# Question
Title: How to measure student activity, participation, tendency to ask questions, etc?
We would like to compare students from different education systems on the following variables:

* tendency to actively participate on lessons
* tendency to ask questions
* tendency and experience in presenting own opinion
* etc.

### Questions

* What studies provide examples of measuring these variables?
* What methods are typically used to answer questions related to these variables?
* What *survey papers* provide a good starting point?

# Answer
> 3 votes
I recommend this one as it seems quite standardized and backed by many citations of it's use. It does seem to focus a lot on psychopathology at times, but there are many different versions of it that many different countries have made. I believe by studying these and adding in a few twists you can get the jist of why this has become such a widely accepted measure of child-age 16 measures of, well, alot of stuff.

It seems as if methods are already in place (even with instructions on how to interpret the results using common statistical software) to extrapolate almost anything you want/need based upon the questions here.

Thus, I think you're looking for the

**STRENGTHS AND DIFFICULTIES QUESTIONNAIRE**

(Their website is really, really helpful and to be fair I'm just copy and pasting most of it, lol.) Btw, it's here: http://www.sdqinfo.org/a0.html

**What is the SDQ?**

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural screening questionnaire about 3-16 year olds. It exists in several versions to meet the needs of researchers, clinicians and educationalists. Each version includes between one and three of the following components:

> **A) 25 items on psychological attributes.**
>
> All versions of the SDQ ask about 25 attributes, some positive and others negative. These \>25 items are divided between 5 scales:
>
> 1) emotional symptoms (5 items)
> 2) conduct problems (5 items)
> 3) hyperactivity/inattention (5 items)
> 4) peer relationship problems (5 items)
> 5) prosocial behaviour (5 items)
>
> Note: 1) to 4) added together to generate a total difficulties score (based on 20 items)
>
> The same 25 items are included in questionnaires for completion by the parents or teachers \>of 4-16 year olds (Goodman, 1997).
>
> A slightly modified informant-rated version for the parents or nursery teachers of 3 (and \>4) year olds. 22 items are identical, the item on reflectiveness is softened, and 2 items \>on antisocial behaviour are replaced by items on oppositionality. Questionnaires for self-completion by adolescents ask about the same 25 traits, though the \>wording is slightly different (Goodman et al, 1998). This self-report version is suitable \>for young people aged around 11-16, depending on their level of understanding and \>literacy. In low-risk or general population samples, it may be better to use an alternative three-\>subscale division of the SDQ into 'internalising problems' (emotional+peer symptoms, 10 \>items), 'externalising problems' (conduct+hyperactivity symptoms, 10 items) and the \>prosocial scale (5 items) ( Goodman et al, 2010).
>
> **B) An impact supplement**
>
> Several two-sided versions of the SDQ are available with the 25 items on strengths and \>difficulties on the front of the page and an impact supplement on the back. These extended \>versions of the SDQ ask whether the respondent thinks the young person has a problem, and \>if so, enquire further about chronicity, distress, social impairment, and burden to \>others. This provides useful additional information for clinicians and researchers with \>an interest in psychiatric caseness and the determinants of service use (Goodman, 1999).
>
> **C) Follow-up questions**
>
> The follow-up versions of the SDQ include not only the 25 basic items and the impact \>question, but also two additional follow-up questions for use after an intervention. Has \>the intervention reduced problems? Has the intervention helped in other ways, e.g. making \>the problems more bearable? To increase the chance of detecting change, the follow-up \>versions of the SDQ ask about 'the last month', as opposed to 'the last six months or this \>school year', which is the reference period for the standard versions. Follow-up versions \>also omit the question about the chronicity of problems.

**Handouts:**

You can find several different versions of the survey here:

http://www.sdqinfo.org/py/sdqinfo/b3.py?language=Englishqz(USA)

**Scoring:**

http://www.sdqinfo.org/py/sdqinfo/c0.py

**Citations from SDQ Website Listed for Convenience, Title Scannability, and to Show the Scope of Who, Where, and How the SDQ has been used:**

> Goodman R (1999) **The extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a guide to child psychiatric caseness and consequent burden.** Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 791-801.
> Goodman R, Scott S (1999) **Comparing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Checklist: Is small beautiful?** Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27, 17-24.
> Smedje H, Broman J-E, Hetta J, von Knorring A-L (1999) **Psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the "Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire".** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 63-70.
> Goodman R, Ford T, Simmons H, Gatward R, Meltzer H (2000) **Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a community sample.** British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 534-539.
> Goodman R, Renfrew D, Mullick M (2000) **Predicting type of psychiatric disorder from Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores in child mental health clinics in London and Dhaka.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 129-134.
> Klasen H, Woerner W, Wolke D, Meyer R, Overmeyer S, Kaschnitz W, Rothenberger A, Goodman R (2000) **Comparing the German versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Deu) and the Child Behavior Checklist.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 271-276.
> Koskelainen M, Sourander A, Kaljonen A (2000) **The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire among Finnish school-aged children and adolescents.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 277-284.
> Goodman R (2001) **Psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).** Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1337-1345.
> Mullick MSI, Goodman R (2001) **Questionnaire screening for mental health problems in Bangladeshi children: a preliminary study.** Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36, 94-99.
> Goodman R, Ford T, Meltzer H (2002) **Mental health problems of children in the community: 18 month follow up.** BMJ, 324, 1496-7.
> Mathai J, Anderson P, Bourne A (2002) **The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) as a screening measure prior to admission to a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).** Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health, 1, Issue 3.
> , (Zusammenfassung) Cury CR, Golfeto JH (2003) **Strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ): a study of school children in Ribeirao Preto.** Rev Bras Psiquiatr, 25, 139-45.
> Glazebrook C, Hollis C, Heussler H, Goodman R, Coates L (2003) **Detecting emotional and behavioural problems in paediatric clinics.** Child: Care, Health and Development, 29, 141-149.
> Malmberg M, Rydell AM, Smedje H (2003) **Validity of the Swedish version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Swe).** Nord J Psychiatry, 57, 357-63.
> Mathai J, Anderson P, Bourne A (2003) **Use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as an outcome measure in a child and adolescent mental health service.** Australasian Psychiatry, 11, 334-337.
> Muris P, Meesters C, van den Berg F (2003) **The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Further evidence for its reliability and validity in a community sample of Dutch children and adolescents.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12, 1-8.
> van Widenfelt BM, Goedhart AW, Treffers PDA, Goodman R (2003) **Dutch version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12, 281-289.
> Becker A, Hagenberg N, Roessner V, Woerner W, Rothenberger A (2004) **Evaluation of the self-reported SDQ in a clinical setting: do self-reports tell us more than ratings by adult informants?** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II17-24.
> Becker A, Woerner W, Hasselhorn M, Banaschewski T, Rothenberger A (2004) **Validation of the parent and teacher SDQ in a clinical sample.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II11-6.
> Goodman R, Ford T, Corbin T, Meltzer H (2004) **Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) multi-informant algorithm to screen looked-after children for psychiatric disorders.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II25-31.
> Hawes DJ, Dadds MR (2004) **Australian data and psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.** Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 644-651.
> Marzocchi, GM, Capron C, Di Pietro M, Duran Tauleria E, Duyme M, Frigerio A, Gaspar MF, Hamilton H, Pithon G, Simoes A, Therond C (2004) **The use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Southern European countries.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II40-6.
> Mathai J, Anderson P, Bourne **A (2004) Comparing psychiatric diagnoses generated by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire with diagnoses made by clinicians.** Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 639-643.
> Muris P, Maas A (2004) **Strengths and difficulties as correlates of attachment style in institutionalized and non-institutionalized children with below-average intellectual abilities.** Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 34, 317-328.
> Muris P, Meesters C, Eijkelenboom A, Vincken M (2004) **The self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: Its psychometric properties in 8- to 13-year-old non-clinical children.** British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 437-448.
> Woerner W, Becker A, Rothenberger A (2004) **Normative data and scale properties of the German parent SDQ.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II3-10.
> Woerner W, Fleitlich-Bilyk B, Martinussen R, Fletcher J, Cucchiaro G, Dalgalarrondo P, Lui M, Tannock R (2004) **The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire overseas: evaluations and applications of the SDQ beyond Europe.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II47-54.
> Hintermair M (2006) **Socio-emotional problems among hearing-impaired children - initial results of the German version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-D).** Z Kinder Jugendpsychiatr Psychother, 34, 49-61.
> Van Roy B, Groholt B, Heyerdahl S, Clench-Aas J (2006) **Self-reported strengths and difficulties in a large Norwegian population 10-19 years : age and gender specific results of the extended SDQ-questionnaire.** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 15, 189-98.
> Ford T, Collishaw S, Meltzer H, Goodman R (2007) **A prospective study of childhood psychopathology: independent predictors of change over three years.** Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42, 953-61.
> Goodman, R., Iervolino, A. C., Collishaw, S., Pickles, A. & Maughan, B. (2007) **Seemingly minor changes to a questionnaire can make a big difference to mean scores: a cautionary tale.** Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42, 322-7.
> Palmieri PA, Smith GC (2007) **Examining the structural validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in a U.S. sample of custodial grandmothers.** Psychol Assess, 19, 189-98.
> Achenbach TM, Becker A, Dopfner M, Heiervang E, Roessner V, Steinhausen HC, Rothenberger, A (2008) **Multicultural assessment of child and adolescent psychopathology with ASEBA and SDQ instruments: research findings, applications, and future directions.** Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 251-75.
> Matsuishi T, Nagano M, Araki Y, Tanaka Y, Iwasaki M, Yamashita Y, Nagamitsu S, Iizuka C, Ohya T, Shibuya K, Hara M, Matsuda K, Tsuda A, Kakuma T (2008) **Scale properties of the Japanese version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): a study of infant and school children in community samples.** Brain Dev, 30, 410-5.
> Van Roy B, Veenstra M, Clench-Aas J (2008) **Construct validity of the five-factor Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in pre-, early, and late adolescence.** Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 1304-12.
> Ford T, Hutchings J, Bywater T, Goodman A, Goodman R (2009) **Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Added Value Scores: evaluating effectiveness in child mental health interventions.** British Journal of Psychiatry, 194, 552-8.
> Giannakopoulos G, Tzavara C, Dimitrakaki C, Kolaitis G, Rotsika V, Tountas Y (2009) The factor structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Greek adolescents. Ann Gen Psychiatry, 8, 20.
> Goodman A, Goodman R (2009) **Strengths and difficulties questionnaire as a dimensional measure of child mental health.** Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48, 400-3.
> Janssens A, Deboutte D (2009) **Screening for psychopathology in child welfare: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) compared with the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA).** European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18, 691-700.
> Shahrivar Z, Tehrani-Doost M, Pakbaz B, Rezaie A, Ahmadi F (2009) **Normative data and psychometric properties of the parent and teacher versions of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in an Iranian community sample.** J Res Med Sci, 14, 69-77.
> Syed EU, Hussein SA, Azam SI, Khan AG (2009) **Comparison of Urdu version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) amongst primary school children in Karachi.** J Coll Physicians Surg Pak, 19, 375-9.
> Goodman A, Lamping DL, Ploubidis GB (2010) **When to use broader internalising and externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): data from British parents, teachers and children.** Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1179-1191.
> Goodman A, Goodman R (2011) **Population mean scores predict child mental disorder rates: validating SDQ prevalence estimators in Britain.** Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 100-8.
> Goodman A, Heiervang E, Fleitlich-Bilyk B, Alyahri A, Patel V, Mullick MS, Slobodskaya H, Dos Santos DN, Goodman R (2011) **Cross-national differences in questionnaires do not necessarily reflect comparable differences in disorder prevalence.** Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
> Richter J, Sagatun A, Heyerdahl S, Oppedal B, Roysamb E (2011) **The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - self-report. An analysis of its structure in a multiethnic urban adolescent sample.** Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 1002-11.

Many times this test is used in an attempt to discover if there are any psychopathologies in a certain sample or group of children/adolescents. Don't let that fool you though - look at the sample survey sheet - you'll recognize that this can be used for nearly any purpose - which is part of the genius in it's design - which I believe you'll recognize. Look at the above research titles to see what sort of studies this type of survey has been used in - it has a large scope and there have been a wide variety of instances where this test has been applied.

---
Tags: reference-request, methodology, measurement, educational-psychology
---


# Question
Title: What is the relationship between Big 5 personality and the theory of planned behaviour?
The theory of planned behaviour is a popular model of human behaviour. I.e., Broadly the model suggests that intentions to act are a function of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. And behaviour is a function of intentions and actual ability to act which is reflected typically in perceptions of control. The theory of planned behaviour has been applied to many domains (e.g., smoking, exercise, gambling, etc.).

I was curious whether any researchers have attempted to integrate modes of trait personality, and the Big 5 personality in particular with the theory of planned behaviour. I assume that any such integration would be somewhat domain dependent.

* What theories have been proposed relating Big 5 personality factors with theory of planned behaviour?
* What relationships have been obtained in empirical studies between Big 5 personality and theory of planned behaviour?

# Answer
> 3 votes
Edit: Didn't want this question to be stuck with only that first answer I gave, so here is what I believe you were looking for more specifically.

> Psychol Health. 2011 Sep;26(9):1113-27. doi: 10.1080/08870446.2011.613995.
> **The theory of planned behaviour: reactions and reflections.**
> Ajzen I.
> Abstract
> The seven articles in this issue, and the accompanying meta-analysis in Health Psychology Review \[McEachan, R.R.C., Conner, M., Taylor, N., & Lawton, R.J. (2011). Prospective prediction of health-related behaviors with the theory of planned behavior: A meta-analysis. Health Psychology Review, 5, 97-144\], illustrate the wide application of the theory of planned behaviour \[Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179-211\] in the health domain. In this editorial, Ajzen reflects on some of the issues raised by the different authors. Among the topics addressed are the nature of intentions and the limits of predictive validity; rationality, affect and emotions; past behaviour and habit; the prototype/willingness model; and the role of such background factors ***as the big five personality traits*** and social comparison tendency.

Abstract doesn't help us much.
No worries, I got the full text too. You can download it here for free: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08870446.2011.613995 or just read the relevant except I took from it:

> As have other investigators in the past (Courneya, Bobick, & Schinke, 1999; Rhodes & Courneya, 2003), Rivis et al. (2011) examined the role of the **‘big five’ personality traits** – openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (Costa & McCrae, 1985) in the context of the TPB. In addition, they also assessed the general tendency to compare oneself to important others. Interestingly, however, rather than postulating a simple effect of these kinds of background factors on intentions and behaviour, their within-subjects methodology allowed them to **examine the possibility that these variables influence the predictive validity of intentions relative to perceived prototype similarity** (see the earlier discussion of this construct). **Although the effects of the big five personality traits and social comparison tendency were *quite small***, this investigation – like earlier studies by Trafimow and Finlay (1996), Sheeran, Norman, and Orbell (1999) and others – ***shows that there may be stable individual differences that influence the relative weights of the different predictors in the TPB.***

So it looks like this paper's research has found that the effects of the Big 5 personality traits (as well as social comparison tendency) weren't very significant. But, because of the way in which some of the studies ran their methodology or perhaps certain other variables they measured they were able to see a few patterns that at the very least point towards what looks like (unnecessary quote again? yes.) "***stable individual differences that influence the relative weights of the different predictors in the TPB.***" Now I don't know what these differences are as they essentially left that vague. Could they be Big 5 indicators or some other measurement they took? I don't know as I can't access the citations, but....For convenience, I have each of them listed below though in case you do have access. These are all the in-text citations from that excerpt.

> Courneya, K.S., Bobick, T.M., & Schinke, R.J. (1999). Does the theory of planned behavior mediate the relation between personality and exercise behavior? Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21, 317–324.
>
> Rhodes, R.E., & Courneya, K.S. (2003). Relationships between personality, an extended theory of planned behaviour model and exercise behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology, 8, 19–36.
>
> Rivis, A., Sheeran, P., & Armitage, C.J. (2011). Intention versusidentification as determinants of adolescents’ health behaviours: evidence and correlates. Psychology and Health, 26, 1128–1142.
>
> Costa Jr, P.T., & McCrae, R.R. (1985). The NEO Personality Inventory manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
>
> Trafimow, D., & Finlay, K.A. (1996). The importance of subjective norms for a minority of people: Between-subjects and within-subjects analyses. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 820–828.
>
> Sheeran, P., Norman, P., & Orbell, S. (1999). Evidence that intentions based on attitudes better predict behaviour than intentions based on subjective norms. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 403–406.

It will make more sense to flip the order of your questions:

> **"What relationships have been obtained in empirical studies between Big 5 personality and theory of planned behaviour?"**

It looks like there isn't much linkage between the two according to the research that has been summarized in that paper. There is a weak affect, but that's not very exciting. If you have access to the journals you may be able to see more of the details but they're already pretty much summarized for you in the paper.

> **"What theories have been proposed relating Big 5 personality factors with theory of planned behaviour?"**

Now they did mention something about how they were able to see some sort of pattern in regards to "individual differences" towards the TPB - but it's somewhat unclear if that's because of other factors or because of interesting patterns they saw in the Big 5 --\> TPB data. The full text of those articles would probably reveal that though. I can't pay $50 for each of them though, ha. So that seems to be the most relevant theory regarding their relationship - and depending upon the semantics of the authors as they were somewhat vague.

Once again, they said:

> this investigation – like earlier studies by Trafimow and Finlay (1996), Sheeran, Norman, and Orbell (1999) and others – ***shows that there may be stable individual differences that influence the relative weights of the different predictors in the TPB.***

Perhaps Big 5 Traits relate to a certain "stable individual difference" that then tends to relate moreso to a factor/weight in the TPB. They may have found that out in other variables they measured in those studies they cited....there doesn't seem to be much more theory about it out there.

But, as I did before, I'll postulate my own that involves the "Edge Effect" theories and how they could overlap and become a predictor not only psychologically but on a physiological level as well.

**Edge Effect Theory**

This is essentially a theory in how certain global neurotransmitters create your personality. There's a bunch of tests he gives to determine your archetype. I feel like all three of these could overlap and then concrete evidence could be obtained from that overlapping in the form of maybe even potential physiological studies.

This guy doesn't really cite much (alot of it is just coming from his head - and overall broad definitions of neurotransmitters) but gives some interesting definitions of people based upon their physiology. In particular, relating to dopamine, serotonin, gaba, and acetylcholine dominance.

He classifies personality traits among many other things according to your dominance in these domains. He even provides tests you can take.

Essentially, you can take this book and you can find the references or at least be pointed down the path towards them as you're trying to connect the two theories you cite.

Anyways the book is called the "Edge Effect" by Eric R. Braverman. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Edge-Effect-Longevity-Advantage/dp/1402722478 (not an affiliate link)

I have the book, obviously, and found it to be pretty interesting in how he relates the neurotransmitters to all sorts of things. If you read it you may find some things start to make sense on an intuitive level no matter how global or generalized they may be and that...he really didn't need citations. There's all sorts of tests he'll have you take that actually do predict many things about yourself - and then he talks about what you should try to eat amino acid wise to naturally balance out certain neurotransmitters.

I know his theories have been criticized as a bit of a global generalization of neurotransmitters....but my defense against that is he is simply bringing them down to a practical level. Otherwise, practicality becomes lost in the complexity.

So another new theory has been proposed by me based upon our potential earlier findings of a potential overlapping 3rd variable instead of direct correlation between the Big 5 & TPB. :)

---
Tags: social-psychology, motivation, personality
---


title: Why does alcohol reduce shyness?

text:
# Question
Title: Why does alcohol reduce shyness?
I find it very interesting that people who consume alcohol get less shy.

Therefore my question:

**Why does drinking alcohol reduce shyness?**

And are there any other (legal or illegal) substances who have such an effect on the human brain?

# Answer
It has to do with the excitatory affect alcohol has on almost all neurotransmitters and their receptors, including serotonin, dopamine, and GABA.

Very, very broadly:
Serotonin: Generally makes one seek a human connection.
Dopamine: Motivation to do things that are stimulating, like conversation.
Gaba: Surpresses anxiety.

GHB will do this even more - but it may do it to way too much of an extent. (Mostly Gaba, but increases tyrosine hydroxylase as well which = more dopamine.)
MDMA obviously (it causes your serotonin receptors to instead of soaking up the neurotransmitter pump them out).
Amphetamines to an extent. (Similar to the last two)
> 3 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, personality
---


# Question
Title: How effective are pharmaceutical or therapeutic treatments for jealousy?
This is the last of a series of questions I've posted about jealousy (see here, here, and here).

* **What pharmaceutical and therapeutic treatments, if any, have been developed for managing acute jealousy**
* **How effective are these treatments?**

# Answer
> 3 votes
# Pharmaceutical:

Well, I can tell you there are no pharmaceutical treatments you can take that JUST help you manage "acute jealousy." Essentially, any drug you would take that may help wouldn't just target "jealousy." If there even is one that helps you to manage it it will have a global effect and probably be something like an SSRI, SNRI, amphetamine, some other drug that is probably going to end up making you feel worse in the long run.

Pharmaceutical wise, I really just found one study that referenced it at all and it's not very helpful. Scroll down though, the CBT part is very encouraging.

Because this is such a specific topic really the only thing I found in relation to pharmaceuticals and jealousy was...if you have parkinson's and you are taking dopamine agonists, you can get "delusional jealousy". So I'd avoid dopamine agonists...maybe? But you probably don't have parkinson's. It could be extrapolated to the general population to just say "hey, dopamine agonists may cause 'delusional jealousy'" but that's unlikely - and kind of useless information. MAYBE you could try a dopamine antagonist (antipsychotic) but those things SUCK so much - just trust me it's not worth it...in fact it's a stupid idea to bring up.

> Mov Disord. 2012 Nov;27(13):1679-82. doi: 10.1002/mds.25129. Epub 2012 Nov 13.
>
> **Dopamine agonists and delusional jealousy in Parkinson's disease: a cross-sectional prevalence study.**
>
> Poletti M, Perugi G, Logi C, Romano A, Del Dotto P, Ceravolo R, Rossi G, Pepe P, Dell'Osso L, Bonuccelli U.
>
> Department of Neuroscience, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
>
> BACKGROUND: Delusional jealousy (DJ) has been described in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on dopaminergic therapy, but a role for dopaminergic therapy in DJ has not been established. METHODS: The current cross-sectional study on DJ investigated its association with dopaminergic therapies compared with their associations with hallucinations and its prevalence in PD patients. Eight hundred five consecutive patients with PD were enrolled between January 2009 and June 2010. RESULTS: DJ was identified in 20 patients (2.48%) and hallucinations in 193 patients (23.98%). In the multivariate logistic regression analyses, dopamine agonists were significantly associated with DJ (odds ratio, 18.1; 95% CI, 3.0-infinity; P = .0002) but not with hallucinations (odds ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.49-1.10; P = .133). CONCLUSIONS: **These findings suggest that dopamine agonist treatment represents a risk factor for DJ in PD** independent of the presence of a dementing disorder, and the presence of this additional nonmotor side effect should be investigated in this clinical population.
>
> Copyright © 2012 Movement Disorder Society.
>
> PMID: 23150469 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

# Edit

Now this was an interesting mini-study I came across along with a whole bunch of other results with the word "pathological jealousy."

> J Clin Psychiatry. 1990 Aug;51(8):345-6. **Successful fluoxetine treatment of pathologic jealousy.** Lane RD. Source Department of Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences, Chicago Medical School, Ill. Abstract A 39-year-old man suddenly became convinced that his wife had once been unfaithful to him, and soon thereafter he became depressed. Symptoms of depression responded to imipramine, but the jealousy did not. A trial of fluoxetine was attempted because of the obsessional nature of the jealousy. Fluoxetine 60 mg/day resulted in complete remission of the pathologic jealousy, consistent with the known efficacy of fluoxetine in obsessive compulsive disorder. PMID: 2380161 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

However, once again, I'm sure that's not the only affect he experienced. THere were also a few hits with risperdone and primazone actually. They didn't even have abstracts tho.

Then we have the implication that it may be involved in OCD:

> Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1997 Feb;31(1):133-8.
>
> Morbid jealousy as a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
>
> Parker G, Barrett E.
>
> School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia.
>
> OBJECTIVE: To present a representative case vignette and review several previous reports, and to then suggest that a percentage of those with morbid jealousy may have a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). CLINICAL PICTURE: A patient presented volunteering a diagnosis of depression and anxiety following recent work and marital stresses, before describing recent jealousy and harassment of his wife over an earlier relationship. Obsessional thinking patterns and compulsive behaviours are described, and it is proposed that the picture supports a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME: **The patient was treated as if he had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and reported dissipation of his concerns after cognitive-behavioural intervention.** CONCLUSIONS: The proposition is an important one as a diagnosis of morbid jealousy often invites therapeutic pessimism, and as managements effective for OCD (both drug and behavioural) may well be helpful.
>
> PMID: 9088498 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

Which ends with successful treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy as well as (they insinuate) some pharmaceutical treatment having to do with his OCD.

This leads me into my next section though:

# Therapeutic

In my opinion:

> Jealousy is so specific that said person with jealousy is going to have to deal with it with something like CBT (although there are several medicines that \>could help to treat it...you would probably agree with me that some of their side affects \>arn't worth it if one were to try them, said jealous person also has to consider whether \>or not their jealousy is "pathological") - not to sound like a broken record. There just isn't anything as proven out there. Said jealous person also needs to do things that expands their "options" which would be the ultimate cure - even if it's just meeting randoms on plenty of fish, there's not much to lose. In my opinion, it should be looked at as just gambling or like a slot machine. Otherwise, if said jealous person does not change any of their habits....the pattern of jealousy will continue.

Now I'm going to give you some (the very rare) CBT studies involving specifically jealousy. I don't have access to the full text of these, if you do - maybe you want to look into them more. If you generalize "jealousy" into "depression" then I don't even need to really cite all of the studies that show how much CBT works.

> Br J Psychiatry. 1996 May;168(5):588-93.
>
> **The effectiveness of cognitive therapy in the treatment of non-psychotic morbid jealousy.**
>
> Dolan M, Bishay N.
>
> Ashworth Hospital, Maghull, Liverpool.
>
> BACKGROUND: Although a cognitive-behavioural formulation of morbid jealousy has been described there is little empirical research into the practical usefulness of this model. This study evaluated the effectiveness of treating non-psychotic morbid jealousy using a cognitive approach. METHOD: Cognitive-behavioural and emotional measures of jealousy were calibrated by comparison with 40 non-jealous normal controls. These instruments were used as measures of change to assess the effectiveness of cognitive therapy in altering cognitive errors in 30 morbidly jealous out-patient referrals, divided into delayed and immediate treatment subgroups to assess the stability of the condition. Both groups completed all measures immediately before and after treatment, and at follow-up. RESULTS: **The instruments demonstrated significant differences between jealous and non-jealous subjects on cognitive-behavioural and emotional aspects of jealousy.** The delayed treatment group showed no significant alteration in scores on any of the instruments after 12 weeks on the waiting list, confirming the stability of the condition. **In the majority of cases cognitive therapy aimed at the modification of dysfunctional cognitive processes resulted in a significant improvement on all jealousy measures, immediately after treatment and at follow-up.** The improvement reported by patients was supported by the partner's ratings. CONCLUSION: **The results support the postulation of the cognitive model that modification of cognitive schema by a schema-focused treatment package results in a significant reduction in disturbance in all aspects of the jealousy syndrome.**
>
> PMID: 8733797 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

Next:

> Br J Psychiatry. 1989 Mar;154:386-9.
>
> **An uncontrolled study of cognitive therapy for morbid jealousy.**
>
> Bishay NR, Petersen N, Tarrier N.
>
> North Manchester General Hospital, Crumpsall.
>
> Thirteen patients presenting with morbid jealousy were treated using a cognitive approach adapted from Beck's cognitive therapy for depression. **Cognitions in morbid jealousy showed the characteristics of automatic thoughts as described by Beck, and were based on faulty assumptions derived from interpretations of past experiences. The cognitive treatment directed mainly at the faulty assumptions resulted in improvements in TEN (10 out of 13!) patients and no change in one; two patients dropped out of treatment. The results are considered encouraging.**
>
> PMID: 2597841 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

Once again if one were to just generalize the "jealousy" to depression, then click below. There's a wide variety of them.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=cognitive+behavioral+therapy+depression

---
Tags: social-psychology, emotion, psychiatry, clinical-psychology
---


# Question
Title: Is it possible to run multiple thought processes concurrently?
For example, let's say I have a friend sprinting a 50m distance and that friend wants me to time the race, but I don't have a stopwatch so I have to count "manually". Can I count while simultaneously thinking about how she'll do and while wondering what I'm going to have for dinner?

# Answer
Parallel processes are often studied in a so called 'dual task' paradigm, where participants are drawing a picture and reciting a poem or, as in your example, counting and thinking about other things. Often this method is used to demonstrate limits in attention and find insights into how the brain works (in a serial versus parallel manner). Training is an important factor in this question. It has been shown that with a sufficient amount of training a lot of tasks can be done parallel very well - so if you sit there long enough and automize the counting the rest will follow.
> 12 votes

# Answer
I have to partly disagree with schultem here-- he is right that the dual task paradigm is used to study multitasking, but the idea that we can truly do two cognitive tasks at the same time is still contentious. In particular, the opposing view might say that we can't really do two cognitive processes at the same time, but we are in fact switching between the two tasks very rapidly. To make a an analogy, consider a computer with a single-core CPU: although behaviorally it seems like you are running multiple processes at the same time, all applications still depend on a single bottleneck.

One of the most well studied experimental paradigms for this domain is called the 'psychological refractory period', or PRP effect, which shows over 2,700 hits on google scholar.

A typical PRP task has the subject perform two reaction time tasks. For instance, he may have to hit a button with his right hand in response to a high pitched tone, and hit a button with his left hand in response to a low pitched tone. At the same time, he performs another concurrent task-- e.g., saying "blue" in response to a blue stimulus, and "green" in response to a green stimulus. By altering the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) (that is, the time from the start of the tone to the start of the visual stimuli), we can examine what operations people are able to perform in parallel.

Each task can be broken down into three components: perceptual analysis, response selection (cognitive), and response processing. A prominent theory emerging from the results of many PRP tasks is that we are able to truly do two operations in parallel if they require different modes: for instance, we can do perceptual analysis of a visual stimuli and auditory tone at the same time, and we can make a manual and vocal response at the same time, however we cannot do two response selections at the same time because they essentially require the same cognitive resources (single bottleneck).

This image from wikipedia describes what I'm talking about. The response selection from the second task must wait for the response selection from the first task to finish before it begins. The result is that, at short SOA, the total time taken to respond to both stimuli is the same-- as long as perceptual analysis of the second task ends before the response selection from the first task.

So in sum, yes, it might be possible to do the two tasks you are talking about in parallel, especially with practice. But on a more fundamental level, you may really just be doing very rapid multitasking. If you're interested in this theory, you may also want to read about threaded cognition, which demonstrates this effect for complex tasks.
> 8 votes

# Answer
I experience thinking two different things at the same time, but not on purpose. It is very frustrating because sometimes if someone tries to divert my attention in a different way my two thoughts merge together to make room for a new one. At most I've thought of four different things at the same time. I can actually hear them quite well. They do happen at the same time, but there is always one thought that is much louder than the others. I don't think it's normal but i know of only a few people who experience it with me, one being my father.
> 2 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, philosophy-of-mind, consciousness
---


title: Do repressed memories exist?

text:
# Question
Title: Do repressed memories exist?
Is there such a thing as repressed memories? Suppose a person undergoes a traumatic event (e.g failing out of school, having a relative die suddenly). Is it normal for the person to act as if everything is normal? Do the traumatic events have an affect on someone even if they dont think about it every day?

# Answer
Within the limbic system the hippocampus and amygdala processes memory.

*hippocampus*
The hippocampus processes declarative memory, the memory recalled in the form of thought and stores memory.

> Hippocampal integrity plays a crucial role in intact memory functioning. Research has demonstrated that normal hippocampal development continues into early adulthood . Investigators specifically examining the development of the hippocampus have suggested that the hippocampal formation undergoes a steep increase in volume until approximately the second year of life, then the volume slowly increases throughout adolescence. 1

*amygdala*
The amygdala processes emotional memory by directing the stimulus to emotional.

> here is extensive evidence that the amygdala is involved in affectively influenced memory. The central hypothesis guiding the research reviewed in this paper is that emotional arousal activates the amygdala and that such activation results in the modulation of memory storage occurring in other brain regions. 2

*development of amygdala and hippocampus*
The hippocampus and amygdala are not fully developed until the ages of 9-11 years of age. *there is evidence in studies that this development continues into early adulthood*

> significant age-related changes in the volumes of amygdala and hippocampus. The developmental trajectories of the brain regions were best characterized by the cubic model, which demonstrated robust changes in the beginning of life, with the amygdalar and hippocampal volumes peaking around 9 to 11 years of age,..
> The results of the present study indicated that the maximum volume of the amygdala was reached between 9 and 11 years of age. 3

The amygdala is able to effective process emotional memory, independently of attention.

> The question addressed in this paper is whether the human amygdala processes threat-related stimuli independent of selective attention. This is considered from a functional neuroimaging perspective, describing studies in normal volunteers and patients with brain lesions. The conclusion is that the evidence for such automaticity is strong, indicating that important distinctions exist between emotion and other forms of cognition 4

The hippocampus, requires attention to process and recall memory.

> The hippocampus is critically involved in storing explicit memory such as memory for space. A defining feature of explicit memory storage is that it requires attention both for encoding and retrieval. 5

**In conclusion:**
As the parts of the brain that process memory are forming during the early years of life, given that emotional memory is more readily processed than declarative memory. It is possible to have experiences within the emotional memory, that have not got clear cut conscious memories.
This post about involuntary memory, discusses memory retrieval in a little more detail.

1. Abnormal Hippocampal Development in Children with Medulloblastoma Treated with Risk-Adapted Irradiation Bonnie J. Nagela,g, Shawna L. Palmera, Wilburn E. Reddickb,f, John O. Glassb, Kathleen J. Heltonb, Shengjie Wuc, Xiaoping Xiongc, Larry E. Kunb, Amar Gajjard,e and Raymond K. Mulherna
2. Involvement of the amygdala in memory storage: Interaction with other brain systems James L. McGaugh, Larry Cahill, and Benno Roozendaal
3. Uematsu A, Matsui M, Tanaka C, Takahashi T, Noguchi K, et al. (2012) Developmental Trajectories of Amygdala and Hippocampus from Infancy to Early Adulthood in Healthy Individuals. PLoS ONE 7(10): e46970. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046970
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2003 Apr;985:348-55. 4. Amygdala automaticity in emotional processing. Dolan RJ, Vuilleumier P. Source Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG, UK. r.dolan@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
5. What is remembered? Role of attention on the encoding and retrieval of hippocampal representations Isabel A. Muzzio, Clifford Kentros and Eric Kandel
> 4 votes

---
Tags: memory, ptsd
---


# Question
Title: What causes short-term dysphoria following intense pleasure?
I'm interested in the phenomenon of short term Dysphoria:

> Dysphoria is a state of feeling unwell or unhappy; a feeling of emotional and mental discomfort as a symptom of discontentment, restlessness, dissatisfaction, malaise, depression or anxiety.

What interests me is when Dysphoria arises following moments of intense pleasure:

The phenomenon that I'm describing **lasts from 5 minutes to a few hours**, then disappears. It is experienced by only a small subset of population.

**I tried to look for an explanation, but cannot find the cause - why Dysphoria appears following intense pleasure?** Is Dopamine or Dopamine Transporter or D2 receptors involved in some way ? Is this some sort of sensitization/desensitization homeostasis mechanism at play?

Thank you for any search terms or hints that would help me shed light on the subject.

# Answer
> 8 votes
**Dysphoria following drug use**

Though their acting mechanisms can be vastly different, the general basis of drug addiction is its influence on the reward system, particularly through dopamine pathways\[1\]. It's thought that the stimulation of the dopamine system leads to dopamine depletion\[2\] and without dopamine, there's no rewarding behavior and thus no motivation to behave in any particular way (i.e. depression/dysphoria).

Desensitization occurs as a flooded dopamine body tries to reduce its receptor count, thus lowering its sensitivity to dopamine. But since the dopamine stimulus was artificial (drug-induced) and not environmental, it will require more drugs to achieve a normal level again (i.e. "chase and drag"). And this is the basis for addiction.

**Dysphoria following orgasm**

I can not find any peer-reviewed information about the neurobiology of post-coital blues. There are lots of MDs and professional psychologists that weigh in speculatively, but the literature is skimpy. A speculation I've seen is, given that the coitus was genuinely with romantic partners (and thus not a social response), that its a biological dysfunction in the Amygdala as the amygdala sharply reduces activity after sex, but this response may be exaggerated in some individuals\[3\].

My own speculation is that it might also be a way to promote promiscuity in the human race, evolutionarily speaking. In modern day, it may not be as prevalent as infant mortality rates are much lower and monogamous relationships don't threaten human survival rates.

**References**

\[1\]Wise RA, Rompre PP, (1989). Brain dopamine and reward. Annu Rev Psychol. 40:191-225.

\[2\]Charles A. Dackis, Mark S. Gold (1985). New concepts in cocaine addiction: The dopamine depletion hypothesis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 9:3, 469–477

\[3\]Sex and depression: In the brain, if not the mind

# Answer
> 1 votes
Every crest must be followed by a trough. Every trough must be followed by a crest.

---
Tags: neuroscience, emotion, well-being
---


# Question
Title: How can one estimate the excitability or mood of general public on a specific day?
I'm interested **if there are publicly available tools or resources that can be used to gauge the overall activity/excitability or mood of general public** for a specific day.

For example, yesterday I noticed that my favorite restaurant was packed, and their receipt order count was close to 700 orders before 7:30PM. At my favorite hackerspace, there were significantly more people than usual, and multiple new people have shown up. There was a large donation left at the hackerspace.

A situation like the one described above peaks my interest in whether or not there are some environmental factors that affects general population of the United States. Naturally, the first step is to demonstrate that some sort of statistically significant changes from day to day exist, then find potential sources.

I'm aware of this question that suggests that twitter analysis can be used to detect sentiment, but **are there tools that can do this kind of twitter analysis for a layperson**, like myself?

# Answer
> 6 votes
In psychology, you have two types of measurement: either a trained observer judges the behavior of the subjects without them having to actively partake in any kind of test or experiment; or the test subjects fill in a test (self-report) or take part in an experiment.

Obviously the mood in a city cannot be re-created and measured in an experiment, but you still have the two other options:

1) If you want to estimate public mood without the cooperation of members of the public, all you need is an experienced observer. His observations will become more reliable, if he creates a scale of symptoms to watch out for (similar to the diagnostic tools in clinical psychology), instead of letting his gut-feeling decide. It would take a comparison of many observations over a long period of time to "normalize" or "standardize" these judgments. You could take objective data into account, like amount, speed and movement patterns of traffic, number of accidents, medical emergencies and their type (heart attack), public activities like street music, sunbathers etc. How these relate to certain moods I don't know, but a long term observation might show relations.

> Pines and Maslach developed a matrix to calculate the resources required to support a public event and use the audience profile for assessment of crowd mood. Their model is two-fold. First, they use descriptors to clearly identify separate groups (for example, families, young adults, children, elderly, and rival factions). Second, they attach a rating scale (1–5) to these groups. This rating scale is used to grade the amount of verbal noise, physical movement and overall audience participation. ...
>
> Using this model to assess 35 events, Zeitz et al found that crowd mood was an important factor in predicting medical workload at a mass gathering event, although it did not significantly affect the work of other emergency services, such as police or fire and rescue. ...
>
> Practical strategies to monitor and measure crowd mood and type, along with the resultant behavior of a crowd, have received limited attention. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X12000155)

2) Similar to the example from Vilnius, Lithuania, given in a comment by Damien, or television audience measurement, you can select a representative sample from the population in question and measure their moods or relevant behaviors through self-report or objective measures (biophysiological measures, tracking mobile phone location etc.). Similar techniques have been used in a multitude of psychological experiments, from using mobile phone data to analyse friendship networks, to people reporting their behavior to the experimenters in real time using apps.

I am not aware of any research done on public moods in this way apart from the example from Vilnius, but I have not been looking very hard and I think something might be found, if you do a more thorough search. Relevant keywords might be "assessment, monitoring crowds, mass gatherings, mob psychology".

---
Tags: social-psychology, emotion, computational-modeling, behaviorism
---


# Question
Title: What is the reward mechanism for eating spicy foods?
I can eat pure sugar and pure fats and find it pleasurable thanks to the taste receptors; and salt to a lesser extent. But pure raw chilli products trigger irritation to the tongue, cheeks and nasal passages.

So it seems chillies do not "win over" taste receptors the way sugar, fat and salt do, but we do crave it.

**What is the reward mechanism that makes spicy foods desirable?**

# Answer
> 4 votes
Rozin (1996) provides an introduction to the psychology of food. Rozin and Schiller (1980) present a study on the acquisition of preferences for chili peppers.

In the abstract, they write:

> Interviews, observations, and measurements were carried out in both Mexico and the United States. Exposure to gradually increasing levels of chili in food seems to be a sufficient condition for preference development. Chili likers are not insensitive to the irritation that it produces. They come to like the same burning sensation that deters animals and humans that dislike chili; there is a clear hedonic shift. **This could be produced by association with positive events, including enhancement of the taste of bland foods, postingestional effects, or social rewards**. It is also possible that the initial negative response to chili pepper is essential for the eventual liking. Chili stimulates an innate sensory "'warning" system but is not harmful. The enjoyment of the irritation may result from the user's appreciation that the sensation and the body's defensive reaction to it are harmless. Eating of chili, riding on roller coasters, taking very hot baths, and many other human activities can be considered instances of thrill seeking or enjoyment of "'constrained risks.

The paper also present research for and against desensitisation processes, although they note that this still requires some general rewarding quality to chilis.

> Chili preference might be related to receptor desensitization. However, there would have to be positive features of chili that support a preference once the desensitization took place; otherwise, desensitization would lead to neutral responses. There is some reason to believe that desensitization to capsaicin could be a factor in human chili ingestion. High concentrations of capsaicin placed on the skin of humans or rats produce drops in sensitivity to subsequent applications of capsaicin that last for hours up to days after the initial treatment (Jancs6, 1960). Systemic injections of high levels of capsaicin into rats and guinea pigs produce months-long complete desensitization to the effects of capsaicin and other chemical irritants. Desensitized rats do not respond (as with paw wiping) to irritating solutions of capsaicin or ammonia placed in their eyes (Jancs6- Gfibor & Szolcs~myi, 1969)

### References

* Rozin, P. (1996). Towards a psychology of food and eating: From motivation to module to model to marker, morality, meaning, and metaphor. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5(1), 18-24.
* Rozin, P., & Schiller, D. (1980). The nature and acquisition of a preference for chili pepper by humans. Motivation and Emotion, 4(1), 77-101.

# Answer
> 2 votes
I'm surprised simple endorphins havn't been mentioned, not even by those studies you cited Jeromy.

Without citing anything - I'm going to stick with this, which I used to do with my buddies before we'd go out, ha.

When you eat something super spicy (I'd just eat raw habaneros) and experience intense pain, you get an endorphin rush. Endorphins feel good. That's all.

If you think about it though it's a bit weird, because that's the same reason people purposefully cut themselves (the word for that pathology alludes me at the moment) and other things in that domain - except I'm (and I believe those who crave it - I never got to that level though) doing it by eating a spicy pepper.

---

> "enhancement of the taste of bland foods, postingestional effects, or social rewards"

I can understand the enhancement of bland foods...yeah that's always good....and the social rewards from looking like a badass. However, spicy peppers don't seem to be too favorable for almost anyone "postingestionally" unless you want to experience pain.

I could see how if people really liked the taste of hot peppers/chilis they'd want to be desensitized to them too. Haha it's funny though that they become immune to ammonia in the eye. That sounds painful.

---
Tags: motivation, sensation, feeding
---


# Question
Title: What explains the relative importance of physical versus mental features in human mate selection?
I assume that it is the brain that has put human beings at the top of the food chain (Biped and opposable thumbs aside).

Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest suggest that the best specimens of a species are those that have the greatest mating privileges. I assume that well developed characteristics, required by that species to ensure survival will will be sought after, not just of one particular group, but the species as a whole. So for lions it strength will be desired, and for elephants size will matter.

For humans, it is the brain that is our evolutionary marvel. It sets us apart from all other species. I think human physical prowess is somewhat redundant when it comes to our survival and progress.

Many highly intelligent people are still regarded as social misfits, nerds and geeks. The high school football team and cheer leaders are still very popular. Sports stadiums are filled and televised, and the regular chess clubs are not. This seems a bit like a limiting mechanism, where we are not smart enough to overcome our base natures and so the truly, evolutionary, superior specimens are downgraded, whilst the redundant brawny types that appeals to the apes, are still highly sought after.

* **What is the relative importance of physical versus mental features in human mate selection?**
* **Do mental features receive relative little weighting?**
* **What is the evolutionary psychology argument for the relative importance of physical versus mental features in mate selection?**

# Answer
In my experience, physical trumps all. Even if you're blind, there is still smell. I saw a show (The Science of Sex Appeal) which documented an experiment where a group of men wore t-shirts while getting sweaty on treadmills. Once the garments were nice n nasty, they put them in jars and had women rate how turned on or off they were by smelling each jar. It turned out that at least one of the women had a brother in the experiment and she rated his smell especially off-putting. This led researchers to conclude that smell is important in avoiding inbreeding. If someone's immune system is similar to yours, they will smell similar to you and you won't like it. Similar immunities kill similar bacteria, resulting in similar smells.

We also look for things that indicate genetic health. Nice teeth is probably the biggest. Do you have nice eyes? Without teeth and good vision, its hard to survive in the wild. The caveat here seems to be access to healthcare. Of course, we can fake our genetic flaws with contact lenses and dental work, but even wearing glasses (which is not an advantage) can be seen as sexy because it indicates intelligence (people with glasses probably don't play sports so they spend all their time reading/learning instead - its a stereotype that may or may not be true anymore). But it doesn't have to be so much that you can fix your genetic flaws, as just having good healthcare available seems to be enough to choose partners with less genetic health. Consider this:

> After crunching the data—including the women's facial preferences, their country of origin and that country's national health index—the Face Lab researchers proved something remarkable. They could predict how masculine a woman likes her men based on her nation's World Health Organization statistics for mortality rates, life expectancy and the impact of communicable disease. In countries where poor health is particularly a threat to survival, women leaned toward "manlier" men. That is, they preferred their males to have shorter, broader faces and stronger eyebrows, cheekbones and jaw lines. The researchers went on to publish the study in this month's issue of the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences.
>
> To a person unfamiliar with the field of evolutionary psychology, this may sound a little far-fetched. How is it even possible to link a woman's masculinity preferences to the health of her nation? The answer begins with the theory of sexual selection. It goes that women are the choosier sex because they take on most of the risk and burden of reproduction and child rearing. While a man can sleep around with 100 women in a year's time and have 100 kids, a woman who sleeps with 100 men in a year will only have one baby (barring multiples). She has more at stake in each pregnancy. Therefore, it is in her best interest to at least choose a high-quality mate. And one of the hallmarks of a quality male is good health.
>
> But what does health have to do with masculinity? The link is testosterone, the hormone behind manly muscles, strong jaws, prominent eyebrow ridges, facial hair and deep voices. Testosterone is immunosuppressive. This means a man must be healthy and in good condition to withstand its effects on his development. Testosterone is also linked to other traits related to strength: fitness, fertility and dominance. From an evolutionary perspective, masculinity is basically man's way of advertising good genes, dominance and likelihood to father healthier kids. When disease is a real threat, as it had been—and arguably still is—heritable health is invaluable.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704100604575145810050665030.html

Intelligence, unfortunately, is not associated with health. Much of what defines attractiveness may depend on evironment factors. It may not always be the case that physical trumps mental if we're actually smart enough to survive no matter what the physical genetic flaw. I wouldn't go as far as to say that we're that kind of society yet. I continue to believe that a certain range of physical characteristics must fall in line regardless how mentally attracted one is. If you're mentally attracted to someone and then find he is 80 years old (way past breeding age), would you still be attracted? Evolution-wise, it wouldn't make any sense to be. Conversely, if you met an incredible hunk of a man, but he had revolting personality and an iq near his shoe-size, he wouldn't be attractive either. So, I couldn't say one trait has omnipotence, but I do believe the physical has an edge.

Many times we enter into relationships, not out of attraction, but because it makes sense. The Science of Sex Appeal show also demonstrated that married women dress and dance more seductively than single women as well as having differing hormonal levels (via saliva testing). The theory proposed to explain this is that once a woman has found a stable and sensible mate, she seeks the "bad boy" because the "bad boy" has the genetic traits for health, but the "bad boy" is a cad for a dad. So she will get pregnant up by him and make the sensible father (whom she's not all that attracted to) raise the child.

See http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/other-shows-science-of-sex-appeal-videos.htm
> 4 votes

---
Tags: social-psychology, evolution, physical-attraction
---


# Question
Title: The relationship between narcissism and self-esteem
Given that personality disorders are rooted in abnormal experience and development. There has been much discussion about the aetiology of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Having a concept of the causes of such an illness is helpful in establishing the answer to my question. The common belief was that beneath the arrogance of a narcissist, is an incredibly low self-esteem, hence the need to protect the fragile ego.

> Those with narcissistic personality disorder believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

Mayo Clinic

I can see that there is some discussion refuting this, and postulating the opposite.

> It was once thought that narcissists have high self-esteem on the surface, but deep down they are insecure. However, the latest evidence indicates that narcissists are actually secure or grandiose at both levels.

Psychology Today

I have wondered, how do we really know how the narcissist self-esteem is?
Is there an inverse relationship between narcissism and self-esteem or is the converse true?

*Please provide a well researched answer.*

# Answer
> 7 votes
First off, your second link there hasn't been reviewed since 2010. I got a case study from 2013, an attempt to change the DSM for narcissism due to it's actual granularity and subtypes from 2008, and a letter to the journal of Indian Pscy med from 2012.

> 1. Seishin Shinkeigaku Zasshi. **2013**;115(4):363-71.
>
> \[**A case of major depressive disorder barely distinguishable from narcissistic personality disorder**\].
>
> \[Article in Japanese\]
>
> Saito S, Kobayashi T, Kato S.
>
> Department of Psychiatry, Jichi Medical University.
>
> **The recent increase in cases of depression with a narcissistic tendency, especially among young individuals, has been pointed out.** When the narcissistic tendency is conspicuous, patients may be treated for a personality disorder or pervasive developmental disorder, and not for a mood disorder. A case is described of a man in his late twenties who developed depression due to his failure in research work and job hunting, and, after a time, due to the break off of his engagement with his fiancée, manifested with narcissistic symptoms including an exaggerated opinion of himself, a sense of entitlement, interpersonal exploitation, lack of empathy, strong feelings of envy, and an extrapunitive tendency. He was regarded at the start of treatment as having narcissistic personality disorder. However, persevering treatment, mainly with supportive psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy including antidepressants (high dose of maprotiline combined with low dose of mirtazapine), sodium valprote and aripiprazole, finally improved not only his depressive symptoms, but also the symptoms regarded as a deriving from a personality disorder. He presented fierce anger and aggression regarded as a mixed state, and showed the rapid improvement in his depressive state after hospitalization, **which we considered to show potential bipolarity**. We diagnosed the patient with ***narcissistic depression***, emphasizing the aspect which suggested a mood disorder, such as the episodic presence of narcissistic symptoms as long as a depressive state resided, his circular, recursive discourse, and his potential bipolarity. To accurately evaluate the aspect of mood disorders which patients appearing to show personality disorders have, it is considered useful to grasp a patient's condition from the viewpoint of a personality structure and viable dynamics. From a therapeutic standpoint, we suggest the importance of simple but persevering psychotherapy and a sufficient quantity of antidepressant medication for patients with depression, even if they are thought to have a personality disorder.
>
> PMID: 23789317 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

Hmm well they seem to note initially that the converse is true in the first sentence. We'll investigate why this is true soon too and the reasons for it.

Before even reading this, I hypothesized someone with bipolar disorder could have this type of problem...and sure enough...they mention the patient as potentially having it.

---

This one is back from 2008. It seems like they were having some trouble with the DSM labeling of the disorder back then. Apparently there are several different subtypes of narcissistic disorder, which could definatly seem viable. So, so far your answer is 'sometimes'.

> 1. Am J Psychiatry. 2008 Nov;165(11):1473-81. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07030376. Epub 2008 Aug 15.
>
> Refining the construct of narcissistic personality disorder: diagnostic criteria and subtypes.
>
> Russ E, Shedler J, Bradley R, Westen D.
>
> Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. jonathan@shedler.com
>
> Comment in Am J Psychiatry. 2008 Nov;165(11):1379-82.
>
> OBJECTIVE: Narcissistic personality disorder has received relatively little empirical attention. This study was designed to provide an empirically valid and clinically rich portrait of narcissistic personality disorder and to identify subtypes of the disorder.
> METHOD: A random national sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N=1,201) described a randomly selected current patient with personality pathology. Clinicians provided detailed psychological descriptions of the patients using the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-II (SWAP-II), completed a checklist of axis II diagnostic criteria, and provided construct ratings for each axis II personality disorder. Descriptions of narcissistic patients based on both raw and standardized SWAP-II item scores were aggregated to identify, respectively, the most characteristic and the most distinctive features of narcissistic personality disorder.
> RESULTS: A total of 255 patients met DSM-IV criteria for narcissistic personality disorder based on the checklist and 122 based on the construct ratings; 101 patients met criteria by both methods. **Q-factor analysis identified three subtypes of narcissistic personality disorder, which the authors labeled grandiose/malignant, fragile, and high-functioning/exhibitionistic.** **Core features of the disorder included interpersonal vulnerability and underlying emotional distress, along with anger, difficulty in regulating affect, and interpersonal competitiveness, features that are absent from the DSM-IV description of narcissistic personality disorder.**
> CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that DSM-IV criteria for narcissistic personality disorder are too narrow, underemphasizing aspects of personality and inner experience that are empirically central to the disorder. The richer and more differentiated view of narcissistic personality disorder suggested by this study may have treatment implications and may help bridge the gap between empirically and clinically derived concepts of the disorder.
>
> PMID: 18708489 \[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE\]

And the story gets more complicated...to the point where there seem like many different types of treatment and just problems with therapists dealing with narcissists.

Q-Type Analysis:

* grandiose/malignant
* fragile
* high-functioning/exhibitionistic

Core features of the disorder

* included interpersonal vulnerability and underlying emotional
* distress, along with anger
* difficulty in regulating affect
* interpersonal competitiveness

Looks like your question's answer is getting split up in many different ways.

---

I found this interesting letter that was sent to the Indian Journal of Psych Med. It looks like there are specific type of strategies for dealing with specific types of issues....like for relationship issues there's one way, for other types...there's another.

I'll bold the interesting parts.

> Indian J Psychol Med. 2012 Oct-Dec; 34(4): 403–404.
> doi: 10.4103/0253-7176.108236
> PMCID: PMC3662146
> **Demystifying Paradoxical Characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder**
> Matthew Gildersleeve Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Address for correspondence: Dr. Matthew Gildersleeve, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
> Sir,
>
> This letter is aimed for psychotherapy clinicians and researchers who should acknowledge the relationship linking Kohut's self-psychology and Glasser's Choice theory that can demystify relationship difficulties and mental health problems in narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). NPD is commonly experienced interpersonally by others as insufferable, pompous, and un-empathic.\[1\] NPD persons have been identified to possess giant self-centeredness, a certainty that they own supreme personality, and their humiliation of others makes them intolerable for interpersonal relations.\[1\] **Importantly, Heinz Kohut's legacy to psychology is known as self-psychology and was centered principally on narcissistic personality development and treatment.**\[2\] **Suboptimal psychological development is thought to arise when maternal compassion is discriminately substandard.\[3\] As a result, the narcissistic self constructs a defense against the helplessness of a hurtful world.\[3\] Kohut\[2\] cited in Banai et al.\[3\] called the compassion required from maternal figures as “self-object needs” because these needs develop the self-image and are provided by external objects.** (Oh wow, it seems like they're talking about entitled rich kid's attitudes, that's kinda funny, interesting).
>
> By not receiving necessary **self-object transferences through decisive epochs in development, the young individual cannot build the competence to control self-respect or construct a positive self-image.\[3\]** **Consequently, the child, now an adult, depends on other humans to construct their self-image. The self-object transferences received as an adult provide a feeling of significance, which was not established during child development.\[3\] However, NPD persons are apprehensive of meeting self-object absence as an adult.\[4\] In order to feel the control of their fate, NPD persons present a mindset of dominance in the interpersonal sphere. As a result of this authoritarian manner, persons with NPD typically have a record of numerous unsuccessful relationships.\[4\]**
>
> Go to: PARADOXICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER Thus far, this letter has acknowledged that NPD persons rely heavily on self-object transferences to develop a positive self-image. The behavioral characteristics of NPD persons reflect this need and are well documented.\[5\] **However, what is paradoxical about these behavioral characteristics is that instead of behaving in a way to increase the chance of receiving self-object transferences in relationships, NPD individuals act in a way to reduce that possibility by destroying interpersonal relations.**
> *(So not only have we seen narcissists become depressed...they also have the propentencity to do things in relationships that sabotage them....which may then lead to this depression.)*
>
> Glasser\[6\] has specified relationship building and destroying behavior in a grand detail in his Choice theory. “Seven Caring Habits” and “Seven Deadly Habits” offer superb rules for how psychotherapists should interact with clients to enhance the likelihood that these individuals use caring interpersonal habits to attain optimal mental health. It is evident from the literature that NPD behavioral characteristics reflect the “Seven Deadly Habits.”\[1\] Glasser's Seven Caring Habits are Supporting, Encouraging, Listening, Accepting, Trusting, Respecting, Negotiating differences and the Deadly Habits are Criticizing, Blaming, Complaining, Nagging, Threatening, Punishing, Bribing, or Rewarding to Control.
>
> Go to: CHOICE THEORY The writing of Kohut and advocates of self-psychology argue that the feeling of love, belonging, closeness, and connectedness with other humans are essential for individuals with NPD who requires self-object transferences.\[7\] **Unfortunately, the pushing, demanding actions (Seven Deadly Habits or External Control Psychology) being used by NPD persons destroy relationships and therefore prevents self-object needs being met. When external control is used by NPD persons, it will destruct the capacity of one or both individuals to locate contentment, eventually resulting in severed relationships.\[8\] This interpersonal disengagement is argued to be the foundation for the majority of human mental illness.\[6\]** Choice Theory and the Seven Caring Habits are offered to replace external control psychology and the Seven Deadly Habits\[6\] to preserve relationships and optimal mental health.
>
> External Control Psychology is an attempt to control others to act in a way they do not want to.\[6\] This ideology of a person who uses external control does not permit individuals outside the self to formulate preference about individual freedom, and advocates that other individuals should be punished to modify their behavior to attain the controllers' needs.\[6\] The “Deadly Habits” demolishes individual freedom of the oppressed individual and therefore acts to disconnect relationships, as freedom has been identified as one of the basic human needs.\[6\]
>
> Consequently, a central thesis of Choice theory is that the only individual one can be in command of is themselves.\[6\] If the individual believes they can command other humans, then they will encounter anger and irritation leading to mental illness.\[6\] Anger, irritation, and mental illness will also arise if the individual believes that other humans can command them and then externalizes blame to the perceived controller for undesirable events.\[6\] For that reason, it is vital for the NPD individual to focus on internal control of their own choices and to value the rights of other people who have their own needs.\[6\]
>
> In conclusion, it is important that the caring habits be taught to the NPD client, once a therapist has identified an individual with strong self-object needs and who meets the criteria for NPD. Using Choice theory, the psychotherapist directs an individual toward fulfilling interpersonal relationships and educates the person to relate in more helpful modes using internal control psychology.\[6\] The better NPD persons are proficient at bonding and comprehending other individual needs, the better prospect they possess to receive positive self-object transferences and happiness.
> Go to: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Amy-lee Weisse for constructive discussion and invaluable guidance.
> Go to: REFERENCES
> 1. Millon T, Millon CM, Meagher S. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons; 2012. The Narcissistic Personality. Personality Disorders in Modern Life; p. 330.
> 2. Kohut H. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2011. Introductory Considerations. The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Approach to the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorders; p. 1.
> 3. Banai E, Mikulincer M, Shaver PR. “Selfobject” needs in kohut's self psychology: Links with attachment, self-cohesion, affect regulation, and adjustment. Psychoanal Psychol. 2005;22:224–60.
> 4. McLean J. Psychotherapy with a Narcissistic Patient Using Kohut's Self Psychology Model. Psychiatry. 2007;4:40–47. \[PMC free article\] \[PubMed\]
> 5. Silverstein ML. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2007. Narcissitic Personality Disorder, Disorders of the Self: A Personality-Guided Approach; p. 27.
> 6. Glasser Bloomington: IUniverse; 2011. Replacing External Control With The New Choice Theory Psychology. Take Charge of Your Life: How to Get What You Need with Choice-Theory Psychology; p. 8.
> 7. Strack Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons; 2005. Self Psychological Foundations of Personality Disorders. Handbook of Personology and Psychopathology; p. 181.
> 8. Glasser , Glasser New York: Harper Collins; 2007. External Control Can Kill a Marriage. Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage; p. 11. Linkback here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662146/

---

So, it looks like there's alot of stuff going on with Narcissists. Or what they call "NPD."

As for my conclusions:

NPD or (Perceived NPD) or actually scientists are still trying to figure it out I'm going to put into three categories that even have subcategories.

1) **Being the center of attention and always getting what you wanted while growing up...only to realize when it times come to get a job that doesn't exist anymore** \- which can admittedly be a difficult shift for someone to have to make. This could also stem from derivatives of this. Obviously would say psychopathology here and environmental influencers are important players.\** The affects of this seem to appear as relationship issues mostly - as they have developed a certain "expectation for this or that" which puts stress on their mate....whom then eventually leaves them....which then causes them to be a depressed narcissist. This cycle also seems to repeat itself although methods are suggested to help treat a patient with this disorder in the last piece of literature.

2) **Genuinely having some subtype of NPD that is more than just psychopathologically based.** This goes back to that 2nd study where they were trying to identify the subtypes for the DSM definition. These adjectives don't seem to describe someone who would necessarily fit into category #1, although they partially seem to discribe someone who would fit into my 3rd category - someone who is simply bipolar and has a "narcissistic mania." And yes, I just made that medical diagnosis up.

Q-Type Analysis (the authors labeled these as the three subtypes):

1. grandiose/malignant
2. fragile
3. high-functioning/exhibitionistic

Core features of the disorder (NPD)

* included interpersonal vulnerability and underlying emotional
* distress, along with anger
* difficulty in regulating affect
* interpersonal competitiveness

So I actually don't really believe many #1's would fit into this #2 category I have set up due to the lack of focus on problems in certain types of relationships (they mention interpersonal failures...but not as directly).

I'd say these are most likely people with a true "NPD" pathology - with a couple bipolar's mixed in depending upon if their methodologies were very affective at weeding them out and since it's a Q-type analysis...I'd feel somewhat unconfident about that.

3) **Someone who is bipolar and when they have their manic episode, they become narcissistic.** Obviously they'd go up and down and have all sorts of fun problems.

# Answer to your question:

They can be both, either/or, have it depend upon things like interpersonal issues because they feel like the world owes them something. Apparently the pathology of narcissism is a very complex thing to figure out or put any sort of hard and fast label on. It could be caused by one's psychology from how they were raised or a genuine mental disorder of a physiological kind. There's also problems with distinguishing it from bipolar disorder (although I'd say if someone had bipolar disorder then they'd probably know it).

---
Tags: abnormal-psychology, psychiatry
---


# Question
Title: Do graphemes relate to communication and thought disorders?
The question Does language and/or culture affect an individual's cognitive capacity? explores the possibility of differences in cognition based on language and cultural variations.

In this question I am focusing on certain aspects of language only:
the orthography, in particular, the types of graphemes.

Syllabary graphemes are shallow orthographies, where each kana represents and maintains a consistent sound throughout that language (with some exceptions). The well recognised scripts of some Asian cultures (Chinese, Japanese, Korean,...) use syllabary systems.

Alphabetic graphemes are more complex. English, and a good deal of European languages use alphabetic graphemes, where each letter and its usage represents a sound. The great variation in how one symbol (letter) can sound, depending on the context of the letter within a word or sentence, is referred to as a deep orthography.

Given the level of complication with alphabetical languages; I am interested if they can lead to increased incidence of faulty cognition, for instance, thought disorders, dyslexia, circumstantiality, clang association, phonemic paraphasia, blocking, neologisms,.. to name a few.

Have there been any studies on this, and if so, what are there findings?

# Answer
We have this tendency to explore, in detail, language abilities and label them "disorders". Some are disorders, like those stemming from autism, but, in any traditional sense, none of the listed qualify. They are simply biases in what people are good and not good at or classifications of errors. There's a title of a talk by Raymond Klein I've always liked.

Klein, R. M. (2002, November) Dyslexia, dysdrivia and dystennisia: Is it reasonable to expect everyone to read well? *Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience chapter presentations*. Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Imagine if we considered weak tennis playing a social problem. We would carefully examine these poor souls and work out very carefully the defects in their minds that cause them to be outcasts of society. We'd label said defects and work diligently to rehabilitate who we could...etc...you can see where it's going. What we've done with dyslexia is similar.

Of course there will be people who are good and bad readers and writers, and there will be characteristics that some of those bad (and good) readers have in common. And we can categorize them. This does not, in itself, a disorder make.

In any field of endeavour, if you change the requirements of something that's an acquired skill, which reading and writing are, then you change the set of cognitive abilities that facilitate that skill. Different people have different cognitive aptitudes therefore their abilities in different kinds of writing systems, and the translation of those to phonemes, will differ. Furthermore, some systems will be easier than others and in different ways. There may be systematic variations in how those errors work out.

If you had asked whether clay tennis players have differences from grass players would it really be a question worth considering? It's only one because there's some belief that the common errors in reading are named and the people who aren't good at it are labelled.

But, in spite of the fact that some people do it, I think it's pretty difficult to call any of those differences disorders.

(As an aside, several of the listed "thought" disorders are pretty independent of orthography. Most would be considered thought errors.)
> 3 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, abnormal-psychology, developmental-psychology, cognitive-neuroscience
---


# Question
Title: Are there any cognitive models for image interpretation?
Are there any cognitive models which can be used for image interpretation. I have tried to find some specific models which can be used for image interpretation but have not been able to find any model.

# Answer
> I have tried to find some specific models which can be used for image interpretation but have not been able to find any model.

This question is broad and as you have stated that you have failed to find models, I thought I would provide you with references where visual cognition is researched.

The UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience has a visual cognition group.

> The research in this group is concerned with detection, discrimination and short-term memory of visual stimuli. A key part of the approach to the work is to study interactions between different regions of visual cortex, and interactions between visual and non-visual areas by using transcranial magnetic stimulation, psychophysics, eye movements and electrophysiological recording methods. Human vision is a dominant force in our behaviour and the study of vision therefore takes research questions into many different areas of perception outside of our more obviously visual work on visual search, the functions of the parietal cortex, the frontal eye fields and how the brain changes with learning. These include the perception of time, visuomotor learning, music, and mathematics - apparently different functions which often draw upon the same brain resources. The group is engaged in extending the use of TMS in combination with other methodologies, in particular electrophysiological recording and work with neuropsychological patients.

This wikipedia entry on perception; discusses how perception between individuals has a wide variation, including the ability to interpret visual cues.

The Duke Visual Cognition Laboratory has extensive research articles about this topic. I have provided some suitable excerpts.

> The visual system has developed to transform an undifferentiated and continuous flow of information into discrete and manageable representations, and this ability rests primarily on the uninterrupted nature of the input. 1
>
> Recent laboratory work has indicated that low target prevalence can lead to disturbingly high miss rates in visual search. 2
>
> Change blindness, the failure to detect visual changes that occur during a disruption, has increasingly been used to infer the nature of internal representations. If every change were detected, detailed representations of the world would have to be stored and accessible. However, because many changes are not detected, visual representations might not be complete, and access to them might be limited. Using change detection to infer the completeness of visual representations requires an understanding of the reasons for change blindness. This article provides empirical support for one such reason: change blindness resulting from the failure to compare retained representations of both the pre- and postchange information. Even when unaware of changes, observers still retained information about both the pre- and postchange objects on the same trial. 3
>
> The input to visual processing consists of an undifferentiated array of features which must be parsed into discrete units. Here we explore the degree to which conscious awareness is important for forming such object representations, and for updating them in the face of changing visual scenes. 4

There is a wealth of information here, it's quite fascinating. I hope you enjoy this, and feel free to come back with the questions you have about this.

1. Appelbaum, L. G., Cain, M. S., Schroeder, J. E., Darling, E. F., & Mitroff, S. R. (2012). Stroboscopic visual training improves information encoding in short-term memory. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.
2. Fleck, M. S., & Mitroff, S. R. (2007). Rare targets are rarely missed in correctable search. Psychological Science, 18, 943-947.
3. Mitroff, S. R., Simons, D. J., & Levin, D. T. (2004). Nothing compares 2 views: Change blindness can occur despite preserved access to the changed information. Perception & Psychophysics, 66, 1268-1281.
4. Mitroff, S. R. & Scholl, B. J. (2005). Forming and updating object representations without awareness: Evidence from motion-induced blindness. Vision Research, 45(8), 961-967.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, vision
---


# Question
Title: What causes fear of failure to lead to lack of effort and actual failure?
**Background:** I'm having hard time motivating myself to study. In my first year I was a very good student, I had the motivation to study because I wanted to compete, it was first and maybe hardest year. I wanted to show that I am good and better. I passed my exams in time with good grades. Then, I started studying less and less, finding it hard to motivate and focus on learning. I don't study and don't have motivation to study because I am afraid of failing an exam. I am afraid that if I study hard for an exam and then fail I will feel that I am stupid.

### Questions

* **Is there a name for the phenomena of not putting effort into study because of fear of failure which in turn results in actual failure?**
* **What causes this?**
* **Are there any strategies for overcoming this cycle?**

# Answer
> 7 votes
> * **Is there a name for the phenomena of not putting effort into study because of fear of failure which in turn results in actual failure?**

Yes, this is called self-handicapping.

> Self-handicapping is the process by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem.

> * **What causes this?**

The main and most relevant reason here is the preservation of your own self-image and/or managing your public image. If you were to try your very best and still fail, then the only causal attribution would have been dispositional, that is, the only way to explain it to yourself would have been that, you are just not good enough.

However, when you place impediments in your path and essentially prevent yourself from performing to your fullest, you are creating scapegoats for your failures. This will allow you to attribute the failure to situational factors and not dispositional ones, allowing you to maintain your image of self-competence and/or self-efficacy.

> * **Are there any strategies for overcoming this cycle?**

Self-handicapping occurs in many different fashions but most of them tend to be variations of procrastination and lack of effort/practise. So, by tackling either of these, you will be able to reduce the chances of handicapping yourself.

Other than that, research has shown that by focussing on long-term mastery in a field that you like, self-handicapping behavior can be reduced.

> In three studies with German high-school and college students, we found empirical evidence for the assumed moderator effect of mastery goals. In studies 1 and 3, performance-avoidance goals were remarkably lower associated with self-handicapping in the group of students highly endorsing mastery goals compared to students who proved to be less mastery oriented. In studies 2 and 3, moreover, individuals' self-esteem was less related to self-handicapping when students strongly emphasized mastery goals.

---
Tags: learning, performance, educational-psychology
---


# Question
Title: What is the relationship between sociology and cognitive sciences?
I want to know what is the relationship between sociology and cognitive sciences. Let me start by short consideration of both:

1. Sociology - well established discipline or a field of research Sociology is a part of social sciences.
2. Cognitive sciences - a bit more recent field of research. Cognitive science cannot be considered a discipline, it lacks core basics, there is bigger and less connected variety of research methods and objects. Cognitive sciences is also part of social sciences, but has stronger ties with biomedicine (neurology, pharmacology).

Sociology considers that main causes of our behavior lie outside, in the social environment. At the same time cognitive sciences look for causation within psyche/brain.

I believe that there are three ways of looking into relations:

1. Connections between sociological and cognitive-science journals?
2. Semantic relations like use of similar concepts and definitions?
3. Interdisciplinary projects that include both sociology and cognitive sciences?

# Answer
> 9 votes
The primary difference is two-fold:

1) **Methods :** Social sciences use mostly *qualitative* methods and content analysis, psychology and cognitive sciences use *quantitative* methods and statistical analysis. The one basic standard tool in psychology and cognitive sciences is the laboratory *experiment*, while social sciences usually collect data *in the field*.

2) **Object of study :** Social sciences deal mostly with *social entities*. The smallest social entity is two people. Psychology and cognitive sciences deal with *individuals* or, if they deal with populations, the general characteristics of the individuals of that population. Psychology and cognitive sciences deal with social processes only from the perspective of the individual: how individual internal mental processes are affected by them.

As usual, this is a tendency, and the borders between the disciplines are blurred. There is no clear distinction and there is a huge overlap where research could fall in either discipline and is associated with one only because the researcher comes from it. Also, in academic institutions, certain parts of one discipline might have found their home in a neighboring discipline for historical reasons, e.g. pedagogical psychology is often placed in the faculty for pedagogy (a social science), but there it is just as often taught by psychologists.

I wrote "psychology and cognitive sciences", because cognitive sciences is strongly associated with psychology, but also with information sciences / computer science and neurosciences. At our university, the degree program "cognitive science" is part of both the psychological and the computer sciences department. But other universities place it elsewhere. Like neurosciences, cognitive sciences is an interdisciplinary field or, if you want, a new and evolving discipline whose realm is even less clearly defined than that of older and more traditional disciplines. Nevertheless, I understand cognitive sciences to be concerned with *cognition*, which is an aspect of the individual, and a traditional field of study that lies mostly within psychology and other natural sciences like medicine and biology.

In short: cognitive sciences is a natural science, while social sciences are part of the humanities, with all the methodological and theoretical implications that follow from that.

---
Tags: cognitive-psychology, neuroscience, social-psychology, methodology
---


# Question
Title: What is the maximum size of content the human eye can focus upon?
What is the maximum size of content the human eye can focus upon on a computer screen?

Is there a general equation that gives this size as a measure of distance from the screen etc.?

What is the shape of this focus area- is it a square? a circle?

# Answer
The fovea (highest-resolution area of the retina) can only "see" the central two degrees of the visual field; the field of foveal vision is approximately circular, although it varies slightly by individual. This depends on the distance from the eye or sensor. This is called "visual angle" or "angular size", and it can be calculated using the formula

where S is the object's linear size and D is the distance between the eye/sensor (sometimes called point O) and the object.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual\_angle
Calculator here: http://www.oocities.org/robertellis600/va.html
> 5 votes

# Answer
When you extend your arm and look at your thumbnail, that is approximately the area that is focussed ("sharp") in your field of vision (about 2°). Your vision is sharp only in your fovea. Your attention can "focus" on other areas in your field of vision, although they are and remain blurred.
> 1 votes

---
Tags: perception, vision, cognitive-neuroscience
---