavior, motivations, and reactions would bestow obvious advantages. Pre-scientific character assessment techniques have included, among others: anthropometry, astrology, palmistry, and metoposcopy. These approaches have been scientifically discredited although they continue to be widely practiced. Race character The concept of inherited "race character" has long been used to characterize desirable versus undesirable qualities in members of groups as a whole along national, tribal, ethnic, religious and even class lines. Race character is predominantly used as a justification for the denigration and subsequent persecution of minority groups, most infamously, justifying European persecution of Native Americans, the concept of slavery, and the Nazis' persecution of Jews. Though race character continues to be used as a justification for persecution of minorities worldwide, it has been scientifically discredited and is not overtly a component of modern character education in western societies. Generational character Particularly in modern liberal republics, social and economic change is rapid and can result in cognitive stress to older generations when each succeeding generation expands on and exhibits their own modes of expressing the freedoms such societies enjoy. America is a prime example. With few traditions, each generation exhibits attitudes and behaviors that conservative segments of preceding generations uneasily assimilate. Individual incidents can also produce a moral panic. Cries about loss of morals in the succeeding generation, overwhelmingly unsubstantiated, and calls for remediation have been constant in America since before its founding. (It should be expected that—in a free country that supports children's rights—this trend will continue apace.) Developing character Eastern philosophy Eastern philosophy views the nature of man as initially quiet and calm, but when affected by the external world, it develops desires. When the desires are not properly controlled and the conscious mind is distracted by the material world, we lose our true selves and the principle of reason in Nature is destroyed. From this arise rebellion, disobedience, cunning and deceit, and general immorality. This is the way of chaos. Confucianism stands with Taoism as two of the great religious/philosophical systems of China. A hallmark of the philosophy of Confucius is his emphasis on tradition and study. He disparages those who have faith in natural understanding or intuition and argues for long and careful study. Study, for Confucius, means finding a good teacher, who is familiar with the ways of the past and the practices of the ancients, imitating his words and deeds. The result is a heavy scheme of obligations and intricate duties throughout all of one's many social roles. Confucius is said to have sung his sayings and accompanied himself on a 'qin' (a kind of zither). According to Confucius, musical training is the most effective method for molding the moral character of man and keeping society in order. He said: "Let a man be stimulated by poetry, established by the rules of propriety, perfected by music." The theme of Taoism is one of harmony with nature. Zhuangzi was a central figure in Taoist philosophy. He wrote that people develop different moral attitudes from different natural upbringings, each feeling that his own views are obvious and natural, yet all are blinded by this socialization to their true nature. To Zhuangzi, pre-social desires are relatively few and easy to satisfy, but socialization creates a plethora of desires for "social goods" such as status, reputation, and pride. These conventional values, because of their comparative nature create attitudes of resentment and anger inciting competition and then violence. The way to social order is for people to eliminate these socialized ambitions through open-minded receptivity to all kinds of voices—particularly those who have run afoul of human authority or seem least authoritative. Each has insights. Indeed, in Taoist moral philosophy, perfection may well look like its opposite to us. One theme of Zhuangzi's that links Taoism to the Zen branch of Buddhism is the concept of flow, of losing oneself in activity, particularly the absorption in skilled execution of a highly cultivated way. His most famous example concerns a butcher who carves beef with the focus and absorption of a virtuoso dancer in an elegantly choreographed performance. The height of human satisfaction comes in achieving and exercising such skills with the focus and commitment that gets us "outside ourselves" and into such an intimate connection with our inborn nature. Western philosophy The early Greek philosophers felt that happiness requires virtue and hence that a happy person must have virtuous traits of character. Socrates identifies happiness with pleasure and explains the various virtues as instrumental means to pleasure. He teaches, however, that pleasure is to be understood in an overarching sense wherein fleeing battle is a momentary pleasure that detracts from the greater pleasure of acting bravely. Plato wrote that to be virtuous, we must both understand what contributes to our overall good and have our spirited and appetitive desires educated properly and guided by the rational part of the soul. The path he prescribes is that a potentially virtuous person should learn when young to love and take pleasure in virtuous actions, but he must wait until late in life to develop the understanding of why what he loves is good. An obvious problem is that this reasoning is circular. Aristotle is perhaps, even today, the most influential of all the early Western philosophers. His view is often summarized as 'moderation in all things'. For example, courage is worthy, for too little of it makes one defenseless. But too much courage can result in foolhardiness in the face of danger. To be clear, Aristotle emphasizes that the moderate state is not an arithmetic mean, but one relative to the situation: sometimes the mean course is to be angry at, say, injustice or mistreatment, at other times anger is wholly inappropriate. Additionally, because people are different, the mean for one person may be bravery, but for another it is recklessness. For Aristotle, the key to finding this balance is to enjoy and recognize the value of developing one's rational powers, and then using this recognition to determine which actions are appropriate in which circumstances. The views of nineteenth-century philosophers were heavily indebted to these early Greeks. Two of them, Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, had a major influence on approaches to developing character. Karl Marx applies Aristotle's conclusions in his understanding of work as a place where workers should be able to express their rational powers. But workers subject to capitalist values are characterized primarily by material self-interest. This makes them distrustful of others, viewing them primarily as competitors. Given these attitudes, workers become prone to a number of vices, including selfishness, cowardice, and intemperance. To correct these conditions, he proposes that workers perform tasks that are interesting and mentally challenging—and that each worker help decide how, and to what ends, their work should be directed. Marx believes that this, coupled with democratic conditions in the workplace, reduces competitive feelings among workers so they want to exhibit traditional virtues like generosity and trustfulness, and avoid the more traditional vices such as cowardice, stinginess, and self-indulgence. John Stuart Mill, like Marx, also highly regarded development of the rational mind. He argued that seriously unequal societies, by preventing individuals from developing their deliberative powers, affect individuals' character in unhealthy ways and impede their ability to live virtuous lives. In particular, Mill argued that societies that have systematically subordinated women have harmed men and women, and advised that the place of women in families and in societies be reconsidered. Contemporary views Because women and men today may not be well-positioned to fully develop the capacities Aristotle and others considered central to virtuous character, it continues to be a central issue not only in ethics, but also in feminist philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of education, and philosophy of literature. Because moral character requires communities where citizens can fully realize their human powers and ties of friendship, there are hard questions of how educational, economic, political, and social institutions should be structured to make that development possible. Situationism Impressed by scientific experiments in social psychology, "situationist" philosophers argue that character traits are not stable or consistent and cannot be used to explain why people act as they do. Experimental data shows that much of human behavior is attributable to seemingly trivial features of the situations in which people find themselves. In a typical experiment, seminary students agreed to give a talk on the importance of helping those in need. On the way to the building where their talks were to be given, they encountered a confederate slumped over and groaning. Ironically, those who were told they were already late were much less likely to help than those who were told they had time to spare. Perhaps most damning to the traditional view of character are the results of the experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s and Philip G. Zimbardo in 1971. In the first of these experiments, the great majority of subjects, when politely though firmly requested by an experimenter, were willing to administer what they thought were increasingly severe electric shocks to a screaming "victim." In the second, the infamous Stanford prison experiment, the planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended after only six days because the college students who were assigned to act as guards became sadistic and those who were the "prisoners" became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. These and other experiments are taken to show that if humans do have noble tendencies, they are narrow, "local" traits that are not unified with other traits into a wider behavioral pattern of being. History of character education in U.S. schools The colonial period As common schools spread throughout the colonies, the moral education of children was taken for granted. Formal education had a distinctly moral and religion emphasis. In the Christian tradition, it is believed that humans are flawed at birth (original sin), requiring salvation through religious means: teaching, guidance and supernatural rituals. This belief in America, originally heavily populated by Protestant immigrants, creates a situation of a-priori assumption that humans are morally deficient by nature and that preemptive measures are needed to develop children into acceptable members of society: home, church and school. Character education in school in the United States began with the circulation of the New England Primer. Besides rudimentary instruction in reading, it was filled with Biblical quotes, prayers, catechisms and religiously charged moral exhortations. Typical is this short verse from the 1777 edition: Good children must, Fear God all day, Love Christ alway, Parents obey, In secret pray, No false thing say, Mind little play, By no sin stray, Make no delay, In doing good. Nineteenth century As the young republic took shape, schooling was promoted for both secular and moral reasons. By the time of the nineteenth century, however, religion became a problem in the schools. In the United States, the overwhelming dominant religion was Protestantism. While not as prominent as during the Puritan era, the King James Bible was, nevertheless, a staple of U.S. public schools. Yet, as waves of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Italy came to the country from the mid-nineteenth century forward, they reacted to the Protestant tone and orthodoxy of the schools. Concerned that their children would be weaned from their faith, Catholics developed their own school system. Later in the twentieth century, other religious groups, such as Jews, Muslims, and even various Protestant denominations, formed their own schools. Each group desired, and continues to desire, that its moral education be rooted in its respective faith or code. Horace Mann, the nineteenth-century champion of the common schools, strongly advocated for moral education. He and his followers were worried by the widespread drunkenness, crime, and poverty during the Jacksonian period they lived in. No less troubling were the waves of immigrants flooding into cities, unprepared for urban life and particularly unprepared to participate in democratic civic life. The most successful textbooks during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the famed McGuffey Readers, fostering virtues such as thrift honesty, piety, punctuality and industry. McGuffey was a theological and conservative teacher and attempted to give schools a curriculum that would instill Presbyterian Calvinist beliefs and manners in their students. Mid-twentieth century During the late-nineteenth-century and twentieth-century period, intellectual leaders and writers were deeply influenced by the ideas of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, the German political philosopher Karl Marx, the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, and by a growing strict interpretation of the separation of church and state doctrine. This trend increased after World War II and was further intensified by what appeared to be changes in the nation's moral consensus in the late 1960s. Educators and others became wary of using the schools for moral education. More and more this was seen to be the province of the family and the church. Still, due to a perceived view of academic and moral decline, educators continued to receive mandates to address the moral concerns of students, which they did using primarily two approaches: values clarification and cognitive developmental moral education. Values clarification. Values change over time in response to changing life experiences. Recognizing these changes and understanding how they affect one's actions and behaviors is the goal of the values clarification process. Values clarification does not tell you what you should have, it simply provides the means to discover what your values are. This approach, although widely practiced, came under strong criticism for, among other things, promoting moral relativism among students. Cognitive-developmental theory of moral education and development sprang from the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and was further developed by Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg rejected the focus on values and virtues, not only due to the lack of consensus on what virtues are to be taught, but also because of the complex nature of practicing such virtues. For example, people often make different decisions yet hold the same basic moral values. Kohlberg believed a better approach to affecting moral behavior should focus on stages of moral development. These stages are critical, as they consider the way a person organizes their understanding of virtues, rules, and norms, and integrates these into a moral choice. Character education movement of the 1980s The impetus and energy behind the return of a more didactic character education to American schools did not come from within the educational community. It continues to be fueled by desire from conservative and religious segments of the population for traditionally orderly schools where conformity to "standards" of behavior and good habits are stressed. State and national politicians, as well as local school districts, lobbied by character education organizations, have responded by supporting this sentiment. During his presidency, Bill Clinton hosted five conferences on character education. President George W. Bush expanded on the programs of the previous administration and made character education a major focus of his educational reform agenda. 21st century developments Grit is defined as perseverance and commitment to long-term goals. It is a character attribute associated with University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Duckworth who wrote about her research in a best-selling book and promoted it on a widely watched Ted Talks video. Initially, lauded as a breakthrough discovery of the "key character ingredient" to success and performance, it soon came under wide criticism and has been exposed, like other character interventions, as suspect as a character construct, and where attempts have been made to implement it in school programs, shows no more than a weak effect, if any. Moreover, the original data was misinterpreted by Duckworth. Additionally, the construct of grit ability ignores the positive socio-economic pre-requisites necessary to deploy it. Modern scientific approaches Today, the sciences of social psychology, neuropsychology and evolutionary psychology have taken new approaches to the understanding of human social behavior. Personality and social psychology is a scientific method used by health professionals for researching personal and social motivators in and between the individual and society, as well as applying them to the problems people have in the context of society. Personality and social psychologists study how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. By exploring forces within the person (such as traits, attitudes, and goals) as well as forces within the situation (such as social norms and incentives), they seek to provide insight into issues as wide-ranging as prejudice, romantic attraction, persuasion, friendship, helping, aggression, conformity, and group interaction. Neuropsychology addresses how brain regions associated with emotional processing are involved in moral cognition by studying the biological mechanisms that underlie human choices and behavior. Like social psychology, it seeks to determine, not how we should, but how we do behave—though neurologically. For instance, what happens in the brain when we favor one response over another, or when it is difficult to make any decision? Studies of clinical populations, including patients with VMPC (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) damage, reveal an association between impairments in emotional processing and impairments in moral judgement and behavior. These and other studies conclude that not only are emotions engaged during moral cognition, but that emotions, particularly those mediated by VMPC, are in fact critical for morality. Other neurological research is documenting how much the unconscious mind is involved in decision making. According to cognitive neuroscientists, we are conscious of only about 5 percent of our cognitive activity, so most of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behavior depends on the 95 percent of brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness. These studies show that actions come from preconscious brain activity patterns and not from people consciously thinking about what they are going to do. A 2011 study conducted by Itzhak Fried found that individual neurons fire 2 seconds before a reported "will" to act (long before EEG activity predicted such a response). This was accomplished with the help of volunteer epilepsy patients, who needed electrodes implanted deep in their brain for evaluation and treatment anyway. Similarly to these tests, a 2013 study found that the choice to sum or subtract can be predicted before the subject reports it. Evolutionary psychology, a new science, emerged in the 1990s to focus on explaining human behavior against the backdrop of Darwinian processes. This science considers how the biological forces of genetics and neurotransmissions in the brain influence unconscious strategies and conscious and proposes that these features of biology have developed through evolution processes. In this view, the cognitive programs of the human brain are adaptations. They exist because this behavior in our ancestors enabled them to survive and reproduce these same traits in their descendants, thereby equipping us with solutions to problems that our ancestors faced during our species' evolutionary history. Ethical topics addressed include altruistic behaviors, deceptive or harmful behaviors, an innate sense of fairness or unfairness, feelings of kindness or love, self-sacrifice, feelings related to competitiveness and moral punishment or retribution, and moral "cheating" or hypocrisy. Issues and controversies Scientific studies The largest federal study, to-date, a 2010 report released under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education found that the vast majority of character education programs have failed to prove their effectiveness, producing no improvements in student behavior or academic performance. Previous and current research on the subject fails to find one peer-reviewed study demonstrating any scientifically validated need for or result from character education programs. Typically, support is attested to by referring to "correlations" (e.g., grades, number of disciplinary referrals, subjective opinion, etc.). Functional and ideological problems 1) An assumption that "character" is deficient in some or all children 2) Lack of agreement on what constitutes effectiveness 3) Lack of evidence that it does what it claims 4) A conflict between what good character is and the way that character education proposes to teach it 5) Differing standards in methods and objectives. Differing standards for assessing need and evaluating results. Some attempts have been made. 6) Supportive "studies" that overwhelmingly rely on subjective feedback (usually surveys) from vested participants 7) Programs instituted towards ideological and/or religious ends 8) The pervasive problem of confusing morality with social conformity 9) There are few if any common goals among character education programs. The dissensions in the list of values among character education programs, itself, constitutes a major criticism that there is anything to character education that is either fundamental or universally relevant to students or society. 10) It might be said that there is agreement in as much as what values do not find inclusion on lists of core values. Not found, even though they are fundamental to the success of modern democratic societies, are such noted values as independence, inventiveness, curiosity, critical thinking, skepticism, and even moderation. "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" the famous saying by Ms. Frizzle on the much celebrated TV show, The Magic School Bus, embodies values that would be antithetical to those found on today's character education lists. See also Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development Journal of Moral Education Moral character Moral development Moral emotions Moral enhancement Moral psychology Moral reasoning Social cognitive theory of morality Values education References Notes Further reading Arthur, J. (2003). Education with Character, New York: Routledge Falmer United States educational programs

Job analysis

Job analysis (also known as work analysis) is a family of procedures to identify the content of a job in terms of the activities it involves in addition to the attributes or requirements necessary to perform those activities. Job analysis provides information to organizations that helps them determine which employees are best fit for specific jobs. The process of job analysis involves the analyst gathering information about the duties of the incumbent, the nature and conditions of the work, and some basic qualifications. After this, the job analyst has completed a form called a job psychograph, which displays the mental requirements of the job. The measure of a sound job analysis is a valid task list. This list contains the functional or duty areas of a position, the related tasks, and the basic training recommendations. Subject matter experts (incumbents) and supervisors for the position being analyzed need to validate this final list in order to validate the job analysis. Job analysis is crucial for first, helping individuals develop their careers, and also for helping organizations develop their employees in order to maximize talent. The outcomes of job analysis are key influences in designing learning, developing performance interventions, and improving processes. The application of job analysis techniques makes the implicit assumption that information about a job as it presently exists may be used to develop programs to recruit, select, train, and appraise people for the job as it will exist in the future. Job analysts are typically industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists or human resource officers who have been trained by, and are acting under the supervision of an I-O psychologist. One of the first I-O psychologists to introduce job analysis was Morris Viteles. In 1922, he used job analysis in order to select employees for a trolley car company. Viteles' techniques could then be applied to any other area of employment using the same process. Job analysis was also conceptualized by two of the founders of I-O psychology, Frederick Winslow Taylor and Lillian Moller Gilbreth in the early 20th century.[1] Since then, experts have presented many different systems to accomplish job analysis that have become increasingly detailed over the decades. However, evidence shows that the root purpose of job analysis, understanding the behavioral requirements of work, has not changed in over 85 years. Purpose One of the main purposes of conducting job analysis is to prepare job descriptions and job specifications which in turn helps hire the right quality of workforce into an organization. The general purpose of job analysis is to document the requirements of a job and the work performed. Job and task analysis is performed as a basis for later improvements, including: definition of a job domain; description of a job; development of performance appraisals, personnel selection, selection systems, promotion criteria, training needs assessment, legal defense of selection processes, and compensation plans. The human performance improvement industry uses job analysis to make sure training and development activities are focused and effective. In the fields of human resources (HR) and industrial psychology, job analysis is often used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training, classification, and/or compensation. Industrial psychologists use job analysis to determine the physical requirements of a job to determine whether an individual who has suffered some diminished capacity is capable of performing the job with, or without, some accommodation. Edwin Flieshman, Ph.D. is credited with determining the underlying factors of human physical fitness. Professionals developing certification exams use job analysis (often called something slightly different, such as "task analysis" or "work analysis") to determine the elements of the domain which must be sampled in order to create a content valid exam. When a job analysis is conducted for the purpose of valuing the job (i.e., determining the appropriate compensation for incumbents) this is called "job evaluation." Job analysis aims to answer questions such as: Why does the job exist? What physical and mental activities does the worker undertake? When is the job to be performed? Where is the job to be performed? Under What conditions it is to be performed? Procedures As stated before, the purpose of job analysis is to combine the task demands of a job with our knowledge of human attributes and produce a theory of behavior for the job in question. There are two ways to approach building that theory, meaning there are two different approaches to job analysis. Task-oriented Task-oriented procedures focus on the actual activities involved in performing work. This procedure takes into consideration work duties, responsibilities, and functions. The job analyst then develops task statements which clearly state the tasks that are performed with great detail. After creating task statements, job analysts rate the tasks on scales indicating importance, difficulty, frequency, and consequences of error. Based on these ratings, a greater sense of understanding of a job can be attained. Task analysis, such as cognitively oriented task analysis (COTA), are techniques used to describe job expertise. For example, the job analysts may tour the job site and observe workers performing their jobs. During the tour the analyst may collect materials that directly or indirectly indicate required skills (duty statements, instructions, safety manuals, quality charts, etc.). Functional job analysis (FJA) is a classic example of a task-oriented technique. Developed by Fine and Cronshaw in 1944, work elements are scored in terms of relatedness to data (0–6), people (0–8), and things (0–6), with lower scores representing greater complexity. Incumbents, considered subject matter experts (SMEs), are relied upon, usually in a panel, to report elements of their work to the job analyst. Using incumbent reports, the analyst uses Fine's terminology to compile statements reflecting the work being performed in terms of data, people, and things. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles uses elements of the FJA in defining jobs. Worker-oriented Worker-oriented procedures aim to examine the human attributes needed to perform the job successfully. These human attributes have been commonly classified into four categories: knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAO). Knowledge is the information people need in order to perform the job. Skills are the proficiencies needed to perform each task. Abilities are the attributes that are relatively stable over time. Other characteristics are all other attributes, usually personality factors. The KSAOs required for a job are inferred from the most frequently-occurring, important tasks. In a worker-oriented job analysis, the skills are inferred from tasks and the skills are rated directly in terms of importance of frequency. This often results in data that immediately imply the important KSAOs. However, it can be hard for SMEs to rate skills directly. The Fleishman Job Analysis System (F-JAS) developed by Edwin A. Fleishman represents a worker-oriented approach. Fleishman factor-analyzed large data sets to discover a common, minimum set of KSAOs across different jobs. His system of 73 specific scales measure three broad areas: Cognitive (Verbal Abilities; Idea Generation & Reasoning Abilities; Quantitative Abilities; Memory; Perceptual Abilities; Spatial Abilities; and Attentiveness), Psychomotor (Fine Manipulative Abilities; Control Movement Abilities; and Reaction Time and Speed Abilities), and Physical (Physical Strength Abilities; Endurance; Flexibility, Balance, and Coordination; Visual Abilities; and Auditory and Speech Abilities). JobScan is a measurement instrument which defines the personality dynamics within a specific type of job. By collecting PDP ProScan Survey results of actual performers and results of job dynamics analysis surveys completed by knowledgeable people related to a specific job, JobScan provides a suggested ideal job model for that position. Although it does not evaluate the intellect or experience necessary to accomplish a task, it does deal with the personality of the type of work itself. Example For the job of a snowcat operator at a ski slope, a work or task-oriented job analysis might include this statement: Operates Bombardier Sno-cat, usually at night, to smooth out snow rutted by skiers and snowboard riders and new snow that has fallen. On the other hand, a worker-oriented job analysis might include this statement: Evaluates terrain, snow depth, and snow condition and chooses the correct setting for the depth of the snow cat, as well as the number of passes necessary on a given ski slope. Job analysis methods have evolved using both task-oriented and worker-oriented approaches. Since the end result of both approaches is a statement of KSAOs, neither can be considered the "correct" way to conduct job analysis. Because worker-oriented job analyses tend to provide more generalized human behavior and behavior patterns and are less tied to the technological parts of a job, they produce data more useful for developing training programs and giving feed back to employees in the form of performance appraisal information. Also, the volatility that exists in the typical workplace of today can make specific task statements less valuable in isolation. For these reasons, employers are significantly more likely to use worker-oriented approaches to job analysis today than they were in the past. Knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs) Regardless of which approach to job analysis is taken, the next step in the process is to identify the attributes—the KSAOs that an incumbent needs for either performing the tasks at hand or executing the human behaviors described in the job analysis. Knowledge: "A collection of discrete but related facts and information about a particular domain...acquired through formal education or training, or accumulated through specific experiences." Skill: "A practiced act". Ability: "The stable capacity to engage in a specific behavior" Other characteristics: "Personality variables, interests, training, and experiences" Finally, once the appropriate KSAOs are identified, tests and other assessment techniques can be chosen to measure those KSAOs. Over the years, experts have presented several different systems and methods to accomplish job analysis. Many forms of systems are no longer in use, but those systems that still exist have become increasingly detailed over the decades with a greater concentration on tasks and less concentration on human attributes. That trend, however, has reversed in recent years for the better. Newer methods and systems have brought I-O psychology back to an examination of the behavioral aspects of work. There are several ways to conduct a job analysis, including interviews with incumbents and supervisors, work methods of analysis can be laborious and time-consuming, and there is always a tendency on the part of management to over analyze some jobs and under analyze some others. These traditional job analysis methods include: one-on-one interviewing; behavioral event interviews; phone interviews; surveys; work assessments; Developing a Curriculum (DACUM); job analysis worksheets; observations and procedural review. Job analysis at the speed of reality. Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press. All of these methods can be used to gather information for job analysis. The DACUM process developed in the late 1960s has been viewed as the fastest method used, but it can still can take two or three days to obtain a validated task list. Observation: This was the first method of job analysis used by I-O psychologists. The process involves simply watching incumbents perform their jobs and taking notes. Sometimes they ask questions while watching, and commonly they even perform job tasks themselves. Near the end of World War II, Morris Viteles studied the job of navigator on a submarine. He attempted to steer the submarine toward Bermuda. After multiple misses by over 100 miles in one direction or another, one officer suggested that Viteles raise the periscope, look for clouds, and steer toward them since clouds tend to form above or near land masses. The vessel reached Bermuda shortly after that suggestion. The more jobs one seriously observes, the better one's understanding becomes of both the jobs in question and work in general. Interviews: It is essential to supplement observation by talking with incumbents. These interviews are most effective when structured with a specific set of questions based on observations, other analyses of the types of jobs in question, or prior discussions with human resources representatives, trainers, or managers knowledgeable about jobs. Critical incidents and work diaries: The critical incident technique asks subject matter experts to identify critical aspects of behavior or performance in a particular job that led to success or failure. For example, the supervisor of an electric utility repairman might report that in a very time-pressing project, the repairman failed to check a blueprint and as a result cut a line, causing a massive power loss. In fact, this is what happened in Los Angeles in September 2005 when half the city lost power over a period of 12 hours. The second method, a work diary, asks workers and/or supervisors to keep a log of activities over a prescribed period of time. They may be asked to simply write down what they were doing at 15 minutes after the hour for each hour of the work day. Or, they may list everything they have done up to a break. Questionnaires and surveys: Expert incumbents or supervisors often respond to questionnaires or surveys as a part of job analysis. These questionnaires include task statements in the form of worker behaviors. Subject matter experts are asked to rate each statement form their experience on a number of different dimensions like importance to overall job success, frequency performance and whether the task must be performed on the first day of work or can be learned gradually on the job. Questionnaires also ask incumbents to rate the importance of KSAOs for performing tasks, and may ask the subject matter experts to rate work context. Unlike the results of observations and interviews, the questionnaire responses can be statistically analyzed to provide a more objective record of the components of the job. To a greater and greater extent, these questionnaires and surveys are being administered online to incumbents. Position Analysis Questionnaire: The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a well-known job analysis instrument. Although it is labeled a questionnaire, the PAQ is actually designed to be completed by a trained job analyst who interviews the SMEs (e.g., job incumbents and their supervisors).[2] The PAQ was designed to measure job component validity of attributes presented in aptitude tests. Job component validity is the relationship between test scores and skills required for good job performance. There are 195 behavior-related statements in the PAQ divided into six major sections: information input, mental process, work output, relationships with others, job context, and other job characteristics. Checklists: Checklists are also used as a job analysis method, specifically with areas like the Air Force. In the checklist method, the incumbent checks the tasks he or she performs from a list of task statements that describe the job. The checklist is preceded by some sort of job analysis and is usually followed by the development of work activity compilations or job descriptions. The scope of task statements listed depends upon the judgment of the checklist constructor. Six steps Decide how to use the information since this will determine the data to collect and how to collect it. Some data collection techniques such as interviewing the employee and asking what the job entails are good for writing job descriptions and selecting employees for the job. Other techniques like the position analysis questionnaire do not provide qualitative information for job descriptions. Rather, they provide numerical ratings for each job and can be used to compare jobs for compensation purposes. Review appropriate background information like organization charts, process charts, and job descriptions. Organization charts show the organization-wide work division, how the job in question relates to other jobs, and where the job fits in the overall organization. The chart should show the title of each position and, through connecting lines, show reports to whom and with whom the job incumbent communicates. A process chart provides a more detailed picture of the workflow. In its simplest, most organic form, a process chart shows the flow of inputs to and outputs from the job being analyzed. Finally, the existing job description (if there is one) usually provides a starting point for building the revised job description. Select representative positions. This is because there may be too many similar jobs to analyze. For example, it is usually unnecessary to analyze jobs of 200 assembly workers when a sample of 10 jobs will be sufficient. Actually analyze the job by collecting data on job activities, necessary employee behaviors and actions, working conditions, and human traits and abilities required to perform the job. For this step, one or more than one methods of job analysis may be needed Verify the job analysis information with the worker performing the job and with his or her immediate supervisor. This will help confirm that the information is factually correct and complete. This review can also help gain the employee's acceptance of the job analysis data and conclusions by giving that person a chance to review and modify descriptions of the job activities. Develop a job description and job specification. These are two tangible products of the job analysis process. The job description is a written statement that describes the activities and responsibilities of the job as well as its important features such as working conditions and safety hazards. The job specification summarizes the personal qualities, traits, skills, and background required for completing a certain job. These two may be completely separate or in the same document. Uses of information Recruitment and selection : An organization distinguishes a pool of potential candidates for a job position from the overall population of available workers through the process of recruitment; this is followed by selection, during which the applicants who will be employed by the company are definitively chosen. The former process attracts workers to apply using various methods of advertising the open position, which can include newspapers advertisements, government agencies, or verbal referrals. The latter process can involve interviews with individual applicants or reviews of their previous work experience. Job analysis produces both an explanation of the activities and responsibilities that an employee in a certain position must undertake while working (a job description) as well as that of the ideal characteristics and abilities that the employee should have in order to perform well (a job specification). These pieces of information can be used in recruitment by contributing to the content of a company's advertisements, helping ensure that the candidates with the correct attributes apply, and in selection by certifying that the chosen candidates are fit for the position. Compensation: The payments made by an organization to its employees for their services to the company, through an hourly wage or otherwise, is known as compensation. Job evaluation attempts to determine the value of a job position compared to others within the same organization, to help ensure that the compensation of employees in various positions is equitable. Job analysis can be used during job evaluation by providing descriptions of positions that will be ranked; rankings may sometimes be based on the appearance of predetermined factors that have been deemed important in the descriptions. Other pieces of information, such as the salaries that employees of other organizations with the same job position earn, are generally considered in combination with job evaluation to determine specific compensation rates. Performance appraisal: A performance appraisal compares each employee's actual performance with his or her performance standards. Managers use job analysis to determine the job's specific activities and performance standards. Training: The job description should show the activities and skills, and therefore training, that the job requires Discovering unassigned duties: Job Analysis can also help reveal unassigned duties. For example, a company's production manager says an employee is responsible for ten duties, such as production scheduling and raw material purchasing. Missing, however, is any reference to managing raw material inventories. On further study, it is revealed that none of the other manufacturing employees are responsible for inventory management, either. From review of other jobs like these, it is clear that someone should be managing raw material inventories. Therefore, an essential unassigned duty has been revealed. EEO compliance: Job analysis plays a large role in EEO compliance. United States Federal Agencies' Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection stipulate that job analysis is a necessary step in validating all major personnel activities. For example, employers must be able to show that their selection criteria and job performance are actually related. Doing this requires knowing what the job entails, which in turn requires job analysis. Additional purposes: In addition to the 6 purposes above, Ash and Levine listed determining KSAOs needed for promotion, determining workplace hazards to make jobs safer, job classification, job description, designing the content of jobs, and strategic human resource planning. Job Analysis at the Speed of Reality (JASR) The Job Analysis at the Speed of Reality (JASR) method for job analysis is a reliable, proven method to quickly create validated task lists. The end product, which can be used for many purposes, is the basis for many potential training opportunities. This method is a tested process that helps analysts complete a job analysis of a typical job with a group of subject matter experts and managers in two to three hours then deliver a validated task list. Job incumbents should know their jobs better than anyone else. They can provide accurate, timely content information about the job. JASR participants want to spend a minimum amount of time providing job data during a session and business leadership wants to minimize disruption to business operations. Since JASR participants do not spend as much time thinking about training as training professionals do, they do not require much orientation to the process. JASR uses the quickest methods and best possible technology to complete the job analysis. Systems For many years, the U.S. Department of Labor published the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), which was a comprehensive description of over 20,000 jobs. However, the Department replaced the DOT with O*NET online database, which includes all occupations from the DOT plus an additional 3,500. This makes O*NET very useful for job analysis. The O*NET (an online resource which has replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles) lists job requirements for a variety of jobs and is often considered basic, generic, or initial job analysis data. Everyone can use this database at no cost and is continually updated by observing workers from each occupation. O*NET also has a Career Exploration Tool which is an assessment to help workers and students who are searching for new careers. Data available from O*NET includes physical requirements, educational level, and some mental requirements. Task-based statements describing the work performed are derived from the functional job analysis technique. O*NET also provides links to salary data at the US national, state and city level for each job. O*NET was designed with several features in mind, including: The inclusion of multiple descriptors and content domains to capture the range of ways that work can be described The development of cross-job descriptors in order to enable comparisons between various jobs The use of a taxonomic approach to occupational classification to enable full coverage within a content domain Using these principles, a content model was developed that identified six content domains and specific categories within each domain. These six domains and categories within them include: Worker characteristics: enduring individual attributes that influence the capacities workers can develop - abilities, occupational values and interests, and work styles Worker requirements: general attributes developed through education and experience, thus are more amenable to change than worker characteristics - knowledge skills and education Occupational requirements: descriptors of the work itself rather than the worker - Generalized work activities, work context, and organizational context Experience requirements: types and quantities of experience required for specific occupations - worker experience in other jobs, related training, on-the-job training, and certification requirements Individual occupation characteristics: reflects labor demand, supply, and other labor market information Occupation-specific requirements: information unique to a particular job - occupation-specific skills and knowledge, tasks and duties, and equipment used In modern United States Over the past years, the concept of job analysis has been changing dramatically. One observer put it: "The modern world is on the verge of another huge leap in creativity and productivity, but the job is not going to be part of tomorrow's economic reality. There still is and will always be an enormous amount of work to do, but it is not going to be contained in the familiar envelopes we call jobs. In fact, many organizations are today well along the path toward being "de-jobbed."." Jobs and job descriptions, until recently, tended to follow their prescriptions and to be fairly detailed and specific. By the mid-1900s writers were reacting to what they viewed as "dehumanizing" aspects of pigeonholing workings into highly repetitive and specialized jobs; many proposed solutions like job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment. Job enlargement means assigning workers additional same-level tasks, thus increasing the number of activities they perform. Job rotation means systematically moving workers from one job to another. Psychologist Frederick Herzberg argued that the best way to motivate workers is to build opportunities for challenge and achievement into their jobs through job enrichment. Job enrichment means re-designing jobs in a way that increases the opportunities for the worker to experience feelings of responsibility, achievement, growth and recognition. Whether enriched, specialized or enlarged, workers still generally have specific jobs to do, and these jobs have required job descriptions. In many firms today, however, jobs are becoming more amorphous and difficult to define. In other words, the trend is toward dehubbing. Dejobbing, broadening the responsibilities of the company's jobs, and encouraging employees to not limit themselves to what's on their job descriptions, is a result of the changes taking place in business today. Organizations need to grapple with trends like rapid product and technological changes, and a shift to a service economy. This has increased the need for firms to be responsive, flexible, and generally more competitive. In turn, the organizational methods managers use to accomplish this have helped weaken the meaning of a job as a well-defined and clearly delineated set of responsibilities. Here are some methods that have contributed to this weakening of JOB's meaning: Flatter organizations: Instead of traditional pyramid-shaped organizations with seven or more management layers, flat organizations with only three or four levels are becoming more prevalent Work teams: Managers increasingly organize tasks around teams and processes rather than around specialized functions. In an organization like this, employees' jobs change daily and there is an intentional effort to avoid having employees view their jobs as a specific set of responsibilities. An example of this in action in information technology is the Scrum methodology in software development, which specifically states that within the Scrum process, the only recognized title for team members is "team member" - although in practice many IT organizations ignore this aspect of Scrum as it is perceived as "too radical" for them to cope with. The Boundaryless Organization: In a boundaryless organization, the widespread use of teams and similar structural mechanisms reduces and makes more permeable the boundaries that typically separate departments and hierarchical levels. These organizations foster responsiveness by encouraging employees to rid themselves of the 'it's not my job' attitudes that typically create walls between one employee's area and another's. Instead, the focus is on defining the project or task at hand in terms of the overall best interests of the organization, therefore further reducing the idea of a job as a clearly defined set of duties. Most firms today continue to use job analysis and rely on jobs as traditionally defined. More firms are moving toward new organizational configurations built around jobs that are broad and could change daily. Also, modern job analysis and job design techniques could help companies implement high-performance strategies. See also Industrial & organizational psychology Staffing models Task analysis Work sampling References Fleishman, E.A. (1964). The Structure and Measurement of Physical Fitness. Princeton, NJ:Prentice-Hall. Other sources Fine, Sidney A. & Cronshaw, Steven F. (1999). Functional job analysis: A foundation for human resources management. Erlbaum: Mahwah, NJ. External links O*Net Human resource management Industrial and organizational psychology

Biophilia hypothesis

The biophilia hypothesis (also called BET) suggests that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life". Natural affinity for living systems "Biophilia" is an innate affinity of life or living systems. The term was first used by Erich Fromm to describe a psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital. Wilson uses the term in a related sense when he suggests that biophilia describes "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life." He proposed the possibility that the deep affiliations humans have with other life forms and nature as a whole are rooted in our biology. Both positive and negative (including phobic) affiliations toward natural objects (species, phenomenon) as compared to artificial objects are evidence for biophilia. Although named by Fromm, the concept of biophilia has been proposed and defined many times over. Aristotle was one of many to put forward a concept that could be summarized as "love of life". Diving into the term philia, or friendship, Aristotle evokes the idea of reciprocity and how friendships are beneficial to both parties in more than just one way, but especially in the way of happiness. The hypothesis has since been developed as part of theories of evolutionary psychology. Taking on an evolutionary perspective people are drawn towards life and nature can be explained in part due to our evolutionary history of residing in natural environments, only recently in our history have we shifted towards an urbanized lifestyle. These connections to nature can still be seen in people today as people gravitate towards, identify with, and desire to connect with nature. These connections are not limited to any one component part of nature, in general people show connections to a wide range of natural things including plants, animals, and environmental landscapes. One possible explanation is that our ancestors who had stronger connections to nature would hold an evolutionary advantage over less connected people as they would have better knowledge and therefore access to food, water, and shelter. In a broader and more general sense research has suggested that our modern urban environments are not suited for minds that evolved in natural environments. Human preferences toward things in nature, while refined through experience and culture, are hypothetically the product of biological evolution. For example, adult mammals (especially humans) are generally attracted to baby mammal faces and find them appealing across species. The large eyes and small features of any young mammal face are far more appealing than those of the mature adults. Similarly, the hypothesis helps explain why ordinary people care for and sometimes risk their lives to save domestic and wild animals, and keep plants and flowers in and around their homes. In the book Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations edited by Peter Kahn and Stephen Kellert, the importance of animals, especially those with which a child can develop a nurturing relationship, is emphasized particularly for early and middle childhood. Chapter 7 of the same book reports on the help that animals can provide to children with autistic-spectrum disorders. Indigenous Perspectives on the Human-Nature Connection For many Indigenous cultures, the relationship between humans and nature is inseparable. Notably, these cultures view humans as an integral part of the natural world rather than separate to it. Their practices, and ways of life reflect respect for the symbiotic relationship between all living beings and the environment. At the heart of many Indigenous belief systems is the concept of kinship. This concept extends beyond human relationships and includes elements of the natural world. This perspective recognizes that nature is sacredness. It also recognises that humans, plants, animals, and the land all depend on each other for their survival. For example, the Haudenosaunee people express this through the Thanksgiving Address. In this ceremony, they honor all aspects of Creation. Indigenous cultures possess Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) about the relationships between living beings and environments. This enables them to sustainablly use their resource. For example, Aboriginal Australians' fire practices have shaped biodiversity for millennia. In addition, the human-nature connection can be found in many Indigenous spiritual beliefs and practices. These beliefs generally viewing nature as sacred, with specific sites, species, or phenomena holding deep significance. In Hawaii, aloha 'aina guides responsible resource use. Notably, Indigenous cultures have always emphasized reciprocity and balance. This involves not only taking from but also giving back through sustainable practices, rituals, and ceremonies. For instance, the Anishinaabe have always made offerings before harvesting manoomin (wild rice). Despite diversity, many Indigenous cultures view humans as integral to nature rather than dominating over it. This challenges Western views prioritizing exploitation. Incorporating these perspectives reflects different understandings of the human-nature relationship. They also show that Indigenous knowledge have been an invaluable contributions to sustainability. Biophilic design In architecture, biophilic design is a sustainable design strategy that incorporates reconnecting people with the natural environment. It may be seen as a necessary complement to green architecture, which decreases the environmental impact of the built world but does not address human reconnection with the natural world. Caperna and Serafini define biophilic design as that kind of architecture, which is able to supply our inborn need of connection to life and to the vital processes. Biophilic space has been defined as the environment that strengthens life and supports the sociological and psychological components. These spaces can have positive health effects on people including reducing mental health issues in stressful spaces such as prisons, reducing chronic pain, improving memory, and lowering blood pressure. Examples of this being studied in medical settings include having a window looking out to see living plants is also shown to help speed up the healing process of patients in hospitals. Similarly, having plants in the same room as patients in hospitals also speeds up their healing process. Biophilia and conservation Because of our technological advancements and more time spent inside buildings and cars disconnects us from nature, biophilic activities and time spent in nature may be strengthening our connections as humans to nature, so people continue to have strong urges to reconnect with nature. The concern for a lack of connection with the rest of nature outside of us, is that a stronger disregard for other plants, animals and less appealing wild areas could lead to further ecosystem degradation and species loss. Therefore, reestablishing a connection with nature has become more important in the field of conservation. Examples would be more available green spaces in and around cities, more classes that revolve around nature and implementing smart design for greener cities that integrate ecosystems into them such as biophilic cities. These cities can also become part of wildlife corridors to help with migrational and territorial needs of other animals. Biophilia in fiction Canadian author Hilary Scharper explicitly adapted E.O. Wilson's concept of biophilia for her ecogothic novel, Perdita. In the novel, Perdita (meaning "the lost one") is a mythological figure who brings biophilia to humanity. Biophilia and technology American philosopher Francis Sanzaro has put forth the claim that because of advances in technological connectivity, especially the internet of things (IOT), our world is becoming increasingly driven by the biophilia hypothesis, namely, the desire to connect to forms of life. Sanzaro applies Wilson's theories to trends in artificial intelligence and psychoanalysis and argues that technology is not an antithesis to nature, but simply another form of seeking intimacy with nature. See also Biocultural evolution Biomimetics Deep ecology Ecopsychology Environmental psychology Healthy building Nature deficit disorder Ecosexuality References External links Edward O. Wilson's Biophilia Hypothesis Biophilia, biomimicry, and sustainable design The Economics of Biophilia - Terrapin Bright Green Biophilia, website for Biophilia magazine "Biophilic Design Patterns: Emerging Nature-Based Parameters for Health and Well-Being in the Built Environment" by Catherine O. Ryan, William D Browning, Joseph O Clancy, Scott L Andrews, Namita B Kallianpurkar (ArchNet-International Journal of Architectural Research) 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design - Terrapin Bright Green "Biophilia: Does Visual Contact with Nature Impact on Health and Well-Being?" - National Center for Biotechnology Information "Biophilic Architecture and Biophilic Design" by Antonio Caperna, International Society of Biourbanism "Biourbanism for a healthy city: biophilia and sustainable urban theories and practices" by Antonio Caperna and Eleni Tracada, University of Derby (UK) - UDORA Repository "Introduction to Biophilic Biophilic Design" by Antonio Caperna, International Society of Biourbanism "Biophilic Design", Journal of Biourbanism Volume VI (1&2/2017) by Antonio Caperna Editor in Chief, International Society of Biourbanism Environmental conservation Environmental psychology Evolutionary psychology Hypotheses Biological hypotheses

Toponymy

Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of toponyms (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of any geographical feature, and full scope of the term also includes proper names of all cosmographical features. In a more specific sense, the term toponymy refers to an inventory of toponyms, while the discipline researching such names is referred to as toponymics or toponomastics. Toponymy is a branch of onomastics, the study of proper names of all kinds. A person who studies toponymy is called toponymist. Etymology The term toponymy comes from / , 'place', and / , 'name'. The Oxford English Dictionary records toponymy (meaning "place name") first appearing in English in 1876. Since then, toponym has come to replace the term place-name in professional discourse among geographers. Toponymic typology Toponyms can be divided in two principal groups: geonyms - proper names of all geographical features, on planet Earth. cosmonyms - proper names of cosmographical features, outside Earth. Various types of geographical toponyms (geonyms) include, in alphabetical order: agronyms - proper names of fields and plains. choronyms - proper names of regions or countries. dromonyms - proper names of roads or any other transport routes by land, water or air. drymonyms - proper names of woods and forests. econyms - proper names of inhabited locations, like houses, villages, towns or cities, including: comonyms - proper names of villages. astionyms - proper names of towns and cities. hydronyms - proper names of various bodies of water, including: helonyms - proper names of swamps, marshes and bogs. limnonyms - proper names of lakes and ponds. oceanonyms - proper names of oceans. pelagonyms - proper names of seas. potamonyms - proper names of rivers and streams. insulonyms - proper names of islands. metatoponyms - proper names of places containing recursive elements (e.g. Red River Valley Road). oronyms - proper names of relief features, like mountains, hills and valleys, including: speleonyms - proper names of caves or some other subterranean features. petronyms - proper names of rock climbing routes. urbanonyms - proper names of urban elements (streets, squares etc.) in settlements, including: agoronyms - proper names of squares and marketplaces. hodonyms - proper names of streets and roads. Various types of cosmographical toponyms (cosmonyms) include: asteroidonyms - proper names of asteroids. astronyms - proper names of stars and constellations. cometonyms - proper names of comets. meteoronyms - proper names of meteors. planetonyms - proper names of planets and planetary systems. History Probably the first toponymists were the storytellers and poets who explained the origin of specific place names as part of their tales; sometimes place-names served as the basis for their etiological legends. The process of folk etymology usually took over, whereby a false meaning was extracted from a name based on its structure or sounds. Thus, for example, the toponym of Hellespont was explained by Greek poets as being named after Helle, daughter of Athamas, who drowned there as she crossed it with her brother Phrixus on a flying golden ram. The name, however, is probably derived from an older language, such as Pelasgian, which was unknown to those who explained its origin. In his Names on the Globe, George R. Stewart theorizes that Hellespont originally meant something like 'narrow Pontus' or 'entrance to Pontus', Pontus being an ancient name for the region around the Black Sea, and by extension, for the sea itself. Especially in the 19th century, the age of exploration, a lot of toponyms got a different name because of national pride. Thus the famous German cartographer Petermann thought that the naming of newly discovered physical features was one of the privileges of a map-editor, especially as he was fed up with forever encountering toponyms like 'Victoria', 'Wellington', 'Smith', 'Jones', etc. He writes: "While constructing the new map to specify the detailed topographical portrayal and after consulting with and authorization of messr. Theodor von Heuglin and count Karl Graf von Waldburg-Zeil I have entered 118 names in the map: partly they are the names derived from celebrities of arctic explorations and discoveries, arctic travellers anyway as well as excellent friends, patrons, and participants of different nationalities in the newest northpolar expeditions, partly eminent German travellers in Africa, Australia, America ...". Toponyms may have different names through time, due to changes and developments in languages, political developments and border adjustments to name but a few. More recently many postcolonial countries revert to their own nomenclature for toponyms that have been named by colonial powers. Toponomastics Place names provide the most useful geographical reference system in the world. Consistency and accuracy are essential in referring to a place to prevent confusion in everyday business and recreation. A toponymist, through well-established local principles and procedures developed in cooperation and consultation with the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), applies the science of toponymy to establish officially recognized geographical names. A toponymist relies not only on maps and local histories, but interviews with local residents to determine names with established local usage. The exact application of a toponym, its specific language, its pronunciation, and its origins and meaning are all important facts to be recorded during name surveys. Scholars have found that toponyms provide valuable insight into the historical geography of a particular region. In 1954, F. M. Powicke said of place-name study that it "uses, enriches and tests the discoveries of archaeology and history and the rules of the philologists." Toponyms not only illustrate ethnic settlement patterns, but they can also help identify discrete periods of immigration. Toponymists are responsible for the active preservation of their region's culture through its toponymy. They typically ensure the ongoing development of a geographical names database and associated publications, for recording and disseminating authoritative hard-copy and digital toponymic data. This data may be disseminated in a wide variety of formats, including hard-copy topographic maps as well as digital formats such as geographic information systems, Google Maps, or thesauri like the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names. Toponymic commemoration In 2002, the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names acknowledged that while common, the practice of naming geographical places after living persons (toponymic commemoration) could be problematic. Therefore, the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names recommends that it be avoided and that national authorities should set their own guidelines as to the time required after a person's death for the use of a commemorative name. In the same vein, writers Pinchevski and Torgovnik (2002) consider the naming of streets as a political act in which holders of the legitimate monopoly to name aspire to engrave their ideological views in the social space. Similarly, the revisionist practice of renaming streets, as both the celebration of triumph and the repudiation of the old regime is another issue of toponymy. Also, in the context of Slavic nationalism, the name of Saint Petersburg was changed to the more Slavic sounding Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, then to Leningrad following the death of Vladimir Lenin and back to Saint-Peterburg in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After 1830, in the wake of the Greek War of Independence and the establishment of an independent Greek state, Turkish, Slavic and Italian place names were Hellenized, as an effort of "toponymic cleansing." This nationalization of place names can also manifest itself in a postcolonial context. In Canada, there have been initiatives in recent years "to restore traditional names to reflect the Indigenous culture wherever possible". Indigenous mapping is a process that can include restoring place names by Indigenous communities themselves. Frictions sometimes arise between countries because of toponymy, as illustrated by the Macedonia naming dispute in which Greece has claimed the name Macedonia, the Sea of Japan naming dispute between Japan and Korea, as well as the Persian Gulf naming dispute. On 20 September 1996 a note on the internet reflected a query by a Canadian surfer, who said as follows: 'One producer of maps labeled the water body "Persian Gulf" on a 1977 map of Iran, and then "Arabian Gulf", also in 1977, in a map which focused on the Gulf States. I would gather that this is an indication of the "politics of maps", but I would be interested to know if this was done to avoid upsetting users of the Iran map and users of the map showing Arab Gulf States'. This symbolizes a further aspect of the topic, namely the spilling over of the problem from the purely political to the economic sphere. Geographic names boards A geographic names board is an official body established by a government to decide on official names for geographical areas and features. Most countries have such a body, which is commonly (but not always) known under this name. Also, in some countries (especially those organised on a federal basis), subdivisions such as individual states or provinces will have individual boards. Individual geographic names boards include: Antarctic Place-names Commission Commission nationale de toponymie (National toponymy commission - France) Geographical Names Board of Canada Geographical Names Board of New South Wales New Zealand Geographic Board South African Geographical Names Council United States Board on Geographic Names Notable toponymists Marcel Aurousseau (1891–1983), Australian geographer, geologist, war hero, historian and translator Guido Borghi (born 1969), Italian historical linguist and toponymist Andrew Breeze (born 1954), English linguist William Bright (1928–2006), American linguist Richard Coates (born 1949), English linguist Joan Coromines (1905–1997), etymologist, dialectologist, toponymist Albert Dauzat (1877–1955), French linguist Eilert Ekwall (1877–1964, Sweden) Henry Gannett (1846–1914), American geographer Margaret Gelling (1924–2009), English toponymist Michel Grosclaude (1926–2002), philosopher and French linguist Erwin Gustav Gudde Joshua Nash, Australian linguist and toponymist Ernest Nègre (1907–2000), French toponymist W. F. H. Nicolaisen (1927–2016), folklorist, linguist, medievalist Oliver Padel (born 1948), English medievalist and toponymist Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (born 1980), Italian historical linguist and toponymist Robert L. Ramsay (1880–1953), American linguist Adrian Room (1933–2010), British toponymist and onomastician Charles Rostaing (1904–1999), French linguist Henry Schoolcraft (1793–1864), American geographer, geologist and ethnologist Walter Skeat (1835–1912), British philologist Albert Hugh Smith (1903–1967), scholar of Old English and Scandinavian languages Frank Stenton (1880–1967), historian of Anglo-Saxon England George R. Stewart (1895–1980), American historian, toponymist and novelist Jan Paul Strid (1947–2018), Swedish toponymist Isaac Taylor (1829–1901), philologist, toponymist and Anglican canon of York Jan Tent, Australian linguist and toponymist James Hammond Trumbull (1821–1897), American scholar and philologist William J. Watson (1865–1948), Scottish scholar See also Related concepts Anthroponymy Demonymy List of demonyms for US states and territories Ethnonymy Exonym and endonym Gazetteer Lists of places Oeconym Toponymy of the Kerguelen Islands Toponymy Toponymic surname Planetary nomenclature Hydronymy Latin names of European rivers Latin names of rivers List of river name etymologies Old European hydronymy Regional toponymy Biblical toponyms in the United States Celtic toponymy German toponymy Germanic toponymy Historical African place names Japanese place names Korean toponymy and list of place names List of English exonyms for German toponyms List of French exonyms for Dutch toponyms List of French exonyms for German toponyms List of French exonyms for Italian toponyms List of Latin place names in Europe List of modern names for biblical place names List of renamed places in the United States List of U.S. place names connected to Sweden List of U.S. States and Territorial demonyms List of U.S. state name etymologies List of U.S. state nicknames Maghreb toponymy Names of European cities in different languages New Zealand place names Norman toponymy Oikonyms in Western and South Asia Place names of Palestine Hebraization of Palestinian place names Place names in Sri Lanka Roman place names Toponyms of Finland Toponyms of Turkey Toponymy in the United Kingdom and Ireland List of British places with Latin names List of generic forms in place names in the British Isles List of places in the United Kingdom List of Roman place names in Britain Place names in Irish Welsh place names Territorial designation Toponymical list of counties of the United Kingdom Other Labeling (map design) List of adjectival forms of place names List of double placenames List of long place names List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations List of places named after peace List of places named after Lenin List of places named after Stalin List of places named for their main products List of political entities named after people List of short place names List of tautological place names List of words derived from toponyms Lists of things named after places List of geographic acronyms and initialisms List of geographic portmanteaus List of geographic anagrams and ananyms United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names UNGEGN Toponymic Guidelines References Sources Further reading Berg, Lawrence D. and Jani Vuolteenaho. 2009. Critical Toponymies (Re-Materialising Cultural Geography). Ashgate Publishing. Cablitz, Gabriele H. 2008. "When 'what' is 'where': A linguistic analysis of landscape terms, place names and body part terms in Marquesan (Oceanic, French Polynesia)." Language Sciences 30(2/3):200–26. Desjardins, Louis-Hébert. 1973. Les nons géographiques: lexique polyglotte, suivi d'un glossaire de 500 mots. Leméac. Hargitai, Henrik I. 2006. "Planetary Maps: Visualization and Nomenclature." Cartographica 41(2):149–64 Hargitai, Henrik I., Hugh S. Greqorv, Jan Osburq, and Dennis Hands. 2007. "Development of a Local Toponym System at the Mars Desert Research Station." Cartographica 42(2):179–87. Hercus, Luise, Flavia Hodges, and Jane Simpson. 2009. The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia. Pandanus Books. Kadmon, Naftali. 2000. Toponymy: the lore, laws, and language of geographical names. Vantage Press. Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco and Francesco Paolo Cavallaro. 2023. Place Names: Approaches and Perspectives in Toponymy and Toponomastics. Cambridge University Press. , Book 0; Book 1 ; DOI External links Who Was Who in North American Name Study Forgotten Toponymy Board (German) The origins of British place names (archived 1 March 2012) An Index to the Historical Place Names of Cornwall Celtic toponymy (archived 10 February 2012) The Doukhobor Gazetteer, Doukhobor Heritage website, by Jonathan Kalmakoff. O'Brien Jr., Francis J. (Moondancer) "Indian Place Names—Aquidneck Indian Council" Ghana Place Names Index Anatolicus: Toponyms of Turkey The University of Nottingham's: Key to English Place-names searchable map. The Etymology of Mars crater names on Internet Archive

Umwelt

An umwelt (plural: umwelten; from the German Umwelt meaning "environment" or "surroundings") is the specific way organisms of a particular species experience the world, which is dependant on what their sensory organs and perceptual systems can detect and interpret. In the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas Sebeok, it is considered to be the "biological foundations that lie at the very center of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal". The term is usually translated as "self-centered world". Uexküll theorised that organisms can have different umwelten, even though they share the same environment. The term umwelt, together with companion terms Umgebung (an Umwelt as seen by another observer) and Innenwelt (the mapping of the self to the world of objects), have special relevance for cognitive philosophers, roboticists and cyberneticians because they offer a potential solution to the conundrum of the infinite regress of the Cartesian Theater. Discussion Each functional component of an umwelt has a meaning that represents the organism's model of the world. These functional components correspond approximately to perceptual features, as described by Anne Treisman. It is also the semiotic world of the organism, including all the meaningful aspects of the world for any particular organism. It can be water, food, shelter, potential threats or points of reference for navigation. An organism creates and reshapes its own umwelt when it interacts with the world. This is termed a 'functional circle'. The umwelt theory states that the mind and the world are inseparable because it is the mind that interprets the world for the organism. Because of the individuality and uniqueness of the history of every single organism, the umwelten of different organisms differ. When two umwelten interact, this creates a semiosphere. As a term, umwelt also unites all the semiotic processes of an organism into a whole. Internally, an organism is the sum of its parts operating in functional circles and, to survive, all the parts must work cooperatively. This is termed the "collective umwelt" which models the organism as a centralised system from the cellular level upward. This requires the semiosis of any one part to be continuously connected to any other semiosis operating within the same organism. If anything disrupts this process, the organism will not operate efficiently. Uexküll's writings show a specific interest in the various worlds that he believed to exist ('conceptually') from the point of view of the umwelt of different creatures such as ticks, sea urchins, amoebae, jellyfish, and sea worms. The biosemiotic turn in Jakob von Uexküll's analysis occurs in his discussion of the animal's relationship with its environment. The umwelt is for him an environment-world which is, according to Agamben, "constituted by a more or less broad series of elements [called] 'carriers of significance' or 'marks' which are the only things that interest the animal". Agamben goes on to paraphrase Uexküll's example of the tick, saying: "...this eyeless animal finds the way to her watchpoint [at the top of a tall blade of grass] with the help of only its skin’s general sensitivity to light. The approach of her prey becomes apparent to this blind and deaf bandit only through her sense of smell. The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, works on the tick as a signal that causes her to abandon her post (on top of the blade of grass/bush) and fall blindly downward toward her prey. If she is fortunate enough to fall on something warm (which she perceives by means of an organ sensible to a precise temperature) then she has attained her prey, the warm-blooded animal, and thereafter needs only the help of her sense of touch to find the least hairy spot possible and embed herself up to her head in the cutaneous tissue of her prey. She can now slowly suck up a stream of warm blood." Thus, for the tick, the umwelt is reduced to only three (biosemiotic) carriers of significance: (1) the odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals; (2) the temperature of 37°C (corresponding to the blood of all mammals); and (3) the hairy topography of mammals. Critics Uexküll's application of the notion of "umwelt" to the human person has been contested. In "Welt und Umwelt" and "Die Wahrheit der Dinge", the philosopher and sociologist Josef Pieper argued that reason allows the human person to live in "Welt" (world) while plants and animals do indeed live in an Umwelt—a notion he traces back far beyond Uexküll to Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas. See also References Further reading Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon View from the Oak by Herbert and Judith Kohl The New Press | https://thenewpress.com/books/view-from-oak Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz Scribner | https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Inside-of-a-Dog/Alexandra-Horowitz/9781416583431 An Immense World by Ed Yong Penguin books Vintage | https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/440513/an-immense-world-by-yong-ed/9781847926081 External links Umwelt by John Deely Umwelt and Phenomenology Umwelt and semiosphere by Kalevi Kull Pragmatism and Umwelt-theory by Alexei Sharov TDE-R - A Subjective Biocomputer by Charles Dyer Semiotics Neuroethology concepts Existential therapy

Managerial psychology

Managerial psychology is a sub-discipline of industrial and organizational psychology that focuses on the effectiveness of individuals and groups in the workplace, using behavioral science. The purpose of managerial psychology is to aid managers in gaining a better managerial and personal understanding of the psychological patterns common among these individuals and groups. Managers can use managerial psychology to predict and prevent harmful psychological patterns within the workplace and to control psychological patterns to benefit the organisation long term. Managerial psychologists help managers, through research in theory, practice, methods and tools, to achieve better decision-making, leadership practices and development, problem solving and improve overall human relations. Managerial psychologists In early years, managerial psychologists mainly studied fatigue, boredom, and other working conditions that could impede efficient work performance. More recently, their contributions have expanded to include learning, perception, personality, emotions, training, leadership, effectiveness, needs and motivational forces, job satisfaction, decision-making processes, performance appraisals, attitude measurement, employee-selection techniques, work design, and job stress. Managerial psychologists can also: study workplace productivity and morale, screen and train employees perform organizational development. perform consulting Personality, motivation and job satisfaction Herzberg et al.’s seminal two-factor theory of motivation theorized that satisfaction and dissatisfaction were not two opposite extremes of the same sequence, but two separate entities caused by quite different facets of work – these were labelled as “hygiene factors” and “motivators”. Hygiene factors Hygiene factors are characterized as extrinsic components of job design that contribute to employee dissatisfaction if they are not met. Hygiene factors include: supervision working conditions company policies salary relations with co-workers Motivators Motivators are intrinsic to the job itself and include aspects such as achievement development responsibility recognition Intrinsic factors have long been acknowledged as important determinants of motivation. There is a longstanding debate as to whether hygiene factors really contribute to job satisfaction. Most job satisfaction and motivation research literature is concerned with organisational or situational predictors (such as pay and supervision) while neglecting individual differences. It has also been discovered that individuals’ significantly differ in the way they perceive their jobs, even if the job description and the tasks they had to perform remained constant, thus suggesting that some individual differences must have an effect on work attitudes. Others also argued that individual disposition may have a profound influence over how the working world is perceived (i.e. what is important to the individual), and this is likely to affect the type of jobs that are sought. The Ten Item Personality Inventory The Ten Item Personality inventory was introduced in Gosling et al., (2003). The ten items of this measure are scored using a seven-point scale, with two statements (one reversed) used to measure each personality variable. The authors report extensive data showing good reliability and validity of this instrument. The Work Values Questionnaire (WVQ) The WVQ was introduced in Furnham et al., (2005). It consists of 37 items and requires individuals to report the extent to which intrinsic (e.g. responsibility and personal growth) and extrinsic (e.g. pay and benefits) components are important to them on a six-point scale. The WVQ is a revised version of Mantech's (1983) questionnaire. Previous studies have indicated that between two and four factors tend to be extracted, and that these often correspond to Herzberg et al.’s hygiene and motivator factors. The Job Satisfaction Scale The Job Satisfaction scale introduced by Warr et al., (1979). It consists of 15 items, seven of which measure intrinsic satisfaction, whilst the remaining eight measure extrinsic job satisfaction. Responses are given on a seven-point scale and can be summed to create and overall satisfaction score as well as an intrinsic and extrinsic value. Experiment on personality, motivation and job satisfaction A 2009 issue of Journal of Managerial Psychology presents an experiment with 202 full-time employees (81 males, mean age=38.3 and 121 females, mean age= 28.4) working in very different jobs in the retail, manufacturing and healthcare to investigate the extent to which personality and demographic factors explain variance in motivation and job satisfaction as defined by Herzberg et al.’s two-factor theory. Every person was given three questionnaires ( the ten item personality inventory, work values questionnaire (WVQ), and job satisfaction scale) and had to complete them via a website. As predicted, personality and demographic variables were significant correlates of the extracted factors, accounting for between 9 and 15.2 per cent of the variance. Similarly, personality and demographic variables were also significantly related to all three job satisfaction scores and accounted for between 10.5 and 12.7 per cent of the variance. As expected, conscientiousness was a significant correlate of job satisfaction scores in both correlational and regressional analyses. Contrary to expectations, age, job tenure and years working full-time were not significantly related to job satisfaction scores; however, in line with predictions and the two-factor theory, job status was significantly associated with these scores. Negative relationships were observed between the security and conditions factor and job status, as well as years in full-time employment. These results suggest that individuals with low job status (e.g. graduate positions and non-managerial roles) are more concerned with working conditions and clarity in their work than those of a higher status and individuals who have been working for longer periods. These results further validate the contention that work attitudes are not the product of situational factors alone, and that both literature and organisations should further investigate the variables that contribute to these values with the intention of increasing job satisfaction and performance, through effective selection methods and pervasive job interventions. Tools used by managerial psychologists Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in the 1940-50s. Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concern the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfill their own unique potential (self-actualization). While Maslow referred to various additional aspects of motivation, he expressed the Hierarchy of Needs in these five clear stages: Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. Douglas McGregor's XY Theory Douglas McGregor proposed his X-Y theory in his 1960 book The Human Side Of Enterprise'. Theory X and Theory Y are still referred to commonly in the field of management and motivation. McGregor's ideas suggest that there are two fundamental approaches to managing people. Many managers tend towards theory x, and generally get poor results. Enlightened managers use theory y, which produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow and develop. Theory x ('authoritarian management' style) The average person dislikes work and will avoid it he/she can. Therefore, most people must be forced with the threat of punishment to work towards organisational objectives. The average person prefers to be directed; to avoid responsibility; is relatively unambitious, and wants security above all else. Theory y ('participative management' style) Effort in work is as natural as work and play. People will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of organisational objectives, without external control or the threat of punishment. Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement. People usually accept and often seek responsibility. The capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving organisational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population. In industry the intellectual potential of the average person is only partly utilised. McClelland's Human Motivation Theory See also''' Need theory David McClelland in his 1961 book, "The Achieving Society'' " identified three motivators that he believed we all have: a need for achievement a need for affiliation a need for power People will have different characteristics depending on their dominant motivator. According to McClelland, these motivators are learned (which is why this theory is sometimes called the Learned Needs Theory). McClelland says that, regardless of our gender, culture, or age, we all have three motivating drivers, and one of these will be our dominant motivating driver. This dominant motivator is largely dependent on our culture and life experiences. Achievement People motivated by achievement need challenging, but not impossible, projects. They thrive on overcoming difficult problems or situations, so make sure you keep them engaged this way. People motivated by achievement work very effectively either alone or with other high achievers. When providing feedback, give achievers a fair and balanced appraisal. They want to know what they're doing right – and wrong – so that they can improve. Affiliation People motivated by affiliation work best in a group environment, so try to integrate them with a team (versus working alone) whenever possible. They also don't like uncertainty and risk. Therefore, when assigning projects or tasks, save the risky ones for other people. When providing feedback to these people, be personal. It's still important to give balanced feedback, but if you start your appraisal by emphasizing their good working relationship and your trust in them, they'll likely be more open to what you say. Remember that these people often don't want to stand out, so it might be best to praise them in private rather than in front of others. Power Those with a high need for power work best when they're in charge. Because they enjoy competition, they do well with goal-oriented projects or tasks. They may also be very effective in negotiations or in situations in which another party must be convinced of an idea or goal. When providing feedback, be direct with these team members. And keep them motivated by helping them further their career goals References Management Industrial and organizational psychology

Free energy principle

The free energy principle is a theoretical framework suggesting that the brain reduces surprise or uncertainty by making predictions based on internal models and updating them using sensory input. It highlights the brain's objective of aligning its internal model and the external world to enhance prediction accuracy. This principle integrates Bayesian inference with active inference, where actions are guided by predictions and sensory feedback refines them. It has wide-ranging implications for comprehending brain function, perception, and action. Overview In biophysics and cognitive science, the free energy principle is a mathematical principle describing a formal account of the representational capacities of physical systems: that is, why things that exist look as if they track properties of the systems to which they are coupled. It establishes that the dynamics of physical systems minimise a quantity known as surprisal (which is the negative log probability of some outcome); or equivalently, its variational upper bound, called free energy. The principle is used especially in Bayesian approaches to brain function, but also some approaches to artificial intelligence; it is formally related to variational Bayesian methods and was originally introduced by Karl Friston as an explanation for embodied perception-action loops in neuroscience. The free energy principle models the behaviour of systems that are distinct from, but coupled to, another system (e.g., an embedding environment), where the degrees of freedom that implement the interface between the two systems is known as a Markov blanket. More formally, the free energy principle says that if a system has a "particular partition" (i.e., into particles, with their Markov blankets), then subsets of that system will track the statistical structure of other subsets (which are known as internal and external states or paths of a system). The free energy principle is based on the Bayesian idea of the brain as an “inference engine.” Under the free energy principle, systems pursue paths of least surprise, or equivalently, minimize the difference between predictions based on their model of the world and their sense and associated perception. This difference is quantified by variational free energy and is minimized by continuous correction of the world model of the system, or by making the world more like the predictions of the system. By actively changing the world to make it closer to the expected state, systems can also minimize the free energy of the system. Friston assumes this to be the principle of all biological reaction. Friston also believes his principle applies to mental disorders as well as to artificial intelligence. AI implementations based on the active inference principle have shown advantages over other methods. The free energy principle is a mathematical principle of information physics: much like the principle of maximum entropy or the principle of least action, it is true on mathematical grounds. To attempt to falsify the free energy principle is a category mistake, akin to trying to falsify calculus by making empirical observations. (One cannot invalidate a mathematical theory in this way; instead, one would need to derive a formal contradiction from the theory.) In a 2018 interview, Friston explained what it entails for the free energy principle to not be subject to falsification: "I think it is useful to make a fundamental distinction at this point—that we can appeal to later. The distinction is between a state and process theory; i.e., the difference between a normative principle that things may or may not conform to, and a process theory or hypothesis about how that principle is realized. Under this distinction, the free energy principle stands in stark distinction to things like predictive coding and the Bayesian brain hypothesis. This is because the free energy principle is what it is — a principle. Like Hamilton's principle of stationary action, it cannot be falsified. It cannot be disproven. In fact, there’s not much you can do with it, unless you ask whether measurable systems conform to the principle. On the other hand, hypotheses that the brain performs some form of Bayesian inference or predictive coding are what they are—hypotheses. These hypotheses may or may not be supported by empirical evidence." There are many examples of these hypotheses being supported by empirical evidence. Background The notion that self-organising biological systems – like a cell or brain – can be understood as minimising variational free energy is based upon Helmholtz’s work on unconscious inference and subsequent treatments in psychology and machine learning. Variational free energy is a function of observations and a probability density over their hidden causes. This variational density is defined in relation to a probabilistic model that generates predicted observations from hypothesized causes. In this setting, free energy provides an approximation to Bayesian model evidence. Therefore, its minimisation can be seen as a Bayesian inference process. When a system actively makes observations to minimise free energy, it implicitly performs active inference and maximises the evidence for its model of the world. However, free energy is also an upper bound on the self-information of outcomes, where the long-term average of surprise is entropy. This means that if a system acts to minimise free energy, it will implicitly place an upper bound on the entropy of the outcomes – or sensory states – it samples. Relationship to other theories Active inference is closely related to the good regulator theorem and related accounts of self-organisation, such as self-assembly, pattern formation, autopoiesis and practopoiesis. It addresses the themes considered in cybernetics, synergetics and embodied cognition. Because free energy can be expressed as the expected energy of observations under the variational density minus its entropy, it is also related to the maximum entropy principle. Finally, because the time average of energy is action, the principle of minimum variational free energy is a principle of least action. Active inference allowing for scale invariance has also been applied to other theories and domains. For instance, it has been applied to sociology, linguistics and communication, semiotics, and epidemiology among others. Negative free energy is formally equivalent to the evidence lower bound, which is commonly used in machine learning to train generative models, such as variational autoencoders. Action and perception Active inference applies the techniques of approximate Bayesian inference to infer the causes of sensory data from a 'generative' model of how that data is caused and then uses these inferences to guide action. Bayes' rule characterizes the probabilistically optimal inversion of such a causal model, but applying it is typically computationally intractable, leading to the use of approximate methods. In active inference, the leading class of such approximate methods are variational methods, for both practical and theoretical reasons: practical, as they often lead to simple inference procedures; and theoretical, because they are related to fundamental physical principles, as discussed above. These variational methods proceed by minimizing an upper bound on the divergence between the Bayes-optimal inference (or 'posterior') and its approximation according to the method. This upper bound is known as the free energy, and we can accordingly characterize perception as the minimization of the free energy with respect to inbound sensory information, and action as the minimization of the same free energy with respect to outbound action information. This holistic dual optimization is characteristic of active inference, and the free energy principle is the hypothesis that all systems which perceive and act can be characterized in this way. In order to exemplify the mechanics of active inference via the free energy principle, a generative model must be specified, and this typically involves a collection of probability density functions which together characterize the causal model. One such specification is as follows. The system is modelled as inhabiting a state space , in the sense that its states form the points of this space. The state space is then factorized according to , where is the space of 'external' states that are 'hidden' from the agent (in the sense of not being directly perceived or accessible), is the space of sensory states that are directly perceived by the agent, is the space of the agent's possible actions, and is a space of 'internal' states that are private to the agent. Keeping with the Figure 1, note that in the following the and are functions of (continuous) time . The generative model is the specification of the following density functions: A sensory model, , often written as , characterizing the likelihood of sensory data given external states and actions; a stochastic model of the environmental dynamics, , often written , characterizing how the external states are expected by the agent to evolve over time , given the agent's actions; an action model, , written , characterizing how the agent's actions depend upon its internal states and sensory data; and an internal model, , written , characterizing how the agent's internal states depend upon its sensory data. These density functions determine the factors of a "joint model", which represents the complete specification of the generative model, and which can be written as . Bayes' rule then determines the "posterior density" , which expresses a probabilistically optimal belief about the external state given the preceding state and the agent's actions, sensory signals, and internal states. Since computing is computationally intractable, the free energy principle asserts the existence of a "variational density" , where is an approximation to . One then defines the free energy as and defines action and perception as the joint optimization problem where the internal states are typically taken to encode the parameters of the 'variational' density and hence the agent's "best guess" about the posterior belief over . Note that the free energy is also an upper bound on a measure of the agent's (marginal, or average) sensory surprise, and hence free energy minimization is often motivated by the minimization of surprise. Free energy minimisation Free energy minimisation and self-organisation Free energy minimisation has been proposed as a hallmark of self-organising systems when cast as random dynamical systems. This formulation rests on a Markov blanket (comprising action and sensory states) that separates internal and external states. If internal states and action minimise free energy, then they place an upper bound on the entropy of sensory states: This is because – under ergodic assumptions – the long-term average of surprise is entropy. This bound resists a natural tendency to disorder – of the sort associated with the second law of thermodynamics and the fluctuation theorem. However, formulating a unifying principle for the life sciences in terms of concepts from statistical physics, such as random dynamical system, non-equilibrium steady state and ergodicity, places substantial constraints on the theoretical and empirical study of biological systems with the risk of obscuring all features that make biological systems interesting kinds of self-organizing systems. Free energy minimisation and Bayesian inference All Bayesian inference can be cast in terms of free energy minimisation. When free energy is minimised with respect to internal states, the Kullback–Leibler divergence between the variational and posterior density over hidden states is minimised. This corresponds to approximate Bayesian inference – when the form of the variational density is fixed – and exact Bayesian inference otherwise. Free energy minimisation therefore provides a generic description of Bayesian inference and filtering (e.g., Kalman filtering). It is also used in Bayesian model selection, where free energy can be usefully decomposed into complexity and accuracy: Models with minimum free energy provide an accurate explanation of data, under complexity costs (c.f., Occam's razor and more formal treatments of computational costs). Here, complexity is the divergence between the variational density and prior beliefs about hidden states (i.e., the effective degrees of freedom used to explain the data). Free energy minimisation and thermodynamics Variational free energy is an information-theoretic functional and is distinct from thermodynamic (Helmholtz) free energy. However, the complexity term of variational free energy shares the same fixed point as Helmholtz free energy (under the assumption the system is thermodynamically closed but not isolated). This is because if sensory perturbations are suspended (for a suitably long period of time), complexity is minimised (because accuracy can be neglected). At this point, the system is at equilibrium and internal states minimise Helmholtz free energy, by the principle of minimum energy. Free energy minimisation and information theory Free energy minimisation is equivalent to maximising the mutual information between sensory states and internal states that parameterise the variational density (for a fixed entropy variational density). This relates free energy minimization to the principle of minimum redundancy. Free energy minimisation in neuroscience Free energy minimisation provides a useful way to formulate normative (Bayes optimal) models of neuronal inference and learning under uncertainty and therefore subscribes to the Bayesian brain hypothesis. The neuronal processes described by free energy minimisation depend on the nature of hidden states: that can comprise time-dependent variables, time-invariant parameters and the precision (inverse variance or temperature) of random fluctuations. Minimising variables, parameters, and precision correspond to inference, learning, and the encoding of uncertainty, respectively. Perceptual inference and categorisation Free energy minimisation formalises the notion of unconscious inference in perception and provides a normative (Bayesian) theory of neuronal processing. The associated process theory of neuronal dynamics is based on minimising free energy through gradient descent. This corresponds to generalised Bayesian filtering (where ~ denotes a variable in generalised coordinates of motion and is a derivative matrix operator): Usually, the generative models that define free energy are non-linear and hierarchical (like cortical hierarchies in the brain). Special cases of generalised filtering include Kalman filtering, which is formally equivalent to predictive coding – a popular metaphor for message passing in the brain. Under hierarchical models, predictive coding involves the recurrent exchange of ascending (bottom-up) prediction errors and descending (top-down) predictions that is consistent with the anatomy and physiology of sensory and motor systems. Perceptual learning and memory In predictive coding, optimising model parameters through a gradient descent on the time integral of free energy (free action) reduces to associative or Hebbian plasticity and is associated with synaptic plasticity in the brain. Perceptual precision, attention and salience Optimizing the precision parameters corresponds to optimizing the gain of prediction errors (c.f., Kalman gain). In neuronally plausible implementations of predictive coding, this corresponds to optimizing the excitability of superficial pyramidal cells and has been interpreted in terms of attentional gain. With regard to the top-down vs. bottom-up controversy, which has been addressed as a major open problem of attention, a computational model has succeeded in illustrating the circular nature of the interplay between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms. Using an established emergent model of attention, namely SAIM, the authors proposed a model called PE-SAIM, which, in contrast to the standard version, approaches selective attention from a top-down position. The model takes into account the transmission of prediction errors to the same level or a level above, in order to minimise the energy function that indicates the difference between the data and its cause, or, in other words, between the generative model and the posterior. To increase validity, they also incorporated neural competition between stimuli into their model. A notable feature of this model is the reformulation of the free energy function only in terms of prediction errors during task performance: where is the total energy function of the neural networks entail, and is the prediction error between the generative model (prior) and posterior changing over time. Comparing the two models reveals a notable similarity between their respective results while also highlighting a remarkable discrepancy, whereby – in the standard version of the SAIM – the model's focus is mainly upon the excitatory connections, whereas in the PE-SAIM, the inhibitory connections are leveraged to make an inference. The model has also proved to be fit to predict the EEG and fMRI data drawn from human experiments with high precision. In the same vein, Yahya et al. also applied the free energy principle to propose a computational model for template matching in covert selective visual attention that mostly relies on SAIM. According to this study, the total free energy of the whole state-space is reached by inserting top-down signals in the original neural networks, whereby we derive a dynamical system comprising both feed-forward and backward prediction error. Active inference When gradient descent is applied to action , motor control can be understood in terms of classical reflex arcs that are engaged by descending (corticospinal) predictions. This provides a formalism that generalizes the equilibrium point solution – to the degrees of freedom problem – to movement trajectories. Active inference and optimal control Active inference is related to optimal control by replacing value or cost-to-go functions with prior beliefs about state transitions or flow. This exploits the close connection between Bayesian filtering and the solution to the Bellman equation. However, active inference starts with (priors over) flow that are specified with scalar and vector value functions of state space (c.f., the Helmholtz decomposition). Here, is the amplitude of random fluctuations and cost is . The priors over flow induce a prior over states that is the solution to the appropriate forward Kolmogorov equations. In contrast, optimal control optimises the flow, given a cost function, under the assumption that (i.e., the flow is curl free or has detailed balance). Usually, this entails solving backward Kolmogorov equations. Active inference and optimal decision (game) theory Optimal decision problems (usually formulated as partially observable Markov decision processes) are treated within active inference by absorbing utility functions into prior beliefs. In this setting, states that have a high utility (low cost) are states an agent expects to occupy. By equipping the generative model with hidden states that model control, policies (control sequences) that minimise variational free energy lead to high utility states. Neurobiologically, neuromodulators such as dopamine are considered to report the precision of prediction errors by modulating the gain of principal cells encoding prediction error. This is closely related to – but formally distinct from – the role of dopamine in reporting prediction errors per se and related computational accounts. Active inference and cognitive neuroscience Active inference has been used to address a range of issues in cognitive neuroscience, brain function and neuropsychiatry, including action observation, mirror neurons, saccades and visual search, eye movements, sleep, illusions, attention, action selection, consciousness, hysteria and psychosis. Explanations of action in active inference often depend on the idea that the brain has 'stubborn predictions' that it cannot update, leading to actions that cause these predictions to come true. See also Constructal law - Law of design evolution in nature, animate and inanimate References External links Behavioral and Brain Sciences (by Andy Clark) Biological systems Systems theory Computational neuroscience Mathematical and theoretical biology

Pattern recognition (psychology)

In psychology and cognitive neuroscience, pattern recognition is a cognitive process that matches information from a stimulus with information retrieved from memory. Pattern recognition occurs when information from the environment is received and entered into short-term memory, causing automatic activation of a specific content of long-term memory. An example of this is learning the alphabet in order. When a carer repeats "A, B, C" multiple times to a child, the child, using pattern recognition, says "C" after hearing "A, B" in order. Recognizing patterns allows anticipation of what is to come. Making the connection between memories and information perceived is a step in pattern recognition called identification. Pattern recognition requires repetition of experience. Semantic memory, which is used implicitly and subconsciously, is the main type of memory involved in recognition. Pattern recognition is crucial not only to humans, but also to other animals. Even koalas, which possess less-developed thinking abilities, use pattern recognition to find and consume eucalyptus leaves. The human brain has developed more, but holds similarities to the brains of birds and lower mammals. The development of neural networks in the outer layer of the brain in humans has allowed for better processing of visual and auditory patterns. Spatial positioning in the environment, remembering findings, and detecting hazards and resources to increase chances of survival are examples of the application of pattern recognition for humans and animals. There are six main theories of pattern recognition: template matching, prototype-matching, feature analysis, recognition-by-components theory, bottom-up and top-down processing, and Fourier analysis. The application of these theories in everyday life is not mutually exclusive. Pattern recognition allows us to read words, understand language, recognize friends, and even appreciate music. Each of the theories applies to various activities and domains where pattern recognition is observed. Facial, music and language recognition, and seriation are a few of such domains. Facial recognition and seriation occur through encoding visual patterns, while music and language recognition use the encoding of auditory patterns. Theories Template matching Template matching theory describes the most basic approach to human pattern recognition. It is a theory that assumes every perceived object is stored as a "template" into long-term memory. Incoming information is compared to these templates to find an exact match. In other words, all sensory input is compared to multiple representations of an object to form one single conceptual understanding. The theory defines perception as a fundamentally recognition-based process. It assumes that everything we see, we understand only through past exposure, which then informs our future perception of the external world. For example, A, A, and A are all recognized as the letter A, but not B. This viewpoint is limited, however, in explaining how new experiences can be understood without being compared to an internal memory template. Prototype matching Unlike the exact, one-to-one, template matching theory, prototype matching instead compares incoming sensory input to one average prototype. This theory proposes that exposure to a series of related stimuli leads to the creation of a "typical" prototype based on their shared features. It reduces the number of stored templates by standardizing them into a single representation. The prototype supports perceptual flexibility, because unlike in template matching, it allows for variability in the recognition of novel stimuli. For instance, if a child had never seen a lawn chair before, they would still be able to recognize it as a chair because of their understanding of its essential characteristics as having four legs and a seat. This idea, however, limits the conceptualization of objects that cannot necessarily be "averaged" into one, like types of canines, for instance. Even though dogs, wolves, and foxes are all typically furry, four-legged, moderately sized animals with ears and a tail, they are not all the same, and thus cannot be strictly perceived with respect to the prototype matching theory. Multiple discrimination scaling Template and feature analysis approaches to recognition of objects (and situations) have been merged / reconciled / overtaken by multiple discrimination theory. This states that the amounts in a test stimulus of each salient feature of a template are recognized in any perceptual judgment as being at a distance in the universal unit of 50% discrimination (the objective performance 'JND') from the amount of that feature in the template. Recognition–by–components theory Similar to feature–detection theory, recognition by components (RBC) focuses on the bottom-up features of the stimuli being processed. First proposed by Irving Biederman (1987), this theory states that humans recognize objects by breaking them down into their basic 3D geometric shapes called geons (i.e., cylinders, cubes, cones, etc.). An example is how we break down a common item like a coffee cup: we recognize the hollow cylinder that holds the liquid and a curved handle off the side that allows us to hold it. Even though not every coffee cup is exactly the same, these basic components help us recognize the consistency across examples (or pattern). RBC suggests that there are fewer than 36 unique geons that when combined can form a virtually unlimited number of objects. To parse and dissect an object, RBC proposes we attend to two specific features: edges and concavities. Edges enable the observer to maintain a consistent representation of the object regardless of the viewing angle and lighting conditions. Concavities are where two edges meet and enable the observer to perceive where one geon ends and another begins. The RBC principles of visual object recognition can be applied to auditory language recognition as well. In place of geons, language researchers propose that spoken language can be broken down into basic components called phonemes. For example, there are 44 phonemes in the English language. Top-down and bottom-up processing Top-down processing Top-down processing refers to the use of background information in pattern recognition. It always begins with a person's previous knowledge, and makes predictions due to this already acquired knowledge. Psychologist Richard Gregory estimated that about 90% of the information is lost between the time it takes to go from the eye to the brain, which is why the brain must guess what the person sees based on past experiences. In other words, we construct our perception of reality, and these perceptions are hypotheses or propositions based on past experiences and stored information. The formation of incorrect propositions will lead to errors of perception such as visual illusions. Given a paragraph written with difficult handwriting, it is easier to understand what the writer wants to convey if one reads the whole paragraph rather than reading the words in separate terms. The brain may be able to perceive and understand the gist of the paragraph due to the context supplied by the surrounding words. Bottom-up processing Bottom-up processing is also known as data-driven processing, because it originates with the stimulation of the sensory receptors. Psychologist James Gibson opposed the top-down model and argued that perception is direct, and not subject to hypothesis testing as Gregory proposed. He stated that sensation is perception and there is no need for extra interpretation, as there is enough information in our environment to make sense of the world in a direct way. His theory is sometimes known as the "ecological theory" because of the claim that perception can be explained solely in terms of the environment. An example of bottom up-processing involves presenting a flower at the center of a person's field. The sight of the flower and all the information about the stimulus are carried from the retina to the visual cortex in the brain. The signal travels in one direction. Seriation In psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the third stage is called the Concrete Operational State. It is during this stage that the abstract principle of thinking called "seriation" is naturally developed in a child. Seriation is the ability to arrange items in a logical order along a quantitative dimension such as length, weight, age, etc. It is a general cognitive skill which is not fully mastered until after the nursery years. To seriate means to understand that objects can be ordered along a dimension, and to effectively do so, the child needs to be able to answer the question "What comes next?" Seriation skills also help to develop problem-solving skills, which are useful in recognizing and completing patterning tasks. Piaget's work on seriation Piaget studied the development of seriation along with Szeminska in an experiment where they used rods of varying lengths to test children's skills. They found that there were three distinct stages of development of the skill. In the first stage, children around the age of 4 could not arrange the first ten rods in order. They could make smaller groups of 2–4, but could not put all the elements together. In the second stage where the children were 5–6 years of age, they could succeed in the seriation task with the first ten rods through the process of trial and error. They could insert the other set of rods into order through trial and error. In the third stage, the 7-8-year-old children could arrange all the rods in order without much trial and error. The children used the systematic method of first looking for the smallest rod first and the smallest among the rest. Development of problem-solving skills To develop the skill of seriation, which then helps advance problem-solving skills, children should be provided with opportunities to arrange things in order using the appropriate language, such as "big" and "bigger" when working with size relationships. They should also be given the chance to arrange objects in order based on the texture, sound, flavor and color. Along with specific tasks of seriation, children should be given the chance to compare the different materials and toys they use during play. Through activities like these, the true understanding of characteristics of objects will develop. To aid them at a young age, the differences between the objects should be obvious. Lastly, a more complicated task of arranging two different sets of objects and seeing the relationship between the two different sets should also be provided. A common example of this is having children attempt to fit saucepan lids to saucepans of different sizes, or fitting together different sizes of nuts and bolts. Application of seriation in schools To help build up math skills in children, teachers and parents can help them learn seriation and patterning. Young children who understand seriation can put numbers in order from lowest to highest. Eventually, they will come to understand that 6 is higher than 5, and 20 is higher than 10. Similarly, having children copy patterns or create patterns of their own, like ABAB patterns, is a great way to help them recognize order and prepare for later math skills, such as multiplication. Child care providers can begin exposing children to patterns at a very young age by having them make groups and count the total number of objects. Facial pattern recognition Recognizing faces is one of the most common forms of pattern recognition. Humans are extremely effective at remembering faces, but this ease and automaticity belies a very challenging problem. All faces are physically similar. Faces have two eyes, one mouth, and one nose all in predictable locations, yet humans can recognize a face from several different angles and in various lighting conditions. Neuroscientists posit that recognizing faces takes place in three phases. The first phase starts with visually focusing on the physical features. The facial recognition system then needs to reconstruct the identity of the person from previous experiences. This provides us with the signal that this might be a person we know. The final phase of recognition completes when the face elicits the name of the person. Although humans are great at recognizing faces under normal viewing angles, upside-down faces are tremendously difficult to recognize. This demonstrates not only the challenges of facial recognition but also how humans have specialized procedures and capacities for recognizing faces under normal upright viewing conditions. Neural mechanisms Scientists agree that there is a certain area in the brain specifically devoted to processing faces. This structure is called the fusiform gyrus, and brain imaging studies have shown that it becomes highly active when a subject is viewing a face. Several case studies have reported that patients with lesions or tissue damage localized to this area have tremendous difficulty recognizing faces, even their own. Although most of this research is circumstantial, a study at Stanford University provided conclusive evidence for the fusiform gyrus' role in facial recognition. In a unique case study, researchers were able to send direct signals to a patient's fusiform gyrus. The patient reported that the faces of the doctors and nurses changed and morphed in front of him during this electrical stimulation. Researchers agree this demonstrates a convincing causal link between this neural structure and the human ability to recognize faces. Facial recognition development Although in adults, facial recognition is fast and automatic, children do not reach adult levels of performance (in laboratory tasks) until adolescence. Two general theories have been put forth to explain how facial recognition normally develops. The first, general cognitive development theory, proposes that the perceptual ability to encode faces is fully developed early in childhood, and that the continued improvement of facial recognition into adulthood is attributed to other general factors. These general factors include improved attentional focus, deliberate task strategies, and metacognition. Research supports the argument that these other general factors improve dramatically into adulthood. Face-specific perceptual development theory argues that the improved facial recognition between children and adults is due to a precise development of facial perception. The cause for this continuing development is proposed to be an ongoing experience with faces. Developmental issues Several developmental issues manifest as a decreased capacity for facial recognition. Using what is known about the role of the fusiform gyrus, research has shown that impaired social development along the autism spectrum is accompanied by a behavioral marker where these individuals tend to look away from faces, and a neurological marker characterized by decreased neural activity in the fusiform gyrus. Similarly, those with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) struggle with facial recognition to the extent they are often unable to identify even their own faces. Many studies report that around 2% of the world's population have developmental prosopagnosia, and that individuals with DP have a family history of the trait. Individuals with DP are behaviorally indistinguishable from those with physical damage or lesions on the fusiform gyrus, again implicating its importance to facial recognition. Despite those with DP or neurological damage, there remains a large variability in facial recognition ability in the total population. It is unknown what accounts for the differences in facial recognition ability, whether it is a biological or environmental disposition. Recent research analyzing identical and fraternal twins showed that facial recognition was significantly higher correlated in identical twins, suggesting a strong genetic component to individual differences in facial recognition ability. Language development Pattern recognition in language acquisition Research from Frost et al., 2013 reveals that infant language acquisition is linked to cognitive pattern recognition. Unlike classical nativist and behavioral theories of language development, scientists now believe that language is a learned skill. Studies at the Hebrew University and the University of Sydney both show a strong correlation between the ability to identify visual patterns and to learn a new language. Children with high shape recognition showed better grammar knowledge, even when controlling for the effects of intelligence and memory capacity. This is supported by the theory that language learning is based on statistical learning, the process by which infants perceive common combinations of sounds and words in language and use them to inform future speech production. Phonological development The first step in infant language acquisition is to decipher between the most basic sound units of their native language. This includes every consonant, every short and long vowel sound, and any additional letter combinations like "th" and "ph" in English. These units, called phonemes, are detected through exposure and pattern recognition. Infants use their "innate feature detector" capabilities to distinguish between the sounds of words. They split them into phonemes through a mechanism of categorical perception. Then they extract statistical information by recognizing which combinations of sounds are most likely to occur together, like "qu" or "h" plus a vowel. In this way, their ability to learn words is based directly on the accuracy of their earlier phonetic patterning. Grammar development The transition from phonemic differentiation into higher-order word production is only the first step in the hierarchical acquisition of language. Pattern recognition is furthermore utilized in the detection of prosody cues, the stress and intonation patterns among words. Then it is applied to sentence structure and the understanding of typical clause boundaries. This entire process is reflected in reading as well. First, a child recognizes patterns of individual letters, then words, then groups of words together, then paragraphs, and finally entire chapters in books. Learning to read and learning to speak a language are based on the "stepwise refinement of patterns" in perceptual pattern recognition. Music pattern recognition Music provides deep and emotional experiences for the listener. These experiences become contents in long-term memory, and every time we hear the same tunes, those contents are activated. Recognizing the content by the pattern of the music affects our emotion. The mechanism that forms the pattern recognition of music and the experience has been studied by multiple researchers. The sensation felt when listening to our favorite music is evident by the dilation of the pupils, the increase in pulse and blood pressure, the streaming of blood to the leg muscles, and the activation of the cerebellum, the brain region associated with physical movement. While retrieving the memory of a tune demonstrates general recognition of musical pattern, pattern recognition also occurs while listening to a tune for the first time. The recurring nature of the metre allows the listener to follow a tune, recognize the metre, expect its upcoming occurrence, and figure the rhythm. The excitement of following a familiar music pattern happens when the pattern breaks and becomes unpredictable. This following and breaking of a pattern creates a problem-solving opportunity for the mind that form the experience. Psychologist Daniel Levitin argues that the repetitions, melodic nature and organization of this music create meaning for the brain. The brain stores information in an arrangement of neurons which retrieve the same information when activated by the environment. By constantly referencing information and additional stimulation from the environment, the brain constructs musical features into a perceptual whole. The medial prefrontal cortex – one of the last areas affected by Alzheimer's disease – is the region activated by music. Cognitive mechanisms To understand music pattern recognition, we need to understand the underlying cognitive systems that each handle a part of this process. Various activities are at work in this recognition of a piece of music and its patterns. Researchers have begun to unveil the reasons behind the stimulated reactions to music. Montreal-based researchers asked ten volunteers who got "chills" listening to music to listen to their favorite songs while their brain activity was being monitored. The results show the significant role of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) region – involved with cognitive processes such as motivation, reward, addiction, etc. – creating the neural arrangements that make up the experience. A sense of reward prediction is created by anticipation before the climax of the tune, which comes to a sense of resolution when the climax is reached. The longer the listener is denied the expected pattern, the greater the emotional arousal when the pattern returns. Musicologist Leonard Meyer used fifty measures of Beethoven's 5th movement of the String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 to examine this notion. The stronger this experience is, the more vivid memory it will create and store. This strength affects the speed and accuracy of retrieval and recognition of the musical pattern. The brain not only recognizes specific tunes, it distinguishes standard acoustic features, speech and music. MIT researchers conducted a study to examine this notion. The results showed six neural clusters in the auditory cortex responding to the sounds. Four were triggered when hearing standard acoustic features, one specifically responded to speech, and the last exclusively responded to music. Researchers who studied the correlation between temporal evolution of timbral, tonal and rhythmic features of music, came to the conclusion that music engages the brain regions connected to motor actions, emotions and creativity. The research indicates that the whole brain "lights up" when listening to music. This amount of activity boosts memory preservation, hence pattern recognition. Recognizing patterns of music is different for a musician and a listener. Although a musician may play the same notes every time, the details of the frequency will always be different. The listener will recognize the musical pattern and their types despite the variations. These musical types are conceptual and learned, meaning they might vary culturally. While listeners are involved with recognizing (implicit) musical material, musicians are involved with recalling them (explicit). A UCLA study found that when watching or hearing music being played, neurons associated with the muscles needed for playing the instrument fire. Mirror neurons light up when musicians and non-musicians listen to a piece. Developmental issues Pattern recognition of music can build and strengthen other skills, such as musical synchrony and attentional performance and musical notation and brain engagement. Even a few years of musical training enhances memory and attention levels. Scientists at University of Newcastle conducted a study on patients with severe acquired brain injuries (ABIs) and healthy participants, using popular music to examine music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs). The participants were asked to record their familiarity with the songs, whether they liked them and what memories they evoked. The results showed that the ABI patients had the highest MEAMs, and all the participants had MEAMs of a person, people or life period that were generally positive. The participants completed the task by utilizing pattern recognition skills. Memory evocation caused the songs to sound more familiar and well-liked. This research can be beneficial to rehabilitating patients of autobiographical amnesia who do not have fundamental deficiency in autobiographical recall memory and intact pitch perception. In a study at University of California, Davis mapped the brain of participants while they listened to music. The results showed links between brain regions to autobiographical memories and emotions activated by familiar music. This study can explain the strong response of patients with Alzheimer's disease to music. This research can help such patients with pattern recognition-enhancing tasks. False pattern recognition The human tendency to see patterns that do not actually exist is called apophenia. Examples include the Man in the Moon, faces or figures in shadows, in clouds, and in patterns with no deliberate design, such as the swirls on a baked confection, and the perception of causal relationships between events which are, in fact, unrelated. Apophenia figures prominently in conspiracy theories, gambling, misinterpretation of statistics and scientific data, and some kinds of religious and paranormal experiences. Misperception of patterns in random data is called pareidolia. Recent researches in neurosciences and cognitive sciences suggest to understand 'false pattern recognition', in the paradigm of predictive coding. See also Apophenia Gambler's fallacy Gestalt psychology Pareidolia Synchronicity Thin-slicing Notes References External links nAsagram - A web app for creating anagrams interactively. Pattern recognition Cognition Cognitive psychology Perception Articles containing video clips

Psychological typologies

Psychological typologies are classifications used by psychologists to describe the distinctions between people. The problem of finding the essential basis for the classification of psychological types—that is, the basis of determining a broader spectrum of derivative characteristics—is crucial in differential psychology. Historical background Logic of development of classification hypotheses in psychology The entire history of human studies from the system-classification position reveals itself as an arena of struggle of two opposite methodological directions, the goals of which were: 1) to "catch" the central organizing link, some kind of motor of all design, and to distribute people by the qualitative specificity of these central links; "The typological approach consists in the global perception of the person with the following reduction of variety of individual forms to a small number of the groups uniting around the representative type" (Meily, 1960). 2) to decompose the psyche to its components in order to understand the work of its parts and to create a classification based on the differences in the structure and quality of the parts. "It is necessary to reduce all the personality character traits to the elementary mental elements and to the elementary forms of the basic psychological laws, revealing the nature of the discovered ties" (Polan, 1894). At present there are several thousand various psychological classifications that point to these or other distinctions between people, or mental characteristics, as such. The classifications may have different ground scales of generalizations, degrees of inner-strictness. Classification of people and psychological characteristics The logic of psychological classifications development demanded a parallel existence of two scientific approaches: one of which was named "psychology of types", and the other—"psychology of traits". In the course of time, both approaches shifted towards each other: the psychology of types—in attempts to understand the structure of psychological traits of every type, trait psychology—in attempts to achieve a higher system of generalizations. «As soon as the fact that the observable traits do not correspond to separate essential psychic characteristics and rather are only aspects of the personality and behavior, received general recognition immediately appeared as the necessity to reveal the fundamental factors behind the traits. Haimans and Virsma as well as other scientists after them tried to solve the problem. However all these researches had a fragmentary character, their results have been caused by preliminary hypotheses, and the choice of traits as a rule was determined by the personal view of the researcher» R.Maily An example of trait psychology development (stages): Singling out the types of love as psychology of traits. In the Antique time the typology of the kinds of love was very popular, these comprised: Eros – a passionate physical and emotional love based on aesthetic enjoyment; stereotype of romantic love Ludus – a love that is played as a game or sport; conquest Storge – an affectionate love that slowly develops from friendship, based on similarity ( kindred to Philia ) Pragma – love that is driven by the head, not the heart; undemonstrative Mania – highly volatile love; obsession; fueled by low self-esteem Agape – selfless altruistic love; spiritual; motherly love Every person, as a rule, possesses all the possible types of love, but in different proportion. Which can be expressed by the profile characteristic with ups and downs. The Types of people with similar profile characteristics combined into classification of higher level. Examples of type-psychology development (stages): Singling out groups of people that have obvious dominance of conscious cognitive operations— "Rationals" or unconscious operations —"Irrationals". The specific cognitive abilities connected with rationality and irrationality. A network for the profile characteristic is worked out which is typical for rationals and irrationals. In the course of the development of psychology as a science and a practice, the understanding has developed that the individual is a "microcosm", which has all traits, properties, and characteristics, but they are distributed according to certain systemic laws, which have yet to be discovered. Psychological type scales Cosmologies Systems of views about the material and mental world is based on principles of harmony, common universal laws of the nature and mind, and those with the greatest scale and orderliness. Everything including the principle of psychological classification, has mathematical accuracy and clearness. The typology has the subordinated role, it reflects the natural belonging to cosmic laws. Example: Psycosmology Formal typology Classifications that included stable types singled out on the basis of some psychological or anatomo-physiological traits refer to formal typologies. The formal typology may have quote varies scale. Often these are typologies are based on the behavior of particulars in a certain activity. Example: Witkin in 1954 singled out the types of people as field dependent and field independent. The field dependent do not see a simple figure in a complex geometrical background. The field independent can single out the figure from a complex geometrical background. Dynamic typology The dynamic typologies are connected with change and transformations of people, and with going through stages in their development (biological, psychological, social). Example: From the psychoanalytical point of view, the child in her development undergoes a number of psychosexual stages which creates a particular make up of the soul and mind, and, being a sort of psychological type. The developing person is viewed as an auto-erotic creature that receives sensual pleasure from stimulation of erogenous zones of the body by the parents or other people during the process of rearing. Freud believed that for every such stage there is a particular erogenous zone. The person goes through certain studies in the development of self-consciousness in the search of Self. Carl Jung considered the Self to be a central archetype, the one of order and wholeness of personality. Jung called ability of humans to self-cognition and self-development as individuation confluence of her/his conscious and unconscious. The first stage of the individuation is the acquisition of the element in the structure of the personality psyche called - person or mask, hiding the real self and the unconscious, called the shadow. So, the second stage of the individuation is awareness of the shadow. The third stage is meeting still other components of the psyche – called Anima and Animus. The last stage of individuation – development of the Self, that which becomes the new center of the soul. It brings unity and integrates a conscious and unconscious material. All the mentioned stages intersect. The person constantly and repeatedly returns to old problems. Individuation may be depicted as a spiral in which the person continues once and again to deal with the same fundamental problems, each time in a more subtle form. Modeling of systems of psychological types In modeling of psychological systems the systematization and classification play a very important role. With the development of statistics in the description of weight of the trait (or type) in society, the character of the trait (type) distribution becomes very important. It is also important, if the distinctions of trait have a quantitative or qualitative character for the adequate interpretation of practically every research in the field of differential psychology, understanding of certain fundamental statistical concepts is required. "There are at least three various theories of the psychological types worked out by psychologists. Some authors represent types as separate classes that exclude each other. Some others psychologists accept the theory of types as more or less detailed trait theory, defining the types as poles of one and same continuum between which people may be ranked by the law of normal distribution. The adepts of the third view believe that the types differ from the traits by having multimodal distributions in which the people are grouped with in definite points, representing pure types". Stagner, 1948. Distribution of the traits The normal distribution is fundamental and does not depend on cultural factors. The majority of measuring instruments (tests) are constructed so that the trait could be normalized with the normal distribution term, if distinctions are to have quantitative character. For instance, the traits which enter the base of the personality named the Big Five have a normal distribution. Example: Extraversion/introversion. Most people have ambivalent characteristics on this scale. Strict sets If characteristics have qualitative rather than quantitative distinctions, they are usually described as strict sets. Example: Right-handed people and left-handed people. The deaf and the hearing. Types in Socionics. Nonstrict sets It is very seldom that a certain quality is consistently absent in a psyche. Therefore, in most cases, it is useful to use mild classifications which reflect the real character of the distribution more precisely. Example: Typology by Ernst Kretschmer or William Herbert Sheldon. Complex models More complex and systematized models take into account the fact that they may meet both quantitative, and qualitative distinctions or traits. The distributions of these traits have clear connections and may form types which in term will have a constent distribution in society. Example: Psycosmology model in the context of the general, typological and individual. System classifications The system classifications proceeded from the postulate that the whole is not a sum of its parts, but rather, a system of higher organization. This classification is frequently based on the laws of the functioning Universe. The properties of this classification are: strictness (everyone belongs to one and only one class and remains in it for the whole life), quantity of classes determined by laws of the Universe, and the organization of the psyche as a part of a more general system of a functioning Universe. Examples: Astrological (Egypt, Babylon, Greece, the Classical antiquity), astro-musical system of types (India). The foundation of development of practices, known nowadays as "the western astrology", was the Mesopotamian astrology whereas the Chinese tradition became a core of systems so-called "Eastern astrology". As to astrological systems of meso-American Indians and druids, they haven't survived till present time in the living tradition and are now reconstructed only some with some degree of authenticity. Original astrological systems arose, probably, in other regions of the world as well, but they were quite regional (astrology of inks or original Javano-Balyiskian astrology, based on a "vuku" calendar. An interesting development of this idea can be found in Johannes Kepler's works which continued the traditions of astro-musical systems, having joined physical and mental laws in the theory of resonance. "In his exposition astrology became similar to the physical theory of resonance. The stars themselves do not influence the destiny of people, but the soul of person at the moment of a birth imprinted the angles between the stars and the following life reacted to them in specific ways". A somewhat different approach to problems of astrological knowledge can be observed in Carl Jung's works. Astrology, as Jung believed, "is the top of all psychological knowledge in antiquity", the gist of which is in imprinting the symbolical configurations in the form of collective unconscious. "Astrology as collective unconscious to which the psychology addresses, consists of symbolical configurations:" planets "are Gods, the symbols of power unconscious". Domination of one of the four cognitive functions (thinking, feeling, sensation or intuition) is the basis for the classification that Carl Jung theorized from his clinical experience. This typology was expanded by Aušra Augustinavičiūtė (Socionics) and Isabel Briggs Myers with her mother, Katharine Briggs (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Specific classifications The classification more often touched on the characteristics connected with the sphere of social interaction. They were built as a set of bipolar traits in which the dominance of certain traits were accentuated in the person's character. The characteristics of specific classifications are the absence of a clear borders between classes—the person can pass from one class into another under the influence of the external and internal forces. The number of classes depends on the position of the author of the classification. Examples: Socially-characterological (Theophrastus), sociopolitical (Plato). The Characters by Theophrastus contains thirty brief, vigorous and trenchant outlines of moral types, which form a picture of the life of his time, and of human nature in general. According to Plato, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant). Plato's is one of the first typologies, based on his values. Plato singled out the following types: aristocratic characterized by dominant of the higher side of soul, aspiration to true search; timocratic characterized by strong development of ambition and inclination to struggle; oligarchic characterized by greediness, restraint and thrift; democratic characterized by moral instability, and aspiration to constant change of sensual pleasures; tyrannic characterized by dominant of lowest animal attraction. The specific classifications are often build by practical workers on the basis of concrete activity. Within any activity one can find many very different classifications. Mixed classifications This section needs editing. It is disjointed and unclear.* The characteristics of the classifications: combination of strictness and flexibility. There are laws of Universe, which determine strict classifications and there are earthly laws which act on another level, not destroying the strict classification, and creating variations within one class, contributing the system flexibility. The person as a part entered more general systems—the Universe, the Society. However the person himself was an independent system with his own inner world, with his contradictions, unique way of life and experience, a disposition and levels of development of inner selves. The philosophers looked upon the person from a far distance, doctors had to see the particulars his physical and psychical organization. The typology of Hippocrates become a combination of theoretical ideas and practical methods. Remaining on the positions of cosmologists concerning the nature of human soul, he raised the questions about the structure and functioning of different psychical and physical organizations of humans as social creatures, and developed the typology of temperaments. Contemporary systemic classifications are represented by works of Carl Jung, Hans Eysenck, Ludmila Sobchik, Leonid Dorfman, Natali Nagibina and others. The authors of contemporary systematic conceptions try to generalize as much as possible the results of empirical research of individual characteristics within the frameworks of one typological model. Such a model, as a rule, is the center of the construction uniting the general, typological and individual psychological characteristics of humans. As examples of such systematic classification may serve the Theory of leading tendencies by Ludmila Sobchik, Psycosmology by Natali Nagibina, the Concept of the meta-individual world by Leonid Dorfman. The theory of leading tendencies laid in the basis of methodology of psychodiagnostical research, allows to understand the complex construct of personality in all its completeness. According to this theory, the integral image of the personality includes emotional sphere, individual style of cognition, the type of interpersonal behavior, strength and direction of motivation. The comparative analysis of the psychodiagnostical indicators received in successive studies of different levels of self-consciousness (objective unconscious, actual-subjective and ideal "Self"), reveals the zone of the inner conflict, level of self-understanding and ability of the individual to self-control". Basis of classification The theoretical analysis and empirical verification of the classification systems of the psyche have been undertaken by a number of authors in the 20th century (C. Jung, H. Eysenck, R. Meily, V.S. Merlin, L.N. Sobchik, L.Ja. Dorfman, E.P. Ilyin, N.L. Nagibina and others). Bodily and formal-dynamic characteristics as grounds for classification These classifications are more often used by the clinical psychologists and the psychiatrists. Example: The Hippocratic school held that four humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm consists the basis for the four types of temperaments. Example: Kretschmer's classification system was based on three main body types: asthenic/leptosomic (thin, small, weak), athletic (muscular, large–boned), and pyknic (stocky, fat). (The athletic category was later combined into the category asthenic/leptosomic.) Each of these body types was associated with certain personality traits and, in a more extreme form, psychopathologies. Example: American psychologist William Herbert Sheldon associates body types with human temperament types.Sheldon proposed that the human physique be classed according to the relative contribution of three fundamental elements, somatotypes, named after the three germ layers of embryonic development: the endoderm, (develops into the digestive tract), the mesoderm, (becomes muscle, heart and blood vessels), and the ectoderm (forms the skin and nervous system). Sheldon's "somatotypes" and their supposed associated physical traits can be summarized as follows: Ectomorphic: characterized by long and thin muscles/limbs and low fat storage; receding chin, usually referred to as slim. Mesomorphic: characterized by medium bones, solid torso, low fat levels, wide shoulders with a narrow waist; usually referred to as muscular. Endomorphic: characterized by increased fat storage, a wide waist and a large bone structure, usually referred to as fat. Cognitive characteristics as a basis for classification Cognitive characteristics as a basis for classification become popular in the 20th century. Table 1. Some examples of classifications based on concrete methods of receiving and processing information. Values and motivational characteristics as grounds for personality classifications The sphere of personality values and senses is situated at the crossing point of two large areas of psychic: motivation on one side and the world outlooking structure on the other. The sphere of values and senses with its unique picture of the world is the core of personality. Most bright psychological ideas concerning the sphere values and senses are presented in the work of Erich Fromm, M. Rokeach, Abraham Maslow and others. For example, Rokeach treats the values as a kind of steady conviction that a certain goal or way of living is preferable to some other. The human values are characterized by the following main properties: The whole number of values of a person is relatively small. All people have the same values, although in different degrees. The values are organized in systems. The sources of human values can be tracked down in culture, society and its institutions etc. The influence of the values can be traced practically in all social phenomena, deserving studying. Rokeach distinguishes two classes of values – terminal and instrumental. He defines the terminal values as convictions that a certain final goal in individual life (for instance, happy family life, peace in the whole world) from the personal and the social point of view is worth to be pursued. The instrumental values are beliefs that a certain way of performance (for instant, honesty, rationalism) is from personal and social points of view preferable in any situations. In fact, the distinction between the terminal and instrumental values coincides with already existing, rather traditional differentiations of values-goals and values means. The system of personality values orientation as well as any psychological system can be represented as "multidimensional dynamic space". Example: Erich Fromm describes the ways an individual relates to the world and constitutes his general character, and develops from two specific kinds of relatedness to the world: acquiring and assimilating things ("assimilation"), and reacting to people ("socialization"). These orientations describe how a person has developed in regard to how he responds to conflicts in his or her life; he also considered that people were never pure in any such orientation. These two factors form four types of malignant character, which he calls Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding and Marketing. He also described a positive character, which he called Productive. Example: N.Losski picked out three types of characters. Hedonistic type with domination of lower, sensual drives suppressing all higher aspirations. The people of this type are completely under the influence of the biological nature. Their self is not yet mature. Egoistic type. Their self is quite mature and decorates all the striving deeds and feelings. The Self (I) prevails in their consciousness and they are striving to broadly expose it in their activities. Superpersonal type. Their aspirations similarly to those of the first type, are as if given outside, but their source is not in the physical needs of the body, but in the factors of higher order, namely: in higher religious, scientific and aesthetic strivings. Such people act as if not on behalf of themselves, but on behalf of the higher will, which they recognize as the rules of their deeds. Losski points out that it is impossible the sharp boundary between the three types, as there are intermediate types, that are transitional from one category to the other. Bounded complexes of cognitive characteristics, values and motives as ground for personality classifications Example: E. Spranger distinguishes six types of personality, which connect cognition and values correlating the personality type with cognition of the world. The Theoretical, whose dominant interest is the discovery of truth. A passion to discover, systematize and analyze; a search for knowledge. The Economic, who is interested in what is useful. A passion to gain a return on all investments involving time, money and resources. The Aesthetic, whose highest value is form and harmony. A passion to experience impressions of the world and achieve form and harmony in life; self-actualization. The Social, whose highest value is love of people. A passion to invest myself, my time, and my resources into helping others achieve their potential. The Political, whose interest is primarily in power. A passion to achieve position and to use that position to affect and influence others. The Religious, whose highest value is unity. A passion to seek out and pursue the highest meaning in life, in the divine or the ideal, and achieve a system for living. One dominating value corresponding to every type. Contemporary problems of psychological classifications The problems of psychological classifications are caused the high complexity and mobility of psyche. To classify the objects of the material world is more easy a task. In psychology we study consciousness with the help of consciousness. Here new possibilities are opened and the same time new limitations occurred, in part, due to the subjectivity and the necessity to overcome it as it is known, in the psyche there are conscious and unconscious cognitive processes. They often take place separately, as two different means to get knowledge (information) about situations in the world. Because of this, for instance, estimations of personality characteristics with the help of projective tests (which are addressed mostly to unconscious properties) often contradict the results of self-estimations made with help of questionnaires (which are based on consciousness). For determining of psychological type of a person, it is important to have a measuring instrument (test, inventory etc.), that is calibrated to reveal not the present and actual situational characteristics, but the opens which are typical, repeating with higher probability in the course of life. That is why the methods, which allow to see the present characteristics through the prism of the person whole life: biographical, structured talk, longitudinal observation in real situations) are very important for the psychologists. Such methods are well developed in the clinical psychology. In the work with healthy people the use of these methods is rather narrow. Example: The program of personality measuring by A.F. Lazurski. Training qualified specialists in the field of research and diagnostics of psychological types is a particular problem. Here a whole complex of specific knowledge and skills is required. For measuring psychological types it is important to have the ability to see not separate fragments of the psychic reality but operating with the systems (cognition, motivation, values, will, emotions, self-consciousness) and taking into account their holistic character, to master the knowledge of steady variants of these systems and skills to compare their properties. The comparing and estimating the systems are more difficult in the absence of the reliable methodological base: there is not a generally accepted opinion on what to compare and how to estimate. For investigation the types it is necessary to be able to use both the qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical reality research, taking into account the following factors: 1. The scale and the complex character of research (the possibility of keeping under control several plans of different scales). 2. The character and specificity of distribution of properties and characteristics in the studied environment. 3. The adequate number of sub-scales, not violating the completeness and the constructive validity of a psychological traits. List of important theorists of psychological typology and differential psychology Alfred Adler Anne Anastasi Claudio Naranjo Raymond Cattell Hans Eysenck Sigmund Freud Franz Joseph Gall Francis Galton Hippocrates Karen Horney Edmund Husserl William James Carl Jung Ernst Kretschmer Oswald Külpe Karl Leonhard Cesare Lombroso Isabel Briggs Myers Ivan Pavlov Nikolai Lossky Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo Plato Théodule-Armand Ribot Hermann Rorschach William Stern Theophrastus See also Hermeneutics Heterophenomenology Personhood Theory Differential psychology Phenomenology (psychology) Philosophical Anthropology Personology Psychological types Personality psychology Psychometrics Socionics Rationality Irrationality Personality type 16PF Adjective Check List (ACL) BarOn EQ-i Big Five personality traits Birkman Method CPI 260 DISC assessment Enneagram of Personality Interpersonal compatibility Keirsey Temperament Sorter List of personality tests Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator NEO OCEAN Strong Interest Inventory Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument Jungian Type Index Jung Type Indicator References Bibliography 1. Anastasi, A. (1981). Differential psychology. (4th ed.). New York: Macmillan. 2. Asendorpf, J. B. (2003). Head-to-head comparison of the predictive validity of personality types and dimensions. European Journal of Personality, 17, 327–346. 3. Bates, K. L. (2006). Type A personality not linked to heart disease. Retrieved 2006-11-05. 4. Daniels, David; and Price, Virginia (Updated and Revised 2009). The Essential Enneagram: Test and Self-Discovery Guide. HarperOne. . 5. Furnham, A., & Crump, J. (2005). Personality Traits, Types, and Disorders: An Examination of the Relationship Between Three Self-Report Measures. European Journal of Personality, 19, 167-184. 6. Kagan, J. (1994). Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature. New York: Basic Books. 7. Keirsey, David (May 1, 1998) [1978]. Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence (1st Ed. ed.). Prometheus Nemesis Book Co. pp. 3. . 8. Pittenger, D. J. (2004). The limitations of extracting typologies from trait measures of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 779–787. 9. McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A., Costa, P. T., & Ozer, D. J. (2006). Person-factors in the California adult Q-set: Closing the door on personality types? European Journal of Personality, 20, 29-44. 10. McCrae, R. M., & John, O. P. (1992). "An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications" (PDF). Journal of Personality 60 (2): 175–215. . . 11. Myers, Isabel Briggs with Peter B. Myers (1980, 1995). Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing. pp. xi–xii. . 12. William H. Sheldon, The varieties of human physique: An introduction to constitutional psychology (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940). 13. William H. Sheldon, Atlas of Men. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954. 14. Jung, Carl (1976). Campbell, Joseph. ed. The Portable Jung. New York, NY: Penguin Books. pp. 178. 15. Jung, C.G. ([1921] 1971). Psychological Types, Collected Works, Volume 6, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. . In German language Ernst Kretschmer Körperbau und Charakter. Untersuchungen zum Konstitutionsproblem und zur Lehre von den Temperamenten. Springer Berlin 1921 Martin Priwitzer. und das Wahnproblem Karl Leonhard Classification of Endogenous Psychoses and their Differentiated Etiology, 2nd edition edited by Helmut Beckmann. New York/Wien: Springer-Verlag 1999 Die Populäre Psychologie der Typen. Teil 1 /W.Red. N. Nagibina. Berlin, 2010 In Russian language Абульханова-Славская К.А. Стратегия жизни. М.,1991. Абульханова-Славская К.А. Типология активности личности. // Психологический журнал, 1985, т.6, №5, с.3-18. Анастази Анна. Дифференциальная психология. М., 2001. Артемцева Н. Г., Губанкова Н. Г., Ильясов И. И., Миронычева А. В., Нагибина Н. Л. Психологические типы. Когнитивные стили. Ч.4. Московский гуманитарный университет, 2003 Артемцева Н. Г., Ильясов И. И., Миронычева А. В.,Нагибина Н. Л. Фивейский В. Ю. Познание и личность: типологический подход. М., Книга и бизнес, 2004 Бубнова С.С. Системный подход к исследованию психологии индивидуальности. М., 2002. Дорфман Л.Я. Метаиндивидуальный мир. М., 1993. Ильин Е.П. Психология индивидуальных различий. "Питер"., 2004. Кеплер И. О более достоверных основаниях астрологии. / Герметизм, магия, натурфилософия в европейской культуре XIII-XIX вв. М., 1999. Климов Е.А. Образ мира в разнотипных профессиях. М., 1995. Куталёв Денис . Астрология как историко-культурный феномен. Диссертация на соискание учёной степени кандидата наук по специальности "Теория и история культуры". Когнитивные стили: Тезисы Всесоюзного научного семинара. Таллин, 1986. Кречмер Э. Строение тела и характер / Психология и психоанализ характера. Хрестоматия. Самара, 1997. Купер К. Индивидуальные различия. М., 2000. Лазурский А.Ф. Очерки науки о характерах. М., 1995. Леонгард К. Акцентуированные личности. Киев, 1981. Либин А.В. Дифференциальная психология: на пересечении европейских, российских и американских традиций. М., 1999. Лосский Н.О. Условия абсолютного добра. М., 1991. Марутаев М.А. Гармония как закономерность природы. / Золотое сечение. М., 1990, с.130-233. Мейли Р.Структура личности / Поль Фресс, Жан Пиаже. Экспериментальная психология. Выпуск 5, М., «Прогресс», 1975. Мельников В.М., Ямпольский Л.Т. Введение в экспериментальную писхологию личности. М., 1985. Мерлин В.С. Очерк интегрального исследования личности. М., 1986. Модели мира. (ред. Д.А.Поспелов). М., 1997. Нагибина Н. Л., Артемцева Н. Г., Грекова Т. Н. Психология искусства. Типологический подход. М., «МосГУ», 2005 Нагибина Н. Л. Психология типов. Системный подход. Психодиагностические методики. Ч.1. М., Институт молодежи, 2000 Нагибина Н. Л., Миронычева А. В. Психология типов. Системный подход. Тело и душа. Ч.2. М., Московская гуманитано-социальная академия, 2002. Нагибина Н. Л., Грекова Т. Н. Психология типов. Стратегии развития. Ч.3. М., Московская гуманитано-социальная академия, 2002 Нейгауз Г. Искусство фортепианной игры. М., 2000 Петров В.М., Грибков В.С., Каменский В.С. Поверить гармонию... экспериментом. / Число и мысль. М., 1980. Вып.3, с.145-168. Платон. Соб.соч. в 4-х тт., Т. 1, М., 1990. Психология индивидуальных различий: Тексты. (Под ред. Ю.Б.Гиппенрейтер, В.Я.Романова), М., 1982. Популярная психология типов Часть 1 /ред. Н. Л. Нагибиной. IIDP, Москва, 2009 Россолимо Г.И. Психологические профили. Методика. М., 1910. Собчик Л.Н. Психология индивидуальности. Теория и практика психодиагностики. - СПб., 2005. Семира и В. Веташ. Астрология в образах и аналогиях мира. Барнаул, 1993. Теплов Б.М., Небылицин В.Д. Изучение основных свойств нервной системы и их значение для психологии индивидуальных различий. // Вопросы психологии. 1963, №5. Торшилова Е.М. Можно ли поверить алгеброй гармонию? (Критика «экспериментальной эстетики»). М., 1988. Фрагменты ранних греческих философов. Часть 1, М., 1989. Шадриков В.Д. Способности в структуре психики. / Диагностика познавательных способностей. Ярославль, 1986. Юнг К. Психологические типы. М., 1995. External links Arikha, Noga (2007). Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours In Our Time (BBC Radio 4) – episode on the four humours in MP3 format, 45 minutes Rudolf Steiner "The Four Temperaments" The System of types – Psycosmology

Association (psychology)

Association in psychology refers to a mental connection between concepts, events, or mental states that usually stems from specific experiences. Associations are seen throughout several schools of thought in psychology including behaviorism, associationism, psychoanalysis, social psychology, and structuralism. The idea stems from Plato and Aristotle, especially with regard to the succession of memories, and it was carried on by philosophers such as John Locke, David Hume, David Hartley, and James Mill. It finds its place in modern psychology in such areas as memory, learning, and the study of neural pathways. Learned associations Associative learning is when a subject creates a relationship between stimuli (e.g. auditory or visual) or behavior and the original stimulus. The higher the concreteness of stimulus items, the more likely are they to evoke sensory images that can function as mediators of associative learning and memory. The ability to learn new information is essential to daily life and thus a critical component of healthy aging. There is substantial research documenting aging-related decline in forming and retrieving episodic memories. The acquisition of associations is the basis for learning. This learning is seen in classical and operant conditioning. Law of Effect Edward Thorndike did research in this area and developed the law of effect, where associations between a stimulus and response are affected by the consequence of the response. For example, behaviors increase in strength and/or frequency when they have been followed by reward. This occurs because of an association between the behavior and a mental representation of the reward (such as food). Conversely, receiving a negative consequence lowers the frequency of the behavior due to the negative association. An example of this would be a rat in a cage with a bar lever. If pressing the lever results in a food pellet, the rat will learn to press the lever to receive food. If pressing the lever resulted in an electric shock on the floor of the cage, the rat would learn to avoid pressing the lever. Classical conditioning Classical conditioning is an example of a learned association. The classical conditioning process consists of four elements: unconditioned stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response (UCR), conditioned stimulus (CS), and conditioned response (CR). Without conditioning, there is already a relationship between the unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response. When a second stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus, the response becomes associated with both stimuli. The secondary stimulus is known as the conditioned stimulus and elicits a conditioned response. The strength of the response to the conditioned stimulus increases over the period of learning, as the CS becomes associated with UCS. The strength of the response can diminish if CS is presented without UCS. In his famous experiment, Pavlov used the unconditioned response of dogs salivating at the sight of food (UCS), and paired the sound of a bell (CS) with receiving food, and later the dog salivated (CR) to the bell alone, indicating that an association had been established between the bell and food. Operant conditioning In operant conditioning, behaviors are changed due to the experienced outcomes of those behaviors. Stimuli do not cause behavior, as in classical conditioning, but instead the associations are created between stimulus and consequence, as an extension by Thorndike on his Law of Effect. B.F. Skinner was well known for his studies of reinforcers on behavior. His studies included the aspect of contingency, which refers to the connection between a specific action and the following consequence or reinforcement. Skinner described three contingencies: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment. Reinforcements create a positive association between the action and consequence in order to promote the continuation of the action. This is done in one of two ways, positive reinforcers introduce a rewarding stimulus, whereas negative reinforcers remove an aversive stimulus to make the environment less aversive. Punishments create a negative relationship between the action and the consequence so that the action does not continue. Mood The overall content of moods, compared to emotions, feelings or affects, are less specific and are likely to be provoked by a stimulus or event. The present studies investigated the constituents of the occurrent experience of specific moods like sad or angry mood states. Moods are typically defined by contrasting them with emotions. Several criteria exist for distinguishing moods from emotions, but there is a widely shared consensus that the core differentiating feature is that moods, in contrast to emotions, are diffuse and global. Watson introduced a white fluffy rabbit to an infant, and created a connection between the rabbit and a loud noise. This experience for Little Albert associated a feeling of fear with the rabbit. Acquired equivalence Acquired equivalence is defined as a learning and generalization paradigm in which prior training in stimulus equivalence increases the amount of generalization between two stimuli even if they are superficially dissimilar. Therefore, if two different stimuli share the same consequence, they predict the same outcome. Let us suppose that there are two girls Anna and Sarah, who have nothing in common other than they both love pets. When you learn that Sarah has a dog, you immediately predict that Anna will love Sarah’s dog. The area in the brain responsible for the acquired equivalence is the hippocampus; hence, in cases when the hippocampal region is damaged, there are deficits of acquired equivalence. In acquired equivalence, the stimuli are not categorized based on their characteristics (physical, emotional) but based on their functional characteristic (preference about the same thing). During this paradigm, it is learned to create compositions from different categories, and for this reason, some researchers agree that acquired equivalence can be a synonym to categorization. Both humans and non-humans have the ability for acquired equivalence. An example of acquired equivalence is from the studies Geoffrey Hall and his colleagues have conducted with pigeons. In one study, the pigeons were trained to peck when they see the light with different colors. After that, the researchers paired certain colors to appear in sequence and provided food when the pigeons peck only in few sequences. Thus, the pigeons learned that in those sequences, if they peck, they will certainly receive food. Those sequences had something special that the pigeons could also learn; certain two colors were followed by food when they are followed by certain one color, so the two colors somewhat equivalent. Let us assume, as there were six colors, that red and green when followed by only yellow, led to food. Similarly, blue and brown, when followed by only white, also led to food. In this way, the pigeons learned that red is in a way equivalent to green, and blue to brown, because they are paired with the same color. The next step was to teach the pigeons that pecking on red alone leads to food while pecking to blue alone does not. At this point, the researchers presented the pigeons with the second colors (i.e., green and brown) that were paired with the same color (i.e., yellow or white) with which the first colors were also paired (i.e., red and blue), which made the colors with the same pairing color (i.e., red and green as pairing with yellow and blue and brown as pairing with white) equivalent in the pigeons’ eyes. So, at this third step, the pigeons were presented with the green light and after that with the brown light, and to the researchers’ surprise, the pigeons showed a quick response with a strong pecking to the first color while not responding to the second. This result shows that the pigeons have learned the equivalence of two colors from their co-occurring and their having similar consequence in one occurrence. This idea of equivalence showed its effect when the pigeons were in a totally different context and saw one of the two colors leading to a certain consequence; they believed that the other color would also lead to the same consequence, as it is equivalent to the first. The pigeons learned to generalize from one color to another because of their history of co-occurring. Memory Memory seems to operate as a sequence of associations: concepts, words, and opinions are intertwined, so that stimuli such as a person’s face will call up the associated name. Understanding the effects of mood on memory is central to several issues in psychology. It is a primary topic in theories of the relation between affect and cognition. Mood's effect on memory may mediate the influence of mood on a variety of behaviors and judgements associated with decision making, helping, and person perception. Understanding the relationships between different items is fundamental to episodic memory, and damage to the hippocampal region of the brain has been found to hinder learning of associations between objects. Testing associations Associations in humans can be measured with the Implicit Association Test, a psychological test which measures the implicit (subconscious) relation between two concepts, which was created by Anthony G. Greenwald in 1995. It has been used in investigations of subconscious racial bias, gender and sexual orientation bias, consumer preferences, political preferences, personality traits, alcohol and drug use, mental health, and relationships. The test measures the associations between different ideas, such as race and crime. Reaction time is used to distinguish associations; faster reaction time is an indicator of a stronger association. A D score is used to represent the participant's mean reaction time. If the participant's mean reaction time is negative, then that individual is thought to have less implicit bias. If the participant's mean reaction time is positive, then that individual is thought to have more implicit bias. A D score for each participant is calculated by deleting trials that are greater than 10,000 milliseconds, deleting participants that respond quicker than 300 milliseconds on over 10% of trials, determining inclusive standard deviations for all trials in Stages 3 and 4 and also in Stages 6 and 7. Mean response times are determined for Stages 3, 4, 6, and 7, the mean difference between Stage 6 and Stage 3 (MeanStage6 - MeanStage3) will be computed as well as the mean difference between Stage 7 and Stage 4(MeanStage7 - MeanStage4), each difference is divided by its associated inclusive standard deviation, and the D score is equivalent to the average of the two resulting ratios. In psychology, association can sometimes be synonymous with correlation. When something is referred to as having positive association or positive correlation, it describes high or low levels of one variable happen with high or low levels of another variable. Other common types of association are negative association, zero association, and curvilinear association. See also Association of Ideas Associative memory (psychology) Halo effect Pair by association References Bibliography Boring, E. G. (1950) A History of Experimental Psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Gallistel, C. R. & Gibbon, J. (2002). The Symbolic Foundations of Conditioned Behavior. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. Klein, Stephen (2012). Learning: Principles and Applications (6 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA, London: SAGE. . Shettleworth, S. J. (2010) Cognition, Evolution and Behavior. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. . Smith, E. E. & Kosslyn, S. M. (2007) "Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain", Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall. . External links Word Associations Network: The Word Association Dictionary Behavioral concepts

Conscience

A conscience is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience stands in contrast to elicited emotion or thought due to associations based on immediate sensory perceptions and reflexive responses, as in sympathetic central nervous system responses. In common terms, conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a person commits an act that conflicts with their moral values. The extent to which conscience informs moral judgment before an action and whether such moral judgments are or should be based on reason has occasioned debate through much of modern history between theories of basics in ethic of human life in juxtaposition to the theories of romanticism and other reactionary movements after the end of the Middle Ages. Religious views of conscience usually see it as linked to a morality inherent in all humans, to a beneficent universe and/or to divinity. The diverse ritualistic, mythical, doctrinal, legal, institutional and material features of religion may not necessarily cohere with experiential, emotive, spiritual or contemplative considerations about the origin and operation of conscience. Common secular or scientific views regard the capacity for conscience as probably genetically determined, with its subject probably learned or imprinted as part of a culture. Commonly used metaphors for conscience include the "voice within", the "inner light", or even Socrates' reliance on what the Greeks called his "daimōnic sign", an averting (ἀποτρεπτικός apotreptikos) inner voice heard only when he was about to make a mistake. Conscience, as is detailed in sections below, is a concept in national and international law, is increasingly conceived of as applying to the world as a whole, has motivated numerous notable acts for the public good and been the subject of many prominent examples of literature, music and film. Views Although humanity has no generally accepted definition of conscience or universal agreement about its role in ethical decision-making, three approaches have addressed it: Religious views Secular views Philosophical views Religious In the literary traditions of the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, conscience is the label given to attributes composing knowledge about good and evil, that a soul acquires from the completion of acts and consequent accretion of karma over many lifetimes. According to Adi Shankara in his Vivekachudamani morally right action (characterised as humbly and compassionately performing the primary duty of good to others without expectation of material or spiritual reward), helps "purify the heart" and provide mental tranquility but it alone does not give us "direct perception of the Reality". This knowledge requires discrimination between the eternal and non-eternal and eventually a realization in contemplation that the true self merges in a universe of pure consciousness. In the Zoroastrian faith, after death a soul must face judgment at the Bridge of the Separator; there, evil people are tormented by prior denial of their own higher nature, or conscience, and "to all time will they be guests for the House of the Lie." The Chinese concept of Ren, indicates that conscience, along with social etiquette and correct relationships, assist humans to follow The Way (Tao) a mode of life reflecting the implicit human capacity for goodness and harmony. Conscience also features prominently in Buddhism. In the Pali scriptures, for example, Buddha links the positive aspect of conscience to a pure heart and a calm, well-directed mind. It is regarded as a spiritual power, and one of the "Guardians of the World". The Buddha also associated conscience with compassion for those who must endure cravings and suffering in the world until right conduct culminates in right mindfulness and right contemplation. Santideva (685–763 CE) wrote in the Bodhicaryavatara (which he composed and delivered in the great northern Indian Buddhist university of Nalanda) of the spiritual importance of perfecting virtues such as generosity, forbearance and training the awareness to be like a "block of wood" when attracted by vices such as pride or lust; so one can continue advancing towards right understanding in meditative absorption. Conscience thus manifests in Buddhism as unselfish love for all living beings which gradually intensifies and awakens to a purer awareness where the mind withdraws from sensory interests and becomes aware of itself as a single whole. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations that conscience was the human capacity to live by rational principles that were congruent with the true, tranquil and harmonious nature of our mind and thereby that of the Universe: "To move from one unselfish action to another with God in mind. Only there, delight and stillness ... the only rewards of our existence here are an unstained character and unselfish acts." The Islamic concept of Taqwa is closely related to conscience. In the Qur’ān verses 2:197 & 22:37 Taqwa refers to "right conduct" or "piety", "guarding of oneself" or "guarding against evil". Qur’ān verse 47:17 says that God is the ultimate source of the believer's taqwā which is not simply the product of individual will but requires inspiration from God. In Qur’ān verses 91:7–8, God the Almighty talks about how He has perfected the soul, the conscience and has taught it the wrong (fujūr) and right (taqwā). Hence, the awareness of vice and virtue is inherent in the soul, allowing it to be tested fairly in the life of this world and tried, held accountable on the day of judgment for responsibilities to God and all humans. Qur’ān verse 49:13 states: "O humankind! We have created you out of male and female and constituted you into different groups and societies, so that you may come to know each other-the noblest of you, in the sight of God, are the ones possessing taqwā." In Islam, according to eminent theologians such as Al-Ghazali, although events are ordained (and written by God in al-Lawh al-Mahfūz, the Preserved Tablet), humans possess free will to choose between wrong and right, and are thus responsible for their actions; the conscience being a dynamic personal connection to God enhanced by knowledge and practise of the Five Pillars of Islam, deeds of piety, repentance, self-discipline and prayer; and disintegrated and metaphorically covered in blackness through sinful acts. Marshall Hodgson wrote the three-volume work: The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. In the Protestant Christian tradition, Martin Luther insisted in the Diet of Worms that his conscience was captive to the Word of God, and it was neither safe nor right to go against conscience. To Luther, conscience falls within the ethical, rather than the religious, sphere. John Calvin saw conscience as a battleground: "the enemies who rise up in our conscience against his Kingdom and hinder his decrees prove that God's throne is not firmly established therein". Many Christians regard following one's conscience as important as, or even more important than, obeying human authority. According to the bible, written in Romans 2:15, conscience is the one bearing witness, accusing or excusing one another, so we would know when we break the law written in our hearts; the guilt we feel when we do something wrong tells us that we need to repent." This can sometimes (as with the conflict between William Tyndale and Thomas More over the translation of the Bible into English) lead to moral quandaries: "Do I unreservedly obey my Church/priest/military/political leader or do I follow my own inner feeling of right and wrong as instructed by prayer and a personal reading of scripture?" Some contemporary Christian churches and religious groups hold the moral teachings of the Ten Commandments or of Jesus as the highest authority in any situation, regardless of the extent to which it involves responsibilities in law. In the Gospel of John (7:53–8:11) (King James Version) Jesus challenges those accusing a woman of adultery stating: "'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one" [However the word 'conscience' is not in the original New Testament Greek, and is not in the vast majority of Bible versions.] (see Jesus and the woman taken in adultery). In the Gospel of Luke (10: 25–37) Jesus tells the story of how a despised and heretical Samaritan (see Parable of the Good Samaritan) who (out of compassion/pity - the word 'conscience' is not used) helps an injured stranger beside a road, qualifies better for eternal life by loving his neighbor, than a priest who passes by on the other side. This dilemma of obedience in conscience to divine or state law, was demonstrated dramatically in Antigone's defiance of King Creon's order against burying her brother an alleged traitor, appealing to the "unwritten law" and to a "longer allegiance to the dead than to the living". Catholic theology sees conscience as the last practical "judgment of reason which at the appropriate moment enjoins [a person] to do good and to avoid evil". The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) describes: "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, tells him inwardly at the right movement: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His dignity lies in observing this law, and by it he will be judged. His conscience is man’s most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." Thus, conscience is not like the will, nor a habit like prudence, but "the interior space in which we can listen to and hear the truth, the good, the voice of God. It is the inner place of our relationship with Him, who speaks to our heart and helps us to discern, to understand the path we ought to take, and once the decision is made, to move forward, to remain faithful" In terms of logic, conscience can be viewed as the practical conclusion of a moral syllogism whose major premise is an objective norm and whose minor premise is a particular case or situation to which the norm is applied. Thus, Catholics are taught to carefully educate themselves as to revealed norms and norms derived therefrom, so as to form a correct conscience. Catholics are also to examine their conscience daily and with special care before confession. Catholic teaching holds that, "Man has the right to act according to his conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters". This right of conscience does not allow one to arbitrarily disagree with Church teaching and claim that one is acting in accordance with conscience. A sincere conscience presumes one is diligently seeking moral truth from authentic sources, that is, seeking to conform oneself to that moral truth by listening to the authority established by Christ to teach it. Nevertheless, despite one's best effort, "[i]t can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed ... This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility ... In such cases, the person is culpable for the wrong he commits." The Catholic Church has warned that "rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching ... can be at the source of errors in judgment in moral conduct". An example of someone following his conscience to the point of accepting the consequence of being condemned to death is Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). A theologian who wrote on the distinction between the 'sense of duty' and the 'moral sense', as two aspects of conscience, and who saw the former as some feeling that can only be explained by a divine Lawgiver, was John Henry Cardinal Newman. A well known saying of him is that he would first toast on his conscience and only then on the pope, since his conscience brought him to acknowledge the authority of the pope. Judaism arguably does not require uncompromising obedience to religious authority; the case has been made that throughout Jewish history, rabbis have circumvented laws they found unconscionable, such as capital punishment. Similarly, although an occupation with national destiny has been central to the Jewish faith (see Zionism) many scholars (including Moses Mendelssohn) stated that conscience as a personal revelation of scriptural truth was an important adjunct to the Talmudic tradition. The concept of inner light in the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers is associated with conscience. Freemasonry describes itself as providing an adjunct to religion and key symbols found in a Freemason Lodge are the square and compasses explained as providing lessons that Masons should "square their actions by the square of conscience", learn to "circumscribe their desires and keep their passions within due bounds toward all mankind." The historian Manning Clark viewed conscience as one of the comforters that religion placed between man and death but also a crucial part of the quest for grace encouraged by the Book of Job and the Book of Ecclesiastes, leading us to be paradoxically closest to the truth when we suspect that what matters most in life ("being there when everyone suddenly understands what it has all been for") can never happen. Leo Tolstoy, after a decade studying the issue (1877–1887), held that the only power capable of resisting the evil associated with materialism and the drive for social power of religious institutions, was the capacity of humans to reach an individual spiritual truth through reason and conscience. Many prominent religious works about conscience also have a significant philosophical component: examples are the works of Al-Ghazali, Avicenna, Aquinas, Joseph Butler and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (all discussed in the philosophical views section). Secular The secular approach to conscience includes psychological, physiological, sociological, humanitarian, and authoritarian views. Lawrence Kohlberg considered critical conscience to be an important psychological stage in the proper moral development of humans, associated with the capacity to rationally weigh principles of responsibility, being best encouraged in the very young by linkage with humorous personifications (such as Jiminy Cricket) and later in adolescents by debates about individually pertinent moral dilemmas. Erik Erikson placed the development of conscience in the 'pre-schooler' phase of his eight stages of normal human personality development. The psychologist Martha Stout terms conscience "an intervening sense of obligation based in our emotional attachments." Thus a good conscience is associated with feelings of integrity, psychological wholeness and peacefulness and is often described using adjectives such as "quiet", "clear" and "easy". Sigmund Freud regarded conscience as originating psychologically from the growth of civilisation, which periodically frustrated the external expression of aggression: this destructive impulse being forced to seek an alternative, healthy outlet, directed its energy as a superego against the person's own "ego" or selfishness (often taking its cue in this regard from parents during childhood). According to Freud, the consequence of not obeying our conscience is guilt, which can be a factor in the development of neurosis; Freud claimed that both the cultural and individual super-ego set up strict ideal demands with regard to the moral aspects of certain decisions, disobedience to which provokes a 'fear of conscience'. Antonio Damasio considers conscience an aspect of extended consciousness beyond survival-related dispositions and incorporating the search for truth and desire to build norms and ideals for behavior. Conscience as a society-forming instinct Michel Glautier argues that conscience is one of the instincts and drives which enable people to form societies: groups of humans without these drives or in whom they are insufficient cannot form societies and do not reproduce their kind as successfully as those that do. Charles Darwin considered that conscience evolved in humans to resolve conflicts between competing natural impulses-some about self-preservation but others about safety of a family or community; the claim of conscience to moral authority emerged from the "greater duration of impression of social instincts" in the struggle for survival. In such a view, behavior destructive to a person's society (either to its structures or to the persons it comprises) is bad or "evil". Thus, conscience can be viewed as an outcome of those biological drives that prompt humans to avoid provoking fear or contempt in others; being experienced as guilt and shame in differing ways from society to society and person to person. A requirement of conscience in this view is the capacity to see ourselves from the point of view of another person. Persons unable to do this (psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists) therefore often act in ways which are "evil". Fundamental in this view of conscience is that humans consider some "other" as being in a social relationship. Thus, nationalism is invoked in conscience to quell tribal conflict and the notion of a Brotherhood of Man is invoked to quell national conflicts. Yet such crowd drives may not only overwhelm but redefine individual conscience. Friedrich Nietzsche stated: "communal solidarity is annihilated by the highest and strongest drives that, when they break out passionately, whip the individual far past the average low level of the 'herd-conscience.'" Jeremy Bentham noted that: "fanaticism never sleeps ... it is never stopped by conscience; for it has pressed conscience into its service." Hannah Arendt in her study of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, notes that the accused, as with almost all his fellow Germans, had lost track of his conscience to the point where they hardly remembered it; this wasn't caused by familiarity with atrocities or by psychologically redirecting any resultant natural pity to themselves for having to bear such an unpleasant duty, so much as by the fact that anyone whose conscience did develop doubts could see no one who shared them: "Eichmann did not need to close his ears to the voice of conscience ... not because he had none, but because his conscience spoke with a "respectable voice", with the voice of the respectable society around him". Sir Arthur Keith in 1948 developed the Amity-enmity complex. We evolved as tribal groups surrounded by enemies; thus conscience evolved a dual role; the duty to save and protect members of the in-group, and the duty to show hatred and aggression towards any out-group. An interesting area of research in this context concerns the similarities between our relationships and those of animals, whether animals in human society (pets, working animals, even animals grown for food) or in the wild. One idea is that as people or animals perceive a social relationship as important to preserve, their conscience begins to respect that former "other", and urge actions that protect it. Similarly, in complex territorial and cooperative breeding bird communities (such as the Australian magpie) that have a high degree of etiquettes, rules, hierarchies, play, songs and negotiations, rule-breaking seems tolerated on occasions not obviously related to survival of the individual or group; behaviour often appearing to exhibit a touching gentleness and tenderness. Evolutionary biology Contemporary scientists in evolutionary biology seek to explain conscience as a function of the brain that evolved to facilitate altruism within societies. In his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins states that he agrees with Robert Hinde's Why Good is Good, Michael Shermer's The Science of Good and Evil, Robert Buckman's Can We Be Good Without God? and Marc Hauser's Moral Minds, that our sense of right and wrong can be derived from our Darwinian past. He subsequently reinforced this idea through the lens of the gene-centered view of evolution, since the unit of natural selection is neither an individual organism nor a group, but rather the "selfish" gene, and these genes could ensure their own "selfish" survival by, inter alia, pushing individuals to act altruistically towards its kin. Neuroscience and artificial conscience Numerous case studies of brain damage have shown that damage to areas of the brain (such as the anterior prefrontal cortex) results in the reduction or elimination of inhibitions, with a corresponding radical change in behaviour. When the damage occurs to adults, they may still be able to perform moral reasoning; but when it occurs to children, they may never develop that ability. Attempts have been made by neuroscientists to locate the free will necessary for what is termed the 'veto' of conscience over unconscious mental processes (see Neuroscience of free will and Benjamin Libet) in a scientifically measurable awareness of an intention to carry out an act occurring 350–400 microseconds after the electrical discharge known as the 'readiness potential.' Jacques Pitrat claims that some kind of artificial conscience is beneficial in artificial intelligence systems to improve their long-term performance and direct their introspective processing. Philosophical The word "conscience" derives etymologically from the Latin conscientia, meaning "privity of knowledge" or "with-knowledge". The English word implies internal awareness of a moral standard in the mind concerning the quality of one's motives, as well as a consciousness of our own actions. Thus conscience considered philosophically may be first, and perhaps most commonly, a largely unexamined "gut feeling" or "vague sense of guilt" about what ought to be or should have been done. Conscience in this sense is not necessarily the product of a process of rational consideration of the moral features of a situation (or the applicable normative principles, rules or laws) and can arise from parental, peer group, religious, state or corporate indoctrination, which may or may not be presently consciously acceptable to the person ("traditional conscience"). Conscience may be defined as the practical reason employed when applying moral convictions to a situation ("critical conscience"). In purportedly morally mature mystical people who have developed this capacity through daily contemplation or meditation combined with selfless service to others, critical conscience can be aided by a "spark" of intuitive insight or revelation (called marifa in Islamic Sufi philosophy and synderesis in medieval Christian scholastic moral philosophy). Conscience is accompanied in each case by an internal awareness of 'inner light' and approbation or 'inner darkness' and condemnation as well as a resulting conviction of right or duty either followed or declined. Medieval The medieval Islamic scholar and mystic Al-Ghazali divided the concept of Nafs (soul or self (spirituality)) into three categories based on the Qur’an: Nafs Ammarah (12:53) which "exhorts one to freely indulge in gratifying passions and instigates to do evil" Nafs Lawammah (75:2) which is "the conscience that directs man towards right or wrong" Nafs Mutmainnah (89:27) which is "a self that reaches the ultimate peace" The medieval Persian philosopher and physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi believed in a close relationship between conscience or spiritual integrity and physical health; rather than being self-indulgent, man should pursue knowledge, use his intellect and apply justice in his life. The medieval Islamic philosopher Avicenna, whilst imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan, wrote his famous isolated-but-awake "Floating Man" sensory deprivation thought experiment to explore the ideas of human self-awareness and the substantiality of the soul; his hypothesis being that it is through intelligence, particularly the active intellect, that God communicates truth to the human mind or conscience. According to the Islamic Sufis conscience allows Allah to guide people to the marifa, the peace or "light upon light" experienced where a Muslim's prayers lead to a melting away of the self in the inner knowledge of God; this foreshadowing the eternal Paradise depicted in the Qur’ān. Some medieval Christian scholastics such as Bonaventure made a distinction between conscience as a rational faculty of the mind (practical reason) and inner awareness, an intuitive "spark" to do good, called synderesis arising from a remnant appreciation of absolute good and when consciously denied (for example to perform an evil act), becoming a source of inner torment. Early modern theologians such as William Perkins and William Ames developed a syllogistic understanding of the conscience, where God's law made the first term, the act to be judged the second and the action of the conscience (as a rational faculty) produced the judgement. By debating test cases applying such understanding conscience was trained and refined (i.e. casuistry). In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas regarded conscience as the application of moral knowledge to a particular case (S.T. I, q. 79, a. 13). Thus, conscience was considered an act or judgment of practical reason that began with synderesis, the structured development of our innate remnant awareness of absolute good (which he categorised as involving the five primary precepts proposed in his theory of Natural Law) into an acquired habit of applying moral principles. According to Singer, Aquinas held that conscience, or conscientia was an imperfect process of judgment applied to activity because knowledge of the natural law (and all acts of natural virtue implicit therein) was obscured in most people by education and custom that promoted selfishness rather than fellow-feeling (Summa Theologiae, I–II, I). Aquinas also discussed conscience in relation to the virtue of prudence to explain why some people appear to be less "morally enlightened" than others, their weak will being incapable of adequately balancing their own needs with those of others. Aquinas reasoned that acting contrary to conscience is an evil action but an errant conscience is only blameworthy if it is the result of culpable or vincible ignorance of factors that one has a duty to have knowledge of. Aquinas also argued that conscience should be educated to act towards real goods (from God) which encouraged human flourishing, rather than the apparent goods of sensory pleasures. In his Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Aquinas claimed it was weak will that allowed a non-virtuous man to choose a principle allowing pleasure ahead of one requiring moral constraint. Thomas A Kempis in the medieval contemplative classic The Imitation of Christ (ca 1418) stated that the glory of a good man is the witness of a good conscience. "Preserve a quiet conscience and you will always have joy. A quiet conscience can endure much, and remains joyful in all trouble, but an evil conscience is always fearful and uneasy." The anonymous medieval author of the Christian mystical work The Cloud of Unknowing similarly expressed the view that in profound and prolonged contemplation a soul dries up the "root and ground" of the sin that is always there, even after one's confession and however busy one is in holy things: "therefore, whoever would work at becoming a contemplative must first cleanse his [or her] conscience." The medieval Flemish mystic John of Ruysbroeck likewise held that true conscience has four aspects that are necessary to render a man just in the active and contemplative life: "a free spirit, attracting itself through love"; "an intellect enlightened by grace", "a delight yielding propension or inclination" and "an outflowing losing of oneself in the abyss of ... that eternal object which is the highest and chief blessedness ... those lofty amongst men, are absorbed in it, and immersed in a certain boundless thing." Modern Benedict de Spinoza in his Ethics, published after his death in 1677, argued that most people, even those that consider themselves to exercise free will, make moral decisions on the basis of imperfect sensory information, inadequate understanding of their mind and will, as well as emotions which are both outcomes of their contingent physical existence and forms of thought defective from being chiefly impelled by self-preservation. The solution, according to Spinoza, was to gradually increase the capacity of our reason to change the forms of thought produced by emotions and to fall in love with viewing problems requiring moral decision from the perspective of eternity. Thus, living a life of peaceful conscience means to Spinoza that reason is used to generate adequate ideas where the mind increasingly sees the world and its conflicts, our desires and passions sub specie aeternitatis, that is without reference to time. Hegel's obscure and mystical Philosophy of Mind held that the absolute right of freedom of conscience facilitates human understanding of an all-embracing unity, an absolute which was rational, real and true. Nevertheless, Hegel thought that a functioning State would always be tempted not to recognize conscience in its form of subjective knowledge, just as similar non-objective opinions are generally rejected in science. A similar idealist notion was expressed in the writings of Joseph Butler who argued that conscience is God-given, should always be obeyed, is intuitive, and should be considered the "constitutional monarch" and the "universal moral faculty": "conscience does not only offer itself to show us the way we should walk in, but it likewise carries its own authority with it." Butler advanced ethical speculation by referring to a duality of regulative principles in human nature: first, "self-love" (seeking individual happiness) and second, "benevolence" (compassion and seeking good for another) in conscience (also linked to the agape of situational ethics). Conscience tended to be more authoritative in questions of moral judgment, thought Butler, because it was more likely to be clear and certain (whereas calculations of self-interest tended to probable and changing conclusions). John Selden in his Table Talk expressed the view that an awake but excessively scrupulous or ill-trained conscience could hinder resolve and practical action; it being "like a horse that is not well wayed, he starts at every bird that flies out of the hedge". As the sacred texts of ancient Hindu and Buddhist philosophy became available in German translations in the 18th and 19th centuries, they influenced philosophers such as Schopenhauer to hold that in a healthy mind only deeds oppress our conscience, not wishes and thoughts; "for it is only our deeds that hold us up to the mirror of our will"; the good conscience, thought Schopenhauer, we experience after every disinterested deed arises from direct recognition of our own inner being in the phenomenon of another, it affords us the verification "that our true self exists not only in our own person, this particular manifestation, but in everything that lives. By this the heart feels itself enlarged, as by egotism it is contracted." Immanuel Kant, a central figure of the Age of Enlightenment, likewise claimed that two things filled his mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily they were reflected on: "the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me ... the latter begins from my invisible self, my personality, and exhibits me in a world which has true infinity but which I recognise myself as existing in a universal and necessary (and not only, as in the first case, contingent) connection." The 'universal connection' referred to here is Kant's categorical imperative: "act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." Kant considered critical conscience to be an internal court in which our thoughts accuse or excuse one another; he acknowledged that morally mature people do often describe contentment or peace in the soul after following conscience to perform a duty, but argued that for such acts to produce virtue their primary motivation should simply be duty, not expectation of any such bliss. Rousseau expressed a similar view that conscience somehow connected man to a greater metaphysical unity. John Plamenatz in his critical examination of Rousseau's work considered that conscience was there defined as the feeling that urges us, in spite of contrary passions, towards two harmonies: the one within our minds and between our passions, and the other within society and between its members; "the weakest can appeal to it in the strongest, and the appeal, though often unsuccessful, is always disturbing. However, corrupted by power or wealth we may be, either as possessors of them or as victims, there is something in us serving to remind us that this corruption is against nature." Other philosophers expressed a more sceptical and pragmatic view of the operation of "conscience" in society. John Locke in his Essays on the Law of Nature argued that the widespread fact of human conscience allowed a philosopher to infer the necessary existence of objective moral laws that occasionally might contradict those of the state. Locke highlighted the metaethics problem of whether accepting a statement like "follow your conscience" supports subjectivist or objectivist conceptions of conscience as a guide in concrete morality, or as a spontaneous revelation of eternal and immutable principles to the individual: "if conscience be a proof of innate principles, contraries may be innate principles; since some men with the same bent of conscience prosecute what others avoid." Thomas Hobbes likewise pragmatically noted that opinions formed on the basis of conscience with full and honest conviction, nevertheless should always be accepted with humility as potentially erroneous and not necessarily indicating absolute knowledge or truth. William Godwin expressed the view that conscience was a memorable consequence of the "perception by men of every creed when the descend into the scene of busy life" that they possess free will. Adam Smith considered that it was only by developing a critical conscience that we can ever see what relates to ourselves in its proper shape and dimensions; or that we can ever make any proper comparison between our own interests and those of other people. John Stuart Mill believed that idealism about the role of conscience in government should be tempered with a practical realisation that few men in society are capable of directing their minds or purposes towards distant or unobvious interests, of disinterested regard for others, and especially for what comes after them, for the idea of posterity, of their country, or of humanity, whether grounded on sympathy or on a conscientious feeling. Mill held that certain amount of conscience, and of disinterested public spirit, may fairly be calculated on in the citizens of any community ripe for representative government, but that "it would be ridiculous to expect such a degree of it, combined with such intellectual discernment, as would be proof against any plausible fallacy tending to make that which was for their class interest appear the dictate of justice and of the general good." Josiah Royce (1855–1916) built on the transcendental idealism view of conscience, viewing it as the ideal of life which constitutes our moral personality, our plan of being ourself, of making common sense ethical decisions. But, he thought, this was only true insofar as our conscience also required loyalty to "a mysterious higher or deeper self". In the modern Christian tradition this approach achieved expression with Dietrich Bonhoeffer who stated during his imprisonment by the Nazis in World War II that conscience for him was more than practical reason, indeed it came from a "depth which lies beyond a man's own will and his own reason and it makes itself heard as the call of human existence to unity with itself." For Bonhoeffer a guilty conscience arose as an indictment of the loss of this unity and as a warning against the loss of one's self; primarily, he thought, it is directed not towards a particular kind of doing but towards a particular mode of being. It protests against a doing which imperils the unity of this being with itself. Conscience for Bonhoeffer did not, like shame, embrace or pass judgment on the morality of the whole of its owner's life; it reacted only to certain definite actions: "it recalls what is long past and represents this disunion as something which is already accomplished and irreparable". The man with a conscience, he believed, fights a lonely battle against the "overwhelming forces of inescapable situations" which demand moral decisions despite the likelihood of adverse consequences. Simon Soloveychik has similarly claimed that the truth distributed in the world, as the statement about human dignity, as the affirmation of the line between good and evil, lives in people as conscience. As Hannah Arendt pointed out, however, (following the utilitarian John Stuart Mill on this point): a bad conscience does not necessarily signify a bad character; in fact only those who affirm a commitment to applying moral standards will be troubled with remorse, guilt or shame by a bad conscience and their need to regain integrity and wholeness of the self. Representing our soul or true self by analogy as our house, Arendt wrote that "conscience is the anticipation of the fellow who awaits you if and when you come home." Arendt believed that people who are unfamiliar with the process of silent critical reflection about what they say and do will not mind contradicting themselves by an immoral act or crime, since they can "count on its being forgotten the next moment;" bad people are not full of regrets. Arendt also wrote eloquently on the problem of languages distinguishing the word consciousness from conscience. One reason, she held, was that conscience, as we understand it in moral or legal matters, is supposedly always present within us, just like consciousness: "and this conscience is also supposed to tell us what to do and what to repent; before it became the lumen naturale or Kant's practical reason, it was the voice of God." Albert Einstein, as a self-professed adherent of humanism and rationalism, likewise viewed an enlightened religious person as one whose conscience reflects that he "has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because of their super-personal value." Einstein often referred to the "inner voice" as a source of both moral and physical knowledge: "Quantum mechanics is very impressive. But an inner voice tells me that it is not the real thing. The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings one closer to the secrets of the Old One. I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice." Simone Weil who fought for the French resistance (the Maquis) argued in her final book The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind that for society to become more just and protective of liberty, obligations should take precedence over rights in moral and political philosophy and a spiritual awakening should occur in the conscience of most citizens, so that social obligations are viewed as fundamentally having a transcendent origin and a beneficent impact on human character when fulfilled. Simone Weil also in that work provided a psychological explanation for the mental peace associated with a good conscience: "the liberty of men of goodwill, though limited in the sphere of action, is complete in that of conscience. For, having incorporated the rules into their own being, the prohibited possibilities no longer present themselves to the mind, and have not to be rejected." Alternatives to such metaphysical and idealist opinions about conscience arose from realist and materialist perspectives such as those of Charles Darwin. Darwin suggested that "any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or as nearly as well developed, as in man." Émile Durkheim held that the soul and conscience were particular forms of an impersonal principle diffused in the relevant group and communicated by totemic ceremonies. AJ Ayer was a more recent realist who held that the existence of conscience was an empirical question to be answered by sociological research into the moral habits of a given person or group of people, and what causes them to have precisely those habits and feelings. Such an inquiry, he believed, fell wholly within the scope of the existing social sciences. George Edward Moore bridged the idealistic and sociological views of 'critical' and 'traditional' conscience in stating that the idea of abstract 'rightness' and the various degrees of the specific emotion excited by it are what constitute, for many persons, the specifically 'moral sentiment' or conscience. For others, however, an action seems to be properly termed 'internally right', merely because they have previously regarded it as right, the idea of 'rightness' being present in some way to his or her mind, but not necessarily among his or her deliberately constructed motives. The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in A Very Easy Death (Une mort très douce, 1964) reflects within her own conscience about her mother's attempts to develop such a moral sympathy and understanding of others. Michael Walzer claimed that the growth of religious toleration in Western nations arose amongst other things, from the general recognition that private conscience signified some inner divine presence regardless of the religious faith professed and from the general respectability, piety, self-limitation, and sectarian discipline which marked most of the men who claimed the rights of conscience. Walzer also argued that attempts by courts to define conscience as a merely personal moral code or as sincere belief, risked encouraging an anarchy of moral egotisms, unless such a code and motive was necessarily tempered with shared moral knowledge: derived either from the connection of the individual to a universal spiritual order, or from the common principles and mutual engagements of unselfish people. Ronald Dworkin maintains that constitutional protection of freedom of conscience is central to democracy but creates personal duties to live up to it: "Freedom of conscience presupposes a personal responsibility of reflection, and it loses much of its meaning when that responsibility is ignored. A good life need not be an especially reflective one; most of the best lives are just lived rather than studied. But there are moments that cry out for self-assertion, when a passive bowing to fate or a mechanical decision out of deference or convenience is treachery, because it forfeits dignity for ease." Edward Conze stated it is important for individual and collective moral growth that we recognise the illusion of our conscience being wholly located in our body; indeed both our conscience and wisdom expand when we act in an unselfish way and conversely "repressed compassion results in an unconscious sense of guilt." The philosopher Peter Singer considers that usually when we describe an action as conscientious in the critical sense we do so in order to deny either that the relevant agent was motivated by selfish desires, like greed or ambition, or that he acted on whim or impulse. Moral anti-realists debate whether the moral facts necessary to activate conscience supervene on natural facts with a posteriori necessity; or arise a priori because moral facts have a primary intension and naturally identical worlds may be presumed morally identical. It has also been argued that there is a measure of moral luck in how circumstances create the obstacles which conscience must overcome to apply moral principles or human rights and that with the benefit of enforceable property rights and the rule of law, access to universal health care plus the absence of high adult and infant mortality from conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and famine, people in relatively prosperous developed countries have been spared pangs of conscience associated with the physical necessity to steal scraps of food, bribe tax inspectors or police officers, and commit murder in guerrilla wars against corrupt government forces or rebel armies. Roger Scruton has claimed that true understanding of conscience and its relationship with morality has been hampered by an "impetuous" belief that philosophical questions are solved through the analysis of language in an area where clarity threatens vested interests. Susan Sontag similarly argued that it was a symptom of psychological immaturity not to recognise that many morally immature people willingly experience a form of delight, in some an erotic breaking of taboo, when witnessing violence, suffering and pain being inflicted on others. Jonathan Glover wrote that most of us "do not spend our lives on endless landscape gardening of our self" and our conscience is likely shaped not so much by heroic struggles, as by choice of partner, friends and job, as well as where we choose to live. Garrett Hardin, in a famous article called "The Tragedy of the Commons", argues that any instance in which society appeals to an individual exploiting a commons to restrain himself or herself for the general good—by means of his or her conscience—merely sets up a system which, by selectively diverting societal power and physical resources to those lacking in conscience, while fostering guilt (including anxiety about his or her individual contribution to over-population) in people acting upon it, actually works toward the elimination of conscience from the race. John Ralston Saul expressed the view in The Unconscious Civilization that in contemporary developed nations many people have acquiesced in turning over their sense of right and wrong, their critical conscience, to technical experts; willingly restricting their moral freedom of choice to limited consumer actions ruled by the ideology of the free market, while citizen participation in public affairs is limited to the isolated act of voting and private-interest lobbying turns even elected representatives against the public interest. Some argue on religious or philosophical grounds that it is blameworthy to act against conscience, even if the judgement of conscience is likely to be erroneous (say because it is inadequately informed about the facts, or prevailing moral (humanist or religious), professional ethical, legal and human rights norms). Failure to acknowledge and accept that conscientious judgements can be seriously mistaken, may only promote situations where one's conscience is manipulated by others to provide unwarranted justifications for non-virtuous and selfish acts; indeed, insofar as it is appealed to as glorifying ideological content, and an associated extreme level of devotion, without adequate constraint of external, altruistic, normative justification, conscience may be considered morally blind and dangerous both to the individual concerned and humanity as a whole. Langston argues that philosophers of virtue ethics have unnecessarily neglected conscience for, once conscience is trained so that the principles and rules it applies are those one would want all others to live by, its practise cultivates and sustains the virtues; indeed, amongst people in what each society considers to be the highest state of moral development there is little disagreement about how to act. Emmanuel Levinas viewed conscience as a revelatory encountering of resistance to our selfish powers, developing morality by calling into question our naive sense of freedom of will to use such powers arbitrarily, or with violence, this process being more severe the more rigorously the goal of our self was to obtain control. In other words, the welcoming of the Other, to Levinas, was the very essence of conscience properly conceived; it encouraged our ego to accept the fallibility of assuming things about other people, that selfish freedom of will "does not have the last word" and that realising this has a transcendent purpose: "I am not alone ... in conscience I have an experience that is not commensurate with any a priori [see a priori and a posteriori] framework-a conceptless experience." Conscientious acts and the law In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, English litigants began to petition the Lord Chancellor of England for relief from unjust judgments. As Keeper of the King's Conscience, the Chancellor intervened to allow for "merciful exceptions" to the King's laws, "to ensure that the King's conscience was right before God". The Chancellor's office evolved into the Court of Chancery and the Chancellor's decisions evolved into the body of law known as equity. English humanist lawyers in the 16th and 17th centuries interpreted conscience as a collection of universal principles given to man by god at creation to be applied by reason; this gradually reforming the medieval Roman law-based system with forms of action, written pleadings, use of juries and patterns of litigation such as Demurrer and Assumpsit that displayed an increased concern for elements of right and wrong on the actual facts. A conscience vote in a parliament allows legislators to vote without restrictions from any political party to which they may belong. In his trial in Jerusalem Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann claimed he was simply following legal orders under paragraph 48 of the German Military Code which provided: "punishability of an action or omission is not excused on the ground that the person considered his behaviour required by his conscience or the prescripts of his religion". The United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) which is part of international customary law specifically refers to conscience in Articles 1 and 18. Likewise, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) mentions conscience in Article 18.1. It has been argued that these articles provide international legal obligations protecting conscientious objectors from service in the military. John Rawls in his A Theory of Justice defines a conscientious objector as an individual prepared to undertake, in public (and often despite widespread condemnation), an action of civil disobedience to a legal rule justifying it (also in public) by reference to contrary foundational social virtues (such as justice as liberty or fairness) and the principles of morality and law derived from them. Rawls considered civil disobedience should be viewed as an appeal, warning or admonishment (showing general respect and fidelity to the rule of law by the non-violence and transparency of methods adopted) that a law breaches a community's fundamental virtue of justice. Objections to Rawls' theory include first, its inability to accommodate conscientious objections to the society's basic appreciation of justice or to emerging moral or ethical principles (such as respect for the rights of the natural environment) which are not yet part of it and second, the difficulty of predictably and consistently determining that a majority decision is just or unjust. Conscientious objection (also called conscientious refusal or evasion) to obeying a law, should not arise from unreasoning, naive "traditional conscience", for to do so merely encourages infantile abdication of responsibility to calibrate the law against moral or human rights norms and disrespect for democratic institutions. Instead it should be based on "critical conscience' – seriously thought out, conceptually mature, personal moral or religious beliefs held to be fundamentally incompatible (that is, not merely inconsistent on the basis of selfish desires, whim or impulse), for example, either with all laws requiring conscription for military service, or legal compulsion to fight for or financially support the State in a particular war. A famous example arose when Henry David Thoreau the author of Walden was willingly jailed for refusing to pay a tax because he profoundly disagreed with a government policy and was frustrated by the corruption and injustice of the democratic machinery of the state. A more recent case concerned Kimberly Rivera, a private in the US Army and mother of four children who, having served 3 months in Iraq War decided the conflict was immoral and sought refugee status in Canada in 2012 (see List of Iraq War resisters), but was deported and arrested in the US. In the Second World War, Great Britain granted conscientious-objection status not just to complete pacifists, but to those who objected to fighting in that particular war; this was done partly out of genuine respect, but also to avoid the disgraceful and futile persecutions of conscientious objectors that occurred during the First World War. Amnesty International organises campaigns to protect those arrested and or incarcerated as a prisoner of conscience because of their conscientious beliefs, particularly concerning intellectual, political and artistic freedom of expression and association. Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, was the winner of the 2009 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award. In legislation, a conscience clause is a provision in a statute that excuses a health professional from complying with the law (for example legalising surgical or pharmaceutical abortion) if it is incompatible with religious or conscientious beliefs. Expressed justifications for refusing to obey laws because of conscience vary. Many conscientious objectors are so for religious reasons—notably, members of the historic peace churches are pacifist by doctrine. Other objections can stem from a deep sense of responsibility toward humanity as a whole, or from the conviction that even acceptance of work under military orders acknowledges the principle of conscription that should be everywhere condemned before the world can ever become safe for real democracy. A conscientious objector, however, does not have a primary aim of changing the law. John Dewey considered that conscientious objectors were often the victims of "moral innocency" and inexpertness in moral training: "the moving force of events is always too much for conscience". The remedy was not to deplore the wickedness of those who manipulate world power, but to connect conscience with forces moving in another direction- to build institutions and social environments predicated on the rule of law, for example, "then will conscience itself have compulsive power instead of being forever the martyred and the coerced." As an example, Albert Einstein who had advocated conscientious objection during the First World War and had been a longterm supporter of War Resisters' International reasoned that "radical pacifism" could not be justified in the face of Nazi rearmament and advocated a world federalist organization with its own professional army. Samuel Johnson pointed out that an appeal to conscience should not allow the law to bring unjust suffering upon another. Conscience, according to Johnson, was nothing more than a conviction felt by ourselves of something to be done or something to be avoided; in questions of simple unperplexed morality, conscience is very often a guide that may be trusted. But before conscience can conclusively determine what morally should be done, he thought that the state of the question should be thoroughly known. "No man's conscience", said Johnson "can tell him the right of another man ... it is a conscience very ill informed that violates the rights of one man, for the convenience of another." Civil disobedience as non-violent protest or civil resistance are also acts of conscience, but are designed by those who undertake them chiefly to change, by appealing to the majority and democratic processes, laws or government policies perceived to be incoherent with fundamental social virtues and principles (such as justice, equality or respect for intrinsic human dignity). Civil disobedience, in a properly functioning democracy, allows a minority who feel strongly that a law infringes their sense of justice (but have no capacity to obtain legislative amendments or a referendum on the issue) to make a potentially apathetic or uninformed majority take account of the intensity of opposing views. A notable example of civil resistance or satyagraha ("satya" in sanskrit means "truth and compassion", "agraha" means "firmness of will") involved Mahatma Gandhi making salt in India when that act was prohibited by a British statute, in order to create moral pressure for law reform. Rosa Parks similarly acted on conscience in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama refusing a legal order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger; her action (and the similar earlier act of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin) leading to the Montgomery bus boycott. Rachel Corrie was a US citizen allegedly killed by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while involved in direct action (based on the non-violent principles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi) to prevent demolition of the home of local Palestinian pharmacist Samir Nasrallah. Al Gore has argued "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration." In 2011, NASA climate scientist James E. Hansen, environmental leader Phil Radford and Professor Bill McKibben were arrested for opposing a tar sands oil pipeline and Canadian renewable energy professor Mark Jaccard was arrested for opposing mountain-top coal mining; in his book Storms of my Grandchildren Hansen calls for similar civil resistance on a global scale to help replace the 'business-as-usual' Kyoto Protocol cap and trade system, with a progressive carbon tax at emission source on the oil, gas and coal industries – revenue being paid as dividends to low carbon footprint families. Notable historical examples of conscientious noncompliance in a different professional context included the manipulation of the visa process in 1939 by Japanese Consul-General Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas (the temporary capital of Lithuania between Germany and the Soviet Union) and by Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary in 1944 to allow Jews to escape almost certain death. Ho Feng-Shan the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna in 1939, defied orders from the Chinese ambassador in Berlin to issue Jews with visas for Shanghai. John Rabe a German member of the Nazi Party likewise saved thousands of Chinese from massacre by the Japanese military at Nanjing. The White Rose German student movement against the Nazis declared in their 4th leaflet: "We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!" Conscientious noncompliance may be the only practical option for citizens wishing to affirm the existence of an international moral order or 'core' historical rights (such as the right to life, right to a fair trial and freedom of opinion) in states where non-violent protest or civil disobedience are met with prolonged arbitrary detention, torture, forced disappearance, murder or persecution. The controversial Milgram experiment into obedience by Stanley Milgram showed that many people lack the psychological resources to openly resist authority, even when they are directed to act callously and inhumanely against an innocent victim. World conscience World conscience is the universalist idea that with ready global communication, all people on earth will no longer be morally estranged from one another, whether it be culturally, ethnically, or geographically; instead they will conceive ethics from the utopian point of view of the universe, eternity or infinity, rather than have their duties and obligations defined by forces arising solely within the restrictive boundaries of "blood and territory". Often this derives from a spiritual or natural law perspective, that for world peace to be achieved, conscience, properly understood, should be generally considered as not necessarily linked (often destructively) to fundamentalist religious ideologies, but as an aspect of universal consciousness, access to which is the common heritage of humanity. Thinking predicated on the development of world conscience is common to members of the Global Ecovillage Network such as the Findhorn Foundation, international conservation organisations like Fauna and Flora International, as well as performers of world music such as Alan Stivell. Non-government organizations, particularly through their work in agenda-setting, policy-making and implementation of human rights-related policy, have been referred to as the conscience of the world Edward O Wilson has developed the idea of consilience to encourage coherence of global moral and scientific knowledge supporting the premise that "only unified learning, universally shared, makes accurate foresight and wise choice possible". Thus, world conscience is a concept that overlaps with the Gaia hypothesis in advocating a balance of moral, legal, scientific and economic solutions to modern transnational problems such as global poverty and global warming, through strategies such as environmental ethics, climate ethics, natural conservation, ecology, cosmopolitanism, sustainability and sustainable development, biosequestration and legal protection of the biosphere and biodiversity. The NGO 350.org, for example, seeks to attract world conscience to the problems associated with elevation in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The microcredit initiatives of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus have been described as inspiring a "war on poverty that blends social conscience and business savvy". The Green party politician Bob Brown (who was arrested by the Tasmanian state police for a conscientious act of civil disobedience during the Franklin Dam protest) expresses world conscience in these terms: "the universe, through us, is evolving towards experiencing, understanding and making choices about its future'; one example of policy outcomes from such thinking being a global tax (see Tobin tax) to alleviate global poverty and protect the biosphere, amounting to 1/10 of 1% placed on the worldwide speculative currency market. Such an approach sees world conscience best expressing itself through political reforms promoting democratically based globalisation or planetary democracy (for example internet voting for global governance organisations (see world government) based on the model of "one person, one vote, one value") which gradually will replace contemporary market-based globalisation. The American cardiologist Bernard Lown and the Russian cardiologist Yevgeniy Chazov were motivated in conscience through studying the catastrophic public health consequences of nuclear war in establishing International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 and continues to work to "heal an ailing planet".Worldwide expressions of conscience contributed to the decision of the French government to halt atmospheric nuclear tests at Mururoa in the Pacific in 1974 after 41 such explosions (although below-ground nuclear tests continued there into the 1990s). A challenge to world conscience was provided by an influential 1968 article by Garrett Hardin that critically analyzed the dilemma in which multiple individuals, acting independently after rationally consulting self-interest (and, he claimed, the apparently low 'survival-of-the-fittest' value of conscience-led actions) ultimately destroy a shared limited resource, even though each acknowledges such an outcome is not in anyone's long-term interest. Hardin's conclusion that commons areas are practicably achievable only in conditions of low population density (and so their continuance requires state restriction on the freedom to breed), created controversy additionally through his direct deprecation of the role of conscience in achieving individual decisions, policies and laws that facilitate global justice and peace, as well as sustainability and sustainable development of world commons areas, for example including those officially designated such under United Nations treaties (see common heritage of humanity). Areas designated common heritage of humanity under international law include the Moon, Outer Space, deep sea bed, Antarctica, the world cultural and natural heritage (see World Heritage Convention) and the human genome. It will be a significant challenge for world conscience that as world oil, coal, mineral, timber, agricultural and water reserves are depleted, there will be increasing pressure to commercially exploit common heritage of mankind areas. The philosopher Peter Singer has argued that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals represent the emergence of an ethics based not on national boundaries but on the idea of one world. Ninian Smart has similarly predicted that the increase in global travel and communication will gradually draw the world's religions towards a pluralistic and transcendental humanism characterized by an "open spirit" of empathy and compassion. Noam Chomsky has argued that forces opposing the development of such a world conscience include free market ideologies that valorise corporate greed in nominal electoral democracies where advertising, shopping malls and indebtedness, shape citizens into apathetic consumers in relation to information and access necessary for democratic participation. John Passmore has argued that mystical considerations about the global expansion of all human consciousness, should take into account that if as a species we do become something much superior to what we are now, it will be as a consequence of conscience not only implanting a goal of moral perfectibility, but assisting us to remain periodically anxious, passionate and discontented, for these are necessary components of care and compassion. The Committee on Conscience of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has targeted genocides such as those in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, the Congo and Chechnya as challenges to the world's conscience. Oscar Arias Sanchez has criticised global arms industry spending as a failure of conscience by nation states: "When a country decides to invest in arms, rather than in education, housing, the environment, and health services for its people, it is depriving a whole generation of its right to prosperity and happiness. We have produced one firearm for every ten inhabitants of this planet, and yet we have not bothered to end hunger when such a feat is well within our reach. This is not a necessary or inevitable state of affairs. It is a deliberate choice" (see Campaign Against Arms Trade). US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama during the 2008 violent protests in Tibet and aftermath said: "The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world." Nelson Mandela, through his example and words, has been described as having shaped the conscience of the world. The Right Livelihood Award is awarded yearly in Sweden to those people, mostly strongly motivated by conscience, who have made exemplary practical contributions to resolving the great challenges facing our planet and its people. In 2009, for example, along with Catherine Hamlin (obstetric fistula and see fistula foundation)), David Suzuki (promoting awareness of climate change) and Alyn Ware (nuclear disarmament), René Ngongo shared the Right Livelihood Award "for his courage in confronting the forces that are destroying the Congo Basin's rainforests and building political support for their conservation and sustainable use". Avaaz is one of the largest global on-line organizations launched in January 2007 to promote conscience-driven activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty, and conflict, thus "closing the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want". Notable examples of modern acts based on conscience In a notable contemporary act of conscience, Christian bushwalker Brenda Hean protested against the flooding of Lake Pedder despite threats and that ultimately led to her death. Another was the campaign by Ken Saro-Wiwa against oil extraction by multinational corporations in Nigeria that led to his execution. So too was the act by the Tank Man, or the Unknown Rebel photographed holding his shopping bag in the path of tanks during the protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square on 5 June 1989. The actions of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld to try to achieve peace in the Congo despite the (eventuating) threat to his life were strongly motivated by conscience as is reflected in his diary, Vägmärken (Markings). Another example involved the actions of Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr to try to prevent the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War. Evan Pederick voluntarily confessed and was convicted of the Sydney Hilton bombing stating that his conscience could not tolerate the guilt and that "I guess I was quite unique in the prison system in that I had to keep proving my guilt, whereas everyone else said they were innocent." Vasili Arkhipov was a Russian naval officer on out-of-radio-contact Soviet submarine B-59 being depth-charged by US warships during the Cuban Missile Crisis whose dissent when two other officers decided to launch a nuclear torpedo (unanimous agreement to launch was required) may have averted a nuclear war. In 1963 Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc performed a famous act of self-immolation to protest against alleged persecution of his faith by the Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem regime. Conscience played a major role in the actions by anaesthetist Stephen Bolsin to whistleblow (see list of whistleblowers) on incompetent paediatric cardiac surgeons at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Jeffrey Wigand was motivated by conscience to expose the Big Tobacco scandal, revealing that executives of the companies knew that cigarettes were addictive and approved the addition of carcinogenic ingredients to the cigarettes. David Graham, a Food and Drug Administration employee, was motivated by conscience to whistleblow that the arthritis pain-reliever Vioxx increased the risk of cardiovascular deaths although the manufacturer suppressed this information. Rick Piltz, from the U.S. global warming Science Program, blew the whistle on a White House official who ignored majority scientific opinion to edit a climate change report ("Our Changing Planet") to reflect the Bush administration's view that the problem was unlikely to exist. Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist, was imprisoned and allegedly tortured for his act of conscience in throwing his shoes at George W. Bush. Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli former nuclear technician, acted on conscience to reveal details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986; was kidnapped by Israeli agents, transported to Israel, convicted of treason and spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement. At the awards ceremony for the 200 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Peter Norman ignored death threats and official warnings to take part in an anti-racism protest that destroyed their respective careers. W. Mark Felt an agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director, acted on conscience to provide reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with information that resulted in the Watergate scandal. Conscience was a major factor in US Public Health Service officer Peter Buxtun revealing the Tuskegee syphilis experiment to the public. The 2008 attack by the Israeli military on civilian areas of Palestinian Gaza was described as a "stain on the world's conscience". Conscience was a major factor in the refusal of Aung San Suu Kyi to leave Burma despite house arrest and persecution by the military dictatorship in that country. Conscience was a factor in Peter Galbraith's criticism of fraud in the 2009 Afghanistan election despite it costing him his United Nations job. Conscience motivated Bunnatine Greenhouse to expose irregularities in the contracting of the Halliburton company for work in Iraq. Naji al-Ali a popular cartoon artist in the Arab world, loved for his defense of the ordinary people, and for his criticism of repression and despotism by both the Israeli military and Yasser Arafat's PLO, was murdered for refusing to compromise with his conscience. The journalist Anna Politkovskaya provided (prior to her murder) an example of conscience in her opposition to the Second Chechen War and then-Russian President Vladimir Putin. Conscience motivated the Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted and murdered in Grozny, Chechnya in 2009. The Death of Neda Agha-Soltan arose from conscience-driven protests against the 2009 Iranian presidential election. Muslim lawyer Shirin Ebadi (winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize) has been described as the 'conscience of the Islamic Republic' for her work in protecting the human rights of women and children in Iran. The human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, often referred to as the 'conscience of China' and who had previously been arrested and allegedly tortured after calling for respect for human rights and for constitutional reform, was abducted by Chinese security agents in February 2009. 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in his final statement before being sentenced by a closed Chinese court to over a decade in jail as a political prisoner of conscience stated: "For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit." Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer in Russia, was arrested, held without trial for almost a year and died in custody, as a result of exposing corruption. On 6 October 2001 Laura Whittle was a naval gunner on HMAS Adelaide (FFG 01) under orders to implement a new border protection policy when they encountered the SIEV-4 (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel-4) refugee boat in choppy seas. After being ordered to fire warning shots from her 50 calibre machinegun to make the boat turn back she saw it beginning to break up and sink with a father on board holding out his young daughter that she might be saved (see Children Overboard Affair). Whittle jumped without a life vest 12 metres into the sea to help save the refugees from drowning thinking "this isn't right; this isn't how things should be." In February 2012 journalist Marie Colvin was deliberately targeted and killed by the Syrian Army in Homs during the 2011–2012 Syrian uprising and Siege of Homs, after she decided to stay at the "epicentre of the storm" in order to "expose what is happening". In October 2012 the Taliban organised the attempted murder of Malala Yousafzai a teenage girl who had been campaigning, despite their threats, for female education in Pakistan. In December 2012 the 2012 Delhi gang rape case was said to have stirred the collective conscience of India to civil disobedience and public protest at the lack of legal action against rapists in that country (see Rape in India) In June 2013 Edward Snowden revealed details of a US National Security Agency internet and electronic communication PRISM (surveillance program) because of a conscience-felt obligation to the freedom of humanity greater than obedience to the laws that bound his employment. In literature, art, film, and music The ancient epic of the Indian subcontinent, the Mahabharata of Vyasa, contains two pivotal moments of conscience. The first occurs when the warrior Arjuna being overcome with compassion against killing his opposing relatives in war, receives counsel (see Bhagavad-Gita) from Krishna about his spiritual duty ("work as though you are performing a sacrifice for the general good"). The second, at the end of the saga, is when king Yudhishthira having alone survived the moral tests of life, is offered eternal bliss, only to refuse it because a faithful dog is prevented from coming with him by purported divine rules and laws. The French author Montaigne (1533–1592) in one of the most celebrated of his essays ("On experience") expressed the benefits of living with a clear conscience: "Our duty is to compose our character, not to compose books, to win not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live properly". In his famous Japanese travel journal Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) composed of mixed haiku poetry and prose, Matsuo Bashō (1644–94) in attempting to describe the eternal in this perishable world is often moved in conscience; for example by a thicket of summer grass being all that remains of the dreams and ambitions of ancient warriors. Chaucer's "Franklin's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales recounts how a young suitor releases a wife from a rash promise because of the respect in his conscience for the freedom to be truthful, gentle and generous. The critic A. C. Bradley discusses the central problem of Shakespeare's tragic character Hamlet as one where conscience in the form of moral scruples deters the young Prince with his "great anxiety to do right" from obeying his father's hell-bound ghost and murdering the usurping King ("is't not perfect conscience to quit him with this arm?" (v.ii.67)). Bradley develops a theory about Hamlet's moral agony relating to a conflict between "traditional" and "critical" conscience: "The conventional moral ideas of his time, which he shared with the Ghost, told him plainly that he ought to avenge his father; but a deeper conscience in him, which was in advance of his time, contended with these explicit conventional ideas. It is because this deeper conscience remains below the surface that he fails to recognise it, and fancies he is hindered by cowardice or sloth or passion or what not; but it emerges into light in that speech to Horatio. And it is just because he has this nobler moral nature in him that we admire and love him". The opening words of Shakespeare's Sonnet 94 ("They that have pow'r to hurt, and will do none") have been admired as a description of conscience. So has John Donne's commencement of his poem :s:Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward: "Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, Th' intelligence that moves, devotion is;" Anton Chekhov in his plays The Seagull, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters describes the tortured emotional states of doctors who at some point in their careers have turned their back on conscience. In his short stories, Chekhov also explored how people misunderstood the voice of a tortured conscience. A promiscuous student, for example, in The Fit describes it as a "dull pain, indefinite, vague; it was like anguish and the most acute fear and despair ... in his breast, under the heart" and the young doctor examining the misunderstood agony of compassion experienced by the factory owner's daughter in From a Case Book calls it an "unknown, mysterious power ... in fact close at hand and watching him." Characteristically, Chekhov's own conscience drove him on the long journey to Sakhalin to record and alleviate the harsh conditions of the prisoners at that remote outpost. As Irina Ratushinskaya writes in the introduction to that work: "Abandoning everything, he travelled to the distant island of Sakhalin, the most feared place of exile and forced labour in Russia at that time. One cannot help but wonder why? Simply, because the lot of the people there was a bitter one, because nobody really knew about the lives and deaths of the exiles, because he felt that they stood in greater need of help that anyone else. A strange reason, maybe, but not for a writer who was the epitome of all the best traditions of a Russian man of letters. Russian literature has always focused on questions of conscience and was, therefore, a powerful force in the moulding of public opinion." E. H. Carr writes of Dostoevsky's character the young student Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment who decides to murder a 'vile and loathsome' old woman money lender on the principle of transcending conventional morals: "the sequel reveals to us not the pangs of a stricken conscience (which a less subtle writer would have given us) but the tragic and fruitless struggle of a powerful intellect to maintain a conviction which is incompatible with the essential nature of man." Hermann Hesse wrote his Siddhartha to describe how a young man in the time of the Buddha follows his conscience on a journey to discover a transcendent inner space where all things could be unified and simply understood, ending up discovering that personal truth through selfless service as a ferryman. J. R. R. Tolkien in his epic The Lord of the Rings describes how only the hobbit Frodo is pure enough in conscience to carry the ring of power through war-torn Middle-earth to destruction in the Cracks of Doom, Frodo determining at the end to journey without weapons, and being saved from failure by his earlier decision to spare the life of the creature Gollum. Conor Cruise O'Brien wrote that Albert Camus was the writer most representative of the Western consciousness and conscience in its relation to the non-Western world. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird portrays Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck in the classic film from the book (see To Kill a Mockingbird)) as a lawyer true to his conscience who sets an example to his children and community. The Robert Bolt play A Man For All Seasons focuses on the conscience of Catholic lawyer Thomas More in his struggle with King Henry VIII ("the loyal subject is more bounden to be loyal to his conscience than to any other thing"). George Orwell wrote his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four on the isolated island of Jura, Scotland to describe how a man (Winston Smith) attempts to develop critical conscience in a totalitarian state which watches every action of the people and manipulates their thinking with a mixture of propaganda, endless war and thought control through language control (double think and newspeak) to the point where prisoners look up to and even love their torturers. In the Ministry of Love, Winston's torturer (O'Brien) states: "You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable". A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica depicting a massacre of innocent women and children during the Spanish Civil War is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City, at the entrance to the Security Council room, demonstrably as a spur to the conscience of representatives from the nation states. Albert Tucker painted Man's Head to capture the moral disintegration, and lack of conscience, of a man convicted of kicking a dog to death. The impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo in 1878 that "one must never let the fire in one's soul die, for the time will inevitably come when it will be needed. And he who chooses poverty for himself and loves it possesses a great treasure and will hear the voice of his conscience address him every more clearly. He who hears that voice, which is God's greatest gift, in his innermost being and follows it, finds in it a friend at last, and he is never alone! ... That is what all great men have acknowledged in their works, all those who have thought a little more deeply and searched and worked and loved a little more than the rest, who have plumbed the depths of the sea of life." The 1957 Ingmar Bergman film The Seventh Seal portrays the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) returning disillusioned from the crusades ("what is going to happen to those of us who want to believe, but aren't able to?") across a plague-ridden landscape, undertaking a game of chess with the personification of Death until he can perform one meaningful altruistic act of conscience (overturning the chess board to distract Death long enough for a family of jugglers to escape in their wagon). The 1942 Casablanca centers on the development of conscience in the cynical American Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in the face of oppression by the Nazis and the example of the resistance leader Victor Laszlo.The David Lean and Robert Bolt screenplay for Doctor Zhivago (an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel) focuses strongly on the conscience of a doctor-poet in the midst of the Russian Revolution (in the end "the walls of his heart were like paper").The 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner focuses on the struggles of conscience between and within a bounty hunter (Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford)) and a renegade replicant android (Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer)) in a future society which refuses to accept that forms of artificial intelligence can have aspects of being such as conscience. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his last great choral composition the Mass in B minor (BWV 232) to express the alternating emotions of loneliness, despair, joy and rapture that arise as conscience reflects on a departed human life. Here JS Bach's use of counterpoint and contrapuntal settings, his dynamic discourse of melodically and rhythmically distinct voices seeking forgiveness of sins ("Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis") evokes a spiraling moral conversation of all humanity expressing his belief that "with devotional music, God is always present in his grace". Ludwig van Beethoven's meditations on illness, conscience and mortality in the Late String Quartets led to his dedicating the third movement of String Quartet in A Minor (1825) Op. 132 (see String Quartet No. 15) as a "Hymn of Thanksgiving to God of a convalescent". John Lennon's work "Imagine" owes much of its popular appeal to its evocation of conscience against the atrocities created by war, religious fundamentalism and politics. The Beatles George Harrison-written track "The Inner Light" sets to Indian raga music a verse from the Tao Te Ching that "without going out of your door you can know the ways of heaven'. In the 1986 movie The Mission the guilty conscience and penance of the slave trader Mendoza is made more poignant by the haunting oboe music of Ennio Morricone ("On Earth as it is in Heaven") The song Sweet Lullaby by Deep Forest is based on a traditional Baegu lullaby from the Solomon Islands called "Rorogwela" in which a young orphan is comforted as an act of conscience by his older brother. The Dream Academy song 'Forest Fire' provided an early warning of the moral dangers of our 'black cloud' 'bringing down a different kind of weather ... letting the sunshine in, that's how the end begins." The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) presents the Conscience-in-Media Award to journalists whom the society deems worthy of recognition for demonstrating "singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost or sacrifice". The Ambassador of Conscience Award, Amnesty International's most prestigious human rights award, takes its inspiration from a poem written by Irish Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney called "The Republic of Conscience". See also Amity-enmity complex An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, chapter XXVII: "Of Identity and Diversity" A Tale for the Time Being Altruism Confidant Conscientious objector Conscientiousness Consciousness Ethics Evolutionary ethics Evolution of morality Free will Guilt Inner light Jiminy Cricket, symbol of conscience in Pinocchio (1940 film) List of nonviolence scholars and leaders Mind–body problem Moral emotions Moral value Morality Outline of self Philosophy of mind Rationality and power Rationality Reason Sraosha, Deity of Conscience Social conscience Subtle body Synderesis Further reading References External links Concepts in ethics Concepts in social philosophy Personality Philosophy of life Moral psychology

Homogeneity and heterogeneity

Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts relating to the uniformity of a substance, process or image. A homogeneous feature is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, size, weight, height, distribution, texture, language, income, disease, temperature, radioactivity, architectural design, etc.); one that is heterogeneous is distinctly nonuniform in at least one of these qualities. Etymology and spelling The words homogeneous and heterogeneous come from Medieval Latin homogeneus and heterogeneus, from Ancient Greek ὁμογενής (homogenēs) and ἑτερογενής (heterogenēs), from ὁμός (homos, "same") and ἕτερος (heteros, "other, another, different") respectively, followed by γένος (genos, "kind"); -ous is an adjectival suffix. Alternate spellings omitting the last -e- (and the associated pronunciations) are common, but mistaken: homogenous is strictly a biological/pathological term which has largely been replaced by homologous. But use of homogenous to mean homogeneous has seen a rise since 2000, enough for it to now be considered an "established variant". Similarly, heterogenous is a spelling traditionally reserved to biology and pathology, referring to the property of an object in the body having its origin outside the body. Scaling The concepts are the same to every level of complexity. From atoms to galaxies, plants, animals, humans, and other living organisms all share both a common or unique set of complexities. Hence, an element may be homogeneous on a larger scale, compared to being heterogeneous on a smaller scale. This is known as an effective medium approximation. Examples Various disciplines understand heterogeneity, or being heterogeneous, in different ways. Biology Environmental heterogeneity Environmental heterogeneity (EH) is a hypernym for different environmental factors that contribute to the diversity of species, like climate, topography, and land cover. Biodiversity is correlated with geodiversity on a global scale. Heterogeneity in geodiversity features and environmental variables are indicators of environmental heterogeneity. They drive biodiversity at local and regional scales. Scientific literature in ecology contains a big number of different terms for environmental heterogeneity, often undefined or conflicting in their meaning. and are a synonyms of environmental heterogeneity. Chemistry Homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures In chemistry, a heterogeneous mixture consists of either or both of 1) multiple states of matter or 2) hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances in one mixture; an example of the latter would be a mixture of water, octane, and silicone grease. Heterogeneous solids, liquids, and gases may be made homogeneous by melting, stirring, or by allowing time to pass for diffusion to distribute the molecules evenly. For example, adding dye to water will create a heterogeneous solution at first, but will become homogeneous over time. Entropy allows for heterogeneous substances to become homogeneous over time. A heterogeneous mixture is a mixture of two or more compounds. Examples are: mixtures of sand and water or sand and iron filings, a conglomerate rock, water and oil, a salad, trail mix, and concrete (not cement). A mixture can be determined to be homogeneous when everything is settled and equal, and the liquid, gas, the object is one color or the same form. Various models have been proposed to model the concentrations in different phases. The phenomena to be considered are mass rates and reaction. Homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions Homogeneous reactions are chemical reactions in which the reactants and products are in the same phase, while heterogeneous reactions have reactants in two or more phases. Reactions that take place on the surface of a catalyst of a different phase are also heterogeneous. A reaction between two gases or two miscible liquids is homogeneous. A reaction between a gas and a liquid, a gas and a solid or a liquid and a solid is heterogeneous. Geology Earth is a heterogeneous substance in many aspects; for instance, rocks (geology) are inherently heterogeneous, usually occurring at the micro-scale and mini-scale. Linguistics In formal semantics, homogeneity is the phenomenon in which plural expressions imply "all" when asserted but "none" when negated. For example, the English sentence "Robin read the books" means that Robin read all the books, while "Robin didn't read the books" means that she read none of them. Neither sentence can be asserted if Robin read exactly half of the books. This is a puzzle because the negative sentence does not appear to be the classical negation of the sentence. A variety of explanations have been proposed including that natural language operates on a trivalent logic. Information technology With information technology, heterogeneous computing occurs in a network comprising different types of computers, potentially with vastly differing memory sizes, processing power and even basic underlying architecture. Mathematics and statistics In algebra, homogeneous polynomials have the same number of factors of a given kind. In the study of binary relations, a homogeneous relation R is on a single set (R ⊆ X × X) while a heterogeneous relation concerns possibly distinct sets (R ⊆ X × Y,  X = Y or X ≠ Y). In statistical meta-analysis, study heterogeneity is when multiple studies on an effect are measuring somewhat different effects due to differences in subject population, intervention, choice of analysis, experimental design, etc.; this can cause problems in attempts to summarize the meaning of the studies. Medicine In medicine and genetics, a genetic or allelic heterogeneous condition is one where the same disease or condition can be caused, or contributed to, by several factors, or in genetic terms, by varying or different genes or alleles. In cancer research, cancer cell heterogeneity is thought to be one of the underlying reasons that make treatment of cancer difficult. Physics In physics, "heterogeneous" is understood to mean "having physical properties that vary within the medium". Sociology In sociology, "heterogeneous" may refer to a society or group that includes individuals of differing ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, sexes, or ages. Diverse is the more common synonym in the context. See also Complete spatial randomness Heterologous Epidemiology Spatial analysis Statistical hypothesis testing Homogeneity blockmodeling References External links The following cited pages in this book cover the meaning of "homogeneity" across disciplines: Chemical reactions Scientific terminology de:Heterogenität eu:Homogeneo eta heterogeneo

Psychoacoustics

Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychophysics involving the scientific study of the perception of sound by the human auditory system. It is the branch of science studying the psychological responses associated with sound including noise, speech, and music. Psychoacoustics is an interdisciplinary field including psychology, acoustics, electronic engineering, physics, biology, physiology, and computer science. Background Hearing is not a purely mechanical phenomenon of wave propagation, but is also a sensory and perceptual event. When a person hears something, that something arrives at the ear as a mechanical sound wave traveling through the air, but within the ear it is transformed into neural action potentials. These nerve pulses then travel to the brain where they are perceived. Hence, in many problems in acoustics, such as for audio processing, it is advantageous to take into account not just the mechanics of the environment, but also the fact that both the ear and the brain are involved in a person's listening experience. The inner ear, for example, does significant signal processing in converting sound waveforms into neural stimuli, this processing renders certain differences between waveforms imperceptible. Data compression techniques, such as MP3, make use of this fact. In addition, the ear has a nonlinear response to sounds of different intensity levels; this nonlinear response is called loudness. Telephone networks and audio noise reduction systems make use of this fact by nonlinearly compressing data samples before transmission and then expanding them for playback. Another effect of the ear's nonlinear response is that sounds that are close in frequency produce phantom beat notes, or intermodulation distortion products. The term psychoacoustics also arises in discussions about cognitive psychology and the effects that personal expectations, prejudices, and predispositions may have on listeners' relative evaluations and comparisons of sonic aesthetics and acuity and on listeners' varying determinations about the relative qualities of various musical instruments and performers. The expression that one "hears what one wants (or expects) to hear" may pertain in such discussions. Limits of perception The human ear can nominally hear sounds in the range . The upper limit tends to decrease with age; most adults are unable to hear above . The lowest frequency that has been identified as a musical tone is 12 Hz under ideal laboratory conditions. Tones between 4 and 16 Hz can be perceived via the body's sense of touch. Human perception of audio signal time separation has been measured to be less than 10 microseconds. This does not mean that frequencies above are audible, but that time discrimination is not directly coupled with frequency range. Frequency resolution of the ear is about 3.6 Hz within the octave of That is, changes in pitch larger than 3.6 Hz can be perceived in a clinical setting. However, even smaller pitch differences can be perceived through other means. For example, the interference of two pitches can often be heard as a repetitive variation in the volume of the tone. This amplitude modulation occurs with a frequency equal to the difference in frequencies of the two tones and is known as beating. The semitone scale used in Western musical notation is not a linear frequency scale but logarithmic. Other scales have been derived directly from experiments on human hearing perception, such as the mel scale and Bark scale (these are used in studying perception, but not usually in musical composition), and these are approximately logarithmic in frequency at the high-frequency end, but nearly linear at the low-frequency end. The intensity range of audible sounds is enormous. Human eardrums are sensitive to variations in sound pressure and can detect pressure changes from as small as a few micropascals (μPa) to greater than . For this reason, sound pressure level is also measured logarithmically, with all pressures referenced to (or ). The lower limit of audibility is therefore defined as , but the upper limit is not as clearly defined. The upper limit is more a question of the limit where the ear will be physically harmed or with the potential to cause noise-induced hearing loss. A more rigorous exploration of the lower limits of audibility determines that the minimum threshold at which a sound can be heard is frequency dependent. By measuring this minimum intensity for testing tones of various frequencies, a frequency-dependent absolute threshold of hearing (ATH) curve may be derived. Typically, the ear shows a peak of sensitivity (i.e., its lowest ATH) between , though the threshold changes with age, with older ears showing decreased sensitivity above 2 kHz. The ATH is the lowest of the equal-loudness contours. Equal-loudness contours indicate the sound pressure level (dB SPL), over the range of audible frequencies, that are perceived as being of equal loudness. Equal-loudness contours were first measured by Fletcher and Munson at Bell Labs in 1933 using pure tones reproduced via headphones, and the data they collected are called Fletcher–Munson curves. Because subjective loudness was difficult to measure, the Fletcher–Munson curves were averaged over many subjects. Robinson and Dadson refined the process in 1956 to obtain a new set of equal-loudness curves for a frontal sound source measured in an anechoic chamber. The Robinson-Dadson curves were standardized as ISO 226 in 1986. In 2003, was revised as equal-loudness contour using data collected from 12 international studies. Sound localization Sound localization is the process of determining the location of a sound source. The brain utilizes subtle differences in loudness, tone and timing between the two ears to allow us to localize sound sources. Localization can be described in terms of three-dimensional position: the azimuth or horizontal angle, the zenith or vertical angle, and the distance (for static sounds) or velocity (for moving sounds). Humans, as most four-legged animals, are adept at detecting direction in the horizontal, but less so in the vertical directions due to the ears being placed symmetrically. Some species of owls have their ears placed asymmetrically and can detect sound in all three planes, an adaption to hunt small mammals in the dark. Masking effects Suppose a listener can hear a given acoustical signal under silent conditions. When a signal is playing while another sound is being played (a masker), the signal has to be stronger for the listener to hear it. The masker does not need to have the frequency components of the original signal for masking to happen. A masked signal can be heard even though it is weaker than the masker. Masking happens when a signal and a masker are played together—for instance, when one person whispers while another person shouts—and the listener doesn't hear the weaker signal as it has been masked by the louder masker. Masking can also happen to a signal before a masker starts or after a masker stops. For example, a single sudden loud clap sound can make sounds inaudible that immediately precede or follow. The effects of backward masking is weaker than forward masking. The masking effect has been widely studied in psychoacoustical research. One can change the level of the masker and measure the threshold, then create a diagram of a psychophysical tuning curve that will reveal similar features. Masking effects are also used in lossy audio encoding, such as MP3. Missing fundamental When presented with a harmonic series of frequencies in the relationship 2f, 3f, 4f, 5f, etc. (where f is a specific frequency), humans tend to perceive that the pitch is f. An audible example can be found on YouTube. Software The psychoacoustic model provides for high quality lossy signal compression by describing which parts of a given digital audio signal can be removed (or aggressively compressed) safely—that is, without significant losses in the (consciously) perceived quality of the sound. It can explain how a sharp clap of the hands might seem painfully loud in a quiet library but is hardly noticeable after a car backfires on a busy, urban street. This provides great benefit to the overall compression ratio, and psychoacoustic analysis routinely leads to compressed music files that are one-tenth to one-twelfth the size of high-quality masters, but with discernibly less proportional quality loss. Such compression is a feature of nearly all modern lossy audio compression formats. Some of these formats include Dolby Digital (AC-3), MP3, Opus, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, WMA, MPEG-1 Layer II (used for digital audio broadcasting in several countries), and ATRAC, the compression used in MiniDisc and some Walkman models. Psychoacoustics is based heavily on human anatomy, especially the ear's limitations in perceiving sound as outlined previously. To summarize, these limitations are: High-frequency limit Absolute threshold of hearing Temporal masking (forward masking, backward masking) Simultaneous masking (also known as spectral masking) A compression algorithm can assign a lower priority to sounds outside the range of human hearing. By carefully shifting bits away from the unimportant components and toward the important ones, the algorithm ensures that the sounds a listener is most likely to perceive are most accurately represented. Music Psychoacoustics includes topics and studies that are relevant to music psychology and music therapy. Theorists such as Benjamin Boretz consider some of the results of psychoacoustics to be meaningful only in a musical context. Irv Teibel's Environments series LPs (1969–79) are an early example of commercially available sounds released expressly for enhancing psychological abilities. Applied psychoacoustics Psychoacoustics has long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with computer science. Internet pioneers J. C. R. Licklider and Bob Taylor both completed graduate-level work in psychoacoustics, while BBN Technologies originally specialized in consulting on acoustics issues before it began building the first packet-switched network. Licklider wrote a paper entitled "A duplex theory of pitch perception". Psychoacoustics is applied within many fields of software development, where developers map proven and experimental mathematical patterns in digital signal processing. Many audio compression codecs such as MP3 and Opus use a psychoacoustic model to increase compression ratios. The success of conventional audio systems for the reproduction of music in theatres and homes can be attributed to psychoacoustics and psychoacoustic considerations gave rise to novel audio systems, such as psychoacoustic sound field synthesis. Furthermore, scientists have experimented with limited success in creating new acoustic weapons, which emit frequencies that may impair, harm, or kill. Psychoacoustics are also leveraged in sonification to make multiple independent data dimensions audible and easily interpretable. This enables auditory guidance without the need for spatial audio and in sonification computer games and other applications, such as drone flying and image-guided surgery. It is also applied today within music, where musicians and artists continue to create new auditory experiences by masking unwanted frequencies of instruments, causing other frequencies to be enhanced. Yet another application is in the design of small or lower-quality loudspeakers, which can use the phenomenon of missing fundamentals to give the effect of bass notes at lower frequencies than the loudspeakers are physically able to produce (see references). Automobile manufacturers engineer their engines and even doors to have a certain sound. See also Related fields Cognitive neuroscience of music Music psychology Psychoacoustic topics A-weighting, a commonly used perceptual loudness transfer function ABX test Audiology Auditory illusion Auditory scene analysis incl. 3D-sound perception, localization Binaural beats Blind signal separation Combination tone (also Tartini tone) Deutsch's Scale illusion Equivalent rectangular bandwidth (ERB) Franssen effect Glissando illusion Hypersonic effect Language processing Levitin effect Misophonia Musical tuning Noise health effects Octave illusion Pitch (music) Precedence effect Psycholinguistics Rate-distortion theory Sound localization Sound of fingernails scraping chalkboard Sound masking Speech perception Speech recognition Timbre Tritone paradox References Notes Sources E. Larsen and R.M. Aarts (2004), Audio Bandwidth extension. Application of Psychoacoustics, Signal Processing and Loudspeaker Design., J. Wiley. External links The Musical Ear—Perception of Sound —Simulation of Free-field Hearing by Head Phones GPSYCHO—An Open-source Psycho-Acoustic and Noise-Shaping Model for ISO-Based MP3 Encoders. Definition of: perceptual audio coding Java appletdemonstrating masking Temporal Masking HyperPhysics Concepts—Sound and Hearing The MP3 as Standard Object Cognitive musicology Music psychology Acoustics

Indian psychology

Indian psychology refers to an emerging scholarly and scientific subfield of psychology. Psychologists working in this field are retrieving the psychological ideas embedded in indigenous Indian religious and spiritual traditions and philosophies, and expressing these ideas in psychological terms that permit further psychological research and application. 'Indian psychology' in this sense does not mean 'the psychology of the Indian people', or 'psychology as taught at Indian universities'. The Indian Psychology Movement refers to psychologists encouraging or carrying out the recently expanded activity in this field. Although some research scholarship in this field occurred as early as the 1930s, activity intensified after the Manifesto on Indian Psychology was issued in 2002 by more than 150 psychologists gathered in Pondicherry, India, led by K. Ramakrishna Rao, Girishwar Misra, and others. Since the issuance of the Manifesto, psychologists active in this field have produced scholarly and scientific publications that include a textbook, a handbook, several other edited volumes, a journal special issue, and a variety of other books and journal articles. Conferences on Indian psychology have been held in several Indian cities, sometimes drawing scores of presentations. Topics addressed by Indian psychology research and scholarship have included conceptions or processes relevant to values, personality, perception, cognition, emotion, creativity, education, and spirituality as well as applications such as meditation, yoga, and ayurveda, and case studies of prominent spiritual figures and their legacies. Indian psychology subscribes to methodological pluralism and especially emphasizes universal perspectives that pertain primarily to a person's inner state, and are not otherworldly, religious, or dogmatic, and with special emphasis on applications that foster the positive transformation of human conditions toward achievement and well-being. Indian psychology views itself as complementary to modern psychology, capable of expanding modern psychology's limits, and capable of being integrated with many parts of modern psychology. Other scholarly and scientific fields that are relevant to Indian psychology and often partly overlap with it include modern scientific psychology, neurophysiology, consciousness studies, and Indian philosophy and religion. Definition and naming Major books in Indian psychology define the field as pertaining to the study of psychological ideas derived from traditional Indian thought. For example, Cornelissen, Misra, and Varma (2014) wrote that "by Indian psychology we mean an approach to psychology that is based on ideas and practices that developed over thousands of years within the Indian sub-continent.... we do not mean, for example, 'the psychology of the Indian people', or 'psychology as taught at Indian universities'".<ref name=cmvintro14>Cornelissen, R.M.M., Misra, G., & Varma, S., "Introduction to the second edition" (pp. xi-xxv) in: , </ref> Rao (2014) wrote that Indian psychology "refers to a system/school of psychology derived from classical Indian thought and rooted in the psychologically relevant practices such as yoga prevalent in the Indian subcontinent for centuries."<ref name=raotarget14></ref> Rao (2008) explained that the term "Indian psychology" has long been used in such a manner, writing that Cornelissen (2014) expressed concern about possible confusion, writing that "Indian psychology.... is a name that needs explanation every time it is used... and it continues to court controversy due to its associations with various forms of Indian nationalism. For an approach to science with claims of universality, this is a problematic encumbrance". The "Indian psychology movement" and the "Indian psychological movement" are terms used to designate the recently expanding interest and activity in Indian psychology, especially after the issuance of the Manifesto of Indian Psychology (2002). For example, Bhawuk (2011) wrote that "I was delighted to join the group of Indian Psychologists from Vishakhapatnam in what I have called the Indian Psychological Movement". History During the 20th century scholars had intermittently studied the psychological ideas embedded in Indian traditions. This process substantially accelerated at the turn of the 21st century, which saw the issuance of the Manifesto on Indian Psychology (2002) as a milestone for what has been called the Indian Psychology Movement. For catalyzing this intensified interest, S. K. Kiran Kumar (2008) wrote that Other contributing factors were the sense that there had been in India a "painful neglect of the indigenous tradition", and that modern psychology as studied in India was "essentially a Western transplant, unable to connect with the Indian ethos and concurrent community conditions.... by and large imitative and replicative of Western studies". Manifesto From September 29 to October 1, 2002, more than 150 Indian psychologists met in Pondicherry at the National Conference on Yoga and Indian Approaches to Psychology. These psychologists issued a declaration that has become known as the Manifesto on Indian Psychology, which was published in Psychological Studies, the journal of the Indian National Academy of Psychology. The Manifesto affirmed that "Rich in content, sophisticated in its methods and valuable in its applied aspects, Indian psychology is pregnant with possibilities for the birth of new models in psychology that would have relevance not only to India but also to psychology in general.... By Indian psychology we mean a distinct psychological tradition that is rooted in Indian ethos and thought, including the variety of psychological practices that exist in the country". The Manifesto also recommended eight "necessary steps for responsibly promoting psychology in India" that ranged from preparing resource materials to offering student fellowships, conducting seminars, offering courses, generating a website, and appointing a committee for follow-up action to ensure the implementation of the recommendations. As described by Rao and Paranjpe (2016), the conference attendees Goals and progress Rao and Paranjpe (2016) reported that about a year after the issuance of the Manifesto, "a smaller group assembled in Visakhapatnam and worked out a plan to prepare a set of three volumes, a handbook, a textbook, and a sourcebook of Indian psychology. By 2016, both the handbook and textbook had been published, but the sourcebook project had "languished... mainly because it has not been easy to find either psychologists who have deep knowledge of the classic works in Sanskrit, Pāli, and Ardhamāgadhi or classicists sufficiently aware of the perspectives and needs of psychology today", but that plans for the sourcebook were "still on", and that they hoped that the sourcebook would "soon be completed". Dalal (2014) reported that "efforts to build Indian psychology as a vibrant discipline" have received impetus through several conferences that have taken place in Pondicherry (2001, 2002, 2004), Kollam (2001), Delhi (2002, 2003, 2007), Visakhapatnam (2002, 2003, 2006), and Bengaluru (2007). The Bengaluru (2007) conference on the SVYASA campus was national in scope and involved the presentation of over 120 papers in seven plenary sessions and 25 concurrent sessions. Multiple books on Indian psychology have emerged from conference proceedings. Oman and Singh (2018) stated that "The Indian psychology movement has made substantial strides in incorporating theory- and realization-derived content". Indian psychology texts have been favorably reviewed in journals dedicated to a variety of other fields and subfields of psychology. Other external impacts to date include a meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin, in which Sedlmeier and his meta-analytic colleagues, for determining basic traditional teachings relevant to meditation, "lean heavily on the recent Indian psychology movement, which originated in India but includes experts on diverse theoretical approaches to meditation from both East and West". Topics, characteristics, and methods Varied topics have been addressed to date in Indian psychology publications. Chaudhary noted that the Handbook contains sections on schools of thought (Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and various related traditions), specific psychological processes and constructs ("values, personality, perception, cognition, emotion, creativity, education, and spirituality"), and applications to individual psychology and group dynamics, including meditation from different traditions, yoga, and ayurveda. The Indian psychology literature also includes case studies of a number of prominent Indian spiritual figures and their legacies, including Saint Tukārāma, B. G. Tilak, Ramana Maharshi, Mahatma Gandhi, Akhilananda and Eknath Easwaran. Dalal (2014) stated that Indian psychology can be deemed as "universal [and not] subsumed under indigenous or cultural psychology if that implies delimiting the scope of psychological inquiry.... deals primarily with the inner state of a person.... [and is] spiritual in its orientation [but that] does not mean otherworldly, nor does it mean being religious or dogmatic .... [is] based on veridical methods.... [that] rely on the blending of first person and second person perspectives .... [and] is applied.... concerned about... practices that can be used for the transformation of human conditions toward perfection... of the person to higher levels of achievement and well-being" (emphases in original). Rao and Paranjpe (2016) stated that Indian psychology Arulmani (2007) stated that "In the same manner that Western psychology is committed to the deployment of techniques to make valid and reliable objective observations, the Indian tradition has developed a wide variety of methods to sharpen the quality and reliability of inner, subjective observations". Relation to other fields Rao and Paranjpe (2016) wrote that "We should consider the Western and Indian approaches not as either or but mutually complementary and reinforcing models." Oman and Singh (2018) wrote that "Like modern psychological paradigms, many indigenous Indian paradigms are framed universally and can be explored for relevance to diverse populations worldwide. The Indian psychology movement aims to reclaim traditional riches while expanding and refining the best of modern psychology". Chakkarath (2005) argues along similar lines, pointing out that systemically elaborated psychological theories that were developed in India before European colonization are also concerned with universal psychological questions, but at the same time provide divergent answers that can be very useful for the development of a more culturally sensitive and at the same time internationally oriented psychology. Rao, Paranjpe, and Dalal (2008) wrote that "Indian psychology recognizes that physical processes influence mental functions, but it also stresses that mental functions influence bodily processes.... Therefore, neurophysiological studies are not considered irrelevant to Indian psychology, but are regarded as insufficient to give us a complete understanding of human nature".<ref name=raointro08>Rao, K. Ramakrishna, "Prologue: Introducing Indian Psychology" (pp. 1-18) in: </ref> Oman and Singh (2018) wrote that "psychologists connected to diverse religious traditions have engaged in what we may call epistemic integration [in which researchers] have generated texts and conducted research that explicitly respects one or more [religious/spiritual] traditions as sources of knowledge.... The Indian psychology movement may be viewed as in part an epistemic integration attempt and in part as an attempt to expand modern psychology". Rao and Paranjpe (2016) wrote that "In the Indian tradition the guru (preceptor)… occupies an intermediate position between first-person experience of the practitioner and the final self-certifying state of pure consciousness, playing an indispensable role of mediation and providing a second-person perspective to supplement third-person and first-person approaches. … [which yields an] important methodological addition to psychological research suggested by Indian psychology". Oman and Singh (2018) wrote that "In studying religion/spirituality, US psychologists have emphasized empirical work, whereas the Indian psychology movement has emphasized insights from experience and realization. Through collaboration, Indian and US psychologists can learn from each other and combine the strengths of the two approaches." Publications (selected) The Pondicherry Manifesto on Indian Psychology was published in Psychological Studies, the journal of the Indian National Academy of Psychology: Both edited and authored books have helped define the field of Indian psychology. Edited books include: Reviewed in multiple journals<ref name=chaudhary10></ref><ref name=berry09></ref><ref name=tripathy10></ref><ref name=pickering09></ref><ref name=stanford10></ref> (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2). (Second edition in one volume) , Authored books include: Reviewed in multiple journals<ref name=rammohan11></ref><ref name=lorimer14></ref><ref name=potts11></ref> Reviewed in journal Books that collected conference papers include: Journal articles that have discussed Indian psychology include: A target article, with commentary and reply, on the relationship between Indian Psychology and positive psychology, published in the June 2014 issue of Psychological Studies: Target article: European and Indian psychologists collaborated in extracting psychological ideas from traditional Indian Samkhya and Yoga philosophies: Two western-based scholars, including the editor of the journal Mindfulness, presented a list of twelve "generative topics for collaboration and integration" (p. 175) of western and Indian psychology, arguing that there were many opportunities for collaboration between western and Indian psychologists. An Indian psychologist describes four approaches to building psychological models from ideas encountered in scriptures: References External links Pondicherry Manifesto of Indian Psychology (full text without signatories) The core and context of Indian psychology (Girishwar Misra on YouTube, 1h 15m) Indian Psychology Institute (Pondicherry) Indology Psychological schools

Theoretical psychology

Theoretical psychology is concerned with theoretical and philosophical aspects of psychology. It is an interdisciplinary field with a wide scope of study. It focuses on combining and incorporating existing and developing theories of psychology non-experimentally. Theoretical psychology originated from the philosophy of science, with logic and rationality at the base of each new idea. It existed before empirical or experimental psychology. Theoretical psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving psychologists specializing in a wide variety of psychological branches. There have been a few prominent pioneers of theoretical psychology such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Sigmund Freud, and John B. Watson. There has also been a number of notable contributors which include Jerome Kagan, Alan E. Kazdin, Robert Sternberg, Kenneth J. Gergen, and Ulric Neisser. These contributors may publish in a variety of journals, including journals for general psychology, like American Psychologist. There are several journals dedicated specifically to theoretical psychology, like Theory & Psychology and Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Many other organizations are beginning to recognize theoretical psychology as a formal subdivision of psychology. Origin Theoretical psychology emerged from philosophy, more specifically from the philosophy of science. Philosophy strives to understand nature and structure of concepts, the laws in which these concepts occur, and the theories that combine the laws together. One of these specific branches of philosophy of science is theoretical psychology. Philosophy of science does not use the scientific method to empirically derive ideas about the physical world through conducting experiments and interpreting results. However, it is still about science with an emphasis on the logic and rationality behind science itself, bringing to light what cannot be explained by empirical measures. It is also metaphysically and epistemologically focused on all humans while incorporating the nature and essence of human knowledge. Just as the philosophy of science is to science, theoretical psychology is to psychology in that it is the logic and rationality applied to concepts, laws, and theories. Theoretical psychology is not in place to discern which theories are more truthful or more correct. Many consider theoretical psychology as the support or rationalization of an "idea" within psychological theory that is more "truthful". However, this is not the case. Theoretical psychology is scientifically grounded in ideas of what is known through epistemology. Theoretical psychology existed long before any branches of traditional empirical and experimental psychology. As a result, there is much more depth and breadth of knowledge from which to draw, making it less common for new developments to come about in the present day because many "new" approaches are drawing from and revitalizing past theories. In doing so, new knowledge, frames of reference, and mindsets are brought to these foundational theories. This may be due to ideas taking longer to develop and gain momentum than related fields in empirical based psychology. Relationship to philosophy and scope Theoretical psychology is a rational, non-experimental approach to psychology. In psychology, as with any field of study, there are three philosophical perspectives and methodologies of ways to derive knowledge about the reality of the world. Rationalism (use of intellect and reason of the mind), Empiricism (use of our individually experienced sensorium), and Skepticism (knowledge beyond mere appearance that is not able to be studied) characterize the three perspectives in understanding theoretical concepts relating to laws which help to understand larger theoretical theories. Of the philosophical perspectives, rationalism is the most pertinent to this discipline of psychology. Theoretical psychology is not experimental or clinically based and focuses on non-experimental ways to acquire knowledge about psychological topics. It explores the theoretical knowledge behind its encompassed ideologies. Oftentimes this includes, but is not limited to, non-experimental critiques to different schools of thought, and the usefulness of psychological concepts. Theoretical psychology is a discipline that bases its information through inference, as opposed to empirically acquired information. Hypotheses are then exchanged and further built upon from different perspectives. Theoretical Psychology also deals with manipulating non-scientific, common words (hypothetical constructs) into scientifically objective terms (intervening variables). Theoretical psychology requires full agreement on the different viewpoints to be able to see the point as a theory. As a result, many of its topics remain in continuous debate. Theoretical psychology is the logic of psychology and all of its components. This means when theories within psychology oppose or compete, theoretical psychology does not select which is correct. It describes the nature and composition of psychology's many ideas. To explain the logic of psychology, there has been a conclusion of the principles belonging to the three classified areas. Psychology is built on the principle of being able to reference observable behavior, physical environment, and/or physiological states. Theoretical psychology is an important aspect that continues to play a role in modern psychology. While there are some downfalls to theoretical psychology, there are also strengths and benefits it brings to the field. The scope that theoretical psychology covers is vast. Professionals have the opportunity to use this method of seeking out theoretical knowledge to begin research in a variety of subjects. This allows for a great deal of knowledge to be explored by means of inference rather than seeking out tangible data to draw ideas. Theoretical psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving psychologists specializing in cognitive psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology, clinical psychology, perceptual psychology, neuropsychology, biological psychology, evolutionary psychology, historical psychology, economic psychology, political psychology, and critical psychology. It is important to acknowledge these fields do not discount empiricism, but rather explore new ideas with a theoretical approach first. Pioneers A brief history into the field of theoretical psychology includes some prominent pioneers. To begin, Wilhelm Wundt (1874) originally worked as a professor of philosophy. His focus was on the subjective study of an individual's consciousness, he believed that this was a key factor to the field of psychology. This aspect of psychology was unable to be shown with a large amount of empirical evidence, but remained a theory throughout the history of Psychology. Next, William James (1890) worked as a psychologist and a philosopher. His career focused around the idea of free will, which is theoretical in nature. He also assisted in forming the James-Lange theory of emotion, which is based upon many theoretical factors. Sigmund Freud (1905) was also an important pioneer for theoretical psychology. Freud founded the psychoanalytic theory of psychology. He did not rely on empirical data when making his theories, but instead looked for philosophical explanations. Freud often shared his view that he did not need empirical evidence for his theory, because he simply knew it is true. Another pioneer was John B. Watson (1913). Watson founded the theory of behaviorism in psychology through the article "Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It". Although Behaviorism has a strong emphasis on empirical psychology, forming the methods cannot be empirically tested, and is therefore considered theoretical psychology. Notable contributors There are some notable individuals that have, and continue to make a large impact on theoretical psychology. Jerome Kagan's (1971) work on personality traits and aging, emotion, and temperament could be considered theoretical psychology due to Kagen dedicating much of his work to psychology constructs, specifically to the developmental psychology. As a science gains new empirical procedures it also generates new information. Donald Meichenbaum (1977) had work that focused on cognitive behavioral therapy. Meichenbaum did the majority of his work in the field of cognitive psychology. He compared his theory to Pandora's box. Its main focus is connecting cognitive processes and relations to things such as clients' feelings, behavior, and consequences of these. It also factors in physiologic and social cultural processes. Alan E. Kazdin (1980) had theories that focuses on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a style in children and adolescence. He focuses on child and adolescent psychopathologies such as depression and conduct problems. His writings on research strategies and methods have set a high standard for rigor in the field. Robert Sternberg's (1990) main focus revolves around some theoretical idea that include; creativity, wisdom, thinking styles, love, and hate. Sternberg often includes politically charged articles that focus on admissions testing and general intelligence. He performed both empirically driven and theoretical work. Kenneth J. Gergen's (1991) work on social psychology as history was used towards generative theories, realities and relationships, the saturated self, positive aging, and relational being. He included many theoretical ideas such as culture and science, assumptions, views on mental illness, and relations. Many of his idea's were theoretical in nature. Ulric Neisser (1995) has work that's related to cognitive psychology, specifically the idea of flashbulb memories. Although he used empirical data to test this idea, he originally took the concept from theoretical work. These individual's and many others continue to impact psychology with theoretical ideas that may or may not be yet supported by empirical data. Modern organizational support The American Psychological Association has the division of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology as Division 24. Theoretical Ideas are also associated to the division of humanistic psychology (32). According to the American Psychological Association, "Division 24: Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology encourages and facilitates informed exploration and discussion of psychological theories and issues in both their scientific and philosophical dimensions and interrelationships." The International Society for Theoretical Psychology, the Section of History and Philosophy of Psychology (25) of the Canadian Psychological Society, the Section of History and Philosophy of psychology of the British Psychological Society, the International Human Science Conference, and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology also offer organizational support. Universities that currently have Theoretical Psychology/Human Science programs include Duquesne University, the University of Dallas, Seattle University, West Georgia College, University of Calgary, University of Alberta, York University, Brigham Young University, University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University. Research methods Theoretical psychology works together with empirical psychology to form a symbiotic relationship. Theoretical psychology is not constrained by empirical research or laboratory studies. It allows for scientists to freely search for knowledge that we have yet to be able to study empirically or are not yet capable of studying empirically. For theoretical psychology, its strength lies in the realm of rationality, focused on big picture ideas. However, on its own it is not a complete way to gain particular knowledge of reality. This is where the empirical based branches of psychology has strength. Theoretical psychology can more heavily rely on an idea about human nature that is universal, even when it is not known why or how this particular trend happens in the world, either individualistically or collectively. Empirical psychology is what allows for humans to make insights on these big picture ideas at a more palatable, applicable and individualistic and way that gives practical information about reality. Theoretical psychology is not a universal psychological theory able to explain all topics without the use of empirical research. Theoretical psychology is not fundamental or comprehensive theory of psychology, rather, for theoretical psychology to operate correctly it is important to supplement empirical psychology and give reason to topics and produce theories until they can be empirically verified by the other branches of psychology. Issues in methodology and practice Humans have innate wonder, exploring many topics through experience and perception. From this wonder, individuals rationally reflects on their own experiences about a specific topic. Then the individual practices dialectics, examining what others have said about the topic being explored with the hopes of finding a particular knowledge about the topic. Theoretical psychology serves as the bridge between the philosophical roots of psychology and the present day empirical psychology. This bridge has an emphasis and focus on forming concepts from moments of explicit behavior that are observable, excluding introspective mental events within individual consciousness. Psychological laws are created from these observable behaviors that are derived from one concept that also contain concepts from the individual's environment of internal physiological states. These laws are categorized into causal (statistical) or deterministic/mechanistic (nonstatistical) categories which relate simultaneous parallel traits or predict future from present or past respectively. Then these laws are organized into theories based on connections logically deduced together and open to new laws yet to be discovered or empirically verified. The ultimate and logically possible goal of theoretical psychology is to create an exact and comprehensive psychological theory. However, the concepts that are immediately observable are still abstract and difficult to define even in a basic law in an important solid theory as they relate to no physical object we can make sense of or interact with using our sensorium and empirical approaches. They are not instantiated in the world and in virtue of this they are called theoretical concepts. Significance Theoretical psychology has many aspects that can be viewed as positive or negative, which depends on the interpreter. Theoretical psychology can play an important and also unique role in the field such that almost any claim can be reasonably thought of as true if it is theoretically appealing and empirically supported by research. Theorists must be strategic and knowledgeable when shifting through experimental psychology as the field grows. This can be beneficial in the sense that individuals know theorists have made a deliberated effort when analyzing the research surrounding a theory. However, for those who are not familiar with the theoretical psychology surrounding a theory, the abundant amount of information contributing to a theory can be overwhelming. In addition, theories can be extremely resistant to change. As theories compete, and different evidence emerges, prior theories can be extremely difficult to change. This can make it difficult for new theories to gain traction within the field of psychology. This resiliency may in part be due to theories stated in ways that are worded too abstractly, ineffectively, and contradictory at times. One challenge of theoretical psychology is the difficulty to explain consciousness: there are many competing theories revolving around consciousness, and theoretical psychology struggles to fully explain or justify consciousness. Researchers have an extremely difficult time studying it, despite there being an entire field of psychology completely dedicated to consciousness. Theoretical psychology can be extremely beneficial because it brings together scientific ideas and philosophical ideas of psychology. Integrating these ideas contributes to the knowledge of psychology. Journals The fields of humanistic and existential, as well as the Social Constructionist perspective of psychology, all have been fundamental to some of the first theoretical ideas as it pertains to modern theoretical psychology. Today, there are many journals that include theoretical articles. These journals include the following: Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology Theory and Psychology New Ideas in Psychology Journal of Humanistic Psychology Humanistic Psychology Family Process Studies in linguistics and Philosophy Consciousness and Cognition Theoretical Issues in Cognitive Science Behavior and Philosophy American Psychologist International Journal of Personal Construct Psychology Annals of Theoretical Psychology Psychological Inquiry Death and Dying Journal of Mind and Behavior Philosophical Psychology References External links International Society for Theoretical Psychology Laszlo Garai's writings in theoretical psychology, general psychology and brain research. Theory of Psychology and other Human Sciences (Documents No. 9 and 10 in English) Gerhard Medicus (2017). Being Human – Bridging the Gap between the Sciences of Body and Mind, Berlin VWB. Gerhard Medicus (2017). Being Human – Bridging the Gap between the Sciences of Body and Mind, Berlin VWB The Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (American Psychological Association, Division 24) The Ondwelle Home-page:- seeking micro-physiological explanations for Piagetian psychology. (Depends significantly on Physics and Info-tech at the cell and sub-cell level). Theoretical Psychology Annual Review of psychology Interdisciplinary branches of psychology Philosophy of psychology

Ecosophy

Ecosophy or ecophilosophy (a portmanteau of ecological philosophy) is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The term was coined by the French post-structuralist philosopher and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari and the Norwegian father of deep ecology, Arne Næss. Félix Guattari Ecosophy also refers to a field of practice introduced by psychoanalyst, poststructuralist philosopher, and political activist Félix Guattari. In part Guattari's use of the term demarcates a necessity for the proponents of social liberation, whose struggles in the 20th century were dominated by the paradigm of social revolution, to embed their arguments within an ecological framework which understands the interconnections of social and environmental spheres. Guattari holds that traditional environmentalist perspectives obscure the complexity of the relationship between humans and their natural environment through their maintenance of the dualistic separation of human (cultural) and nonhuman (natural) systems; he envisions ecosophy as a new field with a monistic and pluralistic approach to such study. Ecology in the Guattarian sense, then, is a study of complex phenomena, including human subjectivity, the environment, and social relations, all of which are intimately interconnected. Despite this emphasis on interconnection, throughout his individual writings and more famous collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, Guattari has resisted calls for holism, preferring to emphasize heterogeneity and difference, synthesizing assemblages and multiplicities in order to trace rhizomatic structures rather than creating unified and holistic structures. Guattari's concept of the three interacting and interdependent ecologies of mind, society, and environment stems from the outline of the three ecologies presented in Steps to an Ecology of Mind, a collection of writings by cyberneticist Gregory Bateson. Næss's definition Næss defined ecosophy in the following way: While a professor at the University of Oslo in 1972, Arne Næss, introduced the terms "deep ecology movement" and "ecosophy" into environmental literature. Næss based his article on a talk he gave in Bucharest in 1972 at the Third World Future Research Conference. As Drengson notes in Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and the Deep Ecology Movement: An Overview, "In his talk, Næss discussed the longer-range background of the ecology movement and its connection with respect for Nature and the inherent worth of other beings." Næss's view of humans as an integral part of a "total-field image" of Nature contrasts with the alternative construction of ecosophy outlined by Guattari. The term ecological wisdom, synonymous with ecosophy, was introduced by Næss in 1973. The concept has become one of the foundations of the deep ecology movement. All expressions of values by Green Parties list ecological wisdom as a key value—it was one of the original Four Pillars of the Green Party and is often considered the most basic value of these parties. It is also often associated with indigenous religion and cultural practices. In its political context, it is necessarily not as easily defined as ecological health or scientific ecology concepts. See also Ecology Environmental philosophy Global Greens Charter Green syndicalism Silvilization Simple living Spiritual ecology Sustainable living Yin and yang Notes References Drengson, A. and Y. Inoue, eds. (1995) The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley: North Atlantic Publishers. Guattari, Félix: »Pour une refondation des pratiques sociales«. In: Le Monde Diplomatique (Oct. 1992): 26-7. Guattari, Félix: »Remaking Social Practices«. In: Genosko, Gary (Hg.) (1996): The Guattari Reader. Oxford, Blackwell, S. 262-273. Maybury-Lewis, David. (1992) "On the Importance of Being Tribal: Tribal Wisdom." Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World. Binimun Productions Ltd. Næss, Arne. (1973) The Shallow and the Deep Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary". Inquiry, 16:95-100 Drengson A. & B. Devall (2008) (Eds) The Ecology of Wisdom. Writings by Arne Naess. Berkeley: Counterpoint Levesque, Simon (2016) Two versions of ecosophy: Arne Næss, Félix Guattari, and their connection with semiotics. Sign Systems Studies'' 44(4): 511-541. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2016.44.4.03 External links Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and the Deep Ecology Movement: An Overview by Alan Drengson Ecospherics.net. Accessed 2005-08-14. The Trumpeter, A Journal of Ecosophy. Ecology Postmodern theory Environmental philosophy Environmentalism Arne Næss

Context analysis

Context analysis is a method to analyze the environment in which a business operates. Environmental scanning mainly focuses on the macro environment of a business. But context analysis considers the entire environment of a business, its internal and external environment. This is an important aspect of business planning. One kind of context analysis, called SWOT analysis, allows the business to gain an insight into their strengths and weaknesses and also the opportunities and threats posed by the market within which they operate. The main goal of a context analysis, SWOT or otherwise, is to analyze the environment in order to develop a strategic plan of action for the business. Context analysis also refers to a method of sociological analysis associated with Scheflen (1963) which believes that 'a given act, be it a glance at [another] person, a shift in posture, or a remark about the weather, has no intrinsic meaning. Such acts can only be understood when taken in relation to one another.' (Kendon, 1990: 16). This is not discussed here; only Context Analysis in the business sense is. Define market or subject The first step of the method is to define a particular market (or subject) one wishes to analyze and focus all analysis techniques on what was defined. A subject, for example, can be a newly proposed product idea. Trend Analysis The next step of the method is to conduct a trend analysis. Trend analysis is an analysis of macro environmental factors in the external environment of a business, also called PEST analysis. It consists of analyzing political, economical, social, technological and demographic trends. This can be done by first determining which factors, on each level, are relevant for the chosen subject and to score each item as to specify its importance. This allows the business to identify those factors that can influence them. They can’t control these factors but they can try to cope with them by adapting themselves. The trends (factors) that are addressed in PEST analysis are Political, Economical, Social and Technological; but for context analysis Demographic trends are also of importance. Demographic trends are those factors that have to do with the population, like for example average age, religion, education etc. Demographic information is of importance if, for example during market research, a business wants to determine a particular market segment to target. The other trends are described in environmental scanning and PEST analysis. Trend analysis only covers part of the external environment. Another important aspect of the external environment that a business should consider is its competition. This is the next step of the method, competitor analysis. Competitor Analysis As one can imagine, it is important for a business to know who its competition is, how they do their business and how powerful they are so that they can be on the defense and offense. In Competitor analysis a couple of techniques are introduced how to conduct such an analysis. Here I will introduce another technique which involves conducting four sub analyses, namely: determination of competition levels, competitive forces, competitor behavior and competitor strategy. Competition levels Businesses compete on several levels and it is important for them to analyze these levels so that they can understand the demand. Competition is identified on four levels: Consumer needs: level of competition that refers to the needs and desires of consumers. A business should ask: What are the desires of the consumers? General competition: The kind of consumer demand. For example: do consumers prefer shaving with electric razor or a razor blade? Brand: This level refers to brand competition. Which brands are preferable to a consumer? Product: This level refers to the type of demand. Thus what types of products do consumers prefer? Another important aspect of a competition analysis is to increase the consumer insight. For example: [Ducati] has, by interviewing a lot of their customers, concluded that their main competitor is not another bicycle, but sport-cars like [Porsche] or [GM]. This will of course influence the competition level within this business. Competitive forces These are forces that determine the level of competition within a particular market. There are six forces that have to be taken into consideration, power of the competition, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of substitute products and the importance of complementary products. This analysis is described in Porter 5 forces analysis. Competitor behavior Competitor behaviors are the defensive and offensive actions of the competition. Competitor strategy These strategies refer to how an organization competes with other organizations. And these are: low price strategy and product differentiation strategy. Opportunities and Threats The next step, after the trend analysis and competitor analysis are conducted, is to determine threats and opportunities posed by the market. The trends analysis revealed a set of trends that can influence the business in either a positive or a negative manner. These can thus be classified as either opportunities or threats. Likewise, the competitor analysis revealed positive and negative competition issues that can be classified as opportunities or threats. Organization Analysis The last phase of the method is an analysis of the internal environment of the organization, thus the organization itself. The aim is to determine which skills, knowledge and technological fortes the business possesses. This entails conducting an internal analysis and a competence analysis. Internal analysis The internal analysis, also called SWOT analysis, involves identifying the organizations strengths and weaknesses. The strengths refer to factors that can result in a market advantage and weaknesses to factors that give a disadvantage because the business is unable to comply with the market needs. Competence analysis Competences are the combination of a business’ knowledge, skills and technology that can give them the edge versus the competition. Conducting such an analysis involves identifying market related competences, integrity related competences and functional related competences. SWOT-i matrix The previous sections described the major steps involved in context analysis. All these steps resulted in data that can be used for developing a strategy. These are summarized in a SWOT-i matrix. The trend and competitor analysis revealed the opportunities and threats posed by the market. The organization analysis revealed the competences of the organization and also its strengths and weaknesses. These strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats summarize the entire context analysis. A SWOT-i matrix, depicted in the table below, is used to depict these and to help visualize the strategies that are to be devised. SWOT- i stand for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats and Issues. The Issues refer to strategic issues that will be used to devise a strategic plan. This matrix combines the strengths with the opportunities and threats, and the weaknesses with the opportunities and threats that were identified during the analysis. Thus the matrix reveals four clusters: Cluster strengths and opportunities: use strengths to take advantage of opportunities. Cluster strengths and threats: use strengths to overcome the threats Cluster weaknesses and opportunities: certain weaknesses hamper the organization from taking advantage of opportunities therefore they have to look for a way to turn those weaknesses around. Cluster weaknesses and threats: there is no way that the organization can overcome the threats without having to make major changes. Strategic Plan The ultimate goal of context analysis is to develop a strategic plan. The previous sections described all the steps that form the stepping stones to developing a strategic plan of action for the organization. The trend and competitor analysis gives insight to the opportunities and threats in the market and the internal analysis gives insight to the competences of the organization. And these were combined in the SWOT-i matrix. The SWOT-i matrix helps identify issues that need to be dealt with. These issues need to be resolved by formulating an objective and a plan to reach that objective, a strategy. Example Joe Arden is in the process of writing a business plan for his business idea, Arden Systems. Arden Systems will be a software business that focuses on the development of software for small businesses. Joe realizes that this is a tough market because there are many software companies that develop business software. Therefore, he conducts context analysis to gain insight into the environment of the business in order to develop a strategic plan of action to achieve competitive advantage within the market. Define market First step is to define a market for analysis. Joe decides that he wants to focus on small businesses consisting of at most 20 employees. Trend Analysis Next step is to conduct trend analysis. The macro environmental factors that Joe should take into consideration are as follows: Political trend: Intellectual property rights Economical trend: Economic growth Social trend: Reduce operational costs; Ease for conducting business administration Technological trend: Software suites; Web applications Demographic trend: Increase in the graduates of IT related studies Competitor Analysis Following trend analysis is competitor analysis. Joe analyzes the competition on four levels to gain insight into how they operate and where advantages lie. Competition level: Consumer need: Arden Systems will be competing on the fact that consumers want efficient and effective conducting of a business Brand: There are software businesses that have been making business software for a while and thus have become very popular in the market. Competing based on brand will be difficult. Product: They will be packaged software like the major competition. Competitive forces: Forces that can affect Arden Systems are in particular: The bargaining power of buyers: the extent to which they can switch from one product to the other. Threat of new entrants: it is very easy for someone to develop a new software product that can be better than Arden's. Power of competition: the market leaders have most of the cash and customers; they have to power to mold the market. Competitor behavior: The focus of the competition is to take over the position of the market leader. Competitor strategy: Joe intends to compete based on product differentiation. Opportunities and Threats Now that Joe has analyzed the competition and the trends in the market he can define opportunities and threats. Opportunities: Because the competitors focus on taking over the leadership position, Arden can focus on those segments of the market that the market leader ignores. This allows them to take over where the market leader shows weakness. The fact that there are new IT graduates, Arden can employ or partner with someone that may have a brilliant idea. Threats: IT graduates with fresh idea's can start their own software businesses and form a major competition for Arden Systems. Organization analysis After Joe has identified the opportunities and threats of the market he can try to figure out what Arden System's strengths and weaknesses are by doing an organization analysis. Internal analysis: Strength: Product differentiation Weakness: Lacks innovative people within the organization Competence analysis: Functional related competence: Arden Systems provides system functionalities that fit small businesses. Market-related competence: Arden Systems has the opportunity to focus on a part of the market which is ignored. SWOT-i matrix After the previous analyses, Joe can create a SWOT-i matrix to perform SWOT analysis. Strategic Plan After creating the SWOT-i matrix, Joe is now able to devise a strategic plan. Focus all software development efforts to that part of the market which is ignored by market leaders, small businesses. Employ recent innovative It graduates to stimulate the innovation within Arden Systems. See also Organization design Segmenting and positioning Environmental scanning Market research SWOT analysis Six Forces Model PESTLE analysis Gap analysis References Van der Meer, P.O. (2005). Omgevings analyse. In Ondernemerschap in hoofdlijnen. (pp 74–85). Houten: Wolters-Noordhoff. Ward, J. & Peppard, J. (2002). The Strategic Framework. In Strategic Planning for information systems. (pp. 70–81).England: John Wiley & Sons. Ward, J. & Peppard, J. (2002). Situation Analysis. In Strategic Planning for information systems. (pp. 82–83).England: John Wiley & Sons. Porter, M. (1980). Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. New York: Free Press Kendon, A. (1990). Conducting Interaction: Patterns of Behavior in Focused Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Competition (economics) Business intelligence terms Market research Strategic management

SMA

SMA or S.M.A. may refer to: Places American Samoa, ITU letter code Santa Maria Airport (Azores) (IATA code) San Miguel de Allende, Mexico People Sergeant Major of the Army, U.S. Sima (Chinese surname), or Sma Joshua Falk, known as SM"A Finance Separately managed account, types of investment account Special memorandum account, used regarding US Regulation T Organisations Scouts Musulmans Algériens, the Algerian Muslim Scouts Sharjah Museums Authority SMA Engines, a diesel aircraft engine manufacturer SMA Solar Technology Society of African Missions, a Catholic missionary organization Society of Makeup Artists, post-nominal letters Education Saint Mary's Academy, Dominica Sekolah Menengah Atas, Indonesian for "senior secondary school" San Marcos Baptist Academy, Texas, US Sarasota Military Academy, Florida, US Science and Mathematics Academy, a program at Aberdeen High School, Maryland, US Former Staunton Military Academy, Charles Town, Virginia, US Science, engineering and technology Shape-memory alloy, that returns to its shape when heated Signal magnitude area, a statistical measure of magnitude Stone mastic asphalt, a type of road surface Styrene maleic anhydride, a synthetic polymer Submillimeter Array, radio telescopes in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, US Computing and electronics SMA* (Simplified Memory-bounded Algorithm), a shortest path algorithm SMA connector (SubMiniature version A), a coaxial RF connector SMA 905 or F-SMA I, SMA 906 or F-SMA II, an optical fiber connector SMA or DO-214AC, a variant of the DO-214 diode package Surface-mount assembly, in electronics Medicine and biology Standard methods agar or plate count agar SMA, several medical abbreviations SMA 12, SMA 20 and SMAC, previous names of Comprehensive metabolic panel blood tests α-SMA or ACTA2, an actin protein Spinal muscular atrophy, a severe neuromuscular disorder Spinal muscular atrophies, a heterogeneous group of rare disorders Superior mesenteric artery Supplementary motor area, of the primate brain Mathematics Simple moving average, in statistics Music Seoul Music Awards "Sma", a 1999 song from the Point No. 1 album by band Chevelle Other uses Simulated milk adapted, an infant formula SMA, Nestlé brand of baby milk Southern Sami language (ISO 639-2 language code) See also

Generalization

A generalization is a form of abstraction whereby common properties of specific instances are formulated as general concepts or claims. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements (thus creating a conceptual model). As such, they are the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences (particularly in logic, mathematics and science), where the process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation. Generalization can also be used to refer to the process of identifying the parts of a whole, as belonging to the whole. The parts, which might be unrelated when left on their own, may be brought together as a group, hence belonging to the whole by establishing a common relation between them. However, the parts cannot be generalized into a whole—until a common relation is established among all parts. This does not mean that the parts are unrelated, only that no common relation has been established yet for the generalization. The concept of generalization has broad application in many connected disciplines, and might sometimes have a more specific meaning in a specialized context (e.g. generalization in psychology, generalization in learning). In general, given two related concepts A and B, A is a "generalization" of B (equiv., B is a special case of A) if and only if both of the following hold: Every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A. There are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B. For example, the concept animal is a generalization of the concept bird, since every bird is an animal, but not all animals are birds (dogs, for instance). For more, see Specialisation (biology). Hypernym and hyponym The connection of generalization to specialization (or particularization) is reflected in the contrasting words hypernym and hyponym. A hypernym as a generic stands for a class or group of equally ranked items, such as the term tree which stands for equally ranked items such as peach and oak, and the term ship which stands for equally ranked items such as cruiser and steamer. In contrast, a hyponym is one of the items included in the generic, such as peach and oak which are included in tree, and cruiser and steamer which are included in ship. A hypernym is superordinate to a hyponym, and a hyponym is subordinate to a hypernym. Examples Biological generalization An animal is a generalization of a mammal, a bird, a fish, an amphibian and a reptile. Cartographic generalization of geo-spatial data Generalization has a long history in cartography as an art of creating maps for different scale and purpose. Cartographic generalization is the process of selecting and representing information of a map in a way that adapts to the scale of the display medium of the map. In this way, every map has, to some extent, been generalized to match the criteria of display. This includes small cartographic scale maps, which cannot convey every detail of the real world. As a result, cartographers must decide and then adjust the content within their maps, to create a suitable and useful map that conveys the geospatial information within their representation of the world. Generalization is meant to be context-specific. That is to say, correctly generalized maps are those that emphasize the most important map elements, while still representing the world in the most faithful and recognizable way. The level of detail and importance in what is remaining on the map must outweigh the insignificance of items that were generalized—so as to preserve the distinguishing characteristics of what makes the map useful and important. Mathematical generalizations In mathematics, one commonly says that a concept or a result is a generalization of if is defined or proved before (historically or conceptually) and is a special case of . The complex numbers are a generalization of the real numbers, which are a generalization of the rational numbers, which are a generalization of the integers, which are a generalization of the natural numbers. A polygon is a generalization of a 3-sided triangle, a 4-sided quadrilateral, and so on to n sides. A hypercube is a generalization of a 2-dimensional square, a 3-dimensional cube, and so on to n dimensions. A quadric, such as a hypersphere, ellipsoid, paraboloid, or hyperboloid, is a generalization of a conic section to higher dimensions. A Taylor series is a generalization of a MacLaurin series. The binomial formula is a generalization of the formula for . A ring is a generalization of a field. See also Categorical imperative (ethical generalization) Ceteris paribus External validity (scientific studies) Faulty generalization Generic (disambiguation) Critical thinking Generic antecedent Hasty generalization Inheritance (object-oriented programming) Mutatis mutandis -onym Ramer–Douglas–Peucker algorithm Semantic compression Inventor's paradox References Generalizations Critical thinking skills Inductive_reasoning

Kokology

Kokology is the study of kokoro (Japanese: 心) 'mind or spirit', introduced in the Kokology book series by Tadahiko Nagao and Isamu Saito, a professor at Rissho and Waseda Universities in Japan and an author of a number of bestselling books regarding psychology and relationships. The main focus is the analysis of the deep psyche using theories from Freud and Jung. Kokology Questions typically are "guided" Day Dreams or Submodalities. The books present a series of psychological and hypothetical questions that are designed to reveal one's hidden attitudes about sex, family, love, work, and other elements of one's life. It is essentially a game of self-discovery that can provide interesting, and often hilarious insight by answering questions to seemingly innocent topics. The books were published in 1998 in Japan and became a Japanese bestselling phenomenon. The books were translated and became available in the United States in 2000. The television series ran on Saturdays it was only aired in one city broadcast time 22:00 to 22:54 (54 minutes) Series Run: April 20, 1991, to March 21, 1992 Country: Japan Broadcasting Broadcast: Yomiuri Television Production Department Production: IVS TV Production Cast/s: Yamaguti Mie, Inferior soul, Izumiya Shigeru, Miwa Akihiro More Video games were released based on the show by Sega and Tecmo. The Cube (game) The Cube is a Kokology game about self knowledge and is played by asking a person to imagine and describe a set of three to five objects. The game is usually played by two people. One person is designated as the narrator, and the other is the interpreter. Usually these roles are swapped after successful interpretation. The Cube is a way of judging somebody's personality by the way they narrate the following. While there are slight variations of the game from person to person, the game begins by asking another person to imagine a desert (or room) scene. The game then follows by asking the person to place and describe a cube in the scene. Once the cube is completely described, the narrator of the game then asks for the player to describe a ladder that is also placed in the scene. This process continues with foliage and/or flowers, a horse, and finally, a storm. Once the narrator has an understanding of the scene described, he or she may assist the player in interpreting the scene. References Culture of Japan

General Studies

General Studies or general education is a multidisciplinary subject offered at different levels of education. Its scope varies by country. North America Some North American universities offer the Bachelor of General Studies degree. England, Wales and Northern Ireland General Studies is a GCSE and former A-level examination offered to 16- to 18-year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It overlaps with PSHE and citizenship. The GCSE syllabus covered arts and culture, politics and the economy, society and ethics, science and technology, and the relationships between these topics. The A-Level syllabus was introduced in the 1950s, and intended to "“broaden minds by encouraging students to develop their thinking skills, capacity to construct arguments and ability to draw conclusions", according to the AQA examination board. The syllabus covered " Culture and Society" (including culture, religion, philosophy, politics and the media); and "Science and Society" (including scientific research, technology and mathematics). It was withdrawn as an A-Level subject from 2017, with final examination in 2020. Hong Kong General studies is a knowledge-oriented school subject taught in primary schools of Hong Kong. The Government of Hong Kong states that "General Studies provides students with opportunities to integrate knowledge, skills, values and attitudes across the Key Learning Areas (KLAs) of Personal, Social and Humanities Education (PSHE uk), Science Education (SE) and Technology Education (TE)." Malaysia In Malaysia, general studies is part of the STPM examination, which is better known as its Malay name, Pengajian Am. See also Boston University College of General Studies Columbia University School of General Studies, a liberal arts college at Columbia University Liberal arts Liberal arts education Creative arts References Schools in Hong Kong Educational qualifications in the United Kingdom

Signal

Signal refers to both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing includes audio, video, speech, image, sonar, and radar as examples of signals. A signal may also be defined as observable change in a quantity over space or time (a time series), even if it does not carry information. In nature, signals can be actions done by an organism to alert other organisms, ranging from the release of plant chemicals to warn nearby plants of a predator, to sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals of food. Signaling occurs in all organisms even at cellular levels, with cell signaling. Signaling theory, in evolutionary biology, proposes that a substantial driver for evolution is the ability of animals to communicate with each other by developing ways of signaling. In human engineering, signals are typically provided by a sensor, and often the original form of a signal is converted to another form of energy using a transducer. For example, a microphone converts an acoustic signal to a voltage waveform, and a speaker does the reverse. Another important property of a signal is its entropy or information content. Information theory serves as the formal study of signals and their content. The information of a signal is often accompanied by noise, which primarily refers to unwanted modifications of signals, but is often extended to include unwanted signals conflicting with desired signals (crosstalk). The reduction of noise is covered in part under the heading of signal integrity. The separation of desired signals from background noise is the field of signal recovery, one branch of which is estimation theory, a probabilistic approach to suppressing random disturbances. Engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering have advanced the design, study, and implementation of systems involving transmission, storage, and manipulation of information. In the latter half of the 20th century, electrical engineering itself separated into several disciplines: electronic engineering and computer engineering developed to specialize in the design and analysis of systems that manipulate physical signals, while design engineering developed to address the functional design of signals in user–machine interfaces. Definitions Definitions specific to sub-fields are common: In electronics and telecommunications, signal refers to any time-varying voltage, current, or electromagnetic wave that carries information. In signal processing, signals are analog and digital representations of analog physical quantities. In information theory, a signal is a codified message, that is, the sequence of states in a communication channel that encodes a message. In a communication system, a transmitter encodes a message to create a signal, which is carried to a receiver by the communication channel. For example, the words "Mary had a little lamb" might be the message spoken into a telephone. The telephone transmitter converts the sounds into an electrical signal. The signal is transmitted to the receiving telephone by wires; at the receiver it is reconverted into sounds. In telephone networks, signaling, for example common-channel signaling, refers to phone number and other digital control information rather than the actual voice signal. Classification Signals can be categorized in various ways. The most common distinction is between discrete and continuous spaces that the functions are defined over, for example, discrete and continuous-time domains. Discrete-time signals are often referred to as time series in other fields. Continuous-time signals are often referred to as continuous signals. A second important distinction is between discrete-valued and continuous-valued. Particularly in digital signal processing, a digital signal may be defined as a sequence of discrete values, typically associated with an underlying continuous-valued physical process. In digital electronics, digital signals are the continuous-time waveform signals in a digital system, representing a bit-stream. Signals may also be categorized by their spatial distributions as either point source signals (PSSs) or distributed source signals (DSSs). In Signals and Systems, signals can be classified according to many criteria, mainly: according to the different feature of values, classified into analog signals and digital signals; according to the determinacy of signals, classified into deterministic signals and random signals; according to the strength of signals, classified into energy signals and power signals. Analog and digital signals Two main types of signals encountered in practice are analog and digital. The figure shows a digital signal that results from approximating an analog signal by its values at particular time instants. Digital signals are quantized, while analog signals are continuous. Analog signal An analog signal is any continuous signal for which the time-varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. For example, in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous voltage of the signal varies continuously with the sound pressure. It differs from a digital signal, in which the continuous quantity is a representation of a sequence of discrete values which can only take on one of a finite number of values. The term analog signal usually refers to electrical signals; however, analog signals may use other mediums such as mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic. An analog signal uses some property of the medium to convey the signal's information. For example, an aneroid barometer uses rotary position as the signal to convey pressure information. In an electrical signal, the voltage, current, or frequency of the signal may be varied to represent the information. Any information may be conveyed by an analog signal; often such a signal is a measured response to changes in physical phenomena, such as sound, light, temperature, position, or pressure. The physical variable is converted to an analog signal by a transducer. For example, in sound recording, fluctuations in air pressure (that is to say, sound) strike the diaphragm of a microphone which induces corresponding electrical fluctuations. The voltage or the current is said to be an analog of the sound. Digital signal A digital signal is a signal that is constructed from a discrete set of waveforms of a physical quantity so as to represent a sequence of discrete values. A logic signal is a digital signal with only two possible values, and describes an arbitrary bit stream. Other types of digital signals can represent three-valued logic or higher valued logics. Alternatively, a digital signal may be considered to be the sequence of codes represented by such a physical quantity. The physical quantity may be a variable electric current or voltage, the intensity, phase or polarization of an optical or other electromagnetic field, acoustic pressure, the magnetization of a magnetic storage media, etc. Digital signals are present in all digital electronics, notably computing equipment and data transmission. With digital signals, system noise, provided it is not too great, will not affect system operation whereas noise always degrades the operation of analog signals to some degree. Digital signals often arise via sampling of analog signals, for example, a continually fluctuating voltage on a line that can be digitized by an analog-to-digital converter circuit, wherein the circuit will read the voltage level on the line, say, every 50 microseconds and represent each reading with a fixed number of bits. The resulting stream of numbers is stored as digital data on a discrete-time and quantized-amplitude signal. Computers and other digital devices are restricted to discrete time. Energy and power According to the strengths of signals, practical signals can be classified into two categories: energy signals and power signals. Energy signals: Those signals' energy are equal to a finite positive value, but their average powers are 0; Power signals: Those signals' average power are equal to a finite positive value, but their energy are infinite. Deterministic and random Deterministic signals are those whose values at any time are predictable and can be calculated by a mathematical equation. Random signals are signals that take on random values at any given time instant and must be modeled stochastically. Even and odd An even signal satisfies the condition or equivalently if the following equation holds for all and in the domain of : An odd signal satisfies the condition or equivalently if the following equation holds for all and in the domain of : Periodic A signal is said to be periodic if it satisfies the condition: or Where: = fundamental time period, = fundamental frequency. The same can be applied to . A periodic signal will repeat for every period. Time discretization Signals can be classified as continuous or discrete time. In the mathematical abstraction, the domain of a continuous-time signal is the set of real numbers (or some interval thereof), whereas the domain of a discrete-time (DT) signal is the set of integers (or other subsets of real numbers). What these integers represent depends on the nature of the signal; most often it is time. A continuous-time signal is any function which is defined at every time t in an interval, most commonly an infinite interval. A simple source for a discrete-time signal is the sampling of a continuous signal, approximating the signal by a sequence of its values at particular time instants. Amplitude quantization If a signal is to be represented as a sequence of digital data, it is impossible to maintain exact precision – each number in the sequence must have a finite number of digits. As a result, the values of such a signal must be quantized into a finite set for practical representation. Quantization is the process of converting a continuous analog audio signal to a digital signal with discrete numerical values of integers. Examples of signals Naturally occurring signals can be converted to electronic signals by various sensors. Examples include: Motion. The motion of an object can be considered to be a signal and can be monitored by various sensors to provide electrical signals. For example, radar can provide an electromagnetic signal for following aircraft motion. A motion signal is one-dimensional (time), and the range is generally three-dimensional. Position is thus a 3-vector signal; position and orientation of a rigid body is a 6-vector signal. Orientation signals can be generated using a gyroscope. Sound. Since a sound is a vibration of a medium (such as air), a sound signal associates a pressure value to every value of time and possibly three space coordinates indicating the direction of travel. A sound signal is converted to an electrical signal by a microphone, generating a voltage signal as an analog of the sound signal. Sound signals can be sampled at a discrete set of time points; for example, compact discs (CDs) contain discrete signals representing sound, recorded at 44,100 Hz; since CDs are recorded in stereo, each sample contains data for a left and right channel, which may be considered to be a 2-vector signal. The CD encoding is converted to an electrical signal by reading the information with a laser, converting the sound signal to an optical signal. Images. A picture or image consists of a brightness or color signal, a function of a two-dimensional location. The object's appearance is presented as emitted or reflected light, an electromagnetic signal. It can be converted to voltage or current waveforms using devices such as the charge-coupled device. A 2D image can have a continuous spatial domain, as in a traditional photograph or painting; or the image can be discretized in space, as in a digital image. Color images are typically represented as a combination of monochrome images in three primary colors. Videos. A video signal is a sequence of images. A point in a video is identified by its two-dimensional position in the image and by the time at which it occurs, so a video signal has a three-dimensional domain. Analog video has one continuous domain dimension (across a scan line) and two discrete dimensions (frame and line). Biological membrane potentials. The value of the signal is an electric potential (voltage). The domain is more difficult to establish. Some cells or organelles have the same membrane potential throughout; neurons generally have different potentials at different points. These signals have very low energies, but are enough to make nervous systems work; they can be measured in aggregate by electrophysiology techniques. The output of a thermocouple, which conveys temperature information. The output of a pH meter which conveys acidity information. Signal processing Signal processing is the manipulation of signals. A common example is signal transmission between different locations. The embodiment of a signal in electrical form is made by a transducer that converts the signal from its original form to a waveform expressed as a current or a voltage, or electromagnetic radiation, for example, an optical signal or radio transmission. Once expressed as an electronic signal, the signal is available for further processing by electrical devices such as electronic amplifiers and filters, and can be transmitted to a remote location by a transmitter and received using radio receivers. Signals and systems In electrical engineering (EE) programs, signals are covered in a class and field of study known as signals and systems. Depending on the school, undergraduate EE students generally take the class as juniors or seniors, normally depending on the number and level of previous linear algebra and differential equation classes they have taken. The field studies input and output signals, and the mathematical representations between them known as systems, in four domains: time, frequency, s and z. Since signals and systems are both studied in these four domains, there are 8 major divisions of study. As an example, when working with continuous-time signals (t), one might transform from the time domain to a frequency or s domain; or from discrete time (n) to frequency or z domains. Systems also can be transformed between these domains like signals, with continuous to s and discrete to z. Signals and systems is a subset of the field of mathematical modeling. It involves circuit analysis and design via mathematical modeling and some numerical methods, and was updated several decades ago with dynamical systems tools including differential equations, and recently, Lagrangians. Students are expected to understand the modeling tools as well as the mathematics, physics, circuit analysis, and transformations between the 8 domains. Because mechanical engineering (ME) topics like friction, dampening etc. have very close analogies in signal science (inductance, resistance, voltage, etc.), many of the tools originally used in ME transformations (Laplace and Fourier transforms, Lagrangians, sampling theory, probability, difference equations, etc.) have now been applied to signals, circuits, systems and their components, analysis and design in EE. Dynamical systems that involve noise, filtering and other random or chaotic attractors and repellers have now placed stochastic sciences and statistics between the more deterministic discrete and continuous functions in the field. (Deterministic as used here means signals that are completely determined as functions of time). EE taxonomists are still not decided where signals and systems falls within the whole field of signal processing vs. circuit analysis and mathematical modeling, but the common link of the topics that are covered in the course of study has brightened boundaries with dozens of books, journals, etc. called "Signals and Systems", and used as text and test prep for the EE, as well as, recently, computer engineering exams. Gallery See also Current loop – a signaling system in widespread use for process control Signal-to-noise ratio Notes References Further reading Engineering concepts Digital signal processing Signal processing Telecommunication theory

Yogachara

Yogachara (, IAST: ) is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation, as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā). Yogachara was one of the two most influential traditions of Mahayana Buddhism in India, along with Madhyamaka. The compound Yogācāra literally means "practitioner of yoga", or "one whose practice is yoga", hence the name of the school is literally "the school of the yogins". Yogācāra was also variously termed Vijñānavāda (the doctrine of consciousness), Vijñaptivāda (the doctrine of ideas or percepts) or Vijñaptimātratā-vāda (the doctrine of 'mere representation'), which is also the name given to its major theory of mind which seeks to deconstruct how we perceive the world. There are several interpretations of this main theory: various forms of Idealism, as well as a phenomenology or representationalism. Aside from this, Yogācāra also developed an elaborate analysis of consciousness (vijñana) and mental phenomena (dharmas), as well as an extensive system of Buddhist spiritual practice, i.e. yoga. The movement has been traced to the first centuries of the common era and seems to have developed as some yogis of the Sarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika traditions in north India adopted Mahayana Buddhism. The brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu (both c. 4-5th century CE), are considered the classic philosophers and systematizers of this school, along with the figure of Maitreya. Yogācāra was later imported to Tibet and East Asia by figures like Shantaraksita (8th century) and Xuanzang (7th-century). Today, Yogācāra ideas and texts continue to be influential subjects of study for Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. Doctrine Yogācāra philosophy is primarily meant to aid in the practice of yoga and meditation and thus it also sets forth a systematic analysis of the Mahayana path of mental training (see five paths pañcamārga). Yogācārins made use of ideas from previous traditions, such as Prajñāpāramitā and the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma tradition, to develop a novel analysis of conscious experience and a corresponding schema for Mahāyāna spiritual practice. In its analysis, Yogācāra works like the Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra, developing various core concepts such as vijñapti-mātra, the ālaya-vijñāna (store consciousness), the turning of the basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti), the three natures (trisvabhāva), and emptiness. They form a complex system, and each can be taken as a point of departure for understanding Yogācāra. The doctrine of vijñapti-mātra One of the main features of Yogācāra philosophy is the concept of vijñapti-mātra. It is often used interchangeably with the term citta-mātra in modern and ancient Yogacara sources. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers object to this translation in favor of alternative like representation-only. The meaning of this term is at the heart of the modern scholarly disagreement about whether Yogacara Buddhism can be said to be a form of idealism (as supported by Garfield, Hopkins, and others) or whether it is definitely not idealist (Anacker, Lusthaus, Wayman). Origins According to Lambert Schmithausen, the earliest surviving appearance of this term is in chapter 8 of the Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra, which has only survived in Tibetan and Chinese translations that differ in syntax and meaning. The passage is depicted as a response by the Buddha to a question which asks "whether the images or replicas (*pratibimba) which are the object (*gocara) of meditative concentration (*samadhi), are different/separate (*bhinna) from the contemplating mind (*citta) or not." The Buddha says they are not different, "Because these images are vijñapti-mātra." The text goes on to affirm that the same is true for objects of ordinary perception. The term is sometimes used as a synonym with citta-mātra (mere citta), which is also used as a name for the school that suggests Idealism. Schmithausen writes that the first appearance of this term is in the Pratyupanna samadhi sutra, which states "this (or: whatever belongs to this) triple world is nothing but mind (or thought: *cittamatra). Why? Because however I imagine things, that is how they appear." Regarding existing Sanskrit sources, the term appears in the first verse of Vasubandhu's Vimśatikā (Twenty Verses), which states: This [world] is vijñaptimātra, since it manifests itself as an unreal object (artha), just like the case of those with cataracts seeing unreal hairs in the moon and the like (vijñaptimātram evaitad asad arthāvabhāsanāt yathā taimirikasyāsat keśa candrādi darśanam). According to Mark Siderits, what Vasubandhu means here is that we are only ever aware of mental images or impressions which manifest themselves as external objects, but "there is actually no such thing outside the mind." The term also appears in Asaṅga's classic work, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha (no Sanskrit original, trans. from Tibetan): These representations (vijñapti) are mere representations (vijñapti-mātra), because there is no [corresponding] thing/object (artha)...Just as in a dream there appear, even without a thing/object (artha), just in the mind alone, forms/images of all kinds of things/objects like visibles, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, houses, forests, land, and mountains, and yet there are no [such] things/objects at all in that [place]. MSg II.6 Another classic statement of the doctrine appears in Dharmakīrti's Pramānaṿārttika (Commentary on Epistemology) which states: "cognition experiences itself, and nothing else whatsoever. Even the particular objects of perception, are by nature just consciousness itself." Interpretations of vijñapti-mātra Idealism According to Bruce Cameron Hall, the interpretation of this doctrine as a form of subjective or absolute idealism has been "the most common "outside" interpretation of Vijñānavāda, not only by modern writers, but by its ancient opponents, both Hindu and Buddhist." Scholars such as Jay Garfield, Saam Trivedi, Nobuyoshi Yamabe, Paul Williams, and Sean Butler argue that Yogācāra is similar to Idealism (and they compare it to the idealisms of Kant and Berkeley), though they note that it is its own unique form and that it might be confusing to categorize it as such. The German scholar and philologist Lambert Schmithausen affirms that Yogacara sources teach a type of idealism which is supposed to be a middle way between Abhidharma realism and what it often considered a nihilistic position which only affirms emptiness as the ultimate. Schmithausen notes that philological study of Yogacara texts shows that they clearly reject the independent existence of mind and the external world. He also notes that the current trend in rejecting the idealistic interpretation might be related to the unpopularity of idealism among Western academics. Florin Delenau likewise affirms the idealist nature of Yogācāra texts, while also underscoring how Yogācāra retains a strong orientation to a soteriology which aims at contemplative realization of an ultimate reality that is an ‘inexpressible essence’ (nirabhilāpyasvabhāva) beyond any subject-object duality. Similarly, Jonathan Gold writes that the Yogācāra thinker Vasubandhu can be said to be an idealist (similar to Kant), in the sense that for him, everything in experience as well as its causal support is mental, and thus he gives causal priority to the mental. At the same time however, this is only in the conventional realm, since "mind" is just another concept and true reality for Vasubandhu is ineffable, "an inconceivable 'thusness' (tathatā)." Indeed, the Vimśatikā states that the very idea of vijñapti-mātra must also be understood to be itself a self-less construction and thus vijñapti-mātra is not the ultimate truth (paramārtha-satya) in Yogācāra. Thus according to Gold, while Vasubandhu's vijñapti-mātra can be said to be a “conventionalist idealism”, it is to be seen as unique and different from Western forms, especially Hegelian Absolute Idealism. Mere representation The interpretation of Yogācāra as a type of idealism was standard until recently, when it began to be challenged by scholars such as Kochumuttom, Anacker, Kalupahana, Dunne, Lusthaus, Powers, and Wayman. Some scholars like David Kalupahana argue that it is a mistake to conflate the terms citta-mātra (which is sometimes seen as a different, more metaphysical position) with vijñapti-mātra (which need not be idealist). However, Delenau points out that Vasubandhu clearly states in his Twenty Verses and Abhidharmakosha that vijñapti and citta are synonymous. Nevertheless, different alternative translations for vijñapti-mātra have been proposed, such as representation-only, ideation-only, impressions-only and perception-only. Alex Wayman notes that one's interpretation of Yogācāra will depend on how the qualifier mātra is to be understood in this context, and he objects to interpretations which claim that Yogācāra rejects the external world altogether, preferring translations such as "amounting to mind" or "mirroring mind" for citta-mātra. For Wayman, what this doctrine means is that "the mind has only a report or representation of what the sense organ had sensed." The representationalist interpretation is also supported by Stefan Anacker. According to Thomas Kochumuttom, Yogācāra is a realistic pluralism which does not deny the existence of individual beings. Kochumuttom argues that Yogācāra is not idealism since it denies that absolute reality is a consciousness, that individual beings are transformations or illusory appearances of an absolute consciousness. Thus, for Kochumuttom, vijñapti-mātra means "mere representation of consciousness," a view which states "that the world as it appears to the unenlightened ones is mere representation of consciousness". Furthermore, according to Kochumuttom, in Yogācāra "the absolute state is defined simply as emptiness, namely the emptiness of subject-object distinction. Once thus defined as emptiness (sunyata), it receives a number of synonyms, none of which betray idealism." Soterological phenomenology According to Dan Lusthaus, the vijñapti-mātra theory is closer in some ways to Western Phenomenological theories and Epistemological Idealism. However, it is not a form of metaphysical idealism because Yogācāra rejects the construction of any type of metaphysical or ontological theories. Moreover, Western idealism lacks any counterpart to karma, samsara or awakening, all of which are central for Yogācāra. Regarding vijñapti-mātra, Lusthaus translates it as "nothing but conscious construction" and states it is a kind of trick built into consciousness which "projects and constructs a cognitive object in such a way that it disowns its own creation - pretending the object is "out there" - in order to render that object capable of being appropriated." This reification of cognition aids in constructing the notion of a permanent and independent self, which is believed to appropriate and possess external 'things'. Yogācāra offers an analysis and meditative means to negate this reification, thereby also negating the notion of a solid self. According to Lusthaus, this analysis is not a rejection of external phenomena, and it does not grant foundational or transcendent status to consciousness. In this interpretation, instead of offering an ontological theory, Yogācāra focuses on understanding and eliminating the underlying tendencies (anuśaya) that lead to clinging concepts and theories, which are just cognitive projections (pratibimba, parikalpita). Thus, for Lusthaus, the orientation of the Yogācāra school is largely consistent with the thinking of the Pāli nikāyas and seeks to realign Mahayana with early Buddhist theory. Arguments for consciousness-only According to the contemporary philosopher Jan Westerhoff, Yogācāra philosophers came up with various arguments in defense of the consciousness-only view. He outlines three main arguments: the explanatory equivalence argument, the causation-resemblance argument, and the constant co-cognition argument. Explanatory equivalence argument This argument is found in Vasubandhu's Vimśatikā (Twenty Verses) and is an inference to the best explanation. It argues that consciousness-only can provide an account of the various features of experience which are explained by the existence of mind-independent material objects. This is coupled with a principle of ontological parsimony to argue in favor of idealism. Vasubandhu mentions three key features of experience which are supposed to be explained by matter and refutes them: According to critics, the problem of spatio-temporal determination (or non-arbitrariness in regard to place and time) indicates that there must be some external basis for our experiences, since experiences of any particular object do not occur everywhere and at every time. Vasubandhu responds with the dream argument, which shows how a world created by mind can still seem to have spatio-temporal localization. The problem of inter-subjective experience (multiple minds experiencing the same world). Vasubandhu counters that mass hallucinations (such as those said to occur to hungry ghosts) caused by the fact they share similar karma (which is here understood as traces or seeds in the mind-stream), show that inter-subjective agreement is possible without positing real external objects. Another criticism states that hallucinations have no pragmatic results, efficacy or causal function and thus can be determined to be unreal, but entities we generally accept as being "real" have actual causal results (such as the 'resistance' of external objects) that cannot be of the same class as hallucinations. Against this claim, Vasubandhu argues that waking life is the same as in a dream, where objects have pragmatic results within the very rules of the dream. He also uses the example of a wet dream to show that mental content can have causal efficacy even outside of a dream. According to Mark Siderits, after disposing of these objections, Vasubandhu believes he has shown that mere cognizance is just as good at explaining the relevant phenomena of experience as any theory of realism that posits external objects. Therefore, he then applies the Indian philosophical principle termed the "Principle of Lightness" (Sanskrit: lāghava, which is similar to Occam's Razor) to rule out realism since vijñapti-mātra is the simpler and "lighter" theory which "posits the least number of unobservable entities." Another objection that Vasubandhu answers is that of how one person can influence another's experiences, if everything arises from mental karmic seeds in one's mind stream. Vasubandhu argues that "impressions can also be caused in a mental stream by the occurrence of a distinct impression in another suitably linked mental stream." As Siderits notes, this account can explain how it is possible to influence or even totally disrupt (murder) another mind, even if there is no physical medium or object in existence, since a suitably strong enough intention in one mind stream can have effects on another mind stream. From the mind-only position, it is easier to posit a mind to mind causation than to have to explain mind to body causation, which the realist must do. However, Siderits then goes on to question whether Vasubandhu's position is indeed "lighter" since he must make use of multiple interactions between different minds to take into account an intentionally created artifact, like a pot. Since we can be aware of a pot even when we are not "linked" to the potter's intentions (even after the potter is dead), a more complex series of mental interactions must be posited. Nevertheless, not all interpretations of Yogācāra's view of the external world rely on multiple relations between individual minds. Some interpretations in Chinese Buddhism defended the view of a single shared external world (bhājanaloka) which was still made of consciousness, while some later Indian thinkers like Ratnakīrti (11th century CE) defended a type of non-dual monism. Causation-resemblance argument This argument was famously defended in Dignāga's Ālambanaparīkṣā (Examination of the Object of Consciousness) and its main target is Indian atomism, which was the main theory of matter in the 5th century. The argument is based on the premise that a perception must resemble the perceived object (ālambana) and have been caused by the object. According to this argument, since atoms are not extended, they do not resemble the object of perception (which appears as spatially extended). Furthermore, collections of atoms might resemble the object of perception, but they cannot have caused it. This is because collections of things are unreal in classic Buddhist thought (thus it is a mereological nihilism), since they are composites and composites made of parts do not have any causal efficacy (only individual atoms do). In disproving the possibility of external objects, Vasubandhu's Vimśatikā similarly attacks Indian theories of atomism and property particulars as incoherent on mereological grounds. Constant co-cognition argument This argument was defended by Dharmakīrti in his Ascertainment of Epistemology (Pramāṇaviniścaya), which calls it "the necessity of things only ever being experienced together with experience" (Sanskrit: sahopalambhaniyama). According to Dharmakīrti:Because [something blue] is not apprehended without the additional qualification of consciousness, [and] because [blue] is apprehended when this [qualification of consciousness] is apprehended, consciousness [itself] has the appearance of blue. There is no external object by itself. (PV 3.335)According this argument, any object of consciousness, like blue, cannot be differentiated from the conscious awareness of blue since both are always experienced as one thing. Since we never experience blue without the experience of blue, they cannot be differentiated empirically. Furthermore, we cannot differentiate them through an inference either, since this would need to be based on a pattern of past experiences which included the absence or presence of the two elements. Thus, this is a type of epistemological argument for idealism which attempts to show there is no good reason to accept the existence of mind-independent objects. Soteriological importance of mind-only Vasubandhu also explains why it is soteriologically important to get rid of the idea of really existing external objects. According to Siderits, this is because:When we wrongly imagine there to be external objects we are led to think in terms of the duality of 'grasped and grasper', of what is 'out there' and what is ' in here' - in short, of external world and self. Coming to see that there is no external world is a means, Vasubandhu thinks, of overcoming a very subtle way of believing in an 'I'... once we see why physical objects can't exist we will lose all temptation to think there is a true ' me' within. There are really just impressions, but we superimpose on these the false constructions of object and subject. Seeing this will free us from the false conception of an 'I'.Siderits notes how Kant had a similar notion, that is, without the idea of an objective mind independent world, one cannot derive the concept of a subjective "I". But Kant drew the opposite conclusion to Vasubandhu, since he held that we must believe in an enduring subject, and thus, also believe in external objects. Analysis of Consciousness Yogācāra gives a detailed explanation of the workings of the mind and the way it constructs the reality we experience. The central Yogācāra theory of mind is that of the eight consciousnesses. Eight consciousnesses A key innovation of the Yogācāra school was the doctrine of eight consciousnesses. These "eight bodies of consciousnesses" (aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ) are: the five sense-consciousnesses (of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and bodily sense), mentation (mano or citta), the defiled self-consciousness (kliṣṭamanovijñāna), and the storehouse or substratum consciousness (Skt: ālayavijñāna). Traditional Buddhist descriptions of consciousness taught just the first six vijñānas, each corresponding to a sense base (ayatana) and having their own sense objects (sounds etc). Five are based on the five senses, while the sixth (mano-vijñāna), was seen as the surveyor of the content of the five senses as well as of mental content like thoughts and ideas. Standard Buddhist doctrine held that these eighteen "elements" (dhatus), i.e. six external sense bases (smells, sounds etc.), six internal bases (sense organs like the eye, ear, etc.), and six consciousnesses "exhaust the full extent of everything in the universe, or more accurately, the sensorium." The six consciousnesses are also not substantial entities, but a series or stream of events (dharmas), which arise and vanish very rapidly moment by moment. This is the Abhidharma doctrine of "momentariness" (kṣaṇavada), which Yogācāra also accepts. Yogācāra expanded the six vijñāna schema into a new system which with two new categories. The seventh consciousness developed from the early Buddhist concept of manas, and was seen as the defiled mentation (kliṣṭa-manas) which is obsessed with notions of "self". According to Paul Williams, this consciousness "takes the substratum consciousness as its object and mistakenly considers the substratum consciousness to be a true Self." Ālaya-vijñāna The eighth consciousness, ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse or repository consciousness), was defined as the storehouse of all karmic seeds (bīja), where they gradually matured until ripe, at which point they manifested as karmic consequences. Because of this, it is also called the "mind which has all the seeds" (sarvabījakam cittam), as well as the "basis consciousness" (mūla-vijñāna) and the "appropriating consciousness" (ādānavijñāna). According to the Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra, this kind of consciousness underlies and supports the six types of manifest awareness, all of which occur simultaneously with the ālaya. William S. Waldron sees this "simultaneity of all the modes of cognitive awareness" as the most significant departure of Yogācāra theory from traditional Buddhist models of vijñāna, which were "thought to occur solely in conjunction with their respective sense bases and epistemic objects". As noted by Schmithausen, the ālaya-vijñāna, being a kind of vijñāna, has an object as well (as all vijñāna has intentionality). That object is the sentient being's surrounding world, that is to say, the "receptable" or "container" (bhājana) world. This is stated in the 8th chapter of the Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra, which states that the ādānavijñāna is characterized by "an unconscious (or not fully conscious?) steady perception (or "representation") of the Receptacle (*asaṃvidita-sthira-bhājana-vijñapti)." The ālaya-vijñāna is also what experiences rebirth into future lives and what descents into the womb to appropriate the fetal material. Therefore, the ālaya-vijñāna's holding on to the body's sense faculties and "profuse imaginings" (prapañca) are the two appropriations which make up the "kindling" or "fuel" (lit. upādāna) that samsaric existence depends upon. Yogācāra thought thus holds that being unaware of the processes going on in the ālaya-vijñāna is an important element of ignorance (avidya). The ālaya is also individual, so that each person has their own ālaya-vijñāna, which is an ever changing process and therefore not a permanent self. According to Williams, this consciousness "seen as a defiled form of consciousness (or perhaps sub- or unconsciousness), is personal, individual, continually changing and yet serving to give a degree of personal identity and to explain why it is that certain karmic results pertain to this particular individual. The seeds are momentary, but they give rise to a perfumed series which eventually culminates in the result including, from seeds of a particular type, the whole ‘inter-subjective’ phenomenal world." Also, Asanga and Vasubandhu write that the ālaya-vijñāna ‘ceases’ at awakening, becoming transformed into a pure consciousness. According to Waldron, while there were various similar concepts in other Buddhist Abhidharma schools which sought to explain karmic continuity, the ālaya-vijñāna is the most comprehensive and systematic. Waldron notes that the ālaya-vijñāna concept was probably influenced by these theories, particularly the Sautrantika theory of seeds and Vasumitra's theory of a subtle form of mind (suksma-citta). Transformations of consciousness Yogācāra sources do not necessarily describe the eight consciousnesses as absolutely separate or substantial phenomena. For example, Kalupahana notes that the Triṃśika describes the various forms of consciousness as transformations and functions of a being's stream of consciousness. These transformations are threefold according to Kalupahana. The first is the ālaya and its seeds, which is the flow or stream of consciousness, without any of the usual projections on top of it. The second transformation is manana, self-consciousness or "Self-view, self-confusion, self-esteem and self-love". It is "thinking" about the various perceptions occurring in the stream of consciousness". The ālaya is defiled by this self-interest. The third transformation is visaya-vijñapti, the "concept of the object". In this transformation the concept of objects is created. By creating these concepts human beings become "susceptible to grasping after the object" as if it were a real object (sad artha) even though it is just a conception (vijñapti). A similar perspective which emphasizes Yogācāra's continuity with early Buddhism is given by Walpola Rahula. According to Rahula, all the elements of this theory of consciousness with its three layers of vijñāna are already found in the Pāli Canon, corresponding to the terms viññāna (sense cognition), manas (mental function, thinking, reasoning, conception) and citta (the deepest layer of the aggregate of consciousness which retains karmic impressions and the defilements). The Three Natures Yogācāra works often define three basic modes or "natures" (svabhāva) of experience. Jonathan Gold explains that "the three natures are all one reality viewed from three distinct angles. They are the appearance, the process, and the emptiness of that same apparent entity." According to Paul Williams, "all things which can be known can be subsumed under these Three Natures." Since this schema is Yogācāra's systematic explanation of the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā), each of the three natures are also explained as having a lack of own-nature (niḥsvabhāvatā). The Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa (Exposition of the Three Natures) gives a brief definition of these three natures: What appears is the dependent. How it appears is the fabricated. Because of being dependent on conditions. Because of being only fabrication. The eternal non-existence of the appearance as it is appears: That is known to be the perfected nature, because of being always the same. What appears there? The unreal fabrication. How does it appear? As a dual self. What is its nonexistence? That by which the nondual reality is there. In detail, three natures (trisvabhāva) are: Parikalpita-svabhāva (the "fully conceptualized" or "imagined" nature). This is the "imaginary" or "constructed" nature, wherein things are incorrectly comprehended based on conceptual construction, through the activity of language and through attachment and erroneous discrimination which attributes intrinsic existence to things. According to the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, it also refers to the appearance of things in terms of subject-object dualism (literally "grasper" and "grasped"). The conceptualized nature is the world of everyday unenlightened people, i.e. samsara. It is false and empty, and does not really exist (Triṃśikā v. 20). According to Xuanzang's Cheng Weishi Lun, this nature is an "absence of an existential nature by its very defining characteristic" (lakṣana-niḥsvabhāvatā). Because these conceptualized natures and distinct characteristics (lakṣana) are wrongly imputed and not truly real, "they are like mirages and blossoms in the sky." Paratantra-svabhāva (literally, "other dependent"), which is the dependently originated nature of dharmas, or the causal flow of phenomena which is erroneously confused into the conceptualized nature. According to Williams, it is "the basis for the erroneous partition into supposedly intrinsically existing subjects and objects which marks the conceptualized nature." Jonathan Gold writes that it is "the causal process of the thing's fabrication, the causal story that brings about the thing's apparent nature." This basis is considered to be an ultimately existing (paramārtha) basis in classical Yogācāra (see Mahāyānasaṃgraha, 2:25). However, as Xuanzang notes, this nature is also empty in that there is an "absence of an existential nature in conditions that arise and perish" (utpatti-niḥsvabhāvatā). That is, the events in this causal flow, while "seeming to have real existence of their own" are actually like magical illusions since "they are said to only be hypothetical and not really exist on their own." As Siderits writes "to the extent that we are thinking of it at all - even if only as the non-dual flow of impressions-only - we are still conceptualizing it." Pariniṣpanna-svabhāva (literally, "fully accomplished", "perfected", "consummated"): This is the true nature of things, the experience of Suchness or Thatness (Tathātā) discovered in meditation unaffected by conceptualization, causality, or duality. It is defined as "the complete absence, in the dependent nature, of objects – that is, the objects of the conceptualized nature" (see Mahāyānasaṃgraha, 2:4). What this refers to is that empty non-dual experience which has been stripped of the duality of the constructed nature through yogic praxis. According to Williams, this is "what has to be known for enlightenment" and Siderits defines it as "just pure seeing without any attempt at conceptualization or interpretation. Now this is also empty, but only of itself as an interpretation. That is, this mode of cognition is devoid of all concepts, and so is empty of being of the nature of the perfected. About it nothing can be said or thought, it is just pure immediacy." According to Xuanzang, this nature has the "absence of any existential nature of ultimate meaning" (paramārtha-niḥsvabhāvatā) since it is "completely free from any clinging to entirely imagined speculations about its identity or purpose. Because of this, it is conventionally said that it does not exist. However, it is also not entirely without a real existence." Emptiness The central meaning of emptiness (śūnyatā) in Yogācāra is a twofold "absence of duality." The first element of this is the unreality of any conceptual duality such as "physical" and "non-physical", "self" and "other". To define something conceptually is to divide the world into what it is and what it is not, but the world is a causal flux that does not accord with conceptual constructs. The second element of this is a perceptual duality between the sensorium and its objects, between what is "external" and "internal", between subject (grāhaka, literally "grasper") and object (grāhya, "grasped"). This is also an unreal superimposition, since there is really no such separation of inner and outer, but an interconnected causal stream of mentality which is falsely divided up. An important difference between the Yogācāra conception of emptiness and the Madhyamaka conception is that in classical Yogācāra, emptiness does exist (as a real absence) and so does consciousness (which is that which is empty, the referent of emptiness), while Madhyamaka refuses to endorse such existential statements. The Madhyāntavibhāga for example, states "the imagination of the nonexistent [abhūta-parikalpa] exists. In it duality does not exist. Emptiness, however, exists in it," which indicates that even though that which is dualistically imagined (subjects and objects), is unreal and empty, their basis does exist (i.e. the dependently arisen conscious manifestation). The Yogācāra school also gave special significance to the Āgama sutra called Lesser Discourse on Emptiness (parallel to the Pali Cūḷasuññatasutta, MN 121) and relies on this sutra in its explanations of emptiness. According to Gadjin Nagao, this sutra affirms that "emptiness includes both being and non-being. both negation and affirmation." Disagreement with Madhyamaka Indian sources indicate that Yogācāra thinkers sometimes debated with the defenders of the Madhyamaka tradition. However, there is disagreement among contemporary Western and traditional Buddhist scholars about the degree to which they were opposed, if at all. The main difference between these schools was related to issues of existence and the nature of emptiness. The Chinese pilgrim Yijing (635–713) concisely summarized the differences thus: “For Yogācāra the real exists, but the conventional does not exist; and [Yogācāra] takes the three natures as foundational. For Madhyamaka the real does not exist, but the conventional does exist; and actually the two truths are primary". Garfield and Westerhoff write that "Yogācāra is both ontologically and epistemologically foundationalist; Madhyamaka is antifoundationalist in both senses." Another way to state this key difference is that Madhyamaka defends a "global antirealism" while Yogācāra "restrict[s] the scope of their antirealism to the external and the conventional". While Madhyamaka generally states that asserting the ultimate existence or non-existence of anything (including emptiness) was inappropriate, Yogācāra treatises (like the Madhyāntavibhāga) often assert that the dependent nature (paratantra-svabhāva) really exists and that emptiness is an actual absence that also exists ultimately. In a similar fashion, Asaṅga states "that of which it is empty does not truly exist; that which is empty truly exists: emptiness makes sense in this way". He also describes emptiness as "the non-existence of the self, and the existence of the no-self." Classical Yogācāras like Vasubandhu and Sthiramati also affirm the reality of conscious appearance, i.e. that truly existent stream of dependent arisen and constantly changing consciousness which projects false and illusory subjective minds and their cognitive objects. It is this real flow of conscious transformation (vijñānapariṇāma) which is said to be empty (of duality and conceptuality). Against the radically anti-foundationalist interpretation of Madhyamaka, the classic Yogācāra position is that there is something (the dependent nature which is mere-consciousness) that "exists" (sat) independently of conceptual designation (prajñapti), and that it is this real thing (vāstu) which is said to be empty of duality and yet is a basis for all dualistic conceptions. Furthermore, Yogācāra thinkers like Asaṅga and Vasubandhu critiqued those who "adhere to non-existence" (nāstikas, vaināśkas, likely referring to certain Madhyamikas) because they saw them as straying into metaphysical nihilism (abhāvānta, see Vimśatikā v. 10). They held that there was really something which could be said to "exist", that is, vijñapti, and that was what is described as being "empty" in their system. For Yogācāra, all conventional existence must be based on something which is real (dravya). Sthiramati argues that we cannot say that everything exists conventionally (saṁvṛtisat) or nominally (prajñaptisat) and that nothing truly exists in an ultimate fashion (which would entail a global conventionalism and nominalism without any metaphysical ground). For Sthiramati, this view is false because "what would follow is non-existence even conventionally. That is because conventions are not possible without something to depend upon (or, “without taking up something”—upādāna)." Thus, for Sthiramati, consciousness (vijñana) "since it is dependently arisen, exists as dravya (substance)." The Bodhisattvabhūmi likewise argues that it is only logical to speak of emptiness if there is something (i.e. dharmatā, an ultimate nature) that is empty. The Bodhisattvabhūmi's Chapter on Reality (Tattvārthapaṭala) states that emptiness is "wrongly grasped" by those who "do not accept that of which something is empty, nor do they accept that which is empty". This is because "emptiness holds good only as long as that of which something is [said to be] empty does not exist, but on the other hand, that which is empty exists. If, however, all [elements involved in this relation] were non-existent, in what respect, what would be empty, [and] of what?" For the Bodhisattvabhūmi, the "right" way to understand emptiness is "one regards that something is empty of that which does not exist in it and correctly comprehends that what remains there does actually exist here". That which "remains" and "actually exists" is the true reality, the thing itself (vastumātra), the foundation (āśraya) which remains (avaśiṣṭa) after all conceptual constructs have been removed. Yogācārins also criticized certain Madhyamaka accounts of conventional truth, that is, the view which says that conventional truth is merely erroneous cognitive processes (designations, expressions, and linguistic conventions) which project an inherent nature. The Yogācārabhūmi's Viniścayasaṃgrahanī states that either Madhyamakas see conventional reality as produced by linguistic expressions and also by causal forces, or they see it as produced merely by linguistic expressions and convention. If the former, then Madhyamikas must accept the reality of causal efficacy, which is a kind of existence (since things which are causally produced can be said to exist in some way). If the latter, then without any basis for linguistic expression and convention, it makes no sense to even use these terms (for Yogācāra these conventions must have some kind of referential basis). Yogācārins further held that if all phenomena are equally conventional and unreal in the same way this would lead to laxity in ethics and in following the path, in other words to moral relativism. The basic idea behind this critique is that if only convention exists (as Madhyamaka claims) and there are no truths that are independent of convention and linguistic expression, there would be no epistemic foundations for critiquing worldly (non-buddhist) conventions and affirming other conventions as closer to the truth (like the conventions used by Buddhists to establish their ethics and their teachings). Madhyamaka thinkers like Bhaviveka, Candrakirti and Shantideva also critiqued Yogācāra views in their works for what they saw as an improper reification (samāropa) of mind and for a nihilistic denial of conventional truth. The work of Xuanzang (7th century) also contains evidence for this Indian debate. Two interpretations of the three natures Various Buddhist studies scholars such as Alan Spongberg, Mario D'amato, Daniel McNamara, and Matthew T. Kapstein have noted that there are two main interpretations of the three natures doctrine among the various texts of the Yogacara corpus. The two models have been named the "pivot" model and "progressive" model by these Western scholars. The "pivot" model, found in texts like the Triṃśikā and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, presents the dependent nature as a kind of "ontological pivot" since it is the basis for conceptual construction (the imagined nature) and for the perfected nature (which is nothing but absence of the imagined nature in the dependent nature). As such, the imagined nature is an incorrect way of experiencing the dependent, while the perfected nature is the correct way. The "progressive model" meanwhile can be found in the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa and in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and its bhāṣya. In this model, it is the perfected nature which is the primary element of the three natures schema. Here, the perfected nature is the pure basis of reality, while the other two natures are both impaired by ignorance. As the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa states: "The imputed and the other-dependent are to be known as having defiled characteristics. The perfected is asserted to have the characteristic of purity." In this text, the dependent nature is seen as something which must be abandoned since it has the "appearance of duality" (dvayākāra). As such, in this "progressive" model, the dependent nature is the basis for the imagined nature, but not the basis for the perfected nature. The perfected nature on the other hand is a fundamentally pure true reality (which nevertheless is covered by adventitious defilements). As the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra states:Reality - which is always without duality, is the basis of error, and is entirely inexpressible - does not have the nature of discursivity. It is to be known, abandoned, and purified. It should properly be thought of as naturally immaculate, since it is purified from defilements, as are space, gold, and water. Furthermore, according to the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa (TSN 17-20), the three natures are inseparable (abhinna) and as such non-dual. This is a key difference between this model and the pivot model, where the dependent nature is ultimately devoid of the imagined nature. Another difference between these sources is that in the Triṃśikā, the main model of liberation is a radical transformation of the basis (āśrayaparāvṛtti). The Trisvabhāvanirdeśa meanwhile claims that liberation occurs through knowledge of the three natures as they are (in their non-duality). Some scholars, like McNamara, argue that these two models are incompatible, ontologically and soteriologically. Kapstein thinks that it is possible that the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa is attempting to reconcile them. These differences have also led some scholars (Kapstein and Thomas Wood) to question the attribution of the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa to Vasubandhu. Karma An explanation of the Buddhist doctrine of karma (action) is central to Yogācāra, and the school sought to explain important questions such as how moral actions can have effects on individuals long after that action was done, that is, how karmic causality works across temporal distances. Previous Abhidharma schools like the Sautrantika had developed theories of karma based on the notion of "seeds" (bījā) in the mind stream, which are unseen karmic habits (good and bad) which remain until they meet with the necessary conditions to manifest. Yogācāra adopts and expanded this theory. Yogācāra then posited the "storehouse consciousness" as the container of the seeds, as the storage place for karmic latencies and as a fertile matrix of predispositions that bring karma to a state of fruition. In the Yogācāra system, all experience without exception is said to result from karma or mental intention (cetana), either arising from one's own subliminal seeds or from other minds. For Yogācāra, the seemingly external or dualistic world is merely a "by-product" (adhipati-phala) of karma. The term vāsanā ("perfuming") is also used when explaining karma. Yogācārins were divided on the issue of whether vāsāna and bija were essentially the same, whether the seeds were the effect of the perfuming, or whether the perfuming simply affected the seeds. The type, quantity, quality and strength of the seeds determine where and how a sentient being will be reborn: one's race, sex, social status, proclivities, bodily appearance and so forth. The conditioning of the mind resulting from karma is called saṃskāra. Vasubandhu's Treatise on Action (Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa), treats the subject of karma in detail from the Yogācāra perspective. Meditation and awakening As the name of the school suggests, meditation practice is central to the Yogācāra tradition. Yogācāra texts prescribe various yogic practices such as mindfulness and the four investigations, out of which a revolutionary and radically transformative understanding of the non-duality of self and other is said to arise. This process is referred to as āśraya-parāvṛtti ("overturning the cognitive basis", or "revolution of the basis"), which refers to "overturning the conceptual projections and imaginings which act as the base of our cognitive actions." This event is seen as the transformation of the basic mode of cognition into jñāna (knowledge, direct knowing), which is seen as a non-dual knowledge that is non-conceptual (nirvikalpa), i.e., "devoid of interpretive overlay". Roger R. Jackson describes this as a "'fundamental unconstructed awareness' (mūla-nirvikalpa-jñāna)". When this knowledge arises, the eight consciousnesses come to an end and are replaced by direct knowings. According to Lusthaus:Overturning the Basis turns the five sense consciousnesses into immediate cognitions that accomplish what needs to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna-jñāna). The sixth consciousness becomes immediate cognitive mastery (pratyavekṣaṇa-jñāna), in which the general and particular characteristics of things are discerned just as they are. This discernment is considered nonconceptual (nirvikalpa-jñāna). Manas becomes the immediate cognition of equality (samatā-jñāna), equalizing self and other. When the Warehouse Consciousness finally ceases it is replaced by the Great Mirror Cognition (Mahādarśa-jñāna) that sees and reflects things just as they are, impartially, without exclusion, prejudice, anticipation, attachment, or distortion. The grasper-grasped relation has ceased. ..."purified" cognitions all engage the world in immediate and effective ways by removing the self-bias, prejudice, and obstructions that had prevented one previously from perceiving beyond one's own narcissistic consciousness. When consciousness ends, true knowledge begins. Since enlightened cognition is nonconceptual its objects cannot be described. Five Categories of Beings One of the more controversial Yogācāra teachings was the "five categories of beings", which was an extension of the teachings on the seeds of the storehouse consciousness. This teaching states that sentient beings have certain innate seeds that determine their capability of achieving a particular state of enlightenment and no other. Thus, beings were placed into five categories: Beings whose innate seeds gave them the capacity to practice the bodhisattva path and achieve full Buddhahood Beings whose innate seeds gave them the capacity to achieve the state of a pratyekabuddha (private Buddha) Beings whose innate seeds gave them the capacity to achieve the state of an arhat Beings whose innate seeds had an indeterminate nature, and could potentially be any of the above Beings whose innate seeds were incapable of achieving enlightenment ever because they lacked any wholesome seeds The fifth class of beings, the icchantika, were described in various Mahayana sutras as being incapable of achieving enlightenment, unless in some cases through the aid of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. Nevertheless, the notion was highly criticized by later Mahayanists who supported the universalist doctrine of ekayana. This tension is important in East Asian Buddhist history and later East Asian Yogācārins attempted to resolve the dispute by softening their stance on the five categories. Mental images: true vs false An important debate about the reality of mental appearances within Yogācāra led to its later subdivision into two systems of Alikākāravāda (Tib. rnam rdzun pa, False Aspectarians, also known as Nirākāravāda) and Satyākāravāda (rnam bden pa, True Aspectarians, also known as Sākāravāda). They are also termed "Aspectarians" (ākāra) and "Non-Aspectarians" (anākāra). The core issue is whether appearances or “aspects” (rnam pa, ākāra) of objects in the mind are treated as true (bden pa, satya) or false (rdzun pa, alika). While this division did not exist in the works of the early Yogācāra philosophers, tendencies similar to these views can be discerned in the works of Yogacara thinkers like Dharmapala (c. 530–561?) and Sthiramati (c. 510–570?). According to Yaroslav Komarovski the distinction is as follows:Although Yogācāras in general do not accept the existence of an external material world, according to Satyākāravāda its appearances or “aspects” (rnam pa, ākāra) reflected in consciousness have a real existence, because they are of one nature with the really existent consciousness, their creator. According to Alikākāravāda, neither external phenomena nor their appearances and/in the minds that reflect them really exist. What exists in reality is only primordial mind (ye shes, jñāna), described as self-cognition (rang rig, svasamvedana/ svasamvitti) or individually self-cognizing primordial mind (so so(r) rang gis rig pa’i ye shes).Davey K. Tomlinson describes the difference (with reference to later Yogacara scholars from Vikramashila) as follows:On one hand is the Nirākāravāda, typified by Ratnākaraśānti (ca. 970–1045); on the other, the Sākāravāda, articulated by his colleague and critic Jñānaśrīmitra (ca. 980–1040). The Nirākāravādin argues that all appearances do not really exist. They are ersatz or false (alīka). Ephemeral forms appear to us but are the erroneous construction of ignorance, which fundamentally characterizes our existence as suffering beings in saṃsāra. In the ultimately real experience of an awakened buddha, no appearances show up at all. Pure experience, unstained by false appearance (which is nirākāra, “without appearance”), is possible. The Sākāravādin, on the other hand, defends the view that all conscious experience is necessarily the experience of a manifest appearance (consciousness is sākāra, or constitutively “has appearance”). Manifest appearances, properly understood, are really real. A buddha's experience has appearances, and there is nothing about this fact that makes a buddha's experience mistaken. Practice A key early source for the yogic practices of Indian Yogācāra is the encyclopedic Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra (YBh, Treatise on the Foundation for Yoga Practitioners). The YBh presents a structured exposition of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path of yoga (here referring to spiritual practice in general) from a Yogācāra perspective and relies in both Āgama/Nikāya texts and Mahāyāna sūtras while also being influenced by Vaibhāṣika Abhidharma. According to some scholars, this text can be traced to communities of yogācāras, which initially referred not to a philosophical school, but to groups of meditation specialists whose main focus was Buddhist yoga. Other Yogācāra texts which also discuss meditation and spiritual practice (and show some relationship with the YBh) include the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra, the Madhyāntavibhāga, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, Dharmadharmatāvibhāga and Asanga's Mahāyānasaṃgraha. The YBh discusses various topics relevant to the bodhisattva practice, including: the eight different forms of dhyāna (meditative absorptions), the three samādhis, different types of liberation (vimokṣa), meditative attainments (samāpatti) such as nirodhasamāpatti, the five hindrances (nivaraṇa), the various types of foci (ālambana) or 'images' (nimitta) used in meditation, the various types contemplative antidotes (pratipakṣa) against the afflictions (like contemplating death, unattractiveness, impermanence, and suffering), the practice of śamatha through "the nine aspects of resting the mind" (navākārā cittasthitiḥ), the practice of insight (vipaśyanā), mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasmṛti), how to understand the four noble truths, the thirty-seven factors of Awakening (saptatriṃśad bodhipakṣyā dharmāḥ), the four immeasurables (apramāṇa), and how to practice the six perfections (pāramitā). Bodhisattva path Yogācāra sources like the Abhidharmasamuccaya, the Chéng Wéishì Lùn and the commentaries to the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and the Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra also contain various descriptions of the main stages of the bodhisattva path. These Yogācāra sources integrate the Mahayana teaching of the ten bodhisattva stages (bhūmis) with the earlier Abhidharma outline of the path called the "five paths" (pañcamārga), to produce a Mahayanist version of "five stages" (pañcāvasthā). In classic Yogācāra, this bodhisattva path is said to last for three incaculable eons (asaṃkhyeya kalpas), i.e. millions upon millions of years. The five paths or stages are outlined in Yogācāra sources as follows: Path of accumulation (sambhāra-mārga, 資糧位), in which a bodhisattva gives rise to bodhicitta, and works on the two accumulations of merit (puṇya) and wisdom (jñana). These are linked with the practice of the six perfections. In this first stage of the path, one attains merit by doing good deeds like giving (dana) and one also accumulates wisdom by listening to the Mahayana teachings many times, contemplating them and meditating on them. One also associates with good spiritual friends. According to the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, at this stage the bodhisattva focuses on accumulating wholesome roots (kuśalamūla) and on permeating one's mind with learning (bahuśrutaprabhāvita). This leads to the accumulation of great faith and conviction in the Mahayana and in the principle of consciousness-only. Path of engagement (prayoga-mārga, 加行位), also termed "the stage of the practice of faith and conviction" (adhimukticaryābhūmi). Here, a bodhisattva practices morality, meditation, and wisdom in order to quell the manifest activities of the two types of obscurations: emotionally afflictive and cognitive. While their active elements are quelled, they remain as seeds in the foundation consciousness. Furthermore, one also cultivates the "factors conducive to penetration", which consists of the "four investigations" and the "four correct cognitions". These are ways of contemplating the truth of mind-only and lead to the "entrance into the principle of cognizance-only" (vijñaptimātrapraveśa) as well as to "the certainty as to the non-existence of the object" (arthābhāvaniścaya). At this stage one relies on the fourth dhyana and also attains various samadhis (meditative concentrations). The final stage of this path which is just before the path of seeing is called "the elimination of the ideation of cognizance-only" (vijñaptimātrasaṃjñāvibhāvana). As the Mahāyānasaṃgraha states, at this point, the realization of the absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāvabuddhi) eliminates the very "perception of mind-only" (vijñaptimātratābuddhi). The resulting wisdom is described by Asanga as "the non-conceptual cognition (nirvikalpakajñāna) in which the object (ālambana) and the subject (ālambaka) are completely identical (samasama)." Path of seeing (darśana-mārga, 見道位), at this stage (which lasts for only a few moments), a bodhisattva attains an untainted knowledge (Skt. anāsrava-jñāna, 無漏智) into emptiness, the non-duality of self and other, and consciousness-only. The Cheng wei shi lun describes this knowledge which realises Suchness (tathatā) as being "entirely undifferentiated (samasama) from Suchness since both are free from the characteristics (lakṣaṇa) of subject (grāhaka) and object (grāhya)." This stage is equated with the first bodhisattva stage, the stage of joy. At this point, one is a proper noble (arya) bodhisattva instead of just a beginner. Path of cultivation (bhāvanā-mārga, 修道位), at this stage, a bodhisattva continues to train themselves in two main cognitions in order to fully eliminate all the seeds of the two types of obscurations. They train in the non-conceptual gnosis (nirvikalpakajñāna) of ultimate reality, and the wordly or subsequent knowledge (pṛṣṭhtalabdhajñāna) which knows conventional reality as illusory, and is yet able to conceptually understand it and use it for guiding sentient beings according to their needs. Part of this path requires effort, as the bodhisattva is said to "repeatedly (abhīkṣṇam) cultivate the non-conceptual cognition" (Cheng wei shi lun). However, after a certain point one advances effortlessly. This path corresponds to the second to ninth stages of the bodhisattva path. The Mahāyānasaṃgraha states that at this stage the yogin "dwells in intense cultivation for hundreds of thousands of koṭis of niyutas [an astronomical number] of aeons and consequently attains the transformation of the basis (āśrayaparavṛtti)". Path of fulfillment (niṣṭhā-mārga), also known as the path of no more learning (aśaikṣa-mārga, 無學位) in other sources. This is equivalent to complete Buddhahood. It also entails attaining the three bodies (trikāya) of the Buddha (a doctrine which was also invented by the Yogācāra school). Bodhisattva practice The Bodhisattvabhūmi discusses the Yogācāra school's specifically Mahāyāna forms of practice which are tailored to bodhisattvas. The aim of the bodhisattva's practice in the Bodhisattvabhūmi is the wisdom (prajñā) which realizes of the inexpressible Ultimate Reality (tathata) or the 'thing-in-itself (vastumatra), which is essenceless and beyond the duality (advaya) of existence (bhāva) and non-existence (abhāva). The Bodhisattvabhūmi outlines several practices of bodhisattvas, including the six perfections (pāramitā), the thirty-seven factors of Awakening, and the four immeasurables. Two key practices which are unique to bodhisattvas in this text are the four investigations and the four correct cognitions or "the four kinds of understanding in accordance with true reality". These two sets of four practices and cognitions are also taught in the Abhidharmasamuccaya and its commentaries. The four investigations and four correct cognitions The four investigations (catasraḥ paryeṣaṇāḥ) and the corresponding four correct cognitions (catvāri yathābhūtaparijñānāni) are a set of original contemplations found in Yogācāra works. These were seen as very important contemplative methods by the authors of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. They were considered to lead to awakening, and were linked with the thirty-seven factors leading to Awakening. The four investigations and the corresponding four correct cognitions (which are said to arise out of the investigations) are: The investigation of the names [of things] (nāmaparyeṣaṇā), leads to correct cognition resulting from the investigation of names just for what they are, which is "just names" (nāmamātra), i.e. arbitrary linguistic signs. The investigation of things (vastuparyeṣaṇā), leads to correct cognition resulting from the investigation of things. One sees things just for what they are, namely a mere presence or a thing-in-itself (vastumātra). One understands that this is apart from all labels and is inexpressible (nirabhilāpya). The investigation of verbal designations suggesting and portraying an intrinsic nature (svabhāva-prajñapti-paryeṣaṇā), leads to correct cognition resulting from the investigation of such designations. One sees the designations just for what they are, namely as mere designations (prajñaptimātratā). Thus, one sees the idea of intrinsic nature to be illusory like a hallucination or a dream. The investigation of verbal designations expressing individuation and differences (viśeṣaprajñaptiparyeṣaṇā), leads to correct cognition resulting from the investigation of such designations. One sees the designations just for what they are, namely as mere designations. For example, a thing may be designated as existing or non-existing, but such designations do not apply to true reality or the thing-in-itself. The practice which leads to the realization of the true nature of things is based on the elimination of all conceptual proliferations (prapañca) and ideations (saṃjñā) that one superimposes on true reality. The YBh states that the yogin must "repeatedly remove any ideation conducive to the proliferation directed at all phenomena and should consistently dwell on the thing-in-itself by a non-conceptualizing mental state which is focused on grasping only the object perceived without any characteristics". Four prayogas Various Yogācāra sources provide a four step process of realization leading to the path of seeing, these four are the four yogic practices (prayogas): Yogic practice of observation (upalambha-prayoga) - Outer objects are observed to be nothing but mind. Yogic practice of non-observation (anupalambha-prayoga) - Outer objects are not observed as such Yogic practice of observation and non-observation (upalambhānupalambha-prayoga) - Outer objects being unobservable, a mind cognizing them is not observed either Yogic practice of double non-observation (nopalambhopalambha-prayoga) - Not observing both, nonduality is observed This process is conceisely explained in the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa which says "through the observation of it being merely mind, a knowable object is not observed. Through not observing a knowable object, mind is not observed [either]. Through not observing both, the dharmadhātu is observed." Thus, the goal of meditation is a totally unified mind that goes beyond all concepts and language to directly know the undifferentiated "uniformity of phenomena" (dharmasamatāḥ) and the thing-in-itself, the supreme reality. The elimination of all concepts applies even to the very idea of mind only or "mere-cognizance" itself. As the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga states: "through [referents] being observed in this way, they are observed as mere cognizance. By virtue of observing them as mere cognizance, Referents are not observed, and through not observing referents, mere cognizance is not observed [either]." This elimination of concepts and ideas is the basic framework applied by the bodhisattva to all meditative practices, including the different mindfulness meditations. The three samādhis (meditative absorptions) are likewise adapted into this new framework. These three are the emptiness (śūnyatā), wishlessness (apraṇihita), and imagelessness (ānimitta) samādhis. Meditation As the "school of yoga practitioners", meditative practice is discussed in various Yogācāra sources. The sixth chapter (the Maitreya Chapter) of the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra focuses entirely on meditation. It extensively discusses the meditative aspects of ‘calm’ (śamatha) and ‘insight’ (vipaśyanā) from unique perspectives. Success in both of these is based on pure ethics and on pure views based on listening and reflecting (viśuddhaṃ śrutamayacintāmayadarśanam). Insight is paired with "objects consisting in images accompanied by reflection" (savikalpaṃ pratibimbaṃ) while tranquility is seen as based on objects consisting in images unaccompanied by reflection (nirvikalpaṃ pratibimbaṃ). Thus, insight meditation is based on the uninterrupted contemplation of mental images, while calming meditation is simply focusing on "the continuous flow of mind with uninterrupted attention". The Saṃdhinirmocana also states that the teachings themselves are an important object of meditative contemplation. This includes the Yogācāra teaching of consciousness-only, the teachings on the twofold emptiness (of self and phenomena), and the schematic analysis of the subject and its objects of consciousness. While insight meditation is initially based on conceptual reflection, these are gradually abandoned at later stages until the yogin lets go of all concepts, teachings, and mental images. Furthermore, at the higher stages of meditation, the calm and insight meditations must ultimately be blended or yoked together (yuganaddha) in a single state of one-pointedness of mind (cittaikāgratā). This unified state is described as that state in which the yogin: "realises that these images (pratibimba) which are the domain of concentration (samādhigocara) are nothing but representation (vijñaptimātra), and having realised this, he contemplates (manasikaroti) Suchness (tathatā)." History Yogācāra, along with Madhyamaka (Middle Way), is one of the two principal philosophical schools of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, though the related movement of Tathāgatagarbha-thought was also influential. Origin and early Yogācāra The term "yogācāra" (yoga practitioner) was originally used to refer to the Buddhist meditation adepts of the first centuries of the common era which were associated with the Sarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika traditions in north India (some of their key centers included Gandhara, Kashmir and Mathura). Modern scholars like Florin Delenau have suggested that some yogis in this north Indian Buddhist milieu gradually adopted Mahāyāna ideas, eventually developing into a separate movement (a process which was complete by the 5th century). According to Delenau, the Chinese Dhyana Sutras indicate just such a gradual adoption of Mahāyāna elements. One of the earliest texts of the Mahāyāna Yogācāra tradition proper is the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra (Unraveling the Profound Intent) which might be as early as the first or second century CE. It includes new theories such as the basis-consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna), the doctrine of vijñapti-mātra and the "three natures" (trisvabhāva). However, these theories were not completely new, as they have predecessors in older theories held by previous Buddhist schools, such as the Sautrāntika theory of seeds (bīja) and the Sthavira theory of the bhavanga. Philosophically speaking, Richard King notes that Sautrāntikas defended a kind of representationalism, in which the mind only perceives an image (akara) or representation (vijñapti) of an external object (never the object itself). Mahayana Yogācāras adopted a similar model but removed the need for any external object which acts as a cause for the image. As the doctrinal trailblazer of the Yogācāra, the Saṃdhinirmocana also introduced the paradigm of the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma, with its own teachings being placed into the final and definitive teaching (which supersedes those of the Prajñaparamita sutras). The early layers of the massive Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra (Treatise on the Stages of the Yogācāras) also contains very ancient Yogācāra material which is earlier than the Saṃdhinirmocana. However, in its current form it is a "conglomeration of heterogenous materials" (Schmithausen) which was finally compiled (perhaps by Asanga) after the Saṃdhinirmocana (hence, later layers quote the sutra directly). Modern scholars consider the Yogācārabhūmi to contain the work of several authors (mainly of a Mūlasarvāstivāda milieu), though it has traditionally been attributed in full to the bodhisattva Maitreya or to Asanga. It is influenced by Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma and Sautrāntika traditions, who also had similar texts called by the name "Yogācārabhūmi", such as the Yogācārabhūmi of Saṅgharakṣa. Classical Yogācāra - Asaṅga and Vasubandhu Yogācāra's systematic exposition owes much to the brothers Asaṅga (4th c. CE) and Vasubandhu (c. 4th - 5th CE). Little is known of these figures, but traditional accounts (in authors like Xuanzang) state that Asaṅga received Yogācāra teachings from the bodhisattva and future Buddha, Maitreya. However, there are various discrepancies between the Chinese and Tibetan traditions concerning these so called "five works of Maitreya". Modern scholars argue that the various works traditionally attributed to Maitreya are actually by other authors. According to Mario D'amato, the Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra and the Madhyāntavibhāga are part of a second phase of Yogācāra scholarship which took place after the completion of the Bodhisattvabhumi, but before the composition of Asanga's Mahāyānasaṃgraha (which quotes the Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra as an authoritative text). Regarding the Abhisamayalankara and the Ratnagotravibhaga, modern scholars generally see these as the works of different authors. Asaṅga went on to write many of the key Yogācāra treatises such as the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and the Abhidharma-samuccaya. Asaṅga also went on to convert his brother Vasubandhu to Yogācāra. Vasubandhu was a top scholar of Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika Abhidharma thought, and the Abhidharmakośakārikā is his main work which discusses the doctrines of these traditions. Vasubandhu also went on to write important Yogācāra works like the Twenty Verses and the Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only. The middle period and the epistemological turn The Yogācāra school held a prominent position in Indian Buddhism for centuries after the time of the two brothers. According to Lusthaus and Delenau, after Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, two distinct "wings" of the school developed during the "Middle Period" of Yogācāra, the epistemological school and the scholastic school. Another important third movement developed a synthesis of Yogācāra with buddha-nature thought. Thus, the three main branches of the Yogācāra movement which developed during the so called middle period are: A logico-epistemic tradition (pramāṇavāda) focusing on issues of epistemology (Sanskrit: pramāṇa) and logic (hetuvidyā), exemplified by such thinkers as Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, Dharmottara, Devendrabuddhi, Prajñakaragupta, Jinendrabuddhi, Śākyabuddhi A scholastic and exegetical tradition which refined and elaborated Yogācāra Abhidharma and wrote various commentaries, exemplified by such thinkers as Gunamati, Asvabhāva, Sthiramati, Jinaputra, Dharmapāla, Śīlabhadra, Xuanzang, and Vinītadeva (710-770). The Yogācāra-tathāgatagarbha synthesis, found in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, and Ghanavyūha sūtra, two treatises attributed to an author named Sāramati: the Ratnagotravibhāga, and Dharmadhātvaviśeṣaśāstra (Dasheng fajie wuchabie lun 大乘法界無差別論), as well as in the works of Paramārtha (499-569 CE), including his translations: Buddhagotraśāstra (Fó xìng lùn, 佛性論), and Anuttarâśrayasūtra. These branches of Yogācāra thought were not mutually exclusive however, for example, Vinītadeva wrote pramāṇa works as well as commentaries on the works of Vasubandhu. Aside from these, there were also Yogācāra authors writing commentaries on the Prajñaparamita sutras, including the unknown author of the Abhisamayālaṅkāra (AA), Arya Vimuktisena (6th century) who commented on the AA, and Daṃṣṭrāsena (author of the Bṛhaṭṭīkā). The doctrines of the exegetical tradition sometimes came under attack by other Buddhists, especially the notion of ālaya-vijñāna, which was seen as close to the Hindu ideas of ātman and prakṛti. It was perhaps due to this that the logical tradition shifted over time to using the term citta-santāna instead, since it was easier to defend a "stream" (santāna) of thoughts as a doctrine that did not contradict not-self. By the end of the eighth century, the scholastic tradition had mostly become eclipsed by the pramāṇa tradition as well as by a new hybrid school that "combined basic Yogācāra doctrines with Tathāgatagarbha thought." The influential Pramāṇavāda tradition led by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti defined the main epistemological method for Indian Buddhism. Modern scholars see this school as having ushered in an "epistemological turn" for all Indian philosophy. The pramāṇa tradition continued to thrive in Magadha (especially at Nalanda) as well as in Kashmir well into the 11th century. One of the most important late figures of this tradition was Śaṅkaranandana (fl. c. 9th or 10th century), "the second Dharmakīrti". Yogācāra-tathāgatagarbha synthesis According to Lusthaus, the synthetic Yogācāra-tathāgatagarbha school accepted the definition of tathāgatagarbha (the buddha-womb, buddha-source, or "buddha-within") as "permanent, pleasurable, self, and pure" (nitya, sukha, ātman, śuddha) which is found in various tathāgatagarbha sutras. This hybrid school eventually went on to link the tathāgatagarbha with the ālaya-vijñāna doctrine. Some key sources of this tendency are the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra), and in China the Awakening of Faith. The synthesis of Yogācāra and Tathāgatagarbha thought became extremely influential in both East Asia and Tibet. During the sixth and seventh centuries, various forms of competing Yogācāra systems were popular in Chinese Buddhism. The translator Bodhiruci (6th century CE) for example, took a more "classical" approach while Ratnamati was attracted to Tathāgatagarbha thought and sought to translate texts like the Dasabhumika commentary accordingly. Their disagreement on this issue led to the end of their collaboration as co-translators. The translator Paramārtha is another example of a hybrid thinker. He promoted the theory of a "stainless consciousness" (amala-vijñāna, a pure wisdom within all beings, i.e. the tathāgatagarbha), which is revealed once the ālaya-vijñāna is purified. According to Lusthaus, Xuanzang's travels to India and his translation work was an attempt to return to a more "orthodox" and "authentic" Indian Yogācāra, and thus put to rest the debates and confusions in the Chinese Yogācāra of his time. The Cheng Weishi Lun returns to the use of the theory of seeds instead of the tathāgatagarbha to explain how some beings can reach Buddhahood. However, by the eighth century, the Yogācāra-tathāgatagarbha synthesis became the dominant interpretation of Yogācāra in East Asian Buddhism. Later Chinese thinkers like Fa-Tsang would thus criticize Xuanzang for failing to teach the tathāgatagarbha. Karl Brunnhölzl notes that this syncretic tendency also existed in Indian Yogācāra scholasticism, but that it only became widespread during the later tantric era (when Vajrayana became prominent) with the work of thinkers like Jñānaśrīmitra, Ratnākaraśānti, and Maitripa. Kashmir also became an important center for this tradition, as can be seen in the works of Kashmiri Yogacarins Sajjana and Mahājana. Yogācāra and Madhyamaka Yogācāra and Madhyamaka philosophers demonstrated two opposing tendencies throughout the history of Buddhist philosophy in India, an antagonistic stance which saw both systems as rival and incompatible views and another inclusive tendency which worked towards harmonizing their views. Some authors like the Madhyamikas Bhaviveka, Candrakīrti, and Śāntideva, and the Yogācāras Asanga, Dharmapala, Sthiramati criticized the philosophical theories of the other tradition. While Indian Yogācāras criticized certain interpretations of Madhyamaka (which they term “those who misunderstand emptiness”), they never criticize the founders of Madhyamaka themselves (Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva), and saw their work as implicitly in agreement with Yogācāra. This inclusivism saw Nāgārjuna's teachings as needing further expansion and explication (since it was part of the "second turning" of the wheel of Dharma). Thus, Yogācāra thinkers affirmed the importance Nāgārjuna's work and some even wrote commentaries on Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārika as a way to draw out the implicit meaning of Madhyamaka and show it was compatible with Yogācāra. These include Asanga's Treatise on Comforming to the Middle Way (Shun zhonglun 順中論) and Sthiramati's Mahayana Middle Way Commentary (Dasheng zhongguanshi lun 大乘中觀釋論 T.30.1567). Similarly, Vasubandhu and Dharmapāla both wrote commentaries on Āryadeva's Catuḥśātaka (Four Hundred Verses). The harmonizing tendency can be seen in the work of philosophers like Kambala (5-6th century, author of the Ālokamālā), Jñānagarbha (8th century), his student Śāntarakṣita (8th century) and Ratnākaraśānti (c. 1000). Śāntarakṣita (8th century), whose view was later called "Yogācāra-Svatantrika-Madhyamaka" by the Tibetan tradition, saw the Mādhyamika position as ultimately true and at the same time saw the Yogācāra view as a useful way to relate to conventional truth (which leads one to the ultimate). Ratnākaraśānti on the other hand saw Nagarjuna as agreeing with the intent of Yogācāra texts, while criticizing the interpretations of later Madhyamikas like Bhaviveka. Later Tibetan Buddhist thinkers like Shakya Chokden would also work to show the compatibility of the alikākāravāda sub-school with Madhyamaka, arguing that it is in fact a form of Madhyamaka. Likewise, the Seventh Karmapa Chödrak Gyamtso has a similar view which holds that the "profound important points and intents" of the two systems are one. Ju Mipham is also another Tibetan philosopher whose project is aimed as showing the harmony between Yogacara and Madhyamaka, arguing that there is only a very subtle difference between them, being a subtle clinging by Yogacaras to the existence of an "inexpressible, naturally luminous cognition" (rig pa rang bzhin gyis ’od gsal ba). Yogācāra in East Asia Translations of Indian Yogācāra texts were first introduced to China in the early 5th century CE. Among these was Guṇabhadra's translation of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra in four fascicles, which would also become important in the early history of Chan Buddhism. Influential 5th century figures include the translators Bodhiruci, Ratnamati, and Paramārtha. Their followers founded the Dilun (Daśabhūmikā Commentary) and Shelun (Mahāyānasaṃgraha) schools, both of which included Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha elements. Modern scholars also hold that the Awakening of Faith, a very influential work in East Asian Buddhism, was written by a member of the Dilun tradition. Xuanzang (fl. c. 602 – 664) is famous for having made a dangerous journey to India in order to study Buddhism, obtain more indic Yogācāra sources. Xuanzang spent over ten years in India traveling and studying under various Buddhist masters and drew on a variety of Indian sources in his studies. Upon his return to China, Xuanzang brought with him 657 Buddhist texts, including the Yogācārabhūmi and began the work of translating them. Xuanzang composed the Cheng Weishi Lun (Discourse on the Establishment of Consciousness Only) which drew on many Indian sources and commentaries and became a central work of East Asian Yogācāra. Xuanzang's student Kuiji continued this tradition, writing several important commentaries. However, another student of Xuanzang, the Korean monk Wŏnch’ŭk, defended some of the doctrines of the Shelun school of Paramārtha, for which he was criticized by the followers of Kuiji. Wŏnch’ŭk's teachings were influential on the Yogācāra (Beopsang) of Silla Korea. Both of these competing Yogācāra sub-sects were then imported to Japan where they became the two sub-sects (the northern and southern temple lineages) of the Hossō school. Xuanzang's school later came under criticism from later Chinese masters like Fazang and it became less influential as the fortunes of other native Chinese schools rose. Nevertheless, Yogācāra studies continued to be important at different times throughout Chinese history, including during the modern revival of Yogācāra in the 20th century. Yogācāra in Tibet Yogācāra is studied in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, though it receives different emphasis in each of these. Yogācāra thought is an integral part of the history of Tibetan Buddhism. It was first transmitted to Tibet by figures like Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla and Atiśa. The Tibetan Nyingma school and its Dzogchen teachings draw on both Madhyamaka and Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha thought. Similarly, Kagyu school figures like the Third Karmapa also rely on the Madhyamaka and Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha systems in their presentation of the ultimate view (termed Mahamudra in Kagyu). The Jonang school also developed its own synthetic philosophy which they termed shentong ("other-emptiness" ), which also included elements from Yogācāra, Madhyamaka and Tathāgatagarbha. In contrast, the Gelug and Sakya schools generally see Yogācāra as a lesser view than the Madhyamaka philosophy of Candrakirti, which is seen as the definitive view in these traditions. Today, Yogācāra topics remain important in Tibetan Buddhism and Yogācāra texts are widely studied. There are various debates and discussions among the Tibetan Buddhist schools regarding key Yogācāra ideas, like svasaṃvedana (reflexive awareness) and the foundational consciousness. Furthermore, the debates between the other-emptiness and self-emptiness views are also similar in some ways to the historical debates between Yogācāra-Tathāgatagarbha and Madhyamaka, though the specific viewpoints have evolved further and changed in complex ways. Modern thinkers continue to discuss Yogācāra issues, and attempt to synthesize it with Madhyamaka. For example, Ju Mipham, the 19th-century Rimé commentator, wrote a commentary on Śāntarakṣita's synthesis arguing that the ultimate intent of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra is the same. Influence Virtually all contemporary schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism are influenced by Yogācāra to some extent. This includes modern East Asian Buddhist traditions (like Zen and Pure Land) and Tibetan Buddhism. Zen was heavily influenced by Yogācāra sources, especially the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. In Tibetan Buddhism, Yogācāra sources are still widely studied and several are part of the monastic education curriculum in various traditions. Some influential Yogācāra texts in Tibetan Buddhism include: Asanga's Abhidharma-samuccaya, and the "Five Treatises of Maitreya" including the Mahayanasutralankara, and the Ratnagotravibhāga. Hindu philosophers such as Vācaspati Miśra, Utpaladeva, Abhinavagupta, and Śrīharṣa were also influenced by Yogacara ideas and responded to their theories in their own works. Textual corpus Sūtras The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra (Sūtra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets; 2nd century CE), is a key early Yogācāra sutra which is considered to be the foundational sutra for the Yogācāra tradition. There are two Indian commentaries to this, one by Asanga and one by Jñanagarbha. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra (which includes the Daśabhūmikasūtra) also contains numerous teachings on mind-only and is very influential for East Asian Buddhism. Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Daśabhūmikasūtra is an important commentary to this. Another text, the Mahāyānābhidharmasūtra is often quoted in Yogācāra works and is assumed to also be an early Yogācāra sutra. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra also later assumed considerable importance in East Asia, and portions of this text were considered by Étienne Lamotte as being contemporaneous with the Saṃdhinirmocana. This text equates the Yogācāra theory of ālayavijñāna with the tathāgatagarbha (buddha-nature) and thus seems to be part of the tradition which sought to merge Yogācāra with tathāgatagarbha thought. Another sutra which contains similar themes to the Laṅkāvatāra is the Ghanavyūha Sūtra. All these five sutras are listed by Kuiji as key sutras for the Yogācāra school in his Commentary on the Cheng weishi lun (成唯識 論述記; Taishō no. 1830). Another lesser known sutra which was important in East Asian Yogācāra is the Buddha Land Sutra (Buddhabhūmi Sūtra; Taishō vol. 16, no. 680) which along with its commentaries, teaches that the pure land is not a physical place, but a symbol for wisdom. This sutra was important enough in India to have at least two Indian Yogācāra commentaries written on it, Śīlabhadra's Buddhabhūmi-vyākhyāna and Bandhuprabha's Buddhabhūmyupadeśa. There are also various Indian, Chinese and Tibetan commentaries to these various Mahayana sutras. Furthermore, the Prajñaparamita sutras are also important sources in Yogācāra, even though most do not cover specifically "Yogācāra" doctrines. This is shown by the fact that various Yogācāra commentaries were written on Prajñaparamita sutras, including commentaries by Asanga (Vajracchedikākāvyākhyā), Vasubandhu, Dignāga, Daṃṣṭrasena (Bṛhaṭṭīkā), Ratnākaraśānti (various), and the Abhisamayālaṅkāra. Treatises Yogācāra authors wrote numerous scholastic and philosophical treatises (śāstra) and commentaries (ṭīkā, bhāṣya, vyākhyāna, etc). The following is a list in historical order and only includes specifically Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda figures and works: Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, the earliest Yogācāra treatise, a massive encyclopedic work on Yogācāra theory and praxis which is a composite work reflecting various stages of historical development (compiled 3rd to 5th century CE). Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra and its bhāṣya, traditionally attributed to the bodhisattva Maitreya or Asanga, modern scholars like D'amato place this text (together with the commentary) after the Bodhisattvabhumi, but before Asanga. Madhyāntavibhāga (Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes), another work of the "second phase" of post-Yogācārabhūmi Yogācāra thought, traditionally attributed to the bodhisattva Maitreya who is said to have revealed it to Asanga. Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (Distinguishing Dharmas and Dharmata), another work of the so called "Maitreya corpus" Nāgamitra's (3rd-4th century?) Kāyatrayāvatāramukha (a treatise on the trikaya and the three natures) The works of Asaṅga (4th-5th century CE): the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and the Abhidharma-samuccaya. Vasubandhu's (4th-5th century CE) Viṃśaṭikā-kārikā (Treatise in Twenty Stanzas), Triṃśikā-kārikā (Treatise in Thirty Stanzas), Vyākhyāyukti ("Proper Mode of Exposition"), Karmasiddhiprakarana ("A Treatise on Karma"), and Pañcaskandhaprakaraṇa (Explanation of the Five Aggregates). Ālokamālāprakaraṇanāma (An Explanation named 'Garland of Light''') by Kambala (c. fifth to sixth century) which attempts to harmonize Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, mostly by assimilating Madhyamaka under Yogācāra.Brunnholzl, Karl. Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature p. 9. Snow Lion Publications, The Nitartha Institute (2009). The Saṃdhinirmocanasūtravyākhyāna is a commentary to the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra attributed to Asanga, but this has been questioned by modern scholars. Abhisamayālaṅkāra (Ornament of Realization), a commentary on the Prajñaparamita sutras. It is attributed to Maitreya-Asanga by Tibetan tradition, but it is unknown in Chinese sources. Modern scholars see this as a post-Asanga text. Makransky attributes it to Ārya Vimuktisena, the first commentator on this text.Brunnholzl, Karl, When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra, Shambhala Publications, 2015, p. 81. Dignāga's Ālambanaparīkṣā and its vrtti (commentary) defend the view of consciousness-only using epistemological arguments The Indian Paramārtha (499–569) translated many works to Chinese, and also wrote some original treatises and commentaries, possibly including the Buddhagotraśāstra (Fo Xing Lun) Sthiramati (6th century), wrote numerous commentaries like Pañcaskandhakavibhāṣā and Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya Mahayana Awakening of Faith (author unknown) Dharmapala of Nalanda (6th century), wrote commentaries to the Ālambanaparīkṣā and Āryadeva's Catuḥśataka Asvabhāva, wrote Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra-ṭīkā, Mahāyānasaṃgrahopanibandhana and a commentary on Ālokamālā Dharmakīrti's (6th or 7th century) Pramānaṿārttika (Commentary on Epistemology), is mostly a work on pramana, but it also argues for consciousness-only Śīlabhadra (529–645) - Buddhabhūmivyākhyāna Xuanzang's (602-664) Cheng Wei Shi Lun is a large Chinese commentary on the Triṃśikā which draws on numerous Indian sources Kuiji (632–682) - Various commentaries on texts like Cheng weishi lun, Heart-sutra, Madhyāntavibhāga etc. Wŏnch'ŭk (613–696) - Commentaries on the Samdhinirmocanasutra, Heart-sutra, and Benevolent King Sutra Wŏnhyo (617–686) - wrote commentaries on various works such as the Madhyāntavibhāga Guṇaprabha - Bodhisattvabhūmiśīlaparivarta-bhāṣya Jinaputra, wrote a commentary to the Abhidharmasamucchaya Candragomī (sixth/seventh century) - Śiṣyalekha, Bodhisattvasaṃvaraviṃsaka Vinītadeva (c. 645–715) - wrote commentaries on Viṃśatikā, Triṃśika and Ālambanaparīkśā Jñānacandra (eighth century) - Yogacaryābhāvanātātparyārthanirdeśa, a meditation manual Sāgaramegha (eighth century) - Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmivyākhyā, a large Yogācārabhūmi commentary Sumatiśīla (late eighth century) wrote a commentary on Vasubandhu's Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa Prajñakaragupta (8th-9th century) - Pramāṇavārttikālaṃkāra and Sahāvalambanirṇayasiddhi, a proof of idealism Śaṅkaranandana (fl. c. 9th or 10th century) - Prajñālaṅkāra (Ornament of Wisdom), an exposition of vijñaptimātratā Dharmakīrti of Sumatra - Durbodhālokā (Light on the Hard-to-Illuminate), a sub-commentary to the Abhisamayālaṃkāra-śāstra-vṛtti of Haribhadra. Jñānaśrīmitra (fl. 975-1025 C.E.) - Sākarasiddhi, Sākarasaṃgraha, and Sarvajñāsiddhi Ratnakīrti (11th century CE) - Ratnakīrtinibandhāvalī and Sarvajñāsiddhi Ratnākāraśānti (10-11th century) - Prajñāpāramitopadeśa, Madhyamakālaṃkāropadeśa, Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi, Triyānavyavasthāna, Madhyamakālaṃkāravṛtti-Madhyamapratipadāsiddhi Jñānaśrībhadra - commentaries on Laṅkāvatārasūtra, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, and Pramāṇavārttika Sajjana (11th century) - Putralekha, Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa and Sūtrālaṃkārapiṇḍārtha Jōkei (1155–1213) - Gumei hosshin shū (Anthology of Awakenings from Delusion) Ryōhen (1194–1252) - Kanjin kakumushō (Précis on Contemplating the Mind and Awakening from the Dream) Criticisms Thinkers from the ancient Indian realist schools, such as the Mimamsa, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, Nyaya, Yoga, Samkhya, Sauntrantika, Jain, Vaisesika, and others heavily criticized Yogacara, and composed refutations of the Yogacara position. Sankara, founder of the Advaita school, which holds a form of idealism, also was harshly critical of Yogacara. See also Madhyamaka Mahayana Idealism Vedanta Kashmir Shaivism School of the Heart-Mind Mimamsa Chandrakirti Notes References Sources Bayer, Achim (2012). Addenda and Corrigenda to The Theory of Karman in the Abhidharmasamuccaya, 2012 Hamburg: Zentrum für Buddhismuskunde. Keenan, John P. (1993). Yogācarā. pp. 203–212 published in Yoshinori, Takeuchi; with Van Bragt, Jan; Heisig, James W.; O'Leary, Joseph S.; Swanson, Paul L.(1993). Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, and Early Chinese. New York City: The Crossroad Publishing Company. Norbu, Namkhai (2001), The Precious Vase: Instructions on the Base of Santi Maha Sangha. Shang Shung Edizioni. Second revised edition. (Translated from the Tibetan, edited and annotated by Adriano Clemente with the help of the author. Translated from Italian into English by Andy Lukianowicz.) Shantarakshita & Ju Mipham (2005). The Adornment of the Middle Way Padmakara Translation of Ju Mipham's commentary on Shantarakshita's root versus on his synthesis. Sponberg, Alan (1979). Dynamic Liberation in Yogacara Buddhism, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 2(1), pp. 44–64. Stcherbatsky, Theodore (1936). Mathyanta-Vibhanga, "Discourse on Discrimination between Middle and Extremes" ascribed to Bodhisattva Maiteya and commented by Vasubhandu and Sthiramathi, translated from the sanscrit, Academy of Sciences USSR Press, Moscow/Leningrad. Timme Kragh, Ulrich (editor) 2013, The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet, Volume 1 Harvard University, Department of South Asian studies. Zim, Robert (1995). Basic ideas of Yogacara Buddhism. San Francisco State University. Source: (accessed: October 18, 2007). External links Uncompromising Idealism or the School of Vijñānavāda Buddhism, Surendranath Dasgupta, 1940 "Early Yogaacaara and Its Relationship with the Madhyamaka School", Richard King, Philosophy East & West, vol. 44 no. 4, October 1994, pp. 659–683 "The mind-only teaching of Ching-ying Hui-Yuan" (subtitle) "An early interpretation of Yogaacaara thought in China", Ming-Wood Liu, Philosophy East & West'', vol. 35 no. 4, October 1985, pp. 351–375 Yogacara Buddhism Research Association; articles, bibliographies, and links to other relevant sites. Vajrayana Idealism Buddhist movements Buddhist philosophy Nonduality Buddhism in the Nara period Buddhist meditation

Endogenous depression

Endogenous depression (melancholia) is an atypical subclass of major depressive disorder (clinical depression). It could be caused by genetic and biological factors. Endogenous depression occurs due to the presence of an internal (cognitive, biological) stressor instead of an external (social, environmental) stressor. Endogenous depression includes patients with treatment-resistant, non-psychotic, major depressive disorder, characterized by abnormal behavior of the endogenous opioid system but not the monoaminergic system. Symptoms vary in severity, type, and frequency and can be attributed to cognitive, social, biological, or environmental factors that result in persistent feelings of sadness and distress. Since symptoms are due to a biological phenomenon, prevalence rates tend to be higher in older adults. Due to this fact, biological-focused treatment plans are often used in therapy to ensure the best prognosis. Endogenous depression was part of the Kraepelinian dichotomy system. Signs and symptoms The forefront indication that a depressive episode is manifesting is the sudden loss of energy or motivation in daily routines. When this occurs, it is not uncommon for individuals to seek medical attention with excessive worrying or anxiety that a more severe, physiological disease may be the underlying issue. However, without an actual disease present, this neurotic thinking often results in severe anxiety, sleep disturbance, and mood swings which may hinder social relationships. Individuals with endogenous depression may experience inconsistencies in symptom severity which is often the reason for delayed treatment. If left untreated, symptoms may progress to a major depressive episode. Risk factors Endogenous depression occurs as the results of an internal stressor—commonly cognitive or biological—and not an external factor. Potential risk factors include these cognitive or biological factors. Patients with endogenous depression often are more likely to have a positive family history of disorders and fewer psychosocial and environmental factors that cause their symptoms. A family history of depression and perceived poor intimate relationships are internal risk factors associated with this type of depression. It is important to know these risk factors in order to take steps to recognize and help prevent this illness. Treatment Clinicians generally favor treatments such as antidepressant and mood-stabilizing medication and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). ECT is an effective treatment option for endogenous depression. Both medication and ECT can be used in the short-term to treat acute episodes of endogenous depression, and in the long-term to reduce the risk of recurrence. During the first two decades of the 21st century, a new promising alternative/adjunctive depression treatment method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS as it's more commonly known, has become available. Prevalence This type of depression often occurs due to biological reasons. Since symptoms are due to an internal phenomena, prevalence rates tend to be higher in older adults and more prevalent among women. Although endogenous depression has been associated with increased age, there have been few attempts to evaluate this fully. More research is needed to indicate factual prevalence rates on this type of depression in society. History Endogenous depression was initially considered valuable as a means of diagnostic differentiation with reactive depression. While the latter's onset could be attributed to adverse life events and treated with talk therapy, the former would indicate treatment with antidepressants. Indeed, this view of endogenous depression is at the root of the popular view that mood disorders are a reflection of a 'chemical imbalance' in the brain. More recent research has shown that the probability of an endogenous depression patient experiencing an adverse life event prior to a depressive episode is roughly the same as for a reactive depression patient and the efficacy of antidepressant therapy bears no statistical correlation with the patient's diagnostic classification along this axis. See also Biopsychiatry controversy Biological psychiatry References External links Classification of depression on NetDoctor Endogenous Depression Information Endogenous Depression Help Resources Major depressive disorder

Geneticist

A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes or develop genetic technologies to aid in the pharmaceutical or and agriculture industries. Some geneticists perform experiments in model organisms such as Drosophila, C. elegans, zebrafish, rodents or humans and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of biological traits. A basic science geneticist is a scientist who usually has earned a PhD in genetics and undertakes research and/or lectures in the field. A medical geneticist is a physician who has been trained in medical genetics as a specialization and evaluates, diagnoses, and manages patients with hereditary conditions or congenital malformations; and provides genetic risk calculations and mutation analysis. Education Geneticists participate in courses from many areas, such as biology, chemistry, physics, microbiology, cell biology, bioinformatics, and mathematics. They also participate in more specific genetics courses such as molecular genetics, transmission genetics, population genetics, quantitative genetics, ecological genetics, epigenetics, and genomics. Careers Geneticists can work in many different fields, doing a variety of jobs. There are many careers for geneticists in medicine, agriculture, wildlife, general sciences, or many other fields. Listed below are a few examples of careers a geneticist may pursue. Research and Development Genetic counseling Clinical Research Medical genetics Gene therapy Pharmacogenomics Molecular ecology Animal breeding Genomics Biotechnology Proteomics Microbial genetics Teaching Molecular diagnostics Sales and Marketing of scientific products Science Journalism Patent Law Paternity testing Forensic DNA Agriculture References zh-yue:遺傳學家 Science occupations

Intelligence and personality

Intelligence and personality have traditionally been studied as separate entities in psychology, but more recent work has increasingly challenged this view. An increasing number of studies have recently explored the relationship between intelligence and personality, in particular the Big Five personality traits. General relationship Intelligence and personality have some common features; for example, they both follow a relatively stable pattern throughout the whole of one’s life, and are to some degree genetically determined. In addition, they are both significant predictors of various outcomes, such as educational achievement, occupational performance, and health. The traditional view in psychology, which was that personality and intelligence should be studied as strictly separate entities, has come under scrutiny in light of modern personality research. Historically, psychologists have drawn a hard distinction between intelligence and personality, arguing that intelligence is a cognitive trait while personality is non-cognitive. However, modern psychologists argue that intelligence and personality are intertwined, noting that personality traits tend to be related to specific cognitive patterns. For example, neuroticism is a personality trait that is related to rumination and compulsive thinking about possible threats. Similarly, agreeableness is a personality trait that is related to the consideration of others' mental states. The finding that IQ predicts work performance, academic achievement, and health might also point to a link between intelligence and personality, or else be grounds for further research into their relationship. In considering the ties between intelligence and personality, it may be worth noting that they are typically not tested in the same way. Intelligence is assessed using ability tests (such as IQ tests), whereas personality is assessed using questionnaires. It has been suggested that intelligence should reflect an individual's maximal performance, while personality should reflect their typical behaviour. By personality trait Openness Openness shows the strongest positive relationship with g (general intelligence) among the Big Five personality traits. The main meta-analytic estimates of correlations have ranged from .17 to .23. Individuals with a high level of openness enjoy the experience of learning and prefer an intellectually stimulating environment. Meta-analytic research shows that openness is more strongly related to crystallized intelligence than with fluid intelligence. Some psychologists have recently pointed out that previous instruments used to measure openness actually assessed two distinctive aspects. The first is intellect, which reflects intellectual engagement and perceived intelligence and is marked by ideas, while the second is emotion, which reflects the artistic and contemplative qualities related to being engaged in sensation and perception and is marked by fantasy, aesthetics, feelings and actions. Intelligence is more strongly related to intellectual engagement than with interest in aesthetics and fantasy. On this basis, intellect was found to be associated with the neural system of the working memory, which is related to g, whereas openness was not. In addition, according to a behavioral genetics study, intellect is genetically closer to intelligence than openness. Neuroticism Neuroticism has a meaningful negative correlation with intelligence. The main large meta-analyses have obtained correlations around . Debate exists about the extent to which the correlation reflects a substantive relationship or issues with measurement. Researchers have noted that neuroticism is correlated with test anxiety, which refers to the psychological distress experienced by individuals prior to, or during, an evaluative situation. As such, some researchers have argued that neuroticism leads to test anxiety and under performance on cognitive tests. However, others researchers have argued that test anxiety is mostly incidental and caused by neuroticism, contextual pressures, and lower cognitive ability. According to the results of a longitudinal study conducted by Gow et al., (2005), neuroticism influences an age-related decline in intelligence and there is a small negative correlation between neuroticism and a change in the level of IQ. Although it is still debatable if neuroticism reduces general intelligence, this study provided some valuable evidence and a direction for research. In addition, some interaction between intelligence and neuroticism has been found. Individuals with a high level of neuroticism demonstrated a poor performance, health, and adjustment only if they had a low level of intelligence. Therefore, intelligence may act as a buffer against the negative effects of neuroticism in individuals. Conscientiousness The association between conscientiousness and intelligence is complex and uncertain. Some researchers theorize that people with lower levels of intelligence compensate for their lower level of cognitive ability by being more structured and effortful. While some studies have obtained negative correlations, others have not. In particular, the largest current meta-analysis of 369 studies obtained a correlation of though numerous aspect and facet level relations emerged, especially with sub-dimensions of intelligence (e.g., .32 for the industriousness aspect with general mental ability, .20 for order facet with visual processing, .39 for dependability with social studies knowledge). Furthermore, some interaction has been found between conscientiousness and intelligence. Conscientiousness has been found to be a stronger predictor of safety behaviour in individuals with a low level of intelligence than in those with a high level. This interaction may also be found in educational and occupational settings in future studies. Therefore, relatively speaking, an increase in either conscientiousness or intelligence may compensate for a deficiency in the other. Extraversion The largest current meta-analyses have found few correlations between overall extraversion and intelligence (e.g., corrected r = -.02 with general mental ability based on 502 effect sizes and 393,929 people). However, within extraversion are numerous aspects and facets. For example, the activity facet, which displayed positive, meaningful relations with memory, visual processing, and processing speed abilities (e.g., .25 with ideational fluency) as well as the spectrum of acquired knowledge constructs (e.g., .28 with general verbal information). There are some moderating variables in the relationship between extraversion and g including differences in the assessment instruments and samples’ age and sensory stimulation; for example, no meaningful correlation was found between extraversion and intelligence in the samples of children. Furthermore, Bates and Rock (2004) used Raven’s matrices and found that extraverts performed better than introverts with increasing auditory stimulation, whereas introverts performed best in silence. This result is consistent with that of Revelle et al. (1976). Agreeableness Meta-analytic research suggests that agreeableness and intelligence are uncorrelated at the global level. However, some components of agreeableness have been found to be related to cognitive abilities. For example, aggression is negatively associated with intelligence (r is around because unintelligent people may experience more frustration, which may lead to aggression and aggression and intelligence may share some biological factors. It is worth noting, however, that the largest meta-analyses of cognitive ability and personality trait aggression have found negligible connections. In addition, emotional perception and emotional facilitation, which are also components of agreeableness, have been found to be significantly correlated with intelligence. This may be because emotional perception and emotional facilitation are components of emotional intelligence and some researchers have found that emotional intelligence is a Second-Stratum Factor of g. Similarly, meta-analysis suggests that the related trait of honesty-humility is also uncorrelated with intelligence. On the other hand, the largest meta-analyses and agreeableness traits and cognitive abilities have found numerous links. For example, the aspects of agreeableness (i.e., compassion and politeness) have meaningful and opposite relations with cognitive abilities. For example, compassion correlates .26 with general mental ability whereas politeness correlates -.22 with general science knowledge. Facets of agreeableness also demonstrate some meaningful connections with various cognitive abilities (e.g., cooperation and processing speed correlate .20, modesty and ideational fluency correlate -.17). References Intelligence Personality

Psi-theory

Psi-theory, developed by Dietrich Dörner at the University of Bamberg, is a systemic psychological theory covering human action regulation, intention selection and emotion. It models the human mind as an information processing agent, controlled by a set of basic physiological, social and cognitive drives. Perceptual and cognitive processing are directed and modulated by these drives, which allow the autonomous establishment and pursuit of goals in an open environment. Next to the motivational and emotional system, Psi-theory suggests a neuro-symbolic model of representation, which encodes semantic relationships in a hierarchical spreading activation network. The representations are grounded in sensors and actuators, and are acquired by autonomous exploration. Main assumptions The concepts of Psi-theory may be reduced to a set of basic assumptions. Psi-theory describes a cognitive system as a structure consisting of relationships and dependencies that is designed to maintain a homeostatic balance in the face of a dynamic environment. Representation Psi-theory suggests hierarchical networks of nodes as a universal mode of representation for declarative, procedural and tacit knowledge. These nodes may encode localist and distributed representations. The activity of the system is modeled using modulated and directional spreading of activation within these networks. Plans, episodes, situations and objects are described with a semantic network formalism that relies on a fixed number of pre-defined link types, which especially encode causal/sequential ordering, and partonomic hierarchies (the theory specifies four basic link-types). Special nodes (representing neural circuits) control the spread of activation and the forming of temporary or permanent associations and their dissociations. Memory At any time, the Psi agent possesses a world model (situation image). This is extrapolated into a branching expectation horizon (consisting of anticipated developments and active plans). In addition, the working memory also contains a hypothetical world model that is used for comparisons during recognition, and for planning. The situation image is gradually transferred into an episodic memory (protocol). By selective decay and reinforcement, portions of this long-term memory provide automated behavioral routines, and elements for plans (procedural memory). The atoms of plans and behavior sequences are triplets of a (partial, hierarchical) situation description, forming a condition, an operator (a hierarchical action description) and an expected outcome of the operation as another (partial, hierarchical) situation description. Object descriptions (mainly declarative) are also part of long-term memory and the product of perceptual processes and affordances. Situations and operators in long-term memory may be associated with motivational relevance, which is instrumental in retrieval and reinforcement. Operations on memory content are subject to emotional modulation. Perception Perception is based on conceptual hypotheses, which guide the recognition of objects, situations and episodes. Hypothesis based perception ("HyPercept") is understood as a bottom-up (data-driven and context-dependent) cuing of hypotheses that is interleaved with a top-down verification. The acquisition of schematic hierarchical descriptions and their gradual adaptation and revision can be described as assimilation and accommodation. Hypothesis based perception is a universal principle that applies to visual perception, auditory perception, discourse interpretation and even memory interpretation. Perception is subject to emotional modulation. Drives The activity of the system is directed towards the satisfaction of a finite set of primary, pre-defined drives (or urges). All goals are situations that are associated (by learning) with the satisfaction of an urge, or situations that are instrumental in achieving such a situation (this also includes abstract problem solving, aesthetics, the maintenance of social relationships and altruistic behavior). These urges reflect demands of the system: a mismatch between a target value of a demand and the current value results in an urge signal, which is proportional to the deviation, and which might give rise to a motive. There are three categories of drives: Physiological drives (such as food, water, maintenance of physical integrity), which are relieved by the consumption of matching resources and increased by the metabolic processes of the system, or inflicted damage (integrity). Social drives (affiliation). The demand for affiliation is an individual variable and adjusted through early experiences. It needs to be satisfied in regular intervals by external legitimacy signals (provided by other agents as a signal of acceptance and/or gratification) or internal legitimacy signals (created by the fulfillment of social norms). It is increased by social frustration (anti-legitimacy signals) or supplicative signals (demands of other agents for help, which create both a suffering by frustration of the affiliation urge, and a promise of gratification). Cognitive drives (reduction of uncertainty, and competence). Uncertainty reduction is maintained through exploration and frustrated by mismatches with expectations and/or failures to create anticipations. Competence consists of task specific competence (and can be acquired through exploration of a task domain) and general competence (which measures the ability to fulfill the demands in general). The competence drive is frustrated by actual and anticipated failures to reach a goal. The cognitive drives are subject to individual variability and need regular satisfaction. Changes in systemic demands are reflected in a "pleasure" or "distress signal", which is used as for reinforcement learning of associations between demands and goals, as well as episodic sequences and behavior scripts leading up to these goals. Cognitive modulation and emotion Cognitive processing is subject to global modulatory parameters, which adjust the cognitive resources of the system to the environmental and internal situation. These modulators control behavioral tendencies (action readiness via general activation or arousal), stability of active behaviors/chosen goals (selection threshold), the rate of orientation behavior (sampling rate or securing threshold) and the width and depth of activation spreading in perceptual processing, memory retrieval and planning (activation and resolution level). The effect and the range of modulator values are subject to individual variance. Emotion is not understood as an independent sub-system, a module or a parameter set, but an intrinsic aspect of cognition. Emotion is an emergent property of the modulation of perception, behavior and cognitive processing, and it can therefore not be understood outside the context of cognition. To model emotion, we need a cognitive system that can be modulated to adapt its use of processing resources and behavior tendencies. In the Psi-theory, emotions are interpreted as a configurational setting of the cognitive modulators along with the pleasure/distress dimension and the assessment of the cognitive urges. The phenomenological qualities of emotion are due to the effect of modulatory settings on perception and cognitive functioning (i.e. the perception yields different representations of memory, self and environment depending on the modulation), and to the experience of accompanying physical sensations that result from the effects of the particular modulator settings on the physiology of the system (for instance, by changing the muscular tension, the digestive functions, blood pressure and so on). The experience of emotion as such (i.e. as having an emotion) requires reflective capabilities. Undergoing a modulation is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition of experiencing it as an emotion. Motivation Motives are combinations of drives and a goal. Goals are represented by a situation that affords the satisfaction of the corresponding urge. Several motives may be active at a time, but only one is chosen to determine the choice of behaviors of the agent. The choice of the dominant motive depends on the anticipated probability of satisfying the associated urge and the strength of the urge signal. (This means also that the agent may opportunistically satisfy another urge if presented with that option.) The stability of the dominant motive against other active motivations is regulated using the selection threshold parameter, which depends on the urgency of the demand and individual variance. Learning Perceptual learning comprises the assimilation/accommodation of new/existing schemas by hypothesis based perception. Procedural learning depends on reinforcing the associations of actions and preconditions (situations that afford these actions) with appetitive or aversive goals, which is triggered by pleasure and distress signals. Abstractions may be learned by evaluating and reorganizing episodic and declarative descriptions to generalize and fill in missing interpretations (this facilitates the organization of knowledge according to conceptual frames and scripts). Behavior sequences and object/situation representations are strengthened by use. Tacit knowledge (especially sensory-motor capabilities) may be acquired by neural learning. Unused associations decay, if their strength is below a certain threshold: highly relevant knowledge may not be forgotten, while spurious associations tend to disappear. Problem solving Problem solving is directed towards finding a path between a given situation and a goal situation, on completing or reorganizing mental representations (for instance, the identification of relationships between situations or of missing features in a situational frame) or serves an exploratory goal. Problem solving is organized in stages: If no immediate response to a problem is found, the system first attempts to resort to a behavioral routine (automatism), and if this is not successful, it attempts to construct a plan. If planning fails, the system resorts to exploration (or switches to another motive). Problem solving is context dependent (contextual priming is served by associative pre-activation of mental content) and subject to modulation. The strategies that encompass problem solving are parsimonious. They can be reflected upon and reorganized according to learning and experience. Many advanced problem solving strategies can not be adequately modeled without assuming linguistic capabilities. Language and consciousness Language has to be explained as syntactically organized symbols that designate conceptual representations, and a model of language thus starts with a model of mental representation. Language extends cognition by affording the categorical organization of concepts and by aiding in meta-cognition. (Cognition is not interpreted an extension of language by the Psi-theory.) The understanding of discourse may be modeled along the principles of hypothesis based perception and assimilation/accommodation of schematic representations. Consciousness is related to the abstraction of a concept of self over experiences and protocols of the system and the integration of that concept with sensory experience; there is no explanatory gap between conscious experience and a computational model of cognition. Evaluation Evaluating the Psi-theory in an experimental paradigm is difficult, not least because of the many free variables it posits. The predictions and propositions of the Psi-theory are mostly qualitative. Where quantitative statements are made, for instance about the rate of decay of the associations in episodic memory, the width and depth of activation spreading during memory retrieval, these statements are rarely supported by experimental evidence; they represent ad hoc solutions to engineering requirements posed by the design of a problem solving and learning agent. A partial exception to this rule is the emotional model, which has been tested as a set of computational simulation experiments. While it contains many free variables that determine the settings of modulator parameters and the response to motive pressures, it can be fitted to human subjects in behavioral experiments and thereby demonstrate similar performance in an experimental setting as different personality types. The parameter set can also be fitted to an environment by an evolutionary simulation; the free parameters of the emotional and motivational model allow a reproduction of personal variances. The Psi-theory can also be interpreted as a specification for a cognitive architecture. MicroPsi architecture MicroPsi is a cognitive architecture built by Joscha Bach at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Institute of Cognitive Science of the University of Osnabrück. MicroPsi extends the representations of the Psi-theory with taxonomies, inheritance and linguistic labeling; MicroPsi's spreading activation networks allow for neural learning, planning and associative retrieval. MicroPsi's first generation (2003–2009) is implemented in Java, and includes a framework for editing and simulating software agents using spreading activation networks, and a graphics engine for visualization. MicroPsi has also been used as a robot control architecture. MicroPsi 2 is a new implementation of MicroPsi, written in Python, and currently used as a tool for knowledge representation. OpenCog The OpenCog cognitive architecture includes a simple implementation of Psi-theory, dubbed OpenPsi. It includes interfaces to Hanson Robotics robots for emotion modelling. Literature Dietrich Dörner: Bauplan für eine Seele. Rowohlt, 1999, (in German). Dietrich Dörner, Christina Bartl, Frank Detje, Jürgen Gerdes, Dorothée Halcour, Harald Schaub, Ulrike Starker: Die Mechanik des Seelenwagens. Eine neuronale Theorie der Handlungsregulation. Verlag Hans Huber, 2002, (in German). Dietrich Dörner & C. Dominik Güss, (2013). PSI: A computational architecture of cognition, motivation, and emotion. Review of General Psychology, 17, 297–317. Joscha Bach: Principles of Synthetic Intelligence. PSI: An Architecture of Motivated Cognition. Oxford University Press, 2009, . References External links MicroPsi cognitive architecture based on Psi-theory Advanced Magic natural language processing using Psi-theory in artificial intelligence applications A Simulation of Cognitive and Emotional Effects of Overcrowding Human Factors Team of IABG applications of the Psi-theory The PSI model of emotion, personality and action A theory of emotion Intercultural Communications at the University of Jena applications of the Psi-theory Cognitive architecture

Childhood trauma

Childhood trauma is often described as serious adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Children may go through a range of experiences that classify as psychological trauma; these might include neglect, abandonment, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse. They may also witness abuse of a sibling or parent, or have a mentally ill parent. These events can have profound psychological, physiological, and sociological impacts leading to lasting negative effects on health and well-being. These events may include antisocial behaviors, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and sleep disturbances. Additionally, children whose mothers have experienced traumatic or stressful events during pregnancy have an increased risk of mental health disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 1998 study on adverse childhood experiences found that traumatic experiences during childhood are a root cause of many social, emotional, and cognitive impairments. These impairments can lead to increased risk of unhealthy self-destructive behaviors, risk of violence or re-victimization, chronic health conditions, low life potential and premature mortality. As the number of adverse experiences increases, the risk of problems from childhood through adulthood also rises. Nearly 30 years of research following the initial study has confirmed these findings. Many states, health providers, and other groups now routinely screen parents and children for ACEs. Health Traumatic experiences during childhood causes stress that increases an individual's allostatic load and thus affects the immune system, nervous system, and endocrine system. Exposure to chronic stress triples or quadruples the vulnerability to adverse medical outcomes. Childhood trauma is often associated with adverse health outcomes including depression, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, lung cancer, and premature mortality. Effects of childhood trauma on brain development includes a negative impact on emotional regulation and impairment of development of social skills. Research has shown that children raised in traumatic or risky family environments tend to have excessive internalizing (e.g., social withdrawal, anxiety) or externalizing (e.g., aggressive behavior), and suicidal behavior. Recent research has found that physical and sexual abuse are associated with mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood, while personality disorders and schizophrenia are linked with emotional abuse as adults. In addition, research has proposed that mental health outcomes from childhood trauma may be better understood through a dimensional framework (internalizing and externalizing) as opposed to specific disorders. Psychological impact Childhood trauma can increase the risk of mental disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attachment issues, depression, and substance abuse. Sensitive and critical stages of child development can result in altered neurological functioning, adaptive to a malevolent environment but difficult for more benign environments. In a study done by Stefania Tognin and Maria Calem comparing healthy comparisons (HC) and individuals at clinically high risk for developing psychosis (CHR), 65.6% CHR patients and 23.1% HC experienced some level of childhood trauma. The conclusion of the study shows that there is a correlation between the effects of childhood trauma and the being at high risk for psychosis. Effects on adults As an adult feelings of anxiety, worry, shame, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, grief, sadness and anger that started with a trauma in childhood can continue. In addition, those who endure trauma as a child are more likely to encounter anxiety, depression, suicide and self harm, PTSD, drug and alcohol misuse and relationship difficulties. The effects of childhood trauma don't end with just emotional repercussions. Survivors of childhood trauma are also at higher risk of developing asthma, coronary heart disease, diabetes or having a stroke. They are also more likely to develop a "heightened stress response" which can make it difficult for them to regulate their emotions, lead to sleep difficulties, lower immune function, and increase the risk of a number of physical illnesses throughout adulthood. Epigenetics Childhood trauma can leave epigenetic marks on a child's genes, which chemically modify gene expression by silencing or activating genes, or DNA methylation. This can alter fundamental biological processes and adversely affect health outcomes throughout life. A 2013 study found that people who had experienced childhood trauma had different neuropathology than people with PTSD from trauma experienced after childhood. Another recent study in rhesus macaques showed that DNA methylation changes related to early-life adversity persisted into adulthood. This research has centered primarily around methylation associated with the NR3C1 gene, however research into the epigenetic impact of trauma has extended to other genes, including KITLG. Survivors of war trauma or childhood maltreatment are at increased risk for trauma-spectrum disorders such as PTSD. In addition, traumatic stress has been associated with alterations in the neuroendocrine and the immune system, enhancing the risk for physical diseases. In particular, epigenetic alterations in genes regulating the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis as well as the immune system have been observed in survivors of childhood and adult trauma. Traumatic experiences might even affect psychological as well as biological parameters in the next generation, i.e. traumatic stress might have transgenerational effects. Parental trauma exposure was found to be associated with greater risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mood and anxiety disorders in offspring since biological alterations associated with PTSD and/or other stress-related disorders have also been observed in offspring of trauma survivors who do not themselves report trauma exposure or psychiatric disorder. Animal models have demonstrated that stress exposure can result in epigenetic alterations in the next generation, and such mechanisms have been hypothesized to underpin vulnerability to symptoms in offspring of trauma survivors. Enduring behavioral responses to stress and epigenetic alterations in adult offspring have been demonstrated to be mediated by changes in gametes in utero effects, variations in early postnatal care, and/or other early life experiences that are influenced by parental exposure. These changes could result in enduring alterations of the stress response as well as the physical health risk. Furthermore, the effects of parental trauma could be transmitted to the next generation by parental distress and the pre and postnatal environment as well as by epigenetic marks transmitted via the germline. While epigenetic research has a high potential of advancing our understanding of the consequences of trauma, the findings have to be interpreted with caution, as epigenetics only represent one piece of a complex puzzle of interacting biological and environmental factors. Transgenerational effects People can pass their epigenetic marks including de-myelinated neurons to their children. The effects of trauma can be transferred from one generation of childhood trauma survivors to subsequent generations of offspring. This is known as transgenerational trauma or intergenerational trauma, and can manifest in parenting behaviors as well as epigenetically. Exposure to childhood trauma, along with environmental stress, can also cause alterations in genes and gene expressions. A growing body of literature suggests that children's experiences of trauma and abuse within close relationships not only jeopardize their well-being in childhood, but can also have long-lasting consequences that extend well into adulthood. These long-lasting consequences can include emotion regulation issues, which can then be passed onto subsequent generations through child-parent interactions and learned behaviors. (see also behavioral epigenetics, historical trauma, and cycle of violence) Socioeconomic costs The social and economic costs of child abuse and neglect are difficult to calculate. Some costs are straightforward and directly related to maltreatment, such as hospital costs for medical treatment of injuries sustained as a result of physical abuse and foster care costs resulting from the removal of children when they cannot remain safely with their families. Other costs, less directly tied to the incidence of abuse, include lower academic achievement, adult criminality, and lifelong mental health problems. Both direct and indirect costs impact society and the economy. Resilience Exposure to maltreatment in childhood significantly predicts a variety of negative outcomes in adulthood. However, not all children who are exposed to a potentially traumatic event develop subsequent struggles with mental or physical health. Therefore, there are factors that reduce the impact of potentially traumatic events and protect an individual from developing mental health problems after exposure to a potentially traumatic event. These are called resiliency factors. Research regarding children who showed adaptive development while facing adversity began in the 1970s and continues to this day. Resilience is defined as “the process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances." The concept of resilience stems from research that showed experiencing positive emotions had a restorative and preventive effect on the experience of negative emotions more broadly with regards to physical and psychological wellbeing in general and more specifically with reactions to trauma. This line of research has contributed to the development of interventions that focus on promoting resilience as opposed to focusing on deficits in an individual who has experienced a traumatic event. Resilience has been found to decrease risk of suicide, depression, anxiety and other mental health struggles associated with exposure to trauma in childhood. When an individual who is high in resilience experiences a potentially traumatic event, their relative level of functioning does not significantly deviate from the level of functioning they exhibited prior to exposure to a potentially traumatic event. Furthermore, that same individual may recover more quickly and successfully from a potentially traumatic experience than an individual who could be said to be less resilient. In children, level of functioning is operationalized as the child continuing to behave in a manner that is considered developmentally appropriate for a child of that age. Level of functioning is also measured by the presence of mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and so on. Factors that affect resilience Factors that affect resilience include cultural factors like socioeconomic status, such that having more resources at one's disposal usually equates to more resilience to trauma. Furthermore, the severity and duration of the potentially traumatic experience affect the likelihood of experiencing negative outcomes as a result of childhood trauma. One factor that does not affect resilience is gender, with both males and females being equally sensitive to risk and protective factors. Cognitive ability is also not a predictor of resilience. Attachment has been shown to be one of the most important factors to consider when it comes to evaluating the relative resilience of an individual. Children with secure attachments to an adult with effective coping strategies were most likely to endure adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in an adaptive manner. Secure attachments throughout the lifespan (including in adolescence and adulthood) appear to be equally important in fostering and maintaining resilience. Secure attachment to one's peers throughout adolescence is a particularly strong predictor of resilience. Within the context of abuse, it is thought that these secure attachments decrease the extent to which children who are abused perceive others as being untrustworthy. In other words, while some children who are abused might begin to view other people as being unsafe and unable to be trusted, children who are able to develop and maintain healthy relationships are less likely to hold these views. Children who experience trauma but also experience healthy attachment with multiple groups of people (in essence, adults, peers, romantic partners, etc.) throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood are particularly resilient. Personality also affects the development (or lack of development) of adult psychopathology as a result of childhood abuse. Individuals who scored low in neuroticism exhibit fewer negative outcomes, such as psychopathology, criminal activity, and poor physical health, after exposure to a potentially traumatic event. Furthermore, individuals with higher scores on openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extraversion have been found to be more resilient to the effects of childhood trauma. Enhancing resilience One of the most common misconceptions about resilience is that individuals who show resilience are somehow special or extraordinary in some way. Successful adaptation, or resilience, is quite common among children. This is due in part to the naturally adaptive nature of childhood development. Therefore, resilience is enhanced by protecting against factors that might undermine a child's inborn resilience. Studies suggest that resiliency can be enhanced by providing children who have been exposed to trauma with environments in which they feel safe and are able to securely attach to a healthy adult. Therefore, interventions that promote strong parent-child bonds are particularly effective at buffering against the potential negative effects of trauma. Furthermore, researchers of resilience argue that successful adaptation is not merely a result, rather a developmental process that is ongoing throughout a person's lifetime. Thus, successful promotion of resilience must also be ongoing throughout a person's lifespan. Prognosis Trauma affects all children differently (see stress in early childhood). Some children who experience trauma develop significant and long-lasting problems, while others may have minimal symptoms and recover more quickly. Studies have found that despite the broad impacts of trauma, children can and do recover, and that trauma-informed care and interventions produce better outcomes than “treatment as usual”. Trauma-informed care is defined as offering services or support in a way that addresses the special needs of people who have experienced trauma. Types of trauma Emotional abuse Emotional abuse is often an understated form of trauma that can occur both overtly and covertly. Emotional abuse revolves around a pattern of emotional manipulation, abusive words, isolation, discretization, humiliation and more that tends to have an internalized effect on an individual's self-esteem, ideals, values and reality. Emotional abuse in children is a distinct issue in relation to childhood trauma and the effects it has on children when growing up in an emotionally abusive household or being in relation with emotionally abusive individuals. Bullying Bullying is any unprovoked action with the intention of harming, either physically or psychologically, someone who is considered to have less power, either physically or socially. Bullying is a form of harassment that is often repeated and habitual, and can happen in person or online. Bullying in childhood may inflict harm or distress and educational harm that can affect the later stage of adolescence. Bullying involvement, as victim, bully, bully/victim, or witness, can threaten the well-being of children. Bullying can be a risk factor for the development of an eating disorder, it can impact the functioning of the HPA axis, and it can impact functioning in adulthood. It increases the risk for physical problems such as inflammation, diabetes, and heart risk, and mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, panic disorder, substance abuse, and PTSD. Community violence Unlike bullying which is direct, trauma from community violence is not always directly perpetuated on the child, but is instead the result of being exposed to violent acts and behaviors in the community, such as gang violence, school shootings, riots, or police brutality. Community violence exposure whether direct, or indirect, is associated with many negative mental health outcomes among children and adolescents including internalizing trauma-related symptoms, academic problems, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. Evidence also indicates that violence tends to beget more violence; children who witness community violence consistently show higher levels of aggression across developmental periods including early and middle childhood, as well as adolescence. Complex trauma Complex trauma occurs from exposure to multiple and repetitive episodes of victimization or other traumatic events. Individuals who are exposed to multiple forms of trauma often display a wide range of difficulties compared to those who have only had one of few trauma exposures. For example, cognitive complications (dissociation), affective, somatic, behavioral, relational, and self-attributional problems have been seen in individuals who have experienced complex trauma. Disasters Beyond the experience of natural and man-made disasters themselves, disaster-related traumas include the loss of loved ones, disruptions caused by disaster-caused homelessness and hardship and the breakdown of community structures. Exposure to a natural disaster is a highly stressful experiences that can lead to a wide range of maladaptive outcomes, particularly in children. Exposure to natural disaster constitutes a risk factor for poor psychological health in children and adolescents. Psychological symptoms tend to decline over time after the exposure, it is not a rapid process. Intimate partner violence Similar to community violence, intimate partner violence-related trauma is not necessarily directly perpetuated on child, but can be the result of exposure to violence within the household, often of violence perpetuated against one or more caregivers or family members. It is often accompanied by direct physical and emotional abuse of the child. Witnessing violence and threats against a caregiver during early years of life is associated with severe impacts on a child's health and development. Outcomes for children include psychological distress, behavioral disorders, disturbances in self-regulation, difficulties with social interaction, and disorganized attachment. Children who were exposed to interpersonal violence were more likely to develop long term mental health problems than those with non-interpersonal traumas. The impact of seeing intimate partner violence could be more serious for younger children. Younger children are completely dependent on their caregivers than older children not only for physical care but also emotional care. This is needed for them to develop normal neurological, psychological, and social development. This dependence can contribute to their vulnerability to witnessing violence against their caregivers. Medical trauma Medical trauma, sometimes called 'paediatric medical traumatic stress' refers to a set of psychological and physiological responses of children and their families to pain, injury, serious illness, medical procedures, and invasive or frightening treatment experiences. Medical trauma may occur as a response to a single or multiple medical events. In children, they are still developing cognitive skills and because of this they process information differently. They might associate pain with punishment and could believe they did something wrong that led to them being in pain or that they somehow caused their injury. Children may experience disruptions in their attachment with their caregivers due to their traumatic medical experience. This depends on the age of the child and his understanding of his medical difficulties. For example, a young child may feel betrayed by his parents if they have forced him to participate in activities that contributed to the child's pain, such as administering medications or taking him to the doctor. At the same time, the parent-child relationship is strained due to parents feeling powerless, guilt, or inadequacy. Physical abuse Child physical abuse is physical trauma or physical injury caused by slapping, beating, hitting, or otherwise harming a child. This abuse is considered non-accidental. Injuries can range from mild bruising to broken bones, skull fractures, and even death. Short term consequences of physical abuse of children include fractures, cognitive or intellectual disabilities, social skills deficits, PTSD, other psychiatric disorders, heightened aggression, and externalizing behaviors, anxiety, risk-taking behavior, and suicidal behavior. Long-term consequences include difficulty trusting others, low self-esteem, anxiety, physical problems, anger, internalization of aggression, depression, interpersonal difficulties, and substance abuse. Refugee trauma Refugee-related childhood trauma can take place in the child's country of origin due to war, persecution, or violence, but can also be a result of the process of displacement or even the disruptions and transitions of resettlement into the destination country. Studies of refugee youth report high levels of exposure to war related trauma and have found profound averse consequences of these experiences for children's mental health. Some outcomes from experiencing trauma in refugee children are behavioral problems, mood and anxiety disorders, PTSD, and adjustment difficulty. Separation trauma Separation trauma is a disruption in an attachment relationship that disrupts neurological development and can lead to death. Chronic separation from a caregiver can be extremely traumatic to a child. Additionally, separation from a parental or attachment figure while enduring a separate childhood trauma can also produce withstanding impact on the child's attachment security. This may later be associated with the development of post-traumatic adult symptomology. Sexual abuse Traumatic grief Traumatic grief is distinguished from the traditional grieving process in that the child is unable to cope with daily life and may not even remember a loved one outside of the circumstances of his death. This can often be the case when the death is the result of a sudden illness or an act of violence. Treatment The health effects of childhood trauma can be mitigated through care and treatment. There are many treatments for childhood trauma, including psychosocial treatments and pharmacologic treatments. Psychosocial treatments can be targeted toward individuals, such as psychotherapy, or targeted towards wider populations, such as school-wide interventions. While studies (systematic reviews) of current evidence have shown that many types of treatments are effective, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy may be the most effective for treating childhood trauma. In contrast, other studies have shown that pharmacologic therapies may be less effective than psychosocial therapies for treating childhood trauma. Lastly, early intervention can significantly reduce negative health effects of childhood trauma. Psychosocial treatments Cognitive behavioral therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the psychological treatment of choice for PTSD and is recommended by best-practice treatment guidelines. The goal of CBT is to help patients change their thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes to better control their emotions. Additionally, it is structured to help patients better cope with trauma and improve their problem-solving skills. Many studies provide evidence that CBT is effective for treating PTSD in terms of magnitude of symptom reduction from pre-treatment levels, and diagnostic recovery. Associated treatment barriers include stigma, cost, geography and insufficient treatment availability. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is a branch of cognitive behavioral therapy designed to treat PTSD cases in children and adolescents. This treatment model combines the principles of CBT with trauma-sensitive approaches. It helps introduce skills to cope with the symptoms of the trauma for both the child and the parent if available, before allowing the child to process the trauma on their own in a safe space. Studies (systematic reviews) have shown trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy to be one of the most effective treatments to minimize the negative psychological effects of childhood trauma, particularly PTSD. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is a technique used by therapists to help process traumatic memories. The intervention has the patient recall traumatic memories and use bilateral stimulation such as eye movements or finger tapping to help regulate their emotions. The process is complete when the patient becomes desensitized to the memory and can recall it without having a negative response. A randomized controlled trial showed that EMDR reduced symptoms of PTSD in children who had been exposed to a single-traumatic event, and was cost-effective. Additionally, studies have shown EMDR to be an effective treatment for PTSD. Dialectical behavior therapy Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has been shown to be help prevent self-harm and enhance interpersonal functioning by reducing experiential avoidance and expressed anger through a combination of cognitive behavioral and mindfulness techniques. Real life heroes The real life heroes (RLH) treatment, a sequential, attachment-centered treatment intervention for children with Complex PTSD that focuses on 3 primary components: affect regulation, emotionally supportive relationships, and life story integration to build resources and skills for resilience. A study of 126 children found Real Life Heroes treatment to be effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD and in improving behavioral problems. Narrative-emotion process coding system The narrative-emotion process coding system (NEPCS) is a behavioral coding system that identifies eight client markers: Abstract Story, Empty Story, Unstoried Emotion, Inchoate Story, Same Old Story, Competing Plotlines Story, Unexpected Outcome Story, and Discovery Story. Each marker varies in the degree to which specific narrative and emotion process indicators are represented in one-minute time segments drawn from videotaped therapy sessions. As enhanced integration of narrative and emotional expression has previously been associated with recovery from complex trauma. Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency framework The Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency (ARC) Framework is an intervention for children and adolescents impacted by complex trauma. The ARC framework is a flexible, component-based intervention for treating children and adolescents who have experienced complex trauma. The framework is theoretically grounded in attachment, trauma, and developmental theories and specifically addresses three core domains impacted by exposure to chronic, interpersonal trauma: attachment, self-regulation, and developmental competencies. A study using data from the US National Child Traumatic Stress Network found that treatment with the ARC framework was effective, reducing behavioral problems and symptoms of PTSD to a similar degree that of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. School-wide approaches Many school-wide interventions that have been studied differ considerably from one another, which limits the strength of the evidence in support of school-wide interventions for treating childhood trauma; however, studies of school-wide approaches show that they tended to be moderately effective, reducing trauma symptoms, encouraging behavior change, and improving self-esteem. Pharmaceutical treatments Most studies that evaluate the effectiveness of using pharmaceuticals (medications) for treatment of childhood trauma focus specifically on treating PTSD. PTSD is only one health effect that can result from childhood trauma. Few studies evaluate the effectiveness of pharmaceutical treatment for treating other health effects of childhood trauma, besides PTSD. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) and other anti-depressants are medications that are commonly used to treat the symptoms of PTSD. Studies (systematic reviews) have shown that medications may be less effective than psychosocial therapies for treating PTSD. However, medications have been shown to be effective when paired with another form of therapy such as CBT for PTSD. References Child and adolescent psychiatry Trauma types Adverse childhood experiences

Empathogen

Empathogens or entactogens are a class of psychoactive drugs that induce the production of experiences of emotional communion, oneness, relatedness, emotional openness—that is, empathy or sympathy—as particularly observed and reported for experiences with 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). This class of drug is distinguished from the classes of hallucinogen or psychedelic, and amphetamine or stimulants. Major members of this class include MDMA, MDA, MDEA, MDOH, MBDB, 5-APB, 5-MAPB, 6-APB, 6-MAPB, methylone, mephedrone, GHB, αMT, and αET, MDAI among others. Most entactogens are phenethylamines and amphetamines, although several, such as αMT and αET, are tryptamines. When referring to MDMA and its counterparts, the term MDxx is often used (with the exception of MDPV). Entactogens are sometimes incorrectly referred to as hallucinogens or stimulants, although many entactogens such as ecstasy exhibit psychedelic or stimulant properties as well. Etymology The term empathogen, meaning "generating a state of empathy", was coined in 1983–84 by Ralph Metzner as a term to denote a therapeutic class of drugs that includes MDMA and phenethylamine relatives. David E. Nichols later rejected this initial terminology and adopted, instead, the term entactogen, meaning "producing a touching within", to denote this class of drugs, asserting a concern with the potential for improper association of the term empathogen with negative connotations related to the Greek root πάθος páthos ("suffering; passion"). Additionally, Nichols wanted to avoid any association with the term pathogenesis. Nichols also thought the original term was limiting, and did not cover other therapeutic uses for the drugs that go beyond instilling feelings of empathy. The hybrid word entactogen is derived from the roots en, tactus and -gen. Entactogen is not becoming dominant in usage, and, despite their difference in connotation, they are essentially interchangeable, as they refer to precisely the same chemicals. Psychological effects Both terms adopted and used in naming the class of therapeutic drugs for MDMA and related compounds were chosen with the intention of providing some reflection of the reported psychological effects associated with drugs in the classification and distinguishing these compounds from classical psychedelic drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin and major stimulants, such as methamphetamine and amphetamine. Chemically, MDMA is classified as a substituted amphetamine (which includes stimulants like dextroamphetamine and psychedelics like 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine), which makes MDMA a substituted phenethylamine (which includes other stimulants like methylphenidate and other psychedelics like mescaline) by the definition of amphetamine. While chemically related both to psychedelics and stimulants, the psychological effects experienced with MDMA were reported to provide obvious and striking aspects of personal relatedness, feelings of connectedness, communion with others, and ability to feel what others feel—in short an empathic resonance is consistently evoked. While psychedelics like LSD may sometimes yield effects of empathic resonance, these effects tend to be momentary and likely passed over on the way to some other dimension or interest. In contrast, the main characteristic that distinguishes MDMA from LSD-type experiences is the consistency of the effects of emotional communion, relatedness, emotional openness—in short, empathy and sympathy. Examples The chemicals below have a varying degree of entactogenic effects; some of them induce additional effects, including serenic effects, stimulant effects, antidepressant effects, anxiolytic effects, and psychedelic effects. Phenethylamines 2C-B 2C-T-2 2C-T-7 Metaescaline Substituted amphetamines 3-Chloromethamphetamine 3-Methoxymethamphetamine 4-Fluoroamphetamine (4-FA) 5-(2-Aminopropyl)-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene (5-APDI, IAP) 6-(2-Aminopropyl)benzofuran (6-APB) (benzofury) 5-(2-aminopropyl)benzofuran (5-APB) 5-(2-methylaminopropyl)benzofuran (5-MAPB) 5-Methoxy-MDA 5-Methyl-MDA Methylbenzodioxolylbutanamine (MBDB) Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) Methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA) Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) Methylenedioxyhydroxyamphetamine (MDOH) Methamnetamine Lys-MDA SDMA SDA Paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) Substituted aminorexes 4,4'-Dimethylaminorex (4,4'-DMAR) Methylenedioxy-4-methylaminorex (MDMAR) Cathinones Mephedrone (4-MMC) 3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC, metaphedrone) Methylone (βk-MDMA) Butylone (βk-MBDB) Flephedrone (4-FMC) TH-PVP Tryptamines α-Ethyltryptamine (αET) α-Methyltryptamine (αMT) Aminoindanes 5-Iodo-2-aminoindane (5-IAI) Methylenedioxyaminoindane (MDAI) MDMAI Therapeutic uses Psychiatrists began using entactogens as psychotherapy tools in the 1970s despite the lack of clinical trials. In recent years, the scientific community has been revisiting the possible therapeutic uses of entactogens. Therapeutic models using MDMA have been studied because of its entactogenic properties. This type of therapy would be applicable for treating a patient who was experiencing psychological trauma such as PTSD. Traumatic memories can be linked to fear in the patients which makes engaging with these memories difficult. Administration of an entactogen such as MDMA allows the patient to disconnect from the fear associated with the traumatic memories and engage in therapy. MDMA acts by targeting the body's stress response in order to cause this therapeutic effect. In addition to reducing anxiety and a conditioned fear response, MDMA also reduces the avoidance of feelings. Patients are then able to trust themselves and their therapist and engage with traumatic memories under the influence of MDMA. Although the therapeutic effects of entactogens may be promising, drugs such as MDMA have the potential for negative effects that are counter productive in a therapy setting. For example, MDMA may make negative cognition worse. This means that a positive experience is not a guarantee and can be contingent on aspects like the setting and the patient's expectations. Additionally there is no clear model of the psychopharmacological means for a positive or negative experience. There is also a potential concern for the neurotoxic effects of MDMA on the fiber density of serotonin neurons in the neocortex. High doses of MDMA may cause potential depletion of serotonergic axons. The same effects may not be caused by lower doses of MDMA required for treatment, however. References Bibliography Nichols, D.E., Hoffman, A.J., Oberlender, R.A., Jacob P 3rd & Shulgin A.T. Derivatives of 1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-butanamine: representatives of a novel therapeutic class 1986 J Med Chem 29 2009-15 Nichols, D.E. Entactogens: How the Name for A novel Class of Psychoactive Agents Originated Frontiers in Psychiatry 2022, 3, Online March 25, (2022), DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.863088 External links

Microcosm–macrocosm analogy

The microcosm–macrocosm analogy (or, equivalently, macrocosm–microcosm analogy) refers to a historical view which posited a structural similarity between the human being (the microcosm, i.e., the small order or the small universe) and the cosmos as a whole (the macrocosm, i.e., the great order or the great universe). Given this fundamental analogy, truths about the nature of the cosmos as a whole may be inferred from truths about human nature, and vice versa. One important corollary of this view is that the cosmos as a whole may be considered to be alive, and thus to have a mind or soul (the world soul), a position advanced by Plato in his Timaeus. Moreover, this cosmic mind or soul was often thought to be divine, most notably by the Stoics and those who were influenced by them, such as the authors of the Hermetica. Hence, it was sometimes inferred that the human mind or soul was divine in nature as well. Apart from this important psychological and noetic (i.e., related to the mind) application, the analogy was also applied to human physiology. For example, the cosmological functions of the seven classical planets were sometimes taken to be analogous to the physiological functions of human organs, such as the heart, the spleen, the liver, the stomach, etc. The view itself is ancient, and may be found in many philosophical systems world-wide, such as for example in ancient Mesopotamia, in ancient Iran, or in ancient Chinese philosophy. However, the terms microcosm and macrocosm refer more specifically to the analogy as it was developed in ancient Greek philosophy and its medieval and early modern descendants. In contemporary usage, the terms microcosm and macrocosm are also employed to refer to any smaller system that is representative of a larger one, and vice versa. History Antiquity Among ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, notable proponents of the microcosm–macrocosm analogy included Anaximander, Plato, the Hippocratic authors (late 5th or early 4th century BCE and onwards), and the Stoics (3rd century BCE and onwards). In later periods, the analogy was especially prominent in the works of those philosophers who were heavily influenced by Platonic and Stoic thought, such as Philo of Alexandria, the authors of the early Greek Hermetica, and the Neoplatonists (3rd century CE and onwards). The analogy was also employed in late antique and early medieval religious literature, such as in the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian encyclopedic work, and the Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, a Jewish Rabbinical text. Middle Ages Medieval philosophy was generally dominated by Aristotle, who – despite having been the first to coin the term "microcosm" – had posited a fundamental and insurmountable difference between the region below the Moon (the sublunary world, consisting of the four elements) and the region above the Moon (the superlunary world, consisting of a fifth element). Nevertheless, the microcosm–macrocosm analogy was adopted by a wide variety of medieval thinkers working in different linguistic traditions: the concept of microcosm was known in Arabic as , in Hebrew as , and in Latin as or . The analogy was elaborated by alchemists such as those writing under the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan, by the anonymous Shi'ite philosophers known as the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ ("The Brethren of Purity", ), by Jewish theologians and philosophers such as Isaac Israeli, Saadia Gaon (882/892–942), Ibn Gabirol (11th century), and Judah Halevi, by Victorine monks such as Godfrey of Saint Victor (born 1125, author of a treatise called Microcosmus), by the Andalusian mystic Ibn Arabi (1165–1240), by the German cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), and by numerous others. Renaissance The revival of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism in the Renaissance, both of which had reserved a prominent place for the microcosm–macrocosm analogy, also led to a marked rise in popularity of the latter. Some of the most notable proponents of the concept in this period include Marsilio Ficino (1433 – 1499), Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), Francesco Patrizi (1529–1597), Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), and Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639). It was also central to the new medical theories propounded by the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1494–1541) and his many followers, most notably Robert Fludd (1574–1637). Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) in his anatomy text De fabrica wrote that the human body "in many respects corresponds admirably to the universe and for that reason was called the little universe by the ancients." In Judaism Analogies between microcosm and macrocosm are found throughout the history of Jewish philosophy. According to this analogy, there is a structural similarity between the human being (the microcosm, from , ) and the cosmos as a whole (the macrocosm, from ). The view was elaborated by the Jewish philosopher Philo (c. 20 BCE–50 CE), who adopted it from Hellenistic philosophy. Similar ideas can also be found in early rabbinical literature. In the Middle Ages, the analogy became a prominent theme in the works of most Jewish philosophers. Rabbinical literature In the Avot de-Rabbi Natan (compiled c. 700–900), human parts are compared with parts belonging to the larger world: the hair is like a forest, the lungs like the wind, the loins like counsellors, the stomach like a mill, etc. Middle Ages The microcosm–macrocosm analogy was a common theme among medieval Jewish philosophers, just as it was among the Arabic philosophers who were their peers. Especially influential concerning the microcosm–macrocosm analogy were the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, an encyclopedic work written in the 10th century by an anonymous group of Shi'i Muslim philosophers. Having been brought to al-Andalus at an early date by the hadith scholar and alchemist Maslama al-Majriti of the Umayyad state of Córdoba (died 964), the Epistles were of central importance to Sephardic philosophers such as Bahya ibn Paquda (c. 1050–1120), Judah Halevi (c. 1075–1141), Joseph ibn Tzaddik (died 1149), and Abraham ibn Ezra (c. 1090–1165). Nevertheless, the analogy was already in use by earlier Jewish philosophers. In his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah ("Book of Creation"), Saadia Gaon (882/892–942) put forward a set of analogies between the cosmos, the Tabernacle, and the human being. Saadia was followed in this by a number of later authors, such as Bahya ibn Paquda, Judah Halevi, and Abraham ibn Ezra. Whereas the physiological application of the analogy in the rabbinical work Avot de-Rabbi Natan had still been relatively simple and crude, much more elaborate versions of this application were given by Bahya ibn Paquda and Joseph ibn Tzaddik (in his Sefer ha-Olam ha-Katan, "Book of the Microcosm"), both of whom compared human parts with the heavenly bodies and other parts of the cosmos at large. The analogy was linked to the ancient theme of "know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, gnōthi seauton) by the physician and philosopher Isaac Israeli (c. 832–932), who suggested that by knowing oneself, a human being may gain knowledge of all things. This theme of self-knowledge returned in the works of Joseph ibn Tzaddik, who added that in this way humans may come to know God himself. The macrocosm was also associated with the divine by Judah Halevi, who saw God as the spirit, soul, mind, and life that animates the universe, while according to Maimonides (1138–1204), the relationship between God and the universe is analogous to the relationship between the intellect and the human being. See also Notes References Bibliography General overviews The following works contain general overviews of the microcosm–macrocosm analogy: Other sources cited Ancient Greek physics Metaphysics of religion Esoteric cosmology Hermeticism Stoicism Paracelsus Philosophical analogies Jewish philosophy

Anabolism

Anabolism is the set of metabolic pathways that construct macromolecules like DNA or RNA from smaller units. These reactions require energy, known also as an endergonic process. Anabolism is the building-up aspect of metabolism, whereas catabolism is the breaking-down aspect. Anabolism is usually synonymous with biosynthesis. Pathway Polymerization, an anabolic pathway used to build macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, and polysaccharides, uses condensation reactions to join monomers. Macromolecules are created from smaller molecules using enzymes and cofactors. Energy source Anabolism is powered by catabolism, where large molecules are broken down into smaller parts and then used up in cellular respiration. Many anabolic processes are powered by the cleavage of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Anabolism usually involves reduction and decreases entropy, making it unfavorable without energy input. The starting materials, called the precursor molecules, are joined using the chemical energy made available from hydrolyzing ATP, reducing the cofactors NAD+, NADP+, and FAD, or performing other favorable side reactions. Occasionally it can also be driven by entropy without energy input, in cases like the formation of the phospholipid bilayer of a cell, where hydrophobic interactions aggregate the molecules. Cofactors The reducing agents NADH, NADPH, and FADH2, as well as metal ions, act as cofactors at various steps in anabolic pathways. NADH, NADPH, and FADH2 act as electron carriers, while charged metal ions within enzymes stabilize charged functional groups on substrates. Substrates Substrates for anabolism are mostly intermediates taken from catabolic pathways during periods of high energy charge in the cell. Functions Anabolic processes build organs and tissues. These processes produce growth and differentiation of cells and increase in body size, a process that involves synthesis of complex molecules. Examples of anabolic processes include the growth and mineralization of bone and increases in muscle mass. Anabolic hormones Endocrinologists have traditionally classified hormones as anabolic or catabolic, depending on which part of metabolism they stimulate. The classic anabolic hormones are the anabolic steroids, which stimulate protein synthesis and muscle growth, and insulin. Photosynthetic carbohydrate synthesis Photosynthetic carbohydrate synthesis in plants and certain bacteria is an anabolic process that produces glucose, cellulose, starch, lipids, and proteins from CO2. It uses the energy produced from the light-driven reactions of photosynthesis, and creates the precursors to these large molecules via carbon assimilation in the photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle, a.k.a. the Calvin cycle. Amino acid biosynthesis All amino acids are formed from intermediates in the catabolic processes of glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, or the pentose phosphate pathway. From glycolysis, glucose 6-phosphate is a precursor for histidine; 3-phosphoglycerate is a precursor for glycine and cysteine; phosphoenol pyruvate, combined with the 3-phosphoglycerate-derivative erythrose 4-phosphate, forms tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine; and pyruvate is a precursor for alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine. From the citric acid cycle, α-ketoglutarate is converted into glutamate and subsequently glutamine, proline, and arginine; and oxaloacetate is converted into aspartate and subsequently asparagine, methionine, threonine, and lysine. Glycogen storage During periods of high blood sugar, glucose 6-phosphate from glycolysis is diverted to the glycogen-storing pathway. It is changed to glucose-1-phosphate by phosphoglucomutase and then to UDP-glucose by UTP--glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase. Glycogen synthase adds this UDP-glucose to a glycogen chain. Gluconeogenesis Glucagon is traditionally a catabolic hormone, but also stimulates the anabolic process of gluconeogenesis by the liver, and to a lesser extent the kidney cortex and intestines, during starvation to prevent low blood sugar. It is the process of converting pyruvate into glucose. Pyruvate can come from the breakdown of glucose, lactate, amino acids, or glycerol. The gluconeogenesis pathway has many reversible enzymatic processes in common with glycolysis, but it is not the process of glycolysis in reverse. It uses different irreversible enzymes to ensure the overall pathway runs in one direction only. Regulation Anabolism operates with separate enzymes from catalysis, which undergo irreversible steps at some point in their pathways. This allows the cell to regulate the rate of production and prevent an infinite loop, also known as a futile cycle, from forming with catabolism. The balance between anabolism and catabolism is sensitive to ADP and ATP, otherwise known as the energy charge of the cell. High amounts of ATP cause cells to favor the anabolic pathway and slow catabolic activity, while excess ADP slows anabolism and favors catabolism. These pathways are also regulated by circadian rhythms, with processes such as glycolysis fluctuating to match an animal's normal periods of activity throughout the day. Etymology The word anabolism is from Neo-Latin, with roots from , "upward" and , "to throw". References Metabolism

Oculesics

Oculesics, a subcategory of kinesics, is the study of eye movement, behavior, gaze, and eye-related nonverbal communication. The term's specific designation slightly varies apropos of the field of study (e.g., medicine or social science). Communication scholars use the term "oculesics" to refer to the investigation of culturally-fluctuating propensities and appreciations of visual attention, gaze and other implicitly effusive elements of the eyes. Comparatively, medical professionals may ascribe the same appellation to the measurement of a patient's ocular faculty, especially subsequent a cerebral or other injury (e.g., a concussion). Nonverbal communication Oculesics is one form of nonverbal communication, which is the transmission and reception of meaning between communicators without the use of words. Nonverbal communication can include the environment around the communicators, the physical attributes or characteristics of the communicators, and the communicators' behavior of the communicators. The four nonverbal communication cues are knows as spatial, temporal, visual, and vocal. Each cue relates to one or more forms of nonverbal communication: Chronemics – the study of time Haptics – the study of touch Kinesics – the study of movement Oculesics – the study of eye behavior Olfactics – the study of scent Paralanguage – the study of voice communication outside of language Proxemics – the study of space Dimensions of oculesics There are four aspects involved with oculesics: Dimension 1: eye contact There are two methods of assessing eye contact: Direct assessment Indirect assessment Dimension 2: eye movement Eye movement can occur either voluntarily or involuntarily. Various types of eye movement include changing eye direction, changing focus, or following objects with the eyes. The 5 types of this movement include saccades, smooth pursuit, vergence, vestibulo-ocular, and optokinetic movements. Dimension 3: pupil dilation Pupillary response refers to the voluntary or involuntary change in the size of the pupil. The pupils may enlarge or dilate in response to the appearance of real or perceived new objects of focus, or at the real or perceived indication of such appearances. Dimension 4: gaze direction Gazing deals with communicating and feeling intense desire with the eye, voluntarily or involuntarily. Theorists and studies Many theorists and studies are associated with nonverbal communication, including the study of oculesics. Ray Birdwhistell Professor Ray Birdwhistell was one of the earliest theorists of nonverbal communication. As an anthropologist, he coined the term kinesics, and defined it as communication and perceived meaning from facial expressions and body gestures. Birdwhistell spent over fifty years analyzing kinesics. He wrote two books on the subject: Introduction to Kinesics (1952) and Kinesics and Context (1970). He also created films of people communicating and studied their methods of nonverbal communication in slow motion. He published his results in attempt to make general translations of gestures and expressions, although he later acknowledged it was impossible to equate each form of body language with a specific meaning. Birdwhistell's study of oculesics was greatly enhanced by his use of film. In one study, he filmed which directions and at what objects children looked as they learned activities from their parents. Paul Ekman Dr. Paul Ekman is a psychologist with over five decades of experience researching nonverbal communication, especially with facial expressions. He has written, co-authored, and edited over a dozen books and published over 100 articles on oculesics. He also served as an advisor for the television show Lie to Me, and currently works with the Dalai Lama on increasing awareness of the influence of emotion on behavior to help people achieve peace of mind. Ekman's work in facial expressions includes studies looking for connections between oculesics and other facial movements, eye behavior and physically covering the eyes when recalling personal traumatic events, and on his self-coined phrase, "the Duchenne smile" (named after Guillaume Duchenne), which relates to involuntary movements of the orbicularis oculi, pars orbitalis when smiling sincerely. Most prominently, oculesics play a major role in the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which is a micro-expression database created by Dr. Ekman and his colleagues. Robert Plutchik Professor Robert Plutchik was a psychologist who specialized in communicating emotion with expressions and gestures. Many of his articles and books discuss the influence of emotion on nonverbal communication as well as the effect of those expressions and gestures on emotions. Professor Plutchik's work on oculesics includes studies on the "synthesis of facial expressions," which look for connections between expressions in the eye along with expressions from the forehead and mouth. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Dr. Francine Shapiro developed Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment to address diseases such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). EMDR communicates with the subject through eye movement in an attempt to re-create meaning and processing of prior traumatic events. Theory of Non-Competitive Stare Theory proposed by psychologist and psychotherapist Carlos Prada which suggests the existence of specific pathways in the visual system through which dominance is transmitted and processed. These pathways go from the dominant eye to the visual cortex and from there to the specific cognitive module for processing. More precisely and depending on the specific lateralization of brain function: In right-handed: right eye → optic nerve (through optic chiasm) → visual cortex → cognitive module. In left-handed: left eye → optic nerve → visual cortex → cognitive module. In ambidextrous: through any two pathways, according lateralization of brain function. Despite the scientific nature of the proposal, the author emphasises the benefits for interpersonal relationships of avoiding looking directly at the dominant eye through which the transmission of ocular dominance is initiated (as proposed by the theory). As a struggle for power and dominance is established through eye contact, and at the same time, as maintaining eye contact is considered to be a proof of sincerity, self-confidence and credibility, he suggests that eye contact should be maintained staring at the non-dominant eye, thus avoiding the specific routes of dominance transmission. This will mean a substantial improvement in interpersonal relationships. From the experience that empirical evidence provides and valuing the characteristics of lateralization of brain function between individuals, he proposes that the appropriate technique consists in staring at the left eye (non-dominant) of right-handed people, and at the right eye (non-dominant) of left-handed people. The improvement in interpersonal relationships would take place as much in the case of establishing new relations as in already established ones. Communicating emotions In the book Human Emotions, author Carroll Ellis Izard says "a complete definition of emotion must take into account all three of these aspects or components: (a) the experience or conscious feeling of emotion; (b) the processes that occur in the brain and nervous system; and (c) the observable expressive patterns of emotion, particularly those on the face" (p.4). This third component is where oculesics plays a role in nonverbal communication of emotion. Oculesics is a primary form of communicating emotion. The pseudoscientific study of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) established three main types of thinking regarding what someone sees, hears, or feels. According to this pseudoscience, oculesics can show which type of thinking someone is using when they are communicating. A person thinking visually might physically turn their eyes away, as if to look at an imagined presentation of what they are thinking, even to the point of changing the focus of their eyes. Someone thinking in terms of hearing might turn their eyes as much as possible to one of their ears. A person thinking in terms of what they feel could look downwards as if looking toward their emotions coming from their body. Whether or not someone intends to send a particular meaning or someone else perceives meaning correctly, the exchange of communication happens and can initiate emotion. It is important to understand these dynamics because we often establish relationships (on small and grand scales) with oculesics. Lists of emotions There are many theories on how to annotate a specific list of emotions. Two prominent methodologies come from Dr. Paul Ekman and Dr. Robert Plutchik. Dr. Ekman states there are 15 basic emotions – amusement, anger, contempt, contentment, disgust, embarrassment, excitement, fear, guilt, pride in achievement, relief, sadness/distress, satisfaction, sensory pleasure, and shame – with each of these fifteen stemming out to similar and related sub-emotions. Dr. Plutchik says there are eight basic emotions, which have eight opposite emotions, all of which create human feelings (which also have opposites). He created Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions to demonstrate this theory. Perceptions and displays of emotions vary across time and culture. Some theorists say that even with these differences, there can be generally accepted "truths" about oculesics, such as the theory that constant eye contact between two people is physically and mentally uncomfortable. Emotions with eye summary: Anxiety – wetness or moisture in the eyes Anger – eyes glaring and wide open Boredom – eyes not focused, or focused on something else Desire – eyes wide, dilation of pupils Disgust – rapid turning away of eyes Envy – glaring Fear – eyes wide, or looking downward; may also be closed Happiness – "glittery" look to eyes, wrinkled at the sides Interest – intense focus, perhaps squinting Pity – heavy gaze to eyes, moisture in eyes Sadness – tears in eyes, looking downward; may have a sleepless appearance Shame – eyes looking down while head is turned down Surprise – eyes wide open Eye behaviors with emotional summaries: Eyes up – Different people look up for different reasons. Some look up when they are thinking. Others look upward in an effort to recall something from their memory. It may also indicate a person's subconscious display boredom. The head position is also considered - for example, an upwards look with a lowered head can be a coy, suggestive action. Eyes down – Avoiding eye contact, or looking down, can be a sign of submission or fear. It may also indicate that someone feels guilty. However, depending on the culture of the person, it may also be a sign of respect. Lateral movement of eyes – Looking away from the person from whom one is speaking could be a sign that something else has taken their interest. It may also mean that a person is easily distracted. Looking to the left can mean that a person is trying to remember a sound while looking to the right can mean that the person is actually imagining the sound. Side-to-side movement, however, can indicate that a person is lying. Gazing - Staring at someone means that a person shows sincere interest. For instance, staring at a person's lips can indicate that someone wants to kiss another person. The subject of someone's gaze can communicate what that person wants. Glancing – Glancing can show a person's true desires. For example, glancing at a door might mean that someone wants to leave, while glancing at a glass of water might mean that a person is thirsty. Eye contact – Eye contact is powerful and shows sincere interest if it is unbroken. A softening of the stare can indicate sexual desire. Breaking that eye contact can be threatening to the person who does not break eye contact. Staring – Staring is more than just eye contact; it usually involves eyes wider than normal. A lack of blinking may indicate more interest, but it may also indicate a stronger feeling than a person may intend. Prolonged eye contact can be aggressive, affectionate, or deceptive. Following with the eyes – Eyes follow movement naturally. If a person is interested in someone, then their eyes will naturally follow that person. Squinting – Squinting of the eyes may mean a person is trying to obtain a closer look. It may also mean that a person is considering whether something is true or not. Liars may use squinting as a tool to keep others from detecting their dishonesty. Squinting may also be just a result of a bright sun. Blinking – Blinking is a natural response that can occur for no other reason than having dry eyes. It can also be the result of a person feeling greater levels of stress. Rapid blinking can indicate arrogance while reduced blinking can move towards a stare. Winking – Winking can indicate that two people are non-verbally communicating a shared understanding. It can mean "hello" or it can be a sign of flirtation. Closing of eyes – Closing the eyes may be a response to fear or embarrassment. Others may close their eyes as a way to think more sincerely about a particular subject. Eye moisture – Tears can indicate sadness, but they are also used to wash and clean the eyes. Damp eyes can be suppressed by crying or an expression of extreme happiness or laughter. In many cultures, men are not expected to cry but may experience damp eyes in place of crying. Pupil dilation – Pupil dilation may be harder to detect by most people. Sexual desire may be a cause of such dilation. It may also be an indication of attraction. Physiologically, the eyes dilate when it is darker to let in more light. Rubbing of eyes – Eyes may water, causing a person to rub their own eyes. This can happen when a person feels uncomfortable or tired. It may also happen when a person simply has something in their eyes. Cultural impact Cultural differences in nonverbal communication In his essay The Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), Dr. W. Barnett Pearce discusses how people derive meaning in communication based on reference points gained or passed down to them culturally. Winston Bremback said, "To know another's language and not his culture is a good way to make a fluent fool of oneself." Culture in this sense, includes all of the nonverbal communication, customs, thought, speech and artifacts that make a group of people unique. Brembeck knew of the significant role that communication plays besides language. While most nonverbal communication is conveyed subconsciously, there are cultural similarities that enable us to understand the difference between what is being said and what is actually meant. But generalizing non-verbal communication between cultures can be tricky since there are as many cultural differences in nonverbal communication as there are different languages in the world. While growing up, a child will typically spend a couple of years learning to communicate verbally while simultaneously learning the idiosyncrasies of nonverbal communication of their culture. In fact, the first couple of years of a child's life is spent learning most of these nonverbals. The differences between cultures are thus ingrained at the very earliest points of development. Projected similarity Anthropologists have proven for years that nonverbal communication styles vary by culture. Most people, however, are not only oblivious to the differences in these nonverbal communication styles within their own culture, but they also assume that individuals from other cultures also communicate in the same way that they do. This is a phenomenon called projected similarity. The result of projected similarity is that misperceptions, misinterpretations, and misunderstandings occur in cross-cultural interactions when a person interprets another's nonverbal communication in the light of his or her own cultural norms. While all nonverbal communication differs greatly among cultures, perhaps none is so obviously different as the movement and study of eye contact. A particular nonverbal interaction between two individuals can have completely different meanings in different cultures. Even within that same culture, oculesics plays a tremendous role in obtaining meaning from other nonverbal cues. This is why, even in the same culture, humans still have trouble sometimes understanding each other because of their varying eye behavior, nonverbal cues, and cultural and personal differences. Stereotypes in cultural differences It is because of these personal differences, that in studying cultural communication patterns we sometimes find it necessary to speak in stereotypes and generalizations. Just as one might say that Puerto Ricans who speak Spanish tend to use a louder voice than others communicating at the same distance, it would not be fair to say that all Puerto Ricans exhibit the same qualities. There are obviously enormous variations within each culture. These variations can depend on age, gender, geographical location, race, socioeconomic status, and personality. Because there are so many factors to study, most are generally glossed over in favor of stereotypes and generalizations. Some oculesic findings from around the world As previously discussed, the effect that eye movement has on human behavior has been widely studied. In some cultures, however, this study actually allows for insights into individuals whose only way of communication is by nonverbal means. Studies show that eye behavior shows special patterns in psychiatric patients, autistic children, and persons from diverse cultures. In some countries, doctors use the study of oculesics to test stimulation among patients and interest levels in children who are not as expressive verbally. While lack of eye contact in many cultures can signal either disinterest or respect, depending on the culture of the individual, it may be an insight into a patient's brain functions at the time of observation. Latin American culture vs. Anglo Saxon culture There are several differences between Anglo Saxon culture and Latino/Latin American cultures, both in the way the two groups interact with each other as well as the way they interact with members of other cultural groups. Besides the obvious language differences, nonverbal communication is the most noticeable difference between the two groups. Specifically, within nonverbal communication, eye contact and eye behavior can actually help one differentiate between the cultural backgrounds of two individuals by looking at nothing but their eyes. Sociologists have found that Anglo-Saxons tend to look steadily and intently into the eyes of the person to whom they are speaking. Latinos will look into the eyes of the person to whom they are speaking, but only in a fleeting way. Latinos tend to look into the other person's eyes, and then immediately their eyes to wander when speaking. In traditional Anglo-Saxon culture, averting the eyes in such a way usually portrays a lack of confidence, certainty, or truthfulness. In the Latino culture, direct or prolonged eye contact can also indicate that you are challenging the individual with whom you are speaking, or that you have a romantic interest in the person. Muslim culture In the Islamic faith, most Muslims lower their heads and try not to focus on the opposite sex's features save for the hands and face. This is a show of respect but also a cultural rule which enforces Islamic law. Lustful glances at those of the opposite sex are also prohibited. Western Pacific Nations Many western Pacific nations share much of the same cultural customs. Children, for instance, are taught in school to direct their eyes to their teacher's Adam's apple or tie knot. This continues through adulthood, as most Asian cultures lower their eyes when speaking to a superior as a gesture of respect. East Asia and Northern Africa In many East Asian and north African cultures such as Nigeria,[6] it is also respectful not to look the dominant person in the eye. The seeking of constant unbroken eye contact by the other participant in a conversation can often be considered overbearing or distracting- even in Western cultures. United States In the United States, eye contact may serve as a regulating gesture and is typically associated with respect, attentiveness, and honesty. Americans associate direct eye contact with forthrightness and trustworthiness. Dealing with cultural differences Across all cultures, communicators and leaders become successful because they observe the unconscious actions of others. Sometimes an individual's actions are the result of their culture or upbringing and sometimes they are the result of the emotion they are portraying. Keen communicators are able to tell the difference between the two and effectively communicate based on their observations. Oculesics is not a standalone science. Combining the information obtained from eye movements and behaviors with other nonverbal cues such as Haptics, Kinesics, or Olfactics will lend the observer a much more well-rounded and accurate portrait of an individual's behavior. According to social scientists, individuals need to first become consciously aware of their own culture before being able to interpret differences among other cultures. In learning about our own culture, we learn how we are different from the cultures of those around us. Only then, will we become aware of the differences among the cultures of others. Finally, we should undergo acculturation, that is, borrow attributes from other cultures that will help us function effectively without in any way having to relinquish our own cultural identities. In Nonverbal Communication, Nine-Curt stresses that "we should develop, refine, and constantly practice the skill of switching cultural channels, as on a TV set, in order to be able to interact with people from other cultures, and often with people from subcultures within our own, more effectively. This is indispensable if we are to avoid the pain, frustration, and discomfort that usually accompany trying to move and live in a culture different from our own. As we become proficient in this skill, we will find it less difficult and highly satisfying to accept others and their styles of living. See also Jacques Lacan Orthoptics Visual perception Vision therapy References Further reading Eyes for Lies (2012). Articles on truth wizards. Eyes for Lies: Deception Expert. Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., & Ellsworth, P. (1982). What emotion categories or dimensions can observers judge from facial behavior? In P. Ekman (Ed.), Emotion in the human face. New York: Cambridge University Press. Guerrero, L.K., & Hecht, M.L. (2008). The nonverbal communication reader: Classic and contemporary readings (3rd ed.) (pp. 511–520). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Oatley, K., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1987). Towards a cognitive theory of emotions. Cognition & Emotion. 1(29-50). Pazian, Maggie. (2010). The Wizards Project: People with exceptional skills in lie detection. Examiner.com. Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.) Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion. New York: Academic. Visual perception

Self-blame (psychology)

Self-blame is a cognitive process in which an individual attributes the occurrence of a stressful event to oneself. The direction of blame often has implications for individuals’ emotions and behaviors during and following stressful situations. Self-blame is a common reaction to stressful events and has certain effects on how individuals adapt. Types of self-blame are hypothesized to contribute to depression, and self-blame is a component of self-directed emotions like guilt and self-disgust. Because of self-blame's commonality in response to stress and its role in emotion, self-blame should be examined using psychology's perspectives on stress and coping. This article will attempt to give an overview of the contemporary study on self-blame in psychology. Self-blame and stress While conceptualizations of stress have differed, the most dominant accounts in current psychology are appraisal-based models of stress. These models define stress as a reaction to a certain type of subjective appraisal, done by an individual, of the circumstances he or she is in. Specifically, stress occurs when an individual decides that a factor in the environment puts demands on the individual beyond his or her current ability to deal with it. The process of rating situations as demanding or nondemanding is called appraisal, and this process can occur quickly and without conscious awareness. Appraisal models of stress are sometimes called “interactional” because the occurrence of stress depends on an interaction between characteristics of the person, especially goals, and the environmental situation. Only if the individual perceives a situation to threaten his or her goals does stress occur. This structure explains the fact that individuals often differ in their emotional and stress responses when they are presented with similar situations. Stress does not come from events themselves, but from the conflict of the event with an individual's goals. While researchers disagree about the time-course of appraisals, how appraisals are made, and the degree to which individuals differ in their appraisals, appraisal-models of stress are dominant in psychology. Appraisals may occur without conscious awareness. Stress itself is a systemic psychological state that includes a subjective “feel” and a motivational-component (the individual desires to reduce stress); some researchers consider stress to be a subset of or a closely related system to emotions, which likewise depend on appraisal and motivate behavior. Once this appraisal has occurred, actions taken to reduce stress constitute coping processes. Coping can involve changes to the situation-environment relationship (changing the situation or the goals that led to stress appraisal), reducing the emotional consequences of a stress appraisal, or avoiding thinking about the stressful situation. Categorizations of types of coping vary between researchers. Coping strategies differ in their effects on subjective well-being; for example, positive reappraisal is consistently found to be a correlate of higher subjective-well being, while distraction from stressors is typically a negative correlate of well-being. Coping behaviors constitute the moderating factor between events and circumstances on one hand and psychological outcomes, like well-being or mental disorders, on the other. Causal attributions of the event are a way to deal with the stress of an event, and so self-blame is a type of coping. During and after traumatic events, individuals’ appraisals affect how stressful the event is, their beliefs on what caused the event, meanings they may derive from the event, and changes they make in their future behavior. Theories of Self-Blame Characterological and behavioral self-blame A classification of self-blame into characterological and behavioral types has been proposed to distinguish whether individuals are putting blame on changeable or unchangeable causes. This division, first proposed by Janoff-Bulman, defines behavioral self-blame (BSB) as causal attribution of an event's occurrence to specific, controllable actions that the individual took. Characterological self-blame (CSB), on the other hand, is attribution of blame to factors of the self that are uncontrollable and stable over time (e.g. “I am the type of person that gets taken advantage of”). CSB attributions are harder to change than behavioral attributions of blame. The development of these categories comes from observation of depressed individuals; sufferers often display feelings of helplessness and lack of control while simultaneously blaming their choices for negative occurrences, resulting in the so-called “paradox of depression”. From an outside perspective, it would seem that blaming one's actions implies that the individual can choose better in the future. However, if this blame is towards uncontrollable characteristics (CSB), not choosable actions (BSB), the factors resulting in a negative outcome were uncontrollable. BSB and CSB are thus proposed to be activities that, while related, are distinct and differ in their effects when used as coping processes. Empirical findings support the existence of the behavioral/characterological distinction in self-blame. For one, BSB is much more common than CSB Tilghman-Osbourne, 2008) A factor analyses of individuals’ attributions of blame and their ability to predict psychological symptoms have identified two clusters of self-blame: a factor of blame for the type of victim, correlated with self-contempt and self-disgust; and a factor of blame towards poor judgment or choices of the victim, correlated with guilt. These factors closely correspond to CSB and BSB definitions, and so the study provides some theoretical support that individuals assign self-blame differently to unchoosable characteristics and choices they have made. Research has also compared CSB and BSB to moral emotions that individuals have, such as guilt and shame. CSB and shame had convergent validity to predict depressive symptoms in adolescents. On the other hand, guilt and BSB did not show convergent validity, and some evidence suggests further subtypes of guilt and BSB. Factor analysis of adolescents self-blame from bullying showed differences between attributions of CSB and BSB However, though distinct types of self-blame have been identified, evidence distinguishing their effectiveness as coping have been mixed. Evidence on the effects of BSB is mixed. Both CSB and BSB predicted depressive symptoms in rape victims, though CSB also had a higher relationship with future fear, and both types correlated positively with symptoms of psychological disorder in domestic abuse victims. CSB mediated the relationship between bullying victimization and anxiety, loneliness, and low-self worth in middle-school students, while BSB had no positive or negative effect on well-being. Other studies did not find significant effects of self-blame on psychological outcomes. One study found that BSB and CSB had a concurrent relationship with depressive symptoms, but no role to predict depressive symptoms in the future, while another found that only CSB concurrently correlated with depressive symptoms. One study of Ullman and colleagues found no effect of CSB to predict PTSD or depressive symptoms from sexual abuse. Parents of children killed by sudden infant death syndrome showed no predictive relationship of BSB or CSB and future distress. Many studies, including recent ones, continue to treat self-blame as a unified factor. Studies that conflate the terms of self-blame tend to find negative psychological impacts; the notable exception is the seminal Bulman & Wortman study of accident paralysis victims, which noted the adaptive effect of self-blame to improve victims’ recovery. Perceived control The feeling of a person that he or she can change a situation with their actions is called perceived control. Appraisals of control over a stressor have been consistently found to influence the type of coping used. If individuals believe a stressful situation is changeable, they will likely use problem-focused coping, or attempts to eliminate the stressor. Appraisal that stressors are unchangeable will lead individuals to cope by avoiding the stressor or minimizing negative consequences of the stressor. Researchers have hypothesized that perceived control leads to more effective coping and better understanding of one's capabilities. Self-blame has a relationship with control. If individuals blame their past, controllable actions (BSB), they may believe they can change actions to influence the future. In other words, BSB could lead to higher perceived control, and researchers have suggested this makes BSB an adaptive form of coping. Self-blame might lead to an increase in perceived control and a decrease in the belief of random chance, which would motivate other coping strategies in turn. On the other hand, CSB could still be a maladaptive form of coping because uncontrollable characteristics (e.g. gender, personality) are responsible for negative events Research on perceived control as a mediator of the relationship between self-blame, non-self-blame coping strategies, and well-being outcomes has shown mixed results. A study of abusive relationship victims found that CSB or BSB had no relationship with perceived control. BSB had a negative relationship with perceived control in another study; additionally, BSB correlated with problem avoidance and social withdrawal, while perceived control correlated with adaptive forms of coping like cognitive restructuring. Why does BSB not seem to have an effect to increase perceived control? After all, BSB involves blaming controllable actions for outcomes, suggesting that events are within the realm of control. In bereaved parents, attributions of self-blame declined over time after bereavement, but attribution of events to chance remained stable. These findings suggest that attributions of responsibility are not zero-sum quantities. Blaming oneself does not necessarily exclude acknowledgement of the power of other individuals and chance. In this way, self-blame seems less likely to result in perceived control; even when an individual self-attributes causal responsibility, they may yet believe that other factors could interfere with their control. These data suggest that self-blame is maladaptive across the board. Perceived control itself, however, did predict better adjustment through high effect of perceived control to predict lower psychological symptoms, but additionally, it might be difficult to use one type of self-blame without using both types. For the hypothesis that self-blame motivates other types of adaptive coping, self-blame negatively correlated with positive reappraisal, focusing on planning, and positively correlated with rumination, each of which are typically-maladaptive coping strategies. CSB did correlate significantly with avoidance/substance coping and to reduce emotional regulation. The lack of problem-focused coping suggests that individuals had low perceived control. Individuals that blame powerful groups in society for occurrence of sexual assault showed negative effects on perceived control and psychological well-being Depression and self-blame The hopelessness theory of depression proposes that depression is caused by two variables: attribution of negative events to stable and global causes, and other cognitive factors like low self-esteem (Krith, 2014). CSB attributes occurrence of events to stable aspects of the individual that are not controllable. CSB attributions seem likely to cause helplessness, since individuals believe they are powerless to control the characteristics that lead to negative events. On the other hand, BSB has an indeterminate effect under hopelessness theory, since BSB attributes events to behaviors that can be controlled to produce better outcomes. These theories of attributional style and stress and coping have similar predictions to Janoff-Bulman's BSB/CSB distinction. Depression occurs when individuals feel that they cannot control the future. The CSB/BSB distinction also corresponds to Dweck's distinction between ability and effort attributions. Effort attributions are when individuals assign success or failure to the hard work and other controllable factors, while ability attributions assign outcomes to internal, stable characteristics, like intelligence. Dweck noted that individuals that believe outcomes are uncontrollable are more likely to be debilitated by setbacks, procrastinate or avoid stressors, and show greater stress responses. In short, theorists believe that the type of cause to which events are attributed is a central factor of effectiveness of blame. Exploratory neuroscientific evidence has found a distinct sign of connectivity abnormality associated with general self-blame. Evidence suggests that major depressive disorder creates vulnerability to depression that lasts years after the cessation of depressive episodes. One of the mechanisms of this “scar theory” of depression is proposed to be increased likelihood to perform self-blame. Self-blaming biases are present in patients with remitted depression, and these biases are associated with risk of recurrence of MDD. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain regions and connections associated with self-blame. Abnormal activation was demonstrated in subgenual cingulate cortex and septal region (SCSR) in currently depressed individuals, but in other situations as well: previously-depressed individuals showed differences in brain activity while feeling guilt compared to always-healthy controls. Also, the amount of connection abnormality in these regions was predictive of depression recurrence. These data suggest that depression episodes change the quality of self-blame, making individuals vulnerable to depression recurrence. Counterfactual Thinking Theories on counterfactual thinking could explain the confusing evidence regarding self-blame and psychological adjustment. Counterfactual thinking involves the consideration of alternative possibilities that could have occurred, like how a stressful event or loss could have been avoided. Self-blame involves assessment of causal responsibility to certain variables, so it involves counterfactual thinking about what changes could have avoided the incident. Theories on counterfactual thinking have proposed that the direction of the counterfactual determines the psychological effect of the thinking. Upward counterfactuals, thinking about ways in which things could have gone better but did not, are linked with negative affect and regret. Downward counterfactuals, thinking about ways in which things could have gone worse, are linked with positive affect. Self-blame that assesses how a negative event could be avoided would be upward counterfactual thinking, so this theory hypothesizes that self-blame results in negative affect and poor adjustment. A study of counterfactual thinking found that it was associated with self-blame, which was negatively associated with psychological well-being in turn, but did not distinguish between types of self-blame. A study by Frazier, Mortensen, & Steward emphasizes the importance of the time-frame in which an individual perceives himself or herself to have control. The study tracked participants longitudinally after they experienced sexual assault. Belief that controllable actions led to the assault, or BSB, predicted worse adjustment. On the other hand, belief in current control led to better adjustment. Conservation of resources model The conservation of resources (COR) model is a theory of stress and coping that attempts to explain individual differences in coping attributions. Differences between individuals in coping can be large, even when the stressors and relevant goals of the individual. This gap in coping is attributed to differences in the resources to which the individuals have access. Individuals can invest resources to protect themselves from loss. Oftentimes, stressful situations involve the possibility of loss or gain of resources. Concretely, resources include psychological well-being, systems of social support, intellectual ability, resilience, and more. Under the COR system, maladaptive forms of coping are often used because the individual lacks sufficient resources to perform adaptive forms of coping. The COR model, combined with evidence suggesting the ease of self-blame compared to other blame strategies, would likely interpret self-blame as a coping strategy used when resources are lacking. Self-blame appears to be a “first resort” to victims of trauma. Even when in situations where moral responsibility would seem to fall upon others, like crime victimization or accidents, individuals often seek hypotheticals in their own behavior that could have avoided the stressful event before they look in others’ behavior. This tendency might be attributable to the greater ease of thinking about one's own behavior than others. It might also require social support resources to provide affirmation that the victim's actions were not the cause of the crime. Empirically, both CSB and BSB have been found to concurrently associate with continuation in an abusive relationship and with major depressive disorder. These findings suggest that individuals who lack social support, are undergoing high levels of stress, or have impaired cognitive abilities due to mental disorder might practice self-blame because it is a coping mechanism that requires little investment of resources (citation). Perceived control is described by researchers as a resource for stress resilience, and so it can be described as a resource under the COR model. Self-blame as meaning making Meaning-making models describe coping as strategies that extract some knowledge or fortitude from the occurrence of a negative event. This typically occurs in reactions to negative or stressful events that have already happened (harm/loss appraisals). Meaning-making stems from the intuition that individuals want to understand the world. To do this, they form beliefs about how the world works, which constitute global meanings. When individuals learn from specific events, they derive situational meanings from the event's circumstances. Conflict between existing global meanings and situational meanings cause stress, since a violation has occurred in the person's understanding of the world. For example, crime victimization may cause conflict between a global meaning (“I am generally safe in my everyday life”) and a situational meaning (“I was targeted by a criminal”). Greater conflict between global and situational meaning predicts worse adaptation to negative events, and this aligns with some researchers predictions regarding what happens when victims regard themselves as invulnerable. Dealing with meaning discrepancy is known as meaning-making and is analogous to coping. Adaptive meaning-making creates causal understanding, a feeling that the situation has been made sense of, or a sense of acceptance. Meaning-making theorists are distinct from other theories on self-blame by their emphasis on beliefs of the individual before stress occurs. Meaning-making also aligns with individuals’ subjective reports of dealing with the significance of important events. Self-blame is a process to explain the situational meaning of an event by assigning causal responsibility. This attribution might accomplish coping by reducing the discrepancy between the preexisting global meaning and the situational meaning. Park and colleagues (2008) define a process of assimilation by which new situations are incorporated into global meaning. For self-blame, for example, a global meaning that the world is orderly could be threatened by an unexpected event. Self-blame is a way to assimilate the new situation; by blaming characteristics or behaviors of the self, the individual can continue to believe that the world operates in a sensible way. Alternately, the individual might blame him- or herself in order not perceive others as threatening or aggressive; self-blame has been shown to correlate with benign attributions made by victims of catcalling, for example. Applications Given the mixed evidence of any positive benefits of BSB and the negative effects of CSB, it is difficult to propose that treatments encourage self-blame as an effective coping strategy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) aims to change maladaptive patterns of thought and behavior. This therapy may involve suggestions to the patient to change his or her appraisals of stressors. Positive reappraisal, or trying to reevaluate situations to focus on helpful or fulfilling aspects, seems to be an especially effective coping strategy that is endorsed by CBT. Positive reappraisal may include self-blame in some respects if individuals think about ways in which their choices had beneficial consequences and attribute that to their behavior, or if individuals use their choices as indications of their emotions and values. CBT might also encourage individuals to feel control over their emotions and behavioral reactions to situations, and behavioral self-blame might be a conduit for increasing perceived control. In this way, it is possible that effective therapeutic strategies would involve self-blame. However, encouraging self-blame per se does not appear likely to improve outcomes. Conclusions Theories from social psychology, positive psychology, and clinical psychology seem to agree on the important role of perceived control in the effects of self-blame, though empirical support for this relation has been mixed. Social psychology theories of stress and coping note that self-blame is a type of coping process because it involves cognitive activities that affect the relation of an individual to their goals. Self-blame might aptly be called an emotion-focused coping strategy because it deals with the emotional consequences of a stressor without attempting to remove the stressor. However, behavioral self-blame may correlate with or motivate problem-focused coping by giving the individual a sense that negative events are avoidable in the future. The types of attributions individuals make during self-blame are important for coping. Stable, uncontrollable attributions, or CSB, have been proposed to be globally maladaptive, while unstable, controllable attributions, BSB, tend to be more controversial. However, empirical evidence has varied on both types, and this suggests an effect of other variables, such as the type of stressor, or methodological problems with instruments measuring self-blame. Self-blame seems to interact with the type of stressor to determine whether it can be helpful. Research shows that BSB can motivate adaptive recovery behaviors in a situation of accidental injury. On the other hand, research into crime victimization has found frequent negative effects of both BSB and CSB. The difference between these scenarios may be in the differences in problem-focused coping strategies available. For injury, there are apparent ways for individuals to cope: exerting effort on rehabilitation, or positively reappraising the accident by what the individual still has. On the other hand, serious crime victimization does not offer a clear path forward to avoid future victimization that does not involve fear or social withdrawal. Situations also differ in their tendency to elicit attributions of blame. In crime victimization, attributions of blame are very common, while bereaved parents have reported lower frequency of searching to attribute blame. Behavioral self-blame may come from a false belief in control, and this could lead individuals to try their hand at unsolvable problems, like staying in an abusive relationship. One problem in stress research is the developing better instruments to measure stress. Of particular relevance to self-blame is the importance to use measures that distinguish between CSB and BSB, which differ in their prevalence, attributions they make on controllability of the future, and their associated outcomes. Many studies examining effects of self-blame on reaction to misfortune and trauma do not distinguish between types of self-blame.; as such, they may struggle to understand whether individuals are putting blame on their choices or actions (behavioral factors), or on uncontrollable aspects of the self (characterological factors). This parallels a problem of conflating ways of coping that are maladaptive with those that are adaptive, or conflating coping behaviors with outcomes that come after coping In any case, while BSB has not been found empirically-effective enough to recommend by itself, it seems to be less harmful than CSB. Empirical studies, when they distinguish between CSB and BSB, often show differences between their effects. One intriguing area of study is if BSB can be used as an alternative to CSB. In line with Dweck's studies on encouraging effort, not ability, attributions, it seems that it might be possible to propose attributing outcomes to choices, not stable, unchoosable characteristics. Following this line, attribution theorists suggest that events are attributed to one factor or another, not both. While this might not be useful in treatment of mental disorders like depression, where both types of self-blame are already present, it may be endorsable as a preventive measure against stressful events to “switch” blame from characterological factors to behavioral factors. However, it may not be easy to blame behaviors without making some characterological judgments as well. Future research may examine whether or not BSB can be used as a substitute for CSB. References Self

Déformation professionnelle

Déformation professionnelle (, professional deformation or job conditioning) is a tendency to look at things from the point of view of one's own profession or special expertise, rather than from a broader or humane perspective. It is often translated as "professional deformation", though French déformation can also be translated as "distortion". The implication is that professional training, and its related socialization, often result in a distortion of the way one views the world. The Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel has observed that "[e]very specialist, owing to a well-known professional bias, believes that he understands the entire human being, while in reality he only grasps a tiny part of him." History "Déformation professionnelle" was used in nineteenth-century medicine to describe a bodily deformity caused by one's occupation. As a term in psychology, it was likely introduced by the Belgian sociologist , or the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin. The colloquial term nerdview describes a similar tendency. See also Law of the instrument Occupational psychosis References External links Cognitive biases

Behavioural genetics

Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. While the name "behavioural genetics" connotes a focus on genetic influences, the field broadly investigates the extent to which genetic and environmental factors influence individual differences, and the development of research designs that can remove the confounding of genes and environment. Behavioural genetics was founded as a scientific discipline by Francis Galton in the late 19th century, only to be discredited through association with eugenics movements before and during World War II. In the latter half of the 20th century, the field saw renewed prominence with research on inheritance of behaviour and mental illness in humans (typically using twin and family studies), as well as research on genetically informative model organisms through selective breeding and crosses. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, technological advances in molecular genetics made it possible to measure and modify the genome directly. This led to major advances in model organism research (e.g., knockout mice) and in human studies (e.g., genome-wide association studies), leading to new scientific discoveries. Findings from behavioural genetic research have broadly impacted modern understanding of the role of genetic and environmental influences on behaviour. These include evidence that nearly all researched behaviours are under a significant degree of genetic influence, and that influence tends to increase as individuals develop into adulthood. Further, most researched human behaviours are influenced by a very large number of genes and the individual effects of these genes are very small. Environmental influences also play a strong role, but they tend to make family members more different from one another, not more similar. History Selective breeding and the domestication of animals is perhaps the earliest evidence that humans considered the idea that individual differences in behaviour could be due to natural causes. Plato and Aristotle each speculated on the basis and mechanisms of inheritance of behavioural characteristics. Plato, for example, argued in The Republic that selective breeding among the citizenry to encourage the development of some traits and discourage others, what today might be called eugenics, was to be encouraged in the pursuit of an ideal society. Behavioural genetic concepts also existed during the English Renaissance, where William Shakespeare perhaps first coined the phrase "nature versus nurture" in The Tempest, where he wrote in Act IV, Scene I, that Caliban was "A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick". Modern-day behavioural genetics began with Sir Francis Galton, a nineteenth-century intellectual and cousin of Charles Darwin. Galton was a polymath who studied many subjects, including the heritability of human abilities and mental characteristics. One of Galton's investigations involved a large pedigree study of social and intellectual achievement in the English upper class. In 1869, 10 years after Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Galton published his results in Hereditary Genius. In this work, Galton found that the rate of "eminence" was highest among close relatives of eminent individuals, and decreased as the degree of relationship to eminent individuals decreased. While Galton could not rule out the role of environmental influences on eminence, a fact which he acknowledged, the study served to initiate an important debate about the relative roles of genes and environment on behavioural characteristics. Through his work, Galton also "introduced multivariate analysis and paved the way towards modern Bayesian statistics" that are used throughout the sciences—launching what has been dubbed the "Statistical Enlightenment". The field of behavioural genetics, as founded by Galton, was ultimately undermined by another of Galton's intellectual contributions, the founding of the eugenics movement in 20th century society. The primary idea behind eugenics was to use selective breeding combined with knowledge about the inheritance of behaviour to improve the human species. The eugenics movement was subsequently discredited by scientific corruption and genocidal actions in Nazi Germany. Behavioural genetics was thereby discredited through its association to eugenics. The field once again gained status as a distinct scientific discipline through the publication of early texts on behavioural genetics, such as Calvin S. Hall's 1951 book chapter on behavioural genetics, in which he introduced the term "psychogenetics", which enjoyed some limited popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. However, it eventually disappeared from usage in favour of "behaviour genetics". The start of behaviour genetics as a well-identified field was marked by the publication in 1960 of the book Behavior Genetics by John L. Fuller and William Robert (Bob) Thompson. It is widely accepted now that many if not most behaviours in animals and humans are under significant genetic influence, although the extent of genetic influence for any particular trait can differ widely. A decade later, in February 1970, the first issue of the journal Behavior Genetics was published and in 1972 the Behavior Genetics Association was formed with Theodosius Dobzhansky elected as the association's first president. The field has since grown and diversified, touching many scientific disciplines. Methods The primary goal of behavioural genetics is to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. A wide variety of different methodological approaches are used in behavioural genetic research, only a few of which are outlined below. Animal studies Investigators in animal behaviour genetics can carefully control for environmental factors and can experimentally manipulate genetic variants, allowing for a degree of causal inference that is not available in studies on human behavioural genetics. In animal research selection experiments have often been employed. For example, laboratory house mice have been bred for open-field behaviour, thermoregulatory nesting, and voluntary wheel-running behaviour. A range of methods in these designs are covered on those pages. Behavioural geneticists using model organisms employ a range of molecular techniques to alter, insert, or delete genes. These techniques include knockouts, floxing, gene knockdown, or genome editing using methods like CRISPR-Cas9. These techniques allow behavioural geneticists different levels of control in the model organism's genome, to evaluate the molecular, physiological, or behavioural outcome of genetic changes. Animals commonly used as model organisms in behavioural genetics include mice, zebra fish, and the nematode species C. elegans. Machine learning and A.I. developments are allowing researchers to design experiments that are able to manage the complexity and large data sets generated, allowing for increasingly complex behavioural experiments. Human studies Some research designs used in behavioural genetic research are variations on family designs (also known as pedigree designs), including twin studies and adoption studies. Quantitative genetic modelling of individuals with known genetic relationships (e.g., parent-child, sibling, dizygotic and monozygotic twins) allows one to estimate to what extent genes and environment contribute to phenotypic differences among individuals. Twin and family studies The basic intuition of the twin study is that monozygotic twins share 100% of their genome and dizygotic twins share, on average, 50% of their segregating genome. Thus, differences between the two members of a monozygotic twin pair can only be due to differences in their environment, whereas dizygotic twins will differ from one another due to genes in addition to the environment. Under this simplistic model, if dizygotic twins differ more than monozygotic twins it can only be attributable to genetic influences. An important assumption of the twin model is the equal environment assumption that monozygotic twins have the same shared environmental experiences as dizygotic twins. If, for example, monozygotic twins tend to have more similar experiences than dizygotic twins—and these experiences themselves are not genetically mediated through gene-environment correlation mechanisms—then monozygotic twins will tend to be more similar to one another than dizygotic twins for reasons that have nothing to do with genes. While this assumption should be kept in mind when interpreting the results of twin studies, research tends to support the equal environment assumption. Twin studies of monozygotic and dizygotic twins use a biometrical formulation to describe the influences on twin similarity and to infer heritability. The formulation rests on the basic observation that the variance in a phenotype is due to two sources, genes and environment. More formally, , where is the phenotype, is the effect of genes, is the effect of the environment, and is a gene by environment interaction. The term can be expanded to include additive, dominance, and epistatic genetic effects. Similarly, the environmental term can be expanded to include shared environment and non-shared environment, which includes any measurement error. Dropping the gene by environment interaction for simplicity (typical in twin studies) and fully decomposing the and terms, we now have . Twin research then models the similarity in monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins using simplified forms of this decomposition, shown in the table. The simplified Falconer formulation can then be used to derive estimates of , , and . Rearranging and substituting the and equations one can obtain an estimate of the additive genetic variance, or heritability, , the non-shared environmental effect and, finally, the shared environmental effect . The Falconer formulation is presented here to illustrate how the twin model works. Modern approaches use maximum likelihood to estimate the genetic and environmental variance components. Measured genetic variants The Human Genome Project has allowed scientists to directly genotype the sequence of human DNA nucleotides. Once genotyped, genetic variants can be tested for association with a behavioural phenotype, such as mental disorder, cognitive ability, personality, and so on. Candidate Genes. One popular approach has been to test for association candidate genes with behavioural phenotypes, where the candidate gene is selected based on some a priori theory about biological mechanisms involved in the manifestation of a behavioural trait or phenotype. In general, such studies have proven difficult to broadly replicate and there has been concern raised that the false positive rate in this type of research is high. Genome-wide association studies In genome-wide association studies, researchers test the relationship of millions of genetic polymorphisms with behavioural phenotypes across the genome. This approach to genetic association studies is largely atheoretical, and typically not guided by a particular biological hypothesis regarding the phenotype. Genetic association findings for behavioural traits and psychiatric disorders have been found to be highly polygenic (involving many small genetic effects). Genetic variants identified to be associated with some trait or disease through GWAS may be used to improve disease risk predictions. However, the genetic variants identified through GWAS of common genetic variants are most likely to have a modest effect on disease risk or development of a given trait. This is different from the strong genetic contribution seen in Mendelian conditions or for some rare variants that may have a larger effect on disease. SNP heritability and co-heritability Recently, researchers have begun to use similarity between classically unrelated people at their measured single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to estimate genetic variation or covariation that is tagged by SNPs, using mixed effects models implemented in software such as genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA). To do this, researchers find the average genetic relatedness over all SNPs between all individuals in a (typically large) sample, and use Haseman–Elston regression or restricted maximum likelihood to estimate the genetic variation that is "tagged" by, or predicted by, the SNPs. The proportion of phenotypic variation that is accounted for by the genetic relatedness has been called "SNP heritability". Intuitively, SNP heritability increases to the degree that phenotypic similarity is predicted by genetic similarity at measured SNPs, and is expected to be lower than the true narrow-sense heritability to the degree that measured SNPs fail to tag (typically rare) causal variants. The value of this method is that it is an independent way to estimate heritability that does not require the same assumptions as those in twin and family studies, and that it gives insight into the allelic frequency spectrum of the causal variants underlying trait variation. Quasi-experimental designs Some behavioural genetic designs are useful not to understand genetic influences on behaviour, but to control for genetic influences to test environmentally-mediated influences on behaviour. Such behavioural genetic designs may be considered a subset of natural experiments, quasi-experiments that attempt to take advantage of naturally occurring situations that mimic true experiments by providing some control over an independent variable. Natural experiments can be particularly useful when experiments are infeasible, due to practical or ethical limitations. A general limitation of observational studies is that the relative influences of genes and environment are confounded. A simple demonstration of this fact is that measures of 'environmental' influence are heritable. Thus, observing a correlation between an environmental risk factor and a health outcome is not necessarily evidence for environmental influence on the health outcome. Similarly, in observational studies of parent-child behavioural transmission, for example, it is impossible to know if the transmission is due to genetic or environmental influences, due to the problem of passive gene–environment correlation. The simple observation that the children of parents who use drugs are more likely to use drugs as adults does not indicate why the children are more likely to use drugs when they grow up. It could be because the children are modelling their parents' behaviour. Equally plausible, it could be that the children inherited drug-use-predisposing genes from their parent, which put them at increased risk for drug use as adults regardless of their parents' behaviour. Adoption studies, which parse the relative effects of rearing environment and genetic inheritance, find a small to negligible effect of rearing environment on smoking, alcohol, and marijuana use in adopted children, but a larger effect of rearing environment on harder drug use. Other behavioural genetic designs include discordant twin studies, children of twins designs, and Mendelian randomization. General findings There are many broad conclusions to be drawn from behavioural genetic research about the nature and origins of behaviour. Three major conclusions include: all behavioural traits and disorders are influenced by genes environmental influences tend to make members of the same family more different, rather than more similar the influence of genes tends to increase in relative importance as individuals age. Genetic influences on behaviour are pervasive It is clear from multiple lines of evidence that all researched behavioural traits and disorders are influenced by genes; that is, they are heritable. The single largest source of evidence comes from twin studies, where it is routinely observed that monozygotic (identical) twins are more similar to one another than are same-sex dizygotic (fraternal) twins. The conclusion that genetic influences are pervasive has also been observed in research designs that do not depend on the assumptions of the twin method. Adoption studies show that adoptees are routinely more similar to their biological relatives than their adoptive relatives for a wide variety of traits and disorders. In the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, monozygotic twins separated shortly after birth were reunited in adulthood. These adopted, reared-apart twins were as similar to one another as were twins reared together on a wide range of measures including general cognitive ability, personality, religious attitudes, and vocational interests, among others. Approaches using genome-wide genotyping have allowed researchers to measure genetic relatedness between individuals and estimate heritability based on millions of genetic variants. Methods exist to test whether the extent of genetic similarity (aka, relatedness) between nominally unrelated individuals (individuals who are not close or even distant relatives) is associated with phenotypic similarity. Such methods do not rely on the same assumptions as twin or adoption studies, and routinely find evidence for heritability of behavioural traits and disorders. Nature of environmental influence Just as all researched human behavioural phenotypes are influenced by genes (i.e., are heritable), all such phenotypes are also influenced by the environment. The basic fact that monozygotic twins are genetically identical but are never perfectly concordant for psychiatric disorder or perfectly correlated for behavioural traits, indicates that the environment shapes human behaviour. The nature of this environmental influence, however, is such that it tends to make individuals in the same family more different from one another, not more similar to one another. That is, estimates of shared environmental effects in human studies are small, negligible, or zero for the vast majority of behavioural traits and psychiatric disorders, whereas estimates of non-shared environmental effects are moderate to large. From twin studies is typically estimated at 0 because the correlation between monozygotic twins is at least twice the correlation for dizygotic twins. When using the Falconer variance decomposition this difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twin similarity results in an estimated . The Falconer decomposition is simplistic. It removes the possible influence of dominance and epistatic effects which, if present, will tend to make monozygotic twins more similar than dizygotic twins and mask the influence of shared environmental effects. This is a limitation of the twin design for estimating . However, the general conclusion that shared environmental effects are negligible does not rest on twin studies alone. Adoption research also fails to find large components; that is, adoptive parents and their adopted children tend to show much less resemblance to one another than the adopted child and his or her non-rearing biological parent. In studies of adoptive families with at least one biological child and one adopted child, the sibling resemblance also tends to be nearly zero for most traits that have been studied. The figure provides an example from personality research, where twin and adoption studies converge on the conclusion of zero to small influences of shared environment on broad personality traits measured by the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire including positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and constraint. Given the conclusion that all researched behavioural traits and psychiatric disorders are heritable, biological siblings will always tend to be more similar to one another than will adopted siblings. However, for some traits, especially when measured during adolescence, adopted siblings do show some significant similarity (e.g., correlations of .20) to one another. Traits that have been demonstrated to have significant shared environmental influences include internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, substance use and dependence, and intelligence. Nature of genetic influence Genetic effects on human behavioural outcomes can be described in multiple ways. One way to describe the effect is in terms of how much variance in the behaviour can be accounted for by alleles in the genetic variant, otherwise known as the coefficient of determination or . An intuitive way to think about is that it describes the extent to which the genetic variant makes individuals, who harbour different alleles, different from one another on the behavioural outcome. A complementary way to describe effects of individual genetic variants is in how much change one expects on the behavioural outcome given a change in the number of risk alleles an individual harbours, often denoted by the Greek letter (denoting the slope in a regression equation), or, in the case of binary disease outcomes by the odds ratio of disease given allele status. Note the difference: describes the population-level effect of alleles within a genetic variant; or describe the effect of having a risk allele on the individual who harbours it, relative to an individual who does not harbour a risk allele. When described on the metric, the effects of individual genetic variants on complex human behavioural traits and disorders are vanishingly small, with each variant accounting for of variation in the phenotype. This fact has been discovered primarily through genome-wide association studies of complex behavioural phenotypes, including results on substance use, personality, fertility, schizophrenia, depression, and endophenotypes including brain structure and function. There are a small handful of replicated and robustly studied exceptions to this rule, including the effect of APOE on Alzheimer's disease, and CHRNA5 on smoking behaviour, and ALDH2 (in individuals of East Asian ancestry) on alcohol use. On the other hand, when assessing effects according to the metric, there are a large number of genetic variants that have very large effects on complex behavioural phenotypes. The risk alleles within such variants are exceedingly rare, such that their large behavioural effects impact only a small number of individuals. Thus, when assessed at a population level using the metric, they account for only a small amount of the differences in risk between individuals in the population. Examples include variants within APP that result in familial forms of severe early onset Alzheimer's disease but affect only relatively few individuals. Compare this to risk alleles within APOE, which pose much smaller risk compared to APP, but are far more common and therefore affect a much greater proportion of the population. Finally, there are classical behavioural disorders that are genetically simple in their etiology, such as Huntington's disease. Huntington's is caused by a single autosomal dominant variant in the HTT gene, which is the only variant that accounts for any differences among individuals in their risk for developing the disease, assuming they live long enough. In the case of genetically simple and rare diseases such as Huntington's, the variant and the are simultaneously large. Additional general findings In response to general concerns about the replicability of psychological research, behavioural geneticists Robert Plomin, John C. DeFries, Valerie Knopik, and Jenae Neiderhiser published a review of the ten most well-replicated findings from behavioural genetics research. The ten findings were: "All psychological traits show significant and substantial genetic influence." "No behavioural traits are 100% heritable." "Heritability is caused by many genes of small effect." "Phenotypic correlations between psychological traits show significant and substantial genetic mediation." "The heritability of intelligence increases throughout development." "Age-to-age stability is mainly due to genetics." "Most measures of the 'environment' show significant genetic influence." "Most associations between environmental measures and psychological traits are significantly mediated genetically." "Most environmental effects are not shared by children growing up in the same family." "Abnormal is normal." Criticisms and controversies Behavioural genetic research and findings have at times been controversial. Some of this controversy has arisen because behavioural genetic findings can challenge societal beliefs about the nature of human behaviour and abilities. Major areas of controversy have included genetic research on topics such as racial differences, intelligence, violence, and human sexuality. Other controversies have arisen due to misunderstandings of behavioural genetic research, whether by the lay public or the researchers themselves. For example, the notion of heritability is easily misunderstood to imply causality, or that some behaviour or condition is determined by one's genetic endowment. When behavioural genetics researchers say that a behaviour is X% heritable, that does not mean that genetics causes, determines, or fixes up to X% of the behaviour. Instead, heritability is a statement about genetic differences correlated with trait differences on the population level. Historically, perhaps the most controversial subject has been on race and genetics. Race is not a scientifically exact term, and its interpretation can depend on one's culture and country of origin. Instead, geneticists use concepts such as ancestry, which is more rigorously defined. For example, a so-called "Black" race may include all individuals of relatively recent African descent ("recent" because all humans are descended from African ancestors). However, there is more genetic diversity in Africa than the rest of the world combined, so speaking of a "Black" race is without a precise genetic meaning. Qualitative research has fostered arguments that behavioural genetics is an ungovernable field without scientific norms or consensus, which fosters controversy. The argument continues that this state of affairs has led to controversies including race, intelligence, instances where variation within a single gene was found to very strongly influence a controversial phenotype (e.g., the "gay gene" controversy), and others. This argument further states that because of the persistence of controversy in behaviour genetics and the failure of disputes to be resolved, behaviour genetics does not conform to the standards of good science. The scientific assumptions on which parts of behavioural genetic research are based have also been criticized as flawed. Genome wide association studies are often implemented with simplifying statistical assumptions, such as additivity, which may be statistically robust but unrealistic for some behaviours. Critics further contend that, in humans, behaviour genetics represents a misguided form of genetic reductionism based on inaccurate interpretations of statistical analyses. Studies comparing monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins assume that environmental influences will be the same in both types of twins, but this assumption may also be unrealistic. MZ twins may be treated more alike than DZ twins, which itself may be an example of evocative gene–environment correlation, suggesting that one's genes influence their treatment by others. It is also not possible in twin studies to eliminate effects of the shared womb environment, although studies comparing twins who experience monochorionic and dichorionic environments in utero do exist, and indicate limited impact. Studies of twins separated in early life include children who were separated not at birth but part way through childhood. The effect of early rearing environment can therefore be evaluated to some extent in such a study, by comparing twin similarity for those twins separated early and those separated later. See also Behavior Genetics Behavior Genetics Association Behavioural neurogenetics Biocultural evolution Evolutionary psychology Genes, Brain and Behavior Genome-wide association study International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society International Society of Psychiatric Genetics Journal of Neurogenetics Nature versus nurture Personality psychology Psychiatric genetics Psychiatric Genetics Quantitative genetics References Further reading External links

Cognitive-affective personality system

The cognitive-affective personality system or cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) is a contribution to the psychology of personality proposed by Walter Mischel and Yuichi Shoda in 1995. According to the cognitive-affective model, behavior is best predicted from a comprehensive understanding of the person, the situation, and the interaction between person and situation. Description Cognitive-affective theorists argue that behavior is not the result of some global personality trait; instead, it arises from individuals' perceptions of themselves in a particular situation. However, inconsistencies in behavior are not due solely to the situation; inconsistent behaviors reflect stable patterns of variation within the person. These stable variations in behavior present themselves in the following framework: If A, then X; but if B, then Y. People's pattern of variability is the behavioral signature of their personality, or their stable pattern of behaving differently in various situations. According to this model, personality depends on situation variables, and consists of cognitive-affective units (all those psychological, social, and physiological aspects of people that allow them to interact with their environment in a relatively stable manner). The authors identified five cognitive-affective units: encoding strategies, or people's individualized manner of categorizing information from external stimuli; competencies and self-regulatory strategies: intelligence, self-regulatory strategies, self-formulated goals, and self-produced consequences; expectancies and beliefs, or people's predictions about the consequences of each of the different behavioral possibilities; goals and values, which provide behavior consistency; affective responses, including emotions, feelings, and the affects accompanying physiological reactions. Evaluation The cognitive-affective processing system theory attempts to explain seemingly conflicting evidence -- personality remains relatively invariant over time and throughout different social contexts, whereas social behaviors vary substantially across different situations. The theory integrates concepts of personality structure and dynamics, obviating the need for two subdisciplines in personality psychology, each with different and sometimes conflicting goals (i.e. personality dispositions or personality processes). See also Biospheric model of personality Hypostatic model of personality Personality systematics Systems psychology References Personality theories

Political socialization

Political socialization is the process by which individuals internalize and develop their political values, ideas, attitudes, and perceptions via the agents of socialization. Political socialization occurs through processes of socialization, that can be structured as primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization agents include the family, whereas secondary socialization refers to agents outside the family. Agents such as family, education, media, and peers influence the most in establishing varying political lenses that frame one's perception of political values, ideas, and attitudes. These perceptions, in turn, shape and define individuals' definitions of who they are and how they should behave in the political and economic institutions in which they live. This learning process shapes perceptions that influence which norms, behaviors, values, opinions, morals, and priorities will ultimately shape their political ideology: it is a "study of the developmental processes by which people of all ages and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes, and behaviors." These agents expose individuals through varying degrees of influence, inducing them into the political culture and their orientations towards political objects. Throughout a lifetime, these experiences influence your political identity and shape your political outlook. Agents of socialization Agents of socialization, sometimes called institutions, work together to influence and shape people's political norms and values. In the case of political socialization, the most significant agents include, but are not limited to, families, media, education, and peers. Other agents include religion, the state, and community. These agents shape your understanding of politics by exposing you to political ideas, values, and behaviors. Family Across the decades, literature has heavily emphasized that the agent of the family is the most influential, with literature suggesting that family and the transmission of attitudes from parent to child are the most prominent agents of socialization. This claim has found especially strong support for the transmission of voting behaviour, partisanship and religious attitudes. Especially in contexts of high politization and homogeneity in political views, transmissions are argued to be higher. Literature examines how aspects of family structures and dynamics change the varying influence of the offspring's values as a function of the distribution of their parent's attitudes. Families perpetuate values that support political authorities and can heavily contribute to children's initial political ideological views, or party affiliations. Literature suggest that the transmission of intergenerational political attitudes shows a strong lineage concerning their parents and siblings. Families have an effect on "political knowledge, identification, efficacy, and participation", depending on variables such as "family demographics, life cycle, parenting style, parental level of political cynicism", interest and politization, and "frequency of political discussions", as well as the saliency of the issues that are being discussed. Parents: Earliest literature of the influence of parents suggests that the varying ways parents raise their children become a significant catalyst in influencing their political attitudes, and behaviour. However, the initial view of parent-youth political socialisations studies of the simple inheritance of partisan views from parents to their children has been challenged by various studies, arguing that while the family still plays an important role in the political orientation of their offspring, the intensity is reduced over time and also taking other influential aspects into account. The most frequently found correlation of intergenerational transmission between parents and their children is partisanship and religious beliefs. What has been found is that especially salient and frequently discussed topics are more likely to transmit, and stronger transmissions occur in highly politicised households with homogenous views on political issues. It is further argued that the different methods of raising a child result in the child establishing formative values about all aspects of one's social life, such as religion and cultural traditions. . Especially the parenting style has been argued to be influential, with nurturant parenting resulting in more liberal views, and strict parenting promoting conservatism. This is argued to be due to a state-family heuristic, which assumes that complex phenomena such as politics and the state- society-relationship are understood from what we know from parent-child dynamics. In turn, suggesting that approaching social institutions in this context is vital as they bring a primary influence as opposed to economic or more formative organizations. Literature also suggest that predjudice influence from parents was found to be more influential towards political attitudes rather than economic and social stratification. Ultimately, literature has found it significant in studying the transmission of attitudes from parent to child as parents are generally more conservative, commonly associated with traditional attitudes and pushing towards continuity, opposite of their offspring. Siblings: The composition of the household in terms of the sex of the siblings has been argued to influence boys in becoming more or less conservative. What has been suggested is that for boys, having sisters influences them to develop more conservative views on gender roles and partisanship. This has been argued to be caused by a different approach to child raising and the division of household chores that varies in families depending if there are sons and daughters, or just sons. Therefore, if brothers do have sisters, they are less likely to be exposed to traditionally feminized household chores, wherefore they might adopt this view on gender roles and in turn also hold more traditional views in politics. Furthermore, literature suggests that children and adolescents are far more successfully socialized with cohort-centric attitudes with siblings close in age. Thus, this cohort-centric difference of multiple generations within the family with parents and siblings supports the idea that siblings who share the core agents of familial socialization develop coherent political attitudes. Linkage to the transmission of political attitudes via siblings include social trust and civic engagement. Media Mass media is not only a source of political information; it is an influence on political values and beliefs. The culmination of information gained from entertainment becomes the values and standards by which people judge. Most people choose what media they are exposed to based on their already existing values, and they use information from the media to reaffirm what they already believe. From news coverage and late-night programs, to exposure to social media apps, present varying political stances that are often associated with increasing political participation. However literature suggests that media coverage increasingly motivates users to delve into politics, as media outlets are leaning toward what stories will get them more views and engagement.  In turn, suggesting that having more political motives and financial motives presents more partisanship polarization if it means they will have an increase in viewership. These reinforced segments that bring more viewership have been proven to be more likely for individuals to rewatch or pay for reinforcing congruent evidence. Suggesting that reinforced media segments become confirmatory evidence that continuously polarizes biased political information.  This has become the perfect environment to enhance partisan polarization among voters through national outlets that reinforce extremist positions. These extremist positions have consistently found their way into partisan positions that have moved both parties towards supporting more extremist values, increasing mass partisan polarization. Ultimately, however, the common core of information, and the interpretation the media applies to it, leads to a shared knowledge and basic values throughout a given entity. Most media entertainment and information does not vary much throughout the country, and it is consumed by all types of audiences. Although there are still disagreements and different political beliefs and party affiliations, generally there are not huge ideological disparities among the population because the media helps create a broad consensus on basic US democratic principles.Overall, the increase in the media market demand for viewership has encouraged more polarized political discourse, and with advancing technologies, our dependency on the Internet and the media's vulnerability will only continue increasing. In turn, making it more vital in addressing the threat misinformation holds to the integrity of democracy. Print Media: In the case of print media, it is the oldest form of political socialization of media, as this includes books and poems. and newspapers. Until 1900, after the invention of radio, print media was the primary way individuals received information that shaped their political attitudes and beliefs. Studies show two-thirds of newspaper readers do not know their newspaper's position on specific issues- and most media stories are quickly forgotten. Older people read more newspapers than younger people, and people from the ages of twelve to seventeen (although they consume the most media) consume the least amount of news. Broadcast Media: Media influence in political socialization continues with both fictional and factual media sources. Adults have increased exposure to news and political information embedded in entertainment; fictional entertainment (mostly television) is the most common source of political information. The most common form of broadcast media is television and radio, increasing attention to politics as people become more informed with information and beliefs shaping political attitudes. Studies on public opinion of the Bush administration's energy policies show that the public pays more attention to issues that receive a lot of media coverage and form collective opinions about these issues. This demonstrates that the mass media's attention to an issue affects public opinion. More so, extensive exposure to television has led to "mainstreaming," aligning people's perception of political life and society with television's portrayal of it. Digital Media: Digital media, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch, accounted for viewership rates of 27.9 billion hours in 2020. examples of digital media include content created, distributed, and viewed on a given platform that one views from a digital electronic device. In turn, increases political polarization, with the recommended algorithms that confine users to echo chambers and content they agree with and enjoy while also increasing their political polarization. Social Media: The role of social media in political socialization, from scrolling on TikTok to checking the trending page on Twitter, has increasingly become powerful in presenting news and varying political perspectives. This shows political socialization at the palm of your hand with the constant production of new content, bringing a new variable in its infancy and shaping how people establish their political beliefs. The media has significantly increased the number of users who cover relevant political information, increasing exposure to political discourse. These platforms have created the perfect environment for individuals to be presented with and reinforce their beliefs through the advancing programming of echo chambers. Algorithms are increasingly confining users in a cycle of content-related videos. This gives media outlets an increasing power to manipulate biased presented news as supporting evidence to a partisan issue, reinforcing confirmatory information to potential false realities shaped by misinformation. Exposure to political accountability through the media motivates increasing polarization as it exposes how potential candidates stand on a given issue. Education In the numerous years in school, through primary, secondary, and high schools, students are taught vital political principles such as voting, elected representatives, individual rights, personal responsibility, and the political history of their state and country. There is also evidence that education is a significant factor in establishing political attitudes during the crucial period of adolescence, with three central themes examining how civic courses, teachers, and peer groups often provide alternative perspectives to their parent's political attitudes. In turn, identifying that civic influences towards change in an educational setting are vital in establishing generational political differences during socialization during adolescence. Other literature has found that involvement with high school activities provides adolescents with direct experience with political and civic engagement and implementing activist orientations toward one's attitudes with increased political discourse. Religion Religious beliefs and practices influence political opinions, priorities, and political participation. The theological and moral perspectives offered by religious institutions shape judgment regarding political attitudes and, ultimately, translate to direct influence on political matters such as "the redistribution of wealth, equality, tolerance for deviance, individual freedom, the severity of criminal punishment, policies relating to family structure, gender roles, abortion, anti-gay rhetoric, and the value of human life." The State State governments can control mass media to "inform, misinform, or misinform the press and thus the public '', a strategy referred to as propaganda. The ability to control agents of socialization, such as the media, brings control to the state to serve a political, economic, or personal agenda that benefits the state. Community Community mobilization brings significant experiences of political socialization events that could influence one's political attitudes with a collective community goal. An example is how Prop 187 was specifically targeting illegal immigrants in LA County within the state of California. Given the severity of the policy targeting a specific community, this created a mass mobilization of the Latino and immigrant community, creating a voting bloc that prevented the initiative of Prop 187. Harvey Milk was a significant political mobilizing the queer community during the 1978 race for California governor with increasing support for Prop 6, a law that would mandate firing any queer teacher or employee in any California public school. As this threatened the queer community and increased immigration of gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals, specifically in the San Francisco area, Milk was able to mobilize the queer community to gain enough momentum to vote against Prop 6 successfully. This could have been a pivotal introduction to political participation for those in these areas, motivating many to continue voting in future elections. In many cases, the experience of community mobilization is the first introduction to political policies and political participation, starting their political journey connected with their home. Region Geographical location also plays a role in one's political media socialization. For example, news outlets on the East Coast tend to cover international affairs in Europe and the Middle East the most, while West Coast news outlets are more likely to cover Asian affairs; this demonstrates that community region affects patterns in political socialization. The region is also significant for specific political attitudes. Living near the Pakistan-India border, an individual will likely have solid political attitudes toward the Pakistan-India tension. Given the socialization of their parents, cousins, grandparents, peers, and education, all have a significant role in teaching their youth about the relationship one has with the other state. Suppose one immigrated from Cuba to the United States. In that case, they will be the political socialization inclination to obtain conservative attitudes in the United States because of the regional movements from a leftist government in Cuba. Life Stages of Political Socialization Childhood Political socialization begins in childhood. It has been found that family is the first main influence, and following social circles are often chosen based on these initial views. Therefore, views are assumed to persist. Research suggest that family and educational environment are the most influential factors in socializing children. In terms of family, in early childhood, indirect exposure, such as parenting styles, or sibling composition might be more relevant, than direct political discussions. However recent literature suggest that increasing influence is coming from mass media such as digital and social media. On average, both young children and teenagers in the United States spend more time a week consuming television and digital media than they spend in school. Young children consume an average of thirty-one hours a week, while teenagers consume forty-eight hours of media a week. Given that childhood is when a human is the most impressionable the influential of agents of socialization is significant as children's brains are "prime for learning", thus more likely to take messages of political attitudes of the world at face value. Adolescence With media influence carrying into adolescence, high school students attribute the information that forms their opinions and attitudes about race, war, economics, and patriotism to mass media much more than their friends, family, or teachers. Other literature suggests that political identification and political participation often stem from values and attitudes attained during one's adolescence. The literature argues that pre-adult socialization in both childhood and adolescence has a longstanding and stable catalyzing influence from political events. This political socialization of these catalytic events establishes predispositions that are often felt by mass and collective political socialization. Literature also suggests that adult political participation shows a longitudinal influence from adolescent forces of political socialization, with three models assessing the effects of parental influence in the context of socioeconomic status, political activity, and civic orientation. A decade later, this literature observed a longitudinal impact of socialization that stems from adolescent political socialization. Literature found that parents' socioeconomic status and high school activities impact the most, although the family is an important and stable agent of socialisation, especially if views and stances are consistent, stable, clear, salient and frequently communicated, which favours higher transmission rates. Primary carriers of pre-adult political socialization play a crucial role in later political participation, with the parent political participation model contributing to an understanding of political activity. This literature suggests that political socialization during the adolescent period significantly influences political participation and voting behavior. It is argued that views persist when the initial socialisation in the family has been strong, hence views have been strongly formed when the adolescents enter adulthood. Adulthood While political socialization is lifelong process, after adolescence, people's basic values generally do not change. Most people choose what content they are exposed to based on their already existing values, and they use information from a favorable source to simply reaffirm what they already believe. Internal outcomes during adulthood can have far more significant development if these beliefs remain constant over time, especially if an attitude is present for the remainderdisambiguated of one's adolescence, the odds of that belief being consistent during adulthood are very likely. See also Agency (sociology) Cohort effect Groupthink Political culture Political cognition Public opinion References Socialization Socialization

Equanimity

Equanimity is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by the experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind. The virtue and value of equanimity is extolled and advocated by a number of major religions and ancient philosophies. Etymology From French , from Latin (nom. ) "evenness of mind, calmness," from "even, level" (see equal) + "mind, spirit" (see animus). Meaning "evenness of temper" in English is from 1610s. Religion Indian religions Hinduism In Hinduism the term for equanimity is (also rendered or ). In Chapter Two, Verse 48 of the Bhagavad Gita one reads: . Srila Prabhupada translates this as: "Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga." In his book Samatvam – The Yoga of Equanimity, Swami Sivananda states: Yoga Another Sanskrit term for equanimity is . This is the term used by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras (1.33). Here is considered to be one of the four sublime attitudes, along with loving-kindness, compassion, and joy. It is related to the idea of or "dispassion". The Upeksha Yoga school foregrounds equanimity as the most important tenet of a yoga practice. In many Yoga traditions, the virtue of equanimity can be one of the results attained through regular meditation, combined with regular practice of pranayama, asanas, and mental disciplines, which clear the mind and bring one inexorably toward a state of health and balance. Buddhism In Buddhism, equanimity (Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is one of the four sublime attitudes and is considered: Equanimity can also be cultivated through meditation. Meditation is a contemplative practice that develops equanimity, allowing people to face extreme states of mind or whatever arises at the present moment. During the meditative state, meditators can practice the technique called "single-pointed concentration" where the reason pays attention to one thought or emotion in the present moment and notices how the feeling is arising. This leads to awareness of the moment. With time and practice, it trains the mind to go from "ordinary conceptual modes of operation to greater stillness and equanimity.” In Vipassanā meditation, practitioners can come to understand and see clearly into the nature of reality, the impermanence of all experience. From this newly developed perspective of equanimity, the mind becomes less easily disturbed and suffers less from unexpected conditions and emotional states. Meditation can train the mind to be sensitive and flexible, which results in developing and maintaining a state of composure, peace, and balance. Abrahamic religions Judaism Many Jewish thinkers highlight the importance of equanimity ( or ) as a necessary foundation for moral and spiritual development. The virtue of equanimity receives particular attention in the writings of rabbis Rabbi Yisroel Bal Shem Tov and Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv. Christianity Samuel Johnson defined equanimity as "evenness of mind, neither elated nor depressed." In Christian philosophy, equanimity is considered essential for carrying out the virtues of modesty, gentleness, contentment, temperance, and charity. Divine providence guides both disruptive rain showers and untimely visitors, just as it governs matters of life and death. Mastering one's self-will is essential to prevent afflictions from magnifying with encouragement. Christian forbearance is the realization that all of man's current experiences with sin will one day yield the positive results God intends. Working with our hands, and that labor which is reviled, as well as authority labors, we bless. This is Pauline forbearance which brings all current states of experience to the happiness and positive results of the ultimate end within the afterlife. Forbearance is needful, as stated in the beginning of , according to Paul; “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” Forbearance is a part of our stewardship responsibility, as Stewards we are required to be found faithful. Immediate or knee-jerk responses are in direct opposition to forbearance, thus this isn't easy to master. Commonly it is found that the fleshly mind and impulse is quicker response than the response of forbearance. The Christian belief is to know that God's intent isn't in the immediate response but in a longer forbearance, one which spans the entire life of an individual. The principles of forbearance is to be without hasty accusation, fault-finding (; ; ;), hyper-critical examination, overreactions, rash or hasty temper. We should not over-react to a brother's offense by making a "mountain out of a mole hill." Paul warns of false teachers, "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." "The best does not always come to the surface. We should never, therefore, hastily imagine evil intentions in others. Nor should we allow ourselves to be easily persuaded that our companions or friends are meant to treat us unkindly. A disposition to look favorably upon the conduct of our fellow men—is a wonderful absorber of the frictions of life." Islam The word “Islam” is derived from the Arabic word , which denotes the peace that comes from total surrender and acceptance. One of the Names of God in Islam is Al-Haleem which means the most forebearing, as to denote God's mercy and forgiveness of the transgressions of His servants. A Muslim may experientially behold that everything happening is meant to be, and stems from the ultimate wisdom of God; hence, being a Muslim can therefore be understood to mean that one is in a state of equanimity. Baha'i The voluminous Writings of the Baha'i Faith are filled with thousands of references to divine attributes, of which equanimity is one. Similar in intent and more frequently used than "equanimity" in the Baha'i Writings are "detachment" and "selflessness" which dispose of human beings to free themselves from excessive reactions to the changes and chances of the world. Humanity is called upon to show complete and sublime detachment from aught else but God, from all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth, from the material world, and from the promptings of their interests and passions. Related concepts include faith, the concept of growing through suffering and being tested, fortitude under trials, dignity, patience, prudence, moderation, freedom from material things, radiant acquiescence, wisdom, and evanescence. Baha'u'llah, the Central Personage of the Baha'i Faith, wrote: "Until a being setteth his foot in the plane of sacrifice, he is bereft of every favour and grace; and this plane of sacrifice is the realm of dying to the self, that the radiance of the living God may then shine forth. The martyr’s field is the place of detachment from self, that the anthems of eternity may be upraised. Do all ye can to become wholly weary of self, and bind yourselves to that Countenance of Splendours; and once ye have reached such heights of servitude, ye will find, gathered within your shadow, all created things. This is boundless grace, the highest sovereignty; this is the life that dieth not. All else save this is at the last but manifest perdition and great loss." The highly revered Son of Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, was an exile and prisoner along with His Father, for more than forty years facing a torrent of various hardships. It is written about him: "So imperturbable was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s equanimity that, while rumors were being bruited about that He might be cast into the sea, or exiled to Fizán in Tripolitania, or hanged on the gallows, He, to the amazement of His friends and the amusement of His enemies, was to be seen planting trees and vines in the garden of His house, whose fruits when the storm had blown over, He would bid His faithful gardener, Ismá’íl Áqá, pluck and present to those same friends and enemies on the occasion of their visits to Him." When in London, He was asked about His time in prison and said: "Freedom is not a matter of place. It is a condition. I was thankful for the prison, and the lack of liberty was very pleasing to me, for those days were passed in the path of service, under the utmost difficulties and trials, bearing fruits and results... Unless one accepts dire vicissitudes, he will not attain... When one is released from the prison of self, that is indeed release, for that is the greater prison... The afflictions which come to humanity sometimes tend to centre the consciousness upon the limitations, and this is a veritable prison. Release comes by making of the will a Door through which the confirmations of the Spirit come." Asked about this He said: "The confirmations of the Spirit are all those powers and gifts which some are born with (and which men sometimes call genius), but for which others have to strive with infinite pains. They come to that man or woman who accepts his life with radiant acquiescence. Radiant acquiescence—that was the quality with which we all suddenly seemed inspired as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá bade us good-bye." The following quote by 'Abdu'l-Baha offers a perspective aimed at cultivating equanimity. He wrote: "Grieve thou not over the troubles and hardships of this nether world, nor be thou glad in times of ease and comfort, for both shall pass away. This present life is even as a swelling wave, or a mirage, or drifting shadows. Could ever a distorted image on the desert serve as refreshing waters? No, by the Lord of Lords! Never can reality and the mere semblance of reality be one, and wide is the difference between fancy and fact, between truth and the phantom thereof. Know thou that the Kingdom is the real world, and this nether place is only its shadow stretching out. A shadow hath no life of its own; its existence is only a fantasy, and nothing more; it is but images reflected in water and seeming as pictures to the eye. Rely upon God. Trust in Him. Praise Him, and call Him continually to mind. He verily turneth trouble into ease, and sorrow into solace, and toil into utter peace. He verily hath dominion over all things. If thou wouldst hearken to my words, release thyself from the fetters of whatsoever cometh to pass. Nay rather, under all conditions, thank thou thy loving Lord, and yield up thine affairs unto His Will that worketh as He pleaseth. This verily is better for thee than all else in either world." Philosophy Pyrrhonism In Pyrrhonism the term used for equanimity is , which means to be unperturbed. is the goal of Pyrrhonist practice. Taoism Although equanimity in itself is not singled out as a practice or an effect of philosophical Daoism, Wu wei is a related concept and can be thought to be a broader term which also includes equanimity. Stoicism Equanimity is central to Stoic ethics and psychology. The Greek Stoics use the word or whereas the Roman Stoics used the Latin word . The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius's Meditations details a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration. His adoptive father Antoninus Pius's last word was uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask him for the night's password. Pius chose "Equanimity". Epicureanism Epicurus believed that what he called "pleasure" was the greatest good, but that the way to attain such pleasure was to live modestly, to gain knowledge of the workings of the world, and to limit one's desires. This would lead the practitioner of Epicureanism to attain (equanimity). References External links Religious ethics Virtue

Child and adolescent psychiatry

Child and adolescent psychiatry (or pediatric psychiatry) is a branch of psychiatry that focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders in children, adolescents, and their families. It investigates the biopsychosocial factors that influence the development and course of psychiatric disorders and treatment responses to various interventions. Child and adolescent psychiatrists primarily use psychotherapy and/or medication to treat mental disorders in the pediatric population. Classification of disorders There are many classifications of disorders. Developmental disorders include autism spectrum disorder and learning disorders, and some attention and behaviors disorders are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. Childhood schizophrenia is an example of a psychotic disorder. Major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, persistent depressive disorder, and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder are under the classification of mood disorders. A wide range of disorders that are classified as eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and pica. Some anxiety disorders are panic disorder, phobias, and Generalized anxiety disorder. Lastly, substance use disorders can be specified to specific substances, such as alcohol use disorder or cannabis use disorder. Disorders are often comorbid. For example, an adolescent can be diagnosed with both major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. The incidence of psychiatric comorbidities during adolescence may vary by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, among other variables. Clinical practice Assessment The psychiatric assessment of a child or adolescent starts with obtaining a psychiatric history by interviewing the young person and his/her parents or caregivers. The assessment includes a detailed exploration of the current concerns about the child's emotional or behavioral problems, the child's physical health and development, history of parental care (including possible abuse and neglect), family relationships and history of parental mental illness. It is regarded as desirable to obtain information from multiple sources (for example both parents, or a parent and a grandparent) as informants may give widely differing accounts of the child's problems. Collateral information is usually obtained from the child's school with regards to academic performance, peer relationships, and behavior in the school environment. Psychiatric assessment always includes a mental state examination of the child or adolescent which consists of a careful behavioral observation and a first-hand account of the young person's subjective experiences. This assessment also includes an observation of the interactions within the family, especially the interactions between the child and his/her parents. The assessment may be supplemented by the use of behavior or symptom rating scales such as the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist or CBCL, the Behavioral Assessment System for Children or BASC, Conners Comprehensive Behaviour Rating Scale (used for diagnosis of ADHD), Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory or MACI, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire or SDQ. While these instruments bring a degree of objectivity and consistency to the clinical assessment, the diagnosis of ADHD requires confirmation by a clinician experienced in the evaluation of youth with and without ADHD who supplements the findings with input from parents, teachers, and the youth themselves. More specialized psychometric testing may be carried out by a psychologist, for example using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, to detect intellectual impairment or other cognitive problems which may be contributing to the child's difficulties. Diagnosis and formulation The child and adolescent psychiatrist makes a diagnosis based on the pattern of behavior and emotional symptoms, using a standardized set of diagnostic criteria such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) or the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). While the DSM system is widely used, it may not adequately take into account social, cultural and contextual factors and it has been suggested that an individualized clinical formulation may be more useful. A case formulation is standard practice for child and adolescent psychiatrists and can be defined as a process of integrating and summarizing all the relevant factors implicated in the development of the patient's problem, including biological, psychological, social and cultural perspectives (the "biopsychosocial model"). The applicability of DSM diagnoses have also been questioned with regard to the assessment of very young children: it is argued that very young children are developing too rapidly to be adequately described by a fixed diagnosis, and furthermore that a diagnosis unhelpfully locates the problem within the child when the parent-child relationship is a more appropriate focus of assessment. The child and adolescent psychiatrist then designs a treatment plan which considers all the components and discusses these recommendations with the child or adolescent and family. Treatment Treatment will usually involve one or more of the following elements: behavior therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy, problem-solving therapies, psychodynamic therapy, parent training programs, family therapy, and/or the use of medication. The intervention can also include consultation with pediatricians, primary care physicians or professionals from schools, juvenile courts, social agencies or other community organizations. In a review of existing meta-analyses and disorders on the four most frequent childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders (anxiety disorder, depression, ADHD, conduct disorder), only for ADHD was the use of medication (stimulants) considered to be the most efficacious treatment option available. For the remaining three disorders, psychotherapy is recommended as the most effective treatment of choice. A combination of psychological and pharmacological treatments is an important option in ADHD and depressive disorders. Treatments for ADHD and anxiety disorders produce higher effect-sizes than do interventions for depressive and conduct disorders. Training In the United States, Child and adolescent psychiatric training requires 4 years of medical school, at least 4 years of approved residency training in medicine, neurology, and general psychiatry with adults, and 2 years of additional specialized training in psychiatric work with children, adolescents, and their families in an accredited residency in child and adolescent psychiatry. Child and adolescent sub-speciality training is similar in other Western countries (such as the UK, New Zealand, and Australia), in that trainees must generally demonstrate competency in general adult psychiatry prior to commencing sub-speciality training. Certification and continuing education In the US, having completed the child and adolescent psychiatry residency, the child and adolescent psychiatrist is eligible to take the additional certification examination in the subspecialty of child and adolescent psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) or the American Osteopathic Board of Neurology and Psychiatry (AOBNP). Although the ABPN and AOBNP examinations are not required for practice, they are a further assurance that the child and adolescent psychiatrist with these certifications can be expected to diagnose and treat all psychiatric conditions in patients of any age competently. Training requirements are listed on the web site of The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States The demand for child and adolescent psychiatrists continues to far outstrip the supply worldwide. There is also a severe maldistribution of child and adolescent psychiatrists, especially in rural and poor, urban areas where access is significantly reduced. As of 2016, there are 7991 child and adolescent psychiatrists in the United States. A report by the US Bureau of Health Professions (2000) projected a need by the year 2020 for 12,624 child and adolescent psychiatrists, but a supply of only 8,312. In its 1998 report, the Center for Mental Health Services estimated that 9-13% of 9- to 17-year-olds had serious emotional disturbances, and 5-9% had extreme functional impairments. In 1999, however, the Surgeon General reported that "there is a dearth of child psychiatrists." Only 20% of emotionally disturbed children and adolescents received any mental health treatment, a small percentage of which was performed by child and adolescent psychiatrists. Furthermore, the US Bureau of Health Professions projects that the demand for child and adolescent psychiatry services will increase by 100% between 1995 and 2020. Cross-cultural considerations Steady growth in migration of immigrants to higher-income regions and countries has contributed to the growth and interest in cross-cultural psychiatry. Families of immigrants whose child has a psychiatric illness must come to understand the disorder while navigating an unfamiliar health care system. Criticisms Subjective diagnoses One criticism against psychiatry is that psychiatric diagnoses lack complete "objectivity," particularly when compared with diagnoses in other medical specialties. However, for several major psychiatric disorders interrater reliability, which shows the degree to which psychiatrists agree on the diagnosis, is generally similar to those in other medical specialties. In 2013, Allen Frances said that "psychiatric diagnosis still relies exclusively on fallible subjective judgments rather than objective biological tests." Traditional deficit and disease models of child psychiatry have been criticized as rooted in the medical model which conceptualizes adjustment problems in terms of disease states. It is said by these critics that these normative models explicitly characterize problematic behavior as representing a disorder within the child or young person and these commentators assert that the role of environmental influences on behavior has become increasingly neglected, leading to a decrease in the popularity of, for example, family therapy. There are criticisms of the medical model approach from within and without the psychiatric profession (see references): it is said to neglect the role of environmental, family, and cultural influences, to discount the psychological meaning of behavior and symptoms, to promote a view of the "patient" as dependent and needing to be cured or cared for and therefore undermines a sense of personal responsibility for conduct and behavior, to promote a normative conception based on adaptation to the norms of society (the ill person must adapt to society), and to be based on the shaky foundations of reliance on a classificatory system that has been shown to have problems of validity and reliability (Boorse, 1976; Jensen, 2003; Sadler et al. 1994; Timimi, 2006). Prescription of psychotropic medications Since the late 1990s, use of psychiatric medication has become increasingly common for children and adolescents. In 2004 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the Black Box Warning on antidepressant prescriptions to alert patients of a research link between use of medication and apparent increased risk of suicidal thoughts, hostility, and agitation in pediatric patients. The most common diagnoses for which children receive psychiatric medication are ADHD, ODD, and conduct disorder. Some research suggests that children and adolescents are sometimes given antipsychotic drugs as a first-line treatment for mental health problems or behavioral issues other than a psychotic disorder. In the United States, the usage of these drugs in young people has greatly increased since 2000, especially among children from low-income families. More research is needed to specifically assess the efficacy and tolerability of antipsychotic medications in pediatric populations. Because of the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular events with long-term antipsychotic use, use in pediatric populations is highly scrutinized and recommended in combination with psychotherapy and effective parent-training interventions. Electroconvulsive therapy In 1947, child neuropsychiatrist Lauretta Bender published a study on 98 children aged between four and eleven years old who had been treated in the previous five years with intensive courses of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). These children received ECT daily for a typical course of approximately twenty treatments. This formed part of an experimental trend amongst a cadre of psychiatrists to explore the therapeutic impact of intensive regimes of ECT, which is also known as either regressive ECT or annihilation therapy. In the 1950s Bender abandoned ECT as a therapeutic practice for the treatment of children. In the same decade the results of her published work on the use of ECT in children was discredited after a study showing that the condition of the children so treated had either not improved or deteriorated. Commenting on his experience as part of Bender's therapeutic program, Ted Chabasinski said that, "It really made a mess of me ... I went from being a shy kid who read a lot to a terrified kid who cried all the time." Following his treatment, he spent ten years as an inmate of Rockland State Hospital, a psychiatric facility now known as the Rockland Psychiatric Center. History When psychiatrists and pediatricians first began to recognize and discuss childhood psychiatric disorders in the 19th century, they were largely influenced by literary works of the Victorian era. Authors like the Brontë sisters, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens, introduced new ways of thinking about the child mind and the potential influence early childhood experiences could have on child development and the subsequent adult mind. When the Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology, the first psychiatric journal in English, was published in 1848, child psychiatry didn't exist as its own field yet. However, some of the earliest works on the possibility of nervous disorders and "insanity" in children were published in the Journal and several medical writers directly referenced works such as Jane Eyre (1847), Wuthering Heights (1847), Dombey and Son (1848), and David Copperfield (1850), to illustrate this new conceptualization of the child mind. Until that time, it was generally accepted that children were free from nervous disorders and the "passions" that affected the adult mind. As early as 1899, the term "child psychiatry" (in French) was used as a subtitle in Manheimer's monograph Les Troubles Mentaux de l'Enfance. However, the Swiss psychiatrist Moritz Tramer (1882–1963) was probably the first to define the parameters of child psychiatry in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis within the discipline of medicine, in 1933. In 1934, Tramer founded the Zeitschrift für Kinderpsychiatrie (Journal of Child Psychiatry), which later became Acta Paedopsychiatria. The first academic child psychiatry department in the world was founded in 1930 by Leo Kanner (1894–1981), an Austrian émigré and medical graduate of the University of Berlin, under the direction of Adolf Meyer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Kanner was the very first physician to be identified as a child psychiatrist in the US and his textbook, Child Psychiatry (1935), is credited with introducing both the specialty and the term to the anglophone academic community. In 1936, Kanner established the first formal elective course in child psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1944 he provided the first clinical description of early infantile autism, otherwise known as Kanner Syndrome. Maria Montessori together with :It:Giuseppe Ferruccio Montesano and Clodomiro Bonfigli, two distinguished child psychiatrists, created in 1901 in Italy the "Lega Nazionale per la Protezione del Fanciullo" (National League for the Protection of Children). She gradually developed her own pedagogic method, initially based on the "intuition that the question of the 'mentally deficient' was more pedagogic than medical". In 1909, Jane Addams and her female colleagues established the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute (JPI) in Chicago, later renamed as the Institute for Juvenile Research (IJR), the world's first child guidance clinic. Neurologist William Healy, M.D., its first director, was charged with not only studying the delinquent's biological aspects of brain functioning and IQ, but also the delinquent's social factors, attitudes, and motivations, thus it was the birthplace of American child psychiatry. From its establishment in February 1923, the Maudsley Hospital, a South London-based postgraduate teaching and research psychiatric hospital, contained a small children's department. Similar overall early developments took place in many other countries during the late 1920s and 1930s. In the United States, child and adolescent psychiatry was established as a recognized medical speciality in 1953 with the founding of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, but was not established as a legitimate, board-certifiable medical speciality until 1959. The use of medication in the treatment of children also began in the 1930s, when Charles Bradley opened a neuropsychiatric unit and was the first to use amphetamine for brain-damaged and hyperactive children. But it was not until the 1960s that the first NIH grant to study paediatric psychopharmacology was awarded. It went to one of Kanner's students, Leon Eisenberg, the second director of the division. The discipline has relatively flourished since the 1980s, in large part, because of contributions made in the 1970s, even if the outcomes for patients have been disappointing at times. It was a decade during which child psychiatry witnessed a major evolution as a result of the work carried out by, Eva Frommer, Douglas Haldane, Michael Rutter, Robin Skynner and Sula Wolff, among others. The first comprehensive population survey of 9- to 11-year-olds, carried out in London and the Isle of Wight, which appeared in 1970, addressed questions that have continued to be of importance for child psychiatry; for example, rates of psychiatric disorders, the role of intellectual development and physical impairment, and specific concern for potential social influences on children's adjustment. This work was influential, especially since the investigators demonstrated specific continuities of psychopathology over time, and the influence of social and contextual factors in children's mental health, in their subsequent re-evaluation of the original cohort of children. These studies described the prevalence of ADHD (relatively low as compared to the US), identified the onset and prevalence of depression in mid-adolescence and the frequent co-morbidity with conduct disorder, and explored the relationship between various mental disorders and scholastic achievement. It was paralleled similarly by work on the epidemiology of autism that was to enormously increase the number of children diagnosed with autism in future years. Although attention had been given in the 1960s and '70s to the classification of childhood psychiatric disorders, and some issues had then been delineated, such as the distinction between neurotic and conduct disorders, the nomenclature did not parallel the growing clinical knowledge. It was claimed that this situation was altered in the late 1970s with the development of the DSM-III system of classification, although research has shown that this system of classification has problems of validity and reliability. Since then, the DSM-IV and DSM-IVR have altered some of the parsing of psychiatric disorders into "childhood" and "adult" disorders, on the basis that while many psychiatric disorders are not diagnosed until adulthood, they may present in childhood or adolescence (DSM-IV).. The American Psychiatric Association's DSM is now on its fifth edition (DSM-5). People in the field are sometimes referred to as "neurodevelopmentalists". As of 2005 there was debate in the field as to whether "neurodevelopmentalist" should be made a new speciality. In terms of patient outcomes, there is evidence that, in the United Kingdom at least on the 70th anniversary of the NHS, mental health remains a medical "Cinderella" (low priority) and the more so Child and Adolescent Health services which have been through repeated reorganisations and underinvestment all of which leads to disruption and loss of adequate provision. "Modern neuroscience, genetics, epigenetics, and public health research has presented the tantalizing possibility that it can now be said with relative certainty that much (certainly not all) is understood about why some children struggle and others soar. Although it is an oversimplification, it can now be suggested that it is possible to understand how environmental factors, both negative and positive, influence the genome or epigenome, which in turn influence the structure and function of the brain and thus human thoughts, actions, and behaviors." See also Biological psychiatry Mental disorders diagnosed in childhood Child Guidance Child psychopathology Consultation-liaison psychiatry Developmental disorders Medical model Neuropsychiatry Psychiatry Anti-psychiatry Biopsychiatry controversy Controversy about ADHD Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services - NHS service provision in the United Kingdom Rennie v. Klein - right to refuse treatment Notes References External links American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry IACAPAP website (International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions) European Psychiatric Association: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch Homepage Encyclopædia Britannica Classification of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence: building castles in the sand? Cultural Diversity in the Development of Child Psychopathology Resources For Outpatient Children's Mental Health Treatment

Stimulation

Stimulation is the encouragement of development or the cause of activity in general. For example, "The press provides stimulation of political discourse." An interesting or fun activity can be described as "stimulating", regardless of its physical effects on senses. Stimulate means to act as a stimulus to; stimulus means something that rouses the recipient to activity; stimuli is the plural of stimulus. A particular use of the term is physiological stimulation, which refers to sensory excitation, the action of various agents or forms of energy (stimuli) on receptors that generate impulses that travel through nerves to the brain (afferents). There are sensory receptors on or near the surface of the body, such as photoreceptors in the retina of the eye, hair cells in the cochlea of the ear, touch receptors in the skin and chemical receptors in the mouth and nasal cavity. There are also sensory receptors in the muscles, joints, digestive tract, and membranes around organs such as the brain, the abdominal cavity, the bladder and the prostate (providing one source of sexual stimulation). Stimulation to the external or internal senses may evoke involuntary activity or guide intentions in action. Such emotional or motivating stimulation typically is also experienced subjectively (enters awareness, is in consciousness). Perception can be regarded as conceptualised stimulation, used in reasoning and intending, for example. When bodily stimulation is perceived it is traditionally called a sensation, such as a kind of touch or a taste or smell, or a painful or pleasurable sensation. This can be thought of as psychological stimulation, which is a stimulus affecting a person's thinking or feeling processes. Overview Stimulation, in general, refers to how organisms perceive incoming stimuli. As such it is part of the stimulus-response mechanism. Simple organisms broadly react in three ways to stimulation: too little stimulation causes them to stagnate, too much to die from stress or inability to adapt, and a medium amount causes them to adapt and grow as they overcome it. Similar categories or effects are noted with psychological stress with people. Thus, stimulation may be described as how external events provoke a response by an individual in the attempt to cope. Over-stimulation It is possible to become habituated to a particular degree of stimulation, and then find it uncomfortable to have a significant change from that level of the stimulus. Thus one can become used to intense stimuli or a fast-paced life and suffer withdrawal when they are removed. Stress and unhappiness may result an unaccustomed level of stimulation. Ongoing, long-term stimulation can for some individuals prove harmful, and a more relaxed and less stimulated life may be beneficial despite possible initial discomfort or stress from the change. See also; sensory overload and burnout. Autistic people often have a much lower threshold for overstimulation, and so suffer sensory overload at levels of stimulus that others find unexceptional. This can lead to an increased frequency of stimming, meltdowns, shutdowns, and dissociation compared to neurotypical people in similar situations. Chiropractor James Wilson has hypothesized that long-term overstimulation can result eventually in a phenomenon called adrenal fatigue, but there is no evidence that such a condition exists. See also Psychomotor agitation Stress management References Perception Behavioral concepts Emotion

Colonial mentality

A colonial mentality is an internalized ethnic, linguistic, or cultural inferiority complex imposed on peoples as a result of colonization, i.e. being invaded and conquered by another nation state and gaslit, often through the educational system, into linguistic imperialism and cultural assimilation through an instilled belief that the language and culture of the colonizer are superior to their own heritage languages and cultures. The term has been used by postcolonial scholars to discuss the transgenerational effects of colonialism present in former colonies following decolonization. It is commonly used as an operational concept for framing ideological domination in historical colonial experiences. In psychology, colonial mentality has been used to explain instances of collective depression, anxiety, and other widespread mental health issues in populations that have experienced colonization. Notable Marxist influences on the postcolonial concept of colonial mentality include Frantz Fanon's works on the fracturing of the colonial psyche through Western cultural domination, as well as the concept of cultural hegemony developed by Italian Communist Party Founder Antonio Gramsci. Criticism of the colonial mentality, however, is not solely a Marxist concept. Anti-Marxist nationalist intellectuals, such as Douglas Hyde, Saunders Lewis, Patrick Pearse, Máirtín Ó Direáin, and John Lorne Campbell, who have also favored political, cultural, literary, and linguistic decolonisation, have also denounced the colonial mentality as a serious problem among their own people. As a solution, they recommended heritage language learning and cultural nationalism; meaning a combination of reviving the best elements of the pre-colonial past and turning away from only emulating the colonizer in favor of looking at the culture and literature of the whole world, especially by those engaged in literature and the arts. Influences from Marxism Frantz Fanon Frantz Fanon's Marxist writings on imperialism, racism, and decolonizing struggles have influenced post-colonial discussions about the internalization of colonial prejudice. Fanon first tackled the problem of, what he called, the "colonial alienation of the person" as a mental health issue through psychiatric analysis. In The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre), published in 1961, Fanon used psychiatry to analyze how French colonization and the carnage of the Algerian War had mentally affected Algerians' self-identity and mental health. The book argues that during the period of colonization there was a subtle and constant mental pathology that developed within the colonial psyche. Fanon argued that the colonial psyche is fractured by the lack of mental and material homogeneity as a result of the colonial power's Western culture being pressured onto the colonized population despite the existing material differences between them. Here Fanon expands traditional Marxist understandings of historical materialism to explore how the dissonance between material existence and culture functions to transform the colonized people through the mold of the Western bourgeoisie. This meant that the native Algerian came to view their own traditional culture and identity through the lens of colonial prejudice. Fanon observed that average Algerians internalized and then openly repeated remarks that were in line with the institutionalized racist culture of the French colonizers; dismissing their own culture as backward due to the internalization of Western colonial ideologies. According to Fanon this results in a destabilizing existential conflict within the colonized culture:"In the West, the family circle, the effects of education, and the relatively high standard of living of the working class provide a more or less efficient protection against the harmful action of these pastimes. But in an African country, where mental development is uneven, where the violent collision of two worlds has considerably shaken old traditions and thrown the universe of the perceptions out of focus, the impressionability and sensibility of the Young African are at the mercy of the various assaults made upon them by the very Nature of Western Culture." British Empire Wales A person who suffers from excessive Anglophilia, enthusiasm for the British Empire, and embarrassment about Welsh identity is traditionally known in Welsh culture as a Dic Siôn Dafydd. Anti-Marxist and Welsh nationalist Saunders Lewis fought a decades-long battle against the Far Left leadership of Plaid Cymru, the political party he co-founded, because of his belief that cultural nationalism was a preferable cause than Socialism. Unlike the Plaid Cymru leadership, Lewis believed that linguistic and cultural decolonisation needed to precede Welsh devolution or political independence. Lewis called, most of all, for the revival of the Welsh people's increasingly threatened heritage language and moving Welsh-language literature and theatre towards the whole Western canon and away from only emulating English literature. Otherwise, Lewis predicted as early as 1918, "the Welsh Parliament would [only] be an enlarged County Council." Ireland In British-ruled Ireland, Irish people who displayed snobbery, extreme Anglophilia, or mimicked the English nobility and felt a cultural cringe regarding Irish culture, Irish nationalism, Gaelic games, and the Gaelic revival, were termed Jackeens if they were Dubliners, West Brits if they were Anglo-Irish or Ulster Scots people, and, if they were Irish Catholics and Gaels, to be suffering from Shoneenism. The most widely accepted etymology of shoneen is (, def. "Little John"), referring to John Bull, the national personification of the British Empire in general and of England in particular. According to Marcus Tanner, however, the Irish people, like many other invaded, conquered, and colonized peoples before and since, overwhelmingly chose to abandon their heritage language out of a misunderstanding of the benefits of being multilingual and a deep longing for their children to succeed and move up in the world. The commonly quoted proverb in many rural areas during the Victorian era language shift was, "Irish doesn't sell the cow." Ironically, the complete opposite was taking place during the same decades among speakers of minority languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the same time, the modern history of the Irish language revival is dated from Protestant Celticist Douglas Hyde's 1892 manifesto The necessity for de-anglicising the Irish nation. Yet another of the most influential critics of Shoneenism was Easter Rising leader Patrick Pearse, whose ideas on the decolonisation of Ireland's educational system are contained within his essay The Murder Machine. Also according to Louis de Paor, Pearse's reading of the radically experimental poetry of Walt Whitman and of the French Symbolists led him to introduce Modernist poetry into the Irish language. As a literary critic, Pearse also left behind a very detailed blueprint for the decolonization of Irish literature, particularly in the Irish language. Louis de Paor writes that Patrick Pearse was "the most perceptive critic and most accomplished poet," of the early Gaelic revival providing "a sophisticated model for a new literature in Irish that would reestablish a living connection with the pre-colonial Gaelic past while resuming its relationship with contemporary Europe, bypassing the monolithic influence of English." For this reason, de Paor has termed the youthful Pearse's execution by a British Army firing squad a catastrophe for Irish language literature. Following the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War, Ernest Augustus Boyd's 1924 collection Portraits: real and imaginary included "A West Briton", which gave a table of West-Briton responses to certain words: {| |- ! Word !! Response |- | Sinn Féin || Pro-German |- | Irish || Vulgar |- | England || Mother-country |- | Green || Red |- | Nationality || Disloyalty |- | Patriotism || O.B.E. |- | Self-determination || Czecho-Slovakia |} According to Boyd, "The West Briton is the near Englishman ... an unfriendly caricature, the reductio ad absurdum of the least attractive English characteristics. ... The best that can be said ... is that the species is slowly becoming extinct. ... nationalism has become respectable". The opposite of the "West Briton" Boyd called the "synthetic Gael" and is called, more recently, a Plastic Paddy. Even long after the 1940s Pearse-inspired revival of Modern literature in Irish, however, a colonial mentality in Ireland has repeatedly been accused of continuing to exist and is still being criticized. For example, Máirtín Ó Direáin's poetry in Connaught Irish, which was written both during and after the Emergency in Dublin, repeatedly displays the horror he felt as he witnessed the escalating collapse of Christian morality, the growing number of, "emasculated men" and the similar loss of feminity in women. Ó Direáin considered all three trends to be rooted in the, or "Uprootedness", of Irish culture and the Irish people, most particularly in long English-speaking parts of the country. In contrast, Far Left nationalist Máirtín Ó Cadhain's politics were Irish republicanism mixed with Marxism and radical politics, and then tempered with a rhetorical anti-clericalism. In his writings, however, concerning the revival of the Irish language, ÓCadhain was very practical about the Catholic Church in Ireland but demanded greater commitment to the language revival from Roman Catholic priests. It was his view that, as the Church was there anyway, it would be better if the clergy were more willing to address their faithful in the Irish language. He further promoted what he termed the ("Re-Conquest of Ireland"), (meaning both decolonization and re-Gaelicisation) and in response to what he saw as the Irish Government's bureaucratic foot-dragging on both Irish language broadcasting and Irish-medium education, Ó Cadhain was a key figure in the 1969 civil rights movement, . This group has used civil disobedience tactics influenced by Saunders Lewis, the Welsh language activist and co-founder of Plaid Cymru. More recently, in 2017 Irish Court of Appeals judge Gerard Hogan denounced the growing preference among Irish lawyers to allege that the European Convention of Human Rights has completely superseded the Constitution of Ireland, as a "sort of legal shoneenism". Scotland Under to the 1872 Education Act, school attendance was compulsory and only English was taught or tolerated in the schools of both the Lowlands and the Highlands and Islands. As a result, any student who spoke Scots or Scottish Gaelic in the school or on its grounds could expect what Ronald Black calls the, "familiar Scottish experience of being thrashed for speaking [their] native language." In 1891, An Comunn Gàidhealach was founded in Oban to help preserve the Scottish Gaelic language and its literature and to establish the Royal National Mòd (Am Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail), as a festival of Gaelic music, literature, arts, and culture deliberately modelled upon the National Eisteddfod of Wales. Before serving in the Seaforth Highlanders in British India and during the Fall of France in 1940, however, Gaelic language war poet Aonghas Caimbeul attended the 300-pupil Cross School on the Isle of Lewis after the 1872 Education Act. He later recalled, "A Lowlander, who had not a word of Gaelic, was the schoolmaster. I never had a Gaelic lesson in school, and the impression you got was that your language, people, and tradition had come from unruly, wild, and ignorant tribes and that if you wanted to make your way in the world you would be best to forget them completely. Short of the stories of the German Baron Münchhausen, I have never come across anything as dishonest, untruthful, and inaccurate as the history of Scotland as taught in those days." Even so, large numbers of the Scottish people, both Highlander and Lowlander, continued to enlist in the British armed forces and the Scottish regiments, through the role in spreading British Colonial rule to other countries, became renowned worldwide as shock troops. For this reason, literary critic Wilson MacLeod has written that, in post-Culloden Scottish Gaelic literature, anti-colonialist poets such as Duncan Livingstone "must be considered isolated voices. The great majority of Gaelic verse, from the eighteenth century onwards, was steadfastly Pro-British and Pro-Empire, with several poets, including Aonghas Moireasdan and Dòmhnall MacAoidh, enthusiastically asserting the conventual justificatory rationale for imperial expansion, that it was a civilising mission rather than a process of conquest and expropriation. Conversely, there is no evidence that Gaelic poets saw a connection between their own difficult history and the experience of colonised people in other parts of the world." For this reason, during the final phase of the Second Boer War, Afrikaner residents of Winburg in the former Orange Free State, routinely taunted the Scottish Regiments in the local British Army garrison with a parody of the Jacobite rebel song Bonnie Dundee, which was typically sung in English. The parody celebrated the guerrilla warfare of Boer commando leader Christiaan De Wet. De Wet he is mounted, he rides up the street The English skedaddle an A1 retreat! And the commander swore: They've got through the net That's been spread with such care for Christiaan De Wet. There are hills beyond Winburg and Boers on each hill Sufficient to thwart ten generals' skill There are stout-hearted burghers 10,000 men set On following the Mausers of Christian De Wet. Then away to the hills, to the veld, to the rocks Ere we own a usurper we'll crouch with the fox And tremble false Jingoes amidst all your glee Ye have not seen the last of my Mausers and me! Colonial India During the period of European colonial rule in India, Europeans in India typically regarded many aspects Indian culture with disdain and supported colonial rule as a beneficial "civilizing mission". Colonial rule in India was framed as an act which was beneficial to the people of India, rather than a process of political and economic dominance by a small minority of foreigners. Under colonial rule, many practices were outlawed, such as the practice of forcing widows to immolate themselves (known as sati) with acts being deemed idolatrous being discouraged by Evangelical missionaries, the latter of which has been claimed by some scholars to have played a large role in the developments of the modern definition of Hinduism. These claims base their assumptions on the lack of a unified Hindu identity prior to the period of colonial rule, and modern Hinduism's unprecedented outward focus on a monotheistic Vedanta worldview. These developments have been read as the result of colonial views which discouraged aspects of Indian religions which differed significantly from Christianity. It has been noted that the prominence of the Bhagavad Gita as a primary religious text in Hindu discourse was a historical response to European criticisms of Indian culture. Europeans found that the Gita had more in common with their own Christian Bible, leading to the denouncement of Hindu practices more distantly related to monotheistic world views; with some historians claiming that Indians began to characterize their faith as the equivalent of Christianity in belief (especially in terms of monotheism) and structure (in terms of providing an equivalent primary sacred text). Hindu nationalism developed in the 19th century as an opposition to European ideological prominence; however, local Indian elites often aimed to make themselves and Indian society modern by "emulating the West". This led to the emergence of what some have termed 'neo-Hinduism': consisting of reformist rhetoric transforming Hindu tradition from above, disguised as a revivalist call to return to the traditional practises of the faith. Reflecting the same arguments made by Christian missionaries, who argued that the more superstitious elements of Hindu practice were responsible for corrupting the potential rational philosophy of the faith (i.e. the more Christian-like sentiments). Moving the definitions of Hindu practice away from more overt idol worshiping, reemphasizing the concept of Brahman as a monotheistic divinity, and focusing more on the figure of Krishna in Vaishnavism due to his role as a messianic type figure (more inline with European beliefs) which makes him a suitable alternative to the Christian figure of Jesus Christ. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's current ruling party, follows this tradition of nationalistic Hinduism (Hindutva), and promotes an Indian national identity infused with neo-Vedantic which has been claimed by some to have been influenced by a "colonial mentality". Legacy Some critics have claimed that writer Rudyard Kipling's portrayals of Indian characters in his works supported the view that colonized people were incapable of living without being ruled by White British people, describing these portrayals as racist. In his famous poem "The White Man's Burden", Kipling directly argues for this point by romanticizing the "civilising mission" in non-Western countries. Jaway Syed has claimed that Kipling's poems idolizes Western culture as entirely rational and civilized, while treating non-white cultures as 'childlike' and 'demonic'. Similar sentiments have been interpreted in Kipling's other works, such as his characterization of the Second Boer War, despite rampant British war crimes and post-war colonialism aimed at using the educational system to destroy the Afrikaans language, as a "white man's war"; along with his presentation of 'whiteness' as a morally and culturally superior trait of the West. His portrayal of both Indians and monkeys in his Jungle Book stories have also been criticized by Jane Hotchkiss as examples of the chauvinistic infantilization of all colonized peoples in Victorian era British culture. Some historians claim that Kipling's works have contributed towards the development of a colonial mentality in the ways that the colonized people in these fictional narratives are made submissive to and dependent on their white rulers. Spanish Empire Latin America In the overseas territories administered by the Spanish Empire, racial mixing between Spanish settlers and the indigenous peoples resulted in a prosperous union later called Mestizo. There were limitations in the racial classes only to people from African descent, this mainly for being descendants of slaves under a current state of slavery. Unlike Mestizos, castizos or indigenous people who were protected by the Leyes de las Indias "to be treated like equals, as citizens of the Spanish Empire". It was completely forbidden to enslave the indígenas under the death penalty charge. Mestizos and other mixed raced combinations were categorized into different castas by viceroyalty administrators. This system was applied to Spanish territories in the Americas and the Philippines, where large populations of mixed raced individuals made up the increasing majority of the viceroyalty population (until the present day). These racial categories punished those with Black African or Afro-Latin heritage; those of European descent were given privilege over these other mixtures. As a result of this system, people of African descent struggled to downplay their indigenous heritage and cultural trappings, in order to appear superficially more Spanish or natives. With these internalized prejudices individuals' choices of clothes, occupations, and forms of religious expression. Those of mixed racial identities who wanted to receive the institutional benefits of being Spanish (such as higher educational institutions and career opportunities), could do so by suppressing their own cultures and acting with "Spanishness". This mentality lead to commonplace racial forgery in Latin America, often accompanied by legitimizing oral accounts of a Spanish ancestor and a Spanish surname. Most mixed-white and white people in Latin America have Spanish surnames inherited from Spanish ancestors, while most other Latin Americans who have Spanish names and surnames acquired them through the Christianization and Hispanicization of the indigenous and African slave populations by Spanish friars. However, most initial attempts at this were only partially successful, as Amerindian groups simply blended Catholicism with their traditional beliefs. Syncretism between native beliefs and Christianity is still largely prevalent in Indian and Mestizo communities in Latin America. Philippines Prior to the arrival by the Spaniards (1565–1898), the Sulu Archipelago (located in southern Philippines) was a colony of the Majapahit Empire (1293–1527) based in Indonesia. The Americans were the last country to colonize the Philippines (1898–1946) and nationalists claim that it continues to act as a neo-colony of the US despite its formal independence in 1946. In the Philippines colonial mentality is most evident in the preference for Filipino mestizos (primarily those of mixed native Filipino and white ancestry, but also mixed indigenous Filipinos and Chinese, and other ethnic groups) in the entertainment industry and mass media, in which they have received extensive exposure despite constituting a small fraction of the population. The Cádiz Constitution of 1812 automatically gave Spanish citizenship to all Filipinos regardless of race. The census of 1870 stated that at least one-third of the population of Luzon had partial Hispanic ancestry (from varying points of origin and ranging from Latin America to Spain). The combined number of all types of white mestizos or Eurasians is 3.6%, according to a genetic study by Stanford University. This is contradicted by another genetic study done by California University which stated that Filipinos possess moderate amounts of European admixture. A cultural preference for relatively light skinned people exists within the Philippines. According to Kevin Nadal and David Okazaki, light skin preference may have pre-colonial origins. However, they also suggest that this preference was strengthened by colonialism. In an undated Philippine epic, the hero covers his face with a shield so that the sun would not "lessen his handsome looks". Some regard this as proof that desire for light-colored skin predates overseas influences. Regardless of the origin of the preference, the use of skin bleaching remains prevalent among Filipino men and women, however there is also a growing embrace of darker skinned female aesthetic within the Philippines. See also References Works cited Ethnocentrism Mentality Cultural anthropology Colonies in antiquity Cultural studies Linguistic rights White supremacy Cultural genocide Race and society

Parenting

Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and educational development from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a biological relationship. The most common caretakers in parenting are the biological parents of the child in question. However, a caretaker may be an older sibling, step-parent, grandparent, legal guardian, aunt, uncle, other family members, or a family friend. Governments and society may also have a role in child-rearing or upbringing. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent or non-blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised in foster care, or placed in an orphanage. Parenting skills vary, and a parent or surrogate with good parenting skills may be referred to as a good parent. Parenting styles vary by historical period, race/ethnicity, social class, preference, and a few other social features. Additionally, research supports that parental history, both in terms of attachments of varying quality and parental psychopathology, particularly in the wake of adverse experiences, can strongly influence parental sensitivity and child outcomes. Parenting may have long-term impacts on adoptive children as well, as recent research has shown that warm adoptive parenting reduces internalizing and externalizing problems of the adoptive children over time. Factors that affect decisions Social class, wealth, culture and income have a very strong impact on what methods of child rearing parents use. Cultural values play a major role in how a parent raises their child. However, parenting is always evolving, as times, cultural practices, social norms, and traditions change. Studies on these factors affecting parenting decisions have shown just that. In psychology, the parental investment theory suggests that basic differences between males and females in parental investment have great adaptive significance and lead to gender differences in mating propensities and preferences. Styles A parenting style is indicative of the overall emotional climate in the home. Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind proposed three main parenting styles in early child development: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. These parenting styles were later expanded to four to include an uninvolved style. These four styles involve combinations of acceptance and responsiveness, and also involve demand and control. Research has found that parenting style is significantly related to a child's subsequent mental health and well-being. In particular, authoritative parenting is positively related to mental health and satisfaction with life, and authoritarian parenting is negatively related to these variables. With authoritarian and permissive parenting on opposite sides of the spectrum, most conventional modern models of parenting fall somewhere in between. Although it is influential, Baumrind's typology has received significant criticism for containing overly broad categorizations and an imprecise and overly idealized description of authoritative parenting. Authoritative parenting Described by Baumrind as the "just right" style, it combines medium level demands on the child and a medium level responsiveness from the parents. Authoritative parents rely on positive reinforcement and infrequent use of punishment. Parents are more aware of a child's feelings and capabilities and support the development of a child's autonomy within reasonable limits. There is a give-and-take atmosphere involved in parent-child communication, and both control and support are balanced. Some research has shown that this style of parenting is more beneficial than the too-hard authoritarian style or the too-soft permissive style. These children score higher in terms of competence, mental health, and social development than those raised in permissive, authoritarian, or neglectful homes. However, Dr. Wendy Grolnick has critiqued Baumrind's use of the term "firm control" in her description of authoritative parenting and argued that there should be clear differentiation between coercive power assertion (which is associated with negative effects on children) and the more positive practices of structure and high expectations. Authoritarian parenting Authoritarian parents are very rigid and strict. High demands are placed on the child, but there is little responsiveness to them. Parents who practice authoritarian-style parenting have a non-negotiable set of rules and expectations strictly enforced and require rigid obedience. When the rules are not followed, punishment is often used to promote and ensure future compliance. There is usually no explanation of punishment except that the child is in trouble for breaking a rule. This parenting style is strongly associated with corporal punishment, such as spanking. This type of parenting seems to be seen more often in working-class families than in the middle class. In 1983, Diana Baumrind found that children raised in an authoritarian-style home were less cheerful, moodier, and more vulnerable to stress. In many cases, these children also demonstrated passive hostility. This parenting style can negatively impact the educational success and career path, while a firm and reassuring parenting style impact positively. Permissive parenting Permissive parenting has become a more popular parenting method for middle-class families than working-class families roughly since the end of WWII. In these settings, a child's freedom and autonomy are highly valued, and parents rely primarily on reasoning and explanation. Parents are undemanding, and thus there tends to be little if any punishment or explicit rules in this parenting style. These parents say that their children are free from external constraints and tend to be highly responsive to whatever it is that the child wants. Children of permissive parents are generally happy but sometimes show low levels of self-control and self-reliance because they lack structure at home. Author Alfie Kohn criticized the study and categorization of permissive parenting, arguing that it serves to "blur the differences between 'permissive' parents who were really just confused and those who were deliberately democratic." Uninvolved parenting An uninvolved or neglectful parenting style is when parents are often emotionally or physically absent. They have little to no expectations from the child and regularly have no communication. They are not responsive to a child's needs and have little to no behavioral expectations. They may consider their children to be "emotionally priceless" and may not engage with them and believe they are giving the child its personal space. If present, they may provide what the child needs for survival with little to no engagement. There is often a large gap between parents and children with this parenting style. Children with little or no communication with their own parents tend to be victimized by other children and may exhibit deviant behavior themselves. Children of uninvolved parents suffer in social competence, academic performance, psychosocial development, and problematic behavior. Intrusive parenting Intrusive parenting is when parents use "parental control and inhibition of adolescents' thoughts, feelings, and emotional expression through the use of love withdrawal, guilt induction, and manipulative tactics" for protecting them from the possible pitfalls, without knowing it can deprive/disturb the adolescents' development and growth period. Intrusive parents may try to set unrealistic expectations on their children by overestimating their intellectual capability and underestimating their physical capability or developmental capability, like enrolling them into more extracurricular activities or enrolling them into certain classes without understanding their child's passion, and it may eventually lead children not taking ownership of activities or develop behavioral problems. Children, especially adolescents might become victims and be "unassertive, avoid confrontation, being eager to please others, and suffer from low self-esteem." They may compare their children to others, like friends and family, and also force their child to be codependent—to a point where the children feel unprepared when they go into the world. Research has shown that this parenting style can lead to "greater under-eating behaviors, risky cyber behaviors, substance use, and depressive symptoms among adolescents." Unconditional parenting Unconditional parenting refers to a parenting approach that is focused on the whole child, emphasizes working with a child to solve problems, and views parental love as a gift. It contrasts with conditional parenting, which focuses on the child's behavior, emphasizes controlling children using rewards and punishments, and views parental love as a privilege to be earned. The concept of unconditional parenting was popularized by author Alfie Kohn in his 2005 book Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason. Kohn differentiates unconditional parenting from what he sees as the caricature of permissive parenting by arguing that parents can be anti-authoritarian and opposed to exerting control while also recognizing the value of respectful adult guidance and a child's need for non-coercive structure in their lives. Trustful parenting Trustful parenting is a child-centered parenting style in which parents trust their children to make decisions, play and explore on their own, and learn from their own mistakes. Research professor Peter Gray argues that trustful parenting was the dominant parenting style in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. Gray contrasts trustful parenting with "directive-domineering" parenting, which emphasizes controlling children to train them in obedience (historically involving using child labor to teach subservience to lords and masters), and "directive-protective" parenting, which involves controlling children to protect them from harm. Gray argues that the directive-domineering approach became the predominant parenting style with the spread of agriculture and industry, while the directive-protective approach took over as the dominant approach in the late 20th century. Practices A parenting practice is a specific behavior that a parent uses in raising a child. These practices are used to socialize children. Kuppens et al. found that "researchers have identified overarching parenting dimensions that reflect similar parenting practices, mostly by modeling the relationships among these parenting practices using factor analytic techniques." For example, many parents read aloud to their offspring in the hopes of supporting their linguistic and intellectual development. In cultures with strong oral traditions, such as Indigenous American communities and New Zealand Maori communities, storytelling is a critical parenting practice for children. Parenting practices reflect the cultural understanding of children. Parents in individualistic countries like Germany spend more time engaged in face-to-face interaction with babies and more time talking to the baby about the baby. Parents in more communal cultures, such as West African cultures, spend more time talking to the baby about other people and more time with the baby facing outwards so that the baby sees what the mother sees. Skills and behaviors Parenting skills and behaviors assist parents in leading children into healthy adulthood and development of the child's social skills. The cognitive potential, social skills, and behavioral functioning a child acquires during the early years are positively correlated with the quality of their interactions with their parents. According to the Canadian Council on Learning, children benefit (or avoid poor developmental outcomes) when their parents: Communicate truthfully about events: Authenticity from parents who explain can help their children understand what happened and how they are involved; Maintain consistency: Parents that regularly institute routines can see benefits in their children's behavioral patterns; Utilize resources available to them, reaching out into the community and building a supportive social network; Take an interest in their child's educational and early developmental needs (e.g., Play that enhances socialization, autonomy, cohesion, calmness, and trust.); and Keep open communication lines about what their child is seeing, learning, and doing, and how those things are affecting them. Parenting skills are widely thought to be naturally present in parents; however, there is substantial evidence to the contrary. Those who come from a negative or vulnerable childhood environment frequently (and often unintentionally) mimic their parents' behavior during interactions with their own children. Parents with an inadequate understanding of developmental milestones may also demonstrate problematic parenting. Parenting practices are of particular importance during marital transitions like separation, divorce, and remarriage; if children fail to adequately adjust to these changes, they are at risk of negative outcomes (e.g. increased rule-breaking behavior, problems with peer relationships, and increased emotional difficulties). Research classifies competence and skills required in parenting as follows: Parent-child relationship skills: quality time spent, positive communications, and delighted show of affection. Encouraging desirable behavior: praise and encouragement, nonverbal attention, facilitating engaging activities. Teaching skills and behaviors: being a good example, incidental teaching, human communication of the skill with role-playing and other methods, communicating logical incentives and consequences. Managing misbehavior: establishing firm ground rules and limits, directing discussion, providing clear and calm instructions, communicating and enforcing appropriate consequences, using restrictive tactics like quiet time and time out with an authoritative stance rather than an authoritarian one. Anticipating and planning: advanced planning and preparation for readying the child for challenges, finding out engaging and age-appropriate developmental activities, preparing the token economy for self-management practice with guidance, holding follow-up discussions, identifying possible negative developmental trajectories. Self-regulation skills: monitoring behaviors (own and children's), setting developmentally appropriate goals, evaluating strengths and weaknesses and setting practice tasks, monitoring and preventing internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Mood and coping skills: reframing and discouraging unhelpful thoughts (diversions, goal orientation, and mindfulness), stress and tension management (own and children's), developing personal coping statements and plans for high-risk situations, building mutual respect and consideration between members of the family through collaborative activities and rituals. Partner support skills: improving personal communication, giving and receiving constructive feedback and support, avoiding negative family interaction styles, supporting and finding hope in problems for adaptation, leading collaborative problem solving, promoting relationship happiness and cordiality. Consistency is considered the "backbone" of positive parenting skills and "overprotection" the weakness. The Arbinger Institute adds to these skills and methods of parenting with what the authors of The Parenting Pyramid claims are methods to "parent for things to go right," or in other words steps that should be taken to ensure good positive relationships are occurring in the home which can help children be more willing to listen. Their methods are described as The Parenting Pyramid. The Parenting Pyramid starting at the foundational level and working up to the top: Ways of being Relationship with spouse Relationship with child Teaching and finally, Corrections Believing that as parents are focused on this order of establishing their homes and parenting styles, then if a parent has to encourage different behaviors from children this correction will come from a better place and therefore the children may be more receptive to such feedback, compared to if a parent attempts to correct behaviors before focusing on the previous steps. Parent training Parent psychosocial health can have a significant impact on the parent-child relationship. Group-based parent training and education programs have proven to be effective at improving short-term psychosocial well-being for parents. There are many different types of training parents can take to support their parenting skills. Some groups include Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Parents Management Training (PMT), Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), The Incredible Years, and Behavioral and Emotional Skills Training (BEST). PCIT works with both parents and children in teaching skills to interact more positively and productive. PMT is focused for children aged 3–13, in which parents are the main trainee. They are taught skills to help deal with challenging behaviors from their children. Triple P focus on equipping parents with the information they need to increase confidence and self-sufficiency in managing their children's behavior. The Incredible Years focuses in age infancy-age 12, in which they are broken into small-group-based training in different areas. BEST introduces effective behavior management techniques in one day rather than over the course of a few weeks. Courses are offered to families based on effective training to support additional needs, behavioral guidelines, communication and many others to give guidance throughout learning how to be a parent. Cultural values Parents around the world want what they believe is best for their children. However, parents in different cultures have different ideas of what is best. For example, parents in hunter–gatherer societies or those who survive through subsistence agriculture are likely to promote practical survival skills from a young age. Many such cultures begin teaching children to use sharp tools, including knives, before their first birthdays. In some Indigenous American communities, child work provides children the opportunity to absorb cultural values of collaborative participation and prosocial behavior through observation and activity alongside adults. These communities value respect, participation, and non-interference, the Cherokee principle of respecting autonomy by withholding unsolicited advice. Indigenous American parents also try to encourage curiosity in their children via a permissive parenting style that enables them to explore and learn through observation of the world. Differences in cultural values cause parents to interpret the same behaviors in different ways. For instance, European Americans prize intellectual understanding, especially in a narrow "book learning" sense, and believe that asking questions is a sign of intelligence. Italian parents value social and emotional competence and believe that curiosity demonstrates good interpersonal skills. Dutch parents, however, value independence, long attention spans, and predictability; in their eyes, asking questions is a negative behavior, signifying a lack of independence. Even so, parents around the world share specific prosocial behavioral goals for their children. Hispanic parents value respect and emphasize putting family above the individual. Parents in East Asia prize order in the household above all else. In some cases, this gives rise to high levels of psychological control and even manipulation on the part of the head of the household. The Kipsigis people of Kenya value children who are innovative and wield that intelligence responsibly and helpfully—a behavior they call ng/om. Other cultures, such as in Sweden and Spain, value sociality and happiness as well. Indigenous American cultures It is common for parents in many Indigenous American communities to use different parenting tools such as storytelling —like myths— Consejos (Spanish for "advice"), educational teasing, nonverbal communication, and observational learning to teach their children important values and life lessons. Storytelling is a way for Indigenous American children to learn about their identity, community, and cultural history. Indigenous myths and folklore often personify animals and objects, reaffirming the belief that everything possesses a soul and deserves respect. These stories also help preserve the language and are used to reflect certain values or cultural histories. The Consejo is a narrative form of advice-giving. Rather than directly telling the child what to do in a particular situation, the parent might instead tell a story about a similar situation. The main character in the story is intended to help the child see their decision's implications without directly deciding for them; this teaches the child to be decisive and independent while still providing some guidance. The playful form of teasing is a parenting method used in some Indigenous American communities to keep children out of danger and guide their behavior. This parenting strategy uses stories, fabrications, or empty threats to guide children in making safe, intelligent decisions. For example, a parent may tell a child that there is a monster that jumps on children's backs if they walk alone at night. This explanation can help keep the child safe because instilling that fear creates greater awareness and lessens the likelihood that they will wander alone into trouble. In Navajo families, a child's development is partly focused on the importance of "respect" for all things. "Respect" consists of recognizing the significance of one's relationship with other things and people in the world. Children largely learn about this concept via nonverbal communication between parents and other family members. For example, children are initiated at an early age into the practice of an early morning run under any weather conditions. On this run, the community uses humor and laughter with each other, without directly including the child—who may not wish to get up early and run—to encourage the child to participate and become an active member of the community. Parents also promote participation in the morning runs by placing their child in the snow and having them stay longer if they protest. Indigenous American parents often incorporate children into everyday life, including adult activities, allowing the child to learn through observation. This practice is known as LOPI, Learning by Observing and Pitching In, where children are integrated into all types of mature daily activities and encouraged to observe and contribute in the community. This inclusion as a parenting tool promotes both community participation and learning. One notable example appears in some Mayan communities: young girls are not permitted around the hearth for an extended period of time, since corn is sacred. Although this is an exception to their cultural preference for incorporating children into activities, including cooking, it is a strong example of observational learning. Mayan girls can only watch their mothers making tortillas for a few minutes at a time, but the sacredness of the activity captures their interest. They will then go and practice their mother's movements on other objects, such as kneading thin pieces of plastic like a tortilla. From this practice, when a girl comes of age, she is able to sit down and make tortillas without having ever received any explicit verbal instruction. However, in many cases oppressive circumstances such as forced conversion, land loss, and displacement led to diminishment of traditional Native American parenting techniques. Immigrants in the United States: Ethnic-racial socialization Due to the increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the United States, ethnic-racial socialization research has gained some attention. Parental ethnic-racial socialization is a way of passing down cultural resources to support children of color's psychosocial wellness. The goals of ethnic-racial socialization are: to pass on a positive view of one's ethnic group and to help children cope with racism. Through a meta-analysis of published research on ethnic-racial socialization, ethnic-racial socialization positively affects psychosocial well-being. This meta-analytic review focuses on research relevant to four indicators of psychosocial skills and how they are influenced by developmental stage, race and ethnicity, research designs, and the differences between parent and child self-reports. The dimensions of ethnic-racial socialization that are considered when looking for correlations with psychosocial skills are cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and egalitarianism. Ethnic-racial socialization dimensions are defined as follows: cultural socialization is the process of passing down cultural customs, preparation for bias ranges from positive or negative reactions to racism and discrimination, promotion of mistrust conditions synergy when dealing with other races, and egalitarianism puts similarities between races first. Psychosocial competencies are defined as follows: self-perceptions involve perceived beliefs of academic and social capabilities, interpersonal relationships deal with the quality of relationships, externalizing behaviors deal with observable troublesome behavior, and internalizing behavior deals with emotional intelligence regulation. The multiple ways these domains and competencies interact show small correlations between ethnic-racial socialization and psychosocial wellness, but this parenting practice needs further research. This meta-analysis showed that developmental stages affect how children perceived ethnic-racial socialization. Cultural socialization practices appear to affect children similarly across developmental stages except for preparation for bias and promotion of mistrust which are encouraged for older-aged children. Existing research shows ethnic-racial socialization serves African Americans positively against discrimination. Cross-sectional studies were predicted to have greater effect sizes because correlations are inflated in these kinds of studies. Parental reports of ethnic-racial socialization influence are influenced by "intentions", so child reports tend to be more accurate. Among other conclusions derived from this meta-analysis, cultural socialization and self-perceptions had a small positive correlation. Cultural socialization and promotion of mistrust had a small negative correlation, and interpersonal relationships positively impacted cultural socialization and preparation for bias. In regard to developmental stages, ethnic-racial socialization had a small but positive correlation with self-perceptions during childhood and early adolescence. Based on study designs, there were no significant differences, meaning that cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies both showed small positive correlations between ethnic-racial socialization and self-perceptions. Reporter differences between parents and children showed positive correlations between ethnic-racial socialization when associated with internalizing behavior and interpersonal relationships. These two correlations showed a greater effect size with child reports compared to parent reports. The meta-analysis on previous research shows only correlations, so there is a need for experimental studies that can show causation amongst the different domains and dimensions. Children's behavior and adaptation to this behavior may indicate a bidirectional effect that can also be addressed by an experimental study. There is evidence to show that ethnic-racial socialization can help children of color obtain social-emotional skills that can help them navigate through racism and discrimination, but further research needs to be done to increase the generalizability of existing research. Across the lifespan Pre-pregnancy Family planning is the decision-making process surrounding whether to become parents or not, and when the right time would be, including planning, preparing, and gathering resources. Prospective parents may assess (among other matters) whether they have access to sufficient financial resources, whether their family situation is stable, and whether they want to undertake the responsibility of raising a child. Worldwide, about 40% of all pregnancies are not planned, and more than 30 million babies are born each year as a result of unplanned pregnancies. Reproductive health and preconception care affect pregnancy, reproductive success, and the physical and mental health of both mother and child. A woman who is underweight, whether due to poverty, eating disorders, or illness, is less likely to have a healthy pregnancy and give birth to a healthy baby than a woman who is healthy. Similarly, a woman who is obese has a higher risk of difficulties, including gestational diabetes. Other health problems, such as infections and iron-deficiency anemia, can be detected and corrected before conception. Pregnancy and prenatal parenting During pregnancy, the unborn child is affected by many decisions made by the parents, particularly choices linked to their lifestyle. The health, activity level, and nutrition available to the mother can affect the child's development before birth. Some mothers, especially in relatively wealthy countries, overeat and spend too much time resting. Other mothers, especially if they are poor or abused, may be overworked and may not be able to eat enough, or may not be able to afford healthful foods with sufficient iron, vitamins, and protein, for the unborn child to develop properly. Newborns and infants Newborn parenting is where the responsibilities of parenthood begin. A newborn's basic needs are food, sleep, comfort, and cleaning, which the parent provides. An infant's only form of communication is crying, while there is some argument that infants have different types of cries for being hungry or in pain, that has largely been refuted. Newborns and young infants require feedings every few hours, which is disruptive to adult sleep cycles. They respond enthusiastically to soft stroking, cuddling, and caressing. Gentle rocking back and forth often calms a crying infant, as do massages and warm baths. Newborns may comfort themselves by sucking their thumb or by using a pacifier. The need to suckle is instinctive and allows newborns to feed. Breastfeeding is the recommended method of feeding by all major infant health organizations. If breastfeeding is not possible or desired, bottle feeding is a common alternative. Other alternatives include feeding breastmilk or formula with a cup, spoon, feeding syringe, or nursing supplement. The forming of attachments is considered the foundation of the infant's capacity to form and conduct relationships throughout life. Attachment is not the same as love or affection, although they often go together. Attachments develop immediately, and a lack of attachment or a seriously disrupted attachment has the potential to cause severe damage to a child's health and well-being. Physically, one may not see symptoms or indications of a disorder, but the child may be affected emotionally. Studies show that children with secure attachments have the ability to form successful relationships, express themselves on an interpersonal basis, and have higher self-esteem. Conversely children who have neglectful or emotionally unavailable caregivers can exhibit behavioral problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder or oppositional defiant disorder. Oppositional-defiant disorder is a pattern of disobedient and rebellious behavior toward authority figures. Toddlers Toddlers are small children between 12 and 36 months old who are much more active than infants and become challenged with learning how to do simple tasks by themselves. At this stage, parents are heavily involved in showing the small child how to do things rather than just doing things for them; it is normal for the toddler to mimic the parents. Toddlers need help to build their vocabulary, increase their communication skills, and manage their emotions. Toddlers will also begin to understand social etiquette, such as being polite and taking turns. Toddlers are very curious about the world around them and are eager to explore it. They seek greater independence and responsibility and may become frustrated when things do not go the way that they want or expect. Tantrums begin at this stage, which is sometimes referred to as the 'Terrible Twos'. Tantrums are often caused by the child's frustration over the particular situation, and are sometimes caused, simply because they are not able to communicate properly. Parents of toddlers are expected to help guide and teach the child, establish basic routines (such as washing hands before meals or brushing teeth before bed), and increase the child's responsibilities. It is also normal for toddlers to be frequently frustrated. It is an essential step to their development. They will learn through experience, trial, and error. This means that they need to experience being frustrated when something does not work for them in order to move on to the next stage. When the toddler is frustrated, they will often misbehave with actions like screaming, hitting or biting. Parents need to be careful when reacting to such behaviors; giving threats or punishments is usually not helpful and might only make the situation worse. Research groups led by Daniel Schechter, Alytia Levendosky, and others have shown that parents with histories of maltreatment and violence exposure often have difficulty helping their toddlers and preschool-age children with the very same emotionally dysregulated behaviors which can remind traumatized parents of their adverse experiences and associated mental states. Regarding gender differences in parenting, data from the US in 2014 states that, on an average day, among adults living in households with children under age 6, women spent 1.0 hours providing physical care (such as bathing or feeding a child) to household children. By contrast, men spent 23 minutes providing physical care. Child Younger children start to become more independent and begin to build friendships. They are able to reason and can make their own decisions in many hypothetical situations. Young children demand constant attention but gradually learn how to deal with boredom and begin to be able to play independently. They enjoy helping and also feeling useful and capable. Parents can assist their children by encouraging social interactions and modeling proper social behaviors. A large part of learning in the early years comes from being involved in activities and household duties. Parents who observe their children in play or join with them in child-driven play have the opportunity to glimpse into their children's world, learn to communicate more effectively with their children, and are given another setting to offer gentle, nurturing guidance. Parents also teach their children health, hygiene, and eating habits through instruction and by example. Parents are expected to make decisions about their child's education. Parenting styles in this area diverge greatly at this stage, with some parents they choose to become heavily involved in arranging organized activities and early learning programs. Other parents choose to let the child develop with few organized activities. Children begin to learn responsibility and consequences for their actions with parental assistance. Some parents provide a small allowance that increases with age to help teach children the value of money and how to be responsible. Parents who are consistent and fair with their discipline, who openly communicate and offer explanations to their children, and who do not neglect the needs of their children in any way often find they have fewer problems with their children as they mature. When child conduct problems are encountered, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral group-based parenting interventions have been found to be effective at improving child conduct, parenting skills, and parental mental health. Adolescents Parents often feel isolated and alone when parenting adolescents. Adolescence can be a time of high risk for children, where newfound freedoms can result in decisions that drastically open up or close off life opportunities. There are also large changes that occur in the brain during adolescence; the emotional center of the brain is now fully developed, but the rational frontal cortex has not matured fully and still is not able to keep all of those emotions in check. Adolescents tend to increase the amount of time spent with peers of the opposite gender; however, they still maintain the amount of time spent with those of the same gender—and do this by decreasing the amount of time spent with their parents. Although adolescents look to peers and adults outside the family for guidance and models for how to behave, parents can remain influential in their development. Studies have shown that parents can have a significant impact, for instance, on how much teens drink. Other studies show that parents continued presence in provides stability and nurture to their developing adolescents. During adolescence children begin to form their identity and start to test and develop the interpersonal and occupational roles that they will assume as adults. Therefore, it is important that parents treat them as young adults. Parental issues at this stage of parenting include dealing with rebelliousness related to a greater desire to partake in risky behaviors. In order to prevent risky behaviors, it is important for the parents to build a trusting relationship with their children. This can be achieved through behavioral control, parental monitoring, consistent discipline, parental warmth and support, inductive reasoning, and strong parent-child communication. When a trusting relationship is built up, adolescents are more likely to approach their parents for help when faced with negative peer pressure. Helping children build a strong foundation will ultimately help them resist negative peer pressure. Not only will a positive relationship between adolescent and parent benefit when faced with peer pressure, it will help with identity-processing in early adolescents. Research by Berzonsky et al. found that adolescents that were open and trusting of their parents were given more freedom and their parents were less likely to track them and control their behavior. Adults Parenting does not usually end when a child turns 18. Support may be needed in a child's life well beyond the adolescent years and can continue into middle and later adulthood. Parenting can be a lifelong process. Parents may provide financial support to their adult children, which can also include providing an inheritance after death. The life perspective and wisdom given by a parent can benefit their adult children in their own lives. Becoming a grandparent is another milestone and has many similarities with parenting. Roles can be reversed in some ways when adult children become caregivers to their elderly parents. Assistance Parents may receive assistance with caring for their children through child care programs. Article 25.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that: Childbearing and happiness Data from the British Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel suggests that having up to two children increases happiness in the years around the birth, and mostly only for those who have postponed childbearing. However, having a third child is not shown to increase happiness. Data from a private opinion American survey, called Success Index, suggests that parenting is deemed important for people, especially for those aged 65 and older as compared to those aged 18 to 35. According to the survey, being a parent is now an integral part of the new American Dream. See also References Further reading External links Childhood

Fixation (psychology)

Fixation is a concept (in human psychology) that was originated by Sigmund Freud (1905) to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits. The term subsequently came to denote object relationships with attachments to people or things in general persisting from childhood into adult life. Freud In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Freud distinguished the fixations of the libido on an incestuous object from a fixation upon a specific, partial aim, such as voyeurism. Freud theorized that some humans may develop psychological fixation due to one or more of the following: A lack of proper gratification during one of the psychosexual stages of development. Receiving a strong impression from one of these stages, in which case the person's personality would reflect that stage throughout adult life. "An excessively strong manifestation of these instincts at a very early age [which] leads to a kind of partial fixation, which then constitutes a weak point in the structure of the sexual function". As Freud's thought developed, so did the range of possible 'fixation points' he saw as significant in producing particular neuroses. However, he continued to view fixation as "the manifestation of very early linkages which it is hard to between instincts and impressions and the objects involved in those impressions". Psychoanalytic therapy involved producing a new transference fixation in place of the old one. The new for example a father-transference onto the may be very different from the old, but will absorb its energies and enable them eventually to be released for non-fixated purposes. Objections Whether a particularly obsessive attachment is a fixation or a defensible expression of love is at times debatable. Fixation to intangibles (i.e., ideas, ideologies, etc.) can also occur. The obsessive factor of fixation is also found in symptoms pertaining to obsessive compulsive disorder, which psychoanalysts linked to a mix of early (pregenital) frustrations and gratifications. Fixation has been compared to psychological imprinting at an early and sensitive period of development. Others object that Freud was attempting to stress the looseness of the ties between libido and object, and the need to find a specific cause any given (perverse or neurotic) fixation. Post-Freudians Melanie Klein saw fixation as inherently pathological – a blocking of potential sublimation by way of repression. Erik H. Erikson distinguished fixation to zone – oral or anal, for example – from fixation to mode, such as taking in, as with his instance of the man who "may eagerly absorb the 'milk of wisdom' where he once desired more tangible fluids from more sensuous containers". Eric Berne, developed his insight further as part of transactional analysis, suggesting that "particular games and scripts, and their accompanying physical symptoms, are based in appropriate zones and modes". Heinz Kohut saw the grandiose self as a fixation upon a normal childhood stage; while other post-Freudians explored the role of fixation in aggression and criminality. In popular culture Coleridge's Christabel has been seen as using witchcraft as a vehicle to explore psychological fixation. Tennyson has been considered to show a romantic fixation on days of old. See also References External links Claude Smadja, "Fixation" Fixation Freudian psychology Psychoanalytic terminology Sexology 1900s neologisms

Obsessive love disorder

Obsessive love disorder (OLD) is a proposed condition in which one person feels an overwhelming obsessive desire to possess and protect another person, sometimes with an inability to accept failure or rejection. Symptoms include an inability to tolerate any time spent without that person, obsessive fantasies surrounding the person, and spending inordinate amounts of time seeking out, making, or looking at images of that person. Characteristics Depending on the intensity of their attraction, obsessive lovers may feel entirely unable to restrain themselves from extreme behaviors such as acts of violence toward themselves or others. The disorder most commonly associated with obsessive love is borderline personality disorder. Other disorders that are most commonly associated with obsessive love include delusional disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other cluster B personality disorders. Psychology Sigmund Freud considered that obsessive love might be underpinned by an unconscious feeling of hate for which it overcompensated - thereby explaining the sufferer's feeling of a need to protect the love object. Later analysts saw obsessive love as driven more by narcissistic need, the preoccupation with the love-object offering defenses against worries and depressive feelings; while Jungians see it as rooted in the projection of the inner self onto another person. In culture Marcel Proust dissected (his own style of) obsessive love in À la recherche du temps perdu. Fatal Attraction shows Alex Forrest's obsessive love for Dan Gallagher after a brief affair. Bollywood films such as Darr, Anjaam, and Dastak each portray the main villains as obsessive lovers. You, a 2014 thriller novel by Caroline Kepnes, portrays obsessive love disorder. The novel was adapted into the first season of the Lifetime and Netflix television series You. See also References Further reading Behavioral addiction Interpersonal relationships Intimate relationships Love Seduction

Student syndrome

Student syndrome refers to planned procrastination, when a student will begin to substantially apply themselves to an assignment or task at the last moment before its deadline. For a person experiencing student syndrome, they only begin to make significant progress when there is a sense of urgency that causes the person to put the proper amount of effort into their task. This eliminates any potential safety margins and puts the person under stress and pressure. An estimated 80 to 95 percent of college students engage in some form of procrastination. The term is used to describe this form of procrastination in general, and does not only apply to students. It has been observed to affect work flow and productivity in a traditional class setting, the manufacturing industry, and professional fields, such as software engineering and engineering management. The term was coined by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his novel Critical Chain. Causes & effects of student syndrome Student syndrome can be caused by poor time management, perfectionism and the fear of failure, overload, or burnout. Poor time management can cause people to fail to properly prioritize their tasks and work on them in a timely manner. Perfectionism can cause people to delay starting to work simply from the need to complete it perfectly, while a fear of failure causes a delay of work to not have to confront the possibility of not doing well on the assignment or task. People who are overloaded or burnt out may struggle to complete work and other responsibilities. Additionally, the nature of work in college and some professional fields, in which students and workers need to structure their own time and effort to manage their work, provides greater opportunity for people to procrastinate, especially those that do not have set methods to self-regulate their work flow. There are also widely accessible distractors, such as video games and text messaging, that can easily tempt people into engaging in more desirable activities. Because of the last minute nature of the work flow under student syndrome, it does not allow for proper adaptability to unexpected issues that arise during the work process. Student syndrome can cause a negative impact to grades or performance reviews, as the limited time to complete tasks can cause people to submit incomplete or underdeveloped work. Additionally, it can affect people's mental health and well-being due to the increase in stress and how it can affect sleep or eating habits, especially later in the semester or project timeline. See also Cramming (education) Hofstadter's law Parkinson's law Pygmalion effect Time management References Personal time management pl:Syndrom studenta

Theory U

Theory U is a change management method and the title of a book by Otto Scharmer. Scharmer with colleagues at MIT conducted 150 interviews with entrepreneurs and innovators in science, business, and society and then extended the basic principles into a theory of learning and management, which he calls Theory U. The principles of Theory U are suggested to help political leaders, civil servants, and managers break through past unproductive patterns of behavior that prevent them from empathizing with their clients' perspectives and often lock them into ineffective patterns of decision-making. Some notes about theory U Fields of attention Thinking (individual) Conversing (group) Structuring (institutions) Ecosystem coordination (global systems) Presencing The author of the theory U concept expresses it as a process or journey, which is also described as Presencing, as indicated in the diagram (for which there are numerous variants). At the core of the "U" theory is presencing: sensing + presence. According to The Learning Exchange, Presencing is a journey with five movements: On that journey, at the bottom of the U, lies an inner gate that requires us to drop everything that isn't essential. This process of letting-go (of our old ego and self) and letting-come (our highest future possibility: our Self) establishes a subtle connection to a deeper source of knowing. The essence of presencing is that these two selves – our current self and our best future self – meet at the bottom of the U and begin to listen and resonate with each other. Once a group crosses this threshold, nothing remains the same. Individual members and the group as a whole begin to operate with a heightened level of energy and sense of future possibility. Often they then begin to function as an intentional vehicle for an emerging future. The core elements are shown below. "Moving down the left side of the U is about opening up and dealing with the resistance of thought, emotion, and will; moving up the right side is about intentionally reintegrating the intelligence of the head, the heart, and the hand in the context of practical applications". Leadership capacities According to Scharmer, a value created by journeying through the "U" is to develop seven essential leadership capacities: Holding the space: listen to what life calls you to do (listen to oneself, to others and make sure that there is space where people can talk) Observing: Attend with your mind wide open (observe without your voice of judgment, effectively suspending past cognitive schema) Sensing: Connect with your heart and facilitate the opening process (i.e. see things as interconnected wholes) Presencing: Connect to the deepest source of your self and will and act from the emerging whole Crystallizing: Access the power of intention (ensure a small group of key people commits itself to the purpose and outcomes of the project) Prototyping: Integrating head, heart, and hand (one should act and learn by doing, avoiding the paralysis of inaction, reactive action, over-analysis, etc.) Performing: Playing the "macro violin" (i.e. find the right leaders, find appropriate social technology to get a multi-stakeholder project going). The sources of Theory U include interviews with 150 innovators and thought leaders on management and change. Particularly the work of Brian Arthur, Francisco Varela, Peter Senge, Ed Schein, Joseph Jaworski, Arawana Hayashi, Eleanor Rosch, Friedrich Glasl, Martin Buber, Rudolf Steiner and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe have been critical. Artists are represented in the project from 2001 -2010 by Andrew Campbell, whose work was given a separate index page linked to the original project site. https://web.archive.org/web/20050404033150/http://www.dialogonleadership.org/indexPaintings.html Today, Theory U constitutes a body of leadership and management praxis drawing from a variety of sources and more than 20 years of elaboration by Scharmer and colleagues. Theory U is translated into 20 languages and is used in change processes worldwide. Meditation teacher Arawana Hayashi has explained how she considers Theory U relevant to "the feminine principle". Earlier work: U-procedure The earlier work by Glasl involved a sociotechnical, Goethean and anthroposophical process involving a few or many co-workers, managers and/or policymakers. It proceeded from phenomenological diagnosis of the present state of the organisation to plans for the future. They described a process in a U formation consisting of three levels (technical and instrumental subsystem, social subsystem and cultural subsystem) and seven stages beginning with the observation of organisational phenomena, workflows, resources etc., and concluding with specific decisions about desired future processes and phenomena. The method draws on the Goethean techniques described by Rudolf Steiner, transforming observations into intuitions and judgements about the present state of the organisation and decisions about the future. The three stages represent explicitly recursive reappraisals at progressively advanced levels of reflective, creative and intuitive insight and (epistemologies), thereby enabling more radically systemic intervention and redesign. The stages are: phenomena – picture (a qualitative metaphoric visual representation) – idea (the organising idea or formative principle) – and judgement (does this fit?). The first three then are reflexively replaced by better alternatives (new idea --> new image --> new phenomena) to form the design design. Glasl published the method in Dutch (1975), German (1975, 1994) and English (1997). The seven stages are shown below. In contrast to that earlier work on the U procedure, which assumes a set of three subsystems in the organization that need to be analyzed in a specific sequence, Theory U starts from a different epistemological view that is grounded in Varela's approach to neurophenomenology. It focuses on the process of becoming aware and applies to all levels of systems change. Theory U contributed to advancing organizational learning and systems thinking tools towards an awareness-based view of systems change that blends systems thinking with systems sensing. On the left-hand side of the U the process is going through the three main "gestures" of becoming aware that Francisco Varela spelled out in his work (suspension, redirection, letting-go). On the right-hand side of the U this process extends towards actualizing the future that is wanting to emerge (letting come, enacting, embodying). Criticism Sociologist Stefan Kühl criticizes Theory U as a management fashion on three main points: First of all, while Theory U posits to create change on all levels, including the level of the individual "self" and the institutional level, case studies mainly focus on clarifying the positions of individuals in groups or teams. Except of the idea of participating in online courses on Theory U, the theory remains silent on how broad organisational or societal changes may take place. Secondly, Theory U, like many management fashions, neglects structural conflicts of interest, for instance between groups, organisations and class. While it makes sense for top management to emphasize common values, visions and the community of all staff externally, Kühl believes this to be problematic if organisations internally believe too strongly in this community, as this may prevent the articulation of conflicting interests and therefore organisational learning processes. Finally, the 5 phase model of Theory U, like other cyclical (but less esoteric) management models, such as PDCA, are a gross simplification of decision-making processes in organisation that are often wilder, less structured and more complex. Kühl argues that Theory U may be useful as it allows management to make decisions despite unsure knowledge and encourages change, but expects that Theory U will lose its glamour. See also Appreciative inquiry Art of Hosting Decision cycle Learning cycle OODA loop V-Model References External links C. Otto Scharmer Home Page Presencing Home Page The U-Process for Discovery Change management

Dynamic psychiatry

Dynamic psychiatry is based on the study of emotional processes, their origins, and the mental mechanisms underlying them. It is in direct contrast with descriptive psychiatry, which is based on the study of observable symptoms and behavioral phenomena rather than underlying psychodynamic processes. Most modern psychiatrists believe that it is most helpful to combine the two approaches in a biopsychosocial model. Schopenhauer is an ancestor of modern dynamic psychiatry. See also Descriptive psychiatry References Psychopathology

Field research

Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct field research may simply observe animals interacting with their environments, whereas social scientists conducting field research may interview or observe people in their natural environments to learn their languages, folklore, and social structures. Field research involves a range of well-defined, although variable, methods: informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis, results from activities undertaken off- or on-line, and life-histories. Although the method generally is characterized as qualitative research, it may (and often does) include quantitative dimensions. History Field research has a long history. Cultural anthropologists have long used field research to study other cultures. Although the cultures do not have to be different, this has often been the case in the past with the study of so-called primitive cultures, and even in sociology the cultural differences have been ones of class. The work is done... in Fields' that is, circumscribed areas of study which have been the subject of social research". Fields could be education, industrial settings, or Amazonian rain forests. Field research may be conducted by ethologists such as Jane Goodall. Alfred Radcliffe-Brown [1910] and Bronisław Malinowski [1922] were early anthropologists who set the models for future work. Conducting field research The quality of results obtained from field research depends on the data gathered in the field. The data in turn, depend upon the field worker, their level of involvement, and ability to see and visualize things that other individuals visiting the area of study may fail to notice. The more open researchers are to new ideas, concepts, and things which they may not have seen in their own culture, the better will be the absorption of those ideas. Better grasping of such material means a better understanding of the forces of culture operating in the area and the ways they modify the lives of the people under study. Social scientists (i.e. anthropologists, social psychologists, etc.) have always been taught to be free from ethnocentrism (i.e. the belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group), when conducting any type of field research. When humans themselves are the subject of study, protocols must be devised to reduce the risk of observer bias and the acquisition of too theoretical or idealized explanations of the workings of a culture. Participant observation, data collection, and survey research are examples of field research methods, in contrast to what is often called experimental or lab research. Field notes When conducting field research, keeping an ethnographic record is essential to the process. Field notes are a key part of the ethnographic record. The process of field notes begin as the researcher participates in local scenes and experiences in order to make observations that will later be written up. The field researcher tries first to take mental notes of certain details in order that they be written down later. Kinds of field notes Field Note Chart Interviewing Another method of data collection is interviewing, specifically interviewing in the qualitative paradigm. Interviewing can be done in different formats, this all depends on individual researcher preferences, research purpose, and the research question asked. Analyzing data In qualitative research, there are many ways of analyzing data gathered in the field. One of the two most common methods of data analysis are thematic analysis and narrative analysis. As mentioned before, the type of analysis a researcher decides to use depends on the research question asked, the researcher's field, and the researcher's personal method of choice. Field research across different disciplines Anthropology In anthropology, field research is organized so as to produce a kind of writing called ethnography. Ethnography can refer to both a methodology and a product of research, namely a monograph or book. Ethnography is a grounded, inductive method that heavily relies on participant-observation. Participant observation is a structured type of research strategy. It is a widely used methodology in many disciplines, particularly, cultural anthropology, but also sociology, communication studies, and social psychology. Its aim is to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, or sub cultural group, or a particular community) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their natural environment, usually over an extended period of time. The method originated in field work of social anthropologists, especially the students of Franz Boas in the United States, and in the urban research of the Chicago School of sociology. Max Gluckman noted that Bronisław Malinowski significantly developed the idea of fieldwork, but it originated with Alfred Cort Haddon in England and Franz Boas in the United States. Robert G. Burgess concluded that "it is Malinowski who is usually credited with being the originator of intensive anthropological field research". Anthropological fieldwork uses an array of methods and approaches that include, but are not limited to: participant observation, structured and unstructured interviews, archival research, collecting demographic information from the community the anthropologist is studying, and data analysis. Traditional participant observation is usually undertaken over an extended period of time, ranging from several months to many years, and even generations. An extended research time period means that the researcher is able to obtain more detailed and accurate information about the individuals, community, and/or population under study. Observable details (like daily time allotment) and more hidden details (like taboo behavior) are more easily observed and interpreted over a longer period of time. A strength of observation and interaction over extended periods of time is that researchers can discover discrepancies between what participants say—and often believe—should happen (the formal system) and what actually does happen, or between different aspects of the formal system; in contrast, a one-time survey of people's answers to a set of questions might be quite consistent, but is less likely to show conflicts between different aspects of the social system or between conscious representations and behavior. Archaeology Field research lies at the heart of archaeological research. It may include the undertaking of broad area surveys (including aerial surveys); of more localised site surveys (including photographic, drawn, and geophysical surveys, and exercises such as fieldwalking); and of excavation. Biology and ecology In biology, field research typically involves studying of free-living wild animals in which the subjects are observed in their natural habitat, without changing, harming, or materially altering the setting or behavior of the animals under study. Field research is an indispensable part of biological science. Animal migration tracking (including bird ringing/banding) is a frequently-used field technique, allowing field scientists to track migration patterns and routes, and animal longevity in the wild. Knowledge about animal migrations is essential to accurately determining the size and location of protected areas. Field research also can involve study of other kingdoms of life, such as plantae, fungi, and microbes, as well as ecological interactions among species. Field courses have been shown to be efficacious for generating long-term interest in and commitment for undergraduate students in STEM, but the number of field courses has not kept pace with demand. Cost has been a barrier to student participation. Consumer research In applied business disciplines, such as in marketing, fieldwork is a standard research method both for commercial purposes, like market research, and academic research. For instance, researchers have used ethnography, netnography, and in-depth interviews within Consumer Culture Theory, a field that aims to understand the particularities of contemporary consumption. Several academic journals such as Consumption Markets & Culture, and the Journal of Consumer Research regularly publish qualitative research studies that use fieldwork. Earth and atmospheric sciences In geology fieldwork is considered an essential part of training and remains an important component of many research projects. In other disciplines of the Earth and atmospheric sciences, field research refers to field experiments (such as the VORTEX projects) utilizing in situ instruments. Permanent observation networks are also maintained for other uses but are not necessarily considered field research, nor are permanent remote sensing installations. Economics The objective of field research in economics is to get beneath the surface, to contrast observed behaviour with the prevailing understanding of a process, and to relate language and description to behavior (Deirdre McCloskey, 1985). The 2009 Nobel Prize Winners in Economics, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, have advocated mixed methods and complex approaches in economics and hinted implicitly to the relevance of field research approaches in economics. In a recent interview Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom discuss the importance of examining institutional contexts when performing economic analyses. Both Ostrom and Williamson agree that "top-down" panaceas or "cookie cutter" approaches to policy problems don't work. They believe that policymakers need to give local people a chance to shape the systems used to allocate resources and resolve disputes. Sometimes, Ostrom points out, local solutions can be the most efficient and effective options. This is a point of view that fits very well with anthropological research, which has for some time shown us the logic of local systems of knowledge — and the damage that can be done when "solutions" to problems are imposed from outside or above without adequate consultation. Elinor Ostrom, for example, combines field case studies and experimental lab work in her research. Using this combination, she contested longstanding assumptions about the possibility that groups of people could cooperate to solve common pool problems, as opposed to being regulated by the state or governed by the market. Edward J. Nell argued in 1998 that there are two types of field research in economics. One kind can give us a carefully drawn picture of institutions and practices, general in that it applies to all activities of a certain kind of particular society or social setting, but still specialized to that society or setting. Although institutions and practices are intangibles, such a picture will be objective, a matter of fact, independent of the state of mind of the particular agents reported on. Approaching the economy from a different angle, another kind of fieldwork can give us a picture of the state of mind of economic agents (their true motivations, their beliefs, state knowledge, expectations, their preferences and values). Business use of field research is an applied form of anthropology and is as likely to be advised by sociologists or statisticians in the case of surveys. Consumer marketing field research is the primary marketing technique that is used by businesses to research their target market. Ethnomusicology Fieldwork in ethnomusicology has changed greatly over time. Alan P. Merriam cites the evolution of fieldwork as a constant interplay between the musicological and ethnological roots of the discipline. Before the 1950s, before ethnomusicology resembled what it is today, fieldwork and research were considered separate tasks. Scholars focused on analyzing music outside of its context through a scientific lens, drawing from the field of musicology. Notable scholars include Carl Stumf and Eric von Hornbostel, who started as Stumpf's assistant. They are known for making countless recordings and establishing a library of music to be analyzed by other scholars. Methodologies began to shift in the early 20th century. George Herzog, an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, published a seminal paper titled "Plains Ghost Dance and Great Basin Music", reflecting the increased importance of fieldwork through his extended residency in the Great Basin and his attention to cultural contexts. Herzog also raised the question of how the formal qualities of the music he was studying demonstrated the social function of the music itself. Ethnomusicology today relies heavily on the relationship between the researcher and their teachers and consultants. Many ethnomusicologists have assumed the role of student in order to fully learn an instrument and its role in society. Research in the discipline has grown to consider music as a cultural product, and thus cannot be understood without consideration of context. Law Legal researchers conduct field research to understand how legal systems work in practice. Social, economic, cultural and other factors influence how legal processes, institutions and the law work (or do not work). Management Mintzberg played a crucial role in the popularization of field research in management. The tremendous amount of work that Mintzberg put into the findings earned him the title of leader of a new school of management, the descriptive school, as opposed to the prescriptive and normative schools that preceded his work. The schools of thought derive from Taylor, Henri Fayol, Lyndall Urwick, Herbert A. Simon, and others endeavored to prescribe and expound norms to show what managers must or should do. With the arrival of Mintzberg, the question was no longer what must or should be done, but what a manager actually does during the day. More recently, in his 2004 book Managers Not MBAs, Mintzberg examined what he believes to be wrong with management education today. Aktouf (2006, p. 198) summed-up Mintzberg observations about what takes place in the field:‘’First, the manager’s job is not ordered, continuous, and sequential, nor is it uniform or homogeneous. On the contrary, it is fragmented, irregular, choppy, extremely changeable and variable. This work is also marked by brevity: no sooner has a manager finished one activity than he or she is called up to jump to another, and this pattern continues nonstop. Second, the manager’s daily work is a not a series of self-initiated, willful actions transformed into decisions, after examining the circumstances. Rather, it is an unbroken series of reactions to all sorts of request that come from all around the manager, from both the internal and external environments. Third, the manager deals with the same issues several times, for short periods of time; he or she is far from the traditional image of the individual who deals with one problem at a time, in a calm and orderly fashion. Fourth, the manager acts as a focal point, an interface, or an intersection between several series of actors in the organization: external and internal environments, collaborators, partners, superiors, subordinates, colleagues, and so forth. He or she must constantly ensure, achieve, or facilitate interactions between all these categories of actors to allow the firm to function smoothly.’’ Public health In public health, the use of the term field research refers to epidemiology or the study of epidemics through the gathering of data about the epidemic (such as the pathogen and vector(s) as well as social or sexual contacts, depending upon the situation). Sociology Pierre Bourdieu played a crucial role in popularizing fieldwork in sociology. During the Algerian War in 1958–1962, Bourdieu undertook ethnographic research into the clash through a study of the Kabyle people (a subgroup of the Berbers), which provided the groundwork for his anthropological reputation. His first book, Sociologie de L'Algerie (The Algerians), was successful in France and published in America in 1962. A follow-up, Algeria 1960: The Disenchantment of the World: The Sense of Honour: The Kabyle House or the World Reversed: Essays, published in English in 1979 by Cambridge University Press, established him as a significant figure in the field of ethnology and a pioneer advocate scholar for more intensive fieldwork in social sciences. The book was based on his decade of work as a participant-observer in Algerian society. One of the outstanding qualities of his work has been his innovative combination of different methods and research strategies and his analytical skills in interpreting the obtained data. Throughout his career, Bourdieu sought to connect his theoretical ideas with empirical research grounded in everyday life. His work can be seen as a sociology of culture, which Bourdieu labeled a "theory of practice". His contributions to sociology were both empirical and theoretical. His conceptual apparatus is based on three key terms: habitus, capital, and field. Furthermore, Bourdieu fiercely opposed rational choice theory as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Bourdieu argued that social agents do not continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. According to Bourdieu, social agents operate according to an implicit practical logic—a practical sense—and bodily dispositions. Social agents act according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field). Bourdieu's anthropological work was focused on the analysis of the mechanisms of reproduction of social hierarchies. Bourdieu criticized the primacy given to the economic factors, and stressed that the capacity of social actors to actively impose and engage their cultural productions and symbolic systems plays an essential role in the reproduction of social structures of domination. Bourdieu's empirical work played a crucial role in the popularization of correspondence analysis and particularly multiple correspondence analysis. Bourdieu held that these geometric techniques of data analysis are, like his sociology, inherently relational. In the preface to his book The Craft of Sociology, Bourdieu argued that: "I use Correspondence Analysis very much, because I think that it is essentially a relational procedure whose philosophy fully expresses what in my view constitutes social reality. It is a procedure that 'thinks' in relations, as I try to do it with the concept of field." One of the classic ethnographies in Sociology is the book Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations & Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod. The study addresses the reproduction of social inequality among low-income, male teenagers. The researcher spent time studying two groups of teenagers in a housing project in a Northeastern city of the United States. The study concludes that three different levels of analysis play their part in the reproduction of social inequality: the individual, the cultural, and the structural. An additional perspective of sociology includes interactionism. This point of view focuses on understanding people's actions based on their experience of the world around them. Similar to Bourdieu's work, this perspective gathers statements, observations and facts from real-world situations to create more robust research outcomes. Notable field-workers In anthropology Napoleon Chagnon - ethnographer of the Yanomamö people of the Amazon Georg Forster - ethnographer (1772–1775) to Captain James Cook George M. Foster Clifford Geertz Alfred Cort Haddon Claude Lévi-Strauss Bronislaw Malinowski Margaret Mead Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown W.H.R. Rivers Renato Rosaldo James C. Scott Colin Turnbull Victor Turner In sociology William Foote Whyte Erving Goffman Pierre Bourdieu Harriet Martineau In management Henry Mintzberg In economics Truman Bewley Alan Blinder Trygve Haavelmo John Johnston Lawrence Klein Wassily Leontief Edward J. Nell Robert M. Townsend In music Alan Lomax John Peel (with his Peel Sessions) See also Citizen science Empirical research Exploration Observational study Participant observation Public Health Advisor Wildlife observation Market research Usability Industrial design Requirements analysis References Further reading Mason, Peter.(2013). "Scientists and Scholars in the Field. Studies in the History of Fieldwork and Expeditions." Journal of the History of Collections. V. 25 (November): 428–430. Robben, Antonius C.G.M. and Jeffrey A. Sluka, eds. (2012). Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. Oxford Wiley-Blackwell. . Nelson, Katie. 2019. “Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology” in Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology 2nd edition, Edited by Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, and Laura Tubelle de González. Arlington: American Anthropological Association. pp. 45–69. External links

Medical model

Medical model is the term coined by psychiatrist R. D. Laing in his The Politics of the Family and Other Essays (1971), for the "set of procedures in which all doctors are trained". It includes complaint, history, physical examination, ancillary tests if needed, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis with and without treatment. The medical model embodies basic assumptions about medicine that drive research and theorizing about physical or psychological difficulties on a basis of causation and remediation. It can be contrasted with other models that make different basic assumptions. Examples include holistic model of the alternative health movement and the social model of the disability rights movement, as well as to biopsychosocial and recovery models of mental disorders. For example, Gregory Bateson's double bind theory of schizophrenia focuses on environmental rather than medical causes. These models are not mutually exclusive. A model is not a statement of absolute reality or a belief system but a tool for helping patients. Thus, utility is the main criterion, and the utility of a model depends on context. Other uses In psychology In psychology, the term medical model refers to the assumption that psychopathology is the result of one's biology, that is to say, a physical/organic problem in brain structures, neurotransmitters, genetics, the endocrine system, etc., as with traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, or Down's syndrome. The medical model is useful in these situations as a guide for diagnosis, prognosis, and research. However, for most mental disorders, exclusive reliance on the medical model leads to an incomplete understanding, and, frequently, to incomplete or ineffective treatment interventions. The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), addresses this point in part, stating, The Critical Psychiatry Network, a group of psychiatrists who critique the practice of psychiatry on many grounds, feel that the medical model for mental illness can result in poor treatment choices. Germ theory of disease The rise of modern scientific medicine during the 19th century has a great impact on the development of the medical model. Especially important was the development of the "germ theory" of disease by European medical researchers such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the physical causes of a variety of diseases were uncovered, which, in turn, led to the development of effective forms of treatment. Concept of "disease" and "injury" The concepts of "disease" and "injury" are central to the medical model. In general, "disease" or "injury" refer to some deviation from normal body functioning that has undesirable consequences for the affected individual. An important aspect of the medical model is that it regards signs (objective indicators such as an elevated temperature) and symptoms (subjective feelings of distress expressed by the patient) as indicative of an underlying physical abnormality (pathology) within the individual. According to the medical model, medical treatment, wherever possible, should be directed at the underlying pathology in an attempt to correct the abnormality and cure the disease. In regard to many mental illnesses, for example, the assumption is that the cause of the disorder lies in abnormalities within the affected individual's brain (especially their brain neurochemistry). That carries the implicit conclusion that disordered behaviors are not learned but are spontaneously generated by the disordered brain. According to the medical model, for treatment (such as drugs), to be effective, it should be directed as closely as possible at correcting the theorized chemical imbalance in the brain of the person with mental illness. Importance of diagnosis Proper diagnosis (that is, the categorization of illness signs and symptoms into meaning disease groupings) is essential to the medical model. Placing the patient's signs and symptoms into the correct diagnostic category can: Provide the physician with clinically useful information about the course of the illness over time (its prognosis); Point to (or at least suggest) a specific underlying cause or causes for the disorder; and Direct the physician to specific treatment or treatments for the condition. For example, if a patient presents to a primary care provider with symptoms of a given illness, by taking a thorough history, performing assessments (such as auscultation and palpation), and, in some cases, ordering diagnostic tests the primary care provider can make a reasonable conclusion about the cause of the symptoms. Based on clinical experience and available evidence, the healthcare professional can identify treatment options that are likely to be successful. Other important aspects Finally, adherence to the medical model has a number of other consequences for the patient and society as a whole, both positive and negative: In the medical model, the physician was traditionally seen as the expert, and patients were expected to comply with the advice. The physician assumes an authoritarian position in relation to the patient. Because of the specific expertise of the physician, according to the medical model, it is necessary and to be expected. However, in recent years, the move towards patient-centered care has resulted in greater patient involvement in many cases. In the medical model, the physician may be viewed as the dominant health care professional, who is the professional trained in diagnosis and treatment. An ill patient should not be held responsible for the condition. The patient should not be blamed or stigmatized for the illness. Under the medical model, the disease condition of the patient is of major importance. Social, psychological, and other "external" factors, which may influence patient behavior, may be given less attention. See also Andersen healthcare utilization model Biomedical model Medical model of disability Reductionism Social constructionism References External links 'Medical model' vs 'social model' British Film Institute Education. Disability Awareness at the University of Sheffield, UK Medical model Open university UK Medical sociology Medical models

Personal care products

Personal care products are consumer products which are applied on various external parts of the body such as skin, hair, nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as teeth and mucous membrane of the oral cavity, in order to make them clean, protect them from harmful germs and keep them in good condition. They promote personal hygiene and overall health, well-being and appearance of those body parts. Toiletries form a narrower category of personal care products which are used for basic hygiene and cleanliness as a part of a daily routine. Cosmetic products, in contrast, are used for personal grooming and beautification (aesthetically enhance a person's appearance). Pharmaceutical products are not considered personal care products. Most of the personal care products are rinsed off immediately after use, such as shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, shower gels, etc. A few personal care products, however, are left on the applied surface such as moisturizing cream, sunscreen, etc. The global market size of the personal care products industry is several hundred billion US Dollars (as of early 2020s). Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Gillette, Avon, Natura & Co, Kimberly-Clark and Shiseido are some of the world-leading companies in personal care products industry. Description Personal care products can be categorized according to their function and area of application. These are cleansing products, hair care products, oral care products, sun care products, skin hydrating products, feminine care products, hair removal products, nail care products, eye care products and anal hygiene products. Cleansing products Cleansing products include hand soaps or bar soaps, shower gels, body washes, facial cleansers, body oils, body lotions, cleansing pads, moist towelettes. They remove dirt, excess oil and other impurities from the surface of the body and improve a person's overall cleanliness. Facial tissues are used to wipe the nasal discharge. Cotton pads are used to remove makeup. Cotton swabs are used to clean outer ear. Bath towels are used to dry up wet areas on the body, face towels are used to dry up wet face. Exfoliating scrubs (loofahs and such) are used for deeper cleansing. Hair care products These include shampoos, hair conditioners, hair oils and hair treatments, and they are used to cleanse, condition and treat hair so that hair is clean and healthy. Scalp massagers promote blood flow in the scalp and scalp serums hydrate and nourish the scalp. Hair removal products Among hair removal products, there are shaving creams, shaving gels, shaving foams, razors, hair clippers, tweezers, epilators, waxing kits, and hair removal creams (e.g. depilatory creams). These are used to remove unwanted hair from various parts of the body. Oral care products These are toothpaste, toothbrush, mouthwash, dental floss, water floss, interdental brush, gum massager, gum gel, etc. They are used to maintain oral hygiene, prevent tooth decay and gum disease, and have healthy teeth and gums. Tongue scrapers are used to remove food debris, dead cells and bacteria from the tongue surface. Denture care products are used to clean artificial dentures. Skin care products These include powders, baby powders, body lotions, hand creams, pomades and facial moisturizers. They are used to hydrate, moisturize, and nourish the skin and keep the skin soft, smooth, and protected. Lip balms keep the lips hydrated. Sun care products Sun care products include lotions, creams, sprays, gels, oils and sticks that act as a sunscreen or a sunblock. They protect the skin from harmful ultraviolet radiation, and as such prevent sunburn, premature aging, and skin cancer. Prickly heat powders prevent or soothe itchy, bumpy and red heat rashes on the skin due to excess heat. Sunglasses and wide-brimmed sun hats are used to protect the eyes from the sun. Feminine care products These include sanitary pads, tampons, menstrual cups, and panty liners. There are used for menstrual hygiene and provide comfort, absorption, and protection during menstruation. Nail care products Nail care products include nail cutters, nail files and cuticle creams. They are used to maintain and enhance the appearance of nails and promote healthy nail growth. Eye care products These include artificial tears or lubricating eye drops to moisturize and soothe the eyes and provide relief from dryness, irritation, and discomfort due to dry eye syndrome or environmental factors; contact lens solutions for cleaning, disinfecting, and storing contact lenses and help remove debris, bacteria, and protein buildup from the lenses, eye drops (typically containing anti-histamines and mast cell stabilizers) for allergies to provide relief from itching, redness, and watering caused by allergic reactions; eye creams, which are special moisturizers for the sensitive skin around the eyes, contain ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, peptides, and antioxidants to hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles; eye serums for puffiness, dark circles, and signs of aging, typically containing ingredients like caffeine, retinol, or vitamin C; eyelid cleansers to clean and soothe the eyelids and eyelashes by removing debris, excess oil, and bacteria and in this way help alleviate eyelid inflammation, blepharitis, or dry eye syndrome; eye masks, which are gel or sheet masks placed over closed eyes to provide cooling, soothing, and hydrating effects, and to help reduce puffiness, relieve tired eyes, and improve the appearance of dark circles. Anal hygiene products Anal hygiene products include toilet papers, bidets and bidet showers. For babies, wet wipes are used. These are used to keep the anal area clean from fecal remains and harmful bacteria after defecation. Forms and additives Personal care products can come in different physical forms such as liquid solutions, solid bars and sticks, semi-solid or emulsion-based mixtures, powders, aerosols, oils, gels, scrubs and sheets. They may contain colorants, fragrances, emollients, surfactants, humectants, thickeners, stabilizers, preservatives, pH adjusters and pH buffers, silicones, chelating agents, film-forming agents, natural extracts, antioxidants, disinfectants and antimicrobials along with the actual product. In addition, there are personal care tools such as toothbrushes, hairbrushes and combs, manual razors and electric shavers, tweezers, nail clippers and files, sponges, pads, scrubs, etc. which help apply the aforementioned products or have their own functions. Hotel application Typical toiletries offered at many hotels include: small bar of soap disposable shower cap small bottle of moisturizer small bottles of shampoo and conditioner toilet paper box of facial tissue face towels disposable shoe polishing cloth Toothpaste Toothbrush Cologne Corporations Some of the major corporations in the personal care industry are: Other corporations, such as pharmacies (e.g. CVS/pharmacy, Walgreens) primarily retail in personal care rather than manufacture personal care products themselves. Environmental impacts See also Cosmetics Sachet Toiletry kit References Personal hygiene products Bathrooms

Schaum's Outlines

Schaum's Outlines is a series of supplementary texts for American high school, AP, and college-level courses, currently published by McGraw-Hill Education Professional, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Education. The outlines cover a wide variety of academic subjects including mathematics, engineering and the physical sciences, computer science, biology and the health sciences, accounting, finance, economics, grammar and vocabulary, and other fields. In most subject areas the full title of each outline starts with Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of, but on the cover this has been shortened to simply Schaum's Outlines followed by the subject name in more recent texts. Background and description The series was originally developed in the 1930s by Daniel Schaum (November 13, 1913 – August 22, 2008), son of eastern European immigrants. McGraw-Hill purchased Schaum Publishing Company in 1967. Titles are continually revised to reflect current educational standards in their fields, including updates with new information, additional examples, use of new technology (calculators and computers), and so forth. New titles are also introduced in emerging fields such as computer graphics. Many titles feature noted authors in their respective fields, such as Murray R. Spiegel and Seymour Lipschutz. Originally designed for college-level students as a supplement to standard course textbooks, each chapter of a typical Outline begins with only a terse explanation of relevant topics, followed by many fully worked examples to illustrate common problem-solving techniques, and ends with a set of further exercises where usually only brief answers are given and not full solutions. Despite being marketed as a supplement, several titles have become widely used as primary textbooks for courses (the Discrete Mathematics and Statistics titles are examples). This is particularly true in settings where an important factor in the selection of a text is the price, such as in community colleges. Easy Outlines Condensed versions of the full Schaum's Outlines called "Easy Outlines" started to appear in the late 1990s, aimed primarily at high-school students, especially those taking AP courses. These typically feature the same explanatory material as their full-size counterparts, sometimes edited to omit advanced topics, but contain greatly reduced sets of worked examples and usually lack any supplementary exercises. As a result, they are less suited to self-study for those learning a subject for the first time, unless they are used alongside a standard textbook or other resource. They cost about half the price of the full outlines, however, and their smaller size makes them more portable. Comparison with other series Schaum's Outlines are part of the educational supplements niche of book publishing. They are a staple in the educational sections of retail bookstores, where books on subjects such as chemistry and calculus may be found. Many titles on advanced topics are also available, such as complex variables and topology, but these may be harder to find in retail stores. Schaum's Outlines are frequently seen alongside the Barron's "Easy Way" series and McGraw-Hill's own "Demystified" series. The "Demystified" series is introductory in nature, for middle and high school students, favoring more in-depth coverage of introductory material at the expense of fewer topics. The "Easy Way" series is a middle ground: more rigorous and detailed than the "Demystified" books, but not as rigorous and terse as the Schaum's series. Schaum's originally occupied the niche of college supplements, and the titles tend to be more advanced and rigorous. With the expansion of AP classes in high schools, Schaum's Outlines are positioned as AP supplements. The outline format makes explanations more terse than any other supplement. Schaum's has a much wider range of titles than any other series, including even some graduate-level titles. See also Barron's Educational Series CliffsNotes SparkNotes References External links Official website Study guides Textbooks Series of mathematics books

Carper's fundamental ways of knowing

In healthcare, Carper's fundamental ways of knowing is a typology that attempts to classify the different sources from which knowledge and beliefs in professional practice (originally specifically nursing) can be or have been derived. It was proposed by Barbara A. Carper, a professor at the College of Nursing at Texas Woman's University, in 1978. The typology identifies four fundamental "patterns of knowing": Empirical Factual knowledge from science, or other external sources, that can be empirically verified. Personal Knowledge and attitudes derived from personal self-understanding and empathy, including imagining one's self in the patient's position. Ethical Attitudes and knowledge derived from an ethical framework, including an awareness of moral questions and choices. Aesthetic Awareness of the immediate situation, seated in immediate practical action; including awareness of the patient and their circumstances as uniquely individual, and of the combined wholeness of the situation. (Aesthetic in this sense is used to mean "relating to the here and now", from the Greek αἰσθάνομαι (aisthanomai), meaning "I perceive, feel, sense"; the reference is not to the consideration of beauty, art and taste). The emphasis on different ways of knowing is presented as a tool for generating clearer and more complete thinking and learning about experiences, and broader self-integration of classroom education. As such it helped crystallize Johns' (1995) framework for reflective investigation to develop reflective practice. The typology has been seen as leading a reaction against over-emphasis on just empirically derived knowledge, so called "scientific nursing", by emphasising that attitudes and actions that are perhaps more personal and more intuitive are centrally important too, and equally fit for discussion. References Social epistemology Nursing theory

Social policy

Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD and DO in healthcare), with social policy deemed more holistic than public policy. Whichever of these persuasions a university adheres to, social policy begins with the study of the welfare state and social services. It consists of guidelines, principles, legislation and associated activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare, such as a person's quality of life. The Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics defines social policy as "an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies' responses to social need", which seeks to foster in its students a capacity to understand theory and evidence drawn from a wide range of social science disciplines, including economics, sociology, psychology, geography, history, law, philosophy and political science. The Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard University describes social policy as "public policy and practice in the areas of health care, human services, criminal justice, inequality, education, and labor". Social policy might also be described as actions that affect the well-being of members of a society through shaping the distribution of and access to goods and resources in that society. Social policy often deals with wicked problems. The discussion of 'social policy' in the United States and Canada can also apply to governmental policy on social issues such as tackling racism, LGBT issues (such as same-sex marriage) and the legal status of abortion, guns, euthanasia, recreational drugs and prostitution. In other countries, these issues would be classified under health policy and domestic policy. The study of social policy can either be a stand-alone degree at providers such as the University of Birmingham, University of York, Oxford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, a specialization as part of a public policy degree program such as at McGill University, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Harris School of Public Policy, and the Hertie School of Governance, or a joint degree along with a similar related degree in social work or public health such as at George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. In the Global South, social policy is offered along with public policy degree programmes, as at the Institute of Public Policy, National Law School of India University, Bangalore, combined with development policy. History Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Social policy was first conceived in the 1940s by Richard Titmuss within the field of social administration in Britain. Titmuss's essay on the "Social Division of Welfare" (1955) laid the development for social policy to gradually absorb social administration. Titmuss was an essayist whose work concerned the failure of the market; the inadequacy of selective social services; and the superiority of collectivism and universal approaches. While some scholars describe social policy as an interdisciplinary field of practice, scholars like Fiona Williams and Pete Alcock believe social policy is a discipline unto itself. Some of the earliest examples of direct intervention by government in human welfare date back to Ancient Rome's Cura Annonae (grain dole) founded in 123 BC, and Umar ibn al-Khattāb's rule as the second caliph of Islam in the 6th century: he used zakat collections and also other governmental resources to establish pensions, income support, child benefits, and various stipends for people of the non-Muslim community. The enactment of English Poor Laws helped curb poverty and recidivism: these laws influenced the justices of Berkshire to implement the Speenhamland system, which was the first social program in the modern sense of that word. In the modern West, proponents of scientific social planning such as the sociologist Auguste Comte, and social researchers, such as Charles Booth, contributed to the emergence of social policymaking in the first industrialised countries following the Industrial Revolution. Surveys of poverty exposing the brutal conditions in the urban slum conurbations of Victorian Britain supplied the pressure leading to changes such as the decline and abolition of the poor law system and Liberal welfare reforms. Other significant examples in the development of social policy are the Bismarckian welfare state in 19th century Germany, social security policies in the United States introduced under the rubric of the New Deal between 1933 and 1935, and both the Beveridge Report and the National Health Service Act 1946 in Britain. Thus, two major models of social insurance arose in practice: Bismarkian welfare from Germany and Beveridgean welfare from Britain. Social policy in the 21st century is complex and in each state it is subject to local and national governments, as well as supranational political influence. For example, membership of the European Union is conditional on member states' adherence to the Social Chapter of European Union law Types Social policy aims to improve human welfare and to meet human needs for education, health, housing and economic security. Important areas of social policy are wellbeing and welfare, poverty reduction, social security, justice, unemployment insurance, living conditions, animal rights, pensions, health care, social housing, family policy, social care, child protection, social exclusion, education policy, crime and criminal justice, urban development, and labor issues. United States social policy The United States was a pioneer in generous social spending (relative to comparable countries), as it provided substantial social spending for Civil War veterans and their families. However, the United States would go on to lag behind other advanced industrial democracies in social spending. Religious, racial, ideological, scientific and philosophical movements and ideas have historically influenced American social policy, for example, John Calvin and his idea of pre-destination and the Protestant Values of hard work and individualism. Moreover, Social Darwinism helped mold America's ideas of capitalism and the survival of the fittest mentality. The Catholic Church's social teaching has also been considerably influential to the development of social policy. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ground breaking New Deal is a paragon example of Social Policy that focused predominantly on a program of providing work and stimulating the economy through public spending on projects, rather than on cash payment. The programs were in response to the Great Depression affecting the United States in the 1930s. United States politicians who have favored increasing government observance of social policy often do not frame their proposals around typical notions of welfare or benefits; instead, in cases like Medicare and Medicaid, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented a package called the Great Society that framed a larger vision around poverty and quality of life. President Lyndon B. Johnson would also attempt to implement education policy under his Great Society package, introducing several programs and laws, such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), and the Bilingual Education Act of 1967 (BEA), and many others. These laws would form the backbone of the education policy changes of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), introduced during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush with bipartisan support. The law took effect on January 8, 2002, attempting to raise standards in education, address educational inequities (framed as an achievement gap), and issues in schools framed as issues of accountability. The No Child Left Behind Act required every state to assess students on basic skills to receive federal funding. While the law did attempt to address issues underlying U.S. education, its provisions were widely viewed as unsuccessful. States continued to create their own standards while assessing themselves. NCLB also led to the closure of numerous schools labeled "low-performing" or "failing", disproportionately impacting schools that served predominately Black students and rural communities. Provisions of NCLB were changed and replaced under the Race to the Top (R2T, RTTT or RTT) and Every Child Succeeds Act (ESSA) passed during the Administration of President Barack Obama. Insurance has been a growing policy topic, and a recent example of health care law as social policy is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act formed by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on March 23, 2010. See also Criminology Education policy Great Society Health policy Housing policy Medicaid Medicare Social insurance Social Security Administration Social Security (United States) Social theory References Further reading Social Policy & Administration Titmuss, R. M. (1951) Problems of social policy. HM Stationery Office. Dean, H. (2006). Social Policy. Cambridge: Polity Press. . Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Ferragina, Emanuele and Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, "Welfare Regime Debate: Past, Present, Futures?" Policy & Politics: 39 (2011): 4: 583–611. Comparative politics

Human relations movement

Human relations movement refers to the researchers of organizational development who study the behaviour of people in groups, particularly in workplace groups and other related concepts in fields such as industrial and organizational psychology. It originated in the 1930s' Hawthorne studies, which examined the effects of social relations, motivation and employee satisfaction on factory productivity. The movement viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts, and it resulted in the creation of the discipline of human relations management. Mayo's work Elton Mayo stressed the following: The power of natural groups, in which social aspects take precedence over functional organizational structures. The need for reciprocal communication, in which communication is two way, from worker to chief executive, as well as vice versa. The development of high quality leadership to communicate goals and to ensure effective and coherent decision making. It has become a concern of all many companies to improve the job-oriented interpersonal skills of employees. The teaching of these skills to employees is referred to as "soft skills" training. Companies need their employees to be able to successfully communicate and convey information, to be able to interpret others' emotions, to be open to others' feelings, and to be able to solve conflicts and arrive at resolutions. By acquiring these skills, the employees, those in management positions, and the customer can maintain more compatible relationships. Arguments against Mayo's involvement in human relations Mayo's work is considered by various academics to be the basic counterpoint of Taylorism and scientific management. Taylorism, founded by Frederick W. Taylor, sought to apply science to the management of employees in the workplace in order to gain economic efficiency through labour productivity. Elton Mayo's work has been widely attributed to the discovery of the 'social person', allowing for workers to be seen as individuals rather than merely robots designed to work for unethical and unrealistic productivity expectations. However, this theory has been contested, as Mayo's purported role in the human relations movement has been questioned. Nonetheless, although Taylorism attempted to justify scientific management as a holistic philosophy, rather than a set of principles, the human relations movement worked parallel to the notion of scientific management. Its aim was to address the social welfare needs of workers and therefore elicit their co-operation as a workforce. The widely perceived view of human relations is said to be one that completely contradicts the traditional views of Taylorism. Whilst scientific management tries to apply science to the workforce, the accepted definition of human relations suggests that management should treat workers as individuals, with individual needs. In doing so, employees are supposed to gain an identity, stability within their job and job satisfaction, which in turn make them more willing to co-operate and contribute their efforts towards accomplishing organisational goals. The human relations movement supported the primacy of organizations to be attributed to natural human groupings, communication and leadership. However, the conventional depiction of the human relations 'school' of management, rising out of the ashes of scientific management is argued to be a rhetorical distortion of events. Firstly, it has been argued that Elton Mayo's actual role in the human relations movement is controversial and although he is attributed to be the founder of this movement, some academics believe that the concept of human relations was used well before the Hawthorne investigations, which sparked the human relations movement. Bruce and Nyland (2011) suggest that many academics preceded Mayo in identifying a concept similar to that of the human relations movement even going as far to suggest that the output and information collected by the Hawthorne investigations was identified well before Mayo by Taylor. In addition, Wren and Greenwood (1998) argue that Taylor made important contributions to what inspires human motivation, even though his ultimate findings were somewhat different from the human relations movement. Another name which has been attributed to pre-existing human relations ideas is that of Henry S. Dennison. The one time president of the Taylor Society has been linked to both Taylorist principles as well human relation ideals thus creating a nexus between Taylorism and human relation thought. Dennison demonstrated an activist concern both with the rationale and character of workers, and with the control and management undertaken by managers of the business enterprise. In order to assess the validity of human relations as a benchmark for rights within the workplace, the contribution of Taylorism in comparison to human relations must be established. Taylorism and scientific management entailed to be a "complete mental revolution" and as Taylor explained, Taylorism sought to encourage managers and labourers to "take their eyes off of the division of the surplus as the important matter, and together turn their attention toward increasing the size of the surplus." This notion of management appealed to the employer as it addressed organisational problems, inefficiencies and adverse employer-employee relations. Scientific management aimed to use science and qualitative data in the selection of employees and facilitate the use of employee databases and performance reviews. Firstly, scientific management aimed to reduce inefficiency through studying the time and motions in work tasks. The object of time studies was to determine how fast a job should and could be done. Secondly, Taylor purported to introduce specific quantitative goals to individual employees in order to provide challenging time restraints and thus increasing productivity. Most importantly, Taylor sought to increase productivity through organization of behaviour. See also Group dynamics People skills Social psychology References Organizational theory Systems psychology Human resource management Industrial and organizational psychology

Risk perception

Risk perception is the subjective judgement that people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk. Risk perceptions often differ from statistical assessments of risk since they are affected by a wide range of affective (emotions, feelings, moods, etc.), cognitive (gravity of events, media coverage, risk-mitigating measures, etc.), contextual (framing of risk information, availability of alternative information sources, etc.), and individual (personality traits, previous experience, age, etc.) factors. Several theories have been proposed to explain why different people make different estimates of the dangerousness of risks. Three major families of theory have been developed: psychology approaches (heuristics and cognitive), anthropology/sociology approaches (cultural theory) and interdisciplinary approaches (social amplification of risk framework). Early theories The study of risk perception arose out of the observation that experts and lay people often disagreed about how risky various technologies and natural hazards were. The mid 1960s saw the rapid rise of nuclear technologies and the promise of clean and safe energy. However, public perception shifted against this new technology. Fears of both longitudinal dangers to the environment and immediate disasters creating radioactive wastelands turned the public against this new technology. The scientific and governmental communities asked why public perception was against the use of nuclear energy when all the scientific experts were declaring how safe it really was. The problem, as non-experts perceived it, was a difference between scientific facts and an exaggerated public perception of the dangers. A key early paper was written in 1969 by Chauncey Starr. Starr used a revealed preference approach to find out what risks are considered acceptable by society. He assumed that society had reached equilibrium in its judgment of risks, so whatever risk levels actually existed in society were acceptable. His major finding was that people will accept risks 1,000 times greater if they are voluntary (e.g. driving a car) than if they are involuntary (e.g. a nuclear disaster). This early approach assumed that individuals behave rationally by weighing information before making a decision, and that individuals have exaggerated fears due to inadequate or incorrect information. Implied in this assumption is that additional information can help people understand true risk and hence lessen their opinion of danger. While researchers in the engineering school did pioneer research in risk perception, by adapting theories from economics, it has little use in a practical setting. Numerous studies have rejected the belief that additional information alone will shift perceptions. Psychological approach The psychological approach began with research in trying to understand how people process information. These early works maintained that people use cognitive heuristics in sorting and simplifying information, leading to biases in comprehension. Later work built on this foundation and became the psychometric paradigm. This approach identifies numerous factors responsible for influencing individual perceptions of risk, including dread, novelty, stigma, and other factors. Research also shows that risk perceptions are influenced by the emotional state of the perceiver. The valence theory of risk perception only differentiates between positive emotions, such as happiness and optimism, and negative ones, such as fear and anger. According to valence theory, positive emotions lead to optimistic risk perceptions whereas negative emotions influence a more pessimistic view of risk. Research also has found that, whereas risk and benefit tend to be positively correlated across hazardous activities in the world, they are negatively correlated in people's minds and judgements. Heuristics and biases The earliest psychometric research was done by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who performed a series of gambling experiments to see how people evaluated probabilities. Their major finding was that people use a number of heuristics to evaluate information. These heuristics are usually useful shortcuts for thinking, but they may lead to inaccurate judgments in some situations – in which case they become cognitive biases. Representativeness: is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event belongs to a class / processes by its similarity: insensitivity to prior probability insensitivity to sample size misconception of chance insensitivity to predictability illusion of validity misconception of regression Availability heuristic: events that can be more easily brought to mind or imagined are judged to be more likely than events that could not easily be imagined: biases due to retrievability of instances biases due to the effectiveness of research set biases of imaginability illusory correlation Anchoring and Adjustment heuristic: people will often start with one piece of known information and then adjust it to create an estimate of an unknown risk – but the adjustment will usually not be big enough: insufficient adjustment biases in the evaluation of conjunctive and disjunctive event (conjunction fallacy) anchoring in the assessment of subjective probability distributions Asymmetry between gains and losses: People are risk averse with respect to gains, preferring a sure thing over a gamble with a higher expected utility but which presents the possibility of getting nothing. On the other hand, people will be risk-seeking about losses, preferring to hope for the chance of losing nothing rather than taking a sure, but smaller, loss (e.g. insurance). Threshold effects: People prefer to move from uncertainty to certainty over making a similar gain in certainty that does not lead to full certainty. For example, most people would choose a vaccine that reduces the incidence of disease A from 10% to 0% over one that reduces the incidence of disease B from 20% to 10%. Another key finding was that the experts are not necessarily any better at estimating probabilities than lay people. Experts were often overconfident in the exactness of their estimates, and put too much stock in small samples of data. Cognitive Psychology The majority of people in the public express a greater concern for problems which appear to possess an immediate effect on everyday life such as hazardous waste or pesticide-use than for long-term problems that may affect future generations such as climate change or population growth. People greatly rely on the scientific community to assess the threat of environmental problems because they usually do not directly experience the effects of phenomena such as climate change. The exposure most people have to climate change has been impersonal; most people only have virtual experience through documentaries and news media in what may seem like a “remote” area of the world. However, coupled with the population’s wait-and-see attitude, people do not understand the importance of changing environmentally destructive behaviors even when experts provide detailed and clear risks caused by climate change. Psychometric paradigm Research within the psychometric paradigm turned to focus on the roles of affect, emotion, and stigma in influencing risk perception. Melissa Finucane and Paul Slovic have been among the key researchers here. These researchers first challenged Starr's article by examining expressed preference – how much risk people say they are willing to accept. They found that, contrary to Starr's basic assumption, people generally saw most risks in society as being unacceptably high. They also found that the gap between voluntary and involuntary risks was not nearly as great as Starr claimed. Slovic and team found that perceived risk is quantifiable and predictable. People tend to view current risk levels as unacceptably high for most activities. All things being equal, the greater people perceived a benefit, the greater the tolerance for a risk. If a person derived pleasure from using a product, people tended to judge its benefits as high and its risks as low. If the activity was disliked, the judgments were opposite. Research in psychometrics has proven that risk perception is highly dependent on intuition, experiential thinking, and emotions. Psychometric research identified a broad domain of characteristics that may be condensed into three high order factors: 1) the degree to which a risk is understood, 2) the degree to which it evokes a feeling of dread, and 3) the number of people exposed to the risk. A dread risk elicits visceral feelings of terror, uncontrollable, catastrophe, inequality, and uncontrolled. An unknown risk is new and unknown to science. The more a person dreads an activity, the higher its perceived risk and the more that person wants the risk reduced. Anthropology/sociology approach The anthropology/sociology approach posits risk perceptions as produced by and supporting social institutions. In this view, perceptions are socially constructed by institutions, cultural values, and ways of life. Cultural theory One line of the Cultural Theory of risk is based on the work of anthropologist Mary Douglas and political scientist Aaron Wildavsky first published in 1982. In cultural theory, Douglas and Wildavsky outline four “ways of life” in a grid/group arrangement. Each way of life corresponds to a specific social structure and a particular outlook on risk. Grid categorizes the degree to which people are constrained and circumscribed in their social role. The tighter binding of social constraints limits individual negotiation. Group refers to the extent to which individuals are bounded by feelings of belonging or solidarity. The greater the bonds, the less individual choice are subject to personal control. Four ways of life include: Hierarchical, Individualist, Egalitarian, and Fatalist. Risk perception researchers have not widely accepted this version of cultural theory. Even Douglas says that the theory is controversial; it poses a danger of moving out of the favored paradigm of individual rational choice of which many researchers are comfortable. On the other hand, writers who drawn upon a broader cultural theory perspective have argued that risk-perception analysis helps understand the public response to terrorism in a way that goes far beyond 'rational choice'. As John Handmer and Paul James write: National Culture and Risk Survey The First National Culture and Risk Survey of cultural cognition found that a person's worldview on the two social and cultural dimensions of "hierarchy-egalitarianism," and "individualism-solidarism" was predictive of their response to risk. Interdisciplinary approach Social amplification of risk framework The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), combines research in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and communications theory. SARF outlines how communications of risk events pass from the sender through intermediate stations to a receiver and in the process serve to amplify or attenuate perceptions of risk. All links in the communication chain, individuals, groups, media, etc., contain filters through which information is sorted and understood. The framework attempts to explain the process by which risks are amplified, receiving public attention, or attenuated, receiving less public attention. The framework may be used to compare responses from different groups in a single event, or analyze the same risk issue in multiple events. In a single risk event, some groups may amplify their perception of risks while other groups may attenuate, or decrease, their perceptions of risk. The main thesis of SARF states that risk events interact with individual psychological, social and other cultural factors in ways that either increase or decrease public perceptions of risk. Behaviors of individuals and groups then generate secondary social or economic impacts while also increasing or decreasing the physical risk itself. These ripple effects caused by the amplification of risk include enduring mental perceptions, impacts on business sales, and change in residential property values, changes in training and education, or social disorder. These secondary changes are perceived and reacted to by individuals and groups resulting in third-order impacts. As each higher-order impacts are reacted to, they may ripple to other parties and locations. Traditional risk analyses neglect these ripple effect impacts and thus greatly underestimate the adverse effects from certain risk events. Public distortion of risk signals provides a corrective mechanism by which society assesses a fuller determination of the risk and its impacts to such things not traditionally factored into a risk analysis. See also Risk Risk communication Cultural theory of risk Fuzzy-trace theory Foresight References Notes External links "Fear of Crime and Perceived Risk." Oxford Bibliographies Online: Criminology. Risk Probability assessment Perception

Szondi test

The Szondi test is a 1935 nonverbal projective personality test developed by Léopold Szondi. It has been rated by mental health professionals as one of the top five most discredited psychological tests. Theoretical background Drive theory and drive diagram In contrast to Freud's work, Szondi's approach is based on a systematic drive theory and a dimensional model of personality. That is, Szondi means to enumerate all human drives, classifying and framing them within a comprehensive theory. Szondi drive system is built on the basis of eight drive needs, each corresponding to a collective archetype of instinctive action. They are: the h-drive need, (named after hermaphroditism, which represents the needs for personal or collective love, tenderness, motherliness, passivity, femininity, bisexuality), the sadist drive need the e-drive need (named after epilepsy, which represents coarse emotions such as anger, hatred, rage, envy, jealousy and revenge, which simmer until they are suddenly and explosively discharged as if in a seizure, to the surprise and shock of other people), the hysteric drive need the Catatonic drive need the paranoid drive need the depressive drive need the maniac drive need The eight drive needs represent archetypes and are present in all individuals in different proportions; a fundamental assumption of Fate analysis is that the difference between mental "illness" and mental "health" is not qualitative but quantitative. A whole drive (Triebe, in Szondi's own terms), like the sexual drive S, is composed of a pair of two opposite drive needs (Triebbedürfnisse), in this case h (tender love) and s (sadism). Each drive need in turn has a positive and negative striving (Triebstrebung), for instance h+ (personal tender love) and h- (collective love), or s+ (sadism toward the other) and s- (masochism). The four whole drives correspond to the four independent hereditary circles of mental illness established by the psychiatric genetics of the time: the schizoform drive (containing the paranoid and the catatonic drive needs), the manic-depressive drive, the paroxysmal drive (including the epileptic and hysteric drive needs), and the sexual drive (including the hermaphrodite and the sadomasochist drive needs). Szondi's drive diagram has been described as his major discovery and achievement. It has also been described as a revolutionary addition to psychology, and as paving the way for a theoretical psychiatry and a psychoanalytical anthropology. Szondi theory organizes phenomenons like: Antisocial personality disorder, paraphilia subtypes, histrionic personality disorder (P++), paranoid proper as "projective paranoid", narcissistic personality disorder as "inflative paranoid", blunted affect (P00), panic disorder (P--), phobia (P+0), hypochondria (Cm-), stupor (-hy), somatization and pain disorder as organ neurosis, conversion disorder (in Pe+, Phy and Schk- danger classes), dissociative fugue (Sch±- and C+0), paroxysmal attack (Sch±-), depersonalization disorder and alienation (Sch-±), obsessive–compulsive disorder and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (Sch±+). The drive factors and vectors in detail Fate analysis and anthropology Szondi analysis of destiny approach is based an anthropological preoccupation. Szondi's main philosophical references for the concept of fate are Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (1818) and Heidegger's Being and Time (1927). Fate analysis of a patient is based on the test score, the patient medical history, and his family background through a genealogical tree. Fate analysis includes Genotropism, a form of depth psychology that had some prominence in Europe in the mid-20th century, but has been ignored for the most part. The starting assumption of fate analysis is that a person's life (destiny) unfolds in a series of elections: one chooses an occupation, acquaintances, partners, family, and ultimately his decisions implicitly selects his illnesses and his death. Szondi's experience in genealogy research led him to believe that these elections can not be considered only as the individual sovereign decision, but that such choices often follow certain patterns that preexisted within his family ancestors. Szondi concluded that some life choices are genetically inherited. Profession choice and fate Szondi argued that his research showed that profession choices are determined by the dynamic and structure of the psyche, a phenomenon that he called operotropism. Of the many possibilities in which operotropism can manifest itself, he gave two examples. A man may choose a profession in which he can engage with individuals with related inclinations; this is the case of a psychiatrist with paranoid schizoform inclinations, or a lawyer with querulant inclinations and an addiction to litigation. The second example of operotropism is a man that chooses a profession in which he can satisfy in a socially acceptable manner needs that in their original primary form would constitute a danger for society. This is the case of pyromania-firefighter, sadism-butcher, coprophilia-intestine or -drain cleaner. Most jobs can satisfy more than one drive need. Professions of the sexual circle Hermaphrodite professions The work object of the hermaphrodite professions is the body (own or other); the work circumstances are bathhouse, beach, barber shop, restaurant, café, theater, circus, millinery, brothel; the main sensory perceptions are taste and sight; work instruments are jewelry, clothing; professional activities are eyelining, make-up, handcraft, weaving, embroidery, darning. Jobs of the hermaphrodite type are hairdresser, esthetician, dermatologist, gynecologist, bath house, beauty parlor and spa worker, fashion illustrator, performing artist (vaudeville, acrobat, circus performer), singer, ballet dancers, dance artists, servant, waiter, hotel manager, confectioner, cook. Criminal, or most socially negative, activities of hermaphrodite type are fraud, embezzlement, spy, prostitute, pimp, procuring. The most socially positive professions are gynecologist and sexual pathologist. Sadistic professions The work objects of the sadistic professions are animals, stone, iron, metal, machinery, soil, wood; the work circumstances are stall, slaughterhouse, animal breeding facilities, zoo, arena, mine, forest, mountain, operating theater, dissecting room; the main sensory perceptions are depth perception and muscle sense; work instruments are the primordial tools: ax, hatchet, pickaxe, chisel, hammer, drill, knife, whip; the work activity is big muscle work. Sadistic jobs type are truck driver, farm servant, animal tamer, veterinary, manicure, pedicure, animal slaughter, surgical nurse, surgeon, dentist, anatomist, hangman, forestry worker, lumberjack, stonemason, miner, road worker, sculptor, chauffeur, soldier, wrestler, physical education teacher, gym instructor, masseur. Schizoform professions Katatonoid professions The work objects of the katatonoid professions are the reproductive and abstract sciences: logic, maths, physics, aesthetics, geography, grammar, and so on; the work circumstances are closed spaces, classrooms, archives, libraries, "ivory towers," monasteries; the sensory perceptions are turned off; work instruments are books; professional activities are writing, reading. Jobs of the schizoform, katatonoid, drive striving k+: pedagogue, soldier, engineer, professor (mainly linguist, or professor of logic, mathematics, physics, philosophy, social sciences). Personality traits found in this group are aristocratic exclusivity, eccletic friendship choices, systematizate, schematize, rigid formalism. Jobs of the schizoform, katatonic, drive striving k-: aesthetician, art critic; accountant, lower officer, cartographer, technical drafter, graphic designer; postal worker, telegraph operator; printer; farmer, forester; lighthouse keeper, security guard; model. Personality traits found in this group are pedantry, accuracy, exemplarity; lack of humor, taciturnity, brusqueness; phlegm, callousness, calm; hypersensitivity; obstinacy, stubbornness; Inability to debate, self-consciousness; narrow-mindedness, bigotry; compulsiveness, automation, mannerisms; Feeling of omnipotence, autism; inability to be absorbed in the other (auto psychological resonance); taciturnity, immobility, all-having. Criminal, or most socially negative, activities of katatonic type are work aversion, lone vagrancy, world wanderer, burglary. On the other extreme of the spectrum, the most socially positive professions are professor, logician, philosopher, aesthetician, theoretical mathematician, physicist. Paranoid professions The work objects of the paranoid professions are the pragmatic and analytic sciences (psychology, psychiatry, medicine, chemistry), music, mysticism, mythology, occultism; the work circumstances are research institutes, labs, chemical factories, exotic places, the depths of the mind and of the Earth, mental hospital, prison; the main sensory perceptions are olfaction and hearing; work instruments are ideas, creativity, inspiration. The hebephrenic group belongs to the schizoform professions and partially overlaps with the paranoid professions. Hebephrenic jobs include graphologist and astrologer. Paroxymal professions Epileptiform professions The work objects of the epileptiform professions are the primordial elements earth, fire, water, air, spirit; the work circumstances are height/depth, rise/fall, waves/swirling motion (turning in circle); the main sensory perceptions are balance and olfaction; work instruments are means of transportation: bicycle, electric or conventional train, boat, automobile, aircraft; professional activities are locomotion and moving occupations for the striving e-, and praying (silence), devotion, care, help, charity for the striving e+. Jobs of the epileptiform, "Cain" striving e- include: porter (bellhop), carter (truck driver), sailor, able seaman, chauffeur, aviator; blacksmith, stoker, oven operator, chimney sweep, firefighter, pyrotechnician, baker; soldier (especially flamethrowers, explosive departments like grenadier, pioneer, stormtrooper). While those of the "Moses" striving e+ group include: priest, missionary woman, nun, monk, "protectress", public health doctor. Criminal, or most socially negative, epileptiform activities are kleptomania, pyromania, crime of passion, while the most socially positive are religious professions, health care provider, forensic pathology. Hysteriform professions The work object of the hysteriform professions is the own person; the work circumstances are audience, theatre, meeting, mass, street; work instruments and activities are playing with oneself, facial expressions, the voice, colour and movement effects. Jobs of the hysteriform group include: acting (in females, amazons and tragic heroines roles); politics professionals: member of parliament, chief of Bureau or in factory; car driver; animal tamer; market woman, town crier, barker; performing artist (vaudeville, acrobat, circus performer), orator; model; sports: swordsmanship, horseback riding, hunting, wrestling and mountain climbing. A criminal, or most socially negative, epiletiform activity is impostor, while the most socially positive are politician, actor. Test description It is a projective personality test, the same category of the most-known Rorschach test, but with the crucial difference of being nonverbal. The test consists in showing the examinee a series of facial photographs, displayed in six groups of eight each. All 48 subjects featured in the photographs are mental patients, each group containing a photo of a person whose personality had been classified as homosexual, a sadist, an epileptic, an hysteric, a katatonic, a paranoid, a depressive and a maniac. The subject is asked to choose the two most appealing and the two most repulsive photos of each group. The choices will supposedly reveal the subject satisfied and unsatisfied instinctive drive needs, and the subject's dimensions of personality. Each photo is supposed to be a stimulus apt to detect the pulsional drive tendencies of the examinee, from which the main personality traits can surface. Szondi further broke down the results into four different vectors: a homosexual/sadistic, epileptic/hysterical, catatonic/paranoid and depressive/manic. To interpret the test scores, a variety of methods have been developed by Szondi himself and other researchers. They can be classified as quantitative, qualitative and proportional methods. Accomplishments and results Szondi said that from a sociological perspective, the most important discovery made through fate psychology has been operotropism, that is the discerning of the role played by latent inherited genes (genotropic factors) in the choice of a particular vocation or profession. Production The Szondi test is a psychological exam named after its Jewish Hungarian creator, Léopold Szondi in the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest Hungary. The test was first formulated by Szondi around 1935. In 1944, Szondi published Schicksalsanalyse ("Fate analysis"), the first of a five volume series. Forms of existence In 1960 Szondi began to collaborate with psychotherapeut Armin Beeli on 17 "forms of existence", divided in two main groups "forms of danger" (Gefährexistenzformen) and "forms of protection" (Schutzexistenzformen). On the basis of the syndromatics (diagnotisc method) published in book 3 (1952) and 4 (1956) of the Schicksalsanalyse, one or two (rarely three) forms of existence are detected from each test profile. First results of this research were published in 1963. Szondi condensed the syndromatics into a table called Testsymptome zur Bestimmung der 17 Existenzformen (test symptoms for the identification of the 17 existence forms), which was published in Szondiana VI (1966) and in the final edition of book 2 (1972). However, the table alone is not sufficient, as analysis of the forms existence still demands "solid knowledge and practice of Syndromatik", in addition to thorough training in Fate Analysis thinking. Origin of the photographs 30 of the 48 photographs were taken from Wilhelm Weygandt's 1901 Atlas und Grundriss der Psychiatrie, which is now in the public domain. Of the remaining 18 pictures: four were from Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexuelle Zwischenstufen: Das männliche Weib und der weibliche Mann (1918); two were from Otto Binswanger's Die Hysterie (1904); one was from Theodor Kirchhoff's Der Gesichtsausdruck und seine Bahnen beim Gesunden und Kranken, besonders beim Geisteskranken (The facial expression and its paths among the healthy and the sick, especially the mentally ill) published in 1904, Lehrbuch der Irrenheilkunde; one was from Friedrich Scholz's Lehrbuch der Irrenheilkunde : für Aerzte und Studirende (1892). Six photos were from a criminologic clinic in Stockholm (the Swedish Institute of Criminal Psychiatry) directed by St. Strobl. and four were taken by Szondi himself in Hungary. The shock element of the photos is crucial. Commenting an experiment with alternative pictures of mental patients, Szondi argued that since the photos used were nicer or less disturbing, they failed to trigger the responses that the test is supposed to. The dispute on statistics The Szondi test is not widely used in modern clinical psychology, because its psychometric properties are weak. However, it remains in the history of psychology as one of the well-known psychological instruments, although its use today is marginal, being replaced by modern psychological instruments, with good psychometric properties. Influences Szondi Fate analysis has influenced philosophers Henri Niel, Alphonse De Waelhens and Henry Maldiney, and psychiatrist Jacques Schotte. In 1949, Susan Deri published the first English language description to the Szondi test. Some graphologists attempted to integrate the szondi test with graphological test; however, Sonzdi was not a graphologist and the goal of his test was in contrast with graphology. In 1959, the international Szondi Society was established, and holds a symposium every three years. In 1969, The Szondi Institute was formed, and published from Zurich the journal Szondiana. Artist Kurt Kren created a motion picture, 2/60 48 Köpfe aus dem Szondi-Test, from the still shots of the Szondi test in 1964. Szondi books on fate analysis Main books series Szondi's main work is his five volume series on fate analysis (Schicksalsanalyse). They were first published from 1944 (volume one) to 1963 (volume five). The first two were later republished in multiple revised editions. They are: Das erste Buch: Schicksalsanalyse. Wahl in Liebe, Freundschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod. B. Schwabe, Basel, 1944. (2nd edition 1948, 3rd edition 1965, fourth edition 1978) Das zweite Buch: Lehrbuch der Experimentellen Triebdiagnostik (Textband). Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1947. (1st edition 308pp, 2nd edition 1960 443pp, 3rd edition 1972 484pp) This is the book in which Szondi explains in details how to perform and interpret the test. Only the first edition, which would be completely overhauled in 1960, was translated into English as Experimental Diagnostics of Drives (1952). The 1972 third edition added a 40-page long appendix, that included a table to help determine the dangerous and the protective forms of existence. The Textband (text volume) is complemented by two additional (smaller) volumes, sold separately: Band 2: Testband, which contains the photographs and additional material to take the test, and Band 3: Trieblinnäus-Band (classification of instincts). Das dritte Buch: Triebpathologie, also called and classified as Triebpathologie, Band I (Drive pathology, volume I), and subtitled Elemente der exakten Triebpsychologie und Triebpsychiatrie. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1952. Composed of two parts: part A Elemente der exakten Triebpsychologie (Teil 1 Dialektische Trieblehre pp. 37–156, Teil 2 Dialektische Methodik pp. 159–234), and part B Elemente der exakten Triebpsychiatrie (Teil 3 Klinische Psychologie, Experimentelle Syndromatik pp. 237–509). Part A and B have been republished, with no changes (unverändert Auflage), in two separate volumes: Part A as Triebpathologie: Dialektische Trieblehre und dialektische Methodik der Testanalyse(1977, 234pp); part B as Triebpathologie: Elemente der exakten Triebpsychiatrie: Klinische Psychologie, experimentelle Syndromatik, Volume 1 (with unchanged page numbers). (1977, pp. 235–543) Das vierte Buch: Ich-Analyse, subtitled Die Grundlage zur Vereinigung der Tiefenpsychologie. Zweiter in sich abgeschlossener Band der Triebpathologie. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1956. Das fünfte Buch: Schicksalsanalytische Therapie, subtitled Ein Lehrbuch der passiven und aktiven analytischen Psychotherapie. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1963. (see pp. 157–170). Introductory conferences In 1963, after finishing the fifth volume, he published Introduction to Fate Analysis; it is a short book that collects conferences he held at the University of Zurich the previous year, with the aim of introducing to a larger public the most important results of his research. The conference collection was first published in French translation, as they were unpublished in German. A second tome of introductory conferences has also been published: Introduction à l'analyse du destin. Tome I : Psychologie générale du destin, Translated by Claude van Reeth, 1972. Introduction à l'analyse du destin. Tome II : Psychologie spéciale du destin, 1983. Other works Other works by Szondi include: Analysis of Marriages. An attempt at a theory of choice in love. Acta Psychologica, 1937. Kain. Gestalten des Bösen. Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1969. Moses. Antwort auf Kain. Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1973. Die Triebentmischten (Drive separation) Bern: Huber, 1980 Integration der Triebe: die Triebvermischten (Integration of drives: the drive mixing). Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1984 See also Big Five personality traits Trait theory Values scales Notes References Szondi, L. (1972) Introduction à l'analyse du destin, Tome I Further reading Achtnich, Martin (1979) Der Berufsbilder-Test Johnston, Arthur C. (2012) Szondi Test and Its Interpretation: 2012 Szondiana Szondi, Lipod; Moser, Ulrich; Webb, Marvin W (1959) "The Szondi Test in Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment" J. B. Lippincott Company Achtnich, Martin (1979) Der Berufsbilder-Test Johnston, Arthur C. (2012) Szondi Test and Its Interpretation: 2012 Deri, Susan (1949) Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice Beeli, Armin Psychotherapie-Prognose mit Hilfe der experimentellen Triebdiagnostik. Abhandlungen z. experimentellen Triebforschung u. Schicksalspsychologie. N. IV. H. Huber, Bern u. Stuggart, 1965 External links The Szondi Forum Szondi Institute (in German) International Szondi Association Homepage of CEP (Centre d'études pathoanalytiques) Faces of Madness: Seeing abnormality through photography (Explanation of test with photographs) Homepage of Szondi-Institute (in German) Homepage of CEP (Centre d’Etudes Pathoanalytiques) Scoring-spreadsheet in Excel and Openoffice Calc format. Can be set to English, French, German, Dutch A minor online version of the test (in French) Szondi test app for Android Home page of Tokio Szondi Gesellschaft(in Japan) en la psiqiatria – 75. El test de Szondi. LIFE 12 Apr 1948, pp. 67–9 Sonzi test, drawings and keys of all 48 portraits of the test Artistic rendering of the 48 portraits Projective tests Mental disorders screening and assessment tools Personality tests

First impression (psychology)

In psychology, a first impression is the event when one person first encounters another person and forms a mental image of that person. Impression accuracy varies depending on the observer and the target (person, object, scene, etc.) being observed. First impressions are based on a wide range of characteristics: age, race, culture, language, gender, physical appearance, accent, posture, voice, number of people present, economic status, and time allowed to process. The first impressions individuals give to others could greatly influence how they are treated and viewed in many contexts of everyday life. Speed and accuracy It takes just one-tenth of a second for people to judge someone and make a first impression. Research finds that the more time participants are afforded to form the impression, the more confidence in impressions they report. Not only are people quick to form first impressions, they are also fairly accurate when the target presents themself genuinely. People are generally not good at perceiving feigned emotions or detecting lies upon a first encounter. Research participants who reported forming accurate impressions of specific targets did tend to have more accurate perceptions of specific targets that aligned with others' reports of the target. Individuals are also fairly reliable at understanding the first impression that they will project to others. However, people are not as good at understanding how well other people like them, and most people tend to underestimate how much other people like them. This phenomenon is called the liking gap. The rate at which different qualities are detected in first impressions may be linked to what has been important to survival from an evolutionary perspective. For example, trustworthiness and attractiveness were the two traits most quickly detected and evaluated in a study of human faces. People are fairly good at assessing personality traits of others in general, but there appears to be a difference in first impression judgments between older and younger adults. Older adults judged young adult target photos as healthier, more trustworthy, and less hostile, but more aggressive, than younger adults did of the same photos. Older adults could have a lower response to negative cues due to a slower processing speed, causing them to see facial features on young adults as more positive than younger adults do. Number of observers One's first impressions are affected by whether they're alone or with any number of people. Joint experiences are more globally processed (see global precedence for more on processing), as in collectivist cultures. Global processing emphasizes first impressions more because the collective first impression tends to remain stable over time. Solo experiences tend to facilitate local processing, causing the viewer to take a more critical look at the target. Thus, individuals are more likely to have negative first impressions than groups of two or more viewers of the same target. At the same time, individuals are more likely to experience an upward trend over the course of a series of impressions, e.g. individual viewers will like the final episode of a TV season more than the first even if it is really the same quality. When viewing pieces of art in an experiment, participants in a solo context rated art in an improving sequence significantly higher than when the targets are presented in a declining sequence. When viewing the art in a joint context, participants evaluated the first and last pieces similarly in both kinds of sequence. Simply priming viewers to feel like they were in solo or joint contexts or to process analytically or holistically was enough to produce the same viewing effects. Cultural influences Individualism versus collectivism Similar to the number of viewers present, collectivism versus individualism can influence impression formation. Collectivists are at ease as long as their impressions are largely in alignment with the larger group's impressions. When a collectivist wants to change their impression, they may be compelled to change the views of all group members. However, this could be challenging for collectivists, who tend to be less confrontational than individualists. Individualists are willing to change their own views at will and are generally more comfortable with uncertainty, which makes them naturally more willing to change their impressions. Influence of media richness There is no research regarding if national culture mediates the relationship between media richness and bias in impression formation. Some studies that manipulated media richness have found that information presented in text form yields similar impressions (measured by reported appraisal scores) among cultures, while other studies found that richer forms of information such as videos reduce cross-cultural bias more effectively. The latter findings support Media Richness Theory. Accents and speech Accents and unique speech patterns can influence how people are perceived by those to whom they are speaking. For example, when hypothetically interviewing an applicant with a Midwestern U.S. accent, Colombian accent, or French accent, Midwestern U.S. participants evaluated the U.S. accent as significantly more positive than the applicant with the French accent due to perceived similarity to themselves. The evaluation of the applicant with the Colombian accent did not, however, differ significantly from the other two. First impressions can be heavily influenced by a similarity-attraction hypothesis where others are immediately put into "similar" or "dissimilar" categories from the viewer and judged accordingly. Physical characteristics and personality Although populations from different cultures can be quick to view others as dissimilar, there are several first impression characteristics that are universal across cultures. When comparing trait impressions of faces among U.S. and the culturally isolated Tsimane' people of Bolivia, there was between-culture agreement when ascribing certain physical features to descriptive traits such as attractiveness, intelligence, health, and warmth. Both cultures also show a strong attractiveness halo when forming impressions, meaning that those seen as attractive were also rated as more competent, sociable, intelligent, and healthy. Physical appearance Faces and features Physical appearance gives clear clues as to a person's personality without them ever having to speak or move. Women tend to be better than men at judging nonverbal behavior. After viewing pictures of people in a neutral position and in a self-chosen posed position, observers were accurate at judging the target's levels of extraversion, emotional stability, openness, self-esteem, and religiosity. The combined impression of physical characteristics, body posture, facial expression, and clothing choices lets observers form accurate images of a target's personality, so long as the person observed is presenting themselves genuinely. However, there is some conflicting data in this field. Other evidence suggests that people sometimes rely too much on appearance cues over actual information. When provided with descriptive information about a target, participants still rely on physical appearance cues when making judgments about others' personalities and capabilities. Participants struggle to look past physical appearance cues even when they know information contrary to their initial judgment. Physical cues are also used to make judgments about political candidates based on extremely brief exposures to their pictures. Perceived competence level of a candidate measured from first impressions of facial features can directly predict voting results. The "beautiful is good" effect is a very present phenomenon when dealing with first impressions of others. Targets who are attractive are rated more positively and as possessing more unique characteristics than those who are unattractive. Beauty is also found to be somewhat subjective so that even targets who are not universally attractive can receive the benefit of this effect if the observer is attracted to them. In a 2014 study, a group at the University of York reported that people's impressions of the traits of approachability, youthfulness/attractiveness and dominance correlated with facial measurements such as mouth shape and eye size. Apparel and cosmetics Cosmetic use is also an important cue for forming impressions, particularly of women. Those wearing heavy makeup are seen as significantly more feminine than those wearing moderate makeup or no makeup and those wearing heavy or moderate makeup are seen as more attractive than those wearing no makeup. While a woman wearing no makeup is perceived as being more moral than the other two conditions, there is no difference between experimental conditions when judging personality or personal temperament. First impression formation can be influenced by the use of cognitive short hands such as stereotypes and representative heuristics. When asked to rate the socioeconomic status (SES) and degree of interest in friendship with African American and Caucasian female models wearing either a K-Mart, Abercrombie & Fitch, or non-logoed sweatshirt, Caucasian models were rated more favorably than the African American models. Abercrombie & Fitch wearers were rated as higher SES than the other sweatshirts. Participants wanted to be friends with the Caucasian model most when she was wearing a plain sweatshirt and the African American model most when she was wearing either the plain or K-Mart sweatshirt. It is unclear why the plain sweatshirt was most associated with friendship, but the general results suggest that mismatching class and race reduced the model's friendship appeal. Specific contexts Online Online profiles and communication channels such as email provide fewer cues than in-person interactions, which makes targets more difficult to understand. When research participants were asked to evaluate a person's facial attractiveness and perceived ambition based on an online dating profile, amount of time permitted for processing and reporting an evaluation of the target produced a difference in impression formation. Spontaneous evaluations relied on physical attractiveness almost exclusively, whereas deliberate evaluations weighed both types of information. Although deliberate evaluations used the information provided on both physical attractiveness and ambition of each target, the particular impact of each kind of information appeared to depend on the consistency between the two. A significant effect of attractiveness on deliberate evaluations was found only when perceived ambition was consistent with the perceived level of attractiveness. The consistency found in profiles seemed to particularly influence deliberate evaluations. In a study of online impressions, participants who were socially expressive and disclosed a lot about themselves both on their webpages and in person were better liked than those who were less open. Social expressivity includes liveliness in voice, smiling, etc. Dating and sexuality Upon seeing photographs of straight, gay, and bisexual people, participants correctly identified gay versus straight males and females at above-chance levels based solely on seeing a picture of their face, however, bisexual targets were only identified at chance. The findings suggest a straight-non straight dichotomy in the categorization of sexual orientation. The more time participants are allowed to make some judgment about a person, the more they will weigh information beyond physical appearance. Specific manipulations include identifying men as gay versus straight and people as trustworthy or not. In a study of the interaction between ratings of people in speed dating and the form of media used to present them, impression accuracy in a speed dating task was not significantly different when a potential date was presented in person versus in a video. However, impressions of dates made via video were to be much more negative than those made in person. An additional study that looked at characterization of a romantic partner suggested that people are more likely to rely on "gut reactions" when meeting in person, but there isn't sufficient information for this kind of evaluation when viewing someone online. Professional Non-verbal behaviors are particularly important to forming first impressions when meeting a business acquaintance. Specifically, components of social expressivity, such as smiling, eyebrow position, emotional expression, and eye contact are emphasized. Straightening one's posture, leaning in slightly, and giving a firm handshake promotes favorable impression formation in the American business context. Other impression management tactics in the business world include researching the organization and interviewers beforehand, preparing specific questions for the interviewer, showing confidence, and dressing appropriately. A qualitative review of previous literature looking at self-report data suggests that men and women use impression management tactics in the corporate world that are consistent with stereotypical gender roles when presenting themselves to others. This research proposes that women are put in a double bind where those who portray themselves as more communal and submissive are overlooked for leadership positions and women who try to utilize male tactics (such as being more aggressive) receive negative consequences for violating normative gender roles. To change this dynamic the authors suggest that managerial positions should be re-advertised to highlight the feminine qualities needed for a position and staff training should involve a segment accentuating gender issues in the office to make everyone aware of possible discrimination. Data collected from interviews with physicians distinguishes between first impressions and intuition and contributes to understanding the occurrence of gut feelings in the medical field. Gut feelings go beyond first impressions: Physicians expressed feeling doubtful about their initial impressions as they gathered more data from their patients. More experienced physicians reported more instances of gut feelings than those less experienced, but the quality of the intuition was related to the quality of feedback received during the data collection process in general. Emotional engagement enhanced learning just as it does in first impressions. Neuroscience First impressions are formed within milliseconds of seeing a target. When intentionally forming a first impression, encoding relies on the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Readings from fMRIs of research participants show that processing of diagnostic information (e.g. distinguishing features) engaged the dmPFC more than processing neutral information. Participants generally formed more negative impressions of the faces that showed a negative emotion compared to neutral faces. Results suggest that the dmPFC and amygdala together play a large role in negative impression formation. When forming immediate impressions based on emotion, the stimulus can bypass the neo-cortex by way of the "amygdala hijack." Familiarity Research indicates that people are efficient evaluators when forming impressions based on existing biases. The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), amygdala, and the thalamus sort relevant versus irrelevant information according to these biases. The dmPFC is also involved in the impression formation process, especially with person-descriptive information. FMRI results show activation of the fusiform cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and amygdala when individuals are asked to identify previously seen faces that were encoded as either "friends" or "foes." Additionally, the caudate and anterior cingulate cortex are more activated when looking at faces of "foes" versus "friends." This research suggests that quick first impressions of hostility or support from unknown people can lead to long-term effects on memory that will later be associated with that person. Alcohol and Impressions Alcohol consumption and belief of consumption influenced emotion detection in ten second clips. Participants who thought they had consumed an alcoholic beverage rated one facial expression (approximately 3% of the facial expressions they saw) more in each clip as happy compared to the control group. Thus, impression formation may be affected by even the perception of alcohol consumption. Cross-cultural differences There appears to be cross-cultural similarities in brain responses to first impression formations. In a mock election both American and Japanese individuals voted for the candidate that elicited a stronger response in their bilateral amygdala than those who did not, regardless of the candidate's culture. Individuals also showed a stronger response to cultural outgroup faces than cultural ingroup faces because the amygdala is presumably more sensitive to novel stimuli. However, this finding was unrelated to actual voting decisions. Stability Once formed, first impressions tend to be stable. A review of the literature on the accuracy and impact of first impressions on rater-based assessments found that raters' first impressions are highly correlated with later scores, but it is unclear exactly why. One study tested stability by asking participants to form impressions people based purely on photographs. Participants' opinions of the people in photographs did not significantly differ after interacting with that person a month later. One potential reason for this stability is that one's first impressions could serve as a guide for their next steps, such as what questions are asked and how raters go about scoring. More research needs to be done on the stability of first impressions to fully understand how first impressions guide subsequent treatment, self-fulfilling prophecies, and the halo effect. Assessment tools can influence impressions too, for example if a question provides only a dichotomous "yes" or "no" response or if a rater uses a scale (ratio). Although this study was conducted with the intention of improving rating methods in medical education, the literature review was sufficiently broad enough to generalize. A study published in 2023 found that while first impressions based on attractiveness are formed quickly and can lead to stereotypical attributions, these impressions are malleable and can change when new information is presented, such as learning a photo was altered. This phenomenon, termed the "halo-update effect," suggests that our initial assessments of someone's personality based on their attractiveness can be revised with updated information. See also Impression formation Thin-slicing Samskara (Indian philosophy) Saṅkhāra References Interpersonal relationships Cognitive biases

Rationalization (psychology)

Rationalization is a defense mechanism (ego defense) in which apparent logical reasons are given to justify behavior that is motivated by unconscious instinctual impulses. It is an attempt to find reasons for behaviors, especially one's own. Rationalizations are used to defend against feelings of guilt, maintain self-respect, and protect oneself from criticism. Rationalization happens in two steps: A decision, action, judgement is made for a given reason, or no (known) reason at all. A rationalization is performed, constructing a seemingly good or logical reason, as an attempt to justify the act after the fact (for oneself or others). Rationalization encourages irrational or unacceptable behavior, motives, or feelings and often involves ad hoc hypothesizing. This process ranges from fully conscious (e.g. to present an external defense against ridicule from others) to mostly unconscious (e.g. to create a block against internal feelings of guilt or shame). People rationalize for various reasons—sometimes when we think we know ourselves better than we do. Rationalization may differentiate the original deterministic explanation of the behavior or feeling in question. History Quintilian and classical rhetoric used the term color for the presenting of an action in the most favourable possible perspective. Laurence Sterne in the eighteenth century took up the point, arguing that, were a man to consider his actions, "he will soon find, that such of them, as strong inclination and custom have prompted him to commit, are generally dressed out and painted with all the false beauties [color] which, a soft and flattering hand can give them". DSM definition According to the DSM-IV, rationalization occurs "when the individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by concealing the true motivations for their own thoughts, actions, or feelings through the elaboration of reassuring or self serving but incorrect explanations". Examples Individual Rationalization can be used to avoid admitting disappointment: "I didn't get the job that I applied for, but I really didn't want it in the first place." Egregious rationalizations intended to deflect blame can also take the form of ad hominem attacks or DARVO. Some rationalizations take the form of a comparison. Commonly, this is done to lessen the perception of an action's negative effects, to justify an action, or to excuse culpability: "At least [what occurred] is not as bad as [a worse outcome]." In response to an accusation: "At least I didn't [worse action than accused action]." As a form of false choice: "Doing [undesirable action] is a lot better than [a worse action]." In response to unfair or abusive behaviour from a separate individual or group to the person: "I must have done something wrong if they treat me like this." Based on anecdotal and survey evidence, John Banja states that the medical field features a disproportionate amount of rationalization invoked in the "covering up" of mistakes. Common excuses made are: "Why disclose the error? The patient was going to die anyway." "Telling the family about the error will only make them feel worse." "It was the patient's fault. If he wasn't so (sick, etc.), this error wouldn't have caused so much harm." "Well, we did our best. These things happen." "If we're not totally and absolutely certain the error caused the harm, we don't have to tell." "They're dead anyway, so there's no point in blaming anyone." In 2018, Muel Kaptein and Martien van Helvoort developed a model, called the Amoralizations Alarm Clock, that covers all existing amoralizations in a logical way. Amoralizations, also called neutralizations, or rationalizations, are defined as justifications and excuses for deviant behavior. Amoralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior. There exist many different and overlapping techniques of amoralizations.A Model of Neutralization Techniques Collective Collective rationalizations are regularly constructed for acts of aggression, based on exaltation of the in-group and demonization of the opposite side: as Fritz Perls put it, "Our own soldiers take care of the poor families; the enemy rapes them". Celebrity culture can be seen as rationalizing the gap between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, by offering participation to both dominant and subaltern views of reality. Criticism Some scientists criticize the notion that brains are wired to rationalize irrational decisions, arguing that evolution would select against spending more nutrients at mental processes that do not contribute to the improvement of decisions, such as rationalization of decisions that would have been taken anyway. These scientists argue that rationalizing causes one to learn less rather than learn more from their mistakes, and they criticize the hypothesis that rationalization evolved as a means of social manipulation by noting that if rational arguments were deceptive, there would be no evolutionary chance for breeding individuals that responded to the arguments and therefore making them ineffective and not capable of being selected for by evolution. Psychoanalysis Ernest Jones introduced the term "rationalization" to psychoanalysis in 1908, defining it as "the inventing of a reason for an attitude or action the motive of which is not recognized"—an explanation which (though false) could seem plausible. The term (Rationalisierung in German) was taken up almost immediately by Sigmund Freud to account for the explanations offered by patients for their own neurotic symptoms. As psychoanalysts continued to explore the glossed of unconscious motives, Otto Fenichel distinguished different sorts of rationalization—both the justifying of irrational instinctive actions on the grounds that they were reasonable or normatively validated and the rationalizing of defensive structures, whose purpose is unknown on the grounds that they have some quite different but somehow logical meaning. Later psychoanalysts are divided between a positive view of rationalization as a stepping stone on the way to maturity, and a more destructive view of it as splitting feeling from thought, and so undermining the powers of reason. Cognitive dissonance Leon Festinger highlighted in 1957 the discomfort caused to people by awareness of their inconsistent thought. Rationalization can reduce such discomfort by explaining away the discrepancy in question, as when people who take up smoking after previously quitting decide that the evidence for it being harmful is less than they previously thought. See also References Bibliography Further reading Psychoanalytic terminology Informal fallacies Defence mechanisms Cognitive biases Justification (epistemology)

Persona (user experience)

A persona (also user persona, user personality, customer persona, buyer persona) in user-centered design and marketing is a personalized fictional character created to represent a user type that might use a site, brand, or product in a similar way. Personas represent the similarities of consumer groups or segments. They are based on demographic and behavioural personal information collected from users, qualitative interviews, and participant observation. Personas are one of the outcomes of market segmentation, where marketers use the results of statistical analysis and qualitative observations to draw profiles, giving them names and personalities to paint a picture of a person that could exist in real life. The term persona is used widely in online and technology applications as well as in advertising, where other terms such as pen portraits may also be used. Personas are useful in considering the goals, desires, and limitations of brand buyers and users in order to help to guide decisions about a service, product or interaction space such as features, interactions, and visual design of a website. Personas may be used as a tool during the user-centered design process for designing software. They can introduce interaction design principles to things like industrial design and online marketing. A user persona is a representation of the goals and behavior of a hypothesized group of users. In most cases, personas are synthesized from data collected from interviews or surveys with users. They are captured in short page descriptions that include behavioral patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, with a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character. In addition to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), personas are also widely used in sales, advertising, marketing and system design. Personas provide common behaviors, outlooks, and potential objections of people matching a given persona. History Within software design, Alan Cooper, a noted pioneer software developer, proposed the concept of a user persona. Beginning in 1983, he started using a prototype of what the persona would become using data from informal interviews with seven to eight users. From 1995, he became engaged with how a specific rather than generalized user would use and interface with the software. The technique was popularized for the online business and technology community in his 1999 book The Inmates are Running the Asylum. In this book, Cooper outlines the general characteristics, uses and best practices for creating personas, recommending that software be designed for single archetypal users. The concept of understanding customer segments as communities with coherent identity was developed in 1993-4 by Angus Jenkinson and internationally adopted by OgilvyOne with clients using the name CustomerPrints as "day-in-the-life archetype descriptions". Creating imaginal or fictional characters to represent these customer segments or communities followed. Jenkinson's approach was to describe an imaginal character in their real interface, behavior and attitudes with the brand, and the idea was initially realized with Michael Jacobs in a series of studies. In 1997 the Ogilvy global knowledge management system, Truffles, described the concept as follows: "Each strong brand has a tribe of people who share affinity with the brand’s values. This universe typically divides into a number of different communities within which there are the same or very similar buying behaviours, and whose personality and characteristics towards the brand (product or service) can be understood in terms of common values, attitudes and assumptions. CustomerPrints are descriptions that capture the living essence of these distinct groups of customers." Benefits and features According to Pruitt and Adlin, the use of personas offers several benefits in product development. Personas are said to be cognitively compelling because they put a personal human face on otherwise abstract data about customers. By thinking about the needs of a fictional persona, designers may be better able to infer what a real person might need. Such inference may assist with brainstorming, use case specification, and features definition. Pruitt and Adlin argue personas are easy to communicate to engineering teams and thus allow engineers, developers, and others to absorb customer data in a palatable format. They present several examples of personas used for purposes of communication in various development projects. Personas also help prevent some common design pitfalls. The first is designing for what Cooper calls "The Elastic User", by which he means that while making product decisions different stakeholders may define the 'user' according to their convenience. Defining personas helps the team have a shared understanding of the real users in terms of their goals, capabilities, and contexts. Personas help prevent "self-referential design" when the designer or developer may unconsciously project their own mental models on the product design which may be very different from that of the target user population. Personas also provide a reality check by helping designers keep the focus of the design on cases that are most likely to be encountered for the target users and not on edge cases which usually will not happen for the target population. According to Cooper, edge cases which should naturally be handled properly should not become the design focus. The persona benefits are summarized as follows: Help team members share a specific, consistent understanding of various audience groups. Data about the groups can be put in a proper context and can be understood and remembered in coherent stories. Proposed solutions can be guided by how well they meet the needs of individual user personas. Features can be prioritized based on how well they address the needs of one or more personas. Provide a human "face" so as to create empathy for the persons represented by the demographics. Help support better design choices by limiting the focus of user for the designers. Helps understands what motivates audience to learn more about products/service. While features will vary based on project needs, all personas will capture the essence of an actual potential user. Common features include: Fake name and profile picture Basic demographics (age, race, gender, education, marital status, preferred language, etc.) Biography containing personal interests, professional goals, and any other relevant information designers should know A summarizing quote Technology use Disabilities, accessibility needs, or challenges Opinions and beliefs Criticism Criticism of personas falls into three general categories: analysis of the underlying logic, concerns about practical implementation, and empirical results. In terms of scientific logic, it has been argued that because personas are fictional, they have no clear relationship to real customer data and therefore cannot be considered scientific. Chapman and Milham described the purported flaws in considering personas as a scientific research method. They argued that there is no procedure to work reliably from given data to specific personas, and thus such a process is not subject to the scientific method of reproducible research. Other critics argue that personas can be reductive or stereotypic, leading to a false sense of confidence in an organization's knowledge about its users. Critics like Steve Portigal argue that personas' "appeal comes from the seduction of a sanitized form of reality," where customer data is continuously reduced and abstracted until it is nothing more than a stereotype. Critics claim that persona creation puts the onus on designers, marketers, and user researchers to capture multiple peoples' opinions and views into predefined segments, which could introduce personal bias into the interpretation. Additionally, personas often feature gendered and racial depictions, which some argue is unnecessary and distracts the target audience of the personas from true consumer behaviors and only enhances biased viewpoints. Finally, it is worth acknowledging that proto-personas and personas are often generalized as the same resource, however, proto-personas are a generative tool used to identify a team's assumptions about their target users. Personas, on the other hand, should be rooted in customer data and research, and be used as a way to coalesce insights about particular segments. Scientific research In empirical results, the research to date has offered soft metrics for the success of personas, such as anecdotal feedback from stakeholders. Rönkkö has described how team politics and other organizational issues led to limitations of the personas method in one set of projects. Chapman, Love, Milham, Elrif, and Alford have demonstrated with survey data that descriptions with more than a few attributes (e.g., such as a persona) are likely to describe very few if any real people. They argued that personas cannot be assumed to be descriptive of actual customers. A study conducted by Long claimed support for Cooper, Pruitt et al. in the use of personas. In a partially controlled study, a group of students were asked to solve a design brief; two groups used personas while one group did not. The students who used personas were awarded higher course evaluations than the group who did not. Students who used personas were assessed as having produced designs with better usability attributes than students who did not use personas. The study also suggests that using personas may improve communication between design teams and facilitate user-focused design discussion. The study had several limitations: outcomes were assessed by a professor and students who were not blind to the hypothesis, students were assigned to groups in a non-random fashion, the findings were not replicated, and other contributing factors or expectation effects (e.g., the Hawthorne effect or Pygmalion effect) were not controlled for. Data-driven personas Data-driven personas (sometimes also called quantitative personas) have been suggested by McGinn and Kotamraju. These personas are claimed to address the shortcomings of qualitative persona generation (see Criticism). Academic scholars have proposed several methods for data-driven persona development, such as clustering, factor analysis, principal component analysis, latent semantic analysis, and non-negative matrix factorization. These methods generally take numerical input data, reduce its dimensionality, and output higher level abstractions (e.g., clusters, components, factors) that describe the patterns in the data. These patterns are typically interpreted as "skeletal" personas, and enriched with personified information (e.g., name, portrait picture). Quantitative personas can also be enriched with qualitative insights to generate mixed method personas (also called hybrid personas). See also Behavioral targeting Dave and Sue Digital identity Online identity Online identity management Personalization Personalized marketing Personal information Personal identity Scenario (computing) Social profiling Use case User profile References Bibliography Human–computer interaction Usability Technical communication Market segmentation Marketing Identity management

Microsociology

Microsociology is one of the main levels of analysis (or focuses) of sociology, concerning the nature of everyday human social interactions and agency on a small scale: face to face. Microsociology is based on subjective interpretative analysis rather than statistical or empirical observation, and shares close association with the philosophy of phenomenology. Methods include symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology; ethnomethodology in particular has led to many academic sub-divisions and studies such as micro-linguistical research and other related aspects of human social behaviour. Macrosociology, by contrast, concerns the social structure and broader systems. Theory Microsociology exists both as an umbrella term for perspectives which focus on agency, such as Max Weber's theory of social action, and as a body of distinct techniques, particularly in American sociology. The term was conceived by Georges Gurvitch in 1939, borrowing the term from the micro-physics and referring to the irreducible and unstable nature of everyday forms of sociality. It also provided an extra dimension between the studies of social psychology, sociology, and social anthropology—focusing more on individual interaction and thinking within groups, rather than just large social group/societal behaviour. At the micro level, social status and social roles are the most important components of social structure. Microsociology forms an important perspective in many fields of study, including modern psychosocial studies, conversational analysis and human-computer interaction. Microsociology continues to have a profound influence on research in all human fields, often under other names. Competing frames of reference Some have considered that face-to-face interaction can be studied in at least three distinct (if overlapping) ways: psychology; intersubjectivity; and microsociology. Erving Goffman however saw a central tension between Durkheimian approaches, and those drawn from ethology, especially in respect of interpersonal ritual; while followers of him have seen in a Durkheimian microsociology the key to the understanding of large-scale social conflict as well. Erving Goffman's theories of social interaction challenged other sociologists to redirect their focus to the questionable aspects of social behavior. Contrary to Erving Goffman's theory, Émile Durkheim believed that advanced methodological principles should guide sociologists and that they should research social fact. Influences Sartre, in his work on the phenomenology of social dynamics, Critique of Dialectical Reason, written in the late 1950s, called microsociology the only valid theory of human relations. Jürgen Habermas and Pierre Bourdieu are two more recent theorists who have put microsociological concepts to good use in their works. R.D. Laing was much influenced by Garfinkel's ideas on "degradation ceremonies". (Humanistic) social work Key issues, categories and principles of the microsociology, such as human relations, face-to-face interaction, interpretive/qualitative analysis, attachment and empathy, micro-level analysis, human behavior, micro-community, everyday human life, human context, microculture, focus on agency, have influenced and still influences today the social work theory and practice, having a crucial role in the emergence of humanistic social work (Petru Stefaroi), as response to the structural and systemic social work, which theoretically originates from macrosociology or mesosociology. This is why Malcolm Payne considers microsociology a fundamental theoretical-methodological source of this postmodern and innovative orientation from the contemporary social work, especially of the humanistic social work practice. Research Research begins by evaluating the social life of the individuals with the goal of showing the reciprocal relationship between events/actions and the nature of the societal context in which they occur. Empirical evidence from recorded conversations and the microsociology of emotion has proved of particular interest to students of interaction ritual. See also Generalized other George Herbert Mead Human ethology Kurt Lewin Proxemics Socialization References Further reading Turner, Jonathan H. Sociology Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 2006. External links Thomas Scheff, 'Microsociology' Methods in sociology

Sickness behavior

Sickness behavior is a coordinated set of adaptive behavioral changes that develop in ill individuals during the course of an infection. They usually, but not always, accompany fever and aid survival. Such illness responses include lethargy, depression, anxiety, malaise, loss of appetite, sleepiness, hyperalgesia, reduction in grooming and failure to concentrate. Sickness behavior is a motivational state that reorganizes the organism's priorities to cope with infectious pathogens. It has been suggested as relevant to understanding depression, and some aspects of the suffering that occurs in cancer. History Sick animals have long been recognized by farmers as having different behavior. Initially it was thought that this was due to physical weakness that resulted from diverting energy to the body processes needed to fight infection. However, in the 1960s, it was shown that animals produced a blood-carried factor X that acted upon the brain to cause sickness behavior. In 1987, Benjamin L. Hart brought together a variety of research findings that argued for them being survival adaptations that if prevented would disadvantage an animal's ability to fight infection. In the 1980s, the blood-borne factor was shown to be proinflammatory cytokines produced by activated leukocytes in the immune system in response to lipopolysaccharides (a cell wall component of Gram-negative bacteria). These cytokines acted by various humoral and nerve routes upon the hypothalamus and other areas of the brain. Further research showed that the brain can also learn to control the various components of sickness behavior independently of immune activation.. In 2015, Shakhar and Shakhar suggested instead that sickness behavior developed primarily because it protected the kin of infected animals from transmissible diseases. According to this theory, termed the Eyam hypothesis, after the English Parish of Eyam, sickness behavior protects the social group of infected individuals by limiting their direct contacts, preventing them from contaminating the environment, and broadcasting their health status. Kin selection would help promote such behaviors through evolution. In a highly prosocial species like humans, however, sickness behavior may act as a signal to motivate others to help and care for the sick individual. Advantages General advantage Sickness behavior in its different aspects causes an animal to limit its movement; the metabolic energy not expended in activity is diverted to the fever responses, which involves raising body temperature. This also limits an animal's exposure to predators while it is cognitively and physically impaired. Specific advantages The individual components of sickness behavior have specific individual advantages. Anorexia limits food ingestion and therefore reduces the availability of iron in the gut (and from gut absorption). Iron may aid bacterial reproduction, so its reduction is useful during sickness. Plasma concentrations of iron are lowered for this anti-bacterial reason in fever. Lowered threshold for pain ensures that an animal is attentive that it does not place pressure on injured and inflamed tissues that might disrupt their healing. Reduced grooming is adaptive since it reduces water loss. Inclusive fitness advantages According to the 'Eyam hypothesis', sickness behavior, by promoting immobility and social disinterest, limits the direct contacts of individuals with their relatives. By reducing eating and drinking, it limits diarrhea and defecation, reducing environmental contamination. By reducing self-grooming and changing stance, gait and vocalization, it also signals poor health to kin. All in all, sickness behavior reduces the rate of further infection, a trait that is likely propagated by kin selection. Social advantage Humans helped each other in case of sickness or injury throughout their hunter-gatherer past and afterwards. Convincing others of being badly in need of relief, assistance, and care heightened the chance of survival of the sick individual. High direct costs, such as energy spent on fever and potential harm caused by high body temperatures, and high opportunity costs, as caused by inactivity, social disinterest, and lack of appetite, make sickness behavior a highly costly and therefore credible signal of need. Immune control Lipopolysaccharides trigger the immune system to produce proinflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF). These peripherally released cytokines act on the brain via a fast transmission pathway involving primary input through the vagus nerves, and a slow transmission pathway involving cytokines originating from the choroid plexus and circumventricular organs and diffusing into the brain parenchyma by volume transmission. Peripheral cytokines are capable of entering the brain directly but are large lipophilic polypeptide proteins that generally do not easily passively diffuse across the blood-brain barrier. They may also induce the expression of other cytokines in the brain that cause sickness behavior. Acute psychosocial stress enhances the ability of an immune response to trigger both inflammation and behavioral sickness. Behavioral conditioning The components of sickness behavior can be learned by conditional association. For example, if a saccharin solution is given with a chemical that triggers a particular aspect of sickness behavior, on later occasions the saccharin solution will trigger it by itself. Medical conditions Depression It has been proposed that major depressive disorder is nearly identical with sickness behavior, raising the possibility that it is a maladaptive manifestation of sickness behavior due to abnormalities in circulating cytokines. Moreover, chronic, but not acute, treatment with antidepressant drugs was found to attenuate sickness behavior symptoms in rodents. The mood effects caused by interleukin-6 following an immune response have been linked to increased activity within the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, an area involved in the etiology of depression. Inflammation-associated mood change can also produce a reduction in the functional connectivity of this part of the brain to the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and superior temporal sulcus. Cancer side effect In cancer, both the disease and the chemotherapy treatment can cause proinflammatory cytokine release which can cause sickness behavior as a side effect. See also Evolutionary medicine Proinflammatory cytokines References Symptoms Evolutionary biology Cytokines

Mathematical sciences

The mathematical sciences are a group of areas of study that includes, in addition to mathematics, those academic disciplines that are primarily mathematical in nature but may not be universally considered subfields of mathematics proper. Statistics, for example, is mathematical in its methods but grew out of bureaucratic and scientific observations, which merged with inverse probability and then grew through applications in some areas of physics, biometrics, and the social sciences to become its own separate, though closely allied, field. Theoretical astronomy, theoretical physics, theoretical and applied mechanics, continuum mechanics, mathematical chemistry, actuarial science, computer science, computational science, data science, operations research, quantitative biology, control theory, econometrics, geophysics and mathematical geosciences are likewise other fields often considered part of the mathematical sciences. Some institutions offer degrees in mathematical sciences (e.g. the United States Military Academy, Stanford University, and University of Khartoum) or applied mathematical sciences (for example, the University of Rhode Island). See also References External links Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation, including a list of disciplinary areas supported Faculty of Mathematical Sciences at University of Khartoum, offers academic degrees in Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Statistics Programs of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Research topics studied at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Mathematical Sciences in the U.S. FY 2016 Budget; a report from the AAAS Applied mathematics

Psychogenic disease

Classified as a "conversion disorder" by the DSM-IV, a psychogenic disease is a condition in which mental stressors cause physical symptoms matching other disorders. The manifestation of physical symptoms without biologically identifiable cause results from disruptions in normal brain function due to psychological stress. During a psychogenic episode, neuroimaging has shown that neural circuits affecting functions such as emotion, executive functioning, perception, movement, and volition are inhibited. These disruptions become strong enough to prevent the brain from voluntarily allowing certain actions (e.g. moving a limb). When the brain is unable to signal to the body to perform an action voluntarily, physical symptoms of a disorder arise. Examples of diseases that are deemed to be psychogenic in origin include psychogenic seizures, psychogenic polydipsia, psychogenic tremor, and psychogenic pain. The term psychogenic disease is often used similarly to psychosomatic disease. However, the term psychogenic usually implies that psychological factors played a key causal role in the development of the illness. The term psychosomatic is often used more broadly to describe illnesses with a known medical cause where psychological factors may nonetheless play a role (e.g., asthma as exacerbated by anxiety). Diagnosis With the advent of medical screening technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring, psychogenic diseases are being diagnosed more frequently, as medical professionals have increasingly precise tools to evaluate patients. When a patient does not display typical markers of a disorder that would normally show up from medical exams, physicians may diagnose a patient's symptoms as being psychogenic. Research into understanding psychogenic disorders has led to the development of electronic diagnostic tests for ruling out the usual biological markers of a disorder, as well as new clinical observation procedures. A test a physician may employ for identifying a psychogenic disorder would be to see if the symptom changes with suggestion, for example a patient may be told to use a tuning fork to aid symptoms in a movement disorder. Despite the understanding of psychogenic symptoms, it is not assumed that all medically unexplained illness must have a psychological cause. It remains possible that genetic, biochemical, electrophysiological, or other abnormalities may be present which we do not understand and cannot identify. Some patients may have their symptoms misdiagnosed as psychogenic even with a lack of concrete evidence to suggest there are psychological causes. Misdiagnoses of psychogenic disease may be accidental, or may arise intentionally due to bias or ignorance. For example a doctor with a bias towards men may tell women that their symptoms are psychogenic, despite actual symptoms of a physical disorder. See also Functional symptom Habit cough Mass psychogenic illness Psychogenic amnesia Psychological trauma Psychoneuroimmunology References Further reading Lim, Erle C. H.; Seet, Raymond C. S. (2007). "What Is the Place for Placebo in the Management of Psychogenic Disease?". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 100 (2): 60–61. doi:10.1258/jrsm.100.2.60. PMC 1790983. PMID 17277261. Sykes, Richard (2010). "Medically Unexplained Symptoms and the Siren 'Psychogenic Inference'". Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology. 17 (4): 289–299. doi:10.1353/ppp.2010.0034. ISSN 1086-3303 Jannini, E. A., McCabe, M. P., Salonia, A., Montorsi, F., & Sachs, B. D. (2010). Controversies in sexual medicine: Organic vs. psychogenic? The Manichean diagnosis in sexual medicine. The journal of sexual medicine, 7(5), 1726–1733. Colligan, M. J. (1981). Mass psychogenic illness: Some clarification and perspectives. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 23(9), 635–638. Bransfield, R. C., & Friedman, K. J. (2019, December). Differentiating Psychosomatic, Somatopsychic, Multisystem Illnesses and Medical Uncertainty. In Healthcare (Vol. 7, No. 4, p. 114). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. Behavioural sciences Types of mental disorders Mind–body interventions

Cultural analysis

As a discipline, cultural analysis is based on using qualitative research methods of the arts, humanities, social sciences, in particular ethnography and anthropology, to collect data on cultural phenomena and to interpret cultural representations and practices; in an effort to gain new knowledge or understanding through analysis of that data and cultural processes. This is particularly useful for understanding and mapping trends, influences, effects, and affects within cultures. There are four themes to sociological cultural analysis: 1. Adaptation and Change This refers to how well a certain culture adapts to its surroundings by being used and developed. Some examples of this are foods, tools, home, surroundings, art, etc. that show how the given culture adapted. Also, this aspect aims to show how the given culture makes the environment more accommodating. 2. How culture is used to survive How the given culture helps its members survive the environment. 3. Holism, Specificity The ability to put the observations into a single collection, and presenting it in a coherent manner. 4. Expressions This focuses on studying the expressions and performance of everyday culture. Cultural analysis in the humanities This developed at the intersection of cultural studies, history, comparative literature, art history, fine art, philosophy, literary theory, theology, anthropology, economy. It developed an interdisciplinary approach to the study of texts, images, films, and all related cultural practices. It offers an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of cultural representations and practices. Cultural analysis is also a method for rethinking our relation to history because it makes visible the position of researcher, writer or student. The social and cultural present from which we look at past cultural practices—history— shapes the interpretations that are made of the past, while cultural analysis also reveals how the past shapes the present through the role of cultural memory for instance. Cultural analysis understands culture, therefore, as a constantly changing set of practices that are in dialogue with the past as it has been registered through texts, images, buildings, documents, stories, myths. In addition to having a relation to disciplines also interested in cultures as what people do and say, believe and think, such as ethnography and anthropology, cultural analysis as a practice in the humanities considers the texts and images, the codes and behaviours, the beliefs and imaginings that you might study in literature, philosophy, art history. But cultural analysis does not confine the meanings to the disciplinary methods. It allows and requires dialogue across many ways of understanding what people have done and what people are doing through acts, discourses, practices, statements. Cultural analysis crosses the boundaries between disciplines but also between formal and informal cultural activities. The major purpose of cultural analysis is to develop analytical tools for reading and understanding a wide range of cultural practices and forms, past and present. See also Girl Heroes Semiotics of culture Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School Daniel Seddiqui References External links Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis Cultural Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Folklore and Popular Culture Institute for Cultural Analysis, Nottingham http://www.centrecath.leeds.ac.uk Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History, University of Leeds Master of Applied Cultural Analysis Lund University, University of Copenhagen Cultural anthropology

Mental illness denial

Mental illness denial or mental disorder denial is a form of denialism in which a person denies the existence of mental disorders. Both serious analysts and pseudoscientific movements question the existence of certain disorders. A minority of professional researchers see disorders such as depression from a sociocultural perspective and argue that solutions should be sought through fixing a dysfunction in the society, not in the person's brain. Insight In psychiatry, insight is the ability of an individual to understand their mental health, and anosognosia is the lack of awareness of a mental health condition. Certain psychological analysts argue this denialism is a coping mechanism usually fueled by narcissistic injury. According to Elyn Saks, probing patient's denial may lead to better ways to help them overcome their denial and provide insight into other issues. Major reasons for denial are narcissistic injury and denialism. In denialism, a person tries to deny psychologically uncomfortable truth and tries to rationalize it. This urge for denialism is fueled further by narcissistic injury. Narcissism gets injured when a person feels vulnerable (or weak or overwhelmed) for some reason like mental illness. Scholarly criticism of psychiatric diagnosis Scholars have criticized mental health diagnoses as arbitrary. According to Thomas Szasz, mental illness is a social construct. He views psychiatry as a social control and mechanism for political oppression. Szasz wrote a book on the subject in 1961, The Myth of Mental Illness. See also Anti-intellectualism References Denialism Mental disorders

Applied anthropology

Applied anthropology is the practical application of anthropological theories, methods, and practices to the analysis and solution of practical problems. The term was first put forward by Daniel G. Brinton in his paper "The Aims of Anthropology". John Van Willengen defined applied anthropology as "anthropology put to use". Applied anthropology includes conducting research with a primary or tertiary purpose to solve real-world problems in areas such as public health, education, government, and business. In Applied Anthropology: Domains of Application, Kedia and Van Willigen define the process as a "complex of related, research-based, instrumental methods which produce change or stability in specific cultural systems through the provision of data, initiation of direct action, and/or the formulation of policy". In other words, applied anthropology is the praxis-based side of anthropological research; it includes researcher involvement and activism within the participating community. Spanning academic disciplines The American Anthropological Association (AAA) website describes anthropology as a focus on "the study of humans, past and present. To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and physical sciences." Thus, the field of anthropology encompasses four subareas: sociocultural anthropology, biological (or physical) anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. Because a central tenet of the anthropological field is the application of shared knowledge and research about humans across the world, an anthropologist who specializes in any of these areas and enacts research into direct action and/or policy can be deemed an "applied anthropologist". In fact, some practical, real-world problems invoke all sub-disciplines of anthropological theory, method, and practice. For example, a Native American community development program may involve archaeological research to determine legitimacy of water rights claims, ethnography to assess the current and historical cultural characteristics of the community, linguistics to restore language competence among inhabitants, and medical anthropology to determine the causality of dietary deficiency diseases. Professional engagement Applied anthropologists often work for nonacademic clients, such as governments, development agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), tribal and ethnic associations, advocacy groups, social-service and educational agencies, and businesses. It is also not uncommon for an anthropologist to initiate activist work surrounding his or her own area of study; frequently, sociocultural anthropological studies begin as mere research inquiries that blossom into community advocacy projects, and even new specialized NGOs. Methodology utilized in applied anthropology includes, but is not limited to, ethnography, participant observation, snowballing, interviews, and focus groups. Applied anthropologists also use textual analysis, surveying, archival research, and other empirical methods to inform policy or to market products. Problems and criticisms The process of conducting anthropological research and then applying knowledge in attempts to improve the lives of research participants can be problematic, and is often laced with elements of Orientalism and/or colonialism. Kedia and Van Willigen describe the moral dilemma embedded in this work: "The ethical requirements of applied anthropology are especially challenging since the practitioner must negotiate an intricate balance between the interests of the clients who commission the work, and those of the community being studied." The authors continue by stating that this negotiation leads to issues of privacy, ownership, and the implications and purposes of the study being produced (p. 16). Although guidelines regarding ethicalities of applied anthropology are put forth by major anthropological organizations—including the American Anthropological Association (AAA), the Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA), and the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA)—it is increasingly difficult to ensure that the high volume of worldwide anthropologists proceed with their research in ways that are both culturally relative and sensitive to community needs. Kedia and Van Willigen describe the myriad roles an applied anthropologist must play as effective resource for communities in need; a researcher must be an advocate, cultural "broker", evaluator, policy researcher, public participation specialist, and research analyst. There has also been some criticism of the interaction between applied anthropologists and government agencies, as those agencies may want to move forward with a development project while anthropologists restrict progress studying carefully before supporting the project. Debates about objectivity/cultural relativity in anthropology The field of anthropology is also fraught with debate surrounding accurate and effective approaches to conducting research. More specifically, there is continued debate about the essentiality of objectivity in anthropological fieldwork. Some hermeneutic scholars contend that it is impossible to remove one's own preconceived cultural notions from one's work. In this line of thought, it is more productive to recognize that anthropologists are themselves culturally programmed observers, and must always be wary of biases that influence information they receive. In contrast, the positivist approach to anthropology emphasizes the necessity for an objective, regimented, and scientific approach to anthropological research. The multinational phenomenon of female genital cutting (FGC) exemplifies the necessity for an anthropologist to account for relative cultural contexts: "The work of scholars who stress the fundamental importance of offering perspectives on cultural factors that promote the practice of female genital cutting has brought the debate surrounding cultural relativism into sharp focus. Greunbaum (1996) notes that analyses that do offer emic interpretations and cultural contextualizations are often criticized as bordering on advocacy for the practice" [emphasis in original]. In these instances, it is imperative that an anthropologist not cloud his or her own preconceived notions about health and gender relations in an attempt to "remedy" a complex social issue. Scholarly works and organizations There are three primary groups based in the US that are founded on the application of anthropology with acute attention to ethics and social implications: American Anthropological Association (AAA), Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA), and the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA). The premiere journal of applied anthropology in the United States is called Human Organization, published by the Society for Applied Anthropology. In the UK, the main journal for applied anthropology is called Anthropology in Action. The Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA) has a network of Applied Anthropologists known as "Apply". Within the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), there is the Applied Anthropology Network, which annually organises the international symposium, Why the World Needs Anthropologists. The theme of the first symposium was New Fields for Applied Anthropology in Europe (Amsterdam, 2013), followed by; Coming Out of the Ivory Tower (Padua, 2014), Burning Issues of Our Hot Planet (Ljubljana, 2015), Humanise IT (Tartu, 2016), Powering the Planet (Durham, 2017), and Designing the Future (Lisbon, 2018). Within the EASA Medical Anthropology Network, there is also an applied anthropology special interest group. Under the direction of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Jonathan Benthall (author of The Best of Anthropology Today) created the annual Lucy Mair Medal of Applied Anthropology. This recognizes excellence in using anthropology "for the relief of poverty or distress, or for the active recognition of human dignity". See also Development anthropology Economic anthropology Public anthropology References Anthropology Applied sciences

Psychosocial hazard

A psychosocial hazard or work stressor is any occupational hazard related to the way work is designed, organized and managed, as well as the economic and social contexts of work. Unlike the other three categories of occupational hazard (chemical, biological, and physical), they do not arise from a physical substance, object, or hazardous energy. Psychosocial hazards affect the psychological and physical well-being of workers, including their ability to participate in a work environment among other people. They cause not only psychiatric and psychological outcomes such as occupational burnout, anxiety disorders, and depression, but they can also cause physical injury or illness such as cardiovascular disease or musculoskeletal injury. Psychosocial risks are linked to the organization of work as well as workplace violence and are recognized internationally as major challenges to occupational safety and health as well as productivity. Types of hazard In general, workplace stress can be defined as an imbalance between the demands of a job, and the physical and mental resources available to cope with them. Several models of workplace stress have been proposed, including imbalances between work demands and employee control, between effort and reward, and general focuses on wellness. Psychosocial hazards may be divided into those that arise from the content or the context of work. Work content includes the amount and pace of work, including both too much and too little to do; the extent, flexibility, and predictability of work hours; and the extent of employee control and participation in decision-making. Work context includes impacts on career development and wages, organizational culture, interpersonal relationships, and work–life balance. According to a survey by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the most important psychosocial hazards—work stressors—are: Job strain Effort-reward imbalance Lack of supervisor and co-worker support Long working hours Work intensification Lean production and outsourcing Emotional labor Work–life balance Job insecurity Precarious work Other psychosocial hazards are: Having a toxic workplace or hostile work environment Lack of perceived organizational support, including perceived psychological contract violation Lack of work–life balance, including work–family conflict Lack of person–environment fit Behavioral issues such as workplace aggression, workplace bullying, workplace harassment including sexual harassment, workplace incivility, workplace revenge, and workplace violence Personality issues such as narcissism in the workplace, Machiavellianism in the workplace, and psychopathy in the workplace Micromanagement Organizational conflict Incident stress Jury stress Shift work Information privacy issues regarding data derived from workers In addition, levels of noise or air quality that are considered acceptable from a physical or chemical hazard standpoint may still provide psychosocial hazards from being annoying, irritating, or causing fear of other health impacts from the environment. Assessment Psychosocial hazards are usually identified or assessed through inspecting how workers carry out work and interact with each other, having conversations with workers individually or in focus groups, using surveys, and reviewing records such as incident reports, workers' compensation claims, and worker absenteeism and turnover data. A more formal occupational risk assessment may be warranted if there is uncertainty about the hazards' potential severity, interactions, or the effectiveness of controls. There are several risk assessment survey tools for psychosocial hazards. These include the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ) from the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Total Worker Health program, the People at Work survey from Queensland Workplace Health and Safety, the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire from the Danish , and the Management Standards Indicator Tool from the UK Health and Safety Executive. Control According to the hierarchy of hazard controls, the most effective controls are eliminating hazards, or if that is impractical, minimizing them, through good work design practices. These include measures to reduce overwork; providing workers with support, personal control, and clearly defined roles; and providing effective change management. In the context of psychosocial hazards, engineering controls are physical changes to the workplace that mitigate hazards or isolate workers from them. Engineering controls for psychosocial hazards include workplace design to affect the amount, type, and level of personal control of work, as well as access controls and alarms. The risk of workplace violence can be reduced through physical design of the workplace or by cameras. Proper manual handling equipment, measures to reduce noise exposure, and appropriate lighting levels have a positive effect on psychosocial hazards, in addition to their effects to control physical hazard. Administrative controls include job rotation to reduce exposure time, clear policies on workplace bullying and sexual harassment, and proper consultation and training of employees. Personal protective equipment includes personal distress alarms, as well as equipment typically used for other types of hazards such as eye and face protection and hearing protection. Health promotion activities can improve workers' general and mental health, but should not be used as an alternative or substitute for directly managing risk from psychosocial hazards. A recent Cochrane review – using moderate quality evidence – related that the addition of work-directed interventions for depressed workers receiving clinical interventions reduces the number of lost work days as compared to clinical interventions alone. This review also demonstrated that the addition of cognitive behavioral therapy to primary or occupational care and the addition of a "structured telephone outreach and care management program" to usual care are both effective at reducing sick leave days. International Standards to manage psychosocial risk at work ISO 45003:2021 is an international standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) allowing organizations to manage psychosocial risk at work, in particular, to be considered within occupational health and safety (OH&S) management systems based on ISO 45001 on Occupational Health and Safety Management System Standards. Impact Exposure to psychosocial hazards in the workplace not only has the potential to produce psychological and physiological harm to individual employees, but can also produce further repercussions within society—reducing productivity in local/state economies, corroding familial/interpersonal relationships, and producing negative behavioral outcomes. Occupational burnout is a consequence of psychosocial hazards. Psychological and behavioral Occupational stress, anxiety, and depression can be directly correlated to psychosocial hazards in the workplace. Exposure to workplace psychosocial hazards has been strongly correlated with a wide spectrum of unhealthy behaviors such as physical inactivity, excessive alcohol and drug consumption, nutritional imbalance and sleep disturbances. In 2003, a cross-sectional survey of 12,110 employees from 26 different workplace environments was established to examine the relationship between subjective workplace stress and healthy activity. The survey quantified the measurement of stress mainly through evaluation of an individual's perceived locus of control in the workplace (although other variables were also examined). The results concluded that self-reported high levels of stress were associated with, across both sexes: diets with a higher concentration of fat, less exercise, cigarette smoking (and increasing use), and less self-efficacy to control smoking habits. Physiological Supported by strong evidence from a plethora of meticulous cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, a link has been indicated between the psychosocial work environment and consequences on employees' physical health. Increasing evidence indicates that four main physiological systems are effected: hypertension and heart disease, wound-healing, musculoskeletal disorders, gastro-intestinal disorders, and impaired immuno-competence. Additional disorders generally recognized as stress-induced include: bronchitis, coronary heart disease, mental illness, thyroid disorders, skin diseases, certain types of rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, tuberculosis, headaches and migraine, peptic ulcers and ulcerative colitis, and diabetes. Economic Across the European Union, work-related stress alone affects over 40 million individuals, costing an estimated €20 billion a year in lost productivity. See also Industrial and organizational psychology Occupational health psychology Positive psychology in the workplace References External links Psychosocial issues on OSH-Wiki Occupational hazards Social psychology

Applied philosophy

Applied philosophy (philosophy from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, 'love of wisdom') is a branch of philosophy that studies philosophical problems of practical concern. The topic covers a broad spectrum of issues in environment, medicine, science, engineering, policy, law, politics, economics and education. The term was popularised in 1982 by the founding of the Society for Applied Philosophy by Brenda Almond, and its subsequent journal publication Journal of Applied Philosophy edited by Elizabeth Brake. Methods of applied philosophy are similar to other philosophical methods including questioning, dialectic, critical discussion, rational argument, systematic presentation, thought experiments and logical argumentation. Applied philosophy is differentiated from pure philosophy primarily by dealing with specific topics of practical concern, whereas pure philosophy does not take an object; metaphorically it is philosophy applied to itself; exploring standard philosophical problems and philosophical objects (e.g. metaphysical properties) such as the fundamental nature of reality, epistemology and morality among others. Applied philosophy is therefore a subsection of philosophy, broadly construed it does not deal with topics in the purely abstract realm, but takes a specific object of practical concern. Definitions General definition Due to the recent coinage of the term, the full scope and meaning of Applied Philosophy is at times still quite ambiguous and contentious, but generally does interact with the several other general definitions of philosophy. A Companion of Applied Philosophy provides three introductory articles by Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, David Archard and Suzanne Uniacke that outline general definitions and parameters for the field of Applied Philosophy. In the first chapter, Lippert-Rasmussen article “The Nature of Applied Philosophy” begins by unpacking the term “applied philosophy”, outlining that to apply is a verb that takes an object, therefore if one were doing philosophy and not applying it to something then one would be grammatically or conceptually confused to say that one is doing applied philosophy. Lippert-Rasmussen provides seven conceptions of Applied Philosophy: the relevance conception, the specificity conception, the practical conception, the activist conception, the methodological conception, the empirical facts conception, the audience conception. These definitions are specified in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions, making the different conceptions incompatible with one another. Lippert-Rasmussen stresses that applied philosophy is much larger than that of applied ethics, therefore applied philosophers should strive beyond just proposing normative moral frameworks, allowing for Applied Philosophy to offer metaphysical frameworks for understanding contemporary results in other sciences and disciplines. In the third chapter of A Companion of Applied Philosophy, Suzanne Uniacke's article “The Value of Applied Philosophy”, Uniacke outlines that applied philosophy is really a field of philosophical inquiry, differentiating itself from pure philosophy by claiming the former can provide practical guidance on issues beyond the philosophical domain. Within applied philosophy there are generally two modes of focus, it can be academically focused (for an academic audience), or it can be in “out-reach mode” (for a non-academic audience). In drawing on philosophical subdisciplines such as metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, applied philosophers shape their contributions and analysis on issues of practical concern. In this intersection between philosophical theories, principles, and concepts with issues beyond that of the purely philosophical domain (out-reach mode), these problems may give valuable challenges to traditionally accepted philosophies, providing a stress test, feedback or friction on principles that are so often confined within the idealistic philosophical framework. Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen: seven conceptions Relevance conception: Claims that philosophy is applied if and only if it is relevant to important questions of everyday life. To be clear this conception claims that applied philosophy need not answer the important questions of everyday life, yet it needs to philosophically explore or at least be relevant to them. There is no requirement on what type of everyday life questions are relevant, it can vary across time and audience, some questions may be relevant to some people at one time and to others at another. Specificity conception: Philosophy is applied if, and only if, it addresses a comparatively specific question within the branch of philosophy, e.g., metaphysics, epistemology or moral philosophy, to which it belongs. Establishes philosophical principles to then apply and explore their implications in the applied (non-philosophical) specific domains of inquiry. Practical conception: Philosophy is applied if, and only if, it justifies an answer to comparatively specific questions within its relevant branch of philosophy about what we ought to do. Activist conception: Philosophy is applied if, and only if, it is motivated by an ambition of having a certain causal effect on the world. Whether that causal effect be to educate, elucidate or edify on a given topic, with real world consequences thereof. As Lippert-Rasmussen points out, much of pure philosophy has quite an impact on the world and yet one would still claim it to be pure rather than applied philosophy, however the distinction of the activist conception lies in their goal, the activist conception has greater emphasis on being an educator and having a causal impact on the world, changing their primary philosophical commitment from “knowledge and truth” to having a causal impact. The change of commitment and goals may result in the change of methods in order to realize their goal. Methodological conception: Philosophy is applied if, and only if, it involves the use of specifically philosophical methods to explore issues outside the narrow set of philosophical problems. Empirical facts conception: Philosophy is applied if, and only if, it is significantly informed by empirical evidence – in particular, that provided by empirical sciences. Stresses the interdisciplinary nature of applied philosophy, characterising applied philosophy as drawing on the results of empirical sciences and the evidence thereof to be sufficiently informed in contributing philosophical analysis and input. Audience conception: Philosophy is applied if, and only if, its intended audience is non-philosophers. Despite the audience conception not always requiring background knowledge of the given audience, it is prudent for philosophers who are engaging with specific scientific disciplines to be well read on the empirical facts of those disciplines the philosopher addresses, thus re-iterating the value of being empirically informed with the facts, especially when engaging with interdisciplinary studies of philosophy with some other subject. Applied moral philosophy Applied moral philosophy (or applied ethics) is the branch of moral philosophy concerned with philosophical inquiry into moral issues that arise in everyday contexts and institutional design frameworks (e.g. how social institutions are structured). Applied moral philosophy involves the use of philosophical theories and methods of analysis to treat fundamentally moral problems in non-philosophical subjects, such as technology, public policy, and medicine. This includes the use of fundamental moral principles and theories to assess particular social practices, arrangements, and norms prevailing in particular societies at particular times. Some key topics in applied moral philosophy are business ethics, bioethics, feminist ethics, environmental ethics, and medical ethics. Beauchamp (1984) notes where applied moral philosophy and theoretical ethics diverge is not in their methodologies, but rather, in the content of their analysis and assessment. Although interest in topics of applied ethics, such as civil disobedience, suicide, and free speech, can be traced all the way back to antiquity, applied moral philosophy gained mainstream popularity recently. However, the history of philosophy still shows a tradition of moral philosophy more concerned with its theoretical concerns, such as justifying fundamental moral principles and examining the nature of moral judgements. Applied ethics first gained mainstream popularity in 1967, as many professions such as law, medicine and engineering were profoundly affected by social issues and injustices at the time. For example, various environmental movements sparked political conversations about humanities relationship to the natural world, which led to the development of important philosophical arguments against anthropocentrism. As awareness of these social concerns grew, so did discussions of them in academic philosophy. By the 1970s and 1980s, there was a surge in publications devoted to philosophical inquiry of subjects in applied ethics, which were initially directed at biomedical ethics, and later business ethics. Sub-disciplines of moral philosophy Moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy concerned with examining the nature of right and wrong. It seeks to provide a framework for what constitutes morally right and wrong actions, and analyses issues surrounding moral principles, concepts and dilemmas. There are three main sub-disciplines of moral philosophy: meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Meta-ethics is the branch of moral philosophy which analyses the nature and status of ethical terms and concepts. It deals with abstract questions about the nature of morality, including whether or not morality actually exists, whether moral judgements are truth-apt (capable of being binary true/false), and if they are, investigating whether the properties of moral statements make them truth-apt in the same way that mathematical and descriptive statements are. Normative ethics deals with the construction and justification of fundamental moral principles that ought to guide human behaviour. There are three main branches of normative ethical theories: consequentialism, deontology and virtue-based ethics. Consequentialism argues that an action is morally permissible if and only if it maximizes some intrinsic overall good. Deontological theories place rights and duties as the fundamental determinates of what we ought to do, by determining what rights and duties are justifiable constraints on behaviour. Finally, virtue-based theories argue that what one ought to do is what the ideally virtuous person would do. Applied ethics uses philosophical methods of inquiry to address the moral permissibility of specific actions and practices in particular circumstances. However, applied ethics still requires theories and concepts found in meta-ethics and normative ethics to adequately address applied ethical problems. For example, one cannot confidently assert the moral permissibility of abortion without also assuming that there is such a thing as morally permissible actions, which is a fundamental meta-ethical question. Similarly, the moral permissibility of an action can be justified using a fundamental moral theory or principle found in normative ethics. A conception of these disciplines as such allows for significant overlap in the questions they address, along with their moral theories and ideas. Methodologies Applied ethics uses philosophical theories and concepts to tackle moral issues found in non-philosophical contexts. However, there is significant debate over the particular methodology that should be used when determining the moral permissibility of actions and practices during applied ethical inquiry. One possible methodology involves the application of moral principles and theories to particular issues in applied ethics, and is known as the top-down model of philosophical analysis. Under this model, one must first determine the set of fundamental moral principles which should hold necessarily and universally, in order to apply them to particular issues in applied ethics. The next step is articulating the relevant empirical facts of a situation to better understand how these principles should be applied in that particular context, which then determines the moral permissibility of an action. There are significant issues with this model of how to resolve issues in applied moral philosophy, as it requires certainty in a definitive set of moral principles to guide human behaviour. However, there is universal disagreement over which principles this definitive set consists of, if any, creating issues for a conception of applied ethics using the top-down model. On the other hand, the bottom-up model involves formulating intuitive responses to questions about what one ought to do in particular situations, and then developing philosophical understandings or judgements based on the intuitions one has about a case. We can then revise intuitions in light of these philosophical judgements to reach an appropriate resolution on what one ought to do in a given situation. This model faces similar problems as the previous one, where disagreements about particular judgements and intuitions require us to have some other mechanism to examine the validity of intuitive judgements. The Reflective Equilibrium model combines the top-down and bottom-up approaches, where one should reflect on their current beliefs, and revise them in light of their general and particular moral judgements. A general belief may be rejected in light of specific situations to which it is applied when the belief recommends an action one finds morally unacceptable. A particular belief can likewise be rejected if it conflicts with general moral beliefs one takes to be plausible, and which justifies many of their other moral beliefs about what one ought to do in a given situation. An agent can then reach a state of equilibrium where the set containing their general and particular moral judgements is coherent and consistent. Business ethics Business ethics is the study of moral issues that arise when human beings exchange goods and services, where such exchanges are fundamental to daily existence. A major contemporary issue in business ethics is about the social responsibility of corporate executives. One theory proposed by Friedman (2008) describes the sole responsibility of a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) being profit maximization through their business abilities and knowledge. This is known at stockholder theory, which says promoting the interests of stockholders is the sole responsibility of corporate executives. Freeman (1998) presents a competing theory of corporate social responsibility by appealing to pre-theoretical commitments about the moral significance of assessing who an action affects and how. Proponents of stakeholder theory argue that corporate executives have moral responsibilities to all stakeholders in their business operations, including consumers, employees, and communities. Thus, a business decision may maximize profits for stockholders, but it is not morally permissible unless it does not conflict with the demands of other stakeholders in the company. Freeman (2008) takes a Rawlsian approach to mediate conflicts amongst stakeholders, where the right action is that which will promote the well-being of the stakeholders who are the least well-off. Other decision-making principles can also be appealed to, and an adequate stakeholder theory will be assessed according to the decision making theory it employs to mediate between conflicting demands, the plausibility of the theory, and its ability to achieve results in particular cases. Another key issue in business ethics, questions the moral status of corporations. If corporations are the kind of thing capable of being morally evaluated, then they can be assigned moral responsibility. Otherwise, there remains a question of whom to ascribe moral blame towards for morally wrong business practices. French (2009) argues that corporations are moral agents, and that their “corporate internal decision structure” can be morally evaluated, as it has the required intentionality for moral blameworthiness. Danley (1980) disagrees and says that corporations cannot be moral agents merely because they are intentional, but that other considerations, such as the ability to be punished, must obtain when assigning moral responsibility to an agent. Bioethics Bioethics is the study of human conduct towards the animate and inanimate natural world against a background of life sciences. It provides a disciplinary framework for a wide array of moral questions in life sciences that concern humans, the environment, and animals. There are 3 main sub-disciplines of bioethics: medical ethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. Medical ethics Medical ethics can be traced back to the Hippocratic Oath in 500 B.C.E., making it the oldest sub-discipline of bioethics. Medical ethics concerns itself with questions of what one ought to do  in particular moral situations arising in medical contexts. There are a number of key issues in medical ethics, such as end-of-life and beginning-of-life debates, physician-patient relationships, and adequate healthcare accessibility. The abortion debate remains one of the most widely discussed issues in medical ethics, which concerns the conditions under which an abortion is morally permissible, if any. Thomson (1971) revolutionized philosophical understanding of issues in the abortion debate, by questioning the widespread belief that because a fetus is a person, that it is morally wrong to kill them. She uses the violinist thought experiment to show that even if a fetus is a person, their right to life is not absolute, and therefore provided non-theistic and rational justification for the moral permissibility of abortion under certain conditions. Frances Kamm (1992) takes a deontological approach in order to expand on Thomson's argument, where she argues that factors such as third-party intervention and morally responsible creation support its permissibility. Another debate in medical ethics is about the moral permissibility of euthanasia, and under what conditions euthanasia is morally acceptable. Euthanasia is the intentional killing of another person in order to benefit them. One influential argument in favour of voluntary active euthanasia and voluntary passive euthanasia is put forth by Rachels (1975), who is not only able to show the permissibility of the latter in cases where someone's life is no longer worth living, but that there mere fact that active euthanasia involves killing someone and passive euthanasia involves letting them die does not make it more just to do one over the other. He presents his argument in response to critics who argue that it is morally worse to kill someone than to merely let them die. However, he considers a case where a husband wants his wife to die, and in one case, does so by putting lethal poison in her wine, and in the second case, walks in on her drowning in a bathtub and lets her die. He argues that his thought experiment shows why killing someone is not always morally worse than letting them die, forcing defenders of only passive euthanasia to also commit themselves to the moral permissibility of active euthanasia, unless they can show why only the former option is morally acceptable. Environmental ethics Environmental ethics is the discipline of applied ethics that studies the moral relationship of human beings to the environment and its non-human contents. The practical goals of environmental ethics are to provide a moral grounds for social policies aimed at protecting the environment and remedying its degradation. It questions the status of the environment independently of human beings, and categorizes the different positions on its status as anthropocentrism and non-anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism is the view that value is human-centered and all other entities are means to human ends. This bears on the question of the value of the environment, and whether or not the environment has intrinsic value independent of human beings. By taking a non-anthropocentric view that it does have intrinsic value, one should question why humanity would try to destroy something with intrinsic value rather than preserve it, under the assumption that agents will try to preserve things with value. Feminism has an important relationship to environmental ethics where, as King (1989) argues, human exploitation of nature can be seen as a manifestation and extension of the oppression of women. She argues that humanity's destruction of nature is a result of associating nature with the feminine, where feminine agents have historically and systemically been inferiorized and oppressed by a male-dominating culture. King (1989) motivates her argument by examining the historical domination of women in society, and then argues that all other domination and hierarchies flow from this. Her argument justifies the moral wrongness of environmental degradation and human exploitation of nature not by arguing in favour of its intrinsic value, but by appealing to the moral wrongness of female oppression by a male-dominating culture. Applied political and legal philosophy Applied political and legal philosophy conducts investigation and analysis using philosophical methods and theories into specific and concrete political and legal issues. Historically, much of the work in political and legal philosophy has pursued more general issues, such as questions about the nature of justice, ideal forms of democracy, and how to organize political and legal institutions. Applied political and legal philosophy uses the insights of political and legal philosophy to critically examine more concrete issues within the disciplines. Some examples include philosophical inquiry into family-based immigration policies, understanding the conceptual structure of civil disobedience, and discussing the bounds of prosecutorial discretion in domestic violence cases. Dempsey and Lister (2016) identify three activist approaches to applied political and legal philosophy. Activist approaches The standard activist approach is used when a philosopher presents arguments directed primarily at other philosophers, defending or critiquing a policy or some set of policies. If a policy maker happens to come across the argument, and is sufficiently persuaded to make public policy changes supporting the philosophers desired outcome, then the standard activist philosopher will be satisfied. However, their main goal is to articulate a sound argument in favour of their position on some policy or set of political/legal issues, regardless of if it actually influences public policy. Conceptual activism is when arguments are directed primarily to other philosophers, and critically analyses and clarifies some concept, where the arguments presented may be relevant in future policy making. The goal of conceptual activists is to motivate a particular understanding of concepts which may later inform policy making. Westen's (2017) work on consent is paradigmatic of this approach, where his analysis of the concept of consent unpacks confusions amongst not only philosophers and academics, but also policy makers, as to the nature and limitations of consent. Extreme activism is when a philosopher acts as an expert consultant and presents an argument directly to policy makers in favour of some view. Although they still aim to present a sound argument about what should happen in the world, as the standard activist does, this goal is just as important as their goal to persuade policy makers in order to bring about the desired outcome of their work. Thus, the measure of success for an extreme activist consists not only of doing good philosophy, but also of their direct causal contribution to the world. However, the tension between their political and philosophical goals has potentially negative outcomes, such as wasting policy makers' time, who are not convinced by philosophical arguments, the possibility of corruption for philosophers placed in this position, and the potential to undermine the value of philosophy. Feminist political philosophy Feminist political philosophy involves understanding and critiquing political philosophy's inattention to feminist concerns, and instead articulates ways for political theory to be reconstructed to further feminist aims. Feminist political philosophy has been instrumental in reorganising political institutions and practices, as well as developing new political ideals and practices which justify their reorganisation. Work in feminist political philosophy uses the various activist approaches to causally affect public policies and political institutions. For example, liberal feminist theorising, whose main concerns are protecting and enhancing women's political rights and personal autonomy, has consistently used conceptual activism to further their aims. Applied epistemology While epistemology—the study of knowledge and justified belief—used to primarily be concerned with the seeking of truth and have an individualistic orientation in the task of doing so, recent developments in this branch of philosophy do not only highlight the social ways in which knowledge is generated, but also its practical and normative dimensions. Applied epistemology is the branch of applied philosophy that precisely explores and addresses these considerations. For instance, even if traditional epistemology often investigates what we are justified in believing—the most paradigmatic case being the tripartite analysis of knowledge, i.e. that S knows that p if and only if p is true, S believes that p, and S is justified in believing that p—, applied epistemologists have argued that those questions are equivalent to queries about what we ought to believe: stressing that epistemology is fundamentally a normative subject. Coady (2016) claims so by recognizing that this branch of philosophy is not merely interested in how things are, but also in how they ought to be. As a result, there might be different (and more preferable) methods for acquiring knowledge depending on whose values guide one's orientation in life or what goals direct their pursuit of truth. Social epistemology, in its focus on the social dimensions of knowledge and the ways that institutions mediate its acquisition, often overlaps with and can be seen as a part of applied epistemology. But one cannot equate those fields of research as social epistemology has been, so far, a lot more investigated through a consequentialist lens—i.e. it has been exploring the epistemic consequences of our social institutions that generate knowledge—than other normative predispositions. Coady (2016) claims that social epistemology has not sufficiently addressed questions of what individuals ought to believe and how they should pursue knowledge. And, while this social and consequentialist orientation has great value, applied epistemology also encompasses other normative orientations—like deontology, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics, amongst others—and explores individualistic questions of practical epistemic concerns. The potential topics of applied epistemology include, but are not limited to: feminist epistemology, the epistemology of deliberative democracy, freedom of expression and diversity, conspiracy theories, the epistemological dimensions and implications of sexual consent, information markets, and more. Feminist epistemology Feminist epistemology studies how gendered practices and norms contribute to social oppression—including, but not limited to the enforcement of heteropatriarchy, racism, ableism, and classism—and proposes ways for agents to revise them in light of this. This branch of feminist philosophy also contributes to the scope of social epistemology as it identifies several ways in which conventional knowledge practices and processes disadvantage women, such as excluding them from inquiry, denying them epistemic authority, and producing theories of women which misrepresent them to serve patriarchal interests. Feminist epistemology is not only applied in the sense that its liberatory goals are explicitly political and, as a result, seek a certain causal effect on the world. But this branch of epistemology is also greatly relevant since, to be effective activists, Wylie (2001) stresses that it is necessary “to understand the conditions that disadvantage women with as much empirical accuracy and explanatory power as possible.” A demonstration of this necessity is that, since the Black and lesbian feminist theorizing of the 1980s, it is not effective anymore for feminists to investigate the conceptions and phenomena related to gender without the concept of intersectionality: which does not only make visible how the lived experiences of an individual and social group are shaped by their interdependent and overlapping identities, but also that, ultimately, their access to power and privilege is structured by those. Crenshaw (1989) coined this interpretative framework by investigating the failures of the legal courts in DeGraffenreid v General Motors (1976), Moore v Hughes Helicopter (1983), and Payne v Travenol (1976) to recognize that Black women were both discriminated on the basis of gender and of race. Epistemology of deliberative democracy The deliberative conception of democracy claims that public deliberation is necessary for the justification of this political system and the legitimacy of its decision-making processes. Broadly put, public deliberations refer to the open spaces where free and equal citizens share and discuss their reasons for supporting different policy proposals and societal ideas. This emphasis on public deliberation differentiates the deliberative conception from the aggregative conception of democracy: which understands the democratic process as a tool to gather and track the preferences and beliefs of citizenry at the moment of voting. This area of applied epistemology explores the epistemic values, virtues, and vices that underscore and can be observed to emerge from deliberative decision-making. For instance, in the case of a referendum or an election, the Condorcet jury theorem (CJT) articulates that: if each voter is more likely than not to be correct on a topic on which they are asked to vote (i.e. the competence condition) and if each votes independently from one another (i.e. the independence condition), then it is not only the case that a majority of people is more likely to be correct than a single individual on the outcome of their vote. But it is also the case that the probability that a majority will vote for the correct outcome increases with the number of voters. On the one hand, the CJT provides a solid defense and empirical argument for the importance of voting in democracy: this procedure leads decision-making bodies to make better decisions because of more accurate epistemic inputs. On the other hand, it also creates a debate on the influence of public deliberations on the well-functioning of voting procedures. While Estlund (1989) and Waldron (1989) claim that public deliberation, in its exchange of reasons and information about the outcomes under discussion, improves the competence condition of the votes, Dietrich and Spiekermann (2013) raise concerns about the fact that: if voters engage with one another too much prior to or at the moment of making a decision, the independence condition of the CJT is undermined and its optimistic results become distorted. Many have also raised the ‘public ignorance’ objection to the deliberative conception of democracy: holding that most people are too ignorant for deliberative democracy to be an effective and viable practice. Talisse (2004) responds to this proposed limitation by claiming that it is unclear about what exactly ‘ignorance’ refers to — according to him, this objection conflates the states of being uninformed, misinformed, and uninterested — and that attributing culpability to those that ‘do not know’ takes responsibility away from the democratic institutions (like media and academia) that fail them. While social epistemology takes a closer look at the roles of institutional practices to generate, mediate, or prevent knowledge acquisition, a substantial debate in the epistemology of deliberative democracy concerns the legal sanctions on speech, behavior and freedom of expression. The contribution of J.S. Mill (1859) is frequently referenced on this issue, notably supporting that free speech and public deliberation help to eliminate wrong opinions, permit correct beliefs to prevail, and, as a result, promote truth. Censorship and strict limitations of the public sphere would prevent different parties, in a disagreement, from even perceiving the truthful elements of their opponent's argument and could reinforce dogmatic tendencies in a given society. Landemore (2013) also supports that diversity is epistemically beneficial in deliberative democracies; there are higher chances to reach a correct truth if considering more diverse perspectives than few. Even if one can think of the dimensions of diversity that social and feminist epistemologies refer to, Kappel, Hallsson, and Møller (2016) also bring to the forefront of the discussion: diversity of knowledge, diversity of opinion, cognitive diversity, epistemic norm diversity, and non-epistemic value diversity. If diversity may help to neutralize biases, ‘enclave deliberations’—a communicative process amongst like-minded people “who talk or even live, much of the time, in isolated enclaves”— can lead to group polarization. Sunstein (2002) defines group polarization as the phenomenon in which members of a group move towards a more extreme position during the process of deliberating with their peers than before doing so. For him, two reasons explain the statistical regularity of this phenomenon. On the one hand, he points to the fact that people do not usually discuss with groups that share different inclinations and predispositions on a particular topic: greatly limiting their ‘argument pool’. On the other hand, he acknowledges that group polarization also arises from the desire of group members to be perceived favourably by their peers. Sunstein also points to the empirical evidence that diverse and heterogeneous groups tend to give less weight to the views of low-status members — the latter also being frequently more quiet in deliberative bodies. This area of deliberative inequalities overlaps with applied political philosophy and can be explored in the works of: Bohman (1996) and Young (2000), amongst others. Applied philosophers also propose epistemic virtues and valuable practices to cope with these epistemic vices and deliberative dysfunction. Starting from the premise that there is nothing wrong with changing and being convinced by others about our views, Peter (2013) suggests that it is how one navigates disagreements that matters. For her, well-conducted deliberations are those in which participants treat each other as epistemic peers, that is, they recognize that they are as likely to make a mistake along the way as their peers. As a result, they should not be closed to revising their original beliefs (especially if they realize that their arguments are not sufficiently robust) while holding themselves mutually accountable to one another. Other topics that explore the epistemology of deliberative democracy include, but are not limited to: epistemic proceduralism, the value or disvalue of disagreement, epistocracy, and social integration, among others. Applied Ontology Applied ontology involves the application of ontology to practical pursuits. This can involve adopting ontological principles in the creation of controlled, representational vocabularies. These vocabularies, referred to as 'ontologies', can be compiled to organize scientific information in a computer-friendly format. One of the primary uses of ontologies is improving interoperability of data systems. Data within and between organizations can sometimes be trapped within data silos. Ontologies can improve data integration by offering a representative structure which diverse data systems can link up to. By representing our knowledge about domains through classes and the relations between them, ontologies can also be used to improve information retrieval and discovery from databases. When an ontology is limited to representing entities from a specific subject or domain, it is called a domain ontology. An upper-level ontology (or top-level ontology) represents entities at a highly general level of abstraction. The classes and relations of an upper-level ontology are applicable to many different domain ontologies. Criteria to count as an upper level ontology are defined by ISO/IEC 21838-1:2021. Some examples of upper-level ontologies include Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering (DOLCE), and TUpper. There are also mid-level ontologies, which define terms that are used in different domains and are less general than those in upper-level ontologies, which they extend from and conform to, such as the Common Core Ontologies. References

PICO process

The PICO process (or framework) is a mnemonic used in evidence-based practice (and specifically evidence-based medicine) to frame and answer a clinical or health care related question, though it is also argued that PICO "can be used universally for every scientific endeavour in any discipline with all study designs". The PICO framework is also used to develop literature search strategies, for instance in systematic reviews. The PICO acronym has come to stand for: PPatient, problem or population IIntervention CComparison, control or comparator OOutcome(s) (e.g. pain, fatigue, nausea, infections, death) An application that covers clinical questions about interventions, as well as exposures, risk/ prognostic factors, and test accuracy, is: PPatient, problem or population IInvestigated condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result) CComparison condition (e.g. intervention, exposure, risk/ prognostic factor, or test result respectively) OOutcome(s) (e.g. symptom, syndrome, or disease of interest) Alternatives such as SPICE and PECO (among many others) can also be used. Some authors suggest adding T and S, as follows: T - Timing (e.g. duration of intervention, or date of publication) S - Study type (e.g. randomized controlled trial, cohort study, etc.) PICO as a universal technique It was argued that PICO may be useful for every scientific endeavor even beyond clinical settings. This proposal is based on a more abstract view of the PICO mnemonic, equating them with four components that is inherent to every single research, namely (1) research object; (2) application of a theory or method; (3) alternative theories or methods (or the null hypothesis); and (4) the ultimate goal of knowledge generation. This proposition would imply that the PICO technique could be used for teaching academic writing even beyond medical disciplines. Examples Clinical question: "In children with headache, is paracetamol more effective than placebo against pain?" Population = Children with headaches; keywords = children + headache Intervention = Paracetamol; keyword = paracetamol Compared with = Placebo; keyword = placebo Outcome of interest = Pain; keyword = pain Pubmed (health research database) search strategy:children headache paracetamol placebo pain Clinical question: "Is the risk of having breast cancer higher in symptom-free women with a positive mammography compared to symptom-free women with a negative mammography?" Population = Women without a history of breast cancer Investigated test result = Positive result on mammography Comparator test result = Negative result on mammography Outcome of interest = Breast cancer according to biopsy (or not) Similar Frameworks The PICO framework was originally developed to frame interventional clinical questions. PICO inspired other frameworks such as PICOS, PICOT, PICOTT, PECO, PICOTS, PECODR, PEICOIS, PICOC, SPICE, PIPOH, EPICOT+, PESICO, PICo, and PS. References Evidence-based practices

Derailment (thought disorder)

In psychiatry, derailment (aka loosening of association, asyndesis, asyndetic thinking, knight's move thinking, entgleisen, disorganised thinking) categorises any speech that sequences of unrelated or barely related ideas compose; the topic often changes from one sentence to another. In a mild manifestation, this thought disorder is characterized by slippage of ideas further and further from the point of a discussion. Derailment can often be manifestly caused by intense emotions such as euphoria or hysteria. Some of the synonyms given above (loosening of association, asyndetic thinking) are used by some authors to refer just to a loss of goal: discourse that sets off on a particular idea, wanders off and never returns to it. A related term is tangentiality—it refers to off-the-point, oblique or irrelevant answers given to questions. In some studies on creativity, knight's move thinking—while describing a similarly loose association of ideas—is not considered a mental disorder or the hallmark of one; it is sometimes used as a synonym for lateral thinking. Examples "The next day when I'd be going out you know, I took control, like uh, I put bleach on my hair in California."—given by Nancy C. Andreasen "I think someone's infiltrated my copies of the cases. We've got to case the joint. I don't believe in joints, but they do hold your body together."—given by Elyn Saks. History Entgleisen (derailment in German) was first used with this meaning by Carl Schneider in 1930. The term asyndesis was introduced by N. Cameron in 1938, while loosening of association was introduced by A. Bleuler in 1950. The phrase knight's move thinking was first used in the context of pathological thinking by the psychologist Peter McKellar in 1957, who hypothesized that individuals with schizophrenia fail to suppress divergent associations. Derailment was used with this meaning by Kurt Schneider in 1959. See also Nonsense Non sequitur (logic) and non sequitur (literary device) Red herring Relevance logic Schizophasia SCIgen, a program that generates nonsense research papers by grammatically combining snippets; many of the sentences generated are individually plausible Tip-of-the-tongue Train of thought References Cognition Medical signs Thought disorders

Psychology of collecting

The psychology of collecting is an area of study that seeks to understand the motivating factors explaining why people devote time, money, and energy making and maintaining collections. There exist a variety of theories for why collecting behavior occurs, including consumerism, materialism, neurobiology and psychoanalytic theory. The psychology of collecting also offers insight into variance between similar behavior that can be recognised on a continuum between being beneficial as a hobby and also capable of being a mental disorder. The large diversity of different types of collected objects and variance of collecting behaviors across these types has also been subject to research in psychology, marketing and game design. Collecting is known to be a common behavior, with one estimate suggests that 40% of United States households engage in some form of collecting behavior, with another source suggesting a global estimate closer to 30% assuming low variance between countries. Motivations for collecting Although collections often include physical objects, marketing research theorises that collection may be in pursuit of something less tangible such as an experience, idea or feeling. This forms a foundation for applying theories of consumerism and materialism, which posits some intrinsic value separate from monetary value such as luxury, passion, spirituality, solidarity or nostalgia that motivates consumer behavior. The social environment in which collecting occurs may also lead to competition over acquiring objects, and cooperation in the form of sharing knowledge about objects, which according to the theory motivates researching, cataloging, displaying and admiring collections. Motives are not mutually exclusive, and different motives may combine or intersect for different collectors. Since these motivations are not restricted to a particular stage of life, collecting is sometimes considered a lifelong pursuit which can never be fully completed. Virtual forms of collecting are diverse, and can vary from collectible objects like equipment, characters, vehicles or mounts, to less material possessions such as skins or achievements, or currencies and objects valued primarily for rarity, memorability, or market value. These virtual collections may have effects on game mechanics, or be acquired to reflect the personality of players through appearance. The scope of collecting behavior in academia is difficult to define due to its large scope and many functions. It can include physical and virtual objects, along with intangible objects such as collecting jokes or proverbs. This difficulty is illustrated by the following quote: Comparison to hoarding Collecting as a hobby can become hoarding or compulsive hoarding, differing in that covering a large amount of living area with possessions leads to significant distress or impairment. Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder, is a diagnosable mental disorder in the DSM-5 and is closely related to obsessive-compulsive disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Collecting, hoarding and compulsive hoarding are considered to lie on a continuum of the same underlying behaviors, and assessment of these behaviors generally falls into two general categories of obsessive-compulsive behavior with hoarding subscales, and hoarding measures independent of obsessive-compulsive behavior. The crossover from collecting as a hobby, to hoarding as maladaptive behavior, has also been expressed in anecdotes. Bryan Petrulis, a former outfielder at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota, and autograph collector, stated "It gets addictive, [...] just like gambling, drugs or sex. It's like putting a coin in a slot machine. It might not pay off this time, so you put another quarter in and keep doing it until you are tapped out or finally hit the jackpot." Neurobiology Neurobiological theories have suggested that collecting behaviors can in some cases be explained by brain damage or abnormalities. This research posits levels of collecting behavior result from abnormalities in the medial prefrontal cortex, which also serves to explain the poor outcomes of psychosocial interventions. The prefrontal cortex is a region of the brain responsible for regulating cognitive behaviors such as decision making, information processing, and organizing behavior. Evidence also exists to support this hypothesis for damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. There are also cases where other brain damage distributed throughout the right and left hemispheres was believed to cause hoarding behavior. Psychoanalytic theory Up until the 1990s, Freudian and psychoanalytic theories were historically used to describe why people collect. Early theories began in the early- and mid-1900s based on both theories of psychosexual development and drive theory. Freud suggested the idea that collecting stems from toilet training behavior. In the late 1990s, the popularity of relational models theories, such as self psychology led to the application of these theories to describe collecting as well, which pose the idea that collecting establishes a better sense of self. The psychoanalytic perspective generally identified five main motivations for collecting: for selfish purposes; for selfless purposes; as preservation, restoration, history, and a sense of continuity; as financial investment and as a form of addiction. Addictive collecting was termed hoarding and reflected a "dark side" of collecting behavior. Notes References Further reading External links The Neuropsychology of an Art Collector: Inside the Collector Brain Collecting Psychology of art

Motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a counseling approach developed in part by clinical psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. It is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. Compared with non-directive counseling, it is more focused and goal-directed, and departs from traditional Rogerian client-centered therapy through this use of direction, in which therapists attempt to influence clients to consider making changes, rather than engaging in non-directive therapeutic exploration. The examination and resolution of ambivalence is a central purpose, and the counselor is intentionally directive in pursuing this goal. MI is most centrally defined not by technique but by its spirit as a facilitative style for interpersonal relationship. Core concepts evolved from experience in the treatment of problem drinkers, and MI was first described by Miller (1983) in an article published in the journal Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. Miller and Rollnick elaborated on these fundamental concepts and approaches in 1991 in a more detailed description of clinical procedures. MI has demonstrated positive effects on psychological and physiological disorders according to meta-analyses. Overview Motivational interviewing (MI) is a person-centered strategy. It is used to elicit patient motivation to change a specific negative behavior. MI engages clients, elicits change talk and evokes patient motivation to make positive changes. For example, change talk can be elicited by asking the patient questions such as: "How might you like things to be different?" or "How does __ interfere with things that you would like to do?" Unlike clinical interventions and treatment, MI is the technique where the interviewer (clinician) assists the interviewee (patient) in changing a behavior by expressing their acceptance of the interviewee without judgement. By this, MI incorporates the idea that every single patient may be in differing stages of readiness levels and may need to act accordingly to the patient's levels and current needs. Change may occur quickly or may take considerable time, depending on the client. Knowledge alone is usually not sufficient to motivate change within a client, and challenges in maintaining change should be thought of as the rule, not the exception. The incorporation of MI can help patients resolve their uncertainties and hesitancies that may stop them from their inherent want of change in relation to a certain behavior or habit. At the same time, it can be seen that MI ensures that the participants are viewed more as team members to solve a problem rather than a clinician and patient. Hence, this technique can be attributed to a collaboration that respects sense of self and autonomy. To be more successful at motivational interviewing, a clinician must have a strong sense of "purpose, clear strategies and skills for such purposes". This ensures that the clinician knows what goals they are trying to achieve prior to entering into motivational interviewing. Additionally, clinicians need to have well-rounded and established interaction skills including asking open ended questions, reflective listening, affirming and reiterating statements back to the patient. Such skills are used in a dynamic where the clinician actively listens to the patient then repackages their statements back to them while highlighting what they have done well. In this way, it can improve their self-confidence for change. Furthermore, at the same time the clinician needs to keep in mind the following five principles when practicing MI. Express empathy This means to listen and express empathy to patients through the use of reflective listening. In this step, the clinician listens and presents ideas the patient has discussed in a different way, rather than telling the patient what to do. This hopes to ensure that the patient feels respected and that there are no judgments given when they express their thoughts, feelings and experiences but instead, shows the patient that the clinician is genuinely interested about the patient and their circumstances. This aims to strengthen the relationship between the two parties and ensures it is a collaboration, and allows the patient to feel that the clinician is supportive and therefore will be more willing to be open about their real thoughts. Develop discrepancy This means to assist patients in developing discrepancies between the current self and what they want to be like in the future after a change has taken place. The main goal of this principle is to increase the patient's awareness that there are consequences to their current behaviors. This allows the patient to realize the negative aspects and issues caused by the particular behavior that MI is trying to change. This realization can help and encourage the patient towards a dedication to change as they can see the discrepancy between their current behavior and desired behavior. It is important that the patient be the one making the arguments for change and realize their discrepancies themselves. An effective way to do this is for the clinician to participate in active reflective listening and repacking what the patient has told them and delivering it back to them. Avoid arguments During the course of MI the clinician may be inclined to argue with a patient, especially when they are ambivalent about their change and this is especially true when "resistance" is met from the patient. If the clinician tries to enforce a change, it could exacerbate the patient to become more withdrawn and can cause degeneration of what progress had been made thus far and decrease rapport with the patient. Arguments can cause the patient to become defensive and draw away from the clinician which is counterproductive and diminishes any progress that may have been made. When patients become a little defensive and argumentative, it usually is a sign to change the plan of attack. The biggest progress made towards behavior change is when the patient makes their own arguments instead of the clinician presenting it to them. Roll with resistance "Rolling with resistance" is now an outdated concept in MI; in the third edition of Miller & Rollnick's textbook Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change, the authors indicated that they had completely abandoned the word "resistance" as well as the term "rolling with resistance", due to the term's tendency to blame the client for problems in the therapy process and obscure different aspects of ambivalence. "Resistance", as the idea was previously conceptualized before it was abandoned in MI, can come in many forms such as arguing, interrupting, denying and ignoring. Part of successful MI is to approach the "resistance" with professionalism, in a way that is non-judgmental and allows the patient to once again affirm and know that they have their autonomy and that it is their choice when it comes to their change. Support self-efficacy Strong self-efficacy can be a significant predictor of success in behavior change. In many patients there is an issue of the lack of self-efficacy. They may have tried multiple times on their own to create a change in their behavior (e.g. trying to cease smoking, losing weight, sleep earlier) and because they have failed it causes them to lose their confidence and hence lowers their self-efficacy. Therefore, it is clear to see how important it is for the patient to believe that they are self-efficacious and it is the clinician's role to support them by means of good MI practice and reflective listening. By reflecting on what the patient had told them, the clinician can accentuate the patient's strengths and what they have been successful in (e.g. commending a patient who had stopped smoking for a week instead of straining on the fact they failed). By highlighting and suggesting to the patient areas in which they have been successful, this can be incorporated into future attempts and can improve their confidence and efficacy to believe that they are capable of change. While there are as many differences in technique, the underlying spirit of the method remains the same and can be characterized in a few key points: Motivation to change is elicited from the client, and is not imposed from outside forces. It is the client's task, not the counsellor's, to articulate and resolve the client's ambivalence. Direct persuasion is not an effective method for resolving ambivalence. The counselling style is generally quiet and elicits information from the client. The counsellor is directive, in that they help the client to examine and resolve ambivalence. Readiness to change is not a trait of the client, but a fluctuating result of interpersonal interaction. The therapeutic relationship resembles a partnership or companionship. Ultimately, practitioners must recognize that motivational interviewing involves collaboration not confrontation, evocation not education, autonomy rather than authority, and exploration instead of explanation. Effective processes for positive change focus on goals that are small, important to the client, specific, realistic, and oriented in the present and/or future. Four processes There are four steps used in motivational interviewing. These help to build trust and connection between the patient and the clinician, focus on areas that may need to be changed and find out the reasons the patient may have for changing or holding onto a behavior. This helps the clinician to support and assist the patient in their decision to change their behavior and plan steps to reach this behavioral change. These steps do not always happen in this order. Engaging In this step, the clinician gets to know the patient and understands what is going on in the patient's life. The patient needs to feel comfortable, listened to and fully understood from their own point of view. This helps to build trust with the patient and builds a relationship where they will work together to achieve a shared goal. The clinician must listen and show empathy without trying to fix the problem or make a judgement. This allows the patient to open up about their reasons for change, hopes, expectations as well as the barriers and fears that are stopping the patient from changing. The clinician must ask open ended questions which helps the patient to give more information about their situation, so they feel in control and that they are participating in the decision-making process and the decisions are not being made for them. This creates an environment that is comfortable for the patient to talk about change. The more trust the patient has towards the clinician, the more likely it is reduce resistance, defensiveness, embarrassment or anger the patient may feel when talking about a behavioural issue. Overall, the patient is more likely to come back to follow up appointments, follow an agreed plan and get the benefit of the treatment. Focusing This is where the clinician helps the patient find and focus on an area that is important to them, where they are unsure or are struggling to make a change. This step is also known as the "WHAT?" of change. The goal is for the clinician to understand what is important to the patient without pushing their own ideas on the patient. The clinician needs to ask questions to understand the reasons if and why the patient would be motivated to change and choose a goal to reach together. The patient must feel that they share the control with the clinician about the direction and agree on a goal. The clinician will then aim to help the patient order the importance of their goals and point out the current behaviors that get in the way of achieving their new goal or "develop discrepancy" between their current and desired behaviors. The focus or goal can come from the patient, situation or the clinician. There are three styles of focusing; directing, where the clinician can direct the patient towards a particular area for change; following, where the clinician let the patient decide the goal and be led by the patient's priorities, and; guiding, where the clinician leads the patient to uncover an area of importance. Evoking In this step the clinician asks questions to get the patient to open up about their reasons for change. This step is also known as the "WHY?" of change. Often when a patient puts this into words it reinforces their reasons to change and they find out they have more reasons to change rather than to stay the same. Usually, there is one reason that is stronger than the others to motivate the patient to change their behavior. The clinician needs to listen and recognise "change talk", where the patient is uncovering how they would go about change and are coming up with their own solutions to their problems. The clinician should support and encourage the patient when they talk about ways and strategies to change, as the patient is more likely to follow a plan they set for themselves. When the patient is negative or is resisting change the clinician should "roll with resistance" where they don't affirm or encourage the negative points but highlight the ways and reasons the person has come up with to change. The clinician must resist arguing or the "righting reflex" where they want to fix the problem or challenge the patient's negative thoughts. This comes across as they are not working together and causes the patient to resist change even more. The clinician's role is to ask questions that guide the patient to come up with their own solution to change. The best time to give advice is if the patient asks for it, if the patient is stuck with coming up with ideas, the clinician can ask permission to give advice and then give details, but only after the patient has come up with their own ideas first. If the clinician focuses more on their own reasons they believe the patient should change this would not come across as genuine to the patient and this would reduce the bond they made in the engaging process. Planning In this step the clinician helps the patient in planning how to change their behavior and encourages their commitment to change. This step is also known as the "HOW?" of change. The clinician asks questions to judge how ready the patient is to change and helps to guide the patient in coming up with their own step by step action plan. They can help to strengthen the patient's commitment to changing, by supporting and encouraging when the patient uses "commitment talk" or words that show their commitment to change. In this step the clinician can listen and recognize areas that may need more work to get to the core motivation to change or help the patient to overcome uneasiness that is still blocking their behavioral change. In doing this, they help to strengthen the patients motivation and support that they are capable of achieving this goal on their own. The clinician should help the patient to come up with SMART goals which are; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. This helps to set benchmarks and measure how their behavior has changed towards their new goal. Adaptations Motivational enhancement therapy Motivational enhancement therapy is a time-limited four-session adaptation used in Project MATCH, a US-government-funded study of treatment for alcohol problems and the Drinkers' Check-up, which provides normative-based feedback and explores client motivation to change in light of the feedback. Motivational interviewing is supported by over 200 randomized controlled trials across a range of target populations and behaviors including substance use disorders, health-promotion behaviours, medical adherence, and mental health issues. Pre-contemplation Motivational Interviewing with individuals in the pre-contemplation stage of the stages of change represent a use case in which Motivational Interviewing processes excel beyond other methods. If the patient/client/individual is in this stage, they may not be consciously aware of, accepting of, or consider they have a problem. Motivational interviewers in this situation are trained to use processes like rolling with resistance which reduces a client's need to repeat and reframe their own sustain talk. Additionally Motivational Interviewing adapts to this stage by adapting the *change target*. Clients starting in pre-contemplation stage of change are unlikely to jump 3 steps to the action stage of change. By adapting the change target talented Motivational Interviewers can help clients to advance 1 stage of change into the "contemplation stage". Motivational interviewing groups MI groups are highly interactive, focused on positive change, and harness group processes for evoking and supporting positive change. They are delivered in four phases: Engaging the group Evoking member perspectives Broadening perspectives and building momentum for change Moving into action Behaviour Change Counselling (BCC) Behaviour change counselling (BCC) is an adaptation of MI which focuses on promoting behavior change in a healthcare setting using brief consultations. BCC's main goal is to understand the patient's point of view, how they're feeling and their idea of change. It was created with a "more modest goal in mind", as it simply aims to "help the person talk through the why and how of change" and encourage behavior change. It focuses on patient-centered care and is based on several overlapping principles of MI, such as respect for patient choice, asking open-ended questions, empathetic listening and summarizing. Multiple behavior change counselling tools were developed to assess and scale the effectiveness of behaviour change counselling in promoting behavior change such as the Behaviour Change Counselling Index (BECCI) and the Behaviour Change Counselling Scale (BCCS). Behaviour Change Counselling Scale (BCCS) The Behaviour Change Counselling Scale (BCCS) is a tool used to assess lifestyle counselling using BCC, focusing on feedback on the skill achieved. "Items of BCCS were scored on 1-7 Likert scales and items were tallied into 4 sub-scales, reflecting the 3 skill-sets: MI and readiness assessment, behavior modification, and emotion management". The data obtained is then presented on: item characteristics, sub-scale characteristics, interrater reliability, test-retest reliability and construct validity. Based on a study conducted by Vallis, the results suggest that BCCS is a potentially useful tool in assessing BCC and aid to training practitioners as well as assessing training outcomes. Behaviour Change Counselling Index (BECCI) The Behaviour Change Counselling Index (BECCI) is a BCC tool that assesses general practitioner behavior and incites behavior change through talking about change, encouraging the patient to think about change and respecting the patient's choices in regards to behavior change. BECCI was developed to assess a practitioner's competence in the use of Behaviour Change Counselling (BCC) methods to elicit behavior change. Used primarily for the use of learning practitioners in a simulated environment to practice and learn the skills of BCC. It "provides valuable information about the standard of BCC that practitioners were trained to deliver in studies of BCC as an intervention". Rather than the result and response from the patient, the tool emphasizes and measures the practitioner's behaviors, skills and attitude. Results from the study show that after receiving training in BCC, practitioners show great improvement based on BECCI. However, as BECCI has only been used in a simulated clinical environment, more study is required to assess its reliability in a real patient environment. Furthermore, it focuses heavily on practitioner behavior rather than patient behavior. Therefore, BECCI may be useful for trainers to assess the reliability and effectiveness of BCC skills but further research and use is required, especially in a real consultation environment. Technology Assisted Motivational Interview (TAMI) Technology Assisted Motivational Interview (TAMI) is "used to define adaptations of MI delivered via technology and various types of media". This may include technological devices and creations such as computers, mobile phones, telephones, videos and animations. A review of multiple studies shows the potential effectiveness of the use of technology in delivering motivational interviewing consultations to encourage behavior change. However, some limitations include: the lack of empathy that may be expressed through the use of technology and the lack of face-to-face interaction may either produce a positive or negative effect on the patient. Further studies are required to determine whether face-to-face consultations to deliver MI is more effective in comparison to those delivered via technology. Limitations Underlying mental health conditions Patients with an underlying mental illness present one such limitation to motivational interviewing. In a case where the patient has an underlying mental illness such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or other psychosis, more intensive therapy may be required to induce a change. In these instances, the use of motivational interviewing as a technique to treat outward-facing symptoms, such as not brushing teeth, may be ineffective where the root cause of the problem stems from the mental illness. Some of the patients may act like listening to the interviewer just to veil their underlying mental health issue. When working with these patients, it is important to recognize the limitations of behaviorally-focused counseling and motivational interviewing. The treating therapists should, therefore, ensure the patient is referred to the correct medical or psychological professional to address the cause of the behavior, and not simply one of the symptoms. Motivation Professionals attempting to encourage people to make a behavioral change often underestimate the effect of motivation. Simply advising clients how detrimental their current behavior is and providing advice on how to change their behavior will not work if the client lacks motivation. Many people have full knowledge of how dangerous smoking is yet they continue the practice. Research has shown that a client's motivation to alter behavior is largely influenced by the way the therapist relates to them. Therapist/client trust Clients who don't like or trust their health care professionals are likely to become extremely resistant to change. In order to prevent this, the therapist must take time to foster an environment of trust. Even when the therapist can clearly identify the issues at hand it is important that the patient feels the session is collaborative and that they are not being lectured to. Confrontational approaches by therapists will inhibit the process. Time limitations Time limits placed on therapists during consultations also have the potential to impact significantly on the quality of motivational interviewing. Appointments may be limited to a brief or single visit with a patient; for example, a client may attend the dentist with a toothache due to a cavity. The oral health practitioner or dentist may be able to broach the subject of a behavior change, such as flossing or diet modification but the session duration may not be sufficient when coupled with other responsibilities the health practitioner has to the health and wellbeing of the patient. For many clients, changing habits may involve reinforcement and encouragement which is not possible in a single visit. Some patients, once treated, may not return for a number of years or may even change practitioners or practices, meaning the motivational interview is unlikely to have sufficient effect. Training deficiencies While psychologists, mental health counselors, and social workers are generally well trained and practiced in delivering motivational interviewing, other health-care professionals are generally provided with only a few hours of basic training. Although perhaps able to apply the underpinning principles of motivational interviewing, these professionals generally lack the training and applied skills to truly master the art of dealing with the patient's resistant statements in a collaborative manner. It is important that therapists know their own limitations and are prepared to refer clients to other professionals when required. To address training difficulties, one study outlines successful evidence-based modalities (e.g., workshops, ongoing coaching, etc.) for training busy clinical providers in motivational interviewing. Group treatment Although studies are somewhat limited, it appears that delivering motivational interviewing, in a group may be less effective than when delivered one-on-one. Research continues into this area however what is clear is that groups change the dynamics of a situation and the therapist needs to ensure that group control is maintained and input from group members does not derail the process for some clients. Applications Motivational interviewing was initially developed for the treatment of substance use disorder, but MI is continuously being applied across health fields and beyond that. The following fields have used the technique of MI. Brief intervention Brief intervention and MI are both techniques used to empower behavioral change within individuals. Behavioral interventions "generally refer to opportunistic interventions by non-specialists (e.g. GPs) offered to patients who may be attending for some unrelated condition". Due to speculation in the health industry the use of brief intervention has been deemed to be used too loosely and the implementation of MI is increasing rapidly. Classroom management Motivational interviewing has been incorporated into managing a classroom. Due to the nature of MI where it elicits and evokes behavioral change within an individual it has shown to be effective in a classroom especially when provoking behavior change within an individual. In association with MI, the classroom check-up method is incorporated which is a consultation model that addresses the need for classroom level support. Coaching Motivational interviewing has been implemented in coaching, specifically health-based coaching to aid in a better lifestyle for individuals. A study titled "Motivational interviewing-based health coaching as a chronic care intervention" was conducted to evaluate if MI had an impact on individuals health who were assessed as chronically ill. The study's results showed that the group that MI was applied to had "improved their self-efficacy, patient activation, lifestyle change and perceived health status". Environmental sustainability Initially, in the early 1980s, motivational interviewing was implemented and formulated to elicit behavioral change in individuals suffering from substance use disorder. However, MI is based on the work of Psychologist Carl Rogers, Unconditional Positive Regard, and has shown to be applicable in hundreds of behavioral use cases. This includes applications of Motivational Interviewing to environmental sustainability. One view of climate change's cause is a global effect from billions of people choosing thousands of behaviors. Motivational Interviewing is effective at evoking thoughts, feelings, and action towards change and this includes readiness for change towards greater personal sustainable choices. Applications have included use by citizens for interacting with elected representatives on climate policy, interfamilial discussions based on listening instead of judgement and education. New use cases by environmental NGO's, and municipal governments include facilitating new personal choices in the scopes of waste management, home energy use, water use, personal transportation habits, consumption habits and many other environmental applications. Mental disorders Motivational interviewing was originally developed by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick in the 1980s in order to aid people with substance use disorders. However, it has also been implemented to help aid in established models with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Currently an established model known as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is being implemented to aid in these issues. Research suggests that with collaborating motivational interviewing and CBT has proved to be effective as they have both shown to be effective. A study was conducted as a randomized cluster trial that suggests that when MI was implemented it "associated with improved depressive symptoms and remission rate". There is currently insufficient research papers to prove the effect of MI in mental disorders. However, it is increasingly being applied and more research is going into it. Dual diagnosis Dual diagnosis can be defined as a "term that is used to describe when a person is experiencing both mental health problems and substance misuse". Motivational interviewing is used as a preventative measure for individuals suffering from both a mental health issue and substance misuse due to the nature of MI eliciting behavioral change in individuals. Problem gambling Gambling issues are on the rise and it is becoming a struggle for therapists to maintain it. Research suggests that many individuals "even those who actively seek and start gambling treatment, do not receive the full recommended course of therapy". Motivational interviewing has been widely used and adapted by therapists to overcome gambling issues, it is used in collaboration with cognitive behavioral therapy and self-directed treatments. The goal of using MI in an individual who is having issues with gambling is to recognize and overcome those barriers and "increase overall investment in therapy by supporting an individual's commitment to changing problem behaviours". Parenting Motivational interviewing is implemented to evoke behavioral change in an individual. Provoking behavioral change includes the recognizing of the issue from an individual. A research study was conducted using motivational interviewing to help promote oral regime and hygiene within children under the supervision of a parent. In this study the experimental group was parents who received MI education in a "pamphlet, watched a videotape, as well as received an MI counselling session and six follow-up telephone calls". Children in the MI group, "exhibited significantly less new cavities (decayed or filled surfaces)" than children in the control group. This suggests that the application of MI with parenting can significantly impact children's outcomes. Substance dependence Motivational interviewing was initially developed in order to aid people with substance use, specifically alcohol. However, MI has been implemented in other substance use or dependence treatments. Research that was conducted utilized MI with a cocaine-detoxification program. This research had found that for the 105 randomly assigned patients, "completers who received MI increased use of behavioural coping strategies and had fewer cocaine-positive urine samples on beginning the primary treatment". This evidence suggests that the application of MI for cocaine dependence may have a positive impact in aiding the individual to overcome this issue. A 2016 Cochrane review focused on alcohol misuse in young adults in 84 trials found no substantive, meaningful benefits for MI for preventing alcohol misuse or alcohol-related problems. Stigma Reduction Stigma is the deleterious, structural force that devalues members of groups that hold undesirable characteristics. In the case of people living with HIV (PLHIV), HIV-related stigma has negative effects on health outcomes, including non-optimal medication adherence, lower visit adherence, higher depression, and overall lower quality of life. HIV-related stigma causes PLHIV to lose social standing due to their HIV positive status, and therefore, eliminating stigma against PLHIV, is a high priority. A study conducted in 2021 found that Healthy Choices, an intervention that was developing using Motivational Enhancement Therapy, an adaptation of Motivational Interviewing, was associated with reductions in stigma among youth living with HIV. While the authors suggest that their findings should be replicated, this study provides a basis for including Motivational Interviewing in stigma reduction research. See also Motivational interviewing: What is MI and how can it be applied in everyday life? (Wikiversity) Motivational therapy Transtheoretical model References Sources Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. . Brennan, T. (1982) Commitment to Counseling: Effects of Motivational Interviewing and Contractual Agreements on Help-seeking Attitudes and Behavior. Doctoral Thesis:University.of Nebraska. Herman, K. C., Reinke, W.M., Frey, A.J., & Shepard, S.A. (2013). Motivational interviewing in schools: Strategies for engaging parents, teachers, and students. New York: Springer. Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (1991). Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People to Change Addictive Behavior. New York: Guilford Press. Miller, W. R. and Rollnick, S. (2002). Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People to Change, 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press. Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2012). Motivational Interviewing, Helping People Change, 3rd ed. New York: Guilford Press. Rollnick, S., Heather, N., & Bell, A. (1992). Negotiating behaviour change in medical settings: The development of brief motivational interviewing. Journal of Mental Health, 1, 25–37. Patterson, D. A. (2008). Motivational interviewing: Does it increase retention in outpatient treatment? Substance Abuse, 29(1), 17–23. Patterson, D. A. (2009). Retaining Addicted & HIV-Infected Clients in Treatment Services. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Publishing House Ltd. . Prochaska, J. O. (1983). "Self changers vs. therapy changers vs.Schachter." American Psychologist 38: 853–854. Reinke, W. M., Herman, K. C., & Sprick, R. (2011). Motivational Interviewing for Effective Classroom Management: The Classroom Check-Up. New York: Guilford Press. . Rogers, Carl (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. London: Constable. . Rollnick, S., Miller, W. R., & Butler, C. C. (2007). Motivational Interviewing in Health Care: Helping Patients Change Behavior. New York: Guilford Press. . Wagner, C. C., Ingersoll, K. S., With Contributors (2012). Motivational Interviewing in Groups. New York: Guilford Press. Motivation Counseling Addiction Addiction medicine

Functional analysis (psychology)

Functional analysis in behavioral psychology is the application of the laws of operant and respondent conditioning to establish the relationships between stimuli and responses. To establish the function of operant behavior, one typically examines the "four-term contingency": first by identifying the motivating operations (EO or AO), then identifying the antecedent or trigger of the behavior, identifying the behavior itself as it has been operationalized, and identifying the consequence of the behavior which continues to maintain it. Functional assessment in behavior analysis employs principles derived from the natural science of behavior analysis to determine the "reason", purpose, or motivation for a behavior. The most robust form of functional assessment is functional analysis, which involves the direct manipulation, using some experimental design (e.g., a multielement design or a reversal design) of various antecedent and consequent events and measurement of their effects on the behavior of interest; this is the only method of functional assessment that allows for demonstration of clear cause of behavior. Applications in clinical psychology Functional analysis and consequence analysis are commonly used in certain types of psychotherapy to better understand, and in some cases change, behavior. It is particularly common in behavioral therapies such as behavioral activation, although it is also part of Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy. In addition, functional analysis modified into a behavior chain analysis is often used in dialectical behavior therapy. There are several advantages to using functional analysis over traditional assessment methods. Firstly, behavioral observation is more reliable than traditional self-report methods. This is because observing the individual from an objective stand point in their regular environment allows the observer to observe both the antecedent and the consequence of the problem behavior. Secondly, functional analysis is advantageous as it allows for the development of behavioral interventions, either antecedent control or consequence control, specifically designed to reduce a problem behavior. Thirdly, functional analysis is advantageous for interventions for young children or developmentally delayed children with problem behaviors, who may not be able to answer self-report questions about the reasons for their actions. Despite these benefits, functional analysis also has some disadvantages. The first that no standard methods for determining function have been determined and meta-analysis shows that different methodologies appear to bias results toward particular functions as well as not effective in improving outcomes. Second, Gresham and colleagues (2004) in a meta-analytic review of JABA articles found that functional assessment did not produce greater effect sizes compared to simple contingency management programs. However, Gresham et al. combined the three types of functional assessment, of which descriptive assessment and indirect assessment have been reliably found to produce results with limited validity Third, although functional assessment has been conducted with a variety host of populations (i.e.) much of the current functional assessment research has been limited to children with developmental disabilities. Professional organizations The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) also has an interest group in behavior analysis, which focuses on the use of behavior analysis in the school setting including functional analysis. Doctoral level behavior analysts who are psychologists belong to the American Psychological Association's division 25 – Behavior analysis. APA offers a diplomate in behavioral psychology and school psychology both of which focus on the use of functional analysis in the school setting. The World Association for Behavior Analysis offers a certification for clinical behavior therapy and behavioral consultation, which covers functional analysis. The UK Society for Behaviour Analysis also provides a forum for behavior analysts for accreditation, professional development, continuing education and networking, and serves as an advocate body in public debate on issues relating to behavior analysis. The UK-SBA promotes the ethical and effective application of the principles of behavior and learning to a wide range of areas including education, rehabilitation and health care, business and the community and is committed to maintaining the availability of high-quality evidence-based professional behavior analysis practice in the UK. The society also promotes and supports the academic field of behavior analysis with in the UK both in terms of university-based training and research, and theoretical develop. See also Applied behavior analysis Behavioral therapy Clinical formulation Functional behavioral assessment Operant conditioning Professional practice of behavior analysis References Behaviorism

General insurance

General insurance or non-life insurance policy, including automobile and homeowners policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determined to be life insurance. It is called property and casualty insurance in the United States and Canada and non-life insurance in Continental Europe. In the United Kingdom, insurance is broadly divided into three areas: personal lines, commercial lines and London market. The London market insures large commercial risks such as supermarkets, football players, corporation risks, and other very specific risks. It consists of a number of insurers, reinsurers, P&I Clubs, brokers and other companies that are typically physically located in the City of London. Lloyd's of London is a big participant in this market. The London market also participates in personal lines and commercial lines, domestic and foreign, through reinsurance. Commercial lines products are usually designed for relatively small legal entities. These would include workers' compensation (employers liability), public liability, product liability, commercial fleet and other general insurance products sold in a relatively standard fashion to many organisations. There are many companies that supply comprehensive commercial insurance packages for a wide range of different industries, including shops, restaurants and hotels. Personal lines products are designed to be sold in large quantities. This would include autos (private car), homeowners (household), pet insurance, creditor insurance and others. ACORD, which is the insurance industry global standards organization, has standards for personal and commercial lines and has been working with the Australian General Insurers to develop those XML standards, standard applications for insurance, and certificates of currency. Types of general insurance General insurance can be categorised in to following: Motor Insurance: Motor Insurance can be divided into two groups, two and four wheeled vehicle insurance. Health insurance: Common types of health insurance includes: individual health insurance, family floater health insurance, comprehensive health insurance and critical illness insurance. Travel insurance: Travel insurance can be broadly grouped into: individual travel policy, family travel policy, student travel insurance, and senior citizen health insurance. Home insurance: Home insurance protects a house and its contents. Marine insurance: Marine insurance covers goods, freight, cargo, and other interests against loss or damage during transit by rail, road, sea and/or air. Commercial insurance: Commercial insurance encompasses solutions for all sectors of the industry arising out of business operations. Accident insurance: Accidents of different types are possible at any time, at any place and in case of any person or object. Persons and vehicles are more prone to accidents causing injuries and damages. Fire insurance : In order to get the asset, stock or machines insured against fire, a proposal form is to be filled in and submitted to the insurance company. The insurance company examines the proposal with due regards to various factors and the periodical amount of premium is fixed. Theft insurance Property insurance Aviation insurance Livestock insurance Crop insurance Market trends The United States was the largest market for non-life insurance premiums written in 2005 followed by the European Union and Japan. See also Insurance Outstanding claims reserves References Types of insurance Actuarial science

Intersubjectivity

In philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, intersubjectivity is the relation or intersection between people's cognitive perspectives. Definition is a term coined by social scientists beginning around 1970 to refer to a variety of types of human interaction. The term was introduced to psychoanalysis by George E. Atwood and Robert Stolorow, who consider it a "meta-theory" of psychoanalysis. For example, social psychologists Alex Gillespie and Flora Cornish listed at least seven definitions of intersubjectivity (and other disciplines have additional definitions): people's agreement on the shared definition of a concept; people's mutual awareness of agreement or disagreement, or of understanding or misunderstanding each other; people's attribution of intentionality, feelings, and beliefs to each other; people's implicit or automatic behavioral orientations towards other people; people's interactive performance within a situation; people's shared and taken-for-granted background assumptions, whether consensual or contested; and "the variety of possible relations between people's perspectives". has been used in social science to refer to agreement. There is intersubjectivity between people if they agree on a given set of meanings or share the same perception of a situation. Similarly, Thomas Scheff defines as "the sharing of subjective states by two or more individuals". also has been used to refer to the common-sense, shared meanings constructed by people in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of social and cultural life. If people share common sense, then they share a definition of the situation. Psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin, in The Bonds of Love, wrote, "The concept of intersubjectivity has its origins in the social theory of Jürgen Habermas (1970), who used the expression 'the intersubjectivity of mutual understanding' to designate an individual capacity and a social domain." Psychoanalyst Molly Macdonald argued in 2011 that a "potential point of origin" for the term was in Jean Hyppolite's use of l'inter-subjectivité in an essay from 1955 on "The Human Situation in the Hegelian Phenomenology". However, the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, whose work Habermas and Hyppolite draw upon, was the first to develop the term, which was subsequently elaborated upon by other phenomenologists such as Edith Stein, Emmanuel Levinas, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Philosophy Contemporarily, intersubjectivity is the major topic in both the analytic and the continental traditions of philosophy. Intersubjectivity is considered crucial not only at the relational level but also at the epistemological and even metaphysical levels. For example, intersubjectivity is postulated as playing a role in establishing the truth of propositions, and constituting the intersubjective agreement of an experience of an object. A central concern in consciousness studies of the past 50 years is the so-called problem of other minds, which asks how we can justify our belief that people have minds much like our own and predict others' mind-states and behavior, as our experience shows we often can. Contemporary philosophical theories of intersubjectivity need to address the problem of other minds. In the debate between cognitive individualism and cognitive universalism, some aspects of thinking are neither solely personal nor fully universal. Cognitive sociology proponents argue for intersubjectivity—an intermediate perspective of social cognition that provides a balanced view between personal and universal views of our social cognition. This approach suggests that, instead of being individual or universal thinkers, human beings subscribe to "thought communities"—communities of differing beliefs. Thought community examples include churches, professions, scientific beliefs, generations, nations, and political movements. This perspective explains why each individual thinks differently from another (individualism): person A may choose to adhere to expiry dates on foods, but person B may believe that expiry dates are only guidelines and it is still safe to eat the food days past the expiry date. But not all human beings think the same way (universalism). Intersubjectivity argues that each thought community shares social experiences that are different from the social experiences of other thought communities, creating differing beliefs among people who subscribe to different thought communities. These experiences transcend our subjectivity, which explains why they can be shared by the entire thought community. Proponents of intersubjectivity support the view that individual beliefs are often the result of thought community beliefs, not just personal experiences or universal and objective human beliefs. Beliefs are recast in terms of standards, which are set by thought communities. Phenomenology Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, recognized the importance of intersubjectivity, and wrote extensively on the topic. In German, his writings on intersubjectivity are gathered in volumes 13–15 of the Husserliana. In English, his best-known text on intersubjectivity is the Cartesian Meditations (it is this text that features solely in the Husserl reader entitled The Essential Husserl). Although Husserlian phenomenology is often charged with methodological solipsism, in the fifth Cartesian Meditation, Husserl attempts to grapple with the problem of intersubjectivity and puts forward his theory of transcendental, monadological intersubjectivity. Husserl's student Edith Stein extended intersubjectivity's basis in empathy in her 1917 doctoral dissertation, On the Problem of Empathy (Zum Problem der Einfühlung). Psychology Discussions and theories of intersubjectivity are prominent and of importance in contemporary psychology, theory of mind, and consciousness studies. Three major contemporary theories of intersubjectivity are theory theory, simulation theory, and interaction theory. Shannon Spaulding, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University, wrote: Simulation theorists, on the other hand, claim that we explain and predict others' behaviour by using our own minds as a model and "putting ourselves in another's shoes"—that is, by imagining what our mental states would be and how we would behave if we were in the other's situation. More specifically, we simulate what the other's mental states could have been to cause the observed behaviour, then use the simulated mental states, pretend beliefs, and pretend desires as input, running them through our own decision-making mechanism. We then take the resulting conclusion and attribute it to the other person. Authors like Vittorio Gallese have proposed a theory of embodied simulation that refers to neuroscientific research on mirror neurons and phenomenological research. Spaulding noted that this debate has stalled in the past few years, with progress limited to articulating various hybrid simulation theories—"theory theory" accounts. To resolve this impasse, authors like Shaun Gallagher put forward interaction theory. Gallagher writes that an "... important shift is taking place in social cognition research, away from a focus on the individual mind and toward ... participatory aspects of social understanding...." Interaction theory is put forward to "galvanize" the interactive turn in explanations of intersubjectivity. Gallagher defines an interaction as two or more autonomous agents engaged in co-regulated coupling behavior. For example, when walking a dog, both the owner's behavior is regulated by the dog stopping and sniffing, and the dog's behavior is regulated by the lead and the owner's commands. Ergo, walking the dog is an example of an interactive process. For Gallagher, interaction and direct perception constitute what he terms "primary" (or basic) intersubjectivity. Studies of dialogue and dialogism reveal how language is deeply intersubjective. When we speak, we always address our interlocutors, taking their perspective and orienting to what we think they think (or, more often, don't think). Within this tradition of research, it has been argued that the structure of individual signs or symbols, the basis of language, is intersubjective and that the psychological process of self-reflection entails intersubjectivity. Recent research on mirror neurons provides evidence for the deeply intersubjective basis of human psychology, and arguably much of the literature on empathy and theory of mind relates directly to intersubjectivity. In child development Colwyn Trevarthen has applied intersubjectivity to the very rapid cultural development of new born infants. Research suggests that as babies, humans are biologically wired to "coordinate their actions with others". This ability to coordinate and sync with others facilitates cognitive and emotional learning through social interaction. Additionally, the most socially productive relationship between children and adults is bidirectional, where both parties actively define a shared culture. The bidirectional aspect lets the active parties organize the relationship how they see fit—what they see as important receives the most focus. Emphasis is placed on the idea that children are actively involved in how they learn, using intersubjectivity. Across cultures The ways intersubjectivity occurs varies across cultures. In certain Indigenous American communities, nonverbal communication is so prevalent that intersubjectivity may occur regularly amongst all members of the community, in part perhaps due to a "joint cultural understanding" and a history of shared endeavors. This "joint cultural understanding" may develop in small, Indigenous American communities where children have grown up embedded in their community's values, expectations, and livelihoods—learning through participation with adults rather than through intent verbal instruction—working in cohesion with one another in shared endeavors on a daily basis. Having grown up within this context may have led to members of this community to have what is described by some as a "blending of agendas", or by others as a "dovetailing of motives". If community or family members have the same general goals in mind they may thus act cohesively within an overlapping state of mind. Whether persons are in each other's presence or merely within the same community this blending of agendas or dovetailing of motives enables intersubjectivity to occur within these shared endeavors. The cultural value of respeto may also contribute to intersubjectivity in some communities; unlike the English definition of 'respect', respeto refers loosely to a mutual consideration for others' activities, needs, wants, etc. Similar to "putting yourself in another's shoes" the prevalence of respeto in certain Indigenous American communities in Mexico and South America may promote intersubjectivity as persons act in accordance with one another within consideration for the community or the individual's current needs or state of mind. Shared reference during an activity facilitates learning. Adults either teach by doing the task with children, or by directing attention toward experts. Children that had to ask questions in regard to how to perform a task were scolded for not learning by another's example, as though they were ignoring the available resources to learn a task, as seen in Tz'utujil Maya parents who scolded questioning children and asking "if they had eyes". Children from the Chillihuani village in the Andean mountains learned to weave without explicit instruction. They learned the basic technique from others by observing, eager to participate in their community. The learning process was facilitated by watching adults and by being allowed to play and experiment using tools to create their own weaving techniques. See also Consensus reality Intersubjective verifiability Intersubjective psychoanalysis Perspectivism References Further reading Psychoanalysis Brandchaft, Doctors & Sorter (2010). Toward an Emancipatory Psychoanalysis. Routledge: New York. Laplanche, J. & Pontalis, J. B. (1974). The Language of Psycho-Analysis, Edited by W. W. Norton & Company, Orange, Atwood & Stolorow (1997). Working Intersubjectively. The Analytic Press: Hillsdale, NJ. Stolorow, R. D., Atwood, G. E., & Orange, D. M. (2002). Worlds of Experience: Interweaving Philosophical and Clinical Dimensions in Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books. Stolorow & Atwood (1992). Contexts of Being. The Analytic Press: Hillsdale, NJ. Stolorow, Brandchaft & Atwood (1987). Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach. The Analytic Press:Hillsdale, NJ. Philosophy Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1905-1920 Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1921-1928 Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1929-1935 Edmund Husserl Cartesian Meditations, Edited by S. Strasser, 1950. External links Critique of intersubjectivity Article by Mats Winther Edmund Husserl: Empathy, intersubjectivity and lifeworld, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Metaphysical properties Concepts in epistemology Sociological terminology Philosophical anthropology Phenomenology Concepts in social philosophy

Mental disorders in fiction

Works of fiction dealing with mental illness include: In children's books The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding, 1908 children's book by Beatrix Potter. Tom Kitten comes out of his ordeal with a crippling phobia of rats, and possible posttraumatic stress disorder as well. In young adult novels Lisa, Bright and Dark, 1968 novel by John Neufeld. A story about a teenager's descent into madness. Thirteen Reasons Why, 2007 novel by Jay Asher. About a teenage girl who is suffering from depression which results in suicide. Many other characters are also suffering from mental illnesses including bipolar, anxiety, PTSD, and also depression. Saint Jude, 2011 novel by Dawn Wilson. Suffering from manic-depressive illness, Taylor spends her senior year of high school at a place called Saint Jude's—essentially a group home for teenagers with mental illnesses. Freaks Like Us, 2012 young adult novel by Susan Vaught. The reader is taken on a suspenseful adventure through the mind of a schizophrenic teenage boy. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, 2013 novel by Matthew Quick. In mainstream literature Ajax, – 430 BC; tragedy by Sophocles Heracles, 416 BC tragedy by Euripides and Hercules Furens, c. AD 40–60 tragedy by Seneca the Younger, both of which cover Hera filling Hercules with a homicidal madness. Orlando Furioso, 1516–1532; epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto, tells the story of Orlando, Charlemagne's most famous paladin, who goes mad upon learning that Angelica, the woman he is in love with, has run away with a Saracen knight. Filled with despair, Orlando travels through Europe and Africa destroying everything in his path. The English knight Astolfo flies up in a flaming chariot to the Moon, where everything lost on Earth is to be found, including Orlando's wits. He brings them back in a bottle and makes Orlando sniff them, thus restoring him to sanity. (At the same time Orlando falls out of love with Angelica, as the author explains that love is itself a form of insanity.) Hamlet, circa 1600; tragedy by William Shakespeare Don Quixote, 1605/1615 two-volume novel by Miguel de Cervantes, involves a man whose worldview is influenced by fictional works, especially of chivalric exploits. Because of his refusal to conform to social conventions, he is perceived as mad by his contemporaries, without further evidence of a mental defect or illness. The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774 epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Faust I, 1808 tragedy by Goethe. The collision of a natural love-desire with her conscience and with the norms of the society around her evokes radical inner conflicts for the female hero Margarete. Mandeville, 1817 novel by William Godwin. A tale of madness that takes place during the English Civil War. The Bride of Lammermoor, 1819 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Lucy's mind snaps when she's made to jilt the man she loves and marry someone else. Diary of a Madman, 1835 farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Lenz, 1836 novella fragment by Georg Büchner depicting the unfolding of mental disorder with the German poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz. The Count of Monte Cristo: 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas. One of the people who wronged Dantès goes mad from the latter's vengeance. Jane Eyre, an 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë. Villette, an 1853 novel by Charlotte Brontë. Aurelia (Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie), an 1855 autobiography (posthumously published) of insanity by Gérald de Nerval. Madame Bovary, 1856 novel by Gustave Flaubert. Hard Cash, 1863 novel by Charles Reade about the injustice and poor treatment of the insane and allegedly insane. Crime and Punishment, 1866 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Strangers and Pilgrims, 1873 novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. Hunger (Sult in the original Norwegian), 1890 novel by Knut Hamsun depicting a man whose mind slowly turns to ruin through hunger. The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 novel by Oscar Wilde, centering on a handsome, narcissistic young man enthralled by the "new" hedonism of the times. Ward Number Six, 1892 short story by Anton Chekhov. The Yellow Wallpaper, 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, 1910 mystery short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fumes from burning the powder of a toxic plant with extreme fear-inducing properties destroy the minds of those who survive its effects—unless one gets away fast. Remembrance of Things Past, 1913–1927 seven-volume novel by Marcel Proust. Swann's Way, 1913 work by Marcel Proust. Zeno's Conscience, 1923 novel by Italo Svevo. The main character is Zeno Cosini, and the book is the fictional character's memoirs that he keeps at the insistence of his psychiatrist. Zeno's Conscience is most notably influential for being one of the first modernist novels with a non-linear structure and told by an unreliable narrator. Christina Alberta's Father, 1925 novel by H.G. Wells. The story tells how a retired laundryman suffered from delusions that he was the reincarnation of Sargon, King of Kings, returned to earth as Lord of the World. The Shutter of Snow, 1930 novel by Emily Holmes Coleman. Portrays the post-partum psychosis of Marthe Gail, who after giving birth to her son, is committed to an insane asylum. Flight into Darkness (German original: Flucht in die Finsternis), 1931 novella by Arthur Schnitzler. Tender is the Night, 1934 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Private Worlds, 1934 novel by Phyllis Bottome. Tells the story of the staff and patients at a mental hospital in which a caring female psychiatrist and her colleague face discrimination by a conservative new supervisor. The A.B.C. Murders, 1936 detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie that revolves around the nature of homicidal lunatics, to a surprising twist reveal. The Outward Room, 1937 novel by Millen Brand. Details a young woman's recovery in a mental hospital during the Great Depression after she suffers a nervous breakdown following her brother's sudden death. Appointment with Death, 1938 detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie. One of Mrs. Boynton's daughters has paranoid schizophrenia from her mother's tormenting of her. And Then There Were None, 1939 detective fiction/psychological horror novel by Agatha Christie. As the ordeal drags on, the fewer and fewer who survive go insane under the prolonged strain. The Royal Game (or Chess Story; Schachnovelle in the original German), 1942 novella by Stefan Zweig, depicting a monarchist who develops, and then cannot again shed, the custom to separate his psyche into two personas, having been urged to maintain his sanity by playing chess against himself in solitary confinement. Earth Abides, 1949 post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel by George Stewart, deals with the human reactions to living when nearly everyone else died. The Catcher in the Rye, 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Lover, When You're Near Me, 1952 science fiction short story by Richard Matheson on a man being traumatically steered in his will by a woman of a dull extraterrestrial race who covets him sexually. Dear Diary, 1954 science fiction short story by Richard Matheson. Diary entries from the years AD 1964, AD 3964, and LXIV (=64) all show the same dissatisfaction with the current situation and the same desire to live either some thousand years later or earlier, that from 3964 also due to the unpleasant inventions of another inhabitant of the writer's plastic skyscraper, which enable him to see her through the walls. The Hobbit, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King; 1937, 1954, and 1955 high fantasy novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. The creature Gollum, a hobbit with Dissociative Identity Disorder, plays a major role. Also, a magical effect of treasure recently held by a dragon is that individuals susceptible to greed develop a form of greedy paranoia called the Dragon Sickness. The Mind Thing, incomplete 1960 science fiction serialization, later published as a novel, by Fredric Brown. An extraterrestrial being has been sent to Earth as a punishment and tries to influence people's and animal's minds so that they would help it creating the technical means it needs to return home. To Kill A Mockingbird, 1960 novel by Harper Lee. Unearthly Neighbors, 1960 science fiction novel by Chad Oliver. The anthropology professor Monte Stewart and the linguist Charlie Jenike get angry at each other on a hot day, after having killed a member of a race between apes and men on a planet of Sirius together, in revenge for a deadly attack of the man's tribe onto their wives and a colleague. Jenike loses his mind and drowns himself in a nearby river shortly after. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1962 novel by Ken Kesey about the treatment of mental illness. Nilo, mi hijo, a 1963 play by Antonio González Caballero. The Bell Jar, 1963 novel by Sylvia Plath, a fictionalised account of Plath's own struggles with depression. Wide Sargasso Sea, a 1966 retelling of Jane Eyre by Jean Rhys. Clans of the Alphane Moon, 1964 science-fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. Largely set on a world in which a lost group of former psychiatric patients have organised themselves into caste-like groups along psychiatric diagnostic lines, forming an unusual but functional society. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, 1964 autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg. A Wrinkle in the Skin, 1965 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by John Christopher. The hero and a boy meet a captain who has lost his mind, in his ship on the bottom of the English Channel that has fallen dry through an earthquake. They are welcomed heartily, but forbidden to take any food with them, when they leave. The Bird of Paradise, 1967 work by R. D. Laing, often available with his non-fiction essay The Politics of Experience about schizophrenia and hallucinogenic drugs. The Ethics of Madness, 1967 science fiction short story by Larry Niven. Bedlam Planet, 1968 science fiction novel by John Brunner. A crew of astronauts tries to live on the animal and vegetable food growing on a planet of Sigma Draconis, which evokes mental disorder, but also sets free survival instincts that have so far been hidden. The Sword, 1968 fantasy short story by Lloyd Alexander. A king yields to anger, with lethal results, in a moment of weakness. As he grows worse and worse, he also develops a severe case of paranoia, fearing assassination and other revenge plots around every corner. Knots, 1970 work by R.D. Laing. Diving into the Wreck, 1973 collection of poetry by Adrienne Rich. Sybil, 1973 novel by Flora Rheta Schreiber. Breakfast of Champions, 1973 novel by Kurt Vonnegut. The Eden Express, 1975 memoir by Mark Vonnegut . Ordinary People, 1976 novel by Judith Guest. Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976 novel by Marge Piercy. The Silmarillion, 1977 collection of myths by J. R. R. Tolkien. The account of the rise and fall of Númenor states that one of the kings, Tar-Atanamir, was "witless and unmanned" in his final years. The Language of Goldfish, 1980 young adult novel by Zibby Oneal Norwegian Wood, 1987 novel by Haruki Murakami The Cat Who Went Underground, 1989 detective fiction novel by Lillian Jackson Braun Doom Patrol, a comic book series originating in 1963. During Grant Morrison's 1989 – 1993 run it included the multiple personality affected Crazy Jane and several other characters either insane or in possession of greater truths. American Psycho. 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, 1991 trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn. Joruus C'baoth, the clone of a tragic Jedi Master from the final years of the Old Republic, is insane due to his hyper-accelerated physical and mental development. Mariel of Redwall, 1991 fantasy novel by Brian Jacques. Pirate warlord Gabool grows increasingly paranoid about possible threats to his power and develops delusions about a stolen bell. Regeneration, 1991 novel by Pat Barker, based on the historical experiences of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, explores shell-shock and other traumatic illnesses following World War I. Amnesia, 1992 novel by Douglas Anthony Cooper. She's Come Undone, 1992 novel by Wally Lamb. Girl, Interrupted, 1993 memoir by Susanna Kaysen. Prozac Nation, 1994 memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Effie's Burning, 1995 play by Valerie Windsor. Maskerade, 1995 comic fantasy/detective fiction novel by Sir Terry Pratchett. Myst: The Book of Atrus, 1995 novel (re-released in a 2004 omnibus) by Rand and Robyn Miller with Dave Wingrove. Atrus comes to realize that his father is a megalomaniac. Fight Club, 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The Green Mile, 1996 serial novel by Stephen King. Enduring Love, 1997 novel Ian McEwan. Glimmer, 1997 novel by Annie Waters. Glamorama. 1998 novel by Bret Easton Ellis. I Know This Much Is True, 1998 novel by Wally Lamb. Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression, 1998 memoir by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah. Cut, 2000 novel by Patricia McCormick. Borderline, 2000 novel by Marie-Sissi Labrèche. La, 2002 novel by Marie-Sissi Labrèche. Oxygen and The Fifth Man, 2001 and 2002 science fiction duology by Randall S. Ingermanson and John B. Olson. One of the astronauts on a Mars mission grows increasingly paranoid. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003 fantasy novel by J. K. Rowling, includes a scene with a couple who both have profound dementia resulting from prolonged magical torture. The Unifying Force, 2003 science fiction novel by James Luceno. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, 2003 novel by Mark Haddon. The Good Patient: A Novel, 2004 novel by Kristin Waterfield Duisberg. Set This House in Order, a 2004 novel by Matt Ruff. Revolving around a romance between two characters with multiple personalities. Hello, Serotonin, 2004 work by Jon Paul Fiorentino. High Rhulain, 2005 fantasy novel by Brian Jacques. Between his battle injuries and a traumatic bereavement, Long Patrol Major Cuthbert Blanedaale Frunk has developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. Human Traces, 2005 novel by Sebastian Faulks. Two psychiatrists set in the late 19th and early 20th century. Love Creeps, 2005 novel by Amanda Filipacchi. A comedic book about a love triangle who are stalking each other. A Spot of Bother, 2006 novel by Mark Haddon, written from the point of view of a 57-year-old hypochondriac man who suffers from extreme panic attacks and also develops dementia Darkness Descending, 2007 novel by Bethann Korsmit about a man who suffers a mental breakdown and various other mental problems, and the people who help him to overcome the obstacles in his life. The Vegetarian, 2007 novel by Han Kang. All in the Mind, 2008 novel by Alastair Campbell which draws on the author's experiences of depression and alcoholism Atmospheric Disturbances, 2009 novel by Rivka Galchen. About a psychiatrist and one of his patients with a mental illness. The Wilderness, 2009 novel by Samantha Harvey about Alzheimer's. Radiant Daughter, 2010 novel by Patricia Grossman. A story that is about a Czech family with a daughter who is suffering from bipolar disorder. Blepharospasm, 2011 novel by Harutyun Mackoushian. A story that focuses on a boy suffering from anxiety. A Better Place, 2011 novel by Mark A. Roeder. The Heart of Darkness, 2014 novel by Dominic Lyne. Through conversations with his therapist, he tries to make sense of the world around him and his inability to do so pulls him deeper into the depths of his delusions. Challenger Deep, 2015 young adult novel by Neal Shusterman. The first half of the book leaves the audience questioning if the plot is real, but it ends up being about mental illnesses. From the point of view of somebody with a mental illness. The Suicide of Claire Bishop, 2015 novel by Carmiel Banasky. Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and suicide are main topics. Turtles All The Way Down, 2018 novel by John Green, which features a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. Everything Here Is Beautiful, 2018 novel by Mira T. Lee. An immigrant story, and a young woman's quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. Cleopatra in Space 2014-2020 graphic novel series by Mike Maihack. The protagonist, Cleopatra "Cleo" has a bit of ADHD and was written from the beginning as having "depressive disorder." The Drowning Girl, 2012 novel by Caitlin R. Kiernan. The protagonist, a young woman afflicted with hereditary schizophrenia, becomes infatuated with the lone survivor of a suicide cult. My Half-Sister's Half-Sister, 2021 novel by Samantha Henthorn. The protagonist accuses her family of practising witchcraft until it is revealed that she is psychotic and is admitted to a mental health ward. Motion pictures Many motion pictures portray mental illness in inaccurate ways, leading to misunderstanding and heightened stigmatization of the mentally ill. However, some movies are lauded for dispelling stereotypes and providing insight into mental illness. In a study by George Gerbner, it was determined that 5 percent of 'normal' television characters are murderers, while 20% of 'mentally-ill' characters are murderers. 40% of normal characters are violent, while 70% of mentally-ill characters are violent. Contrary to what is portrayed in films and television, Henry J. Steadman, Ph.D., and his colleagues at Policy Research Associates found that, overall, formal mental patients did not have a higher rate of violence than the control group of people who were not formal mental patients. In both groups, however, substance abuse was linked to a higher rate of violence. (Hockenbury and Hockenbury, 2004) Psycho, a 1960 American film which features a man who exhibits multiple personality-disorder (includes several prequels or sequels or remakes) Marnie, a 1964 American film which features a woman with obsessive fear and distrust Oil Lamps, a 1971 film by Juraj Herz, based on the same named novel by Jaroslav Havlíček, describing the life of a vivacious girl and her matrimony with a sardonic man, who suffers from emerging paralytic dementia Benny & Joon, a 1993 American film which features a woman with schizophrenia. Memento, a 2000 psychological thriller film about a man with anterograde amnesia which renders his brain unable to store new memories. A Beautiful Mind, a 2001 film which is a fictionalised account of a mathematician with schizophrenia, John Nash. The Soloist, a 2009 film depicting the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musical prodigy who develops schizophrenia during his second year at Juilliard School, becomes homeless and plays a two stringed violin in the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. Silver Linings Playbook, a 2012 film about a bipolar man and his relationship with a depressed young widow. Television Many popular television shows feature characters with a mental health condition. Often these portrayals are inaccurate and reinforce existing stereotypes, thereby increasing stigma associated with having a mental health condition. Common ways that television shows can generate misunderstanding and fear are by depicting people with these conditions as medically noncompliant, violent, and/or intellectually challenged. However, in recent years certain organizations have begun to advocate for accurate portrayals of mental health conditions in the media, and certain television shows have been applauded by mental health organizations for helping to dispel myths of these conditions. One show, Wonderland, went on the air in 2000 and only lasted several episodes. It was largely critically acclaimed, but pressure from mental health advocates and people with mental health conditions, who felt that the show perpetuated stereotypes and contributed to the stigma attached to them, led to the show's cancellation. The Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge features multiple examples of mental illness, most prominently including Münchausen syndrome by proxy. In 2005, the shows Huff; Monk; Scrubs; and ER all won Voice Awards from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for their positive portrayal of people who manage mental health conditions. Neal Baer, executive producer of ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit also won a lifetime achievement award for his work in incorporating mental health issues into these two shows. United States of Tara is a television show about dissociative identity disorder. The Steven Universe franchise features characters with psychological trauma. The animated Netflix series, Bojack Horseman dives into themes about depression, generalized anxiety, self-destructive behavior, post-traumatic stress disorder, narcissism and substance abuse The Animated Netflix series, Arcane (TV series) presents the story of two sisters suffering from extreme trauma. Fans trust Jinx suffers from borderline personality disorder, PTSD and Schizophrenia, while Vi has extreme childhood trauma. Video games The game Silent Hill 2 of the same genres contains three major characters struggling with mental illness. Though their conditions are never named, two of these characters exhibit symptoms which, together with their backstories, may suggest acute dissociative amnesia; while the third character most definitively approximates body dysmorphic disorder. (The topic of dissociative amnesia is revisited in later installments of the series.) In addition, both this game and Silent Hill 3 mention various former patients of the now-abandoned town's local psychiatric hospital, with one said patient making an appearance in the latter game. Life is Strange deals with depression, suicide most notably, as the main character Max tries to prevent the suicide of one of her friends. One of the characters exhibits concerning behaviors and is prescribed medicines most often associated with bipolar and schizophrenia. It is implied he is seeing a psychiatrist. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc deals with a side character named Toko Fukawa who suffers from DID. Her first identity being a well-known writer. Her second identity was a serial killer. The next character who has a canon mental illness is Nagito Komaeda, a loved character from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair who suffers from lymphoma in stage 3 and has Frontotemporal dementia. Final Fantasy VII implies numerous times that the main character, Cloud Strife, has some form of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder as well as post-traumatic stress disorder. In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Chairman Rose is shown to have a severe idée fixe about a far-off energy crisis. Myst III: Exile features a character named Saavedro, full of despair and a justified grievance, who has been trapped alone for twenty years, certain that all his people are dead. In his journal he writes of a mental fog that he can lose himself in from time to time (he suspects for months sometimes), when he "can barely remember what I've done". He describes this fog as eating his mind and writes that he sometimes struggles to bring memories back to the surface. See also List of mental disorders in film Notes Literary motifs

Clinical mental health counseling

Clinical mental health counseling is a healthcare profession addressing issues such as substance abuse, addiction, relational problems, stress management, as well as more serious conditions such as suicidal ideation and acute behavioral disorders. Practitioners may also assist with occupational growth in neurodivergent populations and behavioral and educational development. Clinical mental health (CMH) counselors include psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health technicians, marriage counselors, social workers, and family therapists. Historical perspectives Origins of counseling In the early 1900s, counseling had not yet developed into treating mental health issues and was more focused on education. Frank Parsons, developed a plan to educate counselors and began the Vocational Guidance Movement. He was concerned with the problems of youth as youth unemployment became a major concern for adolescents as urbanization occurred, and sustainable work and family income generated on family farms was not as prevalent. At this time, counselors were considered vocational, initiating the approach that began to form the more contemporary counseling process. Around the same time, Clifford Beers, a former patient of mental health hospitals, wrote a book exposing the terrible conditions of mental health institutions and advocated for reform. Beers later founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, which became the National Mental Health Association. Jessie B. Davis was the first individual to make guidance a regular part of the school curriculum. He was a superintendent or administrator and advocated for what became school guidance and counseling. During the Great Depression, counseling methods and strategies for employment grew as it was greatly needed at the time. In 1932, Brewer wrote a book entitled Education as Guidance, which promoted the broadening of counseling beyond just occupation. He suggested that every teacher share the implementation of counseling and that guidance needed to be in every school curriculum. In the 1940s, Carl Rogers began the development of counseling and psychotherapy. He believed that the client knows best and that only they could explain what their needs are and what direction to go in counseling based on what problems were crucial and needed attention. Rogers clearly indicated that he was not doing psychology and the courses he taught were based in the Department of Education. World War II brought to the forefront the importance of testing and placement as there was a strong need for the selection and training of specialists for the military. Counselors and Psychologists had the necessary skills to fill this much needed role. The Veterans Administration provided professional counseling services to soldiers after their discharge and in 1945, the VA granted stipends and internships for students in counseling and psychology, boosting the support and training available to counselors. This time marked the beginning of government spending on counselor preparation as we know it today. Clinical psychologists were trained to treat and diagnose individuals with chronic disorders, and counseling psychologists were trained to deal with issues presented by people with more severe mental health issues. This led to a new division or category of psychologists and the Division of Counseling and Guidance of the American Psychological Association changed its title to the Division of Counseling Psychology. Professionalization of mental health counseling In the 1950s, flaws in the existing mental health system were being exposed and clinically effective pharmacological treatments were also being developed that could be provided in outpatient settings. This led to a need for community-based clinics, but access to these services was limited. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was very important in the development of the counseling profession. After the government analyzed the problems with mental illness and effective treatments, President John F. Kennedy believed that high-quality treatment centers located in the patient's community could lead to the phasing out of state mental hospitals and drastically improve the mental health system in the United States. The national network of community mental health centers created a demand for counselors and the profession began to expand and increase the number of counselors. As the counseling profession grew, there became a need to regulate the quality of services being provided by professionals via state licensure. In 1974, a special committee was appointed by the American Personnel and Guidance Association that focused on counselor licensure. This began the steps towards the first counselor licensure law in Virginia in 1976. By the 1980s, mental health counseling had clearly established itself as a profession with a distinct set of regulations and methods for providing services. According to Gerig, a distinct professional is characterized by "role statements, codes of ethics, accreditation guidelines, competency standards, licensure, certification, and other standards of excellence." The counseling profession as we know it today has established all of these facets of a distinct profession and is being recognized more and more as a valuable and much-needed helping profession in our society. Education, licensure, and certification Licensure Counselor licensure is established by state law and is required of all professional counselors in the United States and U.S. territories. Receiving a license in counseling indicates that one has met the minimum standards to practice counseling in that state. State laws vary in the requirements that must be met to obtain a license. Candidates must have at least received a master's degree, have had post-master's supervised practice, and have passed a national exam. The number of credit hours to be completed varies from one state to another, as does the number of supervised hours that must be completed, and the counselor titles used. Moving from one state to another may require taking additional courses in order to qualify for the license in the other state. Common education requirements In order to become licensed as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) or Licensed Professional Counselor Associate (LPCS), students need to study for many hours in different fields of mental health, general psychology, and others. These usually include: Internship Experience for Certification Orientation to the Counseling Profession Research Career, Vocational, and Lifestyle Development Human growth and Development Social and Cultural Foundations Counseling Theories and Techniques Appraisal from peers Group Work Practicum and Internship Examination requirements The LPC applicant must obtain a passing score on a national exam, such as the National Counselor Exam (NCE), the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Exam (NCMHCE), or the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor Exam (CRC). The first two exams are offered by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) and the third exam is offered by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC). In addition to the national exam, applicants must complete a no-fail Jurisprudence Exam, which covers information on laws and ethical codes. Supervision requirements Applicants must have completed over 3,000 hours of supervised counseling practice. Supervisees should receive one hour of live supervision per forty hours of practice. 2,000 or more hours must involve direct client contact. Certification Certification is a voluntary credential that can be acquired by counselors as well. According to Remley and Herlihy, there are two national certification agencies for the counseling profession. These are the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) and the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC). The NBCC also offers specialty certifications. The information regarding the certifications provided by the NBCC is outlined below. National Certified Counselor (NCC) According to Remley and Herlihy, this certification is granted by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) after an individual has met certain requirements. These include: Completion of a master's degree in counseling Completion of two years post-master's experience It is important to note that if an individual graduates from a program that is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the two years of post-master's experience requirement is waived. Acquisition of a passing grade on the National Counselor Exam (NCE) Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC) According to Gerig, counselors seeking the CCMHC specialty credential must meet the following requirements: Obtain the National Certified Counselor (NCC) certification Complete 60 hours of graduate coursework including courses in: Theories of Counseling Psychotherapy Personality Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology Human Growth and Development Professional Orientation and Ethics Research Testing Social/Cultural Foundations Complete an academic program with 9–15 hours of clinical training in a supervised practicum/internship in a mental health counseling setting Acquire a passing score on the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Exam (NCMHCE) Submit an audiotape or videotape of a counseling session Master Addictions Counselor According to Gerig, the Master Addictions Counselor (MAC) specialty certification is intended for counselors treating substance abuse and dependence. Counselors seeking this credential must complete the following requirements: Obtain a National Certified Counselor (NCC) certification Document at least 12 semester hours of graduate work in addictions or 500 hours of continuing education units Complete 3 years of supervised experience as an addiction counselor Obtain a passing score on the Examination for Master Addiction Counselors (EMAC) Professional organizations Professional organizations exist to serve many different functions. They provide an assembly for professionals to gather to discuss issues and problems that exist within the profession. Organizations allow the members of a profession to address issues as a group rather than facing these issues independently. Professional organizations provide an outlet for legislative activity and leadership regarding particular issues that affect the profession at all levels. Continuing education is a critical requirement for members of a profession as it ensures that all professionals' skills and expertise are continuously updated to reflect the most current research and recommendations; professional organizations provide this continuing education to their members. These organizations also assist in keeping professionals up to date by providing scholarly journals, books, and media resources to their members. Lastly, professional organizations publish and enforce a code of ethics for their members. The following professional organizations are the primary ones available to those within the clinical mental health counseling profession. American Counseling Association (ACA) American Counseling Association is "a not-for-profit, professional and educational organization that is dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the counseling profession". Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, with 56 chartered branches in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, it was founded in 1952 and is noted to be the world's largest association that exclusively represents professional counselors in a variety of practice settings. ACA is divided into 20 divisions that are tailored to specialized areas and/or principles of counseling. ACA has membership available for all stages of the counseling profession from students to retirees. In addition to the professional and advocacy benefits, ACA also offers its members discounts on malpractice liability, auto, home, and personal insurance products, prescription, lab, and imaging services, and discounts from industry leaders in hotel, travel, credit cards, as well many other consumer services. Members can choose to additionally join one or more of the 20 divisions, which offer their own unique professional benefits. American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) American Mental Health Counselors Association is an independent nonprofit 501(c)6 professional membership association made up of more than 7,000 clinical mental health counselors. Its mission is "to enhance the profession of clinical mental health counseling through licensing, advocacy, education, and professional development". The American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) is an independent non-profit, membership-owned, and operated association. The vision of AMHCA is to position clinical mental health counselors to meet the health care needs of those we serve while advancing the profession. The mission of AMHCA is to advance the profession of clinical mental health counseling by setting the standard for collaboration, advocacy, research, ethical practice, and education/training/professional development. AMHCA association bylaws are the rules and regulations enacted by the association to provide a framework for its operation and management. The bylaws define elections, titles, terms of office, and responsibilities of the AMHCA officers of the association, as well as certain responsibilities of the chief executive officer. The bylaws also specify the qualifications, rights, and liabilities of membership, and the powers, duties, and responsibilities of state chapters and affiliate associations/organizations as well as grounds for dissolution of a chapter, the removal of an officer of the AMHCA, or the revocation of a membership. Standing committees are also identified as are certain fiduciary processes, obligations, and limitations. Clinical mental health counselors at all stages of their professional journey, including students, are eligible to join AMHCA. Member benefits also include professional liability insurance plan discounts, continuing education opportunities, networking via AMHCA's annual conference, and a quarterly journal with the latest clinical mental health counseling research. National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) National Board for Certified Counselors is a not-for-profit, independent certification organization that was established in 1982. Its primary purposes are "to establish and monitor a national certification system, to identify those counselors who have voluntarily sought and obtained certification, and to maintain a register of those counselors". NBCC has four voluntary certifications, the National Certified Counselor (NCC), Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC), National Certified School Counselor (NCSC), and Master Addictions Counselor (MAC). The NCC and MAC are both accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). Obtaining National Counselor Certification (NCC) through NBCC, though not required, has many professional benefits including showing the public and employers that you have voluntarily met high national standards for the practice of counseling. Additionally, NCCs receive a number of other benefits including access to low-cost liability insurance, the ability to market oneself using the certification, a free six-month listing in the Therapy Directory, and continuing education credit, among others. The fees paid for certification go towards supporting NBCC's advocacy efforts for the counseling profession. Working environments Community Mental Health Agency This type of counseling setting generally provides a wide array of services, especially depending on particular populations served, as well as geographical settings. Services may include, but are not limited to: individual, family, and group of outpatient talk therapy; twenty-four-hour crisis intervention, or mobile crisis management; rape, sexual abuse, and domestic violence services; testing and assessment for career interests, and broader mental health issues; community psycho-education and outreach; day treatment (for mentally ill and/or developmentally disabled); intensive in-home treatment; jail diversion programs; and case management. In terms of insurance, some agencies are able to take both private and governmental policies. Regarding governmental insurance, this type of coverage is dependent on whether or not the specific agency is approved for federal and/or state funding. When it comes to serving Medicare-covered clients, counselors in the U.S. are still exempt from the list of acceptable providers, thus it is a current issue of great concern in our community. Private practice Although private practices are common in the American mental health counseling community, a licensed counselor often enters this kind of setting after several professional years have passed and following the completion of a master's degree program. Before making the transition into the private setting, many therapists work for a larger community-based agency, hospital, or treatment facility. The advantages include independence in providing therapy; the ability to be more selective when it comes to the clientele and population(s) served; and incorporating unique skills and special training, such as play therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), etc. However, the act of operating a private practice is akin to running a small business. In order to prosper, it is crucial for the counselor to have proper business and public representation skills. In deciding to hang a shingle, one must be prepared to establish and maintain a respectable presence in his or her community, oftentimes promoting awareness (and thus one's business) on one's own time. Awareness activities include visiting places of worship, community centers, local businesses, etc. to perform psycho-educational workshops. As described in the previous section of Community Mental Health Agencies, the same standards of insurance coverage, as well as sliding scale payment, apply to private practice settings. A big difference is that independent counselors are often responsible for processing their own billing if they do not have an administrative assistant. Alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs (residential and outpatient) In this mental health setting, there are many commonalities shared with the more overarching community agencies. Both environments encompass similar services, such as individual, family, and group outpatient counseling; twenty-four-hour crisis intervention; day treatment for mentally ill and/or developmentally disabled clients; and case management. Although alcohol/substance abuse programs have an obvious focus on recovery and rehabilitation, counseling services also apply to assisting in comorbidity, or dual diagnoses (e.g., bipolar disorder and alcohol dependence). Recovery programs provide specialized group counseling sessions for clients dealing with comorbidity, for gender-specific clientele, and for clients receiving methadone treatment. Clients may enter treatment through self- or family referrals. The majority of clients are ordered to participate in a recovery program by a judge in Drug Court, on account of criminal charges pertaining to drunk driving, possession of illegal substances, etc. The majority of clients receive funding through Medicaid or the state, but private insurance can also be accepted. Both outpatient and residential services last an average of thirty to ninety days. Due to this brief span of time for treatment, counselors strongly encourage their clients struggling with addiction(s) to become regular attendees of local AA and/or NA meetings, and to obtain a sponsor as soon as possible. University and college counseling centers This counseling setting is typically based within a wellness or health center of a school on campus. Ordinarily, there are an average of eight to ten free sessions allocated to every student for each academic year, with each session lasting roughly one hour. It is not uncommon for a client's appointments to occur once every two to three weeks, as the counseling staff serve hundreds to even thousands of students per semester. That being said, therapists in this type of employment setting treat a variety of mental health concerns. The clientele are principally both traditional young adults, and adult students. College and university counseling staff assist students within a broad scope of subject matter, "such as depression, anxiety, self-mutilation, eating disorders, post-traumatic disorders, and self-esteem issues". The strictly designated number of sessions for each student is designed to make the therapy process temporary and brief. However, if a client reveals a more severe mental disorder, the staff are responsible for referring the individual to specialized services in the community. Theoretical orientations to counseling Counseling theories are interrelated principles that describe, explain, predict, and guide the actions of the counselors within different situations. The use of theory provides a tool for counselors to use in order to identify important aspects of and clearly organize a client's story or narrative. These integrated systems are evaluated by multiple criteria: precision and clarity, comprehensiveness, testability, utility, and heuristic value. Counseling theories can be classified into four distinct categories: analytic, humanistic-existential, action-based, and postmodern/multicultural approaches. Analytic approaches Psychodynamic theory, or psychodynamics, involves personality and how it can be analyzed in order to more fully understand the client's presenting problem and quality of life. Both psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches to counseling include analyzing or conceptualizing personality, developing and fostering insight on behalf of the client, and then using those insights to create interventions or take action. Jungian analytic theory is based on the idea of a collective unconscious, which is a storing of history, stories, fairy tales, and other experiences that make up the psyche which, in turn, can be used in therapy for psychological healing. The ultimate goal of counselors who utilize this theory is to combine the conscious and unconscious aspects of the self in order to foster a connection with the universe that is whole and complete. See also Analytical psychology. Adlerian individual psychology is used by counselors who believe that each individual develops their own style of life, which helps to make sense of the world around them. Adlerian counselors direct their clients to choose a new lifestyle when the old is faulty or no longer serves its purpose for the client. This approach is brief and directive, with the aim of helping clients develop insight and self-understanding. Humanistic-existential approaches Person centered is an influential theory in counseling. The founder of this theory, Carl Rogers, stated that three conditions are necessary for therapeutic change to occur: a) congruence or genuineness, b) accurate empathy, and c) unconditional positive regard. Many counselors consider therapeutic presence to be a necessary condition, as the goal of person centered therapy is to allow clients to become more fully themselves and experience this through the counseling relationship. Existential theory focuses on the meaning of life, identity crises, confronting lonesomeness, and other anxieties involving "big picture" ideas. Counselors who utilize existential therapy focus on existential roots and emphasize the idea that human beings are ultimately responsible for the choices they make and the actions they take. Gestalt theory involves helping clients become aware of their true selves. This includes present moment awareness of self and environment. Gestalt therapy techniques include active and experiential methods and the main goal of this approach to counseling is a reintegration of the self, including parts that have been metaphorically cutoff. Action-based approaches Behavioral approaches to counseling include techniques such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory. Behavior therapy oriented counselors tend to conduct their interventions on behaviors that are both observable and measurable. Cognitive-behavioral theory combines both cognitive and behavioral approaches to counseling. In addition to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, there are numerous other forms of this approach including Multimodal therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Reality therapy, and Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Systemic/family approaches to counseling focus on the importance of the larger relational system, such as the family of origin, family of procreation, and other societal groups and communities. Counselors who utilize this theory view client's presenting problems as related to the systems that they are involved in and view symptoms with neutrality in order to help clients create new relational patterns within family therapy and systemic therapy. Postmodern and multicultural approaches Solution based counseling theory is related to systemic family counseling and involves encouraging clients to make small consistent changes in their lives. Solution based theory views the counselor and clients are collaborators in order to create goals and bring about measurable change. This type of theory involves solution focused brief therapy and it is utilized in schools, and managed care environments, among other time-limited environments. Feminist theory is often misinterpretation as being used by counselors who work only with female clients. However, this theory focuses on multiple aspects of identity, such as gender, culture, race, sexual orientation, to name a few. Feminist theory counselors hold the belief that human beings seek connections with others in order to establish growth. This theoretical orientation labels disconnection as the root of the client's presenting problems and the ultimate goal of feminist therapy is to create growth-fostering relationships. Narrative theory involves the idea that each individual operates from a dominant discourse, which is the societal expectations by which human beings live. The purpose of narrative therapy is to focus on separating the person from the problem and guiding clients to choose alternative ways to act and interact with others throughout their daily lives. Collaborative theory is an approach that involves counselor and clients working together to explore and create an understanding of the presenting problems. Counselors with this theoretical orientation use the collaborative therapy technique of mutual puzzling, which is shared inquiry of discovering how the problem occurs and also how to move forward. Reflecting teams are not so much a theory as they are a technique utilized by postmodern counselors. Guidelines for reflecting teams are as follows: client must give permission, client can choose to listen or not to listen to the teams' conversation, conversation should focus on what is seen or heard, conversation should stem from a questioning, speculative perspective, the reflecting team should not address the client or clients directly, and the reflecting team should listen for what is appropriately unusual. Ethics in counseling A code of ethics contains standards of behavior or practice that are agreed upon as acceptable by professionals within a given field. There are multiple ethical codes within the field of counseling that counselors are expected to abide by within their work and professional role. These codes are then enforced by ethics committees and licensure boards. A violation of code may lead to a number of consequences, dependent upon the severity of the violation, and varying in such: one might be placed on probation, suspended, or even have their license revoked. While law clarifies a profession's scope of practice, ethics are important to each profession for a number of reasons. Not only do codes of ethics provide standards to which members of the profession are held accountable, but they also aid in the improvement of provided services. Ethical codes promote professionalism and provide evidence of the intent of members within a profession to regulate and moderate their behavior. They assist in identifying appropriate courses of action for situations that arise without clear and easy resolution. Also, while ethical codes cannot be entirely preventative, they protect consumers from dangerous and/or inappropriate practice. Different professional organizations within each field may have their own personal code of ethics as well, such as the American Counseling Association and the American Mental Health Counselors Association in the profession of counseling. It has been concluded that ethics encompasses five different features: possessing adequate knowledge, skills, and judgment to produce effective interventions; respecting the dignity, freedom, and rights of the client; using power inherent in the counselor's role judiciously and responsibly; conducting oneself in such a way that promotes the public's confidence in the profession; maintaining the client's welfare as the highest priority of the mental health professional. Similarly, six different principle ethics are often considered as crucial to take into account when faced with an ethical decision: the principle of autonomy, which relates to the client's right to control their own life, decisions, future, etc.; non-maleficence, which translates to doing no harm to the client; somewhat oppositely, beneficence, which means doing good for or promoting the welfare of your client; justice, referring to fairness and equality on the part of the professional; fidelity, which requires the professional to fulfill a responsibility of faithfulness and trust; and veracity, which means being truthful and honest with clients. The newest 2014 edition of the American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics contains nine sections that each address a separate area of ethical conduct: the counseling relationship; confidentiality and privacy; professional responsibility; relationships with other professionals; evaluation, assessment, and interpretation; supervision, training, and teaching; research and publication; distance counseling, technology, and social media; and resolving ethical issues. A brief description of some of these predominant realms follows. Confidentiality Confidentiality refers to the respect of a client's privacy. Almost all information that a client reveals during counseling is protected, unless the client intends to cause harm to themselves or others. The client's consent is almost always required for the reveal of information to a third party. Laws of privileged communication within applicable states also further protect the privacy of clients. Where privileged communication is present, confidential information does not need to be disclosed in court without the client's permission. Confidentiality is crucial to create the safety, trust, and honesty required in an effective, beneficial counseling relationship. Outside of privileged communication, there are generally four instances in which confidential information may be released to a third party: if the client allows the counselor to do so with a signed release of information if the client discloses or is suspected to be an imminent threat of safety or danger to self or others, if current abuse or the intent of abuse of another is disclosed, or if a court order or subpoena requires the release of client records or testimony of the counselor. Competence This concept of competence requires proof of minimum competency for a professional, while also striving to practice in an ideal manner. For each credential that a counselor earns, such as a degree and licensure, there are minimum prerequisites of performance that must be met. A counselor may also be competent or incompetent in different types of counseling, working with different populations, or specializing in different theoretical orientations. Competency also needs to be maintained over time and should be self-monitored. Counselors should continue to access and review current research, and continuing education credits can be earned through workshops, seminars, webinars, etc. When this ethical concept is not maintained, a counselor may be risking professional misconduct, and may even face trial for malpractice. Informed consent Informed consent is typically addressed through a form at the beginning of a counseling relationship and pertains to the client's right to be aware of the nature of that relationship and the counseling process itself. Informed consent should be present throughout the entire period that a client is receiving services. This information should be presented both in written form and discussed verbally with the client. A professional disclosure statement is typically provided to the client, which should include but is not limited to counselor credentials, issues of confidentiality, the use of tests and inventories, diagnosis, reports, billing, and therapeutic process. Professional boundaries There are multiple boundaries that could be crossed between a client and a counselor, including physical, psychological, emotional, and social boundaries. Some of these boundary lines may be blurry. For example, there are differing opinions on whether touch is ever appropriate between a counselor and their client. Sexual intercourse, however, is generally uniformly disagreed upon. Dual relationships, where a counselor holds two or more different roles within a client's life at the same time, are also typically avoided, as well as the acceptance of gifts of significant monetary value. Then and now Many Community Mental Health (CMH) specialists operate under the holistic philosophy that in order to reach optimal health and wellness mental health professionals must look not only at the individual but also at the interacting communities and environment that surrounds that individual. The principal philosophy is no longer removing the disordered person from a normal family, social and community settings into a sheltered institutionalized environment but rather to a community-based treatment center for support and rehabilitation. Important dates and figures such as Dorothea Dix in 1843 and the National Mental Health Act of 1946 brought attention to the living situations of the mentally ill and the need for financial funding and more appropriate programs. In 1963 the Community Mental Health Act provided federal funding for CMH services. Thanks to the development of available economic resources, a supply of mental health professionals and multidisciplinary team approaches to mental health has been deinstitutionalized. CMH is now in the era of post deinstitutionalization. The rates of psychiatric patients treated in inpatient facilities have declined and the shift has turned to more cost-effective alternatives. New techniques and models are used to provide care for people that formerly would have been sent to inpatient treatment. Least restrictive treatment environment The idea behind the least restrictive treatment environment is to match the treatment's intensity with the severity of the client's condition so that restrictions to client personal freedom are minimal. This has been achieved by decreasing the clients' average lengths of stay in hospitals and emphasizing stabilization instead of intense therapy. Once stabilized, clients are released to the care of community-based agencies and practitioners for outpatient treatment plans. However, a revolving-door phenomenon occurs when patients are admitted, stabilized, released and then readmitted many times over a short period. Strong communication networks between mental health providers and the hospital must be utilized to help with the revolving–door phenomenon. Case management models Case management models help clients coordinate their schedules while integrating various community services. One of the most comprehensive case management model approaches is the Assertive community treatment approach. Assertive community treatment In the ACT approach, a team of professional counselors, social workers, nurses, rehabilitators and psychiatrists provide comprehensive, community-based treatment and support to clients. The team's caseload is small, and the responsibility is shared among team members. Services may include medication delivery, rehabilitation, and behavioral training in basic adaptive living skills, problems of nonattendance and transportation needs. It also includes 24-hour emergency services, medication management, money management, and assistance with daily living. The recovery and consumer movement This is the belief that mental health consumers should be able to develop control of treatment and end oppressive stigmas. Results of this movement include consumer-developed systems of care, self-help groups, consumer advocacy organizations and the recovery perspective. Support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) have increased from around 50 in 1942 to well over 58,000 in 2012. Parents without Partners (PWP) started in 1957 with one group of two women and is now the world's largest nonprofit membership organization. Formed in 1976, the National Self-Help Clearinghouse now communicates information about the activities of more than 500,000 self-help groups that now exist in the United States. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a self-help support group and advocacy organization that consists of over 1,000 local affiliates and 50 state organizations. NAMI advocates for increased funding for research, housing, jobs, rehabilitation, and suitable health insurance. The rise of the recovery perspective in community mental health is changing the underlying philosophy of what it means to be mentally ill. The U.S. government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) defines recovery as "a journey of healing and transformation enabling a person with a mental health problem to live a meaningful life in a community of his or her choice with striving to achieve his or her full potential." The ten fundamental components of recover philosophy are: 1) Self-Direction, 2) Person-Centered, 3) Empowerment, 4) Holistic, 5) Non-linear, 6) Strength-based, 7) Peer Support, 8) Respect, 9) Responsibility, and 10) Hope. Under the recovery consumers of mental health care are viewed as capable and responsible persons who can take charge and manage his or her condition. Wellness strategies are implemented in recovery work such as journaling, visiting friends, exercising, nutritious eating, praying, meditation, doing acts of kindness, and practicing gratitude. Consumers in recovery that offer service to their peers in mental health treatment are called Peer support specialist. They often help connect consumers with mental help professionals and are usually trained to counsel. Evidence based treatment Many health professionals argue that counseling is as much art as it is science. Though some might find science-based outcome studies to be not particularly helpful evidence-based treatments are sometimes mandated. This is because professional organizations, third party reimbursors and consumers want more attention given to quality control and accountability. Evidence based treatment is typically a study in which a particular treatment produces change, which was evident in randomized controlled trials, in comparison with another approach or no treatment at all. SAMHSA has developed the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. This database provides summaries, target populations, target age demographics, types of outcomes achieved, costs, and expert ratings. Other Evidence-based practice studies and research are used in community counseling to ensure treatment is effective. References External links 2014 ACA Code of Ethics National Board of Certified Counselor's state licensure board directory Counseling Mental health occupations

People skills

People skills are patterns of behavior and behavioral interactions. Among people, it is an umbrella term for skills under three related set of abilities: personal effectiveness, interaction skills, and intercession skills. This is an area of exploration about how a person behaves and how they are perceived irrespective of their thinking and feeling. It is further elaborated as dynamics between personal ecology (cognitive, affective, physical and spiritual dimensions) and its function with other people's personality styles in numerous environments (life events, institutions, life challenges, etc.). British dictionary definition is "the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly way, especially in business" or personal effectiveness skills. In business it is a connection among people in a humane level to achieve productivity. Portland Business Journal describes people skills as: Ability to effectively communicate, understand, and empathize. Ability to interact with others respectfully and develop productive working relationship to minimize conflict and maximize rapport. Ability to build sincerity and trust; moderate behaviors (less impulsive) and enhance agreeableness. History Human-relations studies emerged in the 1920s when companies became more interested in "soft skills" and interpersonal skills of employees. In organizations, improving people skills became a specialized role of the corporate trainer. By the mid-1930s, Dale Carnegie popularized people skills in How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living worldwide. In the 1960s, US schools introduced people-skills topics and methods—often as a way to promote better self-esteem, communication and social interaction. These encompassed psychologist Thomas Gordon's "Effectiveness Training" variations as well as many other training programs. (By the 1980s, "traditional education" and a "back-to-basics" three-Rs emphasis largely pushed these programs aside, with notable exceptions.) The first documented use of the phrase "people skills" was around 1970. Business impact The SCANS report states that business, labor and government authorities agree that having a wide range of people skills are necessary for 20th-century work success. Skills like customer service, building effective relationships, and teamwork are among the abilities most requested by employers in job postings. Lack of these skills is considered a serious psychological handicap. Constructive leadership based companies engage in helping individuals to grow, and through that growth employees take more responsibility and discharge it effectively. This in-turn will enhance the basic attitude of the individual; and that will reflect the general level of performance in the workplace. Studies indicate that many people who have difficulty in obtaining or holding a job possess the needed technical competence but lack interpersonal competence. Lawrence A. Appley of American Management Association, reflected on these trainings as a responsibility to "increase the knowledge, sharpen and add to the skills, improve the habits, and change the attitudes of many of those for whose development we are responsible." Lack of people skills among upper echelons (top management) can result in bullying and/or harassment, which is not uncommon in the modern workplace due to changing values. The causes that are most identified with the situation are lack of necessary motivation, communication, influencing skills and empathy gap among upper echelons (Gilbert and Thompson, 2002). Training company staff in people skills and interpersonal skills increases the morale and dignity at work (Best, 2010). Employers that do not take steps to prevent harassment can face major costs in decreased productivity, low morale, increased absenteeism and health care costs, and potential legal expenses. Educational importance The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has identified 22 programs in the US that are especially comprehensive in social-emotional learning coverage and effective in documented impacts. UNESCO research found that young people who develop speaking/listening skills and who get to know others without WIIFM attitude have improved self-awareness, social-emotional adjustment and classroom behavior; in addition, self-destructive and violent behavior also decreased. People skills are also important for teachers in effective classroom management. Educators have found that more is needed than a degree in the field they are teaching. Knowing how to communicate and teach people instead of simply teaching their subject will help make a difference in the classroom. It is identified that 50 percent of classroom success lies in effective interpersonal relationships while the other 50 percent lies within academic skills. Requirement of people skills education is greatly emphasized within higher education and recruiters stress the required focus on this skill for securing entry-level jobs right off from campus placements. Oral communication and teamwork were ranked number 1 and 2 respectively among 15 job skills that executives and hiring managers identified as very important for new employees in a large US 2018 survey. But employers have trouble finding new employees with good oral communication because schools are not teaching the skills. See also References Further reading People Skills & Self-Management (free online guide), Alliances for Psychosocial Advancements in Living: Communication Connections (APAL-CC) Communication Life skills