# Question
Title: What term is used to define long duration sexual intercourse addiction/hunger?
Sexual need between partners/couples often grows time to time. Sometimes it crosses the usual duration like it takes more than an hour to satisfy and it may grow more as they continue. But that hampers usual life activities and sometimes the relationship itself.

Is there is any disorder or any behavioral term in Psychology and/or Neuroscience to define this growing sexual hunger?

# Answer
> 2 votes
It sounds like you're describing delayed orgasm. I've condensed the relevant bits of the following paper:

> **Jenkins & Mulhall. Delayed orgasm and anorgasmia. *Fertility and Sterility,* 2015; 104(5):1082-1088.**
>
> > Delayed orgasm/anorgasmia defined as the persistent or recurrent difficulty, delay in, or absence of attaining orgasm after sufficient sexual stimulation, which causes personal distress. Delayed orgasm and anorgasmia are associated with significant sexual dissatisfaction. A focused medical history can shed light on the potential etiologies, which include medications, penile sensation loss, endocrinopathies, penile hyperstimulation, and psychological etiologies. Unfortunately, there are no excellent pharmacotherapies for delayed orgasm/anorgasmia, and treatment revolves largely around addressing potential causative factors and psychotherapy.
>
> **Definition**
>
> > Delayed orgasm is further classified as lifelong/acquired, generalized/situational, and mild/moderate/severe. An acquired dysfunction establishes that the patient previously had normal orgasm timing. Situational dysfunction implies the man has problems in a particular scenario or scenarios, yet functioning normally in others.
> >
> > There is no set time threshold for what defines DO. Time threshold for distress is dependent on the partners involved. Some men will reach orgasm with one partner in 15 minutes and have no distress, but with another partner it may cause severe distress because the partner may complain of pain with prolonged intercourse. A population-based survey established that the median intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT) was 5.4 minutes and 2 SD above was approximately 22 minutes. A provider with a patient complaining of IELT longer than 22 minutes will theoretically qualify him for the diagnosis of DO. One should differentiate between problems with of ejaculation and orgasm.
>
> **Physiology of orgasm**
>
> > Orgasm is a complex neurobiological process that comes as a result of sexual activity (physical sensation) and/or arousal (cognitive awareness). The physiology of ejaculation is discussed elsewhere. When ejaculation occurs, the brain processes the sensation of the pressure buildup within the posterior urethra (bladder neck and external urinary sphincter are closed contemporaneously) leading up to seminal fluid emission and the contraction of the periurethral musculature. This processing leads to the triggering of an orgasm.
>
> **Pathophysiology**
>
> > **Hyperstimulation**
> >
> > > Some men obtain greater pleasure from masturbation than they do with sexual intercourse and may continue deep-rooted habits such as frequent masturbation or using idiosyncratic masturbation techniques. Studies have shown a correlation between DO and men with idiosyncratic masturbation practices. Also, with increasing frequency of masturbation the sensitivity of the penis can decline and lead to a vicious cycle where the man increases masturbation force to counteract the declining sensitivity, therefore leading to worsening DO. Vaginal intercourse or orogenital stimulation may not be able to replicate the stimulation achieved through idiosyncratic masturbation and this may result in reduced penile stimulation leading to difficulty achieving an orgasm.
> >
> > **Penile Sensation Loss**
> >
> > > Penile sensation loss has been shown to increase with age. In a literature review by Rowland, he plotted penile sensory thresholds as a function of age as well as sexual functional status. He found that penile sensation loss was more commonly present in those men with increased age and those with sexual dysfunctions.
> >
> > **Psychosexual Causes**
> >
> > > Delayed orgasm based on situational aspects (i.e., difficulties with a specific partner and not with another) is more likely to be due to a psychological etiology. One study looked at stress and anxiety related to timed intercourse demands for fertility treatments and found DO developed in 6% of patients related to elevated anxiety levels. A novel study by Kirby et al. used a rat model to show how stress can suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, which is important in healthy normal sexual function. They showed that acute and chronic immobilization stress led to an increase in adrenal glucocorticoids causing an increase in gonadotropin inhibitory hormone, which suppresses the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis by inhibition of GnRH.
>
> **Management strategies**
>
> > It is true that some men with DO/AO never have an etiology diagnosed that reflects our limited understanding of the physiology of orgasm and the pathophysiology of these conditions. Therapy is focused on defining and treating any overt underlying causes often in conjunction with psychotherapy. Various lifestyle changes include steps to improve intimacy, reduce masturbation frequency, change of masturbation style, and decreasing alcohol consumption.

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Other possibilities, if I'm misinterpreting your question:

Hypersexual disorder (HD; "a pattern of behavior involving intense preoccupation with sexual fantasies, urges and activities, leading to adverse consequences and clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important functions") was considered for inclusion in the DSM-5, but was eventually rejected by the American Psychiatric Association:

> **Reid & Kafka. Controversies About Hypersexual Disorder and the DSM-5. *Current Sexual Health Reports,* 2014; 6(4):259-264.**
>
> > The concept of mental disorders has also been condemned by some who suggest it is a value-laden socially constructed phenomena used to impose conformity to cultural norms. Not surprisingly, similar arguments have been launched against the HD proposal with allegations that HD pathologizes normal variants of healthy sexual behavior, and hence, it does not meet the requirements for “deviance.” Another frequent criticism is that HD could be an extension or manifestation of an existing mental disorder. This latter critique should not be quickly dismissed given high comorbidity rates of other mental illness commonly reported among treatment-seeking samples of hypersexual patients. Further, it is widely believed among clinicians working with hypersexual patients that sex is used to “cope” with challenging situations or as a way of “coping” in the wake of emotional distress. Such assertions might imply that hypersexuality is an attempt to compensate for maladaptive systems designed to regulate emotion. Subsequently, wouldn’t the more parsimonious conceptualization of hypersexuality be some type of an emotional dysfunction disorder or an adjustment disorder rather than an independent pathology?
> >
> > If one argues for HD as an independent disorder, they must also identify which internal functions are failing to operate and advance some theory implicating what mechanisms of action are purported to cause the dysfunction. Sadly, sex researchers investigating hypersexuality have often failed in this endeavor with a few notable exceptions. For example, neurobiological mechanisms linked to sexual excitation and sexual inhibition has been advanced as a plausible explanation for hypersexuality. A broader hypothesis about executive deficits in frontal lobe functioning reported mixed findings where hypersexual patients self-reported executive deficits but did not exhibit executive dysfunctions when tested. Many have suggested addiction, impulsivity, and compulsivity models, although it’s questionable whether these conceptualizations really constitute theoretical models given their lack of specificity, falsifiable testability, or explanatory power for the construct of hypersexuality. Moreover, proponents of these approaches have yet to clearly operationalize and delineate the respective distinct contributions of addiction, impulsivity, or compulsivity as they relate to hypersexual behavior.

While HD wasn't accepted as an established diagnosis, compulsive sexual behavior is a common disorder with similar criteria:

> **Derbyshire & Grant. Compulsive Sexual Behavior: A Review of the Literature. *Journal of Behavioral Addictions,* 2015; 4(2):37-43.**
>
> > Compulsive sexual behavior can generally be divided into two categories: Paraphilic and nonparaphilic. Paraphilias are typically considered to be behaviors that have been deemed socially unacceptable that involve non-human objects, suffering of one’s self or a partner, children or a non-consenting person (for example, fetishism, exhibitionism, and pedophilia). Nonparaphilic CSB, which is characterized by more typical sexual desires, include compulsive sexual acts with multiple partners, constant fixation on a partner that may be considered unobtainable, compulsive masturbation, compulsive use of pornography, and compulsive sex and sexual acts within a consensual relationship.

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Tags: terminology, sexuality, attitudes
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# Question
Title: Impaired verbal communication, but normal reading and writing skills?
Is there any cognitive disability or disfunction that impairs both speech production and listening comprehension, while reading and writing skills are at a normal level or better?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Just a reminder that Stack Exchange is not an appropriate place to get a diagnosis; a vague description of symptoms may indicate a variety of possible outcomes. See a doctor instead. That said:

One general term for disorders that affect some language modalities and not others, when the cause is psychological rather than physical (ie, not deafness, muscle weakness, paralysis, etc), is aphasia:

> To be diagnosed with aphasia, a person's speech or language must be significantly impaired in one (or several) of the four communication modalities following acquired brain injury or have significant decline over a short time period (progressive aphasia). The four communication modalities are auditory comprehension, verbal expression, reading and writing, and functional communication.

Aphasia is most commonly associated with stroke or dementia, and several sub-types involve both speech production and verbal comprehension difficulties, while not necessarily affecting reading or writing abilities.

Other diagnoses are also possible, as language disorders may consist of a combination of a variety of possible aspects of language ability, while not affecting others. For example, children with both receptive (comprehension) and expressive (speech) delays may be diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI):

> ... diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development, physical abnormality of the speech apparatus, autism spectrum disorder, apraxia, acquired brain damage or hearing loss.

Though relatively rarely, it is possible for literacy to be largely unaffected by SLI.

Additionally, comorbidity is also possible, such as a combination of speech agnosia and apraxia, and if other symptoms are present, then yet other diagnoses would apply, such as autism, where again, it is possible for some language skills (such as verbal communication) to be impaired while others (such as literacy) are largely unaffected.

For a general overview of the field, see speech and language impairment and communication disorder. A summary of technical terminology used to classify symptoms can be found here.

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Tags: abnormal-psychology, communication, language-processing, speech, speech-comprehension
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# Question
Title: Is it possible to calculate d prime if no catch trials were done?
I am new to Psychology, particularly the signal detection theory (SDT). Before understanding SDT, I performed an experiment to measure what speed difference between a subject's car and the front vehicle could a subject correctly percieve. But I ignorantly only tested subjects on 'signal + noise' trials, i.e. there always was a speed difference in each trial. There never was a catch trial (no speed difference). Thus, I can't estimate the false alarm rate. I only have the Hit and Miss rates for a given speed difference stimulus.

Can I still use SDT by any chance? Or the estimation of the 'threshold' of detectable speed difference my only option?

# Answer
> 4 votes
In order to estimate d' for a particular signal level, we need an estimate of the hit rate at that signal level and an estimate of the false alarm (FA) rate. Typically, the FA rate is estimated from the no-signal catch trials.

With a paradigm like the method of constant stimuli, the assumption is that the false alarm rate is constant and doesn't depend on the past trials. Therefore, if you had 500 trials spread across 4 different signal levels and catch trials, you can either use all the catch trials to calculate a single common FA rate or you can randomly group the catch trials to get 4 estimates of the FA rate (this has some statistical advantages). The key is the catch trials are all assumed to be independent.

If instead of 500 trials with 4 signal levels and catch trials, you have 500 trials and 5 signal levels and no catch trials, it might seem that you have no way to estimate the FA rate. That is wrong. If you fit a psychometric function to the hit rate data, the lower asymptote is the FA rate. If all you signal levels lead to high hit rates and you don't know the underlying psychometric function, your estimate of the FA rate is going to be crappy. If they are all at high hit rates and the underlying psychometric function is know and well behaved at the tails, then you can get a good estimate of the FA rate. Even better is if some of the signal levels had low hit rates and that you have a reasonable estimate of the tail.

For data like yours where there are multiple signal levels:

* chose a psychometric function
* fit the the curve
* if the fit is good, estimate the lower asymptote

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Tags: signal-detection
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# Question
Title: Typical and minimum voxel sizes for various field strength MRI machines?
Hoping somebody can give me some real world numbers on the typical capabilities of 3T and 7T MRI machines in terms of there minimum voxel size (specifically in relation to there use in fMRI studies if that makes a difference)? The Wikipedia article on MRI gives a rather non committal range of 1mm to 5mm on a side, but I have been reading the term High-Resolution fMRI in a few places without any qualification being placed on it.

# Answer
> 1 votes
This is a slightly older post, but the Wikipedia article is basically correct. It is a non-committal range of 1mm - 5mm. Typically high resolution fMRI will probably be \<= 1mm on a side, but is typically going to be higher field scanners (\>\>= 3T) or using slightly different sequences than the standard fMRI sequence.

Best thing to do would be to do a quick survey of the literature (e.g., https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as\_sdt=0%2C9&q=high+resolution+fMRI&btnG=) and get an intuition from there. I think what you will find is it will depend a lot of sequence, sequence parameters and main magnet field strength.

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Tags: neuroscience, fmri
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# Question
Title: What is the difference between an Atlas and a Parcellation?
I come from a computer science background and am just starting out in the area of analyzing brain imaging data (fMRI predominantly) and while going through some of the literature, I am kind of confused about the difference between a brain atlas and a brain parcellation?

Are the two used interchangeably? Does one correspond to anatomical units and the other to functional units?

# Answer
> 1 votes
A brain atlas is going to, typically, be a set of images or volume that is labeled anatomically or functionally. Typically one would take a single volume of data and register or align it to the atlas (or vice-versa).

Parcellation is a way of segmenting sub-regions of a particular region of the brain. (What a "region" is or "sub-region" might be a bit up for debate).

One could do image registration / alignment of an MRI data volume to an atlas (that is parcellated or segmented) and then the parcellation can be applied to the MRI data volume.

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Tags: neuroimaging, fmri
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title: Anomalous activation of temporal lobes

text:
# Question
Title: Anomalous activation of temporal lobes
The result of wakeful EEG shows persistent activation of temporal lobes - high level of delta and theta waves in the left temporal lobe (3 on the scale from -3 to 3) and slightly lower in the right temporal lobe.
The sources that I found state that delta and theta waves are typically associated with the state of sleeping, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta\_wave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta\_wave

What are possible explanations of such activity when the subject is awake?

# Answer
> 0 votes
According to this article, the localized increase in delta and theta waves is a known anomaly in EEG, is referred to as "focal slow activity" and it the case of a wakeful EEG of an adult it usually suggests an organic damage or disfunction of the affected area, but extra tests are required to narrow down the list of possibilities.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci\_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2011000600020

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Tags: neuroscience, abnormal-psychology, eeg
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# Question
Title: Categorisation of attributes according to OCEAN
I've read about OCEAN (or The big five or FFM) on Wikipedia and I'm intrigued. I would like to have a categorisation of attributes describing a personality according to the model. Since we have a lot of attributes and this is a potentially subjective for each attribute if you were to add any measure of intensity, I wanted to ask if you know any source, preferably a scientific one, where this has been done already. (A non-scientific source could be a categorisation done in a blog about character design in novels, for example.)

# Answer
> 1 votes
It's unclear what is your definition of attributes. But the Big Five emerged from the lexical hypothesis whereby adjectives in the dictionary that describe people were systematically examined and categorised using approaches such as factor analysis. Some of the papers in this area would contain lists of terms.

Equally, for briefer lists, you could look at the domain-facet frameworks of various Big 5 personality models, such as the NEO. In this context, the facets help to define the Big 5 Domains.

Here are a few such domain-facet/aspect frameworks, summarised in Anglim & O'Connor (2018, PDF). That article also provides a brief review of the lexical approach with some further references.

Anglim, J., & O'Connor, P. (2019). Measurement and Research Using the Big Five, HEXACO, and Narrow Traits: A Primer for Researchers and Practitioners. Australian Journal of Psychology, 71, 16-25. https://psyarxiv.com/a78g2/download

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Tags: personality, reference-request
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# Question
Title: What are some criticisms of HEXACO from the Big Five camp?
I read the 2009 review-ish chapter of McCrae *in The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology* and I noticed he never once mentions HEXACO (or its 6th axis: honesty-humility), although McCrae does spend the spacetime to debunk a (totally obscure to me) Polish model of personality that had added a 6th spirituality factor. That to me felt like sweeping HEXACO under the rug, so to speak.

Most of the research on relating HEXACO to Big Five has come (unsurprisingly) from the researchers/proponents of the former, see e.g. What are the correlations between HEXACO and NEO-PI factors?

So, has there been some explicit criticism of HEXACO from the Big Five "heavyweights" (well known researchers/promoters)?

---

There is a passage in the same book in another chapter by Boele De Raad noting that:

> While the Big Five structure has found large adherence, claims for psycholexically based factors beyond the Big Five have been made, for two reasons mainly. The first reason is that the correlation matrices may not be optimally exhausted, and the second reason is that the trait domain may not be truly exhausted. This second reason comes in two versions, one suggesting that the psycholexical approach has been too restrictive in selecting personality descriptors (Almagor, Tellegen andWaller 1995), and the other suggesting that the psycholexical approach has been restricted to the use of trait-descriptive adjectives (cf., De Raad and Hofstee 1993).
>
> Ashton and Lee (2001) argued along the lines of exhausting the correlation matrix. They suggested that an additional Honesty-Humility factor, representing such traits as honest, sincere, fair and just, versus dishonest, conceited and boasting, could systematically be extracted. Support for this sixth factor was observed in several languages (Ashton, Lee, Perugini et al. 2004), but not, or not clearly, in all languages where this sixth factor was studied, as in American-English (Ashton, Lee and Goldberg 2004), Turkish (Somer and Goldberg 1999) and Croatian (Mlacic and Ostendorf 2005).

This is basically lexical criticism, but since the lexical perspective was hardly dominant in the development of the Big Five (according to the highly cited review of McCrae and John, 1992), this lexical criticism seems like a rather minor point.

Also note that De Raad himself appears to favor lexicalism, having proposed an eight-factor model from the latter perspective, by extending analysis to more parts of speech than the traditional approach using just adjectives. So De Raad's criticism of HEXACO being from a lexical perspective isn't surprising.

# Answer
> 4 votes
**Update October 2023**: I think the best compilation of critical evaluation of the HEXACO model can be found in the Special Issue of European Journal of Personality. It includes a target article about the HEXACO followed by a long peer commentary section. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.2284

In particular, several of the open commentaries are quite critical of the HEXACO. See in particular

**De Raad & Mlačić:**

> Ashton and Lee (2020a) declare their belief in HEXACO as the optimal model of traits. They fail, however, to deliver a coherent line of reasoning, use detailed side-issues to tackle big problems, are relaxed about giving true facts and fare by examples, instead of systematic studies. We point at different issues, such as the rhetorical style, the untimeliness of settling for HEXACO, and the consequences this would have. Last, we emphasize the importance of cross-cultural studies.

**De Young**

> Under the guise of combatting objections to the HEXACO model, the target article argues that HEXACO should replace the Big Five as the preferred taxonomy of personality traits in personality psychology. However, it fails to invalidate several important reasons why one might prefer the Big Five. These include limitations of lexical data, evidence from non-lexical studies, the fact that the Big Five can encompass content related to honesty and humility within Agreeableness, and consideration of explanatory theory rather than prediction by specific instruments.

**Lylam, Crowe, Vize, & Miller**

> We see little benefit to separating Honesty-Humility from the broader FFM Agreeableness domain. In our commentary, we summarize several studies showing that although lexically based Big Five measures under-represent H-H content, the same cannot be said for FFM-based measures. We also indicate that contrary to claims by some ad- vocates, FFM-based Agreeableness is more strongly related to the Dark Triad than H-H. Finally, we review a recent study examining the lower-order structure of FFM Agreeableness that failed to reveal a separate H-H factor, despite more than adequate representation of that content.

**McCrae**

> The HEXACO model is based on lexical studies that suggest six factors, including an independent Honesty-Humility factor. I argue that natural languages are imperfect maps of objective reality, and that a pattern of evidence from other catalogs of traits favors the Five-Factor Model (FFM). I reinterpret Ashton and Lee (2019) to mean that HEXACO H and A are aspects of the FFM A factor. Traits related to Honesty-Humility ought to be included in comprehensive personality measures, and optimal assessment will include a wide range of facet-level traits.

**Ones, Dilchert, Giordano, Stanek, Viswesvaran**

> The HEXACO personality model does not provide an accurate organization of the personality domain: it over-relies on lexical research, focuses on one level of the personality hierarchy, and lacks coherent theory. The HEXACO personality inventory overemphasizes internal consistency, factorial homogeneity, and unidimensionality; lacks construct coverage and has construct validity problems.

**Schwaba & Hopwood**

> Although the HEXACO model offers some specific advantages over the Big Five, both suffer from limitations common to universal, broad-bandwidth models of personality structure. The precedence of the Big Five means that past research and meta-analyses have been organized around this model, and we believe that this inertia will con- tinue to favor the Big Five as the paradigmatic structural model into the near future. To overcome this inertia, the next paradigm shift in personality psychology will likely need to address problems common to the HEXACO and Big Five.

**Viswesvaran & Ones**

> Since 1940s the construct of honesty, referred to as integrity in the industrial-organizational psychology literature, has been widely researched amassing hundreds of research stud- ies demonstrating the utility of the construct in prediction and explanation (Ones, Viswesvaran, & Schmidt, 1993, 2012; Viswesvaran & Ones, 2016). All studies to date also indicate that the construct assessed by integrity tests is a compound of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability, in that order (see Ones, 1993; Ones & Viswesvaran, 2001 for summaries). .... the theoretical rationale and empirical evidence for the superiority of the HEXACO and its Honesty-Humility factor are insuffi- cient.

**Watson & Clark** They highlight how Big Five and HEXACO extraversion differ and its impliations:

> We examine the HEXACO Extraversion domain in relation to that of the five-factor model of personality (FFM). Although the HEXACO-PI-R Social Self-Esteem facet scale correlates substantially with FFM indicators of extraversion, it has an even stronger (negative) association with the neuroticism facet of depression and, therefore, seems to represent the opposite end of that dimension. Consequently, neuroticism-related content is spread across three domains (Emotionality, Agreeableness, Extraversion) in the HEXACO model. We discuss implications of this pattern for understanding relations between traits and internalizing forms of psychopathology, such as depression.

**Widiger et al**

> The predominant dimensional model of personality structure is provided by the Five-Factor Model (FFM). The HEXACO is presented as a possible alternative, but it has not been adopted by many researchers. One concern with respect to the HEXACO is that it has essentially elevated two facets of agreeableness to the level of a broad do- main. Honesty and humility are best understood as facets of agreeableness.

**Original Answer:** We had a discussion of the pros and cons of the HEXACO model in a recent article that draws on arguments and evidence presented by the "heavyweights" of the Big 5 (Anglim, & O'Connor, 2019).

Here is the quote of the paragraph that focusses specifically on the critiques:

> Although the HEXACO model is receiving growing support, the necessity of a sixth broad trait, as well as the nature of this trait are subjects of current debate.
>
> * First, other prominent six factor inventories including the Hogan Personality Inventory (Hogan & Hogan, 1992), the Six Factor Personality Questionnaire (Jackson, Paunonen, & Tremblay, 2000), and Saucier's Big Six (Saucier, 2009) have not converged on the same sixth factor in the same way that has broadly occurred with the Big Five (De Raad, Barelds, Mlačić, et al., 2010).
> * Second, while several lexical studies have broadly supported the HEXACO model, the support is far from universal.
> * Third, Saucier and Ostendorf (1999) have argued that any broad trait in addition to the Big Five will correlate highly with one of the existing Big Five, and honesty-humility correlates relatively highly with agreeableness (r = .67 in Gaughan, Miller, & Lynam, 2012). Honesty-humility also correlates reasonably well with straightforwardness and modesty facets of agreeableness in the NEO-PI-R, suggesting that a comprehensive facet-level model using the Big Five may provide similar predictive benefits (Costa & McCrae, 1995; Gaughan et al., 2012).
> * Fourth, Barford, Zhao, and Smillie (2015) mapped the Big Five and HEXACO traits to a common space provided by the interpersonal circumplex, and found that honesty-humility occupied a fairly similar space to the politeness aspect of B5 agreeableness.
> * Finally, Condon (2017) assessed the covariance structure of approximately 700 statement-based personality test items drawn from the most commonly used public-domain personality measures (including an approximately equal representation of items from prominent five and six-factor measures). While he found support for a large number of narrow traits, factor analysis suggested five broad traits, and when six factors were extracted, the sixth factor did not correspond to honesty-humility.

References:

* Anglim, J., & O'Connor, P. (2019). Measurement and Research Using the Big Five, HEXACO, and Narrow Traits: A Primer for Researchers and Practitioners. Australian Journal of Psychology, 71, 16-25. https://psyarxiv.com/a78g2/download

# Answer
> 3 votes
Actually, McCrae does give his take on HEXACO in the aforementioned book chapter. I missed it initially because it was tucked in a paragraph that opened with a discussion of a lexical 3-factor model.

> Ashton and colleagues (Ashton and Lee 2005; Ashton, Lee, Perugini et al. 2004) reported lexical studies in a number of languages in which six replicable factors appeared. Ashton’s model basically divides FFM A into two factors, the second called Honesty-Humility; in addition, the factors are rotated a bit from their usual positions.
>
> Perhaps the most problematic feature of these studies is that they are, properly speaking, not so much studies of personality traits as of personality trait language. The people of two different cultures might have identical traits, but a factor that is richly represented in the vocabulary of the first culture might be missing from the vocabulary of the second. McCrae (1990) noted that there are relatively few English-language adjectives that reflect O. For example, there is no single term that designates sensitivity to aesthetic experience; ‘artistic’ comes closest, and it refers to the producer rather than the consumer of art. Yet surely English speakers are capable of responding to beauty (McCrae 2007).

So, basically, McCrae's main criticism is that HEXACO is too lexical. And McCrae is rather skeptical of the lexical approach to personality as a whole.

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Tags: personality, big-five
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title: "High-conflict people"

text:
# Question
Title: "High-conflict people"
While having a look at a recent question here, I ran into some (non-peer reviewed) articles with a description like

> High-conflict people (HCPs) have high-conflict personalities. This means they have an ongoing pattern of all-or-nothing thinking, unmanaged emotions, extreme behavior or threats, and a preoccupation with blaming others. They have a Target of Blame, whom they regularly bully, harass, blame, humiliate, annoy, spread rumors about, and subject to many other adversarial behaviors. This pattern increases and maintains interpersonal conflicts, rather than reducing or resolving them — which is what most people try to do.

If you google the HCP term, you'll find several articles with a similar definition, most from the same author. One was even published in the mainstream mass media,

Eventually this HCP is cast a sort of cross-sectional aspect of several personality disorders (at least in one article)

> Narcissistic HCPs are characterized by an underlying fear of being inferior or powerless, so they are constantly putting themselves above other people — which alienates them in the process and tends to make people look down on them. Borderline HCPs have a deep fear of being abandoned, so they are constantly clinging and demanding reassurance, but alternating that with occasional rages when they feel abandoned — which often pushes people to abandon them. Antisocial HCPs really don’t want to be dominated by others, so they try hard to dominate others, but often end up in prison, where they are dominated. Paranoid HCPs have a fear of being betrayed by those around them, so they may overreact and attack those they fear — which tends to drive people to turn on them. Histrionic HCPs are preoccupied with being the center of attention and will often publicly criticize other people’s behavior (their Targets of Blame) in an effort to get sympathy and more attention. Knowing these patterns makes it easier to spot them, especially when this is combined with observing the four characteristics of HCPs at the top of this article.

This has some similarities with the alternative (research) abnormal personality model from DSM-5 in the sense that the latter is also using some traits which possibly span several conventional personality disorders:

> In the alternative model, the essential criteria to define any personality disorder are: a) moderate or greater impairment in personality functioning, and b) the presence of pathological personality traits. A “level of functioning” scale is provided, and sensitivity and specificity data supported the designation of “moderate impairment” as the appropriate threshold to indicate the presence of a personality disorder. As defined in the alternative model, personality functioning consists of the degree to which there is an intact sense of self (involving a clear, coherent identity and effective self-directedness) and interpersonal functioning (reflecting a good capacity for empathy and for mature, mutually rewarding intimacy with others). Pathological personality traits are organized into five trait domains (negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism), each of which is further explicated by a set of trait facets reflecting aspects of the domain itself. This trait system has been shown to correlate well with the Five Factor Model.

"High-conflict people" don't quite seem to match any of those 5 traits specifically, but I suppose they would score high on antagonism, disinhibition, negative affectivity, and possibly even psychoticism. (On the FFM they'd probably score low on Agreeableness, high on Extraversion and on Neuroticism.)

Is there peer-reviewed research on "High-conflict people", perhaps under different terminology? Or is this more of a fringe-scientific grouping?

# Answer
> 3 votes
I had a look on scopus and there were no hits for "High conflict people".

So I imagine you'd want to turn to other literature; a few thoughts:

* Dark Triad
* Agreeableness from the Big 5
* Conflict styles literature
* Personality disorders literture
* Literature on aggression

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Tags: personality, abnormal-psychology, terminology, conflict
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# Question
Title: How does the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument relate to the Big Five?
The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) is apparently quite popular in MBA classes and even in conflict negotiation practice:

> The TKI is popular beyond the confines of negotiation classes. Indeed, it is one of the most widely used instruments of its kind in the world.

It basically scores one's negotiation style in five domains: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating, although it looks like these are placed on just two dimensions Assertiveness and Cooperativeness.

(The also have an interesting FAQ as to why they chose this domain approach: apparently to avoid halo and social desirability effects in questions/answers.)

Has the TKI been \[co\]related to the Big Five or some other more general (i.e. not simply focused on conflict-resolution) personality model?

# Answer
There are a few studies that have correlated Big 5 with conflict styles. There are various terminology and measures but many use a similar set of five styles to the TKI.

Antonioni (1998) is highly cited. Here are the correlations.

In short:

* The five conflict styles are correlated in ways that partially reflect the underlying two-dimensions of interested in self and interested in others.
* Agreeableness correlates positively with interested in others and avoiding conflict. Agreeableness is also the strongest correlate of conflict styles.
* Extraversion and openness are both related to integrating and negatively related to avoiding conflict.
* Conscientiousness is related to integrating.
* Neuroticism is related to avoiding conflict.

Antonioni, D. (1998). Relationship between the big five personality factors and conflict management styles. International journal of conflict management, 9(4), 336-355.
> 1 votes

# Answer
I am personally accredited in the TKI and before answering the question here is my take:

1. TKI is an instrument based on a theory. If neuroscience is your thing, my guess is that you would prefer theories to be based on data (as the Big Five is’ then derive an instrument from that.
2. I have not seen much in the way of empirical research around the TKI, however as a guess I would hazard the following:

Accommodating may correlate with high trait Agreeableness.

Avoiding may correlate with high trait Neuroticism

Competing may correlate with low trait Agreeableness

Personally I think the only value of TKI is to surface how individuals interact with one another. But the problem is that this can create a false awareness - if something is a TRAIT then it is quite hard to change. Better imho to stick with the Big Five and derive an understanding of how you handle conflict from that.
> 0 votes

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Tags: personality, io-psychology, big-five, conflict
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# Question
Title: Is there a Big Five personality assessment under an open-commercial license?
I am currently working on a project with a few students. It's an app that can test the big 5 personality test. The problem is, I am having trouble finding one that is under an open license and that we could use. We are currently using a free non-commercial use for research purposes, but we are starting to explore the possibility of using it commercially one day.

**Please list even ones that we might have to pay for.**

# Answer
> 3 votes
**IPIP Scales:** The IPIP scales are in the public domain: https://ipip.ori.org/ They are intended to have no restrictions on use (see https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm ). See in particular, the section on multi-construct inventories. I think the most popular Big Five measures would be

* Big Five Aspects Scale: It has 100 items and measures the Big Five as well as 2 aspects per Big Five. It's a nice compromise between just measuring the Big Five and the much longer facet-level measures (e.g., NEO PI R, IPIP NEO 300, etc.)
* Goldberg's IPIP 50.
* IPIP NEO 50
* IPIP NEO 300. This is modelled on the NEO PI R. So it measures 30 facets as well as the Big Five that are designed to be similar to the NEO PI R.

A major difference between Goldberg's IPIP 50 and IPIP NEO 50 is the openness factor. For Goldberg it is intellectance (i.e., intellectual engagement and self-rated intellect), whereas IPIP NEO 50 is openness to experience (i.e., some intellectual engagement, but also creative interests, unconventionality, etc.).

**LEFFI**: The Less Evaluative Five Factor Inventory is a new measure that is explicitly in the Public Domain (disclosure: it was developed by Joshua Wood and me). It is designed to have lower levels of item-level social desirability than some measures of the Big Five.

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Tags: neuroscience, cognitive-neuroscience, personality, behavior, big-five
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# Question
Title: Term for remembering the location/position of text on a page as part of the memory recall process?
Is there a name for the phenomenon of remembering the position on a page or location in a book as part of the process of recalling a memory? For example, knowing that something was on the left side half-way through the page about two thirds of the way through a book? How would you describe that experience or classify someone that often used that type of memory retrieval process.

# Answer
> How would you describe that experience or classify someone that often used that type of memory retrieval process.

Based on what I think you are asking, you might call this "eidetic memory". Less formally it is known as "photographic memory", or sometimes "perfect recall". However, these abilities do not generalize to all domains of memory. Usually the memory is limited to certain experts of specific domains who have just developed an ability to recognize certain meaningful patterns. This is evidenced by the fact that random arrangements of pixels are not nearly as memorable as learned special patterns, even for people supposedly having perfect recall.

> Is there a name for the phenomenon of remembering the position on a page or location in a book as part of the process of recalling a memory?

There is no term I am aware of that is so specific to describe the memory of book pagination, let alone where on the page something was located. Eidetic memory essentially covers that.
> 1 votes

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Tags: memory, terminology, metacognition
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# Question
Title: Age vs. Receptiveness to propaganda/ ideology
I am interested in the relation between the age of an individual and their receptiveness towards propaganda or ideology.

I would suspect that children/adolescents are strongly receptive towards propaganda and that as they enter adulthood they become less receptive.

Are there any studies on this that verify my claim/ contradict it?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

# Answer
> 1 votes
Welcome to Psychology.SE.

This has the potential to be a very big subject, depending on how deep you want to go into it. You may wish to look at priming along with studies surrounding conformity and peer pressure, looking at how they play a part in early behaviour and belief forming.

You may also want to look at Ron Jones' "Third Wave" Experiment which was portrayed in the movie called *The Wave*

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Tags: social-psychology, political-psychology
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# Question
Title: What is a sensorimotor connection in plain English?
I have googled, but haven't found any definition simple enough that I understand. I would appreciate it if you could give me an example as well!

Thanks,

Jack

# Answer
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word *sensorimotor* to be:

> of, relating to, or functioning in both sensory and motor aspects of bodily activity

and the following relating to the tags you used may help to understand the word.

> The idea that we learn by interacting with our environment is probably the first to occur to us when we think about the nature of learning. When an infant plays, waves its arms, or looks about, it has no explicit teacher, but it does have a direct sensorimotor connection to its environment (Sutton & Barto, 2005)

As Merriam Webster points out, the sensorimotor connections are related to sensation and to motion

Dictionary.com points out that physiologically, they relate to

> both sensory and motor, as parts of the cerebral cortex.

The sensorimotor connection to your environment taught you what an object looks, feels, smells and sounds like and helps with your spacial awareness.

## References

Sutton, R. S. & Barto, A. G. (2005). *Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction* Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
> 3 votes

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Tags: neuroscience, sensation, reinforcement-learning
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# Question
Title: Can lucid dreaming detract from the recuperative effect of REM sleep?
Imagine you mastered lucid dreaming, so you have a lucid dream every night. You might want to use this phase to do creative work or problem solving.

Would this have a negative influence on the recuperative effect of sleep?

# Answer
> 2 votes
Lucid dreaming is a half-way state between normal REM sleep and wakefulness. Lucid dreaming probably has less of a recuperative effect than normal REM sleep. On the other hand, there is usually less sleep inertia when waking from a lucid dream than when waking from a non-lucid dream.

The function of REM sleep is still a mystery, so very little is known about how lucid dreaming affects sleep quality.

However, going in the other direction, it is known that sleep quality affects the likelihood of lucid dreaming. More specifically, REM rebound following sleep deprivation, going back to sleep after a morning awakening and being sufficiently sleep deprived to take naps before noon are all common triggers for lucid dreams.

In my experience, I have *never* had a lucid dream after eight hours of unbroken sleep but if I wake up early in the morning and go back to sleep or if I take a daytime nap then I will quite often get a lucid dream, especially if I have consumed caffeine prior to falling asleep.

> Smith, B. V., & Blagrove, M. (2015). Lucid dreaming frequency and alarm clock snooze button use. Dreaming, 25(4), 291-299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/drm0000012
>
> Dresler, Martin et al. “Neural correlates of dream lucidity obtained from contrasting lucid versus non-lucid REM sleep: a combined EEG/fMRI case study.” Sleep vol. 35,7 1017-20. 1 Jul. 2012, https://dx.doi.org/10.5665%2Fsleep.1974

# Answer
> -1 votes
I would think so. REM sleep Is in the alpha wave category where visualization Is increased and the restoration properties come from Theta waves. Delta waves are asociated with deep sleep/meditation. I know these waves are simultanious, so, as long as you are producing theta waves, even during the REM/alpha stage, I think you will be getting regenerative results, as well with delta sleep. Its weird because dreams make me want to sleep longer. Not want to wake up. I think dreams have a lot to do with conciousness more so than the brain. If you put your hand in water and slide it, causing a wave or ripple, it follows the hand. I think its the same with conciousness and the brain. The less conscious you are and the more active your brain is (always in beta, on the go, got to constantly be doing something) the more I think your subconcious tries to communicate to you what your waking awareness has lacked to absorb throughout your waking life and when there Is nothing to learn, you play, create, and develope a connection with the dimenions other than the 3rd dimension.

# Answer
> -3 votes
Having experienced this, here is the outcome :

When having back to back Lucid dreams, one begins to create a new world in which, you begin to have real problems when dreaming or when awake, and essentially comes to make a choice as to which one YOU would like to live in, or to determine which is the real world. This occurs when one has evolved to the point where your Lucid dream would continue from being Awake in the exact same manner that life continues while you are asleep. I am not sure how this happens, but the effects can be quite confusing.

When doing this, I had no problems with obtaining REM, and in fact found that it was much easier to obtain that state within a few minutes.

Mastering lucid dreaming is beneficial, however you will begin to notice that the world you created are bound by laws as well -- albeit a completely different set of rules. For example, one common pretext for dreaming is the wish to fly. When adopted into your world, you may find that you CAN fly, or do pretty much anything, but it requires and existential resource which may or may not be limited in quantity. You are also able to sense that Death in a Lucid dream will definitely kill you, but you start to lose touch with the vice-vera.

To use the state for higher-learning, happens at entry level lucid dreaming where you are in control, but everything may still be a bit "fuzzy". Your dream may carry you through whatever it is that you wish to learn. When mastering Lucid dreams, it works a bit different, in that the whole environment now has it's own life that continues while you are awake. A good (simple) example of this would be if you were to consider the following :

**Real Life**

You are a passenger in a car and you fall asleep.

Before falling asleep, you notice that

```
 * The driver is smoking
 * You are nearing the exit of the city you are leaving
 * It's raining
 * A certain song is playing on the radio
 * Your cushion is chilly
 * Your little brother is playing with his phone
 * Your little sister is sleeping

```

*When you wake up,*

```
  * The driver is no longer smoking
  * You are just entering the driveway of your destination
  * It is bright and sunny
  * "News" is playing on the radio
  * Your cushion is now too warm
  * Your little brother is asleep
  * Your little sister is now awake and playing video games on her portable game device.

```

Now picture all of that happening, but replace 'Real Life' with Lucid dream, and your sleeping with 'wake up' and your wake up' with sleeping. You can begin to understand how mastering Lucid dreaming can then become a real problem the longer this process continues.

My advice, is instead of mastering Lucid dreaming, would be to utilize the benefits of entry level lucid dream states for higher learning.

To this day, I still have no idea whether I am awake or asleep, and that is not a philosophical reason for it, but from my experiences of Lucid dreaming. Is this 'real' or is it 'real' when I am in my dream world.

I hope this helps.

For those seeking citations from other experiences that are similar to my own and relay the same concept that reality and dream differentiation can become very blurred, here are two references :

Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream

> Zhuangzi stated "Once I dreamed I was a butterfly, and when I woke, I wasn't sure if I was a butterfly dreaming I was a man, or a man who dreamed of being a butterfly"

This shows that reality comes into question which is the "real" one. My experience is this happens after a lot of "practice", and you keep going further without caring which is which, until you need to make a choice for yourself which one you want to believe and accept as real.

There is also this handy bit on Psychology Today Dream and Reality

While I can not find any studies, I am not surprised as how would one go about studying that which you only have someones word for it. I suspect if you are looking for irrefutable and empirical data, you will find the only real "test" you can do, is to achieve the same level of lucid state for yourself, which is something hinted at, in the works of 3rd parties (and cited in papers since) who are all long since dead so you can not question them any further.

If you wish to know the truth, explore for yourself, and I hope you achieve both the capability to reach the same heights, and the wisdom when it comes time to decide which fate you choose as your reality. Barring that, perhaps accept (or reject) the experiences of those who have tangible results (higher "IQ", more knowledge about things, patience, and wisdom all come with the package).

At the end of the day, it is up to you to decide, and research (beyond any possible included citations), what data you wish to accept.

I have since tracked my sleep using a FitBit Versa for whatever it's worth, which shows that I have much longer REM states than "normal" (and this is decades after the experience i described above), and that my other cycles of sleep are typically very short, and restless - although when I awake, I appear to have not moved (same position, blankets/etc still taut, and so on).

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Tags: performance, sleep, dreams
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title: Effects of subliminal messaging

text:
# Question
Title: Effects of subliminal messaging
From what I've read up thus far, subliminal messages do have some sort of 'influence' over our decisions or atleast our thought process, to some extent. To what extent if any is the human mind or psyche affected by subliminal messages, and are the extents variable based on the means ie. Textual, verbal, auditory or visual?

The below links are of sources written by authors without substantial credentials:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201504/subliminal-messages-can-fortify-inner-strength%3famp

https://visme.co/blog/subliminal-messages/

# Answer
# A very generic question

It is very hard to answer this question because it is very generic.

In order to get a clearer answer you'd have to narrow down your definition of what exactly constitutes *subliminal message* and what exactly constitutes an *effect*.

Once done, you can now talk about specific types of *stimuli processed purely by the subconscious*, and their specific effect and related variables.

Here are some examples of what might constitute 'subliminal messages':

* A metaphor
* Asking someone to hold a warm cup of coffee
* Putting an image of eyes in the room
* 'planting' a video frame in a sequences of other frames

The effect (and the extent) of all of these depends on the 'message' itself and the specifics of the experiment.

You can read further about this 'complexity' simply by reading Wikipedia's entry on Subliminal Stimuli (and the references therein).

# A very generic answer

Without specifics, you can argue the following:

> There is mounting evidence that pure subconscious processing can affect our behaviour, albeit often short lived.

# Resources

I could point you to many resources dealing with specific cases, but I think you'll find much of what you're after (or at least a good subset/overview) in the first couple of chapters of this book:

*Dehaene, S., 2014. Consciousness and the brain: Deciphering how the brain codes our thoughts. Penguin.*
> 1 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, social-psychology, experimental-psychology, psychology, consumer-psychology
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# Question
Title: Could a failure of condensed inner speech be linked to slowed cognition?
Could a failure of "condensed inner speech" be linked to slowed cognition? It is a type of inner voice, and as conceptualized by Fernyhough it

> involves the capacity to think in terms of pure meaning without the need to put thoughts into words in order to grasp the meaning of the thought.

I'm just wondering whether, either in healthy or psychopathological cognition, condensed inner speech has been shown to be more difficult when thinking is slowed for some reason, such as psychotropic medication. I have read that people tend to use expanded (as opposed to condensed) inner speech when under *stress*.

# Answer
> 1 votes
I did not find a study trying to test your idea. I suppose your hypothesis could be tested by comparing the results Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) on the expanded/condensed dimension of participants with induced slower condition to a control group.

McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough (2011) studied the correlations between the dimensions and psycho-pathological variables. They found the expanded/condensed dimension was not predictive of psychopathology.

**References**

McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2011). The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults. *Consciousness and Cognition, 20*(4), 1586–1593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.005

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, hallucinations
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# Question
Title: Why do very different people attract each other?
I have noticed than many couples are very different from each other but yet they fell in love in spite their differences. I was wondering about the psychology behind this. Why would someone want to be with someone that has different likes

# Answer
Concepts like *love* and *attraction* are not only poorly defined, but in this context are too complex to discuss meaningfully, if a scientific answer is what you are after. It is also hard to quantify 'different' when it comes to people - there are just too many variables to compare.

But, there is actually some principles and models that could be part of a more complete answer.

# Total Free Energy

Both the TOTAL1 model (an extension of the famous TOTE2 model), or the free energy principle3, assert the following:

> Us humans constantly form predictions that serve as expected state, and then compare them to the actual state of the world/body (via senses).

This applies to both micro levels (say, communication between neuron layers) and micro level (consciousness).

It then goes:

> When the predicted state matches the actual state, nothing to do. When there is incongruity, we must either change our predications (models/goals) or the world (by acting).

In this view, the brain is largely a differential processor - rather than processing stimuli all the way bottom-up, it generates top-down predictions and only left with validating them against stimuli.

This is a hugely efficient optimisation strategy for the sake of metabolic economy.

It also goes to explain:

* Why we stop perceiving mechanical clocks after spending some time in a room.
* Why new objects (shoes, houses) excite when new but hence after peter out.
* Why relationships tend to cool-off over time (and in turn why some people cheat on their partner).

In extremely general terms - that that doesn't change doesn't excite.

Now back to Friston:

> For survival sake, all living things strive to minimise surprises by forming and updating a model of their environment.

Things get interesting when survival is no longer a concern...

# Diversity

Taking into account the said above, picking someone who's different from you in many aspects means your mental models are challenged more often, which could yield excitement.

I think a good example is dating someone of different nationality, say a Westerner dating an Easterner. Differences can go both way (good and bad), but it is exciting nevertheless.

---

1 Wang, C. and Mukhopadhyay, A., 2012. The Dynamics of Goal Revision: A Cybernetic Multiperiod Test- Operate-Test-Adjust-Loop (TOTAL) Model of Self-Regulation. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(5), pp. 815-832.

2 Miller, G.A., Galanter, E. and Pribram, K.H., 1986. Plans and the Structure of Behavior. Adams Bannister Cox.

3 Friston, K., 2010. The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?. Nature reviews neuroscience, 11(2), p.127.
> -1 votes

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Tags: emotion, love
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# Question
Title: How to determine an unbiased estimate of threshold in a single-stimulus forced choice experiment?
# Objective

I need to estimate the unbiased threshold of detectable speed difference in a car-following task. The details are as follows:

# Experiment Design

This experiment was performed in a driving simulator. In each trial, the participant drives a car in a single lane.

## Procedure

1. Initially, the participant's car and the lead vehicle (car or truck) moved at 100 km/h (27.78 m/s). The lead vehicle was at one of the two distances from the participant's car in a given trial: 50 m or 100 m.
2. After few seconds, the 'Observe' message appeared on participant's windscreen. At the onset of this message, the lead vehicle began to change its speed (increase or decrease) by 1 m/s or 3 m/s at the rate of 0.5 m/s (e.g. it would take 6 seconds to decrease speed by 3 m/s).
3. Once the speed difference was complete (e.g. lead vehicle reached 27.78 - 3 = 24.78 m/s speed), the participant was given 4 seconds to observe this change in speed. Then the 'Change Speed' message appeared. At this point, participants were forced to push either the gas pedal or the brake pedal to indicate that they noticed a positive speed difference (e.g. +3 m/s) or a negative speed difference (e.g. -3m/s). They had to provide their reaction even if they did not see any speed difference. Please note that the instructions were given before the experiment began.

## Details/Limitations

1. There were no catch trials, i.e. there was no trial in which a speed difference was not created.
2. The trials were done with random combinations of spacing and speed difference. Sometimes negative speed difference trials were done consecutively; in other cases the trials were positive speed difference followed by a negative one. For example: 50 m and +1 m/s -\> 50 m and +3 m/s -\> 100 m and -3m/s -\> 100 m and -1 m/s. These could be in any order.

## Possible sources of bias

A smaller distance of 50 m is relatively unsafe compared to 100 m, especially when the lead vehicle is a truck. So, with small distance, small speed difference and/or a truck, participants might be biased to apply brakes even if the lead vehicle accelerates.

# Results

I now have proportions of correctly detected responses for each combination of distance and speed difference.

# Question

How do I determine an unbiased measure of the threshold of speed difference in each case? Does a speed difference that is correctly detected in at least 75% of the trials an appropriate threshold?

Kindly share any beginner-friendly resources for estimating threshold in a single stimulus forced choice task. Thank you in advance.

# Answer
Any estimate you make is going to be pretty bad. To answer this question requires so many assumptions about the data, experiment, and intended usage, it is just not possible. You would be better off running the experiment again after consulting someone who knows more about experimental design. Beyond that, you could hire a stats consultant.

Apart from the lack of catch trials, you only have 2 speeds. Even if you get lucky and they bracket threshold (e.g., d' of 1 or 75% correct), without more theory (or data), you cannot interpolate between the points.
> 1 votes

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Tags: psychophysics, signal-detection
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# Question
Title: Do psychiatrists and researchers themselves don't have an idea how antidepressants work?
This question may be seen as an extension of my previous question, here. I was talking to a person online where s/he mentioned that psychiatrists themselves don't have an idea as to how SSRIs work. Upon searching YouTube, I found this video where the narrator goes on to make many statements referencing various journals, doctors, researchers, etc.

Here are some points in particular that have been bothering me a bit from the video;

> * \[...\] in 1965 he said that "some, if not all depressions are associated with an absolute or relative deficiency of catecholamines, particularly norepinephrine." After that researchers quickly turned much of their attention to serotonin, guessing a deficiency in serotonin to be a root cause of depression. So, in this case, researchers first understood how a drug worked, then assumed the cause of depression based on the way the drug works. \[...\] The American Psychiatric Association's own 1999 textbook explains that assuming depression is caused by low serotonin because a drug that seems to prevent depression raises serotonin "...is similar to concluding that because aspirin causes gastrointestinal bleeding, headaches are caused by too much blood loss and the *therapeutic action of aspirin in headaches involves blood loss.* So, in 1999 the APA is making fun of how the chemical imbalance idea came to be.
> * Going back to antidepressants again, we’d want to know the context in which you introduce this medication. A genetic test, for example, would be helpful, but before you introduce a drug that increases serotonin signalling, we would at least want to verify that the person actually has low serotonin levels. Especially because antidepressants are known to have a very high risk for complications including the potentially life-threatening serotonin syndrome and a black box warning for “suicidal thoughts and behaviours.”. But as researchers at McMaster University explain, “It is currently impossible to measure exactly how the \[living\] brain is releasing and using serotonin..." \[...\] In 1971, investigators at McGill University failed to find a “statistically significant” difference between the 5-HIAA levels of depressed patients and normal controls and there was no correlation whatsoever between depression severity and levels of 5-HIAA. Then in 1974, two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that a serotonin depleting drug didn’t reliably induce depression at all. Then, in 1975, investigators at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that 30% of the depressed patients they tested indeed suffered from low levels of the serotonin metabolite 5-HIAA. But, they also found that 25% of the “normal” group also had low cerebrospinal levels of these metabolites. Finally, in 1984, NIMH investigators wanted to see whether those depressed patients with low serotonin would be the best responders to an antidepressant. Unfortunately for the chemical imbalance theory, lead investigator James Maas wrote, “contrary to expectations, no relationships between cerebrospinal 5-HIAA and response to \[the antidepressant\] amitriptyline were found.” Simply put, researchers assumed that antidepressants were working their magic in a certain context based on what the antidepressant does, not based on proper evidence for that context.
> * \[...\] Have a listen to Psychiatrist Daniel Carlat’s comment on this: "But on the other hand, what we don't is we don't know how the medications actually work in the brain... when patients ask me about these medications, I'll often say something like, well, the way Zoloft works is it increases the levels of serotonin in your brain... and presumably the reason you're depressed or anxious is that you have some sort of deficiency. ... I say that because patients ... certainly don't want to hear that a psychiatrist essentially has no idea how these medications work." So with antidepressants, we don’t actually know why they would work, and there’s doubt about whether they actually do work. \[...\] But what happens in people who just don’t take medication? In Robert Whitaker’s book “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” he explains that before the age of antidepressants, people’s depression would usually resolve by itself eventually. A 1931 long term study of 2,700 depressed patients reported that more than half of those admitted for depression only had one depressive episode and no relapse. \[...\] At the end of 6 years, the people who received the medication were more than 3 times as likely to have stopped functioning in their usual societal roles.

And there are many points he said in the video (that I didn't quote so as to not make the post long enough to read, but keep it succinct as well) that I am totally unable to accept as hardcore facts/pieces of evidence against anti-depressants and that doctors, as well as researchers, don't know what they are doing. This is totally against what I have seen here and here. The video craftily puts a disclaimer before that if someone is on medication, they should first take the advice of their physician/psychiatrist, but goes on to plant the seeds of doubt. And as I am a novice in this field, this video has managed to boggle my mind as well has irked me a bit. I'd really appreciate it if I get some clear explanations as to what is going on here. Regards!

# Answer
Haha, yep. We don't know how depression or SSRIs work. We have hypotheses for both schizophrenia and depression - the dopamine hypothesis and the serotonin hypothesis.

While I was conducting my research, I too was faced with this conundrum. And Dr. David Healy is one of the trailblazers of the side which says that it's all clever pharma marketing.

As in the post you sent, norepinephrine was considered to be the monoamine that was linked to depression. Soon the notion changed from this to serotonin deficiency being the culprit. Back then a class of drugs known as "Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs)" were administered which worked selectively to suppress the effect of the enzyme MAO which was responsible for the breakdown of the monoamines (da, ht, ne).

SSRIs were revolutionary because these targeted the serotonin reuptake (popular speculation). Since it's more targeted towards ht, it's clear why they're more popular than MAOIs now.

Find a brief comparison between MAOIs and SSRIs here : https://www.verywellmind.com/how-do-ssris-compare-to-maois-1066856

But just like any drug, they've got their own drawbacks. And since there's a big question mark on their functioning, it's clear that there's a need to carry out rigorous and definitive research into this area to know how depression and SSRIs work for certainty.
> 2 votes

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Tags: neuroscience, psychiatry, depression, neuro-transmitters, medication
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# Question
Title: Can meditation be associated to lucid dream?
The principal reason of this question is that I know people that can willingly enter in lucid dream (and so do what they want in it, and wake up when they want). Some of then use EEG (not professionnal one, ZEO sleep manager or Olimex) and they lucid are on NREM2 or REM.
So it's still sleep (the brain waves length are said to be sleep). But they can basically fall asleep and start lucid dream.

Important point to mention: those people are doing polyphasics sleep, hence the capacity to fall asleep for a nap really easily. But because of this they don't try to sleep outside their schedules.

However, the thing is that they relax and then fall asleep in a lucid state.

Meditation can be observed in theta wavelength (Manocha, n.d.; Aftanas & Golocheikine, 2001) (referenced by Wikipedia). But it's mindless meditation.

Also this question refer meditation as a good method to fall asleep.

If you simplify it (a lot) meditation and lucid dream can have a lot of common points.

But is there any known relatio between the two? Is it possible to fall in lucid dream by meditating?

## References

Aftanas, L. I., & Golocheikine, S. A. (2001). Human anterior and frontal midline theta and lower alpha reflect emotionally positive state and internalized attention: high-resolution EEG investigation of meditation. Neuroscience letters, 310(1), 57-60. doi: 10.1016/S0304-3940(01)02094-8

Manocha, R. (n.d.). *Research Summary: Brain Waves*. Retrieved from: http://www.researchingmeditation.org/meditation-research-summary/brain-waves

# Answer
> 2 votes
Stumbrys, Erlacher, & Malinowski (2015) found a positive correlation between mindfulness during wakeful states and lucid dreaming during sleep. However, there is no explanation about how the actual processes of meditation and lucid dreaming are related.

Stumbrys, T., Erlacher, D., & Malinowski, P. (2015). Meta-Awareness During Day and Night: The Relationship Between Mindfulness and Lucid Dreaming. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 34(4), 415–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276236615572594

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Tags: sleep, dreams, meditation
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title: Punishment v.s Negative Reinforcement

text:
# Question
Title: Punishment v.s Negative Reinforcement
Consider the following scenario:

> Every time I do the groceries with my son he constantly asks for a packet of lollies. I find this constant asking for lollies very annoying, so I always end up buying him the lollies.

For the parent, the textbook states that this an example of negative reinforcement. Now this seems very intuitive, but I am wondering why this could not be an example of a punishment? The definition of punishment that I have been given is:

> "If the behaviour brings about a negative outcome, it's less likely to occur in the future".

I would've thought that the if the son's behaviour changed from misbehaving, this is an example of a punishment (albeit a tasty punishment). If the son continued to misbehave after receiving the lollies, then this would be typical of a reinforcer.

Am I on the right track?

# Answer
**Operant Conditioning**

The general topic you are referring to is called operant conditioning.

Positive/negative refers to whether you are adding something or taking it away.

Reinforcement/punishment refers to whether you are causing a behavior to increase or decrease.

Positive punishment is adding (positive) a bad thing (punishment) like yelling at or slapping the kid.

Negative reinforcement is taking away (negative) a bad thing (reinforcing).

Negative punishment is taking away (negative) a good thing (punishing), like limiting access to a certain toy or the television.

Both positive punishment and negative punishment tend to reduce a behavior, though often positive punishment is less effective and more likely to produce off-effects.

Importantly, in operant conditioning everything is *relative to the consequences of a behavior by the one behaving* ("operating"). If someone is not "operating" you cannot describe it in operant conditioning terms.

**Your example scenario**

Your first example is *positive* reinforcement from the perspective of the child: their behavior (begging) leads to getting rewarded with lollies. One would expect that this would increase future begging for candy rather than reduce it.

The only way to think of this as *negative reinforcement* is from the perspective of the *parent*, for whom giving the child lollies (the parent's behavior) has removed a noxious stimulus (the begging by the child), which might lead the parent to again purchase lollies to reduce complaining.

However, in parenting or training a dog or most any other context where there is a power relationship, you are usually more concerned with thinking about how behaviors affect the child/dog/whomever. In this situation, if a parent wants to stop the begging long term, likely the best approach is to target extinction of the behavior, which occurs when a behavior (e.g., begging) does not achieve a positive outcome (e.g., no lollies are obtained).

When you write:

> I would've thought that the if the son's behaviour changed from misbehaving, this is an example of a punishment (albeit a tasty punishment)

From the perspective of the son, this is **not an example of operant conditioning**, because the behaviour change (stopping begging) is not causing the 'stimulus' (getting candy), but rather the other way around. You could only consider this operant conditioning from the perspective of the parent, who is being trained to do an action ("give candy") to remove an aversive stimulus (child begging).
> 2 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, behaviorism, reinforcement-learning
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title: Schools in psychology

text:
# Question
Title: Schools in psychology
Where I can read a good overview on schools/trends in psychology (behaviorism, gestalt, freudism etc)? And which of them is most scientific/evidentiary and less "art"

# Answer
Welcome to Psychology.SE.

As @Ooker was indicating, a question asking for a "good" overview on different sections of psychology is going to generate a very opinion-based answer and because of the nature of such questions, they do not fit well with StackExchange sites due to the way they work.

The question on which is most scientific is also opinion-based as there are areas of psychology considered by some here to be pseudoscientific by some and not by others.

I would look at reading introductory books on psychology. In my view, any by Routledge or SAGE publications would give a fairly thorough rundown on the different theory bases etc.

For free ebooks you won't go far wrong reading the ones available from the International Psychotherapy Institute (although I am not affiliated to them). Being who they are, the institute's selection will have a strong leaning towards Freudian and Neo-Freudian psychology but they will give you a start.
> 0 votes

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Tags: study-cognitive-sciences
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# Question
Title: What is a science concept that we can teach preschoolers that's purely visual?
We are trying to develop a scientific study to test preschoolers (**3-5 years old**) ability to learn a new science concept. The problem is that children that young can only remember concepts based on how they **look** but **cannot remember any abstract information**. So we are trying to find a science concept that can be taught to young children purely visually (feature based), that they can remember and then be tested on. What is a good example of this?

Example of a purely visual concept. (Differentiating species based on features):

# Answer
At this age I find it ***limiting not to use verbal communication in combination with visuals and ACTION***.

If you can't remove this limitation, please disregard this answer. Otherwise, keep reading it!

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In my experience with kids at this age, they respond positively with:

1. **fun physical activities**: ludic games, moving around, challenges using their body (e.g. psychomotricity)
2. **instigating stories**: using puppets or props, emotions (lightly exaggerated facial expressions, peculiar ton of voice, events happening to characters)
3. **concrete projects**: arts and crafts, building blocks, toys, music
4. **media**: videos, iPad games, etc
5. **nature**: bringing them outdoors (green park, beach, etc), playing with animals or watching them,
6. **love**: serenity, care and patience from the facilitator, positive stimulation, challenge proportional to the cognitive level, respect for his or her individuality

Considering that at this age most kids cannot develop abstract thinking, I never expected to test them on the concepts I'm helping them to build (if she doesn't know the answer, it's ok!). I always thought more like I'm facilitating them to form "building blocks" internally, like "planting seeds", that will grow with them and help them in the future, when their cognitive system is better developed.

I also follow some educators & philosophers that regard this age as a time to teach moral values, social and emotional skills, rather than science and informational skills *\[I'll provide some reference later \]*.

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Here are some ideas:

1. **Paleontology concepts, Earth's history, care for species:**
    1. tell the story of the extinction of the dinosaurs using puppets and emotions;
    2. play a relate video appropriated for the age (maybe scenes from Iced Age?);
    3. *test (and reinforcement)*: ask them to draw the characters of the story and talk about what they have learned and how they wanted the story to end
2. **Water cycle / care for environment**:
    1. play the video of the water cycle;
    2. present a skit with characters showing the consequences for the water system on throwing trash on the floor or using plastic bottles, etc;
    3. *test (and reinforcement):* have them build props using recycled materials and ask them how to protect the environment and what are the consequences of not doing it
3. **Human body / hygiene**:
    1. play a video showing the "nasties" (or monsters) inside our mouth, that are flushed away when we brush our teeth;
    2. play another video with a catchy song about brushing our teeth (or play the song with them using musical instruments);
    3. bring a gigantic brush and simulate brushing gigantic teeth made out of toilette paper rolls (or something similar to a tooth); have them playing with the gigantic brush, pretending to brush their teeth; give them challenges
    4. *test (and reinforcement):* have them make the "mouth monsters" with playing dough and ask them how to prevent that from happening, using their life examples

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Some educators that inspired this answer: Pestalozzi, Montessori, Comenius, Rousseau, Rivail, Jesus of Nazareth, Socrates
> 1 votes

# Answer
Consider showing a visual representation of the **Earth-Moon-Sun** system: either with videos or with globes.

1. Show a globe of the Earth, that it's round but looks flat up close, and that it spins.
2. Show that the Sun is also round, much larger than the Earth, but very far away, and looks like a circle from far away.
3. Show that the moon is also round, smaller than Earth, but not as far away (people have been there, the landing spots can be pointed to at night, and there are pictures of Earth from the Moon)
4. Show that the Moon orbits the Earth, that's why there are moon phases (notice how the lit side is always pointing towards the Sun) and the moon disappears every month (the Sun outshines the Moon when they coincide in the sky)
5. Show that the Earth orbits the Sun (this one is harder to intuitively demonstrate)
6. Show that the Earth axis has a tilt, and that's why there are seasons (might be stretch).
7. Then to really challenge them, you could even tell that some people don't believe any of this, and instead they believe that the Earth is flat and argue with each other about various details of how it's flat.
> 1 votes

# Answer
How about some experiments on ***gravity***. Gravity is a fairly simple concept if kept to the level of a simple attraction between two material objects. Students will be able to relate a number of their personal experiences with this. Then maybe you can ask them questions about:

1. Flow of water in a pipe maze wherein the pipe nodes are at different levels, all subjected to gravity on Earth(in the usual way)...or the path taken by a rolling ball when left free to move in a maze with nodes at different levels from the ground.
2. The trajectory of a ball thrown at an angle from the ground where gravity is absent.
....and so on.
Why I think this is a good idea: It is a simple concept which will purely use the student's imagination power and that was what was expected. More over a myriad of questions can be formed on this simple concept by increasing the complexity.
> 1 votes

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Tags: developmental-psychology
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title: Are emotions rational?

text:
# Question
Title: Are emotions rational?
The issue of whether emotions are rational (or intelligent) is at the center of philosophical and psychological discussions.

What is the mainstream take on the logic and nature of emotions? Or where might I be able to read more about the nature and logic of emotions?

# Answer
Our evaluation of the rationality of emotions depends on some social norm about the behavior and context of the behavior. On the other hand the somatic marker hypothesis states that there is logic in the inner workings of emotions. To illustrate somebody having an outburst while on his job may appear irrational to the public, even though there is rationality how this emotion was born.

The somatic marker hypothesis states that our decision making process is influenced by emotions (Damasio, 2000). Behavior that are associated with good outcomes are more likely to be repeated. Emotions and their bodily representations (somatic markers) serve as biasing signals for decision making. The case of Phineas Gage, a man that had an iron rod driven through his skull is used as example of not being able to use emotions in decision making, due to damage to the vmPFC.

According to the somatic marker hypothesis emotions and bodily changes(somatic markers) become associated with previous outcomes. This associations guide subsequent decision making processes. The markers can be activated through two distinct pathways. The first one is the body loop, where changes in the body are relayed to the brain. Being triggered by some sensory experience would fall into this pathway. The second pathway is as-if-body loop, where cognitive representations activate emotions. I think that the somatic marker hypothesis says emotions are embedded in our rationality rather than saying our emotions are rational.

To summarize I believe it is necessary to uncouple the evaluation of the rationality of some behavior and the processes guiding emotions.

**References**

Damasio, A. R. (2000). *Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain.* New York: Quill.
> 1 votes

# Answer
First I need to suggest definitions for *rational* and *emotion.*

**Rational** = relating to, based on, or agreeable to *reason* (Merriam-Webster), which is a logical *thought* about how things are related; the thoughts appear in the *brain.*

An **emotion** = *heart* feeling, which is a reaction of the heart to what one thinks, recalls, sees, hears or experiences in other ways (my own definition).

So, emotions, which are heart reactions, are not rational, but can be partially controlled by reasoning. For example, one feels a fear of doing something, but then thinks about it and realizes it can be good to do it anyway and starts to feel hope and peace instead of fear.

On the other hand, emotions can influence rational decisions. One who sees something and finds it emotionally pleasant can start to think how to get it.

Example 1:

Past trauma can make you believe (in your head) that something what is generally not harmful is harmful for you, so next time, when confronted with a similar situation, you may feel fear, which can make you run away from "no reason." One could say this is an "irrational" response but it is "understandable." You can then learn how to overcome bad memories from the trauma and make your decisions in future similar situations more "intelligent." Based on this example, I claim they are thoughts and actions that can be rational (intelligent) or not, but emotions are just feelings, so they can not be rational or irrational.

Example 2:

You see a person, which triggers a pleasant emotion in your heart. The emotion makes you believe (in your head) that if you approach the person and start talking with him, something good will happen, so you do, and then something good actually happens, for example, you are able to reveal some bothering thoughts to him, which relieves you. Based on this example, I claim that emotions, even if they cannot be rational by themselves, can convince you to make rational decisions.

In conclusion: Thoughts (rational or irrational) are in your head and emotions in your heart. The reason for the action can start in your head or in your heart, but it is only your head that can be rational, not your heart. And emotions can help you make rational decisions.
> 1 votes

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Tags: psychology
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# Question
Title: Relation between L-glutamine supplementation and risk of schizophrenia
There is the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia. Which tells you that excessive levels may increase the risk of obtaining schizophrenia.

L-glutamine turns into glutamate directly. Does this mean that L-glutamine supplementation, which is common among bodybuilders, increases the risk?

# Answer
Glutamate availability in the brain is strictly dependent on *de novo* synthesis of glutamine in astrocytes. This process requires the enzymes pyruvate carboxylase and glutamine synthetase to form glutamine, which is then converted into glutamate by deamidation via phosphate-activated glutaminase in a reaction that also yields ammonia (Schousboe *et al*., 2014).

In other words, whatever you ingest in terms of glutamate or glutamine via your food doesn't reach the brain and won't play a role in psychosis.

This is good news, as glutamate is an abundant, naturally occurring amino acid and is found in tomatoes, grapes, cheese, mushrooms and other foods. It is also widely used as a flavor enhancer with an umami taste that intensifies the meaty, savory flavor of food. It's commonly used in stock, soups, ramen, savoury snacks *etc*. (source: wikipedia).

<sub>**Reference**
**-** Schousboe *et al*., *Adv Neurobiol* (2014); **11**:13-30</sub>
> 1 votes

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Tags: cognitive-psychology, abnormal-psychology, clinical-psychology, feeding
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# Question
Title: Is there any scientific data showing one can learn while sleeping?
Time is short in the days of learning for me but I like listening to lectures and case studies about code in my field. I've thought about getting a Bluetooth Sleep Headphone to possibly listen to these lectures and studies while sleeping.

However, upon my research I've only be able to find on this site one a Q&A without an answer: "Can one learn whilst sleeping? Can one solidify a memory & study for exams by listening to recordings while asleep?".

In my research and Google kungfu I've seen questionable sites that indicate as yes and some no but I was wondering have there been any creditable university case studies that show wether this is factually possible?

# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't think that it is possible to learn new facts while sleeping, but it is certainly possible to reactivate certain memories during sleep and thereby affect the probability of those memories being retained.

In one study, participants learned a visuospatial task while smelling an odour. They were better at remembering how to perform the task if they were subsequently exposed to the same odour during sleep.

> Reactivating Memories during Sleep by Odors: Odor Specificity and Associated Changes in Sleep Oscillations, Julia S. Rihm, Susanne Diekelmann, Jan Born and Björn Rasch https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn\_a\_

In another study, participants had to learn spatial locations for some objects and a sound associated with each object. The sounds associated with some of these objects were played back to them during sleep. Upon awakening, they were better at recalling the locations of objects whose sounds they had heard during sleep.

> Strengthening Individual Memories by Reactivating Them During Sleep, John D. Rudoy, Joel L. Voss, Carmen E. Westerberg, Ken A. Paller https://science.sciencemag.org/content/326/5956/1079

In another study, participants remembered melodies better if they later heard those melodies during sleep.

> Cued memory reactivation during sleep influences skill learning James W Antony, Eric W Gobel, Justin K O'Hare, Paul J Reber& Ken A Paller https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3152

# Answer
> 3 votes
I am almost a layman but I got to learn something on the subject.

As far as I could understand, what in common can be found in wake/sleep and learning are the *brain waves*. Neurons exchange signals in form of electrical pulses and the collective frequency of these firing rates are indeed these brain waves. In this article it is pointed out that learning can be differentiated in explicit and implicit.

Explicit learning occurs, for example, as one is engaged in learning English grammar rules (that posted article explains more in deep the difference between explicit and implicit learning) This kind of learning is characterised by the dominance of high frequency brain waves (called *alpha* and *beta*, the latter being faster. This range is characterised by frequencies of 10-30 hertz. Hertz is a measure of frequency, defined as $1/second$, that is: consider for example the centrifugue of the washing machine: if it does 10 rounds in a second, then its frequency is 10 hertz).

On the other hand, when one sleeps, his/her brain wave frequency drops from *alpha* to *theta* in the pre-sleep stage and eventually to *delta* in the deep sleep phase. This latter is the slowest frequency of the spectrum (ranging in 1 to 4 hertz according to refer here for more).

Hence I would say that active learning as could performed during wake can not be accomplished during sleep inasmuch there is not the proper brain waves setting to, almost for what concerns explicit learning.

I hope it helps and hope I got the point correctly. Wish you best luck with your study!

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Tags: sleep
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title: Can emotional IQ be learned?

text:
# Question
Title: Can emotional IQ be learned?
Can emotional IQ be learned? This question concerns both the general population and those with lower than average emotional quotients such as individuals with Asperger's, or Autism spectrum disorder for example.

# Answer
> 3 votes
I don't know anything about those with lower than average.. BUT Emotional Intelligence can be learned.

Read on: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/7-practical-ways-improve-your-emotional-intelligence.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Develop-Emotional-Intelligence

This will not be a process of a few hour, nor a few days.. It will take you a few weeks or months to grasp and, maybe, a few years to have something robust. You have only positive "things" to gain if you go this route

# Answer
> 0 votes
Yes, emotional IQ is attained through past experiences and through how the individual is able to learn from his surrounding about himself and strengthen his/her basic characteristics one should exhibit in main areas: self-awareness, emotional control, self-motivation, empathy and relationship skills(Borsic Lab et al., 2019).

refrence : Borsic Lab, Z., Burbano, K., Gallardo R, V., Bangeppaga, M., Mulla, S., & Selvanayag, M. (2019). Emotional Intelligence Models as Generators of BusinessManagement Change in the Human Talent Area. Journal Of Artificial Intelligence, 12(1), 1-10. doi: 10.3923/jai.2019.1.10

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Tags: emotion, intelligence, iq
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# Question
Title: What is the basis on deciding that a certain behavior/tendency is abnormal or a disorder
I don't really want to give examples as I am looking for a general rule that I can apply to any behavior or tendency to determine whether it is normal or a disorder.

# Answer
> 3 votes
You can think of "abnormal" in two basic ways:

1. **Statistical abnormality** \- The extent to which an individual is high or low on some trait *compared to the average of the population*. This use of the term is value-neutral, meaning that there is nothing inherently good or bad about being close to the average (i.e., "normal") or far from the average (i.e., "abnormal"). For example, an individual with an extremely high IQ is "abnormal" in the same way that someone with an extremely low IQ is "abnormal". In short, statistical normality is just a way to mathematically describe how extreme a value is compared to some reference. The key to this type of "normal" is that the *reference point (e.g., mean) is empirically derived*. It is simply a numerical description.
2. **Social or clinical abnormality** \- The extent to which an individual expresses a value on some trait compared to some reference *defined by people*. This reference point (or set of points) might be defined by society (i.e., *social norms*) or by experts like clinical psychologists (i.e., *diagnostic criteria*). The key to these types of "normal" is that the reference point is *not* value-neutral. In fact, the reference points with social and clinical normativity are usually what is considered "good" by those setting the criteria.

People (professionals included) often fail to distinguish between statistical normality and social/clinical norms, but its important to keep these straight when thinking about mental or behavioral disorders. Saying that an individual is "abnormal" in a statistical sense means something very different than saying that an individual is "abnormal" in a clinical or social sense.

**To answer your question:**

Your question is about clinical normativity. There is one especially useful criterion that clinical psychologists use to determine whether a patient is presenting as abnormal (or "disordered"): **The extent to which a patient's symptoms interfere with everyday functioning and basic well-being**. An individual might meet several specific criteria for a disorder (e.g., ADHD, phobias), but if he or she has found a way to maintain stable relationships, keep a job, and is otherwise happy with their life, a clinician might decide against giving a formal diagnosis. In short, the clinician basically asks the patient to identify the things making them miserable and tries to determine if any of the symptoms might be responsible. Things that will tend to push a clinician toward making a diagnosis of a disorder are things like not paying bills, poor social relationships, not leaving the house, drinking too much alcohol, inability to stay employed, feeling anxious or depressed, etc.

**Caveats**

Of course, the "everyday-functioning/well-being" heuristic isn't perfect, but it is very useful for helping to organize one's thinking about what makes a behavior or disposition "disordered". The main drawback to this heuristic is that there are many things that interfere with everyday functioning that aren't considered disordered, like grief. Grieving over the death of a loved one can be incredibly disruptive to a person's life, but it isn't actually clear that a magic pill that could prevent the grieving process would be a good thing. Is it good for someone to lose their spouse and carry on like nothing happened the next day? Reasonable people can disagree on the answer to this question, but (for now) most clinical psychologists don't consider grieving to be "disordered" unless the person has been grieving for a very long time (e.g., years). So, the "everyday-functioning/well-being" heuristic is generally useful when trying to figure out if something is disordered, but keep in mind that there are many situations in which its application is of limited value.

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Tags: social-psychology, abnormal-psychology
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# Question
Title: What is the neurological mechanism behind the "fear of failure"?
Sometimes, the fear of failing at something can be debilitating, and more often than not present a barrier for that person to even try new things - the locus of the fear can be quite different between people - ranging from academic, sporting and relationships and a whole lot more.

So, my question is, what is the neurological mechanism that results in the fear of failure?

# Answer
> 2 votes
According neurological perspective, Amygdala is involved in pleasurable emotional learning as well as fearful emotional learning. awareness of the aversive nature of stimuli is sufficient to guide our actions. We avoid dangerous neighborhoods or shark-infested waters, not mainly because we have been attacked by sharks in those locations, but instead because we might have been given information regarding the stimulus aversive characteristics.
Previous research did substantiate on basis of humans using fear conditioning. they had had found that the amygdala is not completely important in terms learning or developing of an external, cognitive representation of the aversive characters of a stimulus or event . This cognitive representation that depends on the hippocampal memory system, which is significant in terms of developing declarative memories, which leads to recalling of past failed experience from hippocampus and feeling sense of fear of failure in future outcomes .although, the amygdala is important for expressing conditioned fear response towards the same stimuli. **refrence : Phelps, E., O'Connor, K., Gatenby, J., Gore, J., Grillon, C., & Davis, M. (2001). Activation of the left amygdala to a cognitive representation of fear. Nature Neuroscience, 4(4), 437-441. doi: 10.1038/86110**

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Tags: cognitive-neuroscience, phobia
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